Druid/Planar Shepard.

[m149307]

Ok, so I am making a Druid 5/Planar Shepard 10 character for a high OP campaign. I was wondering if it is a good idea to go with a Fleshrake Companion (using Venomfire to help it's damage output), and using the Dal Quor plane. I am curious, what is a recommended race for this build, and also what are some recommended wild shapes (and books that they are in please).

[Inevitability]

Use the Far Realms as your plane instead. Infinite turns and the implied ability to kill everything that is close to you? Sounds like something one should expect in a high op 3.5 game. :smalltongue:

[sideswipe]

Use the Far Realms as your plane instead. Infinite turns and the implied ability to kill everything that is close to you? Sounds like something one should expect in a high op 3.5 game. :smalltongue:

he said high op not TO lol

any way to give your fleshraker a higher int score and a few class levels and feats? the it could take the ubercharger route too :smallbiggrin:

[m149307]

Dont think it can get class levels... but any suggestions on race and feats?

[sideswipe]

anth- bat for the wisdom

[m149307]

What is the LA for that?

[Divide by Zero]

What is the LA for that?

It's in Savage Species, LA +0.

[m149307]

Anything better for a higher LA? My DM is allowing up to LA+2 for free

[Divide by Zero]

Are templates allowed? If so, your best bet is probably going to be anthrobat with a template or two.

[sideswipe]

anth bat with a +2 la template like saint, half celestial. something like that.

or anth owl with a +1 la template.

i like anth animals ....


now that i think of it, if +2 is free, then you could take pixie at +4 making it +2 by his rules, and then if he allows level adjust buy off you could buy it all off for a +0 LA pixie...

[Kalaska'Agathas]

Anthropomorphic Bat Saint is probably the way to go, with a free +2 LA. Wild Shapes are going to depend on which plane you choose, since you get all Outsiders and Magical Beasts native to that plane (as I recall). What are you looking to get out of, with your planar bubble? Dal Quor is pretty great, given the free flight and 10:1 action ratio. I'm not sure how it stands up as far as Wild Shape forms, however.

[sideswipe]

Anthropomorphic Bat Saint is probably the way to go, with a free +2 LA. Wild Shapes are going to depend on which plane you choose, since you get all Outsiders and Magical Beasts native to that plane (as I recall). What are you looking to get out of, with your planar bubble? Dal Quor is pretty great, given the free flight and 10:1 action ratio. I'm not sure how it stands up as far as Wild Shape forms, however.

i thought the point of dal quor was it has all wild shapes? im sure it was something like that.

and do not forget assume supernatural ability for a feat!

[Kalaska'Agathas]

i thought the point of dal quor was it has all wild shapes? im sure it was something like that.

and do not forget assume supernatural ability for a feat!

It might be so, but the only solid source which I could find off hand listed it as "All Quori" and that was it. Hence my uncertainty.

Assume Supernatural Ability is less critical with Planar Shepherd, since it gives you all Ex:, Su:, and Sp: abilities for your elemental and outsider forms.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Phrenic is pretty good for 2 free LA.


i thought the point of dal quor was it has all wild shapes? im sure it was something like that.

and do not forget assume supernatural ability for a feat!

The main point of choosing Dal'quor is the 10:1 time ratio that it applies to your planar bubble. It's inhabitants are defined (and rather limited and not all that impressive at that) in ECS. The one that grants all shapes is the normal (non-eberron) Plane of Dreams from the Manual of the Planes.

Also, Planar Shepherds get (Su) abilities automatically, so you don't really need ASA. If you want it for non-outsider/elemental shapes, Phrenic and Metamorphic Transfer are probably a better idea despite the limited uses, because it's more flexible.

[m149307]

Just realized I cant do saint cuz I volunteered to be CN. Any other suggestions? An. What about feats?

[Phelix-Mu]

The high-op of feats are things like Greenbound Summoning, Rashemi Elemental Summoning, and...umm...Natural Spell. Yeah, it is hard to get much more broke than Natural Spell. Others are things like Exalted Wild Shape, Exalted Companion, Aberrant Wild Shape, and lesser forms of Wild Shape op like...was it Beckon the Frozen? No, that can't be right. There are two of them from Frostburn is all I recall.

If you are going CN and Dal'Quor, then I suppose Aberrant Wild Shape is out, along with the Exalted stuff. Not sure if you can swing the same aberration shapes with the planar shapes, but if you can't that might be flavorful and useful.

I like to tack a Reserve feat of maybe Craft Staff on a druid, to extend my spell supply even further (but I'm a tad paranoid like that...must be my 2e experience talking).

Also, I thought Xoriat was the 10:1 time thingy? What does Xoriat do?

As for templates, it's hard to get more flavor potential (and squick potential) than Daelkyr Half-Blood, which is maybe from Magic of Eberron. Really good if you want to turn your character into a total freak. The non-epic Pseudonatural is also worth a note, although it is perhaps sub-optimal.

I'd go with Phrenic. It's a strong choice all around. Half-fey has similar utility, but perhaps narrower due to the enchantment focus of the SLAs (in some areas).

[eggynack]

and lesser forms of Wild Shape op like...was it Beckon the Frozen? No, that can't be right. There are two of them from Frostburn is all I recall.

I think you're looking for frozen wild shape on this one. Beckon the frozen is an also sub-par yet occasionally reasonable feat, this time focused on summoning.

[Phelix-Mu]

I think you're looking for frozen wild shape on this one. Beckon the frozen is an also sub-par yet occasionally reasonable feat, this time focused on summoning.

Yes, that is the one. I believe the other one that I was thinking of might have been Powerful Wild Shape, but that is tied to races with Powerful Build, which is highly situational given the rarity of that racial. Still very sub-par compared to the best ones, generally Aberrant WS, Exalted WS, Dragon WS.

Speaking of which, eggy, is the epic Dragon WS any better than the non-epic one? Cause that would be sad if that were the case. I recall the non-epic one feeling a bit lackluster in the big scheme of things (in which basic WS gets you dire tortoise, which beats the Nine Hells out of most WS forms that can't fly).

[eggynack]

Speaking of which, eggy, is the epic Dragon WS any better than the non-epic one? Cause that would be sad if that were the case. I recall the non-epic one feeling a bit lackluster in the big scheme of things (in which basic WS gets you dire tortoise, which beats the Nine Hells out of most WS forms that can't fly).
Basic dragon does do some cool stuff, including a rainbow of immunities, really amazing movement modes (frigging meteor dragon), and wacky abilities. Probably between exalted and aberration in power level. Epic has to be much better than standard though, as you're pretty unlimited in size category. I recall that being a really serious limitation when I was running my own search through dragon forms for regular dragon wild shape. You open up a lot of new age categories on already existing dragons, as well as a pile of completely new dragons to use. Can't really say the exact level of power increase without doing research though. A quick search through places where dragons be didn't reveal anything particularly insane, but there're a lot of dragons out there. Gotta be some way to break the game with that.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The epic Dragon Wild Shape is explicitly limited to the MM1 dragons. Which is a shame because they're kind of underwhelming as far as dragon shapes go.
Even if you can get your DM to waive that restriction you're still limited by the generally high HD that older dragons get.

[eggynack]

The epic Dragon Wild Shape is explicitly limited to the MM1 dragons. Which is a shame because they're kind of underwhelming as far as dragon shapes go.
One could argue that that's not an exclusive list, but rather just a list of dragons that exists, though you'd probably have to also argue the same for standard elemental wild shape and elemental summoning, which is a problematic thing in and of itself. Pretty tragic little decision there, though it's all on the drop in the bucket side of things as epic doings go.

[Phelix-Mu]

One could argue that that's not an exclusive list, but rather just a list of dragons that exists, though you'd probably have to also argue the same for standard elemental wild shape and elemental summoning, which is a problematic thing in and of itself. Pretty tragic little decision there, though it's all on the drop in the bucket side of things as epic doings go.

Really makes me wonder about whether there were any connection in design concept between the epic and normal versions (or any awareness one of the other), because they seem to go in pretty divergent directions there.

Sadly, that is a flaw of many epic feats. They seriously misjudged just what scope of power was needed to keep the game interesting past 20th; most of the epic feats are boring or almost useless compared to items (even non-epic items). The rest are largely totally unhinged and break already broken parts of the game in new and alarming ways (Epic Spellcasting, Multispell, Improved Elemental Wild Shape, Improved Spell Capacity to a lesser extent). Meanwhile mundanes totally get shafted.

But we are decently veering off the topic. Baically, check out Dragon Wild Shape, in Draconomicon. It's pretty good, from what I hear, and doesn't care about your alignment. Added Bonus: You're a f@%#ing dragon!!

[Threadnaught]

Use the Far Realms as your plane instead. Infinite turns and the implied ability to kill everything that is close to you? Sounds like something one should expect in a high op 3.5 game. :smalltongue:

Let's see, an hour passes on the material plane for every minute spent in Xoriat (which is Eberron's version of the Far Realms).

So instead of Dal Quor's 10:1 ratio, you'd get 1:60 ratio. Yeah, better off without the Planar Bubble, or just use Dal Quor for 600x the speed of a Xoriat Bubble.