Druid Help

[DruidAlanon]

Hello Playground. I've first visited this forum some years ago but this is the very first time to post something. I'm happy to be around here.

Well, I just started to play in an already going game. The teams is consisted of 1 fighter lvl 9, 1 sorcerer lvl 9 and me (druid lvl 9 as well).
I've played a few D&D games before but only low levels (max 4 I think) and just for a few months. I've read a lot about druids (both for mechanics and RP) but I still have some things to ask. I'm not an experienced player and I am really worried that my druid won't be as useful as I want to.

We use 3.0 and 3.5 plus some homerules. Also, DM has almost each book on 3.0 and 3.5 but the other players play almost exclusively from 3.0 handbook (sorcerer uses some spells from SC I think). Enemies are from 3.0 core and MM 1 mostly, but there will be a dread necro for sure in the future.

DM gave me 81 points for abilities and asked me to put them as I wanted (max 18 for each ability).
Therefore I chose:
Str 11
Dex 12
Con 18
Wis 18
Int 10
Char 12

I know that I need Wis and Con but, is it too much to go for such a low Char/Int?

My feats are:

Natural Spell
Augment Summoning
Ashbound
Spell Focus (conjuration)

My Companions are:
1 Dire Wolf
1 Golden Eagle (it functions as a normal eagle)

(the eagle is "just" my pet, assisting me when I hunt, since there's no bond with it)

I intend to help wherever I can the existing party (obviously Healer and a bit of summoning & fighting). Therefore my everyday spells are focused on:

0 (not even mentioning)
1st Cure light wounds, Faerie Fire
2nd Barkskin, Blinding Spittle, Bear's Endurance, Bull's str, etc
3rd Cure Moderate wounds, touch of juiblex, bite of werewolf
4th Cure serious wounds, flame strice
5th Call lighting storm Cure critical wounds

and a bit of RP spells (detect animal/plant, calm animal, know direction, summoning, create water, etc).

Equipment:
Since I am a northern druid I asked (just for the RP) to have Iuak, Ritiik and handaxe (if anyone know about surviving there's no chance to survive in a forest with no axe). Of course, I treat Ritiik as if it hadn't trip ability.
A wooden shield (+2)
a better than the normal leather armor (+5)
and 1000gp for everything else (but no magical items). I intend to buy some clothes and equipment (since druid is a herblaist) and save the rest for later.

Well, I just want some comments about this build (especially if it's underachieving).

Cheers!

[Darrin]

Your Int/Cha is fine.

My standard spell advice for treehuggers (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12183941&postcount=4). Consider trying out impeding stones instead of entangle.

Then head over to Complete Mage and grab several doses of Fairy Dust (100 GP) for Extended creeping cold and Golden Desert Honey (300 GP) for standard action summons.

I'd also consider at upgrading your armor to a MW Darkleaf Breastplate (2600 GP, A&EG).

Unless you were able to get outright proficiency with iauk/ritiik/handaxe, I'd probably just stick with quarterstaff (for shillelagh/brambles fun) or the typical scimitar/shield.

Are you really attached to the wolf? Fleshraker companions are generally considered mandatory when allowed, but I'm also fond of the Dire Eagle (Races of Stone), which can do everything the wolf and golden eagle can do.

[DruidAlanon]

Your Int/Cha is fine.

My standard spell advice for treehuggers (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12183941&postcount=4). Consider trying out impeding stones instead of entangle.

Then head over to Complete Mage and grab several doses of Fairy Dust (100 GP) for Extended creeping cold and Golden Desert Honey (300 GP) for standard action summons.

I'd also consider at upgrading your armor to a MW Darkleaf Breastplate (2600 GP, A&EG).

Unless you were able to get outright proficiency with iauk/ritiik/handaxe, I'd probably just stick with quarterstaff (for shillelagh/brambles fun) or the typical scimitar/shield.

Are you really attached to the wolf? Fleshraker companions are generally considered mandatory when allowed, but I'm also fond of the Dire Eagle (Races of Stone), which can do everything the wolf and golden eagle can do.

Thanks for the info and the spell list.
Yes my DM unofficially have given me the feats for free. (I'm not planning to use them, at least not extensively. I'll just grab the handaxe in very few occasions. They're just for flavour/ other uses such as lumberjack, clearing paths in the forest, etc.) I'm planning to use them instead of scimitar/spear. But, I will never intend to go for hand to hand combat, at least without using wild shape.
Yes, I am attached to the wolf since I were a newborn. Actually, druid were the "alpha" of the pack and his dire wolf the "beta", until they left. And I'm planning to attract more wolves in order to create a new pack. I'll cast "awaken" to the wolf as soon as possible so I may search for a dire eagle soon.

Well, I've mentioned Fleshraker to my Dm but there are no dinosaurs in this world. (and if they were, since my druid is from the arctic cycle he would have no idea about their existence).
Darkleaf Breastplate is something I'm aiming for.

Does my dire wolf advance as the 3.5 player handbook suggests?
9th level, bonus hit dice, bonus str/dex, bonus tricks, etc? Or do I have to count from 3rd level since I "found" him at level 7?

[eggynack]

Let us begin, as is custom, at the top. For ability scores, you may want to lower your strength and dexterity by quite a bit, and switch it for intelligence and charisma. Strength and dexterity are irrelevant in a wild shape, so they're dump stats. Darrin is correct that your animal companion is suboptimal. However, the most suboptimal thing here is the spell list.

Before I go into each spell level, I'm going to mention that you should ditch the healing angle entirely. In combat healing is really bad, so you should just use a wand of lesser vigor for out of combat use. If you want to use your spells to heal, just convert fourth level spells into unicorns, and have the unicorn use its three cure light wounds and one cure moderate.

Now, for actual spells, which are solidly the weakest aspect of this build. For zeroth level (cause I actually like zeroth level spells) you should prepare some mixture of a lot of detect magic, and a little create water and cure minor wounds. The first two are obviously highly versatile, and take up roles that your other spells can't fill. For cure minor, I know I did my big (Actually really small. I have rants of unusual size about healing) talk about healing, but if you need to stabilize an ally, you don't care about the action cost. Fortunately, in life saving, a minor is as good as a critical, so the orison is plenty.

On to firsts. Faerie fire is actually decent at high level, though you may want to do the vision thing with higher level slots (more on that later). However, what first level is really special for is its suite of battlefield control spells. Prepare some combination of entangle, impeding stones (City, 66), spore field (CS, 104), and wall of smoke (SpC, 235). They're all great, and getting a variety lets you layer them. Lesser spells to consider are longstrider for its high duration, blockade (CS, 95) for its short casting time and moderate utility, and omen of peril (SpC, 149) for its divination powers.

Now, seconds. Blinding spittle is fantastic, and you should definitely prepare it, but that assortment of buffs is highly mediocre. You should ditch all of your spells but that one. In addition to blinding spittle, you should highly consider kelpstrand (SpC, 128), because it's fantastic against the kinda enemy you want it to be fantastic against ("frail" spellcasters). If you like damage spells, which you seem to, the best option at this level is splinterbolt (SpC, 203). It's like a scorching ray that uses a ranged attack rather than a ranged touch attack, except it's an instantaneous conjuration, so it can hit golems standing inside AMF's. Mass snake's swiftness (SpC, 193) is great for ally help, giving everyone in its area an extra attack. That means you, your animal companion(s), your summons, your friends, and their extra creatures. It's pretty neat. I'd advise luminous armor (BoED, 102), but you seem to be going the non-good route. Luminous armor makes the non-non-good route worth considering, at least a little.

As is becoming custom, I rather dislike the third level list as well. Touch of juiblex isn't really what you want out of a save or die (a long term), and bite of the werewolf just isn't worth the action cost. Instead, you should tune your list towards third level's mighty compilation of long duration buffs and regular duration fogs. On the long duration buff list, the things worth considering are heart of water (CM, 107), and primal instinct (DrM, 72). The former is an hours/level duration swim speed/water breathing majig that can be expended for a rounds/level freedom of movement. That's a thing you want to do. The latter is a 24 hour long +5 to initiative, which is also a thing you want to do. Both spells are the best members of a line that gains more power if you cast them in multiples. For fogs, other people recommend arctic haze (Frost, 88) and haboob (Sand, 117), because they're damaging. However, I have a preference for serious battlefield control, and for that, I prefer sleet storm. It blocks all vision, and actually keeps enemies within it. Other spells to consider are stone shape, which is amazingly versatile, plant growth, which looks pretty powerful if you're in the place for it, wind wall, which is also situationally amazing, and call lightning, which is as good a way as any to turn rounds into damage.

Howsabout fourth level spells? First, you should ditch flame strike and replace it with boreal wind (Frost, 89). It deals less damage, but it does a pile of things that are not damage as well. Second, now we get to the vision thing that I foreshadowed at first level spells. By wild shaping into a desmodu hunting bat (MM II, 65), and casting enhance wild shape (SpC, 82), you can have 120 foot blindsight for hours/level. That's a fantastic vision mode right there. Other spells worth considering are heart of earth (CM, 106) for its defensive abilities and combo with heart of water, passage of the shifting sands (DrM, 70) for its super gaseous form nature, and wall of salt (Sand, 127) because it's one of the best walls you have for its level.

Finally, fifth level spells. As with the other cases, do not prepare call lightning storm. It's ridiculously inefficient for its level when compared to call lightning. I don't have quite as much advice for this level, but good options to consider are animal growth, because it's frigging amazing all the time, baleful polymorph, because it's an actually good SoL, bite of the weretiger (SpC, 28), because that strength boost is massive and possibly worth the action cost, control winds, because it does stuff that is powerful, maybe heart of fire (CM, 107), as an addon to the heart of x line (also add heart of air at second level if you're doing this), and wall of thorns, as a great battlefield control option.

So yeah. That's the kinda spell list I'd put on a druid. You might want to consider taking rashemi elemental summoning if you haven't considered doing that already. Also, your dire wolf advances just fine. You might want to make it a brown bear for power stuff, but it's not that important. Just recall the druidic creed, and you should be fine. That creed is, "I am a spellcaster. I can also be a bear, and have a bear friend, but at the end of the day, my spells are who I am. If I spend every combat punching enemies in the face, then I may as well be the party fighter. Druids are better than fighters, and I want to be the best druid I can be. I am a spellcaster."

[DruidAlanon]

Let us begin, as is custom, at the top. For ability scores, you may want to lower your strength and dexterity by quite a bit, and switch it for intelligence and charisma. Strength and dexterity are irrelevant in a wild shape, so they're dump stats. Darrin is correct that your animal companion is suboptimal. However, the most suboptimal thing here is the spell list.

Before I go into each spell level, I'm going to mention that you should ditch the healing angle entirely. In combat healing is really bad, so you should just use a wand of lesser vigor for out of combat use. If you want to use your spells to heal, just convert fourth level spells into unicorns, and have the unicorn use its three cure light wounds and one cure moderate.

Now, for actual spells, which are solidly the weakest aspect of this build. For zeroth level (cause I actually like zeroth level spells) you should prepare some mixture of a lot of detect magic, and a little create water and cure minor wounds. The first two are obviously highly versatile, and take up roles that your other spells can't fill. For cure minor, I know I did my big (Actually really small. I have rants of unusual size about healing) talk about healing, but if you need to stabilize an ally, you don't care about the action cost. Fortunately, in life saving, a minor is as good as a critical, so the orison is plenty.

On to firsts. Faerie fire is actually decent at high level, though you may want to do the vision thing with higher level slots (more on that later). However, what first level is really special for is its suite of battlefield control spells. Prepare some combination of entangle, impeding stones (City, 66), spore field (CS, 104), and wall of smoke (SpC, 235). They're all great, and getting a variety lets you layer them. Lesser spells to consider are longstrider for its high duration, blockade (CS, 95) for its short casting time and moderate utility, and omen of peril (SpC, 149) for its divination powers.

Now, seconds. Blinding spittle is fantastic, and you should definitely prepare it, but that assortment of buffs is highly mediocre. You should ditch all of your spells but that one. In addition to blinding spittle, you should highly consider kelpstrand (SpC, 128), because it's fantastic against the kinda enemy you want it to be fantastic against ("frail" spellcasters). If you like damage spells, which you seem to, the best option at this level is splinterbolt (SpC, 203). It's like a scorching ray that uses a ranged attack rather than a ranged touch attack, except it's an instantaneous conjuration, so it can hit golems standing inside AMF's. Mass snake's swiftness (SpC, 193) is great for ally help, giving everyone in its area an extra attack. That means you, your animal companion(s), your summons, your friends, and their extra creatures. It's pretty neat. I'd advise luminous armor (BoED, 102), but you seem to be going the non-good route. Luminous armor makes the non-non-good route worth considering, at least a little.

As is becoming custom, I rather dislike the third level list as well. Touch of juiblex isn't really what you want out of a save or die (a long term), and bite of the werewolf just isn't worth the action cost. Instead, you should tune your list towards third level's mighty compilation of long duration buffs and regular duration fogs. On the long duration buff list, the things worth considering are heart of water (CM, 107), and primal instinct (DrM, 72). The former is an hours/level duration swim speed/water breathing majig that can be expended for a rounds/level freedom of movement. That's a thing you want to do. The latter is a 24 hour long +5 to initiative, which is also a thing you want to do. Both spells are the best members of a line that gains more power if you cast them in multiples. For fogs, other people recommend arctic haze (Frost, 88) and haboob (Sand, 117), because they're damaging. However, I have a preference for serious battlefield control, and for that, I prefer sleet storm. It blocks all vision, and actually keeps enemies within it. Other spells to consider are stone shape, which is amazingly versatile, plant growth, which looks pretty powerful if you're in the place for it, wind wall, which is also situationally amazing, and call lightning, which is as good a way as any to turn rounds into damage.

Howsabout fourth level spells? First, you should ditch flame strike and replace it with boreal wind (Frost, 89). It deals less damage, but it does a pile of things that are not damage as well. Second, now we get to the vision thing that I foreshadowed at first level spells. By wild shaping into a desmodu hunting bat (MM II, 65), and casting enhance wild shape (SpC, 82), you can have 120 foot blindsight for hours/level. That's a fantastic vision mode right there. Other spells worth considering are heart of earth (CM, 106) for its defensive abilities and combo with heart of water, passage of the shifting sands (DrM, 70) for its super gaseous form nature, and wall of salt (Sand, 127) because it's one of the best walls you have for its level.

Finally, fifth level spells. As with the other cases, do not prepare call lightning storm. It's ridiculously inefficient for its level when compared to call lightning. I don't have quite as much advice for this level, but good options to consider are animal growth, because it's frigging amazing all the time, baleful polymorph, because it's an actually good SoL, bite of the weretiger (SpC, 28), because that strength boost is massive and possibly worth the action cost, control winds, because it does stuff that is powerful, maybe heart of fire (CM, 107), as an addon to the heart of x line (also add heart of air at second level if you're doing this), and wall of thorns, as a great battlefield control option.

So yeah. That's the kinda spell list I'd put on a druid. You might want to consider taking rashemi elemental summoning if you haven't considered doing that already. Also, your dire wolf advances just fine. You might want to make it a brown bear for power stuff, but it's not that important. Just recall the druidic creed, and you should be fine. That creed is, "I am a spellcaster. I can also be a bear, and have a bear friend, but at the end of the day, my spells are who I am. If I spend every combat punching enemies in the face, then I may as well be the party fighter. Druids are better than fighters, and I want to be the best druid I can be. I am a spellcaster."

Wow, I've found the spells and they are amazing. Yes I can say I am far more untouchable this way. Amazing battlefield control and more dmg as well. I hope that my DM will allow this brilliant stuff (he doesn't know very well the spells even though he has the book collection and other players stayed in core mostly).

Ok, I won't prepare any curing spells. I'm not sure I can find healing wards since my gold is very limited but Unicorns (can I summon them even though I've not chosen good alignment ?) can deal with it.

Rashemi Elemental? Well, I don't think that a druid who grew up in a wolf pack and never went east (and with not so much air/earth elementals experience) would ever know how to use this feat. I've ignored it, mostly for RP reasons.

I've put 11 str for the carrying capacity and dex for this +1 (5% in reflex saves and +1 AC I think is worth the extra point)

Do I miss any important feat?

Last, at this point I have a mission to win a sorcerer on my own (lvl 9 as well as I've discovered through Detect magic).

I will probably find him in a neutral area and the only thing I know is that he casts invisibility, wall of fire, fly, lighting bolt, blindness/deafness and accelerated movement.
I can not scry him for an unknown reason and DM is very well known for his cruelty. If I fail, he will probably kill me or let me blind and deaf. I do not expect (nor want) a detailed answer, just any very short hint on what (not) to do.

[eggynack]

Ok, I won't prepare any curing spells. I'm not sure I can find healing wards since my gold is very limited but Unicorns (can I summon them even though I've not chosen good alignment ?) can deal with it.
Healing wands aren't all that expensive, which is why they're worth buying. A wand of lesser vigor (SpC, 229) costs 750 GP and heals for 550 GP. You can't be evil if you want to toss out unicorns, but neutral is fine.


Rashemi Elemental? Well, I don't think that a druid who grew up in a wolf pack and never went east (and with not so much air/earth elementals experience) would ever know how to use this feat. I've ignored it, mostly for RP reasons.

Fair enough. What're your feelings on greenbound summoning (LEoF, 8)? It's crazy powerful, though a bit less so at 9th level. Natural bond (CAdv, 111) and companion spellbond (PHB II, 77) are both good if you want to rely on your animal companion much, and extend spell is nice for a druid's long duration buffs. I mentioned primal instinct, but the rest of that line isn't the worst, and if it doesn't cost you spell slots because they last 48 hours, that's pretty sweet. You're doing the whole summoning thing, and you have the prerequisites, so beckon the frozen (Frostburn, 47) seems to fit decently. It's not the best feat, but it makes the things you do better. Druids also have very particular magic item requirements, so craft wondrous item can be nice.


I've put 11 str for the carrying capacity and dex for this +1 (5% in reflex saves and +1 AC I think is worth the extra point)

Strength and dexterity are perfectly reasonable stats, but you don't need them on your actual character. You're at least 9th level, so you can be in a wild shape for 36 hours a day. Wild shape physical stats replace your normal ones (though the new constitution doesn't change your HP), so having a good strength or dexterity isn't really important. Take a desmodu bat form, and do that for the entire day. Pick up a pearl of speech (MIC, 118), and talk despite your bat nature. They have great AC, initiative, and an aerial maneuverability of good, which lets you hover while summoning things. It's basically perfect outside of specialized situations.



Last, at this point I have a mission to win a sorcerer on my own (lvl 9 as well as I've discovered through Detect magic).

I will probably find him in a neutral area and the only thing I know is that he casts invisibility, wall of fire, fly, lighting bolt, blindness/deafness and accelerated movement.
I can not scry him for an unknown reason and DM is very well known for his cruelty. If I fail, he will probably kill me or let me blind and deaf. I do not expect (nor want) a detailed answer, just any very short hint on what (not) to do.
Sorcerers are tricky, but this shouldn't be the hardest thing ever. If you're finding him, you have the upper hand like crazy, and that makes it easy. First thing you want to do is negate the invisibility stuff, as well as any other related defenses. That means using the enhance wild shape trick I mentioned. Having blindsight out to 120 feet for hours/level will pierce basically everything the sorcerer can do along those lines. Next thing you're going to want to do is go first. Desmodu hunting bat form gets you a +7 to initiative, and primal instinct gets another +5. A belt of battle doesn't stack with primal instinct, but you want one anyway, because they're amazing. I think this discussion has proceeded thus far without including wilding clasps (MIC, 190). Get those for all of the items that you can, and maybe a few more to be safe.

In any case, what I'd do to defeat him is just summon a burly grappling guy, and have that burly grappling guy grapple him in a burly fashion. One of the best grapplers you have access to is the giant crocodile, so just launch one of those, and if it works then you win. You may also want to use golden desert honey (CM, 136) to shorten your summons to a standard action casting, and the belt of battle to add another standard action. That way you get two crocodiles, and if you do this out of your fifth level slots, that becomes 2d3 crocodiles. If he's in the air, you might need some way to ground him. Control winds is pretty powerful in general, and it has the ability to ground fliers. You may just want to spend a slot on dispel magic, because he's magic.

If his big plan to murderate you is launching elemental attacks your way, pick up something like resist energy and make it so that his elements don't hurt you. If you use the blindsight plan, it's impossible for him to shut down both of your vision modes at once with blindness/deafness. It's not like that spell can't be dispelled, because it's permanent rather than instantaneous. It's annoying, but a turn where he's using that on you won't get you much closer to death. This is doubly true if your DM erroneously believes that you'll be stuck that way permanently, and thinks that leaving you with a blind character is tantamount to destroying it.

[Spuddles]

If you are worried about carrying capacity (what the hell are you carrying that weighs so much?), get saddle bags for your wolf and teach it the work trick. As a large quadreped, I am no really sure how you will ever be over its light load, so wasting a trick on it is probably not needed.

In masters of the wild, there's a zero level spell that teaches your companion a trick for a short time. I would prep those. A wand of it would only be 375 gp.

I think Rashemi Elemental Summoning makes a lot of sense on northern druid builds, as you commune with the ice spirits that live in the world and summon them to aid you.

Regardless, as far as summoning goes, MM3 has the storm elemental. I would definitely use those in your fight vs the sorcerer. They blast a lot of damage, heal from lighning damage, and can inflict deafness. They also fly.

[DruidAlanon]

If you are worried about carrying capacity (what the hell are you carrying that weighs so much?), get saddle bags for your wolf and teach it the work trick. As a large quadreped, I am no really sure how you will ever be over its light load, so wasting a trick on it is probably not needed.

In masters of the wild, there's a zero level spell that teaches your companion a trick for a short time. I would prep those. A wand of it would only be 375 gp.

I think Rashemi Elemental Summoning makes a lot of sense on northern druid builds, as you commune with the ice spirits that live in the world and summon them to aid you.

Regardless, as far as summoning goes, MM3 has the storm elemental. I would definitely use those in your fight vs the sorcerer. They blast a lot of damage, heal from lighning damage, and can inflict deafness. They also fly.

My equipment is:
Iuak 1lb
riitik 6lb
hand axe 5lb
wooden shield 10lb
armor 20lb
herbalist tools 5lb
animal training tools 2lb
some clothes,flasks, health pots, etc 8lb

57lb total

The wolf may become awaken in the very next session, therefore there's no need to train him in order to carry my stuff.

OK, so I'll reduce str and dex to 10 and put the rest 3 point into char/int.


What're your feelings on greenbound summoning (LEoF, 8)? It's crazy powerful, though a bit less so at 9th level. .

I found this feat rather interesting but I think it looses its effectiveness at higher levels. If I were low level (1-8) I would definitely pick it though. [plus, it's a tiny bit incompatible for the animalistic flavour of my druid]


So, for the near future, I'll just have to find some healing wards, the golden dessert honey and the MW Darkleaf Breastplate.


Natural bond (CAdv, 111) and companion spellbond (PHB II, 77) are both good if you want to rely on your animal companion much, and extend spell is nice for a druid's long duration buffs.

I intend to pick companion spellbond in the future but I don't understand how the natural bond can help me. I don't intend to go for a prestige class. How does companion spellbond affect a wild elf druid?

[Spuddles]

I wouldnt bother wearing 30lbs of armor, given that you can wildshape. And when you wildshape, you won't be encumbered with all that kit, anyway.

Natural Bond arguably increases your effective druid level for higher level animal companions. So you could have a dire wolf and use your full druid level (druid level -3 for dire wolf +3 for feat).

As for Awakening your pet, it'll lose every bonus it gets from being your AC. In many cases, this will be a huge drop in power.

Greenbound Summoning is straight up better than augment summoning. It provides larger static bonuses to stats, in addition to giving a ton of useful abilities. Better grappling, armor, elemental resistance, damage reduction, fast healing, and entangle and wall of thorns. Summoning 1d4+1 wall of thorns is amazing battlefield control. The feat it totally broken, imo.

[eggynack]

I found this feat rather interesting but I think it looses its effectiveness at higher levels. If I were low level (1-8) I would definitely pick it though. [plus, it's a tiny bit incompatible for the animalistic flavour of my druid]
If your primary concern is power level, that should not be your concern. Rashemi elemental summoning is probably better at high levels, but greenbound summoning is always good. Just, y'know, read the list of changes made to a greenbound creature. They get +6 natural armor, a slam attack, several spell like abilities (particularly wall of thorns), DR 10/magic and slashing, fast healing 3, +4 on grapple mods, resistance to cold and electricity, tremorsense, +6 strength, +2 dexterity, +4 constitution, +4 charisma (this alone makes it strictly better than augment summoning if you don't care about the type change for buff reasons), and some skill bonuses. That's a ridiculous amount of power in a single feat, especially for grappling creatures, and especially for creatures you're summoning in groups, and especially for all creatures all the time. I usually avoid the feat because it's just too frigging powerful for my blood (a group that also contains venomfire and planar shepherd).



I intend to pick companion spellbond in the future but I don't understand how the natural bond can help me. I don't intend to go for a prestige class. How does companion spellbond affect a wild elf druid?
Natural bond increases your effective druid level by three relative to your animal companion, up to your druid level. For your dire wolf friend, your effective level relative to the animal companion is your level minus six. This makes it your level minus three. This is always exactly enough to bump your place in the animal companion progression up by one. Also, companion spellbond affects a wild elf druid the same way it affects any druid, which is by letting your bite of the weretiger casting count for double. It seems really frigging tricky to actually maintain a shared spell for any length of time without spellbond, so you'd normally just cast it either on you or him.

[Coidzor]

As for Awakening your pet, it'll lose every bonus it gets from being your AC. In many cases, this will be a huge drop in power.

Greenbound Summoning is straight up better than augment summoning. It provides larger static bonuses to stats, in addition to giving a ton of useful abilities. Better grappling, armor, elemental resistance, damage reduction, fast healing, and entangle and wall of thorns. Summoning 1d4+1 wall of thorns is amazing battlefield control. The feat it totally broken, imo.

Yeah, without the DM making a ruling, either to create a house rule, add in some kind of homebrew, or just to clear up the grey area of what happens if the ability bonus from bonus HD is put into Intelligence for an animal there's basically no way to make an animal companion smart without combining it with a familiar or putting the animal companion bonus HD onto a Paladin's Special Mount.

The only tradeoff I can ever remember is that they're not as buffable since they're no longer animals but are instead plants. It's basically a choice between Greenbound Summoning and... Rashemi Elemental Summoning(?) as I recall.

[Spuddles]

The only tradeoff I can ever remember is that they're not as buffable since they're no longer animals but are instead plants. It's basically a choice between Greenbound Summoning and... Rashemi Elemental Summoning(?) as I recall.

Greenbound auto-applies to all your animals, no choice. Yeah, they're plants, no animal growth on them, but plant type also gets your summons a good deal of immunities.

Rashemi Elemental Summoning only applies to Elementals you summon that have the earth or air subtype, and the template is a strict upgrade.

Most of my druids end up with both feats. Greenbound owns early game, Rashemi the mid game.

[eggynack]

The only tradeoff I can ever remember is that they're not as buffable since they're no longer animals but are instead plants. It's basically a choice between Greenbound Summoning and... Rashemi Elemental Summoning(?) as I recall.
Yeah, that's the long and short of it. The big loss is animal growth, because that spell is amazing, but a druid can live without it. I generally prefer rashemi elemental summoning, because greenbound summoning is such a butt.

[DruidAlanon]

Oh, so I won't awake my Dire wolf.

I may do so to my eagle. I really like the concept of having a clever animalistic friend. In a previous game (it was only core 3.0) the animal was treated as magic beast and was controlled by the DM.

OK so I will suggest the Greenbound feat to my DM. I'll have to explain him how broken it is since he won't realise it at first.

I didn't know that Druid can become so broken summoner.

So, is it better to pick:
Greenbound
Natural Spell
Ashbound
natural bond

Rashemi looks pretty cool for an arctic Druid, indeed. I hadn't noticed that before, I thought it was more a far east-oriented feat. Orglash looks pretty cool.

Wow, I'm kinda excited. I start to realize how can you create a broken character.

[eggynack]

I didn't know that Druid can become so broken summoner.

So, is it better to pick:
Greenbound
Natural Spell
Ashbound
natural bond

Rashemi looks pretty cool for an arctic Druid, indeed. I hadn't noticed that before, I thought it was more a far east-oriented feat. Orglash looks pretty cool.

Wow, I'm kinda excited. I start to realize how can you create a broken character.
Druids can basically become a broken anything, because they're utterly and ridiculously powerful, right out of the box. However, they're generally best at summoning, simultaneously because SNA is better for beat sticks than SM, and because summoning spontaneously is crazy. Unlike spontaneous curing, summoning is an ability with utility just about anywhere. You can freely prepare highly situational spells like wind wall, and rest safe in the knowledge that you can make those spells broadly applicable.

If you're talking pure power stuff, the order on those feats goes natural spell, greenbound summoning, and I like ashbound more than natural bond. If you do end up going rashemi, I'd skip the whole greenbound thing. Both feats are kinda bazonkers, but I like rashemi elemental summoning more in general, and it does fit the whole arctic druid thing well. I also like having access to super powered animal growth, as opposed to regular animal companion empowering animal growth.

Ultimately, there's a ton of cool stuff you can do on a druid, and you can do just about any of it within a single day's notice. You just swap out your animal companion, prepare new spells, look up a cool new wild shape form, and you're a whole new character. In this fashion, they're one of the most adaptable characters in the game, and simultaneously one of the most powerful. All of the stuff I've listed just scratches the surface, not even mentioning stuff like racial choices, ACF's, the broad feasible selection of wild shape forms, and even prestige classes, though they're rarely good on a druid. I'm about halfway (maybe) done with a handbook on the topic, though it might be awhile.

[DruidAlanon]

Ultimately, there's a ton of cool stuff you can do on a druid, and you can do just about any of it within a single day's notice

I guess I'll just find out he's possibilities as the game goes on.
At lvl 9 I have 1 hp less than the fighter (93 vs 94), spells up to lvl 5 and all the good stuff (spontaneous, good summons, animal comp, wildshape, etc). I hope I'll think out of the box in order to utilize his strengths.


I'll probably take rashemi, more compatible than greenbound to this character.

Ty for the advices. Really helped me a lot.


I'm about halfway (maybe) done with a handbook on the topic, though it might be awhile.

Looking forward to read it!

[eggynack]

I guess I'll just find out he's possibilities as the game goes on.
At lvl 9 I have 1 hp less than the fighter (93 vs 94), spells up to lvl 5 and all the good stuff (spontaneous, good summons, animal comp, wildshape, etc). I hope I'll think out of the box in order to utilize his strengths.
Yeah, a druid with a dog animal companion, wild shaped into a second dog, and with all of his slots filled with detect poison, is more powerful than a fighter at level 9. You can just spontaneously convert all of your spells, wild shape into something awesome, and not care about the dog. Adaptation can be done on a moment to moment basis in this fashion.



Looking forward to read it!
Thanks. Currently 22,975 words deep into it, which I believe makes it longer than every currently existing handbook on the topic. Druids are just ridiculously dense like that.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, a druid with a dog animal companion, wild shaped into a second dog, and with all of his slots filled with detect poison, is more powerful than a fighter at level 9. You can just spontaneously convert all of your spells, wild shape into something awesome, and not care about the dog. Adaptation can be done on a moment to moment basis in this fashion.

Thanks. Currently 22,975 words deep into it, which I believe makes it longer than every currently existing handbook on the topic. Druids are just ridiculously dense like that.

And hey, if the dog dies he just gets replaced for an investment of nothing other than time, whereas the fighter has to either not be attached enough to his character to re-roll or costs money to bring back unless you're right on him to last breath/revivify him.

Well, that made me sit up and take notice. You had my attention. Now you have my interest.

[eggynack]

Well, that made me sit up and take notice. You had my attention. Now you have my interest.
Thanks also to you. It should come out pretty neat at some point. The currently existing handbooks on the topic have a bunch of holes in them. I don't think that any of them have any actual ACF related advice, and the spell sections are a bit limited in the amount that they say. Some of these druid spells are ridiculously complicated.