Surviving (and being useful) until Wildshape?

[Vargo]

So I'm running this Druid over in the Living ENWorld game. As you'll note, he's VERY lacking in the physical department, and makes up for it in smarts. I've seen the occasional "high level player cripples physical stats, then spends entire life wildshaped into something with serious bonuses," but I figured that if I earned it from the beginning, it might not be too horribly munchy. You'll also note my feat selection isn't exactly optimal, shoulda dropped combat casting and replaced it with something useful.

I don't want to be "the gimp", and I do have some useful abilities - an insane (for my level) tracking ability, good spot+listen checks, a decent amount of diplomacy, plus DC15 entangle. L3 is spell focus: Conjuration, L6 feat will be natural spell, L9 is Enhanced Summoning if I get that far.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to help a character like this survive five levels until Natural Spell?

 

[Thanee]

Entangle, Produce Flame and Summon Nature's Ally.

Enhanced Summoning = Augment Summoning?
Yeah, you should have dropped Combat Casting to get this at lvl 3.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

The druid in our (other) PnP game has the Exalted Companion feat from BoED. That's really nifty at the low levels, as the DR is insanely good then. His celestial wolf is a killer.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Druids have so many abilities they are hard to gimp. Np physical stats? Stay out of melee, focus on spellcasting, summon allies to fight for you, and have your animal companion defend you. Use attack spells, or buff you companions and animals who are fighting for you.

Edit: and frankly, with your WIS, focusing on casting is obvious, and since your Con is poor, Combat Casting isn't such a bad feat choice (though I think Skill Focus: Concentration is a better equivalent choice, personally).

 

[Simplicity]

You're kidding, right?

Druids in 3.5 are powerhouses. They're insane. With augment summoning, they're virtually unstoppable. My druid character was out damaging the fighters without much difficulty.
I mostly focused on summoning flanking wolves and using their trip attacks like crazy. My companion was a wolf, who was also nice and trippy.

When the spells got low, shillelagh time. Though, since your character is lower combat stats, perhaps just summoning another wolf is the way to go.

 

[Simplicity]

Oh yeah, produce flame. I forgot about that. That's the spell you DEFINITELY want. For when the summons just aren't cutting it.

 

[Vargo]

You're kidding, right?

Nope. I'm just not familiar with the druid - this is my first time playing one.

 

[Henry]

Hide. Behind. The Wolves. And don't come out!

Seriously, summoned allies & battlefield control are your strong points. If you need to mix it up, look for spells with ranged touch attacks. Under no circumstances get within 30 feet of your enemies.