[3.5] Druid concept

[Keld Denar]

So, I've been planning a drood character for an upcoming 1-2 shot game. Its 5th level, and I'm going Drood5, with my 1st and 3rd level feats being SF: Conjouration and Augmented Summoning. That part is fixed. The things I'm considering are: Race and Animal Companion. Keep in mind that this is a CORE ONLY (blech, but whatever) game.

Human + Dire Bat
Human bonus feat would be Improved Initiative, or possibly Skill Focus: Craft(Underwater Basket Weaving). Bat is awesome cause it flies, but only gets 1 attack which has less tec with plans of casting Produce Flame on my pet. Solo, Call Lightning or Produce Flame + Flight = win, but I don't think I want to be in that situation.

Halfling + Leopard
Small size means I could ride my medium cat, mostly for out of combat. Biggest benefit to the cat is its whopping 5 attacks per round. A CL5 Produce Flame cast on the cat would deal 5d6+25 damage in a single pounce with Claw/Claw/Bite/Rake/Rake, plus weapon damage and other factors. Also has a climb speed, which is nice.

Halfling + Riding Dog
Riding Dog has awesome trip ability, and because its a 1st level companion, benefits from the +2 HD and +1 Str for me being a 5th level Drood. Trip tec is helpful to the party, but damage is considerably lower. 1 attack means less Produce Flame synergy.

Gnome + Dire Badger or Wolverine (same stats?)
Gnome Con bonus is yum for wildshape, and burrowing mammal tec is nice for RP. 3 attacks per round, but lower bonus than Leopard and no pounce. Rage is...eh.

So...yea.

No Strongheart Halfling. No Natural Bond. No Fleshraker. Just straight PHB, DMG, and MMI on a Druid5 chassis...for now.

Typical combat order of operations are to CC if possible with Entangle, cast Produce Flame on pet (using 2nd line in Share Spells to cast "you" spells on pet) and send in the pet, and then summon as many hippogriffs per cubic foot as the given atmospheric pressure allows.

If you do make a recommendation, I'd also be interesting in hearing any RP quirks you think would fit one of these combos.

[Drachasor]

My Druid had a lot of fun with his riding dog, Mr. Wolfus. Trip is great, and they also have awesome stats.

[Saintheart]

Halfling + Leopard
Small size means I could ride my medium cat, mostly for out of combat. Biggest benefit to the cat is its whopping 5 attacks per round. A CL5 Produce Flame cast on the cat would deal 5d6+25 damage in a single pounce with Claw/Claw/Bite/Rake/Rake, plus weapon damage and other factors. Also has a climb speed, which is nice.

Only a couple of observations here:
(1) Based on Produce Flame's description, you could only pull the Pounce thing off once before having to recast the spell. Every attack reduces the spell duration by 1 minute, and you've got a total of 5 minutes all up.

(2) DM might rule the bite attack doesn't add fire damage to it. The flame appears in the palm of your paw hand.

[Darrin]

Halfling + Leopard
Small size means I could ride my medium cat, mostly for out of combat. Biggest benefit to the cat is its whopping 5 attacks per round. A CL5 Produce Flame cast on the cat would deal 5d6+25 damage in a single pounce with Claw/Claw/Bite/Rake/Rake, plus weapon damage and other factors. Also has a climb speed, which is nice.


Shamus Spadefoot comes from a long line of ArborForce Troopers, it's in his blood. He's been stuck behind a desk for the last five years, shuffling paper wasps back and forth, because someone tried to frame him up for fiasco that went all furball with some dreamweed smugglers. Internal Review finally cleared his name, and now he's going to hunt down whoever set him up and put them behind ironwood bars. He wears sundark goggles even at night (spot penalty be damned), chainsmokes pipeweed like a chimney, and his leopard is a rare crossbreed that doesn't have spots, it's got stripes (makes it go faster). He doesn't wear metal armor, not because of an oath but because the dept. keeps whining about "budget cuts" or the procurement committee is still investigating this newfangled "metallurgy" nonsense that was all the rage a few thousand years ago. He uses a medium-sized sling because the small-sized slings "smelled like wussy". He tracks down the hard stuff and keeps it off the stree-- uh, nature trails: dreamweed, magic mushrooms, myconid dust. Mother Nature never intended that stuff to be used for general recreation, and it's against the Laws of Nature for anyone to carry, sell, or use unless they are a fully licensed hierophant. Well now, a little bird (literally) told him you might know something about someone using dire badgers to dig smuggling tunnels down by the harbor. Do you care to elaborate, or... it would be an awful shame if you fell out of a tree now, wouldn't it? Very dangerous hobby, climbing trees...

[Thespianus]

A Forest Gnome riding a Wolverine or a Riding Dog seems pretty cool to me. Forest Gnomes are Small but look tiny, have Pass Without Trace as a Su ability, and you get a bundle of extra +1 racial bonuses to attack compared to the normal Gnome.

Also, you start off with a +8 bonus to Hide checks, +12 in forest areas. Can be used to some effect, I suppose.

Wolverines walk and run like something that makes a camel seem graceful, and the imagery of a tiny forestlike tiny-Gnome bouncing around on a Wolverine just strikes me as funny enough to last for a few sessions. (holding on for dear life when the Wolverine makes its climb checks, for funsies)

While the Leopard is a more fierce creature, the Wolverine just seems to mesh with the Forest Gnome so well.