Help Flesh out a Druid Chassis

[TheifofZ]

After the amusingly awkward passing of my low level character (5th level) in one of the campaigns I play in, I was feeling uninspired in the 'characters with actual character' area... Right up until the stars aligned so to speak.
The core concept is a Mute Druid (The DM has given me a special handwave that Silence spell will -always- be a +0 Spell Level Metamagic for this to work.) with a big, beefy animal companion and a character that has shades of Mad Max.
But after that, I sort of lose track of what would work well with this, because so few PrCs actually cater to Druid in the first place.
I've got stats of: 10, 12, 14, 14, 18, 18. Which is kind of high, but the DM has been very unforgiving this time around.
With 2 flaws, I can do Natural Bond and Silent Spell at 1st, and I need to take Natural Spell at 6th because Druid.
Everything else is up in the air, still. Race, Feats, PrCs, etc.

So does anyone have things I could use? Especially in the PrC category.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Doesn't Natural Bond cap at your effective character level? If you aren't multiclassing it does nothing, so I am not sure why you are taking it so early.

That aside: might I recommend druid/wizard into Arcane Heirophant. Your animal companion will become massively boosted and you get strong casting. I forget if you can early entry it though.

[eggynack]

Doesn't Natural Bond cap at your effective character level? If you aren't multiclassing it does nothing, so I am not sure why you are taking it so early.
No, natural bond works fine as long as you're picking an animal companion that applies a penalty.

Anyway, main topic. My general preference where animal companion builds are concerned is the somewhat good focused half-orc. For race, you want a dragonborn (RotD, 8) desert half orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), taking half-orc substitution levels (RoD, 159), which is notable for animal companions for the fact that it gives them toughness for free, and notable for everything else because it grants augment summoning on the cheap and some other nifty upgrades. For feats, the big ones besides natural bond are companion spellbond (PHB II, 77), which boosts your share spells ability by a bunch, and exalted companion (BoED, 42), which enables your companion to pick up vow of poverty. Filling out some of the rest of the feats, you're going to want one of the major wild shape options, out of aberration wild shape (LoM, 178), dragon wild shape (Draconomicon, 105), or exalted wild shape (BoED, 42), with maybe a casual nod in the direction of frozen wild shape (Frost, 48), as well as maybe one of the major summoning options, out of greenbound (LEoF, 8) and rashemi elemental summoing (UE, 45).

So, that covers race and feats for the most part, leaving the question of prestige class. Now, as your post implies, prestige classes are far from strictly necessary on a druid, and options that boost animal companions in particular are limited, but you seem to desire one, and there are some of interest. If you go the good route, then one appealing option is lion of talisid (BoED, 65), which is notable for the fact that exalted companion is one of its class features (though it's a wash with the feat tax), and the fact that there's a roar ability as a cap stone actually feels kinda in flavor for a mute character. That seems the closest to what I'd want for this character. Beyond that, I've always been a fan of dipping into holt warden (CC, 84) and contemplative (CD, 30), which allows access to a full fledged domain. Best option along those lines is the spell domain, but you can get some serious customization by picking a domain you feel fits the character. Beyond that, it really depends on what specifically you want to do with your prestige class. However, I would advise staying away from beastmaster (CAdv, 26), because it's awful, even with the animal companion theme you have running.

[TheifofZ]

No, natural bond works fine as long as you're picking an animal companion that applies a penalty.

There was literally an in depth discussion about this not even a week ago. Which is part of what brought this on, actually.

But that was pretty much exactly what, I wanted eggy, thank you.
Also yes. The Beastmaster is kind of absolute crud for Druids. Because it's only good for animal companions and doesn't advance spellcasting at all. Even then, the animal companions you do get from it are explicitly lower levels than the base animal companion, horrendously so by the end, making them useless.
It's a Ranger PrC. Honestly I'm surprised by how many of those there are, given how generally mediocre that class is.



That aside: might I recommend druid/wizard into Arcane Heirophant. Your animal companion will become massively boosted and you get strong casting. I forget if you can early entry it though.
A 1 level dip into wizard and the precocious apprentice feat to start with a 2nd level spell to skip 2 levels of progression for entry, and then never looking at the arcane again into that -would- make this pretty cool. Consider the suggestion taken on board.

[eggynack]

Also yes. The Beastmaster is kind of absolute crud for Druids. Because it's only good for animal companions and doesn't advance spellcasting at all.
Yeah, pretty much the only druid utility I can see for it is as a one level dip capstone in an e6 campaign. In that context, it can actually give up to 9th level companions, which really means 7th level with maybe an exalted companion boost to 8th, and it comes at limited cost. Lots of low advancement prestige classes are like that, actually, only really being worth it when everything's done, generally after level 17. Beastmaster isn't even really good there, however, because animal companions are mostly irrelevant when you have 9th's. In any case, I was mostly mentioning it because it seems to have an odd allure for some folk, and it seemed worth heading off that plan at the pass.

Anyway, glad you liked the overall build construct. The exalted half-orc is pretty cool by my reckoning, as its wild empathy boosting feels good next to good theming, even if said boosting is weirdly aggressive in nature. Of course, you could always go all in on the strategy with vow of poverty, but that'd represent a decently sized downgrade, though not a massive one as is the case with other classes. One cool benefit of the build is that you wind up with crazy HP, with the +2's to con on both dragonborn and desert half-orc teaming up with the HP bonuses of the substitution levels. That's always fun on a druid.

[TheifofZ]

Alright, so far it looks like my most interesting build path for tons o flavor and fun is Wizard 1/Druid 4/ Arcane Heirophant 10, and then depending on the level of power I need, either 5 levels of Lion of Talisid, 5 levels of Mystic Theurge, 5 levels of Druid, or 5 levels of Planar shepherd.
But that's kind of up in the air, because that's 10 levels from now.
So, up to ten, it'll probably look like this:

Desert Half Orc Race
Transmutation Wizard 1+ Silent Spell [Flaw], Precocious apprentice [Flaw], Extend Spell [1st level], Power attack/Imp Initiative/Greater Toughness/ whatever [Fighter feat progression ACF]
Druid 1
Druid 2 + Natural Bond [3rd level]
Druid 3 +1 Wis
Druid 4
Arcane Heirophant 1 +Natural Spell [6th level]
Arcane Heirophant 2
Arcane Heirophant 3 +1 Wis
Arcane Heirophant 4 +Greenbound Summoning
Arcane Heirophant 5

With Dragon Wild Shape at 12.
Of course, if I wanted to be exalted, I could go human instead of half orc, and use that bonus feat and the 1st level feat for VoP, and then spend those feats to get Lion of Talisad and a bunch of other feats. Hum. Choices, choices.

[Hiro Quester]

Will your mute character be able to speak with animals? It's kind of useful that you be able to command summoned creatures occasionally. Many of your summons are good for utility/problem solving, rather than simply attacking. But that requires being able to instruct them.

Will you be able to talk with bars while in bear shape? (My Druid PC spends a lot of time in tiger wildshape so I can communicate with my tiger animal companion. Will yours do that?

Will you be able to use Speak with Animals?

Another problem will be communicating with other party members. One option there is a friend who casts lesser telepathic bond. Or get a item made (a pair of headbands?) that enables you to give information to one party member.

This will possibly also be important for wildshape, since a Druid in wildshape makes a great scout.

Another option is taking ranks in Perform(mime) to be able to roll a skill skillcheck to determine how clearly you wordlessly communicate to party members. My Druid uses this a bit when in wildshape. You would do it in humanoid form, too, I guess.

My DM ruled that a high perform(mime) check can reduce the DC on a party member's Sense Motive check to discern what I'm trying to communicate while in wildshape.

[TheifofZ]

The Gm has been most helpful with working out the exact finagles of being mute, but I consider it less a 'this is a reason this is bad' and more a reason that it could be fun.

Challenge, as they say, accepted.

[Nifft]

One level of Mindbender would solve a lot of the mute issues.

(Plus grant access to Mindsight, of course.)

[TheifofZ]

Yes, it could. But if I do that, then why am I playing a mute character in the first place? Half the fun I'm going to get from party interaction is going to be trying to emote so the party can understand me in the first place.
I swear, this is like the time I asked for help making an orc bard, stating that it had to be generic stock, grumpy orc, and half the suggestions were to use racial variants and templates which was exactly what I said I didn't want to do.