Planar Shepherd? How bad can it be?

[Campbellk8105]

My friend is well, simply put, an idiot. We thought it'd be funny to have him be a Druid and then go into Planar Shepherd. My DM is only running his 3rd campaign and we convinced him to let our friend play it. I know a few things of how it can be broken but I was just curious of some other possibilities. I know the turn into an efreeti and get wishes and the time plane that gives you 10 turns for every round. What other doomsday capabilities does this class have.

Druid 5/ Planar Shepherd 10/ Druid 5
Race: Yet to be determined.

[Kalaska'Agathas]

Full Druid Casting, full Animal Companion advancement, and nearly full Wildshape advancement (arguably improved Wildshape advancement).

[Lateral]

Wow, that's... a really cruel thing to do to your DM. It's not really funny.
(Unless you have a good reason for wanting him to suffer. If so, I'm all ears, but it looks like you're just doing this to be mean.)

[Campbellk8105]

Wow, that's... a really cruel thing to do to your DM. It's not really funny.
(Unless you have a good reason for wanting him to suffer. If so, I'm all ears, but it looks like you're just doing this to be mean.)

The DM isn't too bad as a DM but he has played in many campaigns with one of our other players being the DM. So he does know a lot of our typical builds. No one really plays a Druid other than one of our players and frankly, as shocking as it sounds, he makes our normal straight fighters more useful than the Druid he is playing. Also, he doesn't think that animal companions are all that helpful so he doesn't bother with them.

Me, and my other two friends came up with the idea of letting the complete novice Druid player, go into planar shepherd and actually see if it truly is idiot proof.

I personally was also curious on what all the planar shepherd can do since I personally have not looked too much into it.

[Mooncrow]

My friend is well, simply put, an idiot. We thought it'd be funny to have him be a Druid and then go into Planar Shepherd. My DM is only running his 3rd campaign and we convinced him to let our friend play it. I know a few things of how it can be broken but I was just curious of some other possibilities. I know the turn into an efreeti and get wishes and the time plane that gives you 10 turns for every round. What other doomsday capabilities does this class have.

Druid 5/ Planar Shepherd 10/ Druid 5
Race: Yet to be determined.

The rest of the stuff is pretty "meh" tbh. There are a couple more tricks you can do, but they're barely noticeable improvements over the base druid. Dal Quor and Fernia are the big two for "break the game".

[Campbellk8105]

The rest of the stuff is pretty "meh" tbh. There are a couple more tricks you can do, but they're barely noticeable improvements over the base druid. Dal Quor and Fernia are the big two for "break the game".

They may only be little tricks and what not but what are they?

[Psyren]

If you're trying to see if the class is idiot proof, why come here for advice? Either he'll break it on his own or he'll find a way not to, but asking folks to optimize it for you will only lead to the first option.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Things about druid, roughly:

Full prepared spellcasting with the option to sacrifice spells for summons
Decent spell list in ways of buff spells, debuffs, and a few other "tricks"
Animal companions can do a fighter's job. Obviously, an optimized fighter with full power attack, and +X-ty to fit may best an animal companion, but even an animal companion with some shared magic fangs and a couple buff spells from its player's druid is a force, more so with a few specific tricks
Being able to turn into an animal yourself, meaning your base strength and dexterity scores matter not. Want a high strength? Why not Zoidber bear?


Planar Shepard takes this further. Giving basically everything a straight druid would otherwise give you, then goes "You know how you're tied to plane X? Well, those are not forms you can wildshape into: go nuts!

[Mooncrow]

They may only be little tricks and what not but what are they?

The list is long, so rather than type it all out, go here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871574/The_Planar_Shepherd_Handbook?pg=1).

[Gavinfoxx]

Yea... read the Druid Handbook and the Planar Shepherd handbook...

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1354.0

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871574/The_Planar_Shepherd_Handbook

Just go through both. Read deeply, and you'll figure it out. Remember, the class features are awesome, but if the player happens to ignore 90% of his class features, then well, whose fault is that, then??

[LordBlades]

It all depends on what plane you choose.

Planar Shepherd offers all the goodies basic Druids get and a few extras which can vary from next to nothing (if you choose a bad plane) to ungodly power (outsiders with awesome SLAs, 10 free rounds each round etc. if you choose a good plane).

[Gavinfoxx]

Yea, you are going to need to ask about the cosmology of the DM's setting, and what creatures happen to be in what sort of planes...

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Was it the Limbo plane that can be used with a Planar Bubble to create a 10:1 time dilation so the party effectively has ten rounds every round? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Time Stop.

Also, free wishes with the Fire plane, due to being able to change into an efreeti. As it is a spell-like ability, it bypasses any and all xp/gp costs. Have fun, go nuts. Give the whole party everything they could ever wish for.

[Campbellk8105]

What about feats? Since he can prestige at level 6, in our campaigns if we don't meet the prerequisite of a feat but could later, we can save feat slots. Regardless, the race is going to be silverbrow human so at 6th level he will have 4 feats. 2 at first, 1 at third, 1 at sixth. I was thinking extra wildshape, greensinger initiate, natural spell, and something else. Any ideas?

[Lateral]

Was it the Limbo plane that can be used with a Planar Bubble to create a 10:1 time dilation so the party effectively has ten rounds every round?
Dal Quor.

[Campbellk8105]

Rather not break the game more with efreeti wishes and dal quor time. Probably do the azure sky or still fernia, minus efreeti use for wishes.

Another question, you can't shapechange into a unique creature, but canyou wildshape into the Tarrasque for example. Provided you have the level and HD for it, which I believe is 48 but im not sure.

[Gavinfoxx]

Here's the complete Su shapechange thread... it's a great one! Remember, you can change into one of these creatures each round you are in Shapechange, and you can repeat creatures every round...

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3689.0

[tempernoodle]

Was it the Limbo plane that can be used with a Planar Bubble to create a 10:1 time dilation so the party effectively has ten rounds every round? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Time Stop.

In regards to this wouldn't the time not apply as just below Planar Attunement it states that "This immunity does not extend to the plane's physical traits (including gravity and time), alignment traits, or magic traits." Basically meaning everything inside the zone would act at the same pace as you have no immunity to its time effects. Unless you mean to say that this is a buff for the party and not yourself. Which would only work if they were outside of the zone's effect. (You'd have to be in melee with the target you want to be affected.)

[Feralventas]

If you plan on taking on some over-confident spell-casters or deities, I'd suggest the Concordinant Planes of the Outland.

Central area of it is a total supernatural dead-zone; greater deity powers are null, as is everything lesser than that (including but not limited to lesser divinities, spells, psionics, SLA's and Supernatural ablities).

Walk up next to your 'caster-level-heavy enemy, activate the bubble, and let your animal-companion maul them to the ground while they're helpless.

[gkathellar]

Xoriat is awesome. Why? Because Planar Shepherd Wild Shape allows for templates, while the Pseudonatural template can be applied to just about anything and turns things into Outsiders. That means the Planar Shepherd in question can transform into almost anything within the HD limit and get all its powers and abilities.

Otherwise, the handbook's pretty much spot on: Fernia is good and will notably get you Pit Fiend form so that you can share Venomfire with your Fleshrake companion, while Lamannia and Shavarath give you a lot of versatility. Kythri is really good if you can somehow jack your HD limit up, because of Black Slaad.

[Psyren]

Another question, you can't shapechange into a unique creature, but canyou wildshape into the Tarrasque for example. Provided you have the level and HD for it, which I believe is 48 but im not sure.

Yes, but you need two things:
- A plane (other than the Material Plane) with Tarrasques on it as your attuned plane
- A way to Wild Shape into Colossal creatures (the size restrictions still apply to your planar wild shape.)

On their own, Druids can only go up to Huge creatures. There may be feats/items that increase this but I'm not an expert.

If you can overcome both of these barriers, then yes you can become the tarrasque, including all of its powers.


(Alternatively, you can just be a totemist)

[Alleran]

There may be feats/items that increase this but I'm not an expert.
There are epic feats that will let you do it.

[DrDeth]

Druid is one of the most complicated classes in the game, what with several forms and a companion, not to mention spellcasting, etc. Not something to give to anyone who is less that competent.

Nor is pulling this on a newish DM a good diea.

This is a bad idea.

[DarkestKnight]

i though it would be fun channeling the accelerated time plane while playing a lyre of building. I did the math a while back, it ends up being ~6000 human laborer work hours for every hour you play if i remember it correctly. Minecraft anyone?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

i though it would be fun channeling the accelerated time plane while playing a lyre of building. I did the math a while back, it ends up being ~6000 human laborer work hours for every hour you play if i remember it correctly. Minecraft anyone?

If anything about the discussions of strict RAW have taught me, it sucks to be Bubs the Commoner. Course, this leads us to "quick fix" houserules like not being able to get to mess with the time trait of things, if only to prevent the resulting headaches.

Also, thanks for reminding me about my glorious sheep farm with all its colored wools.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

In regards to this wouldn't the time not apply as just below Planar Attunement it states that "This immunity does not extend to the plane's physical traits (including gravity and time), alignment traits, or magic traits." Basically meaning everything inside the zone would act at the same pace as you have no immunity to its time effects. Unless you mean to say that this is a buff for the party and not yourself. Which would only work if they were outside of the zone's effect. (You'd have to be in melee with the target you want to be affected.)

It's quite the reverse than you suspect, actually.

I'm not slowing everyone down, I'm accelerating myself and my party to the point where we get 10 turns for every turn. We wouldn't WANT to be immune to it.

So everything inside the zone gets an enormous action economy boost, the monsters and everyone else outside get curb-stomped.

[Endarire]

I also like the Azure Sky plane for its angels and airy creatures.