[PF] Druids and AC

[Calinero]

So, I just made a Druid for a friend's Pathfinder game, and am only now getting into the gist of how Wild Shape works.

First of all, let me just say that this is an atrociously written ability. It involves looking at two or three other places just to figure out how it works, plus access to bestiary to actually be functional. That said, it is a pretty cool ability, with a few caveats that I'm trying to figure out. Namely, the question of AC.

As a Druid, I don't have an amazing Dexterity bonus. However, I get medium armor, and can wield a shield if I want one. That, plus the ability to cast Barkskin fairly often, leads to a pretty good AC without too much investment. However, when I use Wild Shape, a lot of that armor goes away.

With Wild Shape, I'm getting a small bonus to natural armor, only +1 or +2 at the first rank of it. This comes at the cost of +6 or +7 regular armor. That's a pretty sizable hit, in return for a potentially faster movement and natural attacks.

I'm a huge fan of the natural attacks, and the special abilities you can get later on, such as Grab and Pounce. However, this transformation doesn't give you any extra hit points, is a huge hit to AC, and presumably wouldn't transfer over the benefits of any magic weapons you may have acquired. All of its benefits are geared towards making you a striker, but seem to greatly increase the chances that you wont' survive being on the front lines. The Druid doesn't have a great hit die or BAB to begin with, so why is one of its core mechanics centered on throwing them into the melee and depriving them of AC? Am I missing something here?

[Frosty]

Isn't there a way for your armor to not meld with you? In 3.5 this was easy.

[Calinero]

You can get the "Wild" enchantment on your armor so that the bonuses carry over, but this is a +3 enchantment.

[Snowbluff]

Isn't there a way for your armor to not meld with you? In 3.5 this was easy.

Wild Clasp. 4kgp, slap it on an item and call it done.

If not, a Druid could have access to spells like Luminous Armor.

[Frosty]

The clasp and the spell aren't available in PF.

[Snowbluff]

The clasp and the spell aren't available in PF.

Which is why I was answering you, and not the OP. For posterity. :smalltongue:

[Psyren]

You've got Barkskin and Cat's Grace at this level for another +3 +4 AC, so you're almost back up to normal. Focus on AC bonuses that stay active while shifted such as deflection/insight, e.g. Ring of Protection.

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's really helpful if you can get Mage Armor from an arcanist.

If you're really concerned, you could dip a level in monk (Master of Many Styles; flurry of blows doesn't play nice with natural attacks), though that is wildly suboptimal.

Wild shape is stupidly written and always has been. Once you can turn into an elemental, you might want to just take the armor and shield off and put them back on after you change. Because elementals can take humanoid shapes and yet polymorph still forces things to meld even though they don't need to...

[gartius]

wild shape can be used for utility as well don't forget-
you need to spy on someone-wild shape into typical house-pet to not attract attention
you are a bird in the sky slinging call lightning at your enemies-they haven't got a clue who is doing this to them because you know you're a bird.
need to hunt someone down? become a dog to track their scent
need to dig out a lake for water and food?-become a burrowing animal.

in terms of cost-pick up craft arms and armour. it now only costs you 8k compared to 16k for a +1 wild armour

another solution to the armour problem what's to stop you from buying barding for yourself so when you do wild shape your companions can put it on you before the beginning of the day(hours per level duration for a reason, at 8th level you have no need to ever be humanoid again.)

you do end up getting more hps while wild shape-elemental body line gets you a bonus to con, they may not have the best HD but lets compare
d8 averages to 4.5
d10 averages to 5.5
so really a druid should only loses out by 1hp per level which can be easily be sorted by either toughness feat or favoured class

BAB, well if you think about it, they should be just as good as their animal companion or better in terms of BAB. So not much arguement here.

again for not using weapons, yes it is true most do not really work well for the weapons you want, due to the issue of thumb control. Oh look you can wild shape into a gorilla and still use your weapons.

id like to point out that while i hear a lot of bad press about pathfinder, the wild shape change is one of the better things to come out of it imo. It meant that a druid has to not be SAD to get the best results which for other fighter types was a huge buff.

and trust me if you thought pathfinders version is bad, 3.5s version involved hunting through the monster manual all the time. with beast shape the abilities you can have an animal can simply be-ask your gm.

so really what im saying is, as is generally the case when looking at a problem. If you only think in terms of a nail, you are going to see only one type of solution, a hammer or in this case wild shape means melee only, if you have a little creativity you can instead find other uses for it.