Shifter Druid Racial Substitution Levels - worth it?

[Klaus]

Title pretty much says it all.

 

[shilsen]

I haven't used all the substitution levels, but I did allow the druid in my game to take the beast spirit feature instead of an animal companion. It's worked out quite well so far (she's at 5th lvl now), and I expect it to be so in the future.

Looking at the different benefits for the three levels and what's traded out, I think it's a well-balanced choice. Neither too strong or too weak.

 

[Klaus]

What I like about them (in theory) is that it allows for less book-keeping/stat rearranging, which is a BIG bonus in this case, as the player is sort-of-a-newbie. She's played before, for a while, but she doesn't have much patience for tons of recalculations. With these levels, the druid gets only two modes (normal and shifting) and there isn't an extra character to track (the companion).

Thanks for your input, shilsen!

 

[nameless]

I think it is definitely worth it. Instead of trading between the equipment/AC of a normal form and the attacks of an animal form, you just get beaucoup combat ability in normal form. And it's a free action to be combat-ready, to boot. Plus there is less bookkeeping and figuring out the most broken entries in the monster manuals.

And while the animal companion can be nice, it's also a liability to have a dumb, weak animal following you around, especially in a city. The beast spirit gives you a little bit of personal power and survivability to make up for the animal companion, and basically turns your spontaneous summons into animal companion-quality buddies.

Couple that with the moonspeaker PrC in the same book and you have a really cool druid on your hands.

 

[blargney the second]

I only took the Beast Spirit substitution level. It's pretty fun! Reckless Nature and Wild Shifting simply didn't interest me. -2 to Will saves is not my idea of fun, and I've never had a chance to try out wild shape. I'm particularly glad I kept the wild shape.

-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

Couple that with the moonspeaker PrC in the same book and you have a really cool druid on your hands.

Yah! I just wish the Beast Spirit improved with Moonspeaker.

 

[shilsen]

What I like about them (in theory) is that it allows for less book-keeping/stat rearranging, which is a BIG bonus in this case, as the player is sort-of-a-newbie. She's played before, for a while, but she doesn't have much patience for tons of recalculations. With these levels, the druid gets only two modes (normal and shifting) and there isn't an extra character to track (the companion).

That I can definitely vouch for, since it's the same reason that I suggested it for the player. She's new to 3e, plus we're playing a city-based game, so I figured an animal companion would be more trouble than it's worth. There is the floating ability bonus to choose daily, but I'd suggest picking one stat and applying it there consistently unless the player chooses to change it in a given situation.

Thanks for your input, shilsen!

You're welcome.

 

[Hypersmurf]

She's new to 3e, plus we're playing a city-based game, so I figured an animal companion would be more trouble than it's worth.

I'm playing a city-based druid at the moment - we pegged 'cat swarm' as a Level - 3 companion.

They're fairly vulnerable to area attacks, especially at the level we're playing at (14th)... but at 5th, there's not so much area damage flying around

And nothing says 'urban druid' like three hundred cats!

-Hyp.

 

[Sarellion]

Wouldn´t a dog or something similar work for an urban druid?

 

[shilsen]

I'm playing a city-based druid at the moment - we pegged 'cat swarm' as a Level - 3 companion.

They're fairly vulnerable to area attacks, especially at the level we're playing at (14th)... but at 5th, there's not so much area damage flying around

And nothing says 'urban druid' like three hundred cats!

-Hyp.

You're playing the crazy cat lady?

Wouldn´t a dog or something similar work for an urban druid?

Yes, but the player and I decided we'd rather not have to deal with an animal companion. Plus, this being the city of Sharn in the Eberron setting, there's a whole lot of different modes of travelling and movement required where anything short of a flying animal companion could be a liability.