Druid: High powered, Low Level

[kooshlord]

Thanks again for the continued help:

I like the horde-of-critters vs 1 opponent, and natural-meat-shield approaches to using summoned animals and animal companions, so thanks Wolfwood2, Christian, and kjenks for that.

I'll also take a look at elemental substitution when I get my next feat: especially as the GM has nerfed natural spell, and my use of an animal companion damages the leadership feat (my GM usually gives you significantly powerful cohorts, but animal companion hurts the leadership score). On the other hand, by the time I'm able to take the feat, I'll have a few more types of elemental attacks at my disposal, and may not need it anymore.

I actually used to have str 10, so the longbow at first level was reasonably powerful. But it got outdated almost immediately after leveling. And then I got a permanent ability drain from a random item and my strength died. 4th level will take care of that though.

I'll also look into pushing my ride skill up, its been unnecessary thus far, but it'll probably help out a lot against the warg, as that battle will hopefully not be in a cave.

Thanks!
-Koosh

 

[Wolfwood2]

I actually used to have str 10, so the longbow at first level was reasonably powerful. But it got outdated almost immediately after leveling. And then I got a permanent ability drain from a random item and my strength died. 4th level will take care of that though.

I hope you aren't considering using your 4th level atttribute boost on strength instead of wisdom!

Can't you get a Restoration spell to fix the strength drain?

 

[kooshlord]

I hope you aren't considering using your 4th level atttribute boost on strength instead of wisdom!

Can't you get a Restoration spell to fix the strength drain?

Nope: another house-rule. at 4th level, ALL attributes go up a point. Hence the High-Power bit of the title, the GM is liberal with character bonuses. I'll ask him about the restoration spell though, thanks for the thought!

-Koosh

 

[nittanytbone]

Focus on filling the party's arcane caster role. You'll want to maximize your wisdom (with Owl's Wisdom or items or stat boosts) in order to boost DCs as high as possible.

Direct damage via Produce Flame is decent, but area control with Obscuring Mist or Entangle are highly effective as well. Obscuring Mist shuts down ranged attackers and does a good job of fouling up many large or reach opponents (throw up a smokescreen before charging ogres).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, if the DM has disavowed Natural Spell entirely (how rough, he could have at least left it in and forced you to choose beforehand which spells are Natural (and only work wildshaped) and which aren't), I would suggest the Swift and Deadly Hunter variant from unearthed arcana. Normally, it's almost as good as wild shape + Natural Spell, in this case, it's just plain better. I don't know if your DM allows UA variants, but they're open gaming licensed and easy to find online, so they're *almost* core rules, you could say....

This SRD explains the variant: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid

As for no arcanist, note by mid-levels, the druid gets a decent array of fire-based attack spells, so you can semi-fill in the role.

 

[Darklone]

Direct damage via Produce Flame is decent, but area control with Obscuring Mist or Entangle are highly effective as well. Obscuring Mist shuts down ranged attackers and does a good job of fouling up many large or reach opponents (throw up a smokescreen before charging ogres).

Nice thing about Produce Flame: it's not one of the typical touch spells, so you can cast other spells without any problems while it's active.

 

[eamon]

I second using either the UA variant druid with WIS to AC or the PHB2 shifting druid. The disadvantage of the shifting druid is that you'll need to rebuild your character (as you already have an animal companion), and while I think it's fair to ask for that since the DM banned natural spell (which I also ban ;-), if he's very conservative he might not like you rebuilding your character. Then the UA variant is better: That way you lose wild shapce (very valuable, since you lose the ability to fly and the ability to breath underwater) but gain a monk's AC and unarmored speed (nice... speed.... ;-))

So I'd go with the UA variant! Try to get him to OK it instead of the wild shape ability. It also harmonizes nicely with your high wisdom ;-).

 

[pawsplay]

Okay, you're playing in a weird campaign. Let's look at your advantages and disadvantages:

Bad:
- No natural spell
- character nerfed after creation, left with low Str (probably because you hoped to use Natural Spell)

Good:
- Really high ability scores, which means higher spell DCs, more spells per day, and the ability to alleviate MAD

In this unusual situation, I'm going to recommend metamagic feats, particularly sudden metamagic feats. You can probably function really well as a blaster, you can throw enemy-debuffing spells around, and you have slots to spare.