Druid army (level 12)

[deathwolf669]

For fun I am looking at how I can get as many minions on the field at any one go, but only using spells.

Of course there is Summon Nature's Ally, which is for use in battle, same with Summon swarm.

I have found Valiant Steed which gives me a pegasus or unicorn, I am guessing the latter is the better one to have as a minion. Liveoak is another level 6 spell, with Changestaff at level 7 to give 2 treants :D

Can anyone point more spells my way so I can gather a larger army :D

[Rebel7284]

Does it have to be pure druid? A one level dip into Holt Warden gives you domain slots and lets you rebuke plants.
Contemplative gives you another Domain that can be used to pick another type of rebuking.

[eggynack]

At seventh level spells you get cry of ysgard (BoED, 95) which gets you centaur rangers for a year. Fey ring (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) is a 6th level spell that can get you a medium or smaller fey for hours/level, which by my current understanding means either an oread (FF, 134) or a storm rider (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20040110a). There're also spells like awaken and awaken sand (Sand, 111) which grant a loose control. One mediocre option is changestones (Underdark, 57), which gets up to five less than amazing creatures for hours/level for entirely too much preparation. That's a pretty good starting list for druidic minionmancy, at least.

Edit: As for holt warden+contemplative, if you do that, you might as well skip the rebuking thing and just pick up the spell domain. The wizard list has no shortage of solid minionmancy options.

[chaos_redefined]

Initiate of Nature gives that without dipping.

Charm/Dominate Animal is another option: Find the critters you want, take control, and lead them into battle.

[eggynack]

Initiate of Nature gives that without dipping.
True, though holt warden is sweet. The combination I mentioned actually puts the spell domain spells in the plant domain slots, and I'm pretty sure that you're allowed to spontaneously convert those plant domain spells into SNA's. Nifty stuff. Also, druids be feat starved. Initiate of nature is pretty neat also though.


Charm/Dominate Animal is another option: Find the critters you want, take control, and lead them into battle.
Charm, perhaps, dominate, very much not. The duration just doesn't work.

[deathwolf669]

I had forgotten about Initiate of Nature.

Not sure if I can get Forgotten realms stuff passed the DM yet, but will try at level 15 :D

Can anyone point out more spells that give me an army?

EDIT: I forgot to say I will be sticking pure druid as I want my level 20 bonuses :D

[Ruethgar]

It isn't a spell, but Urban Druid can get you infinite minions at level 1.

[eggynack]

EDIT: I forgot to say I will be sticking pure druid as I want my level 20 bonuses :D
Huge elemental form isn't really better than what you're doing otherwise, which is usually going to be dire tortoise form. Also, a wild shape amulet (MoF, 167) can increase your effective wild shape level by four, which solves issues of this variety to some extent.

[Invader]

There's the best ability in the game, "calvary of dire bears" If you decide you're willing to leave druid :smallbiggrin:

[deathwolf669]

Guys I'm looking mainly for what I can do now at level 12 for a bit of fun. I have a feeling my DM won't let me run an army of minions as he it funny when I took leadership last time, even though my turns for 2 people and an ac were less than the other players for their one person :(

[eggynack]

Druids just don't have that much native access to minionmancy, at least as compared to wizards or clerics. The list I presented isn't necessarily a perfect and complete one, but it goes pretty deep for the limited results being conjured forth. Ultimately, if you want something much more extensive than this, you're probably going to need to build towards it a little, possibly through adding rebuking, or possibly through adding spells with contemplative, or possibly through both simultaneously, because that's what you get when you combine holt warden and contemplative.

With nothing but basic druid stuff, your best option, outside of valiant steed, is probably fey ring, cause calling up fey is kinda neat. Also, the minionmancy list was missing phantom stag (SpC, 157) before for some reason, and now it is not, because I listed it just now. I've always liked that spell. You can pull together some other vaguely creature-like resources, like wood wose (SpC, 242) or maybe even beget bogun (SpC, 26) if you're going really deep, but that is kinda outside of the bounds of minionmancy or really crappy respectively, so that is what that is. Such is the nature of things.

[deathwolf669]

I will build on it, as I write my full druid spell list out so I know what I have to pick from :D