PDA

View Full Version : Hybrid Druid/Cleric Prestiege Class



Welknair
2010-11-07, 10:09 AM
I want to make a character for my campaign who is a devoted follower of Ehlonna, with both druid and cleric abilities. (i.e. holiness and love of nature, yadda yadda). However, I've ran into a couple of problems. Before I explain them, let me tell you what I'm looking for.

1. Stress on spellcasting, not combat
2. The ability for levels of this class to stack with cleric/druid levels for the purposes of certain abilities, such as turn undead, animal companion and perhaps wildshape.

Problems/questions:

1. Most spellcaster multiclasses are divine/arcane, such as the Mystic Theurge. In the case of the Theurge, the divine half got no progression of other abilities whatsoever. I believe this is at least partly due to those abilities being sacrificed for the arcane spells. However, this character still wouldn't be able to cast fireball. So does that lack of raw power mean that they can keep some of the abilities?

2. Both Druid and Cleric have good fort saves and d8 hit dies. Since I want this to be focused on abilities and casting, should I reduce those to a bad save and a d6? Or a d4? They also both have a 3/4 BAB progression. Should that be knocked down as well?

3. Prereqs. Probably the ability to cast a second level spell drawn from the druid spell list, and one drawn from the cleric list. You can't say "2nd level divine spell" because they're both divine... They'll also need 6 ranks in knowledge (nature) and knowledge (religion). And as an additional requirement, how about the cleric half must have animal, plant, water, fire, earth, or air as a domain?


Thoughts?

Mongoose87
2010-11-07, 10:28 AM
Perhaps you should consider simply using a Cleric with the Animal domain, and Wild Cohort feat, which grants an Animal Companion?

EDIT: You could also pick up the Plant domain.

Urpriest
2010-11-07, 10:31 AM
"From the cleric list" or "from the druid list" may be a bad way to phrase it, as it could be interpreted as merely requiring that your second level spells be castable by clerics and druids. Since both can cast, for example, Bull's Strength, someone might think that merely having Bull's Strength on one of their lists would let them qualify.

Actually, an interesting option presents itself: instead of making it like Mystic Theurge, what about making it like Ultimate Magus? Have it require Wild Shape and Turn Undead, so the standard entry would be Cleric 1/Druid 5, and give it abilities that let it use its cleric casting to buff its druid casting. Just another idea.

Mongoose87
2010-11-07, 10:43 AM
Regarding the hit dice and fort saves, I'd leave them unchanged, since both classes get them.

FMArthur
2010-11-07, 10:45 AM
Cleric Domains are probably your best option outside of simply homebrewing. If you have PHBII you can get spontaneous domain casting from a single domain to replace your spontaneous healing, so that you aren't limited to casting some of your druid-ish spells from just your domain slots. The Sovereign Speaker prestige class from Faiths of Eberron grants you an extra domain at each level and gives you a total of 3 extra domain slots over 10 levels, although you lose 2 levels of caster progression, so that's worth looking into since so many domains can be considered nature-related.

Welknair
2010-11-07, 10:52 AM
"From the cleric list" or "from the druid list" may be a bad way to phrase it, as it could be interpreted as merely requiring that your second level spells be castable by clerics and druids. Since both can cast, for example, Bull's Strength, someone might think that merely having Bull's Strength on one of their lists would let them qualify.

What I meant was not that they had to cast any spell from either, but rather that we would determine a particular spell of second level that only that class could cast, such as summon nature's ally II and... Consecrate?



And I would like to have both classes represented instead of making one seem like both. As for the Ultimate Magus, I can't say that I've seen that class...

Psyren
2010-11-07, 11:40 AM
Holt Warden (CC) is the closest I can think of for this one. Nothing for your animal companion though.

JeminiZero
2010-11-07, 11:42 AM
1. Stress on spellcasting, not combat
2. The ability for levels of this class to stack with cleric/druid levels for the purposes of certain abilities, such as turn undead, animal companion and perhaps wildshape.


There seems to be an inherent paradox here. If you want to focus on spellcasting, then you should be prepared to sacrifice raw combat power, and in particular wildshape, and Animal Companion.

Turn Undead is practically useless for actually turning undead at higher levels without heavy optimization (due to the fact that monsters progress more rapidly in HD than players). It is however very useful for fueling DMM. So you can probably live without progressing turn level.

On the whole, my suggestion would be:
1. Play an Archivist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20051007a&page=3) (can learn ALL Cleric and Druid spells, including domains)
2. Get a Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) and pretend its your Animal Companion.
3. Get Sacred Exorcist to gain Turn Undead an access to DMM.
4. Forget about Wildshape, you can learn and use Polymorph if needed.
5. Alternatively, you might request your DM allow you to swap the Archivist Dark Knowledge class feature for something else from either the Druid or Cleric.

Urpriest
2010-11-07, 11:51 AM
What I meant was not that they had to cast any spell from either, but rather that we would determine a particular spell of second level that only that class could cast, such as summon nature's ally II and... Consecrate?



And I would like to have both classes represented instead of making one seem like both. As for the Ultimate Magus, I can't say that I've seen that class...

Picking one particular spell would be more reasonable. Be careful of domains, though. Archivists could also cheat their way in with less casting loss pretty trivially. Perhaps require a cleric-only spell for the Cleric 3, and trackless step for the Druid 3?

Ultimate Magus is from Complete Arcane, and is a Wizard/Sorceror Theurge. It's widely considered one of the better theurge-classes due to the fact that it's designed to be entered as a Sorceror 1/Wizard 4, which means you can keep mostly full progression as a Wizard, which keeps the class actually desirable.

Although, toss in a couple druid class features (wildshape and/or animal companion) and the hit to casting probably wouldn't deter people from the class.