Idea gathering for 4x Themed lvl 12 druids + other stuff

[Xervous]

Firstly, I'll begin with a polite request for my players to stay out... If I discover that you have peeked in on this, just know that you were fairly warned (and that you may want to draft up a third temp character for this).


Pleasantries aside, the story as it is going shall see my players, wielding a temp party, delve into an extremely lethal forest in search of a minor artifact.


The four druids will be elementally themed as per fire, storm, water, and earth.

I am looking for feats, spells, wildshape forms, and appropriate animal companions to complement the themes I have developed. Houserules have the feat accumulation reach 25 by level 10, so don't hold back any suggestions for feats. The setting prevents the use of summoning spells and potential access to some forms.

I don't want the druids to be absolute BFC monsters, the players should be able to defeat them, but that doesn't mean it has to be easy.

The fire druid will focus on heavily metamagicked fire spells, searing twin repeat etc. Though I don't have much more thought out beyond that.

The storm druid is going to open up with control winds and then liberally apply electricity based spells with an occasional sprinkling of a daze mitigated Born of the Three Thunders.

The water/ice/cold druid is going to drop a blizzard possibly coupling it with binding snow and corona of cold, wildshape into a cryohydra. This might not be enough for the party.

The earth druid is going to make use of the various stone manipulating spells to hamper the party while using a durable wildshape form and animal companion to grind them down.

Suggest multiple animal companions, I may end up placing the creatures in as filler.


Also, any odd or bizarre monstrosities are welcome, especially creepy Fae or Abberation plants and their ilk. Dread blossom swarms, orcwort, etc.




This is mainly because I'm too busy to gather all this information before this saturday >_> , so thanks Playground.

[ArendK]

Make the party worry;
A favored trick of mine, especially if the enemy himself isn't that terrifiying, is to alter the terrain that the normal tricks that the party will want to use becomes a very, very bad idea.

For instance;
Your Cryohydra; IIRC, Water-Walk/breathing is very easy for a druid as a spell or option at the level needed for a cryohydra. Have the blizzard be substantial enough to freeze (at least a few feet worth, enough to support the party and the hydra) a lake fairly quickly (depending on the party, 3-10 rounds to make it a challenge).
-Protection from Energy (Fire). I can't remember if you get the Fire Immunity or not with the shift. Either way, it's a good plan.
-Have Fire-Storm prepared. Fire Seeds could work too.
-If you have a nice forest, and a sufficiently high level druid should be able to alter the terrain as he deems fit. So make a nice deep lake. Add in some trees that thrive or can provide cover and keep aerial bombardment to a minimum from the party (unless that is something you want to counter, but that takes up actions and unless you spam SNA or have other mooks, not something that you can spare).
-Speaking of Mooks; get creative; a cold-resistant race that can swim and breath underwater. Ogres with the Cold subtype as were-crocodiles would be acceptable. Ice Trolls could work too. Tack on a level or two of barbarian. Reach weapons (keep it simple, longspears or something akin to that), or just keep it to claws.

Party approaches, let them get close. Protection from fire is already up on the druid. Morph into cryohydra, begin attack as necessary with mooks.
With a cryohydra, someone is going to try AoE fire (fireball, flamestrike, etc. etc). AoE fire is good in this situation. We want them to do this. Especially if like a lot of parties, they don't think about what they are actually standing on. Until the fire comes out, I'd houserule that there is enough traction on the snow to avoid slipping. Because it is when the ice starts melting that things start getting slick. If they do not want to use AoE fire, then that is why we have Fire Storm and Fire Seed ready. Drop those where necessary.
Of course, ice melting is good. Very fun. Watch as the party's melee option either closes or they are forced to backpedal in lieu of no terrain able to support them or they can drop into the water. It's going to be cold. Remember some of those were-crocs? They are there. Adjust based on the unfortunate person in the freezing water (maybe 1 for a caster, 2-3 someone more competent fighting in the water).

Depending on how hard the party fights and how much preparation they have, this is a good set-up to keep a party on their toes.