Help for new character/class ideas.

[PsYcHoCaZzA]

Hi there everyone, long time reader and searcher for information using this forum but first time post.
I am currently playing in a 3.5e game and players have been dropping like flies recently due to either hard fight or the person playing wanted a change (just took on a 10HD half fiendish huge Wyvern).
Playing a Human Druid right now just getting into natural spell (so much paperwork for a Druid lol).
My character is alive for now but I am looking for new ideas for a new character to have prepared.
We are currently level 6 and as far as I know we use most books unless vetoed by the GM.
Could I get some ideas on a new character for if/when mine dies?

[Warrnan]

Honestly a druid is one of the strongest builds there are. Get busy being a bear, shooting bears, while riding a bear.

If you all are dying so much, I reccommend you all learn some battlefield control or debuff spells to divide and weaken your enemies.

If your druid dies, go cleric and cast delay death and other such things. You should be very survivable.

[PsYcHoCaZzA]

I love my Druid and I hope it doesn't die as I am just getting the hang of my abilities but I was looking for ideas for a backup character for if my Druid does die.
The main reason characters have been dying is not all of the group have been able to make it for each session so we are a couple people down for the fights. That and our GM likes to kill our characters lol.

[stanprollyright]

Since you just got Natural Spell, now you can turn into a bird and rain destruction from the skies. Take wing if the battle goes poorly.

[MisterKaws]

Honestly, if your druid isn't enough to do something, you're probably either doing something REALLY wrong, or your DM is actively looking for any opportunity to kill you. Just be a bear mounted on a bear summoning bears while buffing all of this army of bears, there's really nothing more powerful than that--'kay, I lied, change every instance of 'bear' to 'fleshraker', then that's probably the strongest thing you get.

[stanprollyright]

The point is: druids are ridiculously powerful out of the box, especially at low levels. If you're having trouble with one then all you have to do is change your playstyle and spell selection. If an army of bears doesn't cut it, try casting battlefield controls as a bird. If the casterbird doesn't cut it, try an army of dinosaurs. If that doesn't work, try wildshaping into a dire ape and whacking things with shillelagh. Try various combinations too; dire ape/shillelagh with an army of bears and some battlefield control mixed in. You've got tons of options. If nothing works, the DM is probably trying to kill you and there's nothing you can do. There is also a chance he wants you to play smarter not harder, trying to teach you to use tactics and teamwork and to not be afraid to run away from tough fights. There are a bunch of good handbooks (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=940) for druids (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10942) as well as for summoning (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?255219-The-Summoner-s-Desk-Reference-D-amp-D-3-5), wildshaping (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1415), and using natural attacks (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=482).

If the druid is too complicated or too much bookwork for you to play effectively, I suggest a barbarian. They're tough, do a lot of damage, and super easy to play and dominate at low levels.

[PsYcHoCaZzA]

Again I am loving my Druid but what I am after is a backup character I can have ready for if my Druid does die from who knows what.
I do appreciate the info for tactics.
I have mostly only every played with the players handbook with extra spells from the Spell Compendium book. I am asking for help making something more exotic than straight Druid.
Sure I would love something overpowered I wont lie there but just something different would be great.

[xyianth]

As a backup character, I'd recommend a dragonfire adept. Like druids, they are ridiculously strong at low levels, but unlike druids they are very simple to build and play:

Step 1: Pick a race with a bonus to Con (unless going for something specific like a racial prestige class)
Step 2: Add the Dragonborn of Bahamut template for more Con. Select breath aspect to qualify for metabreath feats.
Step 3: Take the Entangling Exhalation feat at 1st level. Now your spammable breath weapon auto-entangles anyone it damages.
Step 4: Take the Endure Exposure invocation at 1st level. Now your allies are immune to your breath weapon.
Step 5: Congratulations.

There is a handbook here (http://coboard.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Dragonfire_Adept_Handbook!) with excellent advice. There are lots of interesting tricks possible with dragonfire adept as a base, many of which are outlined in the handbook.

[MisterKaws]

Again I am loving my Druid but what I am after is a backup character I can have ready for if my Druid does die from who knows what.
I do appreciate the info for tactics.
I have mostly only every played with the players handbook with extra spells from the Spell Compendium book. I am asking for help making something more exotic than straight Druid.
Sure I would love something overpowered I wont lie there but just something different would be great.

A backup for a druid would have to be something pretty ridiculous. I'd suggest a spell-to-power erudite, though that's usually misunderstood as "hey DM, can you smack me in the head with ten books?".

[Aleolus]

I've found a good way to improve survivability with any character, which anyone can get with either two feats, or a two level dip and a feat. The Rageclaws soulmeld from MoI. Can be acquired through either the Shape Soulmeld feat, or one to two levels in the Totemist class.
What Rageclaws does on its own isn't very impressive (its basically the Diehard feat, letting you function normally in the negatives without penalty), it gets far more useful when essentia is put in it. Every point of essentia gives you an extra 3hp you can go into the negatives before dying, so with 2 levels of Totemist and the Bonus Essentia feat, you can put 3 points into it, allowing yoou to keep fighting all the way to -19 hp.
This can be augmented further if you're willing to. sacrifice either feat slots to get feats that give more essentia or druid casting to take extra levels. in Totemist (which I think synergizes well with Druid)

[xyianth]

I've found a good way to improve survivability with any character, which anyone can get with either two feats, or a two level dip and a feat. The Rageclaws soulmeld from MoI. Can be acquired through either the Shape Soulmeld feat, or one to two levels in the Totemist class.
What Rageclaws does on its own isn't very impressive (its basically the Diehard feat, letting you function normally in the negatives without penalty), it gets far more useful when essentia is put in it. Every point of essentia gives you an extra 3hp you can go into the negatives before dying, so with 2 levels of Totemist and the Bonus Essentia feat, you can put 3 points into it, allowing yoou to keep fighting all the way to -19 hp.
This can be augmented further if you're willing to. sacrifice either feat slots to get feats that give more essentia or druid casting to take extra levels. in Totemist (which I think synergizes well with Druid)

That soulmeld is a trap. You are limited to 1 essentia invested per 5 character levels. The ability to ignore 10-25 extra damage is most useful in the early game, where you would be limited to 1 essentia; resulting in a barely noticable improvement over the diehard feat. At higher levels, even maxing the essentia invested is irrelevant, because the average damage of incoming attacks that would drop you without the soulmeld active will likely drop you with it active as well. It can be of marginal use to an incarnate tank character in the early game, but even they have better options considering they would have to spend a feat on it. (for example, it is slightly more effective than the incarnate soulmeld vitality belt from levels 1-6, but from 7 on vitality belt is more effective)

TL;DR: non incarnum users are better off taking diehard, and incarnum users have better options for soulmelds and essentia.

[Magesmiley]

If you're feeling like a martial character, a thri-kreen (Expanded Psionics Handbook and Complete Psionic) warblade (Book of Nine Swords) can be a lot of fun. The huge jump bonus meshes well with the tiger claw maneuvers, and you also get a bunch of attacks.

For sneaky, try a whisper gnome (Races of Stone) with the dark template (Tome of Magic) rogue. That combo has a great Hide bonus along with Hide in Plain Sight. You'd be surprised how many enemies can be crippled by sneaking up in plain sight and using sleight of hand to remove critical items (spell component pouches, holy symbols, weapons, etc.).

If players are dropping like flies due to combat damage, you might also just try making a character as tough as possible and able to suck up damage and keep on marching along. If you're allowed flaws (Unearthed Arcana) and have an 18 to work with, do a dwarf fighter, take two flaws and just keep taking the Roll With It feat from Savage Species every chance you get. You can have 8/- DR at 6th level, which combined with the high HP (fighter + 20+ CON) should give you considerable staying power, especially if you focus on building up your AC too.

[MisterKaws]

I've found a good way to improve survivability with any character, which anyone can get with either two feats, or a two level dip and a feat. The Rageclaws soulmeld from MoI. Can be acquired through either the Shape Soulmeld feat, or one to two levels in the Totemist class.
What Rageclaws does on its own isn't very impressive (its basically the Diehard feat, letting you function normally in the negatives without penalty), it gets far more useful when essentia is put in it. Every point of essentia gives you an extra 3hp you can go into the negatives before dying, so with 2 levels of Totemist and the Bonus Essentia feat, you can put 3 points into it, allowing yoou to keep fighting all the way to -19 hp.
This can be augmented further if you're willing to. sacrifice either feat slots to get feats that give more essentia or druid casting to take extra levels. in Totemist (which I think synergizes well with Druid)

Vitality belt from the same book gives +1hp per level per incarnum, and I DO think that getting higher overall hp is better than having higher minus hp, even more when you consider that there are effects that instantly kill any target in the negatives.