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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Pendragon" data-source="post: 1825118" data-attributes="member: 707">Ridley's Cohort gave some fantastic advice.  I'm currently playing with a very successful gnome druid 7, so let me see if I can add anything to Ridley's Cohort's excellent advice.Let me second this.  One of the gnome's biggest disadvantages is that 20' move.  My partymate also rides her companion (it was a riding dog, now a black bear).  Not only does that give her a 40' move (the best maneuverability in the party), it also allows her to share all her personal spells (barkskin, cures, etc.) with her companion.  It also grants a +1 higher ground bonus vs. any foes smaller than the mount.  Overall this is one of the most effective uses of the animal companion I've seen thus far.For your druid, that maneuverability may be very important, since she seems to be the party's main healer.  Note that you don't need to take any riding feats for this to be effective, though you should boost your Ride skill to at least +9 (so your "fight with mount" checks become automatic.)Our druid usually doesn't memorize Bull's Strength, simply because, as pointed out, her own attacks aren't really worth it.  She's much happier casting Flaming Sphere in Round 1, then using her move action to move the sphere and cast Call Lightning every round thereafter, while the bear makes a full attack or move-and-attack, as required.  At level 4 you might still need to make the occasional weapon attack, but that won't last long at all.Good advice, though our druid rarely needs to resort to it.  Produce Flame and Call Lightning are your friends (in another level, at least. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />)Right.  If your DM has the Monster Manual II, see if he'll grant your druid's companion the Warbeast template.  It's specifically designed to make a non-horse into a mount.Our druid picked up Natural Spell at 6th.  Aside from that, she's working toward Augmented Summoning.  Your druid should keep in mind that in 3.5, Summon Nature's Ally is very strong, even moreso with Augmented Summoning.  Going that route means you'll always have strong critters at your beck and call so long as you have any spell slots remaining.All good choices that my companion regularly uses.  Also, I can't stress Call Lightning enough when you get to 3rd-level spells.  It's a very flexible spell, that does decent damage and has excellent range.</blockquote>

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