Could use some help writing up an 8th level druid..

[Epametheus]

The character is for a campaign that's starting up in a week or so; the campaign will be with 3.5 rules, stats are to be rolled, and the DM specifically mentioned that characters shouldn't be lawful; he wants to run a mercs campagin.

Druid is a weird blend of melee fighter and summoner, and I haven't played a spellcaster in forever, so I picked druid. Chaotic Neutral should work for the alignment; I was thinking of a "storm chaser" type: doesn't have much reverence of life, but is quite obsessed with the assorted displays of nature's fury -- storms, forest fires, etc. Civilization doesn't really bother him; it provides stuff that he can't make himself, and Nature can reclaim the land whenever the heck it wants to, when you get down to it.

I was thinking half-orc for the race, but half-orc just might be the worst possible race for druid. Any suggestions on races? Other than human, anyways? The DM is cool with anything out of Savage Species and probably FR, though I doubt that druids benefit much from being of exotic races.

Also, what about feats? The "casting while wildshaped" feat from Defenders of the Wild is practically mandatory, but I don't know what else would be good.

Also, is it actually worth it to have a low-end animal with the accumulated bonuses as a companion, or should I just go ahead and get a dire wolf?

 

[Ottergame]

Half orc is a good race for a druid. And your character sounds more like true neutral than chaotic.

 

[rowport]

If you are thinking about a half-orc anyway, you might consider some multi-class levels in Barbarian. The 'rough and tumble' style of barbarian suits nature guys well, and raging in wild shape should be very effective.

 

[rowport]

I forgot to mention: I assume that you mean half-orc is a poor choice for druid because of the CHA penalty. True, that will hurt your animal handling skills. But, you could focus more on spellcasting and 'being part of the wild' (i.e. survival) rather than animal interactions.

 

[kirinke]

http://slicer69.tripod.com/dnd/dnd.htm for character generation
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/shadows/Handbook/MonsterCalc.html for monster stat generation

both of these sites are 3.5 compliant and very good for what you're looking for. the only problem is they don't have half-orcs. still. it'll help you calculate most of what you need. your dm can help you out with the rest.

 

[Epametheus]

Actually, I was figuring half-orc was a bad choice simply because the two benefits the race actually gets (+2 Str, Darkvision) go by the wayside the instant any wildshaping is done. Half-orcs don't even get skill bonuses...

Hmmm. Interesting site, Kirinke. But my major concern is what, not how.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

If you have a good enough Int to afford maxed Handle Animal, your 11 ranks will be effective enough even if you have an 8 Cha. I would not worry about Cha.

The Half-orc is pretty much the worst choice because it is costing you much beloved skillpoints (penalty to Int) for a bonus to Str that you may not even use in combat. If you get particularly high rolls, consider going for it anyway for the sake of style. Ditto for Barbarian levels.

The strength of the Druid class is it can do a bit of everything without multiclassing. If you want to specialize in melee, multiclassing with Barbarian or Monk can work. If you want to go for extreme melee specialization, consider Fast Wildshape to give healing as a MEA.

 

[Diirk]

half orc is a terrible race for druids not only because of the -2 cha, but also the -2 int, and the fact that the sole good points of half orcs (+2 str and I guess the darkvision) will be completely negated by wildshaping.

If your GM is of the opinion that the new wildshape rules suggest that you gain hp for wildshaping into shapes with higher con, then I'd go human... if not, I'd go either human, dwarf or maybe gnome. Avoid anything with an ECL

Dire wolf is a great companion, keep Reduce Animal memorized for emergencies (a reduced dire wolf is still MUCH better than a wolf, and those higher will saves are a great benefit). Buy some barding for your companion.

Barkskins and greater magic fangs last a long time and are good buff type spells to keep handy.

Good feats: improved initiative, augment summoning (altho the prereq is a bit painful if your short on feats), weapon focus (claw), improved natural attack (claw) (if the dm allows it.. its in the monster feats section of monster manual).. heavy armour proficiency (altho a bit later probably, and get some wild ironwood plate armour or some such), power attack, combat expertise... depends mostly on the type of druid you want to play

Best bang for the buck wildshape wise is the bears.. brown bear, then dire bear. Dire ape can be good situationally tho, as can deinonychus or howerver its spelt (the dinosaur), shambling mound at 12 is worth a look too.

Have a glance over your summoning spells.. there's generally 1-2 each level that far outstrip the rest for power, altho there's some useful situational ones as well (arrowhawks, unicorns etc)

 

[Kal Skid]

If your DM allows it, Anthropomorphic Bat is a solid Druid choice. The downsides of -4 Str, -2 Cha, and 5 land speed are easily offset by a huge +6 to Wisdom! Not to mention Blindsense 20', 20 Fly speed (average), and since Anthropomorphic Bats are small, the 1 Racial Hit Die becomes a class level.

Very good choice for mid to high level Druids.

 

[Kal Skid]

Also, if you Druid is Neutral Good (and you have the Book of Exalted Deeds), pick up Exalted Wild Shape at 9th level (and hopefully you picked up Natural Spell at 6th level). You can then Exalted Wild Shape into a Blink Dog, gaining the supernatural abilities of Blink (at will, free action) and the ability to dimension door (at will, free action once a round, can act immediately after teleporting).

Both of these abilites are amazing for a summoner. Use dimension door to keep out of melee reach, and blinking pretty much mitigates 50% of the attacks coming towards you (or 20%, depending upon your opponent).

It should be noted that the Bliink Dog isn't exactly a melee monster; only go with him if you're intent on summoning/spellcasting.