Looking for Bear Warrior advice.

[Merellis]

I'm new enough to D&D to not really know what I'm doing for spells, and I'm mostly looking for ways to buff myself, debuff my enemies then dive in.

My build is NE Human Druidic Avenger 8 / Frenzied Beserker 2 and from then on going straight into Bear Warrior.

Once in Bear Warrior my general tactic is going to be wildshaping into a creature to scout and such, then entering rage/frenzy and attacking/grappling as a bear. For now, it's sticking to human/bear form and casting then raging when needed.

The issue here is that I do have some spell-casting, I went with the general entangle, grabbed the 4th level spell Slow to cast if I can, and as usual Bulls Strength and Bears Endurance. I also have 16 Wis by itself so I know I can use some scrolls and just increase my Wis to cast better ones.

I'm also wondering on what items I could use to increase my attack power when attacking in Bear Form.

I thank you in advance. :smallsmile:

[senrath]

Well, it's not an item, but since Bear Warrior really shouldn't be taken past level 5, once you get that you can take some levels in Warshaper, which allows you to make your natural weapons deal more damage.

[Urpriest]

Do remember that you can't cast spells while raging. Because of this, you probably won't use Slow very often, though like Entangle it's a good problem-solving debuff for when you don't want to run into melee.

[Merellis]

Reading over Warshaper again, and going to ask my DM about using the ability while in rage, because that would be interesting, and it could possibly add to an intimidate if the thing grappling you suddenly has bigger jaws. :cool:

And I'll make sure to keep that in mind Urpriest, but this is more of an issue of what can I do before diving in, mostly because I do not have a ton of spells to use.

[Kaeso]

Hmmm, four replies and no unbearable jokes?

Anywho, isn't it a waste to go into bear warrior with a druidic avenger? You'll lose your spell casting.

[Fouredged Sword]

Yes, anything other than tier 1 is a hit to power, but the character concept is cool.

I would suggest you look to see if rage mage is stackable with druid casting. If so, it would be cool to use the spell rage from rage mage to turn into a bear and still be able to cast spells.

[Tokuhara]

I would suggest you look to see if rage mage is stackable with druid casting. If so, it would be cool to use the spell rage from rage mage to turn into a bear and still be able to cast spells.

IIRC, Rage Mage is an Arcane PrC, but talk to the DM to see if you can waive the Arcane requirements in favor of Divine. Maybe you worship a kind of Native American-themed "Spirit Animal," who can guide you. Maybe even take a level loss to your companion to have a Spirit Bear.

and no, I make no bear jokes. I live them (former Bear Warrior/Drunken Master)

[Starbuck_II]

I'm new enough to D&D to not really know what I'm doing for spells, and I'm mostly looking for ways to buff myself, debuff my enemies then dive in.

My build is NE Human Druidic Avenger 8 / Frenzied Beserker 2 and from then on going straight into Bear Warrior.

Once in Bear Warrior my general tactic is going to be wildshaping into a creature to scout and such, then entering rage/frenzy and attacking/grappling as a bear. For now, it's sticking to human/bear form and casting then raging when needed.

The issue here is that I do have some spell-casting, I went with the general entangle, grabbed the 4th level spell Slow to cast if I can, and as usual Bulls Strength and Bears Endurance. I also have 16 Wis by itself so I know I can use some scrolls and just increase my Wis to cast better ones.

I'm also wondering on what items I could use to increase my attack power when attacking in Bear Form.

I thank you in advance. :smallsmile:

If you were good I'd recommend Disciple of Bharri. It is the bear minimum for at will transforming into a bear (plus it stacks with Bear warrior).

See if you can get DM to waive the alignment.

[Merellis]

So talked to my DM last week, to see if I could use WarShaper in a rage/frenzy, and he said I could, so adding damage as I Full-Attack/Grapple/Bite is going to be great. (Well, when I get another two levels anyway, just one level off of Deathless Frenzy from the Frenzied Beserker, and then off to WarShaper)

Though some of the players have suggested going into Natures Warrior to improve my Wild Shape and gain a couple spell-casting levels, to improve the scrolls I can cast with, and gain a couple more spells. And I am liking the idea so far.

So it seems Bear Warrior may be out, but so far my Raging Brown Bear is doing great, with the Improved Grab on a single claw attack, and the added fun of Amulet of Natural attacks, I'm damaging enemies enough that I am up there with our Warmage/Pal of Tyranny while mostly just being an angry bear.

Though I will have a look at Rage Mage and talk with my DM about it. I'm not too worried about losing some caster levels as we have enough casters and not really a ton of front-line attackers. (Only one so far being me, or whatever undead the Necro cooks up.)

As another question, any idea's on some good 1-4th level spells for a Druid to cast before just raging/frenzying into battle?