Druid Help Please

[Pielorinho]

I play a druid in RttToEE, and I've very rarely gotten into melee combat, relying instead on spells and animal companions and the like.

If I were you, I'd go for a measly str and a reasonable dex, but put most of my points elsewhere: as someone else pointed out, you can wildshape if you need to get into combat soon enough.

Craft wonderous item is a pretty fun feat for any spellcaster; if no one else in your party takes it, consider grabbing it for yourself. Early on, you can create a midlevel bag of tricks, which will stay useful for a long time; a friendly DM may allow you to upgrade it eventually at a low cost to the top-notch bag of tricks.

I wouldn't multiclass as a gnome: druids can profitably MC into fighter, monk, and/or rogue (for feats, wis bonus to ac, and/or sneak attack), but the XP hit you'd suffer will be too great.

Although this may not be the most tactically efficient way to play a druid, I've greatly enjoyed summoning critters to help fight; to this end, I took the augment summoning feat from Tome & Blood (I think that's where it's from).

Have fun -- druids are a blast to play!

Daniel

 

[Jeremy]

In my experience, Druids work best if you pretend they are sorcerers.

Druids have a lot of firepower when it comes to spells either for incapacitating or doing damage to opponents.

Animal Friendship will be one of your tools for melee, Summon Nature's Ally will be the other.

Magic Fang, Barkskin, and Entangle will help a lot.

Once you start throwing down Briar Webs, Greater Magic Fang's, and Nature's Ally's things will really get going, and of course you'll be able to start summoning bears and great cats by that point.

Throw a plant growth and a spike growth on your briar web and you'll be stopping armies of low level critters dead in their tracks.

Once you get to 8th level and you get to Bear's Heart, Flame Strike, Spike Stones, and Shadow Blast you become much too valuable a spellcaster to use your turns on melee strikes. And by this point feats and stat points you've allocated to melee feel almost wasted because your Animal Companion and Summoned Allies are much more powerful than you can be.

At 9th level you can Awaken giant oaks, or double the hit die of your companions and nature's allies with Animal Growth and you become a force of nature. With Insect Plague, Ice Storm, Inferno, Wall of Thorns, and Transmute Rock to Mud and back again you are just as valuable in spell combat as any arcane caster, and you've got better saves and better hit points to boot.

I'd stay stick with your skills as a caster. If you want to melee, that's an entirely different build and less suited to a gnome who is already at a size and strength penalty if something decides to grab you.

My advice for stats is at 40(!) point buy:

STR 8
DEX 10
CON 20
INT 10
WIS 18
CHA 10

To maximize your gnomish constitution for Fort Saves and Hit Points. Alternatively you could also go for...

STR 10
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 16
WIS 18
CHA 10

And take Track as your first feat and pump wilderness lore to maximum. This will help you track just as well as a ranger for both finding people, animal companions, and tracking foes.

If you truly find the need to get into Melee your STR and DEX aren't going to matter anyways because you will probably be wildshaped (which overwrites your STR, DEX, and CON----though it doesn't change your CON based HP). I'd definately recommend taking the Natural Spell feat at some point so you can fly along as an innocent owl raining down Call Lightnings and Flame Strikes over enemy bases at night or hide as a field mouse while casting plant growth, briar web, wall of thorns, and spike growth.

 

[Jeremy]

And go look at what Nwn (the druid, not the game) can do with a firestorm and a few flame strikes on a day he's not particularly prepared for combat with an army.

Check out the Heretic of Wyre in the Story Hour Forum.

 

[Darklone]

For more inspiration about awfully effective druids, check Rel's Faded Glory Story hour. Speaks With Stones is cool.

I would take a high Int if I were you. The druid has awfully good class skills, would be a shame not to use them

I wouldn't leave Dex too low. Reflex saves are bad for you, you need everything you can get.

Use goodberries. At higher levels you always got a huge load of them with you if you cast one 1st level spell each day since they last days/level. That makes a druid a rather effective healer, probably better than many clerics.

For stats I would go:

Str 6 (if you don't wanna carry much)
Dex 14 (Refl saves and you don't wildshape ALWAYS)
Con 18 (hitpoints rock)
Int 14 (cheap but effective)
Wis 18 (main stat)
Cha 10 (doesn't hurt)

That gives you many skills, good hitpoints, rocking spells and an AC to survive as well as good ranged combat. If you wanna carry something, take a mule as animal companion

Don't forget bird (falcons and owls) as full time recon squad. They are cheap (HD wise) and horribly effective.

Wolves rock as fighters. (trip)

 

[Speaks With Stone]

I'd leave off the Track feat unless you really need it right away. You get it free once you can shapechange as a dog or wolf (and with a bonus to boot).

I found that the right animal shape can really make the difference, like an eagle when I need to spot (especially if you cast Hawkeye on yourself first +13 total to spot).

After you get Natural Spell casting for your wildshape, I'd take Eschew Material Components. If you shapechange a lot then it sucks to have to use up two move equivalents to drop your holy symbol and pick it up between each shapechange. Besides, an eagle wearing a holy symbol is a lot more noticeable than an eagle.

Be sure to pick up the spell Feathers from Masters of the Wild (if the DM doesn't give those for free). That spell lets you transport the party all over the place quickly and stealthily.

I agree with the high intelligence. It helps to learn lots of elemental languages for directing your summoned elementals. As a gnome you can talk with the dire badgers and direct them as well, so they are a good call for animal friends and animal summons. (I wish I didn't have to burn a speak with animals spell as often as I do).

Contrary to everyone else, I have to say that I was fairly disappointed with animal companions. My DM had them disobey on occassion. I had to burn spells to speak with them and then he often ruled that they were too stupid to follow anything more than very basic commands. (Find any large holes in the ground for a flock of bird companions proved too much for their little minds). So maybe this is situational. Also, all of my wolves and bears were not only killed, but turned against me in an undead fashion. I've decided to hold off on animal companions until I can Awaken them and avoid some of these problems.

And Darklone, thanks for the plug.

P.S. Use the disease spell for me. That looks like a lot of fun, I just never seemed to have the right chance to pull that spell off. This is not because the spell is hard to use, but because in my group I am the main spell caster and my attention is pulled in many directions. (Darn that Faerie Fire spell for being so darn useful that I have to waste lots of rounds on setting up our targets).

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Don't use animal companions to scout, that's what wildshape is for. Unfortunately, animal companions usually aren't that bright, and you have to cast Speak with Animals to figure out what they are saying.

Use animal companions to guard you while you cast spells (not fight) because of their low AC. Use summoned animals or giant vermin to attack (avoid Summon Nature's Ally I though, so wait 'til 3rd-level).

Barkskin is such a useful spell.

Anything that controls the terrain is useful. Once you reach 5th-level, you can easily predict when and where combat will occur (due to your scouting), so you can use Entangle, Control Plants, Plant Growth, Spike Stones, etc, when you need to.

 

[smetzger]

I'd leave off the Track feat unless you really need it right away. You get it free once you can shapechange as a dog or wolf (and with a bonus to boot).

I agree I think Track is an unwise choice. You can have a dog for one of your animal companions and it can track by scent. Check with your DM if he will allow you to aid another on your dog's Wilderness Lore checks even though you don't have the track feat. If he does then max out your Wilderness Lore at 1st level.

Scribe Scroll is a good feat for the 1st level Druid.

 

[Vander]

Thanks for the great ideas everyone! Sounds like gnome will be much better as a druid than would a Genasai. Hmmm. How about a first level feat (or three choices to get first...) Thanks.

 

[Artoomis]

I agree I think Track is an unwise choice. You can have a dog for one of your animal companions and it can track by scent. Check with your DM if he will allow you to aid another on your dog's Wilderness Lore checks even though you don't have the track feat. If he does then max out your Wilderness Lore at 1st level.

Scribe Scroll is a good feat for the 1st level Druid.

No - you don't need ANY ranks in wilderness lore to help tracking (if allowed). All you have to do is "take 10" when helping - auto success vs. DC 10.

Unless I've overlooked something (which is all too often the case right after I make that statement).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Scribe Scroll is a good feat for the Druid. You have some great spells but it is real tough having the right spell at the right time.

I recommend for stats:

10 (12) Str [4 pts]
10 Dex [2 pts]
16 (14) Con [6 pts]
14 Int [6 pts]
18 Wis [16 pts]
14 Cha [6 pts]

The Cha will give you good animal handling skills and possibly even Leadership(!) later on. The Int will give the points to have decent skills, especially Spot and Listen.

You physical stats do not matter so much except for HPs.

You do not want to be weaker than a 10 because carrying equipment becomes a real issue.

Skills are often underestimated. A good Spot and Listen will matter as much as any Init modifier. The Cha based animal skills are potentially very powerful in the long run, almost as good as Animal Companions.