Looking for a guiding hand to get me started

[Catalystphoenix]

Hello everyone and thank you in advance. I am just getting into 3.5. I haven't played an RPG since Early D&D and whitewolf games in like 2003. The game i am getting into is starting half way through level 6 with 22000 gc.

I have read many, I mean many threads on some ideas i had for a character. My idea at first was to play a swift hunter. I was trying to optimize a character... looked through all the characters out there with no lv adjustment. played around with some builds. I have restrictions where i can't have more then 2 classes for multiclassing. I figured i would go scout/hunter/highland stalker. Read many posts talking about optimizing. and I just got frustrated because I had no idea what to do up to level six. I have seen all the completed builds maxing out at 20 but not how to get there so I gave up. I wanted to go archery but the free feats seem meh for the build.

So I gave up on that idea. Then I started to read about Druids and basically going all in on wild shaping. I was like turning into a kick ass animal with a companion, buffing up and kicking ass. That sounds amazing. Started reading for optimizing to make sure I dont take silly feats/skills and then i started feeling just like i did with swift hunter. i am so lost and would love someone to show me the way. I am open to either a swift hunter or a druid recommendations.

Again I am starting half way through 6 help this noob out please. :smallsmile:

[ComaVision]

Scout 3/Wildshape Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) 3 with Swift Hunter? Little bit of both worlds! Get a Hawk as your animal companion for scouting, since the Ranger animal companion isn't strong.

What are the other players making?

[Flickerdart]

I would go with a druid, for these reasons:

1) Druid has a very powerful optimization floor. The only thing you need to remember is to take Natural Spell (to cast while in wild shape).
2) Druids can change their physical form on a whim, their spells every day, and their animal companion with a 24 hour ritual. If you're not liking how something works, or you read a cool thing in a thread, you can just go and decide you're doing it from now on.

[daremetoidareyo]

It seems like you're focused on doing this well.

To the detriment of having fun with it.

You simply cannot mess up druid. Take natural spell. Each level over 5 make a list of the monster forms you would like to shapeshift into, so you don't take up too much time. Then either optimize your summons or your companion: it doesn't matter which.

If you took toughness for every feat, your druid would still be a contender.

Swift hunters have more moving parts, so there are more difficulties. http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=103.47 Scroll down to Dictum Mortems post and just go for it.

[Catalystphoenix]

Scout 3/Wildshape Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) 3 with Swift Hunter? Little bit of both worlds! Get a Hawk as your animal companion for scouting, since the Ranger animal companion isn't strong.

What are the other players making?

We have a fighter who has been missing for the last two weeks i am told. a cleric, wizard, cleric/scout.

Druid to me seems to make sense to be the melee getting in the mix

[ComaVision]

We have a fighter who has been missing for the last two weeks i am told. a cleric, wizard, cleric/scout.

Druid to me seems to make sense to be the melee getting in the mix

Damn, I wouldn't want to be around if I was playing a Fighter while everyone else played Tier 1 casters either.

I would definitely go with Druid then, Swift Hunter would have difficulty keeping up. The feat Aberration Wild Shape is cool as hell.

[Catalystphoenix]

O.k. so looking at some other things that kinda came up. Wild shape amulet or skin of kaletor. adds to the level adj for wild shaping would be nice so that i can do it more often and have access to some higher lvl shapes. any advice here?

Yeah they are all level 9-10. So i wanted to optimize so that I would be contributing to the party not being carried.

[ComaVision]

O.k. so looking at some other things that kinda came up. Wild shape amulet or skin of kaletor. adds to the level adj for wild shaping would be nice so that i can do it more often and have access to some higher lvl shapes. any advice here?

Yeah they are all level 9-10. So i wanted to optimize so that I would be contributing to the party not being carried.

Great items, not sure what you're looking for advice on. The various druid handbooks have wildshape suggestions. Eggynack has a massive druid handbook that's the most in-depth D&D handbook I've seen. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvNDnsnzj4dOkkYwxl1iGTeTNnQ5PK3geufSX5DwyYo/edit)

Why are you starting so many levels behind? That's kind of ridiculous :smallconfused:

[Fouredged Sword]

We have a fighter who has been missing for the last two weeks i am told. a cleric, wizard, cleric/scout.

Druid to me seems to make sense to be the melee getting in the mix

Well, 3.5 suffers from a spread of classes that run the spectrum from being fairly useless to being able to fill ever class roll at once.

A druid can do just about any class roll. They somewhat suffer if you try to make them a rogue, but barbarian front liner is a definite.

It boils down to stat distribution and knowing your class abilities.

A barbarian has rage and focuses his stats on str/con. A druid who wants to fight like a barbarian will do the same. Be a half orc. Put 14 points in strength and 16 points in con. Make sure you maintain at least a 13 wisdom. With items you can reach 19, meaning you can cast all your spells without issue. Just make sure to keep your wisdom boosting item high enough enchanted to keep you ahead of your spell curve.

Now, you have the stats to fight in melee. You are only 2 points of BAB lower than the barbarian. You also don't have rage, so you are looking at 2 less points of strength modifier.

Well, how do you make that up? Spells!

Bite of the Werewolf. You can cast it as many times as a barbarian can rage. It grants +2 to strength, +4 to dex, +4 to con and +4 to natural armor. It lasts your caster level in rounds. You won't hit quite as hard, but you will be harder to hit.

Is that not quite making it? Boss fight being tough.

TURN INTO A CROC!

A crocodile sets your base strength to 19 and sets your base natural armor to +4. That means while wildshaped into a croc and with bite of the werewolf, you have a 21 strength, a 16 dex, and +8 natural armor. That's like being in platemail. Slap people around with your 1d12+1.5XStr damage tail. It's like having a greatax! You still get a secondary bite (at -5 to hit) for 1d8+1/2str.

You can turn into a croc 2/day, for a sum total of 12 hours of croc time. Get a pearl of speech if you want to talk to people. Get items to boost your stats.

At 8th level, you can turn into a brown bear (str 27 base!) and cast the next rung up of the bite of the wereX spells for MORE MELEE!.

[ComaVision]

Uh... Do not drop a lot into Strength or Dexterity, they are replaced by your Wild Shape stats. They're essentially dump stats. Con still does your health so don't neglect that.

[Catalystphoenix]

Why are you starting so many levels behind? That's kind of ridiculous :smallconfused:

I guess it's the tax for coming in new to the group and not working through the progression/story line with the other players.:smallbiggrin:

[nedz]

In AD&D starting 4 levels behind was fine, because the xp tables were exponential you'd catch up quickly.

In 3.5 this ain't the case. The xp tables are quadratic and if you are four levels behind then you are the bell boy. How did this happen ?

[Fouredged Sword]

I prefer to not totally dump my str when playing a low level (level < 8) melee druid. You don't want to be in wildshape all day and you don't have the uses to shift basically for each encounter. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. If you are using buffs for all your spells, you don't need anything past 19 wis. That said, DO put all your level gain stat points in wisdom. Your native strength will be completely useless after a few levels.

That said, playing 4 levels behind the group is a major problem. 3.5 doesn't really allow you to play "catchup". 1-2 levels is about the limit you can expect to be behind and still be useful. This goes triple if you want to play a tank. Melee is harsh if you lack the HD needed to get that nice stacking con to HP per HD bonus.

[Extra Anchovies]

Scout 3/Wildshape Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) 3 with Swift Hunter? Little bit of both worlds! Get a Hawk as your animal companion for scouting, since the Ranger animal companion isn't strong.

What are the other players making?

There is, by the way, no reason to take only three levels of Wildshape Ranger, because they get wild shape at level 5.

[ComaVision]

There is, by the way, no reason to take only three levels of Wildshape Ranger, because they get wild shape at level 5.

Level 6 character bruh. I definitely intended that WSR would be continued.

[Catalystphoenix]

I prefer to not totally dump my str when playing a low level (level < 8) melee druid. You don't want to be in wildshape all day and you don't have the uses to shift basically for each encounter. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. If you are using buffs for all your spells, you don't need anything past 19 wis. That said, DO put all your level gain stat points in wisdom. Your native strength will be completely useless after a few levels.

That said, playing 4 levels behind the group is a major problem. 3.5 doesn't really allow you to play "catchup". 1-2 levels is about the limit you can expect to be behind and still be useful. This goes triple if you want to play a tank. Melee is harsh if you lack the HD needed to get that nice stacking con to HP per HD bonus.

This makes me a sad panda lol. Hopefully I will be able to be kinda useful.

[ComaVision]

This makes me a sad panda lol. Hopefully I will be able to be kinda useful.

At the very least, as a druid you can be a sad panda in game.

[Catalystphoenix]

I was thinking of doing this

Lesser Aasimar characters possess the following racial traits.
Type: Humanoid
+2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma.
Medium size.
A Lesser Aasimar’s base land speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Lesser Aasimars can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Racial Skills: Lesser Aasimars have a +2 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks.
Racial Feats: A Lesser Aasimar gains feats according to its class levels.
Automatic Languages: Common, Celestial. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan.
Favored Class: Paladin.
Level adjustment +0.

Druid 6 Feats: Natural Spell,??

buying skin of kaletor increasing my wild shaping by 4 taking a hit to my charisma since i have 22000 gold.


I was thinking about the half orc as well because i saw a variant to druid where you could swap out wild empathy of bully empathy or something like that so you can use str modifier for your companion/animal interactions.
excuse me if i said something that doesnt make sense i am just a noob and i have read a lot of info over the past three days trying to get a character ready for sat.

[Flickerdart]

Nah, half-orc sucks and you don't want it. Human is amazing (for the bonus feat). Aasimar is all right, the Wisdom bonus is nice and the Charisma bonus never hurt anybody.

[Darrin]

For Swift Hunter Archers, the biggest questions your build will revolve around "When do I get Manyshot?" and "What do I do once I have it?" Manyshot itself isn't all that useful, but you need it to get either Greater Manyshot (in the Expanded Psionics Handbook) or Improved Rapid Shot (Complete Warrior). This represents two "paths" you can go down, which essentially lead to the same thing: a reliable way to move + full attack, so you can get Skirmish damage on all your arrows.

Greater Manyshot is probably the easiest and most reliable method, but the attack penalties tend to be worse than Improved Rapid Shot.

Improved Rapid Shot needs Travel Devotion, which has a limited number of uses per day. However, we can take Travel Devotion more than once, and so long as we eventually get 3 uses per day, we can get through most of a typical adventuring day and still dish out plenty of DPS.

Here's a level-by-level breakdown:

Race: Human.
1) Scout 1. Feat: Point Blank Shot. Human: Precise Shot.

We start with Scout mostly because of the Skill Points: 4x8 = 32 as opposed to 4x6 = 24 for Ranger. Hit points are the same. Point Blank Shot is a prereq for pretty much all the archery feats. Some archery handbooks may recommend waiting on Precise Shot because you can get it via the Precision enchantment on a magic bow. However, the -4 penalty for shooting into melee is a huge PITA, particularly at low levels and with a party of meatbags that like to charge into melee range.

For levels 1-2, our typical combat round is going to be move + standard attack.

2) Ranger 1. Bonus: Track. Favored Enemy = Undead.

Undead are the most common type of enemy encountered at all levels of play. They're also immune to precision damage, such as Skirmish, unless you have Swift Hunter (which will be along shortly).

I'm not a big fan of Track, so I usually trade it for the Trap Expert ACF in Dungeonscape, but we already have trapfinding via Scout. It's also a requirement for Highland Stalker, which can give us a bump on our skirmish damage later, so keep it.

There is another ACF I recommend, trading Wild Empathy for the Spiritual Connection ACF (Complete Champion). I've never found much use for Wild Empathy, particularly at mid/higher levels where you hardly ever encounter animals. Being able to speak with animals/plants 3/day means you can get actually useful information out of them, rather than just being able to determine "The animal is hungry/angry". But if you're confused about all the different options and aren't sure what these ACF things are, then you'll still be fine with the standard Ranger class abilities.

3) Ranger 2. Feat: Travel Devotion. Bonus: Rapid Shot.

Here's where Travel Devotion gets us move + full attack, and Rapid Shot gets us two attacks a round instead of one. 10 rounds of swift-action moves will usually last an entire battle, but we only get to use Travel Devotion 1/day. Save it for the end of the day or a boss fight.

4) Scout 2.
5) Scout 3.

Our next priority is to get three levels of Scout so we're ready to take Swift Hunter at 6th. Combat is still move + standard attack or 5' step + Rapid Shot, and we're still saving Travel Devotion for special occasions.

If we take Scout 4 next, we can use our Scout bonus feat to pick up either Swift Hunter or Improved Skirmish, because Complete Scoundrel added text to those feats that allows this. Actually, we can get both of those feats, one from Scout and one from 6th level. But if we do that, it delays when we can get Manyshot, and so Improved Skirmish will have to wait a bit.

6) Ranger 3. Feat: Swift Hunter. Bonus: Endurance.

Skirmish is now 2d6, so move + standard attack starts to look more interesting, but the full BAB fighters and uberchargers are now starting to tear things apart with Shock Trooper and Leap Attack. Endurance is nearly useless, but we may trade it in later if we go Dragonborn of Bahumat (more on that later).

Our top priority now is to get Manyshot ASAP. There's a few options: we can wait until 9th, but that delays Greater Manyshot or Improved Rapid Shot until 12th, and we don't want to wait that long. We get it by trading away our spellcasting with the Champion of the Wild ACF, but then we're wasting our Combat Style bonus feat when we take our 6th level of Ranger. So we want to get Ranger 6 as quickly as possible.

7) Ranger 4.

We get spells and our Animal Companion here. Actually, we've probably been using Ranger wands for a while, but now we can cast from scrolls. With only half Ranger levels counting towards Animal Companion, it's mostly just a blood smear waiting to happen than something that can actually help in combat. So I strongly recommend trading your Animal Companion in for the Solitary Hunter ACF (PHBII), which will help set up flanked opponents for the party thief (or yourself once you get the hunter's eye spell).

8) Ranger 5. Favored Enemy = Constructs.

Constructs are the second most common enemy that are immune to crits and precision damage. They also tend to have lots of DR, which soaks up arrow damage like a sponge. Pick up a Golembane Scarab (2500 GP, DMG) and now you can unload a world of hurt on them.

9) Ranger 6. Bonus: Manyshot. Feat: Greater Manyshot or Improved Rapid Shot.

Here's where the build starts to come together, and the two paths diverge. Greater Manyshot lets you move + fire a bunch of arrows as a standard action, and you get Skirmish damage on all of 'em. The downside is unlike Rapid Shot where your attack penalty starts of at -2 and gets progressively worse, all your Manyshot arrows get the same penalty, which gets higher as you fire more arrows: three arrows at -6 or four arrows at -8.

Improved Rapid Shot removes the -2 penalty on all your attacks, so you're hitting more often, and in the long run you get more attacks than Manyshot (five arrows max instead of four). The problem here is move + full attack is tricky to do reliably, and with only one Travel Devotion, that's only 10 rounds per day. Magic items like Chronocharm of the Horizon Walker (500 GP, MIC) or Anklets of Translocation (1400 GP, MIC) can help, but they also have limited uses per day. We can get more Travel Devotion later, but we kinda need it now.

10) Scout 4. Bonus: Improved Skirmish.

Ok, now that Greater Manyshot/Improved Rapid Shot is out of the way, we're all set for another +2d6 skirmish damage. Unless you absolutely have to have Evasion soonest, we're done with Scout, and the rest of the build is mostly just more Ranger. But first, a little detour...

11) Highland Stalker 1.
12) Highland Stalker 2. Feat: Travel Devotion (x2)

Ten levels of Scout/Ranger means we have 3d6 Skirmish damage, or 5d6 with Improved Skirmish. More Skirmish dice are spaced out every 4 levels, so we usually have to wait another 3 levels to get +1d6. However, we can take a quick shortcut into Highland Stalker 2 to get +1d6 earlier. (It actually doesn't matter when you take the Highland Stalker levels all that much, but we do want them because it means we end up with more Skirmish dice than a Scout 20).

And we get another Travel Devotion at 12th level because even if you went the Greater Manyshot route, being able to move + full attack more often with regular ol' Rapid Shot is still awesomesauce.

13) Ranger 7.
14) Ranger 8.
15) Ranger 9. Feat: Travel Devotion (x3)

3/day covers the recommended number of encounters for a typical adventuring day. If you need more, consider dipping a level of Cloistered Cleric, so you can convert Turn Undead into more Travel Devotion uses.

16) Ranger 10. Favored Enemy = Elementals.

Elementals aren't all that common, but when you do run into them at these levels, they tend to be BIG. Lighting 'em up with Skirmish damage = tasty.

17) Ranger 11. Bonus: Improved Precise Shot.

A wand of guided shot makes this feat almost useless, but I guess it's better than a poke in the eye.

18) Ranger 12. Feat: Woodland Archer (Races of the Wild).

Woodland Archer is a tactical feat, and like most tactical feats, it presents two useless combat techniques that either waste your entire turn or give you a meaningless bonus on something that hardly ever happens, and one "meh" technique that might be worth it. The "worth it" technique here is Adjust for Range: any time you miss with a projectile weapon, you get a +4 bonus on any subsequent attacks that round. Ideally, we should have picked this up earlier, maybe at level 12 or 15... kinda a personal preference thing, if you need the +4 more or if you need more Travel Devotion.

If you went the Greater Manyshot route, Woodland Archer might not help much, since Manyshot arrows are fired simultaneously. So maybe take Improved Rapid Shot here and get the best of both worlds.

19) Ranger 13.
20) Ranger 14.

You finish off with 6d6 Skirmish (8d6 Improved Skirmish), one 4th level spell (bonus slot, so you need Wis 18), and Camouflage as a "Capstone".

Actually, we only need 17 levels of Scout/Ranger to get 5d6 Skirmish, so we can drop the last Ranger level for a one-level dip of something else, such as Cloistered Cleric or Fighter 1. If we pick our deity or pantheon right, we can get Travel Devotion, Knowledge Devotion, and maybe the War domain (for Weapon Focus: Longbow). The Fighter dip can get us one of the archery feats earlier, clearing up a feat slot at 3rd level for something else.

And if we want even MOAR Skirmish damage, there are a few prestige classes that advance Skirmish every 2 levels: Dragon Devotee 4, for example, followed by Unseen Seer 4, gets us +4d6 Skirmish in 8 levels instead of 12, or up to 10d6 Skirmish with Improved Skirmish. Toss Dragonfire Strike in there somewhere and you can get it up to 11d6.


As far as Druid goes... the trick to cracking the planet in half with a Treehugger is all in the spell selection, but that's a whole nuther ball of wax.

[Catalystphoenix]

The choices lol I dunno what to do

[TheifofZ]

Step 1: Commit to a thing. You liked druid, yeah?
Step 2: Aasimar is pretty solid for that. The wisdom bonus helps your casting, which is always good. (More spells /day, higher saves... yeah). Human is also good for the feat and skills...Druid can be feat intensive if you're doing specific builds. As someone else said, though, you could just go toughness in every feat slot and still be okay...
Step 3: Feats to get: Well. Unlike almost everything else a druid can do, druid's cannot change their feats or levels on the fly. (If you say skills... 'I am a druid. I wildshape into things. Many things I turn into are much better equipped to do things than I am. Like swimming. Or seeing.')
So you need to have some general idea of where you want to take the druid. If you want to be a big bad fighter guy, picking up power attack and related 'hitting stuff really hard' feats wouldn't be terrible, especially with wild shape to give you a helping hand. I'd consider Improved Toughness as one of your early feats, though, because you're going to be hurting for spare HP with a 4 level gap between you and the party. Let's say as your 3rd level. Power attack as your first, if you can get 14 str at level 1.
So Power Attack (1st), X (Human, if you go human), Improved Toughness (3rd), Natural Spell (6th).
Step 4: Pick an animal companion for synergy with your character concept -and- general build. There's a lot of options, and you get more options at higher levels, too.
You personally, if you're going tank, might want to look into a bear or something similar to have a tank-n-spankin buddy, because it looks like the front lines might be sparse.

Either way, I hope you have fun, and wish you the best of luck.

[Fouredged Sword]

One thing you COULD do is switch hit until 8th level. Do a Wis/Con build to keep you alive for the two levels you need for large wildshape.

During those two levels, focus on battlefield control. Entangle is a great spell that never gets old (until everything starts flying).

Your go to spells are

1st level - entangle,
2nd level - Cloudburst - Debuffs ranged attacks and makes everything wet - see soften earth!
- Soften earth - REALLY good if it's wet out. Damp caves become your best friend.
- Summon natures ally 2 - Hippogriphs make good meat shields that can fly.
3rd level - Sleet storm - Locks enemies in place without a balance check and blinds them. NOTE - this wrecks flying creatures without good enough maneuverability. They fall even if they pass the balance check. The options are walk at full speed or stop moving. Fly isn't a choice.

[Catalystphoenix]

Step 1: Commit to a thing. You liked druid, yeah?
Step 2: Aasimar is pretty solid for that. The wisdom bonus helps your casting, which is always good. (More spells /day, higher saves... yeah). Human is also good for the feat and skills...Druid can be feat intensive if you're doing specific builds. As someone else said, though, you could just go toughness in every feat slot and still be okay...
Step 3: Feats to get: Well. Unlike almost everything else a druid can do, druid's cannot change their feats or levels on the fly. (If you say skills... 'I am a druid. I wildshape into things. Many things I turn into are much better equipped to do things than I am. Like swimming. Or seeing.')
So you need to have some general idea of where you want to take the druid. If you want to be a big bad fighter guy, picking up power attack and related 'hitting stuff really hard' feats wouldn't be terrible, especially with wild shape to give you a helping hand. I'd consider Improved Toughness as one of your early feats, though, because you're going to be hurting for spare HP with a 4 level gap between you and the party. Let's say as your 3rd level. Power attack as your first, if you can get 14 str at level 1.
So Power Attack (1st), X (Human, if you go human), Improved Toughness (3rd), Natural Spell (6th).
Step 4: Pick an animal companion for synergy with your character concept -and- general build. There's a lot of options, and you get more options at higher levels, too.
You personally, if you're going tank, might want to look into a bear or something similar to have a tank-n-spankin buddy, because it looks like the front lines might be sparse.

Either way, I hope you have fun, and wish you the best of luck.



o.k. so my idea follows this concept with a couple of changes.

human beastmaster 1, druid 5

1 rst level Natural bond, natural spell
buy a skin of kaletor


now correct Me if i am way off base that would give me an effective wildshape of 9 and a pet level of ??? i am not really sure. Also have access to spells especially to buff up my pet and I so we can go wreck some faces.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Step 3: Feats to get: Well. Unlike almost everything else a druid can do, druid's cannot change their feats or levels on the fly. (If you say skills... 'I am a druid. I wildshape into things. Many things I turn into are much better equipped to do things than I am. Like swimming. Or seeing.')

Do you actually get the racial bonuses of the forms you take? You don't get the low-light vision or the darkvision without being Master of Many Forms 7.


o.k. so my idea follows this concept with a couple of changes.

human beastmaster 1, druid 5

1 rst level Natural bond, natural spell
buy a skin of kaletor

now correct Me if i am way off base that would give me an effective wildshape of 9 and a pet level of ??? i am not really sure. Also have access to spells especially to buff up my pet and I so we can go wreck some faces.
Your animal companion is the weakest of your big three classes features, so weakening the other two for it when you are so far behind already is not a good bet.

Natural Bond caps at your druid level so it does nothing here. Skin of Kaletor is a good choice but check with your DM first. Many are less willing to allow Dragon Magazine content/allow you to spend over 50% of your starting gold on a single item.

[ComaVision]

o.k. so my idea follows this concept with a couple of changes.

human beastmaster 1, druid 5

1 rst level Natural bond, natural spell
buy a skin of kaletor


now correct Me if i am way off base that would give me an effective wildshape of 9 and a pet level of ??? i am not really sure. Also have access to spells especially to buff up my pet and I so we can go wreck some faces.

Don't do Beastmaster man, it's a trap. The extra animal companions are too weak to help and you lose casting.

[Catalystphoenix]

ok ok last question them i am gonna build my druid. what is everyones feeling about monk1/druid5?

[ZamielVanWeber]

ok ok last question them i am gonna build my druid. what is everyones feeling about monk1/druid5?

Ultimately weaker than druid 6 with a monk's belt and wilding clasp.. You are way behind in level right now, so it is probably best to go at this full tilt.

[TheifofZ]

Do you actually get the racial bonuses of the forms you take? You don't get the low-light vision or the darkvision without being Master of Many Forms 7.

IIRC, you do get racial skill bonuses, and I -know- you get movement types, because those are Natural effects, rather than even being extraordinary, whereas Darkvision/Lowlight Vision typically are listed under Extraordinary.
F'r example, certain critters get a bonus to hide because their body shape and fur/skin/scales/etc are naturally camouflaged. No special modifications needed.

[BilltheCynic]

Ouch. Coming in 4 levels behind a party filled with tier 1 characters really hurts.

Anyway, I agree with choosing something that has a high optimization floor (that is, it is very hard to screw the class up). With that said, here are my top three suggestions:
Straight Druid 20 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm). Like a lot of other people have mentioned, this is one of the most powerful classes in the game and very hard to get wrong. You can switch out your animal companion if you don't like it, you know all of your spells so you can play around with your spell selection, and you can change what you wildshape into every time you use it. Just remember to get Natural Spell at level 6 and prioritize Wisdom and you should be fine. ComaVision (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19704155&postcount=8) already linked you to a nice handbook, so you can check that out if you want to make it even more powerful.
Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10/Druid +5. The best and worst thing about this class is it is pretty much a druid +. It gives full progression to casting, your animal companion, and wild shape (read, everything that makes druids awesome) and it gives it more goodies on top of that. Two of the best abilities are the ability to wildshape into an efritti and get free wishes and to make a planar bubble that gives you and your allies 10 rounds for every 1 round that the enemy gets. The biggest downside to the class is that many consider it to be cheesy, but I don't think it's that bad for someone who is just starting out and is so far behind everyone else in the party. Here's a nice handbook. (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1081076)
Telepath 5 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm#)/Thrallherd 10 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/thrallherd.htm)/Telepath 5+. Another build that is friendly to mistakes. Basically, you get a bunch of mindless devoted followers that automatically replenish themselves if they die and you get one (two at 10th level) mindless devoted companion that is a level behind yourself. If you can't find a way to make an endless supply of expendable minions useful, you aren't trying hard enough. Also, you're companions replenish themselves too, so if you build one and decide you don't like it, you can kill him and you'll get another one. If you don't like your own build, pick up the power Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) and change it. Just get the prerequisite feat and you'll be good to go (other nice feats are psicrystal affinity for a psionic familiar and Expanded Knowledge: Astral Construct for even more expendable minions). The biggest problem is that if you don't know psionics, you'll have to learn the system to use the class well. Relavent handbooks for the Psion telepath (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAAahUKEwiShJLVzb3HAhXKMIgKHa-2D8k&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrilliantgameologists.com%2Fboard s%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D10238.0&ei=8eXYVdLHD8rhoASv7b7IDA&usg=AFQjCNFgI1f87LAUptk9DOeDT-DgCddmlw&sig2=QVDHePJXwz4OR8VIgUIv-A) and the Thrallherd (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9157.0).