Why WOULDN'T a druid take Natural Spell??

[Thanee]

You are also going to want to cast spells - such as Greater Magic Fang - at the same time. Does any one feat make up for the difference between having Greater Magical Fangs and not? How many feats do you know of that give you +2 attack and damage and allow you to penetrate DR?

Just to note, GMF only applies to a single natural attack (I'm not sure if this would be both claws, or just one, tho, but I think it would be only one, because of the spells other application).

Still, there is no question, that this spell is extremely potent. And it can only be cast on a natural weapon, thus after wildshaping.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Technik4]

An Example

1> You are not in fact a Druid at that point.

You are though. My build is half-orc Brb2/DrdX. I exchange 1 level of spellcasting (and 2 of wildshape advancement) for +10 movement, uncanny dodge (dex), and rage in all forms. In 3.5 I think I also score some trap sense. I cast spells in humanoid form, once someone "brings it" I switch to animal form and rough them up, midway through battle I can wildshape back into half-orc form and heal up or provide utility spells. I am a very druidic druid in every sense, I just happen to get very angry in wildshape forms.

2> You still want Natural Spell because it will allow you to cast pre-combat buffs on yourself to prepare yourself to rage in Wildshape.

Wildshaping is mostly advantageous to my build, all my physical stats go up and I have more hp. Those 2 barb levels also increase my BAB to more than a druid, as well as my hp. My skills and saves aren't noticably lacking from a regular druid. If I'm casting precombat buffs, I havent wildshaped yet. I would like (and would take over Natural Spell) a feat which let me Wildshape as a free action.

Even on soething as simplistic as a Barbarian/Druid combat monster - the Wildspell feat is so much better than any other two feats you could take that it is absurd.

Maybe for you. I've taken Power Attack, Cleave, Iron Will, Extra Rage, and Spell Penetration as my feats (Brb2/Drd10). I plan on eventually getting G.S.P. and possibly some druid or barb specialty feats, but natural spell doesnt appeal to me. If I got it naturally, I wouldnt mind, but its not something I think the class needs to give (personally).

Technik

 

[Dinkeldog]

Technik, for you, I'd say Iron Will should be Natural Spell. Unless you're facing a lot of SR opponents, you could instead swap out Spell Penetration.

 

[Leopold]

maybe most people don't DO wildshape allot?

 

[Tar-Edhel]

Not really, depends on how often the DM has one face posion. And as Fort is a Druids good save, it really doesn't protect against much since Druids should make more then they fail.

It's been said before but worth repeating...

Try to convince your DM to let you use the Craft Poison skill from BOVD. A 9th levell druid with fangs and claws coated in poison can be quite effective

 

[Spatzimaus]

This is especially true, since the feat is exclusive for druids. Ok, there are other feats like this (i.e. Spell Mastery), but they are quite rare.

Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization for Fighters. Extra Turning for Clerics and Paladins.
The splatbooks add more, like Extra Rage and such.

Many of these are now considered "essential" for the class in question; I've heard people ask why a Fighter WOULDN'T take Weapon Specialization as soon as possible. So, should every fighter get Weapon Specialization for free? Practically every Cleric I see takes Extra Turning, too.

It's a Feat that overcomes a limitation of the class. It may be considered an "essential" Feat by a lot of people, but the class can operate without it. If this were 3E I'd say sure, give it as a bonus Feat, since Druids are weak. Now, in 3.5E, they're a heck of a lot stronger, so I'd say a free Feat would be too much without penalizing in some other way. Maybe knock Fortitude down to a bad save.... after all, you're immune to poisons, so it's not TOO painful.

 

[Gizzard]

...I still think that creating a feat that every build of a certain single character class takes, and only that single character class is something that requires serious reconsideration.

I agree with this thought.

As a game-design exercise we might think about different nerfs to apply to Natural Spell and then ask "Would everyone still take Natural Spell?" For instance, what if you could only cast a spell every other round while WildShaped? Is Natural Spell still an automatic choice in that case? I suspect it still is! What if spells all become Full Round actions? Hmm, thats getting tougher, but I suspect you still take the feat anyway - because it's still better than the other options.

Agreed?

And if so, this leads back to the original question - the reason why all Druids take this feat is because it would be good at half the power, but as written its flat-out [/I]incredible.

 

[FrankTrollman]

I've heard people ask why a Fighter WOULDN'T take Weapon Specialization as soon as possible. So, should every fighter get Weapon Specialization for free?

Yes.

The fighter only gets a handful of bonus feats in his entire life out to 20th level - and there are literally thousands of feats to choose from. Getting the ability to flush some of them on the Weapon Focus chain is not an ability at all.
Of course they should get all those feats for free.

-Frank

 

[Crothian]

Actually, a feat that every character of a class takes should not be added to the class as an ability. More likely if a feat is taken all the time, then that feat is too good.

 

[Garboshnik]

I wouldn't put weapon spec or greater focus/spec in the same category as natural spell. While most fighters do take them that is because they usually have far more feat slots then feats they feel they want. I personally do not feel that any of those feats are as useful as power attack or some of the fighter feat chains.

IMC natural spell applies to one loosely defined type of creature (birds, bears, snakes, etc.) While the druid in the group complained about the change he didn't wipe the feat off of his character sheet.