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Flarp
2010-10-31, 12:37 PM
I've been wondering this for awhile, and now that it looks like my group is going to attempt an all-primal game, we need the expertise of the playground: would it be possible for, given houserule omission of the restrictions on humanoid/beast power dispersal (i.e., you can pick all beast form powers if you want), how plausible is a druid that remains in beast form at all times?

What role would they fulfil best in that situation?
Would predator or guardian work best?
If it isn't plausible, or could be made more so, what other houserules could help the druid while keeping the game at a sustainable level of balance?

Urpriest
2010-10-31, 12:41 PM
Guardian works better in caster form, but Predator works pretty well in beast form all the time (though it feels a little strikerish) and Swarm works quite well staying in beast form. Even without your houserule this sort of build is fine, the druid's one human form power is usually a just-in-case option anyway. Just be aware that any of these builds feels less controllery than you might want.

Flarp
2010-10-31, 12:44 PM
Guardian works better in caster form, but Predator works pretty well in beast form all the time (though it feels a little strikerish) and Swarm works quite well staying in beast form. Even without your houserule this sort of build is fine, the druid's one human form power is usually a just-in-case option anyway. Just be aware that any of these builds feels less controllery than you might want.

Fantastic. We'll probably just put our druid player down as a striker then, and either forgo controllers altogether, or dredge up PHIII and get a seeker.

Spamotron
2010-10-31, 01:39 PM
If you do go for a Seeker as your controller be aware that many consider them to be underpowered.

Susano-wo
2010-10-31, 02:56 PM
this might play out differently in-game, or if designed by a more experienced 4E player, but for my firt (and only so far) 4E I tried designing a beast form druid that I wanted to be very striker-y, it felt like that though the effects such as prone, etc were nice and gave a feeling of power, it felt a little limp in the striker dept, since he just couldn't get good damage output to take down big foes. (this char changed to a shifter-barb, so damage problem solved ^ ^)

Urpriest
2010-10-31, 03:05 PM
If you do end up going with a strikery predator druid, here are some tips: take an at-will that doubles as a melee basic attack. Optimize for charges using the same sorts of things barbarians use (horned helm for example). Try to get combat advantage as much as possible, giving it to yourself with things like deadly draw and vicious advantage, and get claw gloves to take advantage of it. Get feats that improve your charges and improve your damage when you have combat advantage. You can also focus on poison, with the snake-themed paragon path (forgetting the name at the moment) or the serpent staff you can have most of your attacks have the poison keyword, which means that some tasty assassin feats can give you a scaling damage boost if you multiclass that route.

Susano-wo
2010-10-31, 05:12 PM
@Urpriest. That sounds like solid advice! IF I ever have the chance, maybe I'll give strikey druid another chance. I mean, weredruid just screams brtual attacks to me! (Man, I can't just play things straight... >.>)

Thajocoth
2010-10-31, 05:45 PM
I played a Swarm Druid once. Since you get an extra At-Will, there's no need for the houserule. Just make the extra At-Will a ranged attack for when you're REALLY too far away. A melee controller plays a lot like an off-tank.