8th Level Druid

Book of Vile Darkness is in general a lot less powerful than BoED, except for perhaps the monsters in the back. I think there's a vile version of words of creation that lets you create unending hoards of some nigh-unstoppable swarm found in that book, but that's not going to help a druid anyway.

Just drop the exalted thing entirely and go with gear. I really don't see things going too well if you're the only non-evil person in the party. There isn't much to recommend for gear, just use MIC as much as you can. I know the amulet of Retributive Healing is only 2000 gp and lets you 3/day gain the healing you just gave someone else. MIC lets you stack on "common" bonuses to other items, so you can tack on wis +2 to that amulet for the regular cost of 4000 gp. I think there's some healing collar for an animal companion, forget what it's priced at, but it's very good.

Whatever book they're in, you'll want to get wilding clasps and wilding armor eventually.

If you really don't want to deal with items, ask the DM to mae a Vile version of VoP and mirror feats to the exalted ones you took. Instead of donating your money, you frivoulously spend it, give it to terrorists, set up an underground fighting pit where slaves have to fight to the death, whatever. Be creative, that's part of being evil.

If you stick with VoP for whatever reason, Servant of the Heavens is terrible, hold off on it till later when you've got nothing else. Touch of Golden Ice is incredible and should not be missed. There's one exalted feat that makes your natural weapons good aligned and do some extra damage to evil. It mildly overlaps with what VoP eventually gives you, but it's still good, especially if taken earlier than level 10 (when VoP makes your attacks good-aligned).
 

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Make yourself a small (gnome or halfling) cleric of WeeJa. Create an undead minion (maybe a troll skeleton), armor it up and then ride around in it's rib cage. Take Magic and Death as your two domains and then load up with wands and scrolls from the wizard spell list. You could even be true neutral, and default to healing for your spells and control for your turn undead (this might be a big of a streach, but it seams like your DM will let you).

fun, fun, I have always wanted to try this character out and 8th level is were it would start to get fun.
 

Trick:
You don't min/max your character, you min/max your party.

If you can be a melee machine... you're one character (two, as a Druid).

If you can make the party Rogue match up in melee with a "normal" fighter, while getting the Fighter up a few notches, and giving the Wizard a lot more survivability ... you're doing more as a coherent party than you are as a well-built individual.

For instance... suppose you blow most of that 27k on Nightsticks (Libris Mortis, 7.5k each - three of them cost 22,500 gp - rest (4,500) goes into masterwork fullplate (1,650), a masterwork heavy steel shield (170 gp), ). You play a human cleric, take two flaws; you're feats look like:
1) Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Divine Metamagic(Persistent Spell), Extra Turning
3) Extra Turning
6) Extra Turning
Note: If you can get the Planning and Undeath domains, you get two more Extra Turnings in (Planning gives you Extend Spell as a Domain Power, freeing up that slot, while Undeath gives you Extra Turning as a bonus feat).
You now have 27 turning attempts with a Charisma of 10 (35, if you can squeeze in both domains). Casting Eagle's Splendor on yourself gets you up to 29 (or 37, for eight minutes), enough for four (five) uses of Divine Metamagic(Persistent Spell).

Now it's just an exercise in going through the Spell Compendium and picking out the spells that meet the following criteria:
1) Qualify for Persistent Spell
2) Affect the entire party
3) Are useful

My personal recommendations:
1) Mass Lesser Vigor (Cleric-3, Spell Compendium; Fast Healing 1 for the entire party all day - now nobody needs to stop and get wands of Cure Light Wounds)
2) Recitation (Cleric-4, spell Compendium; +2 Luck to attack rolls, saving throws, and AC; +3, if they worship the same diety as you)
3) Elation (Cleric-2, Book of Exalted Deeds; +2 Morale to Strength, Dex, and +5 foot speed)
4) Bless (Cleric-1, PHB; +1 Morale to Attack rolls and saves vs. Fear) (trade for Rightreous Wrath of the Faithful at 9th - Spell Compendium, 5th level, +3 Morale on Melee attack and damage rolls, +1 attack on a full attack [which doesn't stack with similar stuff, such as haste]).
(5) Divine Power)

Now, what's that get?
Assuming everyone follows the same god you do (Collusion in character creation), that means....
Fast Healing 1
+3 Luck to AC, Attack, saves
+2 Morale to Strength, Dex (+1 Attack/damage, +1 AC, +1 Reflex saves)
+1 Attack (Morale), +1 Will saves. vs. Fear (+3 Morale to attack/damage at 9th)

You've put everyone at +5 to their attack rolls, +4 to their AC, +3 to most saves (and +4 to some), and +1 damage. Plus they've got Fast Healing 1 so they can keep it up all day, with just a few minutes rest between encounters. With this set of buffs, the party WIZARD will hit nearly as often as a Fighter without this set of buffs. At 9th, that goes up to +7 on their attack rolls, +4 to their AC, +3 to most saves, and +4 damage. The Wizard-9 has a BAB of +4 and one attack; the Fighter-9 has a BAB of 9 and two attacks ... and they still get Fast Healing 1.

Mind you, this works a lot better in a party of multiple clerics pulling the same thing - each takes one or two of the spells, and everyone also Persists Divine Favor (luck to attack overlaps, but the bonus to damage stacks) and Divine Power. If you've got enough clerics that each only needs to take one of the above spells, they all drop an Extra Turning for Power Attack.

You also make use of the hour/level buffs a cleric can get - Greater Magic Weapon and Magic Vestments (they're +2 Enhancement, at this level), of course (or have the Wizard take Greater Magic Weapon, and you just deal with the Magic Vestments).

Hmm... Two Clerics, a Rogue, and Wizard would do quite well.
 
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...Why can't people just advise him on making a druid like he asked? *confused*

I've seen threads of people asking for help with a Fighter build where there were less posts telling the OP to play something else...
 

...Why can't people just advise him on making a druid like he asked? *confused*

I've seen threads of people asking for help with a Fighter build where there were less posts telling the OP to play something else...
Partly because he said "So far I'm looking at possibly a human druid" - despite the thread title, his initial post indicates he's not stuck on the idea.
Partly because he said "so it doesn't look like there will be a cleric"
And partly because he said "He has pretty much told us to try and min/max or we're not gonna survive... so I'm definately[sic] up for ideas"

With the DMM(PS) Cleric I listed, he can simultaneously outshine a normal fighter, rogue, or assassin, while boosting the normal Fighter, Rogue, or Assassin considerably (+5 attack, +4 AC, +3 to saves, +1 to damage... with bonus types such that the bonuses will stack with most items), AND still cover the role of heal-bot fairly effectively (fast healing 1 for the entire party all day).

Now, a Druid can do this somewhat as well - by spamming Barkskin - but isn't nearly as good at other-buffs, and won't cover the relatively necessary healing role as effectively ... and nobody is currently covering that role at all.
 
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If there is no Cleric, then just go Druid and mem Healing spells. Get feats to augment your Summoning. When in combat, drop the spells to get the Summon Nature, use what's left to heal. That's the simple solution.
 

DMM Persistent Magic does have a fatal flaw: against a group of enemy spellcasters, dispel magic is always going to be one of the first actions.

Entering the Temple of Doom, I'd have a mind towards not relying heavily on buffs.
 

Ha

My appologies for the confusion... but I said I was thinking of a human druid, not meaning I was possibly considering another class, but considering another RACE. Human just comes to mind since druids are feat deprived, however I've also seen Dreamsight Shifter Druids who can take one of the few decent druid prestige classes which actually gives Augment Summoning for free at its first level without needing spell focus (conj) which in my opinion is kind of a waste. The only downside is some other decent spells require both augment summoning and spell focus, so the way around them won't actually work for those :(
Also... I felt it necessary to mention there wasn't a cleric in the party, not to try and say I might want to be one... but to let everyone know I'd be the primary healer... since I know PHBII offers a varient where I can spontaneously heal instead of drop spells for summon natures ally.
And it's funny you brought up temple of doom... because I'm pretty sure that's where we are heading. The DM mentioned an underground temple full of a bunch of evil clerics... and one of the other more experienced players said temple of doom... so I dunno. Anyway...
Thanks for all the input... I love varying opinions, and am definately open to hearing anything anyone has to say
 

DMM Persistent Magic does have a fatal flaw: against a group of enemy spellcasters, dispel magic is always going to be one of the first actions.

Entering the Temple of Doom, I'd have a mind towards not relying heavily on buffs.
Ah, right - drop a single Nightstick (and one of the lesser buffs) for a Ring of Counterspells, and load it up with Dispel Magic (Greater, once that's available... or both, in two separate rings). Make sure everyone in the party does the same. Nothing's perfect, but then, most optimization consists of min/maxing, and when you do that, you leave something of an Achillie's Heel (the "min" - in this case, Dispel Magic).


My appologies for the confusion... but I said I was thinking of a human druid, not meaning I was possibly considering another class, but considering another RACE. Human just comes to mind since druids are feat deprived, however I've also seen Dreamsight Shifter Druids who can take one of the few decent druid prestige classes which actually gives Augment Summoning for free at its first level without needing spell focus (conj) which in my opinion is kind of a waste. The only downside is some other decent spells require both augment summoning and spell focus, so the way around them won't actually work for those :(
Also... I felt it necessary to mention there wasn't a cleric in the party, not to try and say I might want to be one... but to let everyone know I'd be the primary healer... since I know PHBII offers a varient where I can spontaneously heal instead of drop spells for summon natures ally.
And it's funny you brought up temple of doom... because I'm pretty sure that's where we are heading. The DM mentioned an underground temple full of a bunch of evil clerics... and one of the other more experienced players said temple of doom... so I dunno. Anyway...
Thanks for all the input... I love varying opinions, and am definately open to hearing anything anyone has to say
Ah.

Well, straight Druid is fine. At 8th, especially with an area that's going to be difficult, I'd suggest Dwarf. There's a few reasons:
1) +2 Saves vs. Spells, Spell-like abilities, and Poisons - which is around 80% of the saves you'll make in a day. Your type doesn't change due to the Wildshape Errata, so you keep these in all forms.
2) Darkvision-60 (likewise).
3) +2 Con. You always need more HP.

While a Druid doesn't get many feats, the Druid also doesn't really need much in the way of feats. Take Natural Spell at 6th (unless you're being deliberately sub-optimal), and the others depend on what you want to do. In this case, you mentioned you wanted to be a Summoner - Spell Focus (Conjouration) at 1st and Augment Summoning at 3rd will cover that quite nicely.

As for your wealth, a few potions of Invisibility (Summoning critters doesn't break invisibility), a wand of Cure Light Wounds (or better, Lesser Vigor) for out of combat healing, and a little extra dimensional storage (Handy Haversack, 2k) are good. At this point, you'll have some difficulties getting decent equipment in wildshape, but Wilding Clasps (4k each) will go well with a Vest of Resistance +2 (4k), a Peripat of Wisdom +2 (4k), Gloves of Dexterity +2 (4k), and whatever odds and ends you think you might need (with the Wilding Clasp for each item you want constantly active, that's basically it for your 27k).

If you plan on sticking to a Summoner, you want a defensive Wildshape - the deinonychus is a very good choice, at a base AC of 17 (which goes up with Gauntlets of Dexterity, and a Barkskin spell), and it also has some decent natural weapons for when you don't want to waste a spell Summoning.
 

Yep, the ring of counterspells (dispel magic) is a classic. At least you'll survive until the next evil cleric's turn...

Fighting hordes of clerics is tough.

But back on topic. You really can't build a completely ineffective & inept druid like you can most other classes. At least, without trying to do so really, really hard.

Druids rock.

Just basically have one thing to remember "Natural Spell" feat at 6th level.

You really just need to decide on what you want to focus:
1) melee bad-4$$
2) shapeshifting
3) spellcasting
4) summoning

You can't really excel at all areas.
 

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