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Rasman
2010-09-04, 05:07 PM
so, I've been playing in a Pathfinder, the setting is Greyhawk though, campaign that has mostly been Solo due to "New DM wants to get a feel for DMing before he lets other people in" and scheduling issues. I decided on druid and we started at level 1. The sheer number of things I've encountered and killed threw me all the way to level 4 in a couple of sessions. Stats look something like Str 20, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 18 and Cha 13. My intent is for this to be a melee druid (I know my Str doesn't translate over into my Wildshape forms, but considering the nature of this campaign, I would have died a long time ago if I didn't have the high strength) since we'll be adding a Cleric and Ranger soon.

At the moment my plan is Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10/Druid 5 since this is a High Optimization setting, but I'm conflicted as to what to do feat wise other than Greensinger Initiate at level 1. Since we're adding new players, i was told I could adjust my other feats from "OMG Soloing Gelatinous Cube and 7 Goblin Chodes" to "I don't have to be Superman, just Super Awesome" and yes...those ARE direct quotes. Also, Planar Shepherd is limited as to what planes I can take, i.e. I'm not taking the plane that gives me 10 turns for every 1 my enemy can take. I'm considering Fire just because walking though an army of choad goblins with a Planar Bubble that deals something like 3d10 Fire damage a round is almost too good to pass up, although some of the other planes might not be as broken, but just as effective.

My first inclination is Combat Expertise into Improved Trip and Greater Trip down the road, but with Druids being Summoning Gods, Spell Focus Conjuration and Augment Summoning seem the staple starters along with Extend Spell for double duration of Summons.

I guess the question is should I be a slugger that can cast or a slugger that has options for what he can do when duking it out with a Banshee Queen or something like that...

This is also expected to be an eventual epic level campaign focused around the time after the sacking of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

All books are allowed, including the recently released Advanced Players Guide, so long as I can provide the actual book, a PDF or print off of the feat.

Greenish
2010-09-04, 05:27 PM
Are you a PF druid or a 3.5 druid? For the former, unless I'm mistaken, strength gets carried over (and wildshape is much weaker).

Rasman
2010-09-04, 05:35 PM
Are you a PF druid or a 3.5 druid? For the former, unless I'm mistaken, strength gets carried over (and wildshape is much weaker).

I'm a Pathfinder Druid and yeah, Druid is pretty much the only class that got nerfed in PF

Glimbur
2010-09-04, 05:54 PM
I would worry about friendly fire and fire resistance if I took the Plane of Fire as my plane to shepherd.

What planes are you allowed to choose from? If you can make up your own...

-Gravity is interesting if you choose a weird one. Null gravity means that everyone has to be able to fly or else can't cope with you. Objective Directional Gravity could be amusing to push people above you, then you walk away and they fall. You still need to be able to fly to pull this. Subjective Directional Gravity is stellar if you can cheat the wis check (and your party can too) so you can use it with ease while your foes struggle. Falling is a free action, so now your fighter can move and full attack with some limits, for example.

-You don't want to play with Time. Fair enough.

-Morphic is weird and not very specific. The most powerful choice here is Sentient, provided it is friendly to you. That's probably too much cheese for you, though.

-Elemental traits are also strange. Would you have a bubble of earth or fire or water around you? If so, this lets you mess with line of effect and, as you mentioned, have an AoE.

-Major positive dominant is hilarious if you can get it to work and your foes don't recognize it. You just get them in the radius, rely on them to hit you enough to keep from popping, and wait until they pop. The fort DC is quite low though, so it's more funny than practical. Negative (minor or major) is brutal and you will know to prebuff with deathward.

-Alignments are not terribly useful. I guess you could go Strongly Neutral, but whatevs.

-Magic is interesting. You could Impede spells you don't want to face, Enhance spells you use often, or even Limit so that, for example, only Evocation works. Limit is kind of limited (haha) in that you can't limit to only Druid spells, so this category is a double edged sword.

In conclusion, if you can make your own plane make it Subjective Directional Gravity, Morphic (sentient and friendly), non-elemental, strongly negative (take precautions), and Maximize all Summon Nature's Ally spells. That last might backfire, but it will backfire in armies of bears so that's ok.

Greenish
2010-09-04, 05:57 PM
I'm a Pathfinder Druid and yeah, Druid is pretty much the only class that got nerfed in PFWell, they were asking for it. Besides, barbarians and bards got the short end of the stick, too.

I'm not sure how PF wildshape and Planar Shepherd (which is ridiculously overpowered) would interact.

Rasman
2010-09-04, 06:46 PM
I would worry about friendly fire and fire resistance if I took the Plane of Fire as my plane to shepherd.

What planes are you allowed to choose from? If you can make up your own...

-Gravity is interesting if you choose a weird one. Null gravity means that everyone has to be able to fly or else can't cope with you. Objective Directional Gravity could be amusing to push people above you, then you walk away and they fall. You still need to be able to fly to pull this. Subjective Directional Gravity is stellar if you can cheat the wis check (and your party can too) so you can use it with ease while your foes struggle. Falling is a free action, so now your fighter can move and full attack with some limits, for example.

-You don't want to play with Time. Fair enough.

-Morphic is weird and not very specific. The most powerful choice here is Sentient, provided it is friendly to you. That's probably too much cheese for you, though.

-Elemental traits are also strange. Would you have a bubble of earth or fire or water around you? If so, this lets you mess with line of effect and, as you mentioned, have an AoE.

-Major positive dominant is hilarious if you can get it to work and your foes don't recognize it. You just get them in the radius, rely on them to hit you enough to keep from popping, and wait until they pop. The fort DC is quite low though, so it's more funny than practical. Negative (minor or major) is brutal and you will know to prebuff with deathward.

-Alignments are not terribly useful. I guess you could go Strongly Neutral, but whatevs.

-Magic is interesting. You could Impede spells you don't want to face, Enhance spells you use often, or even Limit so that, for example, only Evocation works. Limit is kind of limited (haha) in that you can't limit to only Druid spells, so this category is a double edged sword.

In conclusion, if you can make your own plane make it Subjective Directional Gravity, Morphic (sentient and friendly), non-elemental, strongly negative (take precautions), and Maximize all Summon Nature's Ally spells. That last might backfire, but it will backfire in armies of bears so that's ok.

when it comes to planar shepherd, I don't have to worry about the negative aspects, they don't affect me or allies. There are planes that do SOME of that, but it does have to be an existing plane and such. But I'm more looking into help with feats and not plane choice at the moment.


Well, they were asking for it. Besides, barbarians and bards got the short end of the stick, too.

I'm not sure how PF wildshape and Planar Shepherd (which is ridiculously overpowered) would interact.

it wouldn't really be any different than with 3.5 except for the stat changes, I'd still get the Ex and Su abilities and such, which is what's important.