My First Druid

[hobbitkniver]

So I'm building a druid and I'm especially interested in shape shifting. How bad is a druid at level 4? We're starting at level 4 and this DM can make leveling up very slow. I'd rather not spend all day waiting for level 5 to be useful. Until then, I'm planning on using Shillelagh and Brambles together on a club during major fights. I'm not really needed as a healer, but resting could be quite scarce. How legitimate is my club-buff strategy? What's the best non-magic armor a druid can use? What should be my weapon to use when out of spells?

[Tvtyrant]

Your Shillelagh can tide you over till level 5 quite easily, but you should probably focus on spells like Entangle to lock enemies down rather then just being another DPR.

[Eldariel]

Druids are a top tier class on levels 1-4. Animal Companion shines on these levels. Level 4 offers you Dire Bat and Fleshraker as the huge options, but of course an advanced Riding Dog, for example, is still also fine.

Your own combat prowess depends on your physicals; normal Druids don't need Str/Dex that much but if you intend on combat, particularly melee, you'll need better numbers there. However, just only your Animal Companion's combat prowess with your buff spells and whatever control magic you can muster (Entangle, Soften Earth and Stone, etc.) will make you more than valuable enough even if you're only Slinging or whatever the rest of the time.

[TehLivingDeath]

Like the poster above me said, at level 4 you can get a Fleshraker animal companion. Get the Natural Bond feat, buy some barding (a chain shirt for it costs 200gp if I'm not mistaken) and it will be a powerhouse.

As an alternative you can go with summoning. Go with Greenbound Summoning. It's absurdly overpowered at early levels since your summons are pretty much invulnerable (how many enemies can surpass their DR at level 4?) and they can cast Wall of Thorns (a 5th level spell).

Or maybe get both. It's not like you need a lot of feats aside from Natural Spell.

[Eldariel]

Like the poster above me said, at level 4 you can get a Fleshraker animal companion. Get the Natural Bond feat, buy some barding (a chain shirt for it costs 200gp if I'm not mistaken) and it will be a powerhouse.

You don't even need the Natural Bond mitigation. Standard Fleshraker is more than competent enough on those levels; AC 23 or so, 4-6 attacks with Pounce, Poison, Trip, Grapple, any Fighter will struggle to replicate its capabilities on these levels (though they will be able to achieve higher attack bonus than the base Fleshraker at least).

[TehLivingDeath]

You don't even need the Natural Bond mitigation. Standard Fleshraker is more than competent enough on those levels; AC 23 or so, 4-6 attacks with Pounce, Poison, Trip, Grapple, any Fighter will struggle to replicate its capabilities on these levels (though they will be able to achieve higher attack bonus than the base Fleshraker at least).

I know, but a small feat investment (Natural Bond and Exalted Companion) can make sure your pet will be single-handedly stronger than not just the Fighter, but most enemies in that CR range.

[hobbitkniver]

I don't really want the Fleshraker because people will hate me for being too powerful. I actually forgot about the companion until you said that.

[Xavrias]

Druids are very good at level 4, If you want to focus on shapeshifting you might want to take the alternative shapeshifting class feature in PH2. Also The natural Bond feat could get you an incredible tank of an animal companion, the brambled shillelagh (or however its spelt) is good, but as others said, entangle and buffing spells could be good to grab, to improve you and your allies.

[LordBlades]

Druids are very good at level 4, If you want to focus on shapeshifting you might want to take the alternative shapeshifting class feature in PH2. Also The natural Bond feat could get you an incredible tank of an animal companion, the brambled shillelagh (or however its spelt) is good, but as others said, entangle and buffing spells could be good to grab, to improve you and your allies.

Even if you want to focus on shapeshifting, the shapeshift ACF is strictly worse mechanically than wild shape for 2 reasons: it relies on your stats which means you can no longer dump dex&str, and it provides a set list of bonuses, which is vastly inferior to the versatility of wild shape.

To the OP: I suggest grabbing a fleshraker animal companion (with a mithral chain shirt, as he gets no penalty from it despite niot being proficient) and buffing him. Feats like Natural Bond and Companion Spellbond (PHB 2, lets your animal share spells as long as he's within 30 ft. as opposed to 5ft. by default) help a lot. Between it, spells like Entangle and whatever you might summon (feats like Greenbound Summoning, Ashbound and Augment Summoning are good for the summoning-focused druid).

If you absolutely want to melee, I suggest grabbing the Aspect of the Wolf spell from Spell Compendium rather that focusing on clubs (which would require raising your Str, stat which you will no longer need past level 5).

Regarding armor, most druids are best served not wearing armor and grabbing a Monk's belt (which by RAW grants you wis to AC while unarmored) although that's probably a bit out of the price range of a 4th level character. If you absolutely want armor, probably Dragonhide(material from Draconomicon) Full Plate is your best bet (when you can afford it).

[Talya]

Take Natural Bond at 3. This will allow you to take a level 4 animal companion without any penalty to its hit dice. Then you don't need the cheesy Fleshraker and can pick something more suited to your style without any loss in its level. (I personally like the Dire Eagle, a -4 companion from Races of Stone p186. It's a large-sized flier, not terrible in combat and an excellent flying mount. You will be able to cast spells from the sky, and with natural bond, it will have far more hit points than you do -7HD at druid level 4- so no worries about it being killed out from under you.)

Animal Companions are my favorite druid feature. I know it's the weakest of their big three, but I like it. I'd happily take the shapeshift option in PHB2 in a second if it only replaced wildshape and didn't replace animal companions. (Odd that a weaker option than wildshape replaces two druid features, not just one.) The shapeshifting option is easy and at will and doesn't force me to think about what forms I'm going to use or whether i should stay in them. But because Shapeshift also replaces animal companion, I'll never use it.

[hobbitkniver]

I was not aware of this shapeshifting option. I meant wildshaping when I said that.