[3.5] Staff Druid build help

[Math_Mage]

The basic plan is to make the (admittedly suboptimal) tradeoffs of Druid Avenger and Simple Druid to end up with Fax's Force of Nature Druid (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58604). Wield a quarterstaff, buff it, hit people in melee. Battlefield control is useful, but secondary. The game starts at level 3; I don't anticipate getting past level 6 or 8. Problem is, it's hard to get advice from the Druid handbooks, because most assume you don't make bad tradeoffs like these. For example, I can't dump STR like most Druids, since I'm not Wildshaping. My stats are 17, 16, 15, 13, 9, 8 (off of 5d6b3).

Any advice from the Playground? Would another class (say, Duskblade) fit this basic mechanical concept better than Druid?

[PId6]

Spikes (Brambles at low levels) + Shillelagh produces a pretty strong weapon.

Unfortunately, you can't Wild Shape into a Legendary Ape (which is awesome with staffs). But oh well.

Get the Whirling Frenzy ACF (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) in place of Rage if you can; that tends to be a lot stronger.

Diamond Mind Warblade or Swordsage can probably use staffs pretty well, and maybe Tiger Claw as well, but Druid does it well enough.

[Math_Mage]

Spikes (Brambles at low levels) + Shillelagh produces a pretty strong weapon.

Unfortunately, you can't Wild Shape into a Legendary Ape (which is awesome with staffs). But oh well.

Get the Whirling Frenzy ACF (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) in place of Rage if you can; that tends to be a lot stronger.

Diamond Mind Warblade or Swordsage can probably use staffs pretty well, and maybe Tiger Claw as well, but Druid does it well enough.

Huh, I had originally thought of taking the Pounce variant, as listed on Fax's page, but Whirling Frenzy definitely works out better at low levels. And is definitely legal, which is a plus.

Any particular feats I should be looking for? Power Attack? Arcane Strike? (Natural Spell? jk, jk.)

[Eldariel]

Huh, I had originally thought of taking the Pounce variant, as listed on Fax's page, but Whirling Frenzy definitely works out better at low levels. And is definitely legal, which is a plus.

Any particular feats I should be looking for? Power Attack? Arcane Strike? (Natural Spell? jk, jk.)

Power Attack is great; Arcane Strike on the other hand would require some Alternative Source Spell-level shenanigans though. You probably shouldn't spend too many feats on that. But Pounce is traded for Fast Movement and Whirling Frenzy for normal Rage so you can get both; I'd do just that. You can, of course, benefit of the normal two-hander fighter feats, but you qualify a bit slower due to medium BAB. It may be worthwhile to e.g. pick up Extend Spell for your buffs, and Improved Trip is never amiss.

Stats should of course cover Str, Con and Wis, and probably Dex too due to your Wis-bonus to AC. This prolly means 17 Wis, 16 Str, 15 Con, 13 Dex (or flip 'em around). Do note that your AC will be very Monkish early on since you lack a respectable source of Armor but...try and manage. You can hit hard, at least, and use magic to shore up your defenses. All level-ups should go to Wisdom, of course.

[PId6]

Huh, I had originally thought of taking the Pounce variant, as listed on Fax's page, but Whirling Frenzy definitely works out better at low levels. And is definitely legal, which is a plus.

Any particular feats I should be looking for? Power Attack? Arcane Strike? (Natural Spell? jk, jk.)
Whirling Frenzy trades Rage, while Pounce trades Fast Movement, so you can have both at the same time (and they work very well together). Whether class features chaining like that is legal or not is another question entirely (i.e. ask your DM).

Power Attack definitely; quarterstaff are two-handed weapons, after all. You can also go the charger route with Improved Bull Rush -> Shock Trooper -> Leap Attack if you want, but they can turn you into a one trick pony sometimes (and lead to unpleasant metagame problems).

Arcane Strike doesn't work with divine casters without shenanigans. Extra Rage can be nice depending on how low level you'll be playing (even better if you can retrain it away at higher levels). You can use it as double weapon and take TWF feats; this actually works decently thanks to Spikes (don't take Power Attack in that case).

There's not much you actually need to take; your spells provide most of what you'll need already. You can find a second aspect to focus on, like take Extend Spell/Sculpt Spell for casting, or Ashbound/Augment Summoning for summoning (though you'll have to actually prepare them).