Good Druid Item Selection

[CrazyYanmega]

I am designing a character for a campaign and have a budget of 36,000 GP to spend. I've already bought two wands of Cure Light Wounds, an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, and a Wilding Clasp. I was wondering what else I should buy with my remaining 24,500 GP.

[Hiro Quester]

ring of the beast 8000. Cast SNA spells as though they were a spell level lower (cast SNA3 and get SNA4 creatures).

A monk's belt. Add wis to AC. Or a set of dragonskin armor with wilding clasp.

Periapt of wisdom.

A rod of extend spell is useful gp for preparing extended buff spells.

EDIT: get your party members to split the cost of the healing wands. It should not be your responsibility to pay for party healing.

[Troacctid]

Instead of a Periapt of Wisdom, add a Wisdom bonus to your Amulet of Mighty Fists. It costs the same, thanks to the Magic Item Compendium rules for common magical effects, and you only need one Wilding Clasp.

Ring of the Beast (Complete Champion) is a must-buy. It's fantastic. Note that you can use summon nature's ally IV to spontaneously summon unicorns, each of whom will heal a total of 5d8+20 hit points. With a Ring of the Beast, you can use a 3rd level spell slot to summon one of them, a 4th level slot to summon 1d3, or a 5th level slot to summon 1d4+1. This is typically better for healing than using a wand of cure light wounds.

Circlet of Mages (Magic Item Compendium) is pretty good. It gives you a minor boost to Concentration and lets you retain up to 3 spell levels' worth of spell slots per day, for only 5000 gp. Use up the charges before or between wildshapes and it won't matter that it merges into your new form. You could also pick up some standard Pearls of Power, although they're not as cost-effective.

[Venger]

I am designing a character for a campaign and have a budget of 36,000 GP to spend. I've already bought two wands of Cure Light Wounds, an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, and a Wilding Clasp. I was wondering what else I should buy with my remaining 24,500 GP.

eggynack is the druid guy here. now that I've summoned him by invoking his name, I'm sure he will appear soon.

amulet of mighty fists is trash. it's a lot more expensive than it needs to be. use a necklace of natural weapons instead, it does the same thing (and more) for cheaper.

if you care at all about AC, using fun shapes like cave ankylosaurus, wild is a cute armor enhancement, letting you enjoy armor while shaped.

[CrazyYanmega]

Where do I find an necklace of natural attacks? Also, isn't that only for one natural attack?

[defiantdan]

Honestly the necklace should be for your animal companion.

Items I recommend: Skin of kaletor (mantle), wilding clasp + monk's belt, Ring of the Beast, imbued summoner's totem, rod of lesser extend.

[CrazyYanmega]

Everyone is recommending the Monk's Belt, but I don't see where it grants a Wisdom Bonus to AC. It clearly gives the AC bonus conferred in the AC Bonus column in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm).

[defiantdan]

Everyone is recommending the Monk's Belt, but I don't see where it grants a Wisdom Bonus to AC. It clearly gives the AC bonus conferred in the AC Bonus column in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm).

Check out the monk's ability class feature " AC bonus (Ex) " When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds her wisdom bonus if any to her AC. In addition, a monk gains +1 to AC at 5th level.

The monk's belt says "this AC bonus functions just like the monk's AC bonus."

[Bronk]

A monk's belt. Add wis to AC.

Not only do you get +1 AC plus your Wisdom modifier to your AC while unarmored, you also get the unarmed strike damage of a 5th level monk. While wild shaped, you could make a lethal unarmed strike iterative attack (at a higher than normal damage, and adjusted for size) and follow that up with your natural attacks as secondaries.

[Warrnan]

I once played a spell focused druid with the feat quick draw and a sack full of metamagic rods at higher level.

Rods really are the only way to do much metamagic with a druid. I used quicken, repeat, twinned, and chain spell Rods for a very great effect.

[Hiro Quester]

Where do I find an necklace of natural attacks? Also, isn't that only for one natural attack?

Amulet of mighty fists is good value if you have three or more natural attacks. And your unarmed strike is a natural attack, too. So in many wildshape forms you get bonuses to UAS and bite, claw, claw.

Note, though, that while your UAS damage dice go up, you don't get the improved UAS feat, so your UAS can provoke an attack of opportunity.

Necklace of natural attacks is better value if you want to enhance only one or two natural or unarmed attacks.

[Venger]

Where do I find an necklace of natural attacks? Also, isn't that only for one natural attack?
savage species. no. you can buy it for as many nat atks as you feel like.

[CrazyYanmega]

What I meant is that each necklace (which you can only wear one of) can only affect one type of natural attack.

[Venger]

What I meant is that each necklace (which you can only wear one of) can only affect one type of natural attack.

it doesn't say that.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't want to spend gold on something you can get from a spell buff. Assuming you're 9th level, you should be casting Greater Resistance, (Lesser Rod of Extended) Heart of Water, (Lesser Rod of Extended) Luminous Armor, Primal Instinct/Senses, etc.

If I were spending 36,000 gp on a Druid, these would be the top contenders (you won't have enough for all of this):

Monk's Belt (13,000 gp), you get unarmed strikes which gain iterative attacks regardless of form, and you can use your natural weapons as secondary attacks. You also add your Wis bonus +1 to your AC when unarmored.

Wilding Clasp for the belt (4,000 gp), note that the item 'continues to function' when wild shaped, which includes both magical and mundane functions. One function of a belt is to hold other items, which it continues to do, so any wands, rods, or other objects you're carrying on your belt won't need a wilding clasp of their own.

Lesser Metamagic Rods of Extend (3,000 gp each), put them on your belt and use them with buffs (Greater Magic Fang, Heart of Water, Luminous Armor) and offensive spells (Creeping Cold).

Standard Strand of Prayer Beads missing the Bead of Smiting (9,000 gp according to the DMG), it has a Bead of Karm and a Bead of Healing, you can put it on your belt. Use the Bead of Karma before your long duration buffs (Lesser Rod of Extended Greater Magic Fang give +3 and lasts 26 hours this way), the Bead of Healing is extremely handy. Cast your buffs just before you rest so you can cast them again during the day if they get dispelled.

Rod of Bodily Restoration (3,100 gp, MIC), put it on your belt and use it to fix the Str damage sacrifice that occurs when Luminous Armor ends.

Ten Unguent of Timelessness (1,500 gp) applied to eighty Bone Talisman (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a) (Turning) spell foci. Thread them onto a loop of string like beads and hang it from your belt. Cast that with a Lesser Rod of Extend and your Bead of Karma active and the unguent makes it last almost 66 days. You can reuse those same bones for the spell as many times as you want and the unguent will never wear off. Make sure they're arranged on the loop in order of longest remaining duration to shortest remaining duration, always cast it on an unused one that's moved to the longest remaining duration end, always use them from the shortest remaining duration end and then move the spent ones onto a twist in the loop to keep them separate. This allows you to Turn Undead as though you were a 13th level Cleric, since it's based on your caster level when Bone Talisman is cast.

Wands of Lesser Vigor (750 gp each), each charge cures 11 hp, so it's more efficient than a Wand of CLW. If you need stronger/faster healing, use the Bead of Healing or cast SNA IV for a Unicorn.

Ring of the Beast (8,000 gp, CC) makes your Summon Nature's Ally spells summon creatures as though they were one level higher, but no higher than your highest level spells. At 9th level, SNA V still summons the same stuff (since it's your highest level available), or SNA IV is treated as a SNA V. You can get a Unicorn with SNA III, and your SNA I can get a Dire Bat from the SNA II list. It doesn't even need a Wilding Clasp.

Any of the various Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) that you can't cover with your spell buffs or Wild Shape, though a Wilding Clasp on each can get expensive very quickly.

[eggynack]

Aside from the items that have been mentioned, I like the mantle of the beast (CC, 140), which in addition to a minor bonus allows swift action wild shape for 18,000 GP, the belt of battle (MIC, 73), which gives a couple of extra actions a day for 12,000 GP, the chronocharm of the uncaring archmage (MIC, 86), which cuts a third or less level spell, probably an SNA, down from a full round to a standard, for 500 GP (great combo with the ring of the beast), and the ring of counterspells, which costs 4,000 GP and can be stored up with dispel magic to protect all of those long term buffs you're protecting. Notably, the ring of counterspells can be applied relatively cheaply to the ring of the beast, picking up only a 2,000 GP premium instead of the 4,000 GP one you'd get off of a wilding clasp.