Druid Build assistance

[AWiz_Abroad]

Hey all,

For my own education into the ancient and noble art of druid-ness. . . druidry . . . .drewishness? However you say it, I'm working on building a druid all the way up into early epic levels. As I typically play the arcane caster, any assistance would be appreciated.

Stipulations
1. Pathfinder feat progression (1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29) + any bonus feats. Other than that, 3.5 rules. UA Flaws are fine (two only).
2. I'm well aware that Planar shepherd is borked, and I'm not going to that level of insanity
3. I'm probably going to want to not focus on minion-mancy (despite how well the class does it).
4. Final level ECL: 30.
5. LA Buyoff is in effect
6. 32 pt buy
7. Role in the party: Primary caster

We are talking epic threats, so optimization is a good good thing.

[Red Fel]

What sources? Are we talking 3.P here, or 3.5 (with Pathfinder feat progression), or what? Settings books, core, Completes?

When it comes to Druids, I'm highly partial to Shifter Druid/Moonspeaker, myself, but you could really take Shifter Druid straight to the top and be pretty awesome that way. That said, you want to avoid minionmancy, so I might suggest skipping Moonspeaker and focusing exclusively on Shifter Druid.

What, no PrC? You heard me, straight Druid.

For your Shifter type, I'd go Dreamsight for the +2 Wis while Shifting (not that you'll use Shifting often). It also gives a bonus to Wild Empathy and Handle Animal when not Shifting, which is useful. Next, racial substitution levels: Shifter Druid 1: Beast Spirit. Take it. It replaces your animal companion with an escalating set of buffs that scales with your Druid level. Shifter Druid 4: Reckless nature. Take it. It replaces Resist Nature's Lure (mostly worthless) with +2 to Initiative and Reflex saves, at a cost of -2 to Will saves (your strong save, so it won't hurt you much). Shifter Druid 5: Wild Shifting. Skip it. Wild Shape is awesome, and Shifting is not.
Let's look at what you get from Beast Spirit: A bonus (+6 at level 20) that you can allocate to Str, Dex, or Con, and change daily Alertness +2 rounds of Shifting per day +4 to Wild Empathy and Handle Animal checks on wild animals If you fail a save against an enchantment, try again next round Temporarily transfer the effects of your Beast Spirit to any animal you have summoned The ability to prepare an additional spell per day (6th level or lower) that your Beast Spirit can cast on you as a free action The ability to use Summon Nature's Ally as a standard action instead of a full round The Extra Shifter Trait feat
Now, I will say that, if you're up for it, Moonspeaker is a great PrC. And if you take it to 11, it gives you your primary Shifter trait at all times, meaning that +2 Wis is now a permanent boost. But it is a fairly minionmancy-heavy class.

[AWiz_Abroad]

What sources? Are we talking 3.P here, or 3.5 (with Pathfinder feat progression), or what? Settings books, core, Completes?.

3.5 with Pathfinder Feat Progression. Full 3.5 books (Minus BoVD)

[eggynack]

I would strongly advise picking up aberration wild shape, because it's ridiculous. It's probably also worth picking up one of the big summoning feats, probably rashemi elemental summoning if you're headed into high levels, because it's such a low cost for the reward even if you're not summoning that much. It helps that you have ridiculous feat access. As for moonspeaker, it is my opinion that the optimal breakpoint is level four rather than any other level, though going all in for gate is decent given your intended high level direction.

Beyond that, if you're focusing on casting, then the best way to optimize is spell selection. At least up until epics, anyway, when it's strictly about epic spell use, which feels different. You can always go with the holt warden+contemplative dip combo to add awesome spells/day, probably from the spell domain, but things are still going to be mostly about that list. For that purpose, I could send my somewhat incomplete druid handbook if you'd like, which has bunches o' spells, as well as one of the better aberration wild shape lists, and also most other things.