Please Help

[lostnthought]

I'm new to roleplaying and will be starting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign next thursday and could use some help with my character Were doing 3.5 at level 5 and I'm a half-elven Druid who worships Ehlonna and has a neutral good Alignment. I rolled a 12 STR, 13 DEX, 15 CON, 16 INT, 18 WIS, 15 CHA for ablity scores. I would like a Wolf Animal Companion and am pretty surethat counts as a Special Ablity and Feat but am not sure what else I can use there. I'm also having some difficulty chooseing gear and wepons I have 9000 gold to work with but am having trouble figuring out my charcter sheet and would really apritiate some help.
Thanks so much

[Yuki Akuma]

...Okay.

What exactly do you want your character to do? Do you want to fight in melee with your pet, or be more spellcastery? Druids can do both pretty well.

(And by "pretty well" I mean "are one of the best classes in the game at both".)

What books do you have available? There's lots of options for Druids scattered all over.

Edit: Also for your animal companion I would suggest a riding dog rather than a wolf. They look basically identical and are statistically superior. :smallwink: Plus, a dog is more acceptable in civilized areas than a wolf.

[Waker]

I'm new to roleplaying and will be starting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign next thursday and could use some help with my character Were doing 3.5 at level 5 and I'm a half-elven Druid who worships Ehlonna and has a neutral good Alignment. I rolled a 12 STR, 13 DEX, 15 CON, 16 INT, 18 WIS, 15 CHA for ablity scores. I would like a Wolf Animal Companion and am pretty surethat counts as a Special Ablity and Feat but am not sure what else I can use there. I'm also having some difficulty chooseing gear and wepons I have 9000 gold to work with but am having trouble figuring out my charcter sheet and would really apritiate some help.
Thanks so much
First off, you get your animal companion for free, it's just part of the class.
Ok, what kind of difficulties are you having understanding your character sheet?

[sonofzeal]

Druids are the single most difficult class to handle, bookkeeping-wise, out of the entire base set. I HIIIIIIGHLY recommend you try something else as your first character, until you get a grasp of the basics. Barbarian and Rogue are both better places to start. Ranger is starting to get more complicated (Animal Companion and spells, but less spells and no Wildshape to worry about). Fighter is simple to play, but requires a lot of choices in character creation. Monks are pretty simple too, but seriously underpowered. But I'd avoid full-spellcasters for now, not as your first character, and certainly not Druid.

[Chilingsworth]

Are you the only newbie in your group, or is your entire group new to the game?

[marcielle]

Actually I think Ultimate Magus and the rest of the dual caster progression classes might be even harder when it comes to book keeping. One thing you should know about druids. They are powerful. WotC must all be hippies or something because they made the druid more powerful than anything other than certain builds that generally involve abuse of loopholes in the rules or serious(I mean no life level) planning and mathematics. That being said it really IS better to start off as a non-casting character or at least a spontaneous caster. Because really, DnD's casting mechanic is pretty complicated. Just don't take monk.

If you are imaginitive take a rouge. Theres a lot of mischief to be had with stealth and lots of skill points. And you can still use magic later if you realy want to.

Fighters are the EASIEST thing to play and very customizable but they will seriously lack in power if your campaign progresses to higher levels.

Monks. DON'T. Just don't. They need a ridiculous amount of forethought in character creation and though you could get a plan here, you would need to read up more than half a dozen books to understand it.

Barbarians are almost as easy as the fighter and generally better( remember, feats are not as good as class features).

Ranger. A semi-caster but if your DM knows what a wildshape variant is, take it. Wildshape is not nearly as much of a logistic nightmare as casting. Basically you lose casting and gain turning into various animals.

Anyway, if you are set on druid,remember, no metal. Druids don't take their equiptment into wildshape and DON'T fight when they aren't in wildshape so conventional gear is mostly useless to you, even if you didnt lose all your powers when wearing metal.

Go to wondrous items and just buy what you fancy. Here are a few good ones:
Tree token - Insta tree rom nowhere. Nice for flavor and shenanigans.
Hand of mage - Never carry your own torches again.
And the list goes on.

[lostnthought]

Okay Thanks for all your guys advice I think I'm going to go ahead and go with a Ranger instead of a Druid I think it will help serve alot of the same functions but be a little easier for me to figure out. I like the idea of the animal companion and sence were starting out at level five I think i can cast a spell if we need healing. I would like to focus on archery as my primary weapon. Our DM said that I can switch my ablity points if I want to change my strengths since I'm changing class but I'm not sure waht would be best for a Ranger. The group I'm going to be campaigning with has four experianced players and one other newbie and it looks like were going to have a swashbuckler, a warforged something, a warlock and a wizard, the other new player dosn't know what she's going to be yet.
Thank you guys so much :smallsmile:

[Anarchy_Kanya]

Sorry if I'm sking some stupid question but I'm curious: Whats the problem with asking for help those other players you're playing with if most of them are experienced? :smallconfused:

[Yuki Akuma]

Rangers need Constitution. If you're going to be fighting in melee, good Strength. If ranged, good Dexterity. Of course, both Dex and Str are a good idea - you can get a composite bow to add Strength to ranged damage, and being able to switch to a melee weapon and not suck is great.

At least Wisdom 14 if you want to be able to cast 4th-level spells eventually. Charisma is the ability score for Handle Animal, if you want to train more pets than just your animal companion.

Also if you want to be a backup healer, it's far more worth your while to get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds, and use your spell slot(s) on something else. Magic Fang is good, as you can use it to enhance your pet. Or the warforged.

Also, remember: your animal companion can equip magical items. He has exactly the same body slots as a human - unless he's something weird like an octopus.

[chinlamp]

Also, remember: your animal companion can equip magical items. He has exactly the same body slots as a human - unless he's something weird like an octopus.

In which case it gets stupid with about 8 rings, 8 bracers (i.e. 4 sets of bracers), a neck slot and a headband (played a druid in a marine setting, is what the DM and I figured an Octopus would have room on it's body for).

[sonofzeal]

Okay Thanks for all your guys advice I think I'm going to go ahead and go with a Ranger instead of a Druid I think it will help serve alot of the same functions but be a little easier for me to figure out. I like the idea of the animal companion and sence were starting out at level five I think i can cast a spell if we need healing. I would like to focus on archery as my primary weapon. Our DM said that I can switch my ablity points if I want to change my strengths since I'm changing class but I'm not sure waht would be best for a Ranger. The group I'm going to be campaigning with has four experianced players and one other newbie and it looks like were going to have a swashbuckler, a warforged something, a warlock and a wizard, the other new player dosn't know what she's going to be yet.
Thank you guys so much :smallsmile:
- Rangers can use Wands of Cure Light Wounds (750 gp; 50 charges for 1d8+1 healing each). These will be your mainstay for healing, and are well worth the investment.

- Archery isn't that powerful in D&D, but the best thing about it is the ability to mix and match arrows with bows. Pick up Silver and Cold Iron arrows whenever possible, a few Adamantine ones (these can be used to shoot out locks), and anything more exotic that you can find. I would enchant your bow for general power, but also pick up magic arrows to try and overcome any combination of defences you might run across. Bane arrows for powerful enemy types, +1 Acid arrows for Trolls and whatnot, Lawful/Chaotic/Good/Evil arrows for creatures with Damage Reduction, etc. You're never going to be Legolas taking out hordes of enemies with your master archery, but you can be Green Arrow with a trick shot for every situation. Arrows with special properties (Flaming, Lawful, Bane, etc) will usually end up being 160 gp a pop, so they're more for emergencies. But get them, because emergencies happen.

- Remember that you can 5-foot-step as a free action any turn that you don't otherwise move, and this allows you to avoid Attacks of Opportunity from firing your bow in melee. You can also Full-Round-Withdraw, allowing you to double-move away from enemies, and this too doesn't provoke AoOs. You can also climb trees or otherwise use terrain to separate you from enemies.

- Rapid Shot is almost invariably a good idea, if you can. The extra arrow is almost always worth the -2 to attack. The only exception is if you normally need to roll an 18 to hit. But a 17 or 19, it's still worth it.

- Your Animal Companion, unlike a Druid's, won't be much use for combat. It's good for scouting or transportation though.

- Your best lvl 1 spells from the PHB are Entangle, Longstrider, and Resist Energy. Use them well.

[sonofzeal]

I don't get why people think druids are so hard to play.
Er, what?

Wild Shape is possibly the single most comblicated class special ability in Core. Understanding it involves not just a thorough familiarity with the base rules, but also requires chasing down "Alternate Form" from the Monster Manual, since it explicitly modifies that ability rather than spelling everything out in the PHB. Keeping track of what's gained, lost, and what doesn't change even though it logically should (like hp) takes a lot of effort. Nevermind the fact that, really, you now have to write up three or more different versions of your character sheet, with the potential for more on the fly if unusual situations arise.

Add this on top of the Animal Companion. Companions gain HD, meaning again you'll be spending a lot of time in the MM1, not just on the creature's page but also on the rules for adding HD to creatures, and on the section detailing the traits on Animals which tells you what gets added and not. Except that section doesn't provide a table, so if you want to know what the saving throws of an 8 HD Wolf are, you either have to be good at the mental arithmetic, or flip back to the PHB to look up Ranger which has the same save progression. Add this to all the little details that newbie players always forget, like feats every third level and ability increases every fourth, which further modify the creature's stats, and you've got a mess waiting to happen.

Add this on top of being a summoner. Druids get Summon Nature's Ally spontaneously, and can reasonably be expected to use summoning magic more often than any other character. This means they're going to have to have stats ready on any of the summons they're likely to use, preferably pre-modified for things like Augment Summoning and whatnot.

Add this on top of, y'know, being a full caster with a highly varied spell list and a bunch of spells per day, so all that needs to be tracked too.

And you don't think Druids are hard to play.

I'm sorry, good sir, but I respectfully disagree.

[marcielle]

Get your companion a collar of perpetual attendance the second you can.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c
It now has unseen servant FOREVER. These guys are like ghosts that can lift things but not fight and are near impossible to destroy. SO MANY USES, my favourite of which is 'Drop bag full of bombs/oil/poison gas IN enemy square'.

If the warforged is the new guy, remind him he is a ROBOT. He can do awesome stuff like walk across the bottom of the ocean, go wading in poison and win every staring contest EVER(except against other constructs).