Building party for decently experienced player, new dm. Also building my ss druid.

[Curunir471]

So, one of my d&d groups folded on me so I set out to rebuild it. I finally ended up just grabbing one of the players from the old group and another from another group I am a part of and making a small group that way.

The dm has 4 or 5 years of experience playing, not a power gamer but does play strong characters usually built a central theme, but wanted to give dm'ing a try. I have the most experience, not really a power gamer but I enjoy playing strong all around characters, with 12 years under my belt, but I really don't enjoy dm'ing. This was just some background so you can give informed advice.

On to the characters in the party of four,

Lesser aasimar *ninja* 1(for Wisdom to ac)/ Shape shift druid x/ *awesome recommended prc* x (my character)
Xeph psion, kineticist
*some kind of melee monster*
*need help*

I would really appreciate help with the party composition and a build for my character.

Thanks in advance, Curunir.

[Trasilor]

So, one of my d&d groups folded on me so I set out to rebuild it. I finally ended up just grabbing one of the players from the old group and another from another group I am a part of and making a small group that way.

The dm has 4 or 5 years of experience playing, not a power gamer but does play strong characters usually built a central theme, but wanted to give dm'ing a try. I have the most experience, not really a power gamer but I enjoy playing strong all around characters, with 12 years under my belt, but I really don't enjoy dm'ing. This was just some background so you can give informed advice.

On to the characters in the party of four,

Lesser aasimar *ninja* 1(for Wisdom to ac)/ Shape shift druid x/ *awesome recommended prc* x (my character)
Xeph psion, kineticist
*some kind of melee monster*
*need help*

I would really appreciate help with the party composition and a build for my character.

Thanks in advance, Curunir.

First, do not confuse "Power Gamer" with optimization. The former is a type of player who only takes things b/c of their mechanical benefits. While the latter tries to make the best character based on available resources.

So, I am not really sure what you are asking here. Are you asking help with your build? Help building the Party?

What Books are allowed? Any house rules in effect? What level are you starting at?

Ninja do not get a AC bonus based on Wisdom. Did you mean Monk? Also, what is a "shape shift druid"? A druid who focuses on shape shifting?

[torrasque666]

Your statement about ninjas is undeniably false.


AC Bonus (Ex): A ninja is highly trained at dodging blows, and she has a sixth sense that lets her avoid even unanticipated attacks. When unarmored and unencumbered, a ninja adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her Armor Class. This ability does not stack with the monk’s AC bonus ability (a ninja with levels of monk does not add the bonus twice). In addition, a ninja gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five ninja levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when a ninja is flat-footed. The character loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Emphasis mine.

[Demidos]

So, one of my d&d groups folded on me so I set out to rebuild it. I finally ended up just grabbing one of the players from the old group and another from another group I am a part of and making a small group that way.

The dm has 4 or 5 years of experience playing, not a power gamer but does play strong characters usually built a central theme, but wanted to give dm'ing a try. I have the most experience, not really a power gamer but I enjoy playing strong all around characters, with 12 years under my belt, but I really don't enjoy dm'ing. This was just some background so you can give informed advice.

On to the characters in the party of four,

Lesser aasimar *ninja* 1(for Wisdom to ac)/ Shape shift druid x/ *awesome recommended prc* x (my character)
Xeph psion, kineticist
*some kind of melee monster*
*need help*

I would really appreciate help with the party composition and a build for my character.

Thanks in advance, Curunir.

Melee Monster possibilities -- For experienced players: Totemist, TOB Less Experienced: Pounce Barbarian 1/Fighter or Feat Rogue with intimidate (fighter allows zhentarim (better intimidate) while rogue allows skill points (scouting/utility capabilities)).

Depending on your druid's intended role, you seem to have DPS (Psion), DPS/Tank (Melee), and Tank/Secondary Healer/BFC/Summoner (Druid). You could use a buffer/debuffer with secondary healing (Cleric, War-Weaver (PRC), Dread Necromancer, Bard)

There really aren't any druid PRC's that are utterly mindboggling other than Moonspeaker and Planar Shepard, but a Planar Shepard that plays nice with the DM (no infinite actions) would likely be acceptable, especially if you focus more on buffing.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Is there a reason you can't just buy a Monk's Belt instead of taking a level of Ninja? As for Druid PrCs, Demidos pretty much has it right. Moonspeaker is good if you want to focus on summoning but requires being a Shifter (they're awesome but not everyones cup of tea).
Planar Shepherd... there isn't really a way to use it that isn't too strong for most campaigns unless you totally disregard the majority of its abilities. Unless you deliberately pick a plane and wild shape forms that don't benefit you you'll be stronger than a normal druid, and normal druids are already too strong for a lot of DMs if played to their full potential.

A single classed druid can greatly benefit from dips though. Contemplative 1 is popular for relatively easy qualifications and giving domain access (Luck domain gives you Miracle and thus any 8th level or lower cleric spell, for example). Holt Warden 1 gets you domain slots and knowledge:religion as a class skill, so those two have a nice synergy.
You can specialize but druids are already great generalists and you can build on that with your feat selection. Aberration Wild Shape and Dragon Wild Shape are the two "big" Wild Shape enhancers, Ashbound, Greenbound Summoning and Rashemi Elemental Summoning improve your summons and Companion Spellbond makes your animal companion more useful.
Select one or two feats per category, round it out with a little metamagic and you're pretty much done unless you want something more specialized.

I don't really play much melee so there's probably better people to comment on that one. I did have a ton of fun the one time i played a Swordsage though, so i can recommend that if the player doesn't know what to choose.

For the last slot you'll probably want an arcanist of some type, but pretty much anything is fine. You already have most stuff covered between a druid and a psion.

[Curunir471]

For those who don't know what a shapeshift druid is http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1063741.

@Trasilor
I am looking for help putting together an effective party as well as my own character. The person playing the psion and I will both be playing two characters for this campaign.

All books allowed on a case by case basis, same with homebrew (if it matters).

Stats are rolled, mine are high enough I can basically do what I want for classes. Also, we play that class skills transfer from class to class, ie: I take a level of ninja and some of ss druid, I don't have to buy open lock as a cc skill as I know it from ninja.

We are starting at level one.

A shapeshift druid is a variant from the PHB2 that takes away wildshape and your animal companion and in return gives you shapeshifting into limited forms at will as a swift action.

@Demidos

Thanks for the recommendations, I will definitely think about that for tonight. As for TOB would you recommend a crusader for tankiness? (at least I think that's a word)

@SleepyPhoenixx

We are starting at level one and as an ss druid my predator form would have a very low ac without the wisdom ac boost as they can't wear armor or use magic items to boost it, unless I outfit that form separately from my natural one. Also, we needed a skill monkey.

The shape shift variant of the druid class gets rid of wildshape and explicitly states that you cant cast in that form, it also says that wildshape feats are useless for this class.

Thanks for all of the help playgrounders. I would love to see some homebrew options for prc's.