Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Druid Questions

[TremorFang]

Hello all, I am currently playing a pathfinder game and my DM likes my current character enough that he wants to take him over/ direct him, around 4th level (currently half way through 3rd lv now) and use him as one of the main evil mages henchmen. He told me that I can prepare another character set at 4th level to take over with once the other leaves the party.

I already have a general concept and I know for a fact that I want to play a Druid with the pack lord archetype, heavily focusing on my animal companions. However I do have some general Druid questions that thus far I haven't been able to find clear answers to.

So here they are.

(1) - It says that Druids gain bonus spells if they have high Wisdom, my next character will have 18 (Well 16 + 2 from the human racial bonus on it). I haven't been able to find out how many if any bonus spells I get and of what level those bonus spells are at. So basically how many bonus druid spells would a character with 16-18 Wisdom get?

(2) - I read a little about Orisons and that they let you use 0 lv druid spells more than once. How many Orisons can you prepare and how many times may you use an Orison?

(3) - For animal companions it says that they get ranks in skills. How many skills may you add ranks to per companion? Also how many ranks do you get to spend for skills?

(4) - Since I am playing a pack lord, I am obviously going to have multiple animal companions. I've already chose an Ape as my main beater, but I am looking for a second and possibly a third. This question is more of on your opinion. I think having a constrictor snake hanging out of a bag of holding would be awesome, but I also think that having a hawk would be great for scouting since I can look through their eyes. Also thought about a viper just because when they hit lv 4 they just become medium maintaining their stealth capabilities somewhat and therefore also good for scouting ahead for me. So what second (and maybe third) companion would you suggest?

(Note: I am going to pick the ape at level 1, the second animal at 2, level the second animal until lv 4 and then use Boon Companion bringing the ape to lv4 for me.)

(5) - Are there any must have feats for the type of druid I am going to be playing?

(Note: He will be a 7 - 9 year old human. Just my story / flavor for a fun character. If you want more background info just ask. The animals act as his friends / protectors / family.)

(6) - Are there any suggested feats for my animal companions to take?

(7) - What spells would you choose to stand up to a min/ maxer that likes to push others in the party about? He is, from what I can tell either a fighter or a rogue. Using feint and massive damage each swing.

Any help, with any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TremorFang]

Finally found an answer to #3 so I is 1 skill point per companion level. Meaning an animal at lv 4 gets a total of 4 points to put in the animals skills. So, like, 2 points in survival and 2 points in climb.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

1. Scroll down about 3/4 on this page (Abilities and Spellcasters): Getting Started

I know just off-hand that a 16 means one bonus spell of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level, though. And an 18 means you also get a bonus 4th level spell per day.

2. The number of 0 level spell slots on the Druid table is how many different orisons you can prepare each day. You can cast each one that you have prepared infinitely many times, but you can only cast the ones you have prepared.

3. Unless your animal gets insanely high int, it will have 1 skill point per HD, since animals get 2 + int modifier points each HD minimum 1, and tend to have 1-2 for int score... Ranks all cost 1 point and you can't have more ranks in a skill than the animal's HD (the table tells you how many HD it has at each druid level), just as it is for player characters. Until an animal hits int 3, it can only take certain skills iirc, though. Even after int 3, it only counts the "animal skills" as class skills for the +3 bonus.

4. What books are available? Even just using Bestiary 1, Roc is pretty sweet once you hit Druid 7, IMO. Ultimate Magic (UM) introduced vermin companions. They're mindless and don't get skills or feats, but have some nice racial features. Giant Praying Mantis is my favorite. Dinosaurs are also great. T-Rex can be a very nasty Vital Strike-r.

5. Natural Spell is always a must have feat for all druids. UM has Wild Speech to talk in wildshape, it's not required but you might want it. Do you plan to summon even MORE animal friends often? If so, go for Augment Summoning.

6. Depends on the companion. Flyby Attack on anything with a fly speed and better than 5 ft reach is always great. Improved Natural Attack and the Vital Strike line for anything with one big attack is hot, as is Power Attack. Try to get any animals you have to int 3 (use their 4th HD ability score increase) so they can take whatever feat they want.

7. A fighter and/or rogue using feint? Double check the rules for what he's doing to make sure he doesn't cheat, and other than that...laugh at him? Seriously, that's like one of the weakest builds you could possibly make!

 

[TremorFang]

Wow, thanks for all of the info.

Pretty sure the DM wants to stick to the original 2 books. He is also very huge on story. So I have to have a good reason as to how and where I acquired this companion. For the ape I told him, that my character's adopted elf druid mother brought him along to a jungle like area to pick up a special herb. My character got lost wandering around, a wild tiger attacked and this ape jumped down and protected me as if I were its family. The tiger ran off and then the adopted mother came back. The ape was very insistent in following her new "baby" and the mother was alright with that because as a druid she knew how great this was for me.

I might be able to manage a Roc somehow if he allows the Bestiary, but story wise the giant praying mantis will be hard to make sense of and dinosaurs do not exist in this realm / campaign.

I wouldn't mind laughing at him if he weren't somehow dealing 20 something damage each swing. That would kill me pretty fast lol.

Follow up question(s)

For #1 does the +2 racial bonus for humans, being put into my wisdom give me essentially an 18 when determining skills, bonus spells and the spells DC?

And for #2 so I just have to inform my DM when preparing my spells for each day that I am preparing the 0 level spells as Orisons then?

Thanks again for all of the info.

 

[TremorFang]

Well, good news for me. The DM allowed the use of the Roc or vermin ( I am really looking at the swarms).

The Roc has amazing stats, but it will be quite a while before it will hit lv. 7.

While swarms are immune to weapons as well as mind affecting magic, but as you stated before do not get feats or skills.

If I went with swarm would the Improved Empathic Link even help with them being so small and jittery?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I'd need to know his build/weapon to tell you what's up. If he's two-handing with power attack and some sneak attack, he could easily be doing 20+ damage on a hit, sure. He also can't full attack with feinting, nor will feinting always work, though.

Follow up question(s)

For #1 does the +2 racial bonus for humans, being put into my wisdom give me essentially an 18 when determining skills, bonus spells and the spells DC?

And for #2 so I just have to inform my DM when preparing my spells for each day that I am preparing the 0 level spells as Orisons then?

Thanks again for all of the info.

1. Yes. You choose one score to get a +2. It is +2 higher. So you would have an 18 wisdom. Not "a 16 wisdom with a +2 effective bonus" or whatever. An 18 wisdom.

2. You can inform him...but it's already implied with how orisons work, so it'd just be redundant. You pick 4 from the druid list. Say you chose... Create Water, Detect Magic, Guidance, and Stabilize. You prepare those in your 4 orison slots. You can then cast them as much as you want. You would need to wait till the next day and prepare Light if you wanted it, though, in place of one of those 4 orisons.

Well, good news for me. The DM allowed the use of the Roc or vermin ( I am really looking at the swarms).

The Roc has amazing stats, but it will be quite a while before it will hit lv. 7.

While swarms are immune to weapons as well as mind affecting magic, but as you stated before do not get feats or skills.

If I went with swarm would the Improved Empathic Link even help with them being so small and jittery?

...You actually NEED Ultimate Magic to use vermin companions. Like, they have all sorts of their own special rules for use as such, and "companion statblocks." You can't just use the stats in the bestiaries (ever notice how your ape companion isn't the same as an ape from the bestiary?). And you can't have a swarm as a companion. I have no idea why you thought having vermin companions would suddenly allow for that; there's rat and bat swarms in the bestiary but having animal companions doesn't give you acces to those.

 

[TremorFang]

Interesting. That seems to clear everything up.

As far as swarms go, I was kind of hoping to go the route of the bug guy from Naruto lol, can't remember his name. I can see where they'd be too powerful though. The confusion came where it just said vermin and the swarms were under the vermin listing. (Been using the Pathfinder OGC). I assume it intends only the creatures with 0 Int. I don't have a problem not using vermin however, after all, flavor wise just handling one bug isn't all that fun. : /

The Roc it is. A bird the size of a man, that grows to a large bird that I can ride? Yes please.

You've been so helpful. Thanks again.

 

[Particle_Man]

The Roc it is. A bird the size of a man, that grows to a large bird that I can ride? Yes please.

Did Rocs get smaller in Pathfinder? I thought these things were Gargantuan and could carry away elephants as snacks.

Oh, and when you get high level you can simply cast creeping doom or insect plague as spells, for swarmy goodness.

 

[TremorFang]

Did Rocs get smaller in Pathfinder? I thought these things were Gargantuan and could carry away elephants as snacks.

For animal companions it says that they start out as Medium size and come their 7th level they become large. More than likely trying to balance the animal out.

Definitely going to use Summon Swarm from the druid spell list, throwing bats at people sounds fun.

 

[Dingo333]

Just going to point this out to you, since no one else has

Eye for Talent: Humans have great intuition for hidden potential. They gain a +2 bonus on Sense Motive checks. In addition, when they acquire an animal companion, bonded mount, cohort, or familiar, that creature gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of the character’s choice. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat racial trait

Yes, you lose a feat, but in my book, with say, 3 companions, this is slightly better

Also, my top picks for a companion are Roc, Deinonychus(the velociraptor), Constrictor Snake and Arsinoitherium (megafauna rino). The ape is not bad (especially if you teach it to wear armor and use a greatsword) but far from the best.

If you can, try to get the Deinonychus as what saved you (more likely then the ape in terms of beating a tiger)