how does the druid not stink?

[Jeremy]

Also, while animals are the druids friends, don't forget that so are the elements as well as plants.

Enemy base? Control Weather. Two Weeks of tornado weather ought to make things messy.

Home base? Awaken some trees. Throw in some live oak spells to make some Treants to command the trees (and awaken some of their own) and you've got one well camoflauged security system. (and dangerous, you do NOT want to see what double damage to objects does to precious shields and weapons, much less anyone foolish enough to lay seige with catapults)

How about an infiltration that needs to be done, wild shape into an earth elemental, summon up a swarm of others, and come at the problem from an unusual angle.

Druids are fun!

 

[Argent Silvermage]

I can't remember if I actualy checked this out but Bolo had thought of befriending a group of Brain moles (they are listed as animals) and training them to ward him against Psionic attacks or better yet Awaken a few. now that would be a very effective companion. hides in a pouch and peeks it's nose out to shoot psionic blasts.

Suddenly your Druid shows a new set of powers.

 

[Graf]

Damn you, Gez. I was content only reading Piratecat's story hour up until now, but that passage was too good to ignore.

My thoughts word for word.

A lot of druid PrCs 'fix' the power level issue. One of the players in my game is playing an incarnate (from the Scarred Lands). I was a bit generous in giving him past lives* and he's a f*****g terror.
He's 10th level (died to a reverse gravity so he's a bit behind) and he cacked a beholder in 2 rounds last game. The second round I plugged him with all 10 rays (the beholder was on a lower level).... nothing stuck.
*=he can turn into a scaled down version of a quickling

 

[Eldorian]

Just like to say that a group of ravens isn't a flock, but a Murder.

And that druids rock when played right, and in the right circumstances, with decent animal companions. Overall, I'd say their spell list needs some more meat to it. The are the best class for sieges and mass battles that take place outside. Call lightning and controled weather, earth elementals, animated trees, the works. However, I have seen a few druids completely suck due to lack of decent animal companions and always being in a dungeon. Thats why i say the spell list needs fleshing out. There were some spells back in the 2e druid book that were good for underground, like fungus spells and whatnot, hope they add something to that effect, or just generally useful spells instead of terrain dependant, to the druid list in 3.5.


Eldorian Antar

 

[Larry Fitz]

It's a Murder of Crows .

Ravens congregate in an Unkindness.

Druids congregate in whatever they want, in an open setting with a day of prep, they are devastating.

 

[Impeesa]

Druids are cool. For the duration of most normal games, they're fairly powerful and hugely flexible. Thousand Faces is one of the coolest abilities.... since you can wildshape into a bear, then grow wings or extra limbs. At epic levels, the druid becomes a massive combat monster. With the right feats, they can be wildshaping into primal elementals at 24th level, and awakened legendary bears with persistant animal growth/nature's favor/nature's avatar are just scary.

--Impeesa--

 

[rounser]

On a related note, I was thinking yesterday that something that could be considered for implementation in 4E (or as house rules) is that the acquisition of animal companions could be handled by magic item creation rules, and not be an in-built assumption of the druid and ranger classes, which is an awkward way of handling it, IMO.

In return, more personal power could be built back into the classes, instead of into an expendable resource like a bear companion.

Thread here:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?threadid=47943

Just to stress the detail, you'd have to rebalance the classes to make up for the lost ability. In fact, that's the point!

 

[The Cardinal]

the city is just a different kind of jungle - and druids rule the jungle!

How?

1. Wildshape: cats, dogs, ravens, pigeons, (dire) rats, racoons, snakes, etc. - there are tons of animals in every city, especially in large ones, and no one pays any real attention to them! A druid is the master of all animals, so use it!
2. Charm Person or Animal, all Animal spells: see above
3. Cities are made of stone,wood, and metal: You can shape it, learn its secrets, or lay it to waste - Meld with Stone, Soften Earth and Stone, Warp Wood, Wood Shape, Chill Metal, Heat Metal, Stone Shape, Rusting Grasp, Transmute Rock to Mud, Stonetell, Wall of Stone, Ironwood, Repel Wood, Transmute Metal to Wood, Repel Metal or Stone, Earthquake, etc.
4. Even cities have plants and parks - so use them: Tree Shape, Speak with Plants, Tree Stride, and Transport via Plants all can be quite useful in a city campaign
5. The Weather: you can control it better than any one else, and the right weather conditions at the right time can be a lot of help in a city campaign. You can get people to get off the streets and huddle in their houses, you can bring fog and clouds for a little nightly B&E action, you can cause "accidental" lightning strikes, you may even bring a heatwave that forces guards out of their armor and reveals strange marks and tattoos otherwise hidden by clothing...
6. Diplomacy is a class skill - where else to use it to its greatest effect but in a city?

 

[nharwell]

Druids are cool. For the duration of most normal games, they're fairly powerful and hugely flexible. Thousand Faces is one of the coolest abilities.... since you can wildshape into a bear, then grow wings or extra limbs. At epic levels, the druid becomes a massive combat monster. With the right feats, they can be wildshaping into primal elementals at 24th level, and awakened legendary bears with persistant animal growth/nature's favor/nature's avatar are just scary.

--Impeesa--

Unfortunately, you can't use Thousand Faces when Wildshaped. From the Wild Shape description:

The druid also retains her own type (for example, humanoid), extraordinary abilities, and spell-like abilities, but not her supernatural abilities

 

[Delemental]

Just this last Saturday my 7th level druid took out a 12th level fighter almost single-handedly.

The fighter was one of the elite bodyguards of the Red Wizards of Thay (Black Guard? Night Guard?) who was loaded with magic and pretty much unstoppable to our 7th level party. Fortunately, he'd failed a save against a Tasha's Laughter spell cast by our illusionist (rolled a 1), which really was only delaying our deaths, since even with the +4 for a prone figure we were having trouble hitting, and certainly couldn't do enough damage to kill him before the spell wore off (most of our direct-damage spells had already been used up).

So my druid, Evyn, casts Soften Earth and Stone (which he was planning on doing that round anyway, just to slow the guy down enough so we could run the hell away). Since we're fighting on a riverbank, the GM decides it produces the maximum effect, so the fighter sinks into four feet of mud (wearing full plate), and still laughing. The next round, I toss a tree feather token on top of him. About an hour later, I wildshape into a burrowing animal, find the body, and chew through his neck just to be safe.

The party's response: "Nobody piss off the druid!"

And to think the players made fun of me for buying those tree tokens... now they all want some.

Admittedly this never would have worked without the failed save against the Tasha's Laughter spell, but the same effect could have been acheived with a successful trip attack. I think druids make great supporting characters (although without spontaneous casting they make poor backup clerics).