How to play a druid?

[Corlon]

Hello Enworld. After putting down the D&D mantle for the rigors of junior year my friends and I have decided to start a campaign to take up some of our time over the summer.

It's set in a desert with no clerics or paladins and I've decided to play a druid.

The problem is I've never played a druid before, and it seems that they can do quite a lot of things, so my question to you is what are the various common builds of a druid and what other druid-related advice can you give?

Thanks
-Corlon

 

[Mistwell]

From the WOTC Optimization Board:

Druids are the defenders of nature. They have mighty divine spells in their repertoire, call powerful companions on their side and wildshape themselves into strong forms to join combat.

A) Q&A:

Q: What is the Druids major strength?

A: There are several. Divine casting is the major power, but wildshape as well as their animal companion can be very powerful as well.

Q: What is the Druids major weakness?

A: A Druid normally suffers from a low AC because of his limited proficiencies and the missing ability to carry armor while wildshaped. With only medium BAB and HD Druids should avoid the frontline until they have powerful wildshape-forms and buff-spells in their repertoire.

Q: What are the most common Min/Max mistakes for this class?

A: I would say multiclassing is a serious error in many builds. Druids are best taken straight unless you want to focus on a special aspect, in most cases you lose all the others then so its a hard descision.

Q: What are good Break-Offs when using the Druid in a multiclass build?

A: Druids have a well balanced list of features so its hard to say. If you need many levels for a PrC Druid 8th is a good point, you get wildshape (Large) which covers many things.
If you just want a few levels Druid 15 or 16 is a breakpoint with wildshape(huge) resp. wildshape(elemental)

B) Techniques:

I. Sources
a. Most Important Source is still Masters of the Wild

b. Other Sources are Complete Warrior with Natures Warrior and Warshaper, Book of Vile Darkness with the Vermin Lord, Book of exalted Deeds with the Lion of Talisid Unapproachable East with the Talontar Blightlord, the Players Guide to Faerun with the Divine Disciple and Defenders of the Faith with the Hospitaler and the Contemplative.

II. Ability Scores

a. Overview
Druids need Wisdom for spellcasting. Con is important for hitpoints
(short note: its still under debate if hitpoints change while in wildshape, this text assumes that it is not the case)

i. Strength is a dumpstat, just look out for your carrying maximum. Wildshape takes care about it otherwise.
ii. Dexterity is altered by wildshape anyway so all you need is to survive until then.
iii. Constitution is an important attribute for any character. If you plan to make up a frontlining Druid you should put your points here.
iv. Intelligence is not that important. Druids have 13 classskills, decide yourself how many above 4 you need to have maxed.
v. Wisdom is prime for spellcasting.
vi. Charisma is normally a dump-stat.

III. Race
Humans and their extra feat and skillpoint are always a good choice for a Druid.
Gnomes make up great Druids due to their good ability-adjustments. With wildshape being independant from size being small helps a Druid.

IV. Skills
Knowledge(nature) and spellcraft are the two primary skills, complemented by concentration, survival and spot.

V. Feats
Natural spell is the feat of choice for almost any Druid.
Spellfocus(conjuration) and Augment Summoning strengthen the summoning-skills,
Rashemi Elemental Summoning (Unapproachable East) adds a template to summoned elementals.
Vow of Poverty adds nice possibilities for a Druid while Exalted Wildshape and Exalted Companion power the good Druids. (all BoED)
Dragon Wildshape (draconomicon) is an interesting feat as well.

VI. Deity
As long as you dont plan to pick up a PrC like Divine Disciple or Contemplative the choice of a god is not influencing your power.

VII. Builds
See:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81471

See also:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6718617

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=290658

 

[SteelDraco]

Druids can be good at several different things, depending on where you put your focus, and what material is available to you.

You're going to want Natural Spell. That's just a given. Wild shape and spellcasting are your two core abilities, but they're normally a one-or-the-other kind of thing. Natural Spell gets rid of that barrier, letting you spellcasting in your combat forms, which is a huge benefit.

If you're the only divine spellcaster, people are going to assume you'll be doing the healing. I'd recommend the Spontaneous Healer feat, from Complete Divine. It'll help you be a healer, since you won't have to prepare all your spell slots as healing to do your job. A wand of Cure Light Wounds (or two) wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Beyond that... you'll need to decide if you want to be a summoner, a melee combatant, or a blaster. Druids do the summoning thing better than pretty much any other class, since their list has more variety than most of them. They can be excellent melee combatants, if you pick up the right feats, wild shape forms, and maybe a prestige class. Playing a blaster isn't the best thing a druid can do; sorcerers are just going to be better at it, though druids do have lots of fun battlefield-control spells, particularly if you're in a natural environment.

What kind of a druid were you thinking about playing? Sandstorm has some nifty material for a desert-based druid; that might be worth looking into.

 

[Votan]

Hello Enworld. After putting down the D&D mantle for the rigors of junior year my friends and I have decided to start a campaign to take up some of our time over the summer.

It's set in a desert with no clerics or paladins and I've decided to play a druid.

The problem is I've never played a druid before, and it seems that they can do quite a lot of things, so my question to you is what are the various common builds of a druid and what other druid-related advice can you give?

Thanks
-Corlon

WHat books do you have access to? What levels will you play at?

A few thoughts based on these questions:

1) Between levels 1 and 4 the key druid asset is the "War Dog" or Wolf which will trip every time it hits. Focusing on a good animal companion is a key element of an effective druid at these levels.

2) After level 11 (spell levels 7+) the spells available to a druid IN CORE lag behind the other full casting classes. Heal and Finger of Death, for example, show up a level late.

Before that, however, some very good spells show up early or on time that are really useful (Flame Strike, Poison, Baleful Polymorph). Other unique druid spells are very nice (Entangle, Barkskin) for the druid. This assymetry means the druid scales better (as a caster) than other full caster classes.

Depending on combination of books and adherence to errata, it is possible for Druids to be freakishly good at spells. Quill Blast and Miasma (pre-errata) are nasty indeed. Spikes changes melee weapon chocies completely and so forth.

3) Notice the 4 skill points per level and the good skill list. This can be a very nice asset if it is properly developed. Note, carefully, that the very high wisdom of the druid makes them extremely effective scouts and trackers (better, on average, than rangers).

4) Wildshape is a mixed blessing post-errata. If the DM enforces the "no talking in wildshape" rules it is going to be hard to exploit it like before (due to the item rules) especially with the failure to improve hit points. In particular, expect low AC.

Natural spell is imperative if you are going to go this route routinely as you will deifnitely need to cast buffs on your animal form and just don't haev enough uses per day until very high levels to shift out before casting.

5) Others might get mileage out of summoing (in particular, ther eis a non-combat use for summoning unicorns). I find full round spellcasting times to be semi-suicidal even with something as tough as a Druid. It begs for disrupted spells and makes the druid an attack magnet (note the low AC in #4 above).

These are just a few thoughts.

 

[Mistwell]

I find full round spellcasting times to be semi-suicidal even with something as tough as a Druid. It begs for disrupted spells and makes the druid an attack magnet (note the low AC in #4 above).

Hence max concentration skill, and perhaps even the feat that lets you take 10 on concentration checks and/or a magic item that improves concentration checks, are all useful.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Hello Enworld. After putting down the D&D mantle for the rigors of junior year my friends and I have decided to start a campaign to take up some of our time over the summer.

It's set in a desert with no clerics or paladins and I've decided to play a druid.

The problem is I've never played a druid before, and it seems that they can do quite a lot of things, so my question to you is what are the various common builds of a druid and what other druid-related advice can you give?

Thanks
-Corlon

I played a druid up through level 12 or so. The character optimization quote already gave you some good advice on stats, so let me concentrate on in-play advice.

First of all, Augment Summoning is an excellent feat for a druid, even at the cost of the near-useless Spell Focus: Conjuration. Druids have a great summons list up through the mid-levels. You'll notice they get animals (without the celestial/fiendish template) and elementals one level earlier than the cleric/wizard lists. If you can get a summons off, it will be very powerful. Augment Summoning makes it more so. There's a crucial aspect of player preparation to this, though.

You must, must, print out the stats of every creature you can summon before the game and keep it somewhere organized an easily accessible. Go ahead and add in the bonuses from Augment Summoning to the stats. Nothing will tick off other players and the DM more than holding up combat while you flip desperately through the monster manual. Do the same for your wildshape forms.

At pre-wildshape levels stay behind the warriors and let your animal companion do the fighting. Buff said companion with Barkskin. Summon animals to fight. Hint: The best 1st level summon is a wolf due to its free trip attack. The best 2nd level summon is a hippogriff due to its three attacks per round. The best 3rd level summon is either a dire wolf due to its massive strength or 1d3 hippogriffs if fighting multiple opponents. At high levels summon multiple brown bears and hit them with animal growth. The carnage will be awesome.

Getting off a summon can be tricky, it's true. The best strategy is to let the fighters and rogues in the group run ahead and engage the enemy. Meanwhile you stay back, preferably behind an obstruction that will make it difficult for the enemy to charge you. Cheap Trick: Often when pulling out the battlemat, a DM will invite you to place your own characters. Never miss out on the opportunity to put your druid near the back of the party, within 5 ft range of some cover like a a statue or wall. Most DMs don't use a lot of enemies with good ranged attacks, so this should cover you.

Other than summons, your best spells are battlefield controls. Entangle is the best low level spell in the book. Against ground-bound opponents it can end a fight instantly. Earth to Mud can virtually paralyze and enemy. Spike stones and other similair one can stop the bad guys cold. Wall of Thorns (at higher levels) is so good it's virtually broken, given that you can cast it occupying enemy squares. (Sorry rogue! No reflex save for you.) But don't just blindly take my advice. Know your spell list inside and outside. There aren't so many of them, after all. Make a real effort to vary your prep based on what you think the day's activites will be.

Fighting while wildshaped. 1. Always have Longstrider up. It's an extra 10 ft of movement free, and it lasts an hour per level. Given that animals already have high speeds, only the party monk will have a shot at outpacing you. 2. Barkskin, barkskin, barkskin. Always have barkskin up before a battle. The AC boost will save much pain. 3. Get a ring of deflection. It will function in most animal forms. 4. No armor in animal form means no max Dex bonus. And interestingly, Cat's Grace is on your spell list. 5. Not to mention Bull's Strength. 6. Greater Magic Fang. It lasts an hour/level, so there's no excuse for not having it up in every fight. 7. There is little more pathetic than a spellcaster caught in your wildshaped jaws after you snapped him up with your free grapple attack.

Best low level combat form is the crocodile. Best mid-level Large forms are Dire Ape, Lion, and Brown bear. Each has different applicability. Dire Apes get a rend attack, Lions get pounce, and brown bears are great with the grapple.

As you can see, a druid is just a dependent on buff spells as a cleric. The difference is that you can change into an eagle (+10 Spot bonus) fly ahead and scout the area so you have advance warning on applying your spells.

At least through mid-levels, a properly played druid can outscout the rogue, outfight the fighter, and control the battlefield better than a wizard. At high levels the wizard will pull ahead, but this merely makes your druid "pretty good" instead of "one-man party".

 

[interwyrm]

That makes me really want to play a druid. I've always avoided them because I'm afraid that all the summons will slow combat too much. Maybe I'll have to write a quick calculator program to roll attack and damage for them. Oy would that be nerdy.

 

[ceratitis]

also remember that summens and the like are not considered an attack so if you're invisble you'll remain so and fighting a stupid monster it wont even take you as a threat unless you wildshape and attack it.
druids are cool unless your dm hates nature and sticks you in outer space or something
Z

 

[AZNtrogdor]

if you use eberron Shifters make excellent druids. According to my power gaming friend, the only good druid PrC in existence is a shifter only PrC in Races of Eberron.

 

[Wik]

I love the druid. Easily one of my favourite classes. I never really try to "optimize" my character build, though... much of how I play the game doesn't really follow that model. But I'll share a few of my own experiences, anyways.

First off, what makes the druid great is that you can do anything.

Anything.

Just not as well as anyone else.

If the group needs a fighter, you can be a fighter, by using shapechange or whatever melee weapon you've decided upon (I usually go for a spear or scimitar/shield combo). You can act as the group's caster, scout (all my druids take track - I'd recommend it for you, as well), healer, buffer... you have spells to fill all these roles. While you might not be able to sneak as well as the rogue in most cases, you can shapechange into a cat or a rat and pretty much escape notice.

Really, that's what the druid is - the "fifth character" in any group, the guy who backs up someone else when they're doing their thing. What this means in play is that the druid is ALWAYS doing something. About the only time you'll be sitting back is when the thief is trying to pick a lock or disable a trap.... beyond that, you can pretty much guarantee you'll be doing something.