Help creating a Druid character

[johnsemlak]

I'm designing a Druid character for a Scarred lands campaign, and having never played a Druid before, I wanted some advice on creation.

What would be a good stat to sacrifice? I was thinking of keeping a low strength and developing my spellcasting skills along with becoming skilled with missle weapons of some sort. I see two problems with this and I'd like some feedback on how large they are: 1) A druid later can change into animal froms and gain animal melee attacks--would a low str significantly hinder the charater?; 2) A druid has a small selection of missile weapons to choose from, barring taking and extra feat. It seems to me that shortspear, spear and sling are the only options, and the sling does paultry damage. Also, I can't figure out why a druid is automatically proficient in a shortspear, a spear, but not a javlin. I thought of spending a feat on bow profiency, would it be worth it?

Anyway, any other advice on the primary abilities for a Druid, recommended feats, etc. would appreciated.

 

[cool hand luke]

check out the bottom of the first page of this thread

http://pub175.ezboard.com/f3ebb85430frm82.showMessage?topicID=44.topic

it's a great help for druid builds.

Generally, str is an easy dump stat, because if you melee later on, you will be wildshaped into something with good strength (you get the str, dex and con scores of whatever you change into)

Make sure you take wild spell with your 6th level feat, so you can have the spellcasting chipmunk of doom!

 

[Nightfall]

Well John I am curious as to how you'd approach your druid. Obviously there is titan worship versus non-titan worship. So that would be my question: Do you want to be a follower of the titans or something else? After all you can go totem/animal spirit druid. If you see yourself as being able to use a lot of animals or just specific animals, check out Totem feats. Secondly I'm a little more lax when it comes to prohibited weapons. Certainly if you're an elf or a human steppe fighter, long and short bows are acceptable. (Composites probably not...but still) Plus there's always being a gnome and using a blowgun. As for your first question, I'd say low str is fine. Shape shifting shouldn't rely on human stats.

 

[Trickstergod]

Just to note, druids don't have prohibited weapons anymore, anyway. Just ones they're not proficient in. They still possess armor restrictions, but a druid who takes a level in fighter, for example, is free to use a longsword all they like. Or one who take Martial Weapon Proficiency (Longsword).

Also, keep in mind, that elves gain a number of proficiencies, bow amongst them. Dunno what you were going for, but that's always an option, and the Scarred Lands wood elves are all about being druids.

As for the logic behind a javelin, don't they tend to need a decent amount of running space and space to fly through the air? Seeing as how druids are designed for the forest, it makes sense, to a degree.

If you're just looking for "best dump stat," I believe Charisma isn't overly needed by druids; if you want one that's appropriate, however, well, that's not one anyone can really offer much advice on but yourself, really.

Beyond that, well...advice-wise, while never quite the druid player, I think the primary question is whether you want to focus on spells or wildshaping. There's a number of feats out there for either, and if you had any idea whether you wanted to go for one or the other, well, might be a start. It might also be good to keep in mind whether you want to enter a prestige class, or just stay a druid.

 

[Nightfall]

Thanks for the correction Trick. But you are correct, there's no dump stat for Druids, just clerics, as Wisdom is both their bread and butter.

Also if you DO consider a Pr-class, one choice for a Denevian druid is obviously Incarnate. I also think that if you focus on wildshape, Totem Caller (I believe that's what it's call), is a good choice and also in some ways better than Shifter. (This is of course my opinion)

 

[youspoonybard]

I find Wisdom, Int, and Cha are the most important stats, followed by Con, then Dex and Str.

What level are you starting at?

 

[johnsemlak]

Well John I am curious as to how you'd approach your druid. Obviously there is titan worship versus non-titan worship. So that would be my question: Do you want to be a follower of the titans or something else? After all you can go totem/animal spirit druid. If you see yourself as being able to use a lot of animals or just specific animals, check out Totem feats. Secondly I'm a little more lax when it comes to prohibited weapons. Certainly if you're an elf or a human steppe fighter, long and short bows are acceptable. (Composites probably not...but still) Plus there's always being a gnome and using a blowgun. As for your first question, I'd say low str is fine. Shape shifting shouldn't rely on human stats.

I'll be worshipping Denev.

What level are you starting at?

2nd

 

[DM_Matt]

I find Wisdom, Int, and Cha are the most important stats, followed by Con, then Dex and Str.

What level are you starting at?

Con is a lot better than Cha. You still use your natural con for hp, and when not wild shaped, for fort and some good skills (Concentration being a vital one). Cha is just for social skills.

BTW, max out spot and/or listen. Druids are the best class at those vital skills, because in 3.5 they are class skills AND based on their prime stat.

Dont be afraid to focus a lot on wisdom...eventually, str and es wont matter that much, cha doesnt matter much ever. Decent Con and Int will help you out though...Maybe a 14 and a 12, to take advantage of decent calss skills and have a lot of HP, which will always be important to you.

 

[EtherHulkRending]

If you focus your druid for melee then there are plenty of stats that you really don't need.

low strenth
low dex
high con
low int
high wisdom
low cha


on a 28 point buy character

str 8
dex 10
con 18
int 8
wis 16
cha 8

This works just fine, then if you go and make him a gnome he's got the hit points up the wazoo and as soon as he can wild shape he's a monster.

 

[johnsemlak]

Thanks for the advice so far everyone

Also, keep in mind, that elves gain a number of proficiencies, bow amongst them. Dunno what you were going for, but that's always an option, and the Scarred Lands wood elves are all about being druids.

Question, is a SL woodelf different from a PHB in any way? I don't have CCI Revised.