How to make a capable druid?

[Marflarius]

Hello everyone, I recently started a 3.5e campaign and am pretty leery of how my beguiler is going to survive combat on Sunday, as the highest level party member possessed a guardians sword of this keep were in and teleported away with it, which in turn summoned a pit fiend, a hive mind, and a radiant dragon all at once, most of the party is level 9-10 after LA's, but this idiot got a wish and is effectively a 13nth level character.

We're all starting off at level 6 and LA's don't count towards our total level, not to mention we get bonus feats according to our heritage, have access to two flaws maximum from Unearthed Arcana, and it's a high magic campaign.

I was wanting to do something along the lines of frozen wildshape for cryohydra and am trying to figure out how soon I can make this a reality?

Open to suggestions as well as feats, whatever else might make this work, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Halivar]

You actually don't need to do anything fancy to break a druid (especially in a gonzo monty haul game, which your DM seems keen on); of all classes, it best straddles the line between sword and spell slinging. I say focus on your melee combat ability; your spellcasting and wildshape will scale into the stratosphere just fine on their own. Besides, when you get to 9th levels spells, your best, most broken option will be forgoing wildshape to cast Shapechange into a Planetar.

 

[Marflarius]

Alright I guess that sounds good. Do you have any suggestions for races or templates that I may want to use, as I can use to an LA 4 that won't count against total level (6) and am not really familiar with doing a basic combat/slinger Druid. The only one I had made before I was able to be a minotaur with access to powerful build which made me a huge size and could essentially shape into a cryohydra.

Any good suggestions for items or feats or anything else? Like I said I'm not really familiar with Druids so I need all the help I can get.

Thanks!

 

[Jackinthegreen]

The earliest possible way I know of to get Frozen Wild Shape is by taking the Mulhorandi Divine Minion template and then take three different classes that each have a good Will save progression.

Getting up to cryohydra territory is much more difficult since it requires being able to wild shape into huge creatures, which usually only happens at Druid 15+. A prestige class -might- let it happen sooner, but I'm not sure. I definitely know no ACFs from the regular books or Dragon Mag allows it. The quickest way I know of is to have your race be something Huge that still qualifies for the Divine Minion template, and then take the Proportionate Wild Shape feat. I have no idea what the lowest HD Huge creature is that would work there.

Whether any of that Divine Minion stuff will fly is of course another matter.

 

[Halivar]

Alright I guess that sounds good. Do you have any suggestions for races or templates that I may want to use, as I can use to an LA 4 that won't count against total level (6) and am not really familiar with doing a basic combat/slinger Druid.!

Dear lord! LOL well if you can up to a +4 LA for free, I suggest a Half-Celestial template. +4 LA and the stat boosts are through the roof.

 

[Marflarius]

I was thinking the same thing lol, thanks a ton!

 

[monboesen]

Druids are borderline broken good to begin with. Adding 4 LA's on top of that. Well all you need to do is to put the highest score in wisdom and the second highest in constitution. Take the feat that alllows spellcasting when wildshaped.

That ought to be plenty strong for most campaigns and far to good for some.

 

[Halivar]

IMHO, for feats, assuming human baseline (applying a template won't affect this):

Human bonus feat: Natural Spell
Level 1: Weapon focus (scimitar)
Level 3: Two-weapon fighting
Level 6: Improved critical (scimitar)

At this point, you're making a primary attack at -2, off hand at -4. Based on the point-buy your DM is allowing, this will not be a problem AT ALL, I assure you! The +4 Str from the half-celestial template will offset the main hand penalty nicely. Both attacks crit on 15-20 (if that would hit). At level 9 you can take Improved Two-Weapon Fighting to give you a total of 4 attacks a round.

If you take a template like Half-Celestial, then qualifying for the Wis and Dex prerequisites of the above feats should be a cinch.

Again, I say use your feats to bolster your non-wild-shape fighting because wild-shaped you're good enough.

 

[NuSair]

Vow of Poverty, Wild Shape. Buff. Take a level of Monk so you can add Wis bonus to your already abusive AC.

Avoid anti-magic fields.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Use the Druid class abilities to play them effectively.
Select a strong melee animal companion.
Use spells. Have healing spells in reserve. Battlefield control spells. Damage spells. Throw Summoned Nature Ally when necessary.
Wild Shape when you feel like going into combat.

...the only way to not play a Druid effectively is to not use their basic class abilities.

The only additional requirement for playing a Druid well is to take the Natural Spell feat before level 5.

Everything else; LA, feats, race, it's all icing.

Another fun approach is to take the Wild Cohort feat for a second animal companion.
Make liberal use of training pets. Become familiar with the Handle Animal Handbook and expand your entourage. Let the rest of the party really know that they're accessories, you ARE the party.