Tell me about your low level druid!

Henry said:
My favorite is a halfling or gnomish Druid.

Why?

1: Better AC or hit points.

2: Ability to negate strength penalty at 5th level and up with wildshaping.

3: Gnomes can speak with burrowing creatures inherently - a massive boon to druids, and freeing a spell slot in some cases.

4: inherent saving throw bonuses or magical abilities which enhance the already formidable saves of a druid.

5: spell power, and animal companions, more than make up for any lack of physical prowess from these characters.

My two favorite low-level druids were a Halfling Druid with a giant mastiff riding companion, and my half-elven druid/rogue who used his nature powers for personal gain. Whatever you choose, good luck!

I agree with Henry regarding halfling druids...apart from elves/half-elves they make the next logical choice in my opinion.

I recently played a halfling rogue turned druid and it's one of my favorite characters! The rogue weapon proficiencies allow the use of a shortbow which druids do not get (if I remember correctly).

As for animal companions, they do not need to be used strictly for combat...if one has a hawk for instance, they would serve nicely as an overhead 'scout' that can warn of upcoming danger, etc.

LW
 

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In our campaign that just wrapped up we had two druids -- one under 3.0 rules, one under 3.5. They're great all-round characters under both rules sets, but the 3.5 revisions to a number of spells adds a lot of flexibility (like the ability to use call lightning while indoors, for example).

Some observations:

- The anti-social woodsy druid can be a bit of an RP problem for groups that spend a lot of time in town.

- It helps if the DM will occasionally set up situations wihere the druid's woodland or animal handling skills get showcased -- if all you ever encounter is undead and aberrations, the druid player can get a little bored.

- Natural Spell is the must-have sixth level feat if you use wild shape at all -- and wild shape gives the druid tremendous flexibility both for combat anf for infiltration/scouting.

- Animal companions are really useful, especially at higher levels with bears and the like, provided you have the judgment when to use them in combat and when not to. As a DM, I found them to be a bit of a pain, but that's partly because we had three animal companions and a familiar in a six-person party. Doing it again, I'd probably be a bit more strict with my interpretation of what "tricks" the animal companion could perform.

- Elven druids get a nice synergy from their weapon selection (since 3.5 druids don't lose their abilities with lonswords and bows).

- The druid has much better combat spells than the cleric -- between shillelagh, flame blade, produce flame, call lightning, and flame strike (a 4th level druid spell) there's a damage spell for a variety of situations at low levels. You don't have the healing flexibility (though spontaneous summons are nice), but then that isn't really expected of you. Entangle and buff spells are useful as well, plus the druid's spell variety can make them good item crafters if you decide to go that route.

Overall, a great class. They don't overshadow any other character in a traditional niche, but they can perform pretty well in all of them.
 

I've played a mid-level Druid (level 10+) and DM'd two low-level Druids (levels 3 thru 9).

Are you playing Core 3.5e? I'll just assume you are and go from there.

Why play a Druid? It's a good concept, great class w/ great spell list (in 3.5e), and it's a very flexible class. You have several good stereotypes to either stoically rely upon or shockingly flaunt.

You shouldn't bother much with Str, since you're only two levels away from Wildshape. Dex is much more important, for use with Flame Blade and Produce Flame. And Con is much more important, both because it's not a strength for Elves and because you'll need HP to do any fighting at all.

The mental stats are obvious: you need a high Wisdom, and Int and Cha depend on what sort of personality your Druid will have. Druids have a decent skill list, though, and an Int of 13+ will allow you to take Combat Expertise later on -- quite useful, as animal forms have abysmal ACs. Also, your Large shapes are great for use with Improved Grapple.

If you're going to be a summoner, you'll want Spell Focus (Conjuration) and Augment Summoning. Druids make good summoners.

For an Animal Companion, either take something big enough to ride, or something small enough to not give you trouble in a dungeon. I had great fun with a Panther (named Negrathan), and I've seen a Snake (Medium Viper named Gange) used to good effect. On the other hand, one guy had a Large Ape that usually sat in the inn stables, because it's too big to get most places -- and far too big to sneak into social events.

(Consider playing a Halfling or Gnome and taking a Riding Dog as your companion. You'll soon be able to shift into larger forms, and your Str is less important than your Con. Also, you get an extra +1 to hit with your Produce Flame attacks.)

-- N
 

Wildshape is a very very good tool for a druid to use.
As are the animals he can summon (and with the Feat that gives them more strength and constitution it's even better).

I find druids become much more important at mid-levels but if they're the only healing a party can get they don't get the "treatment" they deserve.

As long as we are talking about druids.

Can a druid wildshape into a dire animal or is it only available to "normal" animals?
 

Druids seem to be popular in our group.

I played one in our Forgotten Realms campaign - a human druid with Str 7, but very wise and smart. He wasn't very combat-effective (even in dire bear form he usually took as much damage as he dished out that he had to take a break from combat and recover after a short time - the low AC of most animal forms is a big problem in combat), but his mixture of cool abilities made him one of the most fun characters I've ever had the pleasure to role-play. And I played him all the way from 1st to 17th level, when the campaign ended - no other character in the same campaign had lasted this long.

When we started our
Urbis playtest campaign last fall, one of the players choose a halfling character, and he seemed to have fun playing him - though right now I'm taking a break with the campaign so I can actually get around to updating my website with my new ideas...

And now another member of our gaming group has started a Dragonlance campaign, and one of the players plays a druid - even though we are starting the campaign before the War of the Lance begins, and the character thus doesn't have any supernatural powers yet...

All in all, druids are an interesting class. Compare that to the other major divine spellcasters, clerics - they only have new spells to look forward to when advancing in level...
 

I've been playing a half-orc druid for the last couple of years in a PbEM.

She was originally intended to be a ditzy blonde Valley Girl personality... but when I looked at the party she was going to be joining (I joined a few months into the game), I realised that introducing more chaos into that mix was a recipe for disaster, so turned her around completely into a no-nonsense practical type.

Rather than being a forest-based druid, I went with a marine/nautical theme; she got her druidical training when she spent a few years associating with a Greenpeace-style organisation that went around protesting gunpowder research and picketing cannon-armed warships.

Her only animal companion so far is Bobo the chimpanzee, rescued from a menagerie at some point in her backstory. Bobo understands Common and spent quite a few 'trick' slots on learning sign language (the DM pegged a chimp's Int score at higher than 2, so he had some slots to burn). Bobo's obviously no combat monster, but he's been lots of fun in a PbEM format.

I should probably do something about finding a high-powered combat companion, though... she's just hit 6th level and has a 3E Ring of Animal Friendship, so that's a total of 18HD of companion she's eligible for...

As a nautical druid, she's been going slightly batty in a campaign centred on a city in the middle of a desert, but she's surviving :) (I'm not sure if it helps her get by or not, but she's developed something of a crush on the captain of the city watch... who isn't a half-orc.)

-Hyp.
 

another good combo is the archer druid, keep your friendly bear companion nearby, to discourage people from closing into melee with you. I love the animal companion aspect. Bears make GREAT companions, that improved grab is really devastating to casters.
 

Last night saw the end of the campaign I've been playing for nearly three years, and the retirement of Goroshko Plakhov, my 13th-level dwarven druid.

From a purely powergaming perspective, gnomes are the best, IMO: their stat-bonus (con) essentially remains intact when they wildshape (since wildshaping doesn't change your HP), whereas their stat-penalty(str) goes away when they wildshape. They gain the +1 to hit with ranged spells, very nice for druids. And the speak with burrowing animals is fun.

Animal ACs are low, but this is fixed reasonably easily: ASAP, purchase a wand of mage armor for your party wizard or sorcerer and have them zot your companion with a shot from it before each day's adventure. Once you begin wildshaping, get zotted with it yourself. That +4 to AC is invaluable. Combine it with a barkskin, and your companion can have a perfectly respectable armor class.

Is there a monk in the party? With barkskin and (especially) greater magic fang, you'll be the monk's bestest friend in the whole world.

If you come across a stash of cash, you could do a lot worse than buying a bunch of obscure druidic scrolls. That lesser restoration, that remove disease, that entangle are all extremely useful spells when they come up, but they hardly ever come up. Get them on scrolls and never prepare them again, freeing up spell slots for stuff you can use.

Spells you should always have prepared if you can:
1st level: Faerie Fire (unless you get it on a scroll, which is a good idea), Produce Flame (a fantastic attack spell, even if difficult to adjudicate), Longstrider (movement is always crucial)
2nd level: Barkskin, Flaming Sphere (at low levels -- at higher levels it's pointless), Summon Swarm (a magekiller of a spell -- but make sure you know the swarm rules perfectly!)
3rd level: Greater Magic Fang
4th level: Flamestrike

That'll take you through the first few levels.

Have fun -- it's a fantastic class!
Daniel
 

Pielorinho said:
From a purely powergaming perspective, gnomes are the best, IMO: their stat-bonus (con) essentially remains intact when they wildshape (since wildshaping doesn't change your HP)...

Uh-oh.

This thread's projected length just jumped :)

-Hyp.
 

Unless you're human, you have two feats to choose (as well as the nearly mandatory natural spell at 6th level) to last you until 9th level. I suggest the following feat combo:

Power Attack and Aleave (Melee Druids)
Conjuration Focus and Augment Summoning (Summoning Druids)
Combat Reflexes and Dodge (Another Tactic for Melee Druids).
Point Blank and Precise Shot (For Archery Druids and Spellcasting druids)

For races, any race will be fine. You'll probably spend a lot of time in wildshape at medium levels (and shapechanged at very high levels), so your race does little for you. Humans make a good choice because their main advantage, extra feats and skills, are often left in place by DMs, even after a change in form.

Spells to use:

Produce fire is very useful at around level 4 and 5.
Entangle is useful in certain campaigns.
Soften Earth is a good spell if you play near large areas of water.

For animal companions, I'd go with Wolves, Dire Bats and then Brown Bears if you want a powerful ally.

Good wildshape forms at levels 5 to 7 are wolverines, medium constrictors and dire weasels.

Remember that you can share spells with your animal companion if you stay within 5' of each other. This makes it hard to charge into combat together ... unless you ride in on your animal companion. Halfling and gnome druids can get a lot of bang out of a riding dog animal companion at levels 1 to 4.

Pay attention to the 'tricks' rules under the druid description and the handle animal skill. Using these commands is a lot of fun. It also prevents the animal companions from becoming a second character. 'Relearning' tricks is another 'hidden' cost from losing an animal companion.
 

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