Druids, Nature's Warrior & Warshaper Questions

Tetsubo · May 22, 2005

Over the past few days I’ve been pondering a number of questions dealing with the Druid class and the Nature’s Warrior and Warshaper PrC’s.

1) One of the Nature’s Armament granted powers is called Earth’s Resilience. It grants a DR 3/-. If the Druid was under the effects of an Animal Growth spell would the spell’s DR stack with Earth’s Resilience for a total of DR 13?

2) Another of the Nature’s Warrior abilities is Wild Growth. It grants the user with Fast Healing 1. One of the Warshaper’s abilities is Morphic Healing which grants Fast Healing 2. Would these two forms of fast Healing stack?

3) If a Druid were to take the Vow of Poverty, would all of the granted abilities work when in a Wildshape form?

4) I think it stinks that the Warshaper PrC levels do not stack with the Druid’s Wildshape ability like the Nature’s Warrior Wilding power. Would it be unbalancing to have a Feat that granted Wilding to the Warshaper PrC?

5) The fifth level Warshaper ability Flashmorph/Multimorph has two different effects depending on what abilities the user has. If the user has the ability to change form at will, such as from the change shape-ability, the shapechanger subtype, or a Polymorph spell-like ability he gains the Flashmorph class feature, allowing him to change shape as a move action. BUT if he casts a Polymorph spell, has Polymorph as a spell-like ability usable less often than at will, or has the Wildshape class feature, he instead gains the Multimorph class feature. Multimorph allows a Warshaper to change forms multiple times during the duration of the spell, spell-like ability, or class feature that allows him to change form. So, what if the fifth level Warshaper is both a Druid AND a Shapechanger? Which of the two class feature’s applies?

6) A friend of mine mentioned a Druid magic item that give the user a +4 level boost to their Wildshape ability. Does such an item exist and if so, where can it be found?

7) The Amulet of Mighty Fists grants a +1 to +5 bonus to hit with unarmed attacks or natural attacks. So long as a Druid’s Wildshape form has a neck, would the Amulet enhance all of the form’s natural attacks?

pbd · May 22, 2005

1) no

2) no

3) yes

4) probably not terribly so

5) I would say choose one, but if you can already change shape at will anyway, multimorph doesn't apply so take the fastmorph

6) haven't heard of it

7) yes

Sejs · May 22, 2005

1 (DR): No. DR does not stack. You use the more favorable DR that applies to a given attack. A 10th level Barbarian (DR 2/-) wearing a suit of Invulnerable Leather Armor +1 (DR 5/magic) would use the 5/magic DR unless he is struck by a magic weapon, in which case he benefits from his 2/- DR which the weapon cannot bypass.

2 (Fast Healing): No. Like DR, Fast Healing does not stack - you benefit from the most favorable individual Fast Healing rate.

3 (VoP): Only if the druid were abiding by their Vow when not Wildshaped. You either abide by the Vow at all times and benefit at all times (including while Wildshaped), or you don't abide by the Vow and do not gain any benefits from it at all. There is no Occasional Vow of Poverty option - you either have it or you don't.

4 (Warshaper level-stacking Feat): I don't feel that would be particularly unbalancing, no. I generally feel it should be an innate feature of the class, personally. Maybe that's just me, though.

5 (Flash vs Multi): Two possible approaches - the first says that the character gains the feature appropriate to whichever ability he used to fill his entry requirement in the PrC, and that once chosen is set in stone. The second says essentially that the character gets both, but can only access one at a time, depending on which category of shape-changing their current use falls under. If they're using an At Will ability, they can Flashmorph. If they're using a limited-use ability they can Multimorph.

6 (Magic Item): Not that I'm aware of - the Druid's Vestments give one additional use of Wildshape per day, and the Phylacrity of Undead Turning gives a cleric the ability to turn undead as if their level were 4 higher, but I'm not aware of an item that bridges the gap between those two. Making one wouldn't be outside of the question, though. With DM approval and all that of course.

7 (Amulet): Yes, the amulet would enhance all of the form's natural attacks and unarmed strikes.

youspoonybard · May 22, 2005

6. Wild Shape Amulet, from Magic of Faerun.

borealux · Apr 17, 2021

May be a dead thread, but the wording is technically concisely taken care of in the term "instead". If the character has polymorph as a spell blah blah blah they gain multimorph INSTEAD blah blah. That means that whether or not they have both, the character gains multimorph INSTEAD if they have polymorph as a less than at will ability.

borealux · Apr 17, 2021

All the solutions here would result in direct conflict with the wording of the ability.

This makes sense because it wouldn't make sense to play a shapeshifter and invest in class levels sufficient to then learn the polymorph or wild shape spell, except for weak shapeshifters like Changelings. The multimorph ability would always be preferred if the character had progressed to the point of learning Polymorph, which requires at baseline at least 7 character levels.