[PF] Druid fighting style, what's best?

[Occasional Sage]

If you were building a Wildshape-focused druid, what three-feat fighting style chain would you consider The Best? Assume you're starting play at first level in a balanced party, with no foreknowledge of the DM's combat style.

[Spuddles]

I would want natural spell, improved natural attack (bite) and vital strike.

Early feats would be spent on improving animal companion or spell casting. Extend spell metamagic + magical lineage (produce flame) trait would be fairly solid dps. Can also put empower on that later.

Alternatively, spell focus: conjuration & augment summoning.

The feat that makes animal companion's share spell like 3.5 share spell ability would also be good, but not sure what level you can pick that up on.

Power attack & furious focus would also be solid, especially with shillelgh. Later on, as a huge dinosaur, it gets even better.

Yeah ignore the previous stuff- power attack, furious focus, natural spell, improved natural attack (bite), and vital strike, in that order.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Natural Spell, Power Attack, and Cornugon Smash.

And I would avoid the Vital Strike line like the plague unless you plan to devote your entire build to min-maxing it: turning into a behemoth hippo, getting Imp. Natural Attack, casting Strongjaw, and dipping out the last 4 character levels in a mix of Barbarian (for Furious Finish feat) and Fighter (so you actually GET a feat at 20th level when you hit BAB +16) so you have the BAB to obtain Greater Vital Strike. Oh, and Power Attack, of course.

[magotter]

I can't say I know any great feats for multiple-natural-attack shapes (like dire tiger), and the single-heavy-hitting feat lines have already been discussed. But all the same, I'm more inclined to fight with a focus on defense than offense, and there's more versatility to things like Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack than people realize.

Additionally, for a druid Teamwork flanking fights aren't out of the question if you have a tanky/fighty companion, since you can set up for flanking semi-easily. Pouncing is nice, but as I've learned from playing a Pounce-centered Barb/Alchemist, it can be a pain in the ass to set up at times.

With this in mind, here's a smattering of feats I like:
Combat Casting - even with Natural Spell, you won't always be able to take that needed 5-foot-step to cast safely. This doesn't fix, but does mitigate that.

Combat Expertise/Imp. Trip/Felling Smash - no doubt you're going to get Power Attack; it's fantastic. This lets you get a free trip whenever you use it, and is perfect set up for your companion. Teamwork, yeah?

Combat Reflexes - large forms get reach, and if you have modest Dex, this turns you into a living Wall of Thorns. Well, Pillar of thorns, but being a living battlefield control will make you mage happy.




Alternately, I've been trying to find more synergy between Druid and Monk over in another thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306267), since dipping the latter seems to be a really good synergistic choice for divine casters.

If you dip monk for any length, and regardless of archetype the Crane Style and Snake Style chains offer large defensive buffs for melee fighting, as well as the opportunity to make 1 or more "riposte" style attacks each round.

Having all 3 Crane Feats makes Fighting Defensively offer only a -1 attack penalty for a +3 (+4 with the Dodge Prereq) AC bonus. It also grants the ability to negate and then riposte 1 melee attack per round.

Having all 3 Snake Feats lets all unarmed strikes do piercing. 1/round you can make a Sense Motive check and use that result as AC against an attack. And as icing any time someone misses you, you get a counterattack as an AoO (basically requires Combat Reflexes and good Dex, but fine for those builds).