High level druid tactics
- Thread starter Pielorinho
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Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
Excellent point. I tend to get creamed when I go into melee: the lack of an arcane caster means that I don't have mage armor up, which is basically a necessity for wildshaping spellcasters IMO. So I try to stay out of melee unless it's absolutely necessary, and my feats (natural spell and augment summoning) are designed to help me stay back and kick butt. The barbarian and monk and archer do pretty incredible damage on a one-on-one basis, so I figure my jobs are:Nail said:
-Battlefield control
-Ally-summoning
-Area magic
-Countermagic
-Healing
-Buffing
And that's the order of fun, not the order of importance
. When I summon an ally, it's generally either because i can't think of something more effective to do, or because a specific ally (e.g., an air elemental that immediately goes all whirlwindy) is more effective than anything else.Sometimes I think that if I memorized only flame strikes and fire seeds, I'd be pretty great--but that'd be kind of pitiful, so I don't.
Daniel
Nail
First Post
I hadn't really looked over 8th level Drd spells until now; our party's druid is 16th.....but she rarely uses any spell over 6th, to be honest.
This list in the SRD is pretty poor.
Whirlwind is particularly pathetic; it does less than an Air Elemental that you could summon with a lower level spell. Control Plants is similarly uninspiring. Ugg. ...And I imagine your companions wouldn't like Animal Shapes much, in all but the most contrived circumstances.
In your list of "jobs" (and I agree it's an excellent list), only Repel Metal or Stone calls out for some sort of battlefield control use.....too bad it's a line, rather than a cone. You'd have to use a move action to get into position, somewhere off to the side, and then cast it diagonally across the battlefield. Hmmm...... No save or SR though, and it's invisible, so it might be a solid way of deflecting charges from the hordes....so long as they weild metal weapons or wear something of metal or stone.
This list in the SRD is pretty poor.
Whirlwind is particularly pathetic; it does less than an Air Elemental that you could summon with a lower level spell. Control Plants is similarly uninspiring. Ugg. ...And I imagine your companions wouldn't like Animal Shapes much, in all but the most contrived circumstances.
In your list of "jobs" (and I agree it's an excellent list), only Repel Metal or Stone calls out for some sort of battlefield control use.....too bad it's a line, rather than a cone. You'd have to use a move action to get into position, somewhere off to the side, and then cast it diagonally across the battlefield. Hmmm...... No save or SR though, and it's invisible, so it might be a solid way of deflecting charges from the hordes....so long as they weild metal weapons or wear something of metal or stone.
Treants and Tendriculos are both pretty fun.
treants look impressive and can bash through walls/objects with relative ease while the tendriculos has some pretty impressive grabbing abilities.
But they dont help your general abilities too much.. although it is a lot of fun to summon up some impressive animals, turn yourself into the largest animal you can, and then animal growth.
can you use dinos? If so, you can do some massively impressive things even without being combat oriented
depending on the party using 'animal shapes' and then 'animal growth' can be incredibly impressive.. especially if you are able to choose legendary animals. Turning into humanoid like creatures will allow them to use most/all of their equipment still as well. All equipment is enlarged as well!
Massive power boost, if planned for correctly.
Plus, if you dismiss the animal shape spell (or they do it to themselves) the animal growth spell will still stick and give its bonuses. woo!
treants look impressive and can bash through walls/objects with relative ease while the tendriculos has some pretty impressive grabbing abilities.
But they dont help your general abilities too much.. although it is a lot of fun to summon up some impressive animals, turn yourself into the largest animal you can, and then animal growth.
can you use dinos? If so, you can do some massively impressive things even without being combat oriented
depending on the party using 'animal shapes' and then 'animal growth' can be incredibly impressive.. especially if you are able to choose legendary animals. Turning into humanoid like creatures will allow them to use most/all of their equipment still as well. All equipment is enlarged as well!
Massive power boost, if planned for correctly.
Plus, if you dismiss the animal shape spell (or they do it to themselves) the animal growth spell will still stick and give its bonuses. woo!
DM_Matt
First Post
Pielorinho said:Excellent point. I tend to get creamed when I go into melee: the lack of an arcane caster means that I don't have mage armor up, which is basically a necessity for wildshaping spellcasters IMO. So I try to stay out of melee unless it's absolutely necessary, and my feats (natural spell and augment summoning) are designed to help me stay back and kick butt. The barbarian and monk and archer do pretty incredible damage on a one-on-one basis, so I figure my jobs are:
-Battlefield control
-Ally-summoning
-Area magic
-Countermagic
-Healing
-Buffing
And that's the order of fun, not the order of importance
Sometimes I think that if I memorized only flame strikes and fire seeds, I'd be pretty great--but that'd be kind of pitiful, so I don't.
Daniel
Animal Growth is Uber. Its a defining spell for Druids. There are other animal buffs, too in Complete Divine. However, since you cannot affect yourself due to that house rule, you wont be the melee beast that Druids are in other campaigns. If you can prepare for a fight, go the summoner route. Use an SNA VIII for 1d4+1 dire bears or 1d3 dire tigers and Animal Growth them. Then send them at your enemies. Grappling is especially effective.
Those bears will have Improved Grab and a Grapple Check of +33, +24 claws attacks for 2d4+16, and over 150hp.
Those tigers would have +34 grapple checks, pounce, improved grab, and a +25/+25/+14 2d4+14/2d4+14/2d6+7 +2d4+7rake they can use with pounce and in a grapple.
Can you use Complete Divine? Its full of strong druid spells.
nittanytbone
First Post
Pielorinho said:
No save and no SR is pretty huge at the higher levels, I think.
Also, the limited area of effect can be nice. You can shape exactly where you want the effect to occur and at what height which gives you optimal battlefield control possibilities. Think of a "wall" of reverse gravity, for example, or a cage.
Reverse gravity is a non-lethal option. You don't have to worry about friendly fire too much and you don't have to worry about accidentally wasting that peasant levie or destroying vulnerable treasure.
The long duration compared to a instantaneus sunburst makes it an ideal spell for holding and pinning opponents. It'll give you a chance to throw anything you want at them -- fingers of death, sunbursts, summoned friends, fire seeds, etc. The enemy will probably spend at least a few rounds figuring out how to get out of the reverse gravity field. If I had a surprise round to spend or won the first initiative, I'd want to get off a nice control spell like reverse gravity which will screw the enemy for the duration of the fight as opposed to an instantaneus spell which might work if they fail their save and if they fair their SR.
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Pielorinho said:
Tortoise Shell, Complete Divine - Drd 6, +7 enhancement bonus to Natural Armor for two and a half hours.
Downsides - it slows you down as though you were wearing heavy armor, and it isn't core.
Alternatively, get yourself some Wild armor!
-Hyp.
Brother MacLaren
Explorer
Word of Recall would be my 8th-level spell priority as your party has nobody else capable of casting Teleport. (My party is in the same situation.) You can't use it for scry-buff-teleport (only Teleport works there) or travel (Transport via Plants works okay there), but you can use it for a quick escape.
On summoning, don't forget to adjust DC's for the higher Str and Con of your augmented summons. Helps with whirlwind, poison, burn, and some other abilities. Animal Growth works on summoned rocs if you have the space to pull this off... a Colossal roc can grapple most CR15+ creatures. The 1d4+1 level 6 critters looks to be a good option -- personally, I hate taking the chance on a 1d3 roll.
On wildshaping, don't overlook the plant forms. You can't use Animal Growth or Nature's Favor on yourself in plant form, but you have a great many immunities according to the Rules of the Game article (including mind-affecting effects -- Touch of Idiocy is a real pain). And trampling things in treant form could be fun.
On summoning, don't forget to adjust DC's for the higher Str and Con of your augmented summons. Helps with whirlwind, poison, burn, and some other abilities. Animal Growth works on summoned rocs if you have the space to pull this off... a Colossal roc can grapple most CR15+ creatures. The 1d4+1 level 6 critters looks to be a good option -- personally, I hate taking the chance on a 1d3 roll.
On wildshaping, don't overlook the plant forms. You can't use Animal Growth or Nature's Favor on yourself in plant form, but you have a great many immunities according to the Rules of the Game article (including mind-affecting effects -- Touch of Idiocy is a real pain). And trampling things in treant form could be fun.
