[3.5] Revision Spotlight - Druid class

[Christian]

Here's a highly positive change that I didn't see anybody point out ...

d20 SRD (my PH is 100 yards away, and I'm too lazy to go find it):

Venom Immunity: At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all organic poisons, including monster poisons but not mineral poisons or poison gas.

D&D 3.5:

Venom Immunity (Ex): At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons.

To the 3.5 development team, from a player who hates DM vs. player arguments: Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you ... It's a power-up, too, you druid fans may notice.

 

[Number47]

I've just found my new favorite class!
Druid 3.5 + Verdant Lord = one badass treehuggin' mutha******

Shut your mouth

 

[Dr_Rictus]

I'm a bit curious about the animal companions. It only discusses the starting companion. I would wonder if animal friendship is changed and if the druid still has room if they can have additional companions.

My guess is you are talking crazy talk with this notion of animal friendship still existing as a spell.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Care to elaborate on what you think is particularly unbalanced about the druid depicted here?

It's just that the druid was on the high end of the power scale before 3.5. Lets see a good spell list with the incredibly cool divine I know all my spells trick. Armor was sub par, but not too sucky especially since at the high levels you can pull the iron wood trick, medium bab, two good saves, a decent weapon selection, animal companions, minor nature abilities, a decent class skill list, and wild shape.

About the only class that was better was the cleric, other than that the druid was top of the class list. And then they decide to add abilities. Without seeing if other areas were nefed outside of the animal growth nerf, this seems like a power up and the 2nd most powerful class doesn't need that.

 

[Stalker0]

It's just that the druid was on the high end of the power scale before 3.5. Lets see a good spell list with the incredibly cool divine I know all my spells trick. Armor was sub par, but not too sucky especially since at the high levels you can pull the iron wood trick, medium bab, two good saves, a decent weapon selection, animal companions, minor nature abilities, a decent class skill list, and wild shape.

About the only class that was better was the cleric, other than that the druid was top of the class list. And then they decide to add abilities. Without seeing if other areas were nefed outside of the animal growth nerf, this seems like a power up and the 2nd most powerful class doesn't need that.

Well consider what we have seen so far. The bard, ranger, barb, and now the druid have all recieved power increases. And also, WOTC and Andy Collins have been quoted I believe, that they wanted the characters innate abilities to be more important in the game than just collecting more magic items.

It looks like they are making the abiliites beefier, so that magic items and buffs are less necessary. So far, I think they are succeeding. However, the question is, if all the classes are getting a general boost, will some of the classes still be left out in the cold. Will new the bard, with its power increases, still pale beside the new barb and new ranger. Will some classes not recieve enough power increase and become the new deadweight classes? Only time, or Roy will tell.

 

[Chimera]

Wild Shape (Large/Huge/Tiny)

Pardon me, but wouldn't it make more sense to make this progression as follows, so as to work better with varying size N/PCs?;

Wild Shape (+/- 1 size)
Wild Shape (+/- 2 sizes)
Wild Shape (+/- 3 sizes)

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Me, personally, I would rather have seen Nature Sense be scaling up with level. Say +1 per three levels to Knowledge (Nature) and Survival check

Druids already get better than that. They get Knowledge (nature) and Survival as class skills, and they get 4 skill points per level instead of 2. Scaling skills up with levels is what skill points are for.

 

[jasamcarl]

It's just that the druid was on the high end of the power scale before 3.5. Lets see a good spell list with the incredibly cool divine I know all my spells trick. Armor was sub par, but not too sucky especially since at the high levels you can pull the iron wood trick, medium bab, two good saves, a decent weapon selection, animal companions, minor nature abilities, a decent class skill list, and wild shape.

About the only class that was better was the cleric, other than that the druid was top of the class list. And then they decide to add abilities. Without seeing if other areas were nefed outside of the animal growth nerf, this seems like a power up and the 2nd most powerful class doesn't need that.

Having not played or run any druids, i am in little position to argue some of these points, particularly on the spell list, though i was always given the impression that it was generally weaker outside of a few particularly (overly) strong spells, which have probably been toned down. Wild shape is pretty weak at high levels given the limitation of animal (even dire) choices whose hd doesn't scale well with character level, and which mostly preclude casting those same spells; even elemental wildshape probably has little effect in the end in terms of combat effectiveness, because their special abilities are not as potent as spells cast at that level or even that fighter's attack. Animal companion is similarly a limited asset in combat, excluding the strong influence of animal growth, which has probably been altered (i've heard atleast one rumor to that effect). Nature abilities are barely worth a mention when it comes to balance, outside a minor increase in versatility. The druid as written has the same weakness of every hybrid class, use of many of its abilities comes at an oppurtunity cost of its other abilities; they don't 'stack' as well as a fighter, wizard, or even cleric.

Now i'm looking at the suppossed 'power-ups', none of which look particularly strong. Animal companion seems weaker than before. Spontaneous casting of Nature's summons will not be effective in most standard dungeon settings where the druid has tends to memorize standard damage spells....

 

[Delgar]

From my reading of the description of the druid, it definately sounds like the spell: Animal Friendship is gone. As it seems that they have a new mechanic to summon an animal friend. Which is a good thing because I think I only ever played in one campaign where animal friendship was cast, and that was once and the player had to spend a day to rest and memorize it to cast it on the animal.

Anyway, this adds nothing to the discussion!


Delgar

 

[Dinkeldog]

one as cook. one as tailor. one as linkboy. one as camp follower.

one as band member. every hero needs theme music.

When danger showed its ugly head
He bravely tucked his tail and fled...