D&D 3E/3.5 Driud tweaking under 3.5

[youspoonybard]

Elemental Wild Shape > 1 level of Warshaper.

 

[Dimwhit]

Personally, I wouldn't bother with Monk levels were I you. The Druid makes an awesome hand-to-hand combatant in Wild Shape all on his own. My 12th level Druid had a 16 AC in Bear form and can still go toe-to-toe with the BBEGs. It helps that the Wizard throws an occasional Mage Armor and such on me. But I wouldn't have wanted to waste a level or two not progressing in spell levels and Wildshapes just for the benefits of the Monk abilities. But that's me.

 

[Scion]

I had the monk1/druidX in a campaign I was in a long while ago now (had the perfect backstory for it too ) and I never found it was terribly worth it even for the single level. I was always like, 'well, if I didnt have that level of monk I would've gotten that extra wildshape level and would've been able to do so much more' or 'if I hadnt had that level I would have the extra level of spells, and be able to fix situation X rather than having to get npc joe to help' etc.

So while it was nice, it just never seemed as worth it as it should've been Even with the massive perks. So, having to give up 2 levels for roughly the same benefit would definately not be worth it! Monks belt all the way!

 

[Darklone]

The monk level for the druid is nice if you have Animal Growth and wildshape into large animals.

And Wisdom high enough to really make a difference.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Augment Summoning is greatly weakened if you take a couple of levels outside of Druid. As a summoner, you want to reach 9th level ASAP in order to Animal Growth. Animal Growth is also a greater boost to your own fighting ability than a single level or two of Monk or PrC in most situations.

 

[Pax]

As for the cost of wild armor - the 20 wisdom is +5 - I would need +8 armor for this (128000gp) - it would be a long time befor I could afford it. The monks belt would be cheaper - but can still function when wildshaped? With a bear I'd say yes but an eagle or fish I'd say no. Then again as a fish or eagle would I be fighting - probably not.

Arms and Equipment Guide - Bronzewood. 10% lighter than steel, just about as strong, and can replace metal in all armors.

So a suit of Wild Bronzewood Full Plate +1 woudl cost 26,650gp - oh, and a feat, to be proficient with heavy armor.

Or just get a suit of Wild Halfweight Bronzewood Full Plate +1, for a cost of 35,650gp. "Halfweight" is from Underdark, and it makes the suit of armor so enhanced, count as Light armor. Including for purposes of proficiency.

That's +9 armor right there - to heck with +8. ^_^

For an extra 200gp, you could go from Full Plate to Dendritic Armor (also from Arms and Equipment), which is +9AC, +0 MaxDex, -8 armor check, 40% ASF heavy armor, which weighs 60 pounds in it's unaltered, nonmagical, metallic state. Heavy Plate, from Underdark, has the same stats, but it's heavier (100 pounds). Either of those would give you +10 armor.