Lizardfolk: Poison Dusk druid critique

[Dread Polack]

Lizardfolk: Poison Dusk, Druid 1
Small Humanoid (reptilian)

Str 10
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 16
Cha 12

Racial traits:

Poison use: can use poison without chance of poisoning self.
Chameleon Skin: +5 racial bonus to hide (in addition to +4 size bonus)
Natural Armor +3
Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d3) and bite (1d3)
Hold Breath: Can hold breath for Con x 4 rounds before risking drowning.
Low-Light Vision
Weapons: Can treat bolas and nets as martial weapons.
Level Adjustment: +1

Standard Druid features

Skills of Note:

Craft (Poison)- thinking of taking this one to take advantage of the racial ability. I've heard using poison can be prohibatively expensive, so making it myself might be helpful.

Heal- I'll probably be the party's healer

Hide- it's not a class skill, but I get +9 off the bat for my size and chameleon ability, so I'm gonna try to strike a deal with my dm to make it a class skill somehow.

Ride- I might take a mount as an animal companion. Any thoughts on that?

Survival- just makes sense. I might take a level in ranger or the track feat at some point. Think it's worth it?

Swim- it's going to be a partially aquatic campaign, and I get a +4 racial bonus, so I'll be maxing that out, I think.



So, how can I make this the most effective character possible? His small size and weapon selection makes him a crappy fighter, even with d8 hit dice. Even if I spend feats to maximize his damage output, it won't be very good, and I would probably be better off putting them into magical abilities.

Should I try to work with his natural attacks? How can I do that?

I thought of taking scribe scroll or brew potion (later, of course), so I can prepare his more useful spells (like magic fang for this guy) daily, and keep the emergency use type spells on paper. Does this sound reasonable?

Any advice would be awesome.

Dread Polack

 

[Neorealist]

I'm not sure which campaign setting you are using, but if you take a feat called 'greensinger initiate' from the 'eberron campaign setting' book, you end up with hide as a class skill. (you also get bluff and perform as class skills, and some unusual wiz/sorc/bard type enchantment spells added to your list of spells known.) greensingers are generally of the "nature loving musical type" people so maybe ask if there is a similar group on whatever campaign world you are in if its not eberron.

Improved natural attack would i beleive make all your natural attacks of a chosen type a size catagory higher, in your case a d4 for your base natural attacks.(so negligible really, the real bonus is the wildshapes you can apply it to.). the bite is probably not worth increasing, but INA(claw) would be useful throughout your druids life as he wildshapes from one clawed beastie to another.(needs a base attack bonus of 4 as a prereq though, so perhaps for 6th level if you don't end up with natural spell for some reason)

 

[Dread Polack]

Thanks for the input Neo. I'll look into the feat. Perhaps my DM will allow it or a variant of it.

I'm still considering INA eventually, but a simple die-step in damage doesn't seem worth it to me, since most high-damage attacks get most of their points from bonuses than dice. In my particular case, I'm thinking of taking Aspect Of Nature from UA, where you don't actually turn into animals, but gain various powers for periods of time. "Tooth and Claw" is one of the powers, where you get natural attacks- 1d4 for small creatures, like me- so spending a feat for 1 extra point of damage doesn't seem worth it. You're right, in the case of some huge, high-hd critter with 3d8 attacks, it's worth it.

Don't have UA handy, but I believe you can cast spells from most Aspects of Nature, so Natural spell is slightly less necessary. Maybe the elemental forms preclude spellcasting, but you don't get them until high levels, so I have plenty of time to take the feat.

Dread Polack