Druid build help

[likuidice]

Hiya all.
I'm building a character, and wondering if you can help me with options I can include.
Currently I have 5 levels to play with (all druid). I have agreed with my DM to swap my animal companion for bonus feats at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th, any feat, so long as I meet the prerequisites. (animal comanion is useful, but I don't like running what is essentially a second character.)
I have a 32 point buy, and would like a nice use of wildshape and a physical focus, with spells as a secondary back up plan, buffs etc mostly. I'm allowed anything in the standard players handbook races, and standard PHB feats. I need a straight druid 20 build, without multiclassing.
Options I'm considering are: Produce flame + halfling + all the ranged feats I can lay my hands on. (throw a ton of flaming bolts each round, adding halflings thrown weapon bonus, PBS, rapid shot, etc)
gnome with most points in mental stats, and wildshape constantly. (gets around the low physical stats by replacing them with animals and, later, elementals)
summoning is powerful, but takes too much time to run extra summoned creatures, (just need a quick and dirty character with a minimum of time wasting in a round, nice slick, fast combats)
I also want the character to be a perception whore, plenty of spot and listen, as our current party is mediocre at noticing things before they jump us.
Tracking would be useful, druids are even better trackers than rangers (nature sense, and wis being primary stat)
Also, as a rules question, if I have a touch spell active when I make a touch attack for say trip, grapple etc, does the touch spell also affect the target? For example: My gnome attempts to trip his opponent, grabbing his leg, also having a produce flame spell active in that hand, does he also burn the target of the trip attempt?
any ideas? and a 20 level progression would be cool if anyone has time to pull one together, thanks all.

 

[Ballard_Alvar]

Hiya all.
I'm building a character, and wondering if you can help me with options I can include.
Currently I have 5 levels to play with (all druid). I have agreed with my DM to swap my animal companion for bonus feats at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th, any feat, so long as I meet the prerequisites. (animal comanion is useful, but I don't like running what is essentially a second character.)
I have a 32 point buy, and would like a nice use of wildshape and a physical focus, with spells as a secondary back up plan, buffs etc mostly. I'm allowed anything in the standard players handbook races, and standard PHB feats. I need a straight druid 20 build, without multiclassing.
Options I'm considering are: Produce flame + halfling + all the ranged feats I can lay my hands on. (throw a ton of flaming bolts each round, adding halflings thrown weapon bonus, PBS, rapid shot, etc)
gnome with most points in mental stats, and wildshape constantly. (gets around the low physical stats by replacing them with animals and, later, elementals)
summoning is powerful, but takes too much time to run extra summoned creatures, (just need a quick and dirty character with a minimum of time wasting in a round, nice slick, fast combats)
I also want the character to be a perception whore, plenty of spot and listen, as our current party is mediocre at noticing things before they jump us.
Tracking would be useful, druids are even better trackers than rangers (nature sense, and wis being primary stat)
Also, as a rules question, if I have a touch spell active when I make a touch attack for say trip, grapple etc, does the touch spell also affect the target? For example: My gnome attempts to trip his opponent, grabbing his leg, also having a produce flame spell active in that hand, does he also burn the target of the trip attempt?
any ideas? and a 20 level progression would be cool if anyone has time to pull one together, thanks all.

I think I am p/b qualified to feild this question.
Let me start by answering your last question first. Yes. produce flame trigers when you make a touch attack to initiate a grapple. it drains the spell as per the description. however this only works when you make the touch attack and not on the successive grapple atempts. I might suggest if you to that route to get improved trip. requires a useless prereq, but you're getting an exubeant amount of feats anyway, right?
Number 1, It is extreamly difficult ot build a druid that uses ranged combat as a focus. A good place to start is to max con since HP don't change, secondary wisdom. choose a WS form like Polar Bear at midlevels, brown bear at lower levels. choose natural spell at 5th go for Animal growth ASAP. Ask your DM how he handles WS/Animal Growth interation. We treat it as a form altering not size altering, so it stacks. helps boost you already low AC. Power attack, Cleave, Greatcleave, I'mproved grapple, are good. Greater Magic Fang, and Barkskin are essental at lower levels. Gook luck and let me know if you need more advice.

 

[Pickaxe]

One feat you'll certainly hear people recommend is Natural Spell. In your case, you can take it at 5th, just when you'd get Wildshape.

If you go the halfling/Produce Flame route, I highly recommend Extend Spell. The number of shots you get from Produce Flame is based on the duration, so Extended Produce Flame will give you twice as many shots per spell (in your case, 10 instead of 5). Extend Spell also works well with a number of other druid spells, such as Endure Elements, Goodberry, and Greater Magic Fang. If you can do without Scribe Scroll, you could get Extend Spell, Natural Spell, and Point Blank Shot, with Rapid Shot at 6th.

 

[CyberSpyder]

A good place to start is to max con since HP don't change,

I believe the usual interpretation is that your HP does change with the new CON - it just doesn't change to the normal HP of the new form.

 

[Nail]

I believe the usual interpretation is that your HP does change with the new CON -

This is in the "Rules of the Game" articles, IIRC. Not errata.

 

[CyberSpyder]

This is in the "Rules of the Game" articles, IIRC. Not errata.

Nevertheless, something to keep in mind if you're making a character build. You'll probably be getting HP based on your wildshaped CON.

 

[Nail]

Yup.

I.e. ignore Str, Dex, and Con when making your druid...even if you don't intend on wading into battle with a wildshape. Just wildshape as a matter of course for most of the day.

...and have the feats "Natural Spell" and "Fast Wildshape". Those are key.

 

[likuidice]

thanks all, will probably go for a gnome/wildshaped/ranged produce flame/tracking package, maybe spend my time as a bird and rain death from above, the animal forms give so many cool options.