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Garian
2009-05-03, 04:41 PM
I am working on a halfilng druid build that rides his animal companion, I want to find a way to make my animal companion better. My idea is that I charge into battle on my mount him being the meat-shield/fighter me being a healer/support type.

Feats I was thinking about are mounted combat (PHB) and spontaneous healer (Complete divine). Not sure about anything else.

I really want to use a lance double damage sounds really nice. Because I am not proficient with it I think it unlikely.

All and any advise would be welcome, Thanks.

Jack_Simth
2009-05-03, 05:25 PM
I am working on a halfilng druid build that rides his animal companion, I want to find a way to make my animal companion better. My idea is that I charge into battle on my mount him being the meat-shield/fighter me being a healer/support type.

Feats I was thinking about are mounted combat (PHB) and spontaneous healer (Complete divine). Not sure about anything else.

I really want to use a lance double damage sounds really nice. Because I am not proficient with it I think it unlikely.

All and any advise would be welcome, Thanks.
Let's see...

You might take a look at the Natural Bond (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Natural_Bond,all) feat, which increases your effective Druid level for particular purposes up to your hit dice. Check with your DM - it may or may not mitigate the level-adjusted animal companions (so at 4th, you could have a Leopard with 4th level bonuses).

You will, of course, want Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, and Spirited Charge, possibly Mounted Archery as well.

Eldariel
2009-05-03, 05:45 PM
You should be buffing your animal companion aplenty and since you're riding it, share whatever buffs you can. Hell, you could Wildshape into some humanoid-shaped form and ride Wildshaped, benefitting of all the buffs. But for actual AC buffs, Natural Bond is really the only one (Beastmaster might be interesting as a 1-level dip, but it's a bit hefty price for what you get).

Jack_Simth
2009-05-03, 05:55 PM
You should be buffing your animal companion aplenty and since you're riding it, share whatever buffs you can. Hell, you could Wildshape into some humanoid-shaped form and ride Wildshaped, benefitting of all the buffs. But for actual AC buffs, Natural Bond is really the only one (Beastmaster might be interesting as a 1-level dip, but it's a bit hefty price for what you get).
Oh, right - Druids get spells, too. Let's see... just in Core, the buffs the Druid has available that go well with the animal companion (starting at low-level buffs):

1st:
Magic Fang
Longstrider
(and don't forget Speak with Animals!)
2nd:
Barkskin
The entire Animal Attribute line of spells
Resist Energy
Spider Climb
3rd:
Greater Magic Fang
Protection From Energy
4th:
Freedom of Movement
Air Walk
5th:
Animal Growth
Death Ward
Stoneskin

Godskook
2009-05-03, 06:31 PM
Arcane Hierophant?

For 3 lost levels of druid, you gain:

Arcane spells castable without spell failure in any armor a druid can wear.

All the bonuses of a familiar basically stacked onto your animal companion, and with natural bond, it uses your character level for its companion effects and your levels in both wiz and AH for familiar benefits.

Wildshape as a druid only 3 levels behind a single-classed druid.

With share spells and all the extra slots, buff city! Don't forget to become immune to sneak attacks and critical hits every day(Heart-line spells).


If you go that route, be sure to make your wizard side a focused specialist with an alternate class feature instead of a familiar(since you aren't using one anyway, why have it). A buffer would probably go transmuter, barring evocation, enchantment and abjuration, since, as I understand it, Abjuration's only usefulness can already be had as a druid.

Woodsman
2009-05-03, 06:45 PM
If you have Races of the Wild, taking a halfling druid substitution level at first level can help greatly.

Eldariel
2009-05-03, 06:51 PM
Arcane Hierophant?

For 3 lost levels of druid, you gain:

Arcane spells castable without spell failure in any armor a druid can wear.

All the bonuses of a familiar basically stacked onto your animal companion, and with natural bond, it uses your character level for its companion effects and your levels in both wiz and AH for familiar benefits.

Wildshape as a druid only 3 levels behind a single-classed druid.

With share spells and all the extra slots, buff city! Don't forget to become immune to sneak attacks and critical hits every day(Heart-line spells).


If you go that route, be sure to make your wizard side a focused specialist with an alternate class feature instead of a familiar(since you aren't using one anyway, why have it). A buffer would probably go transmuter, barring evocation, enchantment and abjuration, since, as I understand it, Abjuration's only usefulness can already be had as a druid.

Now, while it's a decent option, I think you're not bringing up the downside heavily enough: 3 levels is not "only". It's a ton. It's the difference between 1.5 spell levels and Crocodile and Brown Bear.

Also, if going this road, another interesting pursuit could be stacking Mount & Animal Companion. There's a feat for that in Complete Adventurer (Devoted Tracker), but it obviously requires a Mount in the first place. 5 levels of Paladin is way too much, but Prestige Paladin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigePaladin) offers it for relatively little effort. Add to that Theurgic Mount [Drg 339 IIRC] to stack your mount-levels with Druid and you'll have full mount & AC progression.

Of course, this is a bit dumb, uses a ton of obscure materials, still leaves you weaker than a straight Druid and so on, but if looking to dilute the progression, it's a fine alternative. Druid 20 is the best character of this kind you'll make save for Planar Shepherd nonsense though.

Bluebeard
2009-05-03, 07:00 PM
You probably aren't going to be Wild Shaping, so you might look at Unearthed Arcana's alternate class features.

One (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid) trades Armor proficiencies & Wild Shape for Monk Speed & AC and Ranger Favored Enemy & Tracking.
At worst, this would be worth taking until you start regularly using Wild Shape (then just swap back with PHB2's retraining).

There's also the Aspect of Nature (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#wildShapeVariantAspectOfN ature) variant, but it has an absurdly short duration -- especially when you start stacking its bonuses.

Godskook
2009-05-03, 07:18 PM
Now, while it's a decent option, I think you're not bringing up the downside heavily enough: 3 levels is not "only". It's a ton. It's the difference between 1.5 spell levels and Crocodile and Brown Bear.

I'll admit, I didn't clarify the lost spell levels well, but when you say croc and bear, are you referring to wildshape or animal companion? My suggestion has an Animal Companion based on the Character's HD, assuming he drops only 3 levels of druid total, due to the feat Natural Bond that someone suggested earlier and I re-mentioned in my post. There are other downsides too, like trading 13d8 HD for 10d6 + 3d4 HD, making this a squishier build than a pure druid would be.

Also, @OP, why spont healing? Everything I've heard/read suggests combat healing is a bad idea. As I understand it, Summon Nature's Ally for a heal-bot is both more efficient and saves you a feat.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-05-03, 11:13 PM
For pure Arcane Heirophant goodness, Bard 7(Animal Companion variant, Obtain Familiar feat)/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/AH 9. You get a 26th level AC, 16th level familiar(maybe 25 or 20, depending on rules interpretations). If your DM allows Precocious Apprentice to allow PrC entry, go Bard 6/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/AH 10 instead. Slightly better at all levels.

Godskook
2009-05-03, 11:47 PM
For pure Arcane Heirophant goodness, Bard 7(Animal Companion variant, Obtain Familiar feat)/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/AH 9. You get a 26th level AC, 16th level familiar(maybe 25 or 20, depending on rules interpretations). If your DM allows Precocious Apprentice to allow PrC entry, go Bard 6/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/AH 10 instead. Slightly better at all levels.

Why would anyone do that? The wording for AH prevents you from having a familiar, regardless, unless your DM is feeling very liberal, and the DM would probably rule that you can't have more than one Animal Companion as well.

You're also giving up 9th and 8th level spells, which doesn't make sense for a build that sounded like it was going fullcaster.

Why bard? Bard was suggested in the beastmaster thread because it allowed synergy for having both a familiar and an animal companion in only one base class. AH requires two base classes, and the best choice base class for it is druid anyway, so why go elsewhere?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-05-04, 12:19 AM
Why would anyone do that? The wording for AH prevents you from having a familiar, regardless, unless your DM is feeling very liberal, and the DM would probably rule that you can't have more than one Animal Companion as well.

You're also giving up 9th and 8th level spells, which doesn't make sense for a build that sounded like it was going fullcaster.

Why bard? Bard was suggested in the beastmaster thread because it allowed synergy for having both a familiar and an animal companion in only one base class. AH requires two base classes, and the best choice base class for it is druid anyway, so why go elsewhere?I hate the forums sometimes. If this comes off curt, I apologize. It's been eaten twice.

Bard was for the ability to keep full AC advancement through 20 levels. Though I did mess up, even without PrecApp shenanigans, it's enterable with Bard 4. So the final level array would be: Bard 4/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/AH 10/Bard 2.

16/20/25 for the familiar was depending on different interpretations of the rules for AH with Obtain Familiar. And I realize you can't go with a real familiar, but your AC benefits are based on your Familiar's level.

The purpose of this is to make a character who may himself be useless, but whose pet is on the same lines as a well-built tier 4 class. Not going Supermount, but good enough that introductions probably go 'I'm Snuggles, and this is the man who feeds me'.