Wild Shape Combat

[cappun]

I am currently playing a 5th level druid, and I have not had the opportunity to use wild shape for combat very much. With the updates to wild shape in MotW, shaping into a black bear or leopard and getting three attacks per round at 5th level is attractive. What I am concerned about is the relative low AC of most animals. A black bear has a 13 AC. Thus, even though my character could dish out a lot of damage per round (especially when he hits 8th level and can turn into a brown bear!), he is going to get severely smacked in the process.

To deal with this problem, I was thinking that I could get our party's wizard to cast mage armor on my character. Do you think this would work in animal form? And would it last through a couple of changes. If it was cast on the druid in human form, would mage armor continue in effect when he wild shapes.

Any other suggestions or experiences in effectively using wild shape for combat would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JRRNeiklot]

To deal with this problem, I was thinking that I could get our party's wizard to cast mage armor on my character. Do you think this would work in animal form?

Yes

And would it last through a couple of changes. If it was cast on the druid in human form, would mage armor continue in effect when he wild shapes.

Yes

Any other suggestions or experiences in effectively using wild shape for combat would be appreciated.

Thanks

Magic Fang is your friend.

 

[Mahali]

Changing shape doesn't have any effect on spells like Mage Armor.

You may want to try the Cheetah. A free trip attack every time you connect. You'd loose out on rake attacks but you're not going to be able to grab large/strong creatures anyway. The +4 to hit while they're prone and them spending a MEA to get back up is nice.

Try to get your shape changed AC as high as possible. Hope that the enemy thinks you're a summoned critter and leaves you alone.

 

[Pielorinho]

Protection from evil, mage armor, and haste can all bump up your armor class -- by a total of 10 points, no less. If you're shaping into a creature with litle natural armor, consider barkskin as well (although usually it's a better spell to cast on your fighter friend who will have no natural armor).

Magic fang is good, but remember that it only affects one of your natural weapons. If a priest in the party can cast prayer, that's fun stuff too.

A single level of monk, rogue, or barbarian stacks very well with a druid's powers. At the cost of a level of spellcasting, you'll get
-a wisdom bonus to your AC, evasion, and Flurry of Blows;
-the ability to sneak attack three times/round whenever you flank; or
-the ability to rage (if you take barbarian, strongly consider the extra rage feat from Masters of the Wild), plus an extra 10' on your movement rate.

You're probably best off not taking more than a single level of a different class. Although now that I think about it, the following character might be fun:

Druid 8
Brb2
Rog1
Monk2

which gives you BAB +9/+4 (exactly what a Druid13 would have), 3 additional hit points, evasion, uncanny dodge, fast movement, rage, deflect arrows, wisdom bonus to AC, sneak-attack damage, saves of 12/7/9 (compared to 8/4/8 for a Druid13), and lots more class skills.

What do you give up for this? fifth, six, and seventh-level spells, better wildshape forms, and a few other pieces of cheese. Ouch.

Even so, it might be worth it for a druid focused on shapeshifting fighting. You give up some offensive power in exchange for much better defense (five of the gained powers are defensive).

Daniel

 

[Wippit Guud]

Druid 8
Brb2
Rog1
Monk2

how about...

Druid 5
Barb 2
Rogue 1
Monk 2
Shifter 10

Any race have druid as chosen class?

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Lizardfolk

But human might be the better way of going at it.

 

[Pielorinho]

how about...

Druid 5
Barb 2
Rogue 1
Monk 2
Shifter 10

Any race have druid as chosen class?

Ooh, lovely! One small suggestion: replace the second level of monk with another level of druid. You'll lose the deflect arrows feat, but your barkskin will go up to +4 and (much more importantly) your greater magic weapon will go up to +2.

Good forms to take:
Young Adult Gold Dragon (+19 natural armor, 31 STR, huge size for grappling purposes, 6 attacks/round, water breathing, fire subtype)
Purple Worm (+15 natural armor, 35 str, swallow those pesky spellcasters, poison)
Storm Giant (+12 natural armor, rock-throwing and catching, 39 strength, 15' reach -- with a properly-sized longspear, this puppy will dish out the damage!)
Giant squid, advanced to 20 HD (Gargantuan, 40' reach, improved grab, and most importantly 10 attacks/round! Get three of these with GMF, rage, and flank, and you're doing +10d6 +20 points of damage/round!)

What else would be good?
Daniel

 

[Dwarmaj]

Best form I've seen so far for a Shifter would be a Planetar.

Str 25, AC 32 (you could wear armor or bracers to up it even higher), SR 30, Regen 10 (or has that been errata'd to Fast Healing, Immunity to Cold/Acid, Resistance 20 to Fire, Plus darkvision.

Dwarmaj

 

[cappun]

Thanks for the ideas. I have really been considering multiclassing this character, but losing spell progression and wild shape progression is a big hit. He is a human, so multiclassing a level or two will not be a problem. I'm just not sure that it is worth it considering what you give up.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Heh, so his alignment would have to jump from Lawful (for the monk) to Chaotic (barbarian) since you'd lose barbarian abilities if you became lawful.