Druid feat: Eagle's wings

[Hiro Quester]

Playing a forest gnome Druid in a mostly core game, with particular feat and spells decided on a case by case basis.

Mostly mid-op group, in which DM keeps having to rein me in to keep my forest gnome Druid from being overpowered. Sometimes 7 players, so I no longer summon much.

My Small gnome self has a big of a "little person's syndrome", and likes being as big and powerful as he can be. Spend most of my time in tiger wildshape, pouncing into melee with Bite of the Weretiger spell active.

Lion of Talisid PrC at 10. One-level monk dip for unarmed strikes (Kung fu tiger) and improved grapple. So pounce attack is two unarmed strikes(+22/+17), plus claw,claw, bite (+17), plus two rakes if claw or bite hits. Mostly buffing and BFC and frontline melee role. Secondary healer.

Trying to decide 12 level feat. Already have spontaneous healer (regional bonus), improved initiative, companion spellbound (with Tiger animal companion), and Favored of the Champions (feat tax for PrC). And Natural spell, of course.

I was thinking about extend spell, but our dwarven sorcerer incantatrix is happy to extend some of my buff spells for me. And I have a lesser rod of extend.

DM has ruled multiattack as overpowered. Plus I only meet the requirements when in wildshape. Won't meet them normally until I get a third iterative attack.

Also considering create wondrous item, so I can add stat bonuses (wis, con) to my neck slot +3 amulet of mighty fists. But that's mostly about saving money. I can pay someone to make such items.

So I'm considering Eagle's wings.

You can spend one wild shape to grow feathery wings. These allow you to fly at a speed of 60 feet (average maneuverability). The wings remain for 1 hour.

I like being in tiger wildshape, and the utility of flying is often crucial, but requires switching from tiger to dire bat or eagle or whatever, then back to tiger. But I only have 3/day wildshape for 11 hours right now (Lion of Talisid delays wildshape progression). So if I need to fly, that's all the wildshapes I get today used up.

This would save on wildshape uses, since rather than spending two wildshapes for utility, then back to combat form(tiger), I could just become a flying tiger for an hour, and be able to stay a tiger. And I have Heart of Air active all the time (plus other 3 Heart of... Spells), so 70ft fly speed.

It would also save on the hassle of having to get re-equipped with amulet of mighty fists, rings (blinking, protection), and earring (slotless wis item). Having to take care of putting these items on is a major delay (for me and whatever party member I recruit to help). Just growing wings when needed would mean I don't have to re-equip (twice).

Plus flying tiger! That sounds like the kind of awesome my character would love.

Am I crazy for thinking this a promising idea? Are there other feats I should be considering instead?

[Bronk]

Since you already have the Natural Spell feat, you could just cast 'air walk' (Level 4, ten minutes per level) and run through the air as a tiger when you need to. Or, from the Spell Compendium, you could use 'Updraft' (Level 1, for a quick boost), 'Fire Wings' (Level 3, 1 minute per level), or 'Swift Fly' (Level 3, lasts one round).

These spells have the added bonus of allowing your tiger companion to fly as well, via 'share spells'.

[Hiro Quester]

Hmmm. I had not thought about air walk. Good point.

Sharing spells also gets difficult if I'm flying. Have to stay in 30 ft range. It might be best to stick to methods of flying we can share.

So I'm still looking for a good feat, I guess. Suggestions that might be better than extend spell?

[Bronk]

Hmmm. I had not thought about air walk. Good point.

Sharing spells also gets difficult if I'm flying. Have to stay in 30 ft range. It might be best to stick to methods of flying we can share.

So I'm still looking for a good feat, I guess. Suggestions that might be better than extend spell?

I would have suggested something like 'lion's pounce', but you'll get that from your class eventually. Then there's 'touch of golden ice', but it sounds like your DM is kinda nerfing your character on both the personal melee ability and summoning fronts anyway.

Maybe something fun but unrelated?

[Hiro Quester]

Yes. I guess I'm looking for something that adds flexibility and fun, rather than the straight power. Suggestions?

[glitterbaby]

Companion Spellbound is rather nice for extending the range over which you can be apart from your animal and still have the buffs up. Extra Wild Shape isn't a fantastic feat as a Druid will usually have plenty per day but for your specific situation it wouldn't be terrible. Have you taken a look through Eggynack's Handbook? It's incredibly informative.

[Bronk]

Companion Spellbound is rather nice for extending the range over which you can be apart from your animal and still have the buffs up. Extra Wild Shape isn't a fantastic feat as a Druid will usually have plenty per day but for your specific situation it wouldn't be terrible. Have you taken a look through Eggynack's Handbook? It's incredibly informative.

I agree, Eggynack's handbook definitely has all the best straight up druid feats, although I don't know how Hiro's DM would take them if he/she is already hassling him about summoning and multiattack.

For fun feats, the luck feats are pretty good. There's also a similar one in Dragon 314 called Great Fervor, that lets you reroll a save but also add your wisdom modifier to the roll.

I also like the combination of the Track feat and Planar Tracking from Dragon 306, since you can get your whole party tag teaming fleeing bad guys, even if they teleport or plane shift away. You could figure out where they're going, the sorcerer or cleric can hop you there, and so on.

The 'Spirit Sense' feat from Heroes of Horror lets you talk to the spirits of the very recently dead, which sounds neat. Presumably you could see them too. It doesn't give you any power over them, but I can see how it could be neat to talk with good guys or taunt the heck out of bad guys before they go...

[Red Fel]

Yes. I guess I'm looking for something that adds flexibility and fun, rather than the straight power. Suggestions?

Shape Soulmeld? The feat allows you to shape a glowing blue mass of something that fits on your someplace and gives you some benefit. As long as it's a spot on the body that you have whether in beast form or human form, the soulmeld should retain its effects and remain visible, rather than vanishing. The feat only lets you pick one, but there are plenty of useful ones from which to choose.

Additionally, if you're willing to invest a second feat, at 12th level you can take Open Lesser Chakra, enabling you to bind a soulmeld to your arms. Why your arms? Because if you chose the Astral Vambraces (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) soulmeld for the Shape Soulmeld feat, binding it to your arms allows you to pick an option of your choice from Astral Construct Menu A (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/astralConstruct.htm). And you can re-select your option each time you reshape the soulmeld. It's versatility that begets even more versatility!

[Hiro Quester]

I agree about Eggynack's guide. I was corresponding with him about it during construction. I know it well.

But many of Eggynack's objectives tend towards optimizing power. And my DM is already reining that in. Also our game is a bit more book limited. Much of Eggynack's advice assumes all books are open (which enables compressiveness, and is a feature it a problem). So some fun feats are it much discussed, because a power game demands other feats from books I don't have open.

So yeah in looking for flexibility and fun, rather than power. Trying not to (further) break the game.

I already have companion spellbound. It adds a lot to the AC's ability to melee with me.

I would consider Goad, so opponents attack me instead of AC when he flanks with me. But I don't have the charisma for that (uncivilized trait effectively gives me 8 cha with humans, 10 with animals). Are there other aggro feats like that?

The luck feats seem promising. Some require you already have a luck feat, which Favored of the Companions might be stretched to cover if DM is amused enough. I'll check them out.


Edit: Tempting Fate might be a good one. Death insurance. Once/day if you are dealt damage that would kill you, once per day you only take damage that takes you to -9 hp instead, and autostabilize. I melee a lot, but don't have as many hp as our party barbarian. This might be very useful.

Taunting the recently dead could be fun. And my character is kind of obsessively good, so lecturing the bad guys we have killed about their life choices, and wanting to learn about their choices so he can help others avoid a similar life and fate might be fitting with his moral compass.

More suggestions are welcome, though.

Edit: Thanks Red Fel. But our DM is pretty conservative with opening non-core feats. Incarnum is probably not going to be okay.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You could go with something like Ancestral Relic for your amulet of mighty fists. Simple, effective.

[Hiro Quester]

You could go with something like Ancestral Relic for your amulet of mighty fists. Simple, effective.

Ooh. That's not a bad idea at all. I have a small collection of items I need help to don. It would be helpful to be able to meditate and sacrifice party loot (that I buy from the party at 50%) to add wondrous item properties to that one item. Thus minimizing the number of items I need to wear.

Plus it's from BoED, the same as my prestige class. So no new books need be open.

Keeping that in the list of options to run by our DM. Thanks.

[eggynack]

Well, you have exalted stuff already, no form adding feat, and a desire for mobility. So, maybe exalted wild shape. Fits pretty well onto the whole "super good" druid setup, and you gain some benefit even with standard beatstick forms by using celestial versions of said forms. As for items, you should consider a mantle of the beast from complete champion. Makes your wild shapes into swift actions, which cuts down on the action commitment involved in going from flight form or dimension door form to melee form.

[Hiro Quester]

Thanks, Eggynack. Our DM okayed the Lion of Talisid class, but nixed exalted feats. We are going to sub out the exalted companion when I would get it. Prob for natural bond that improves AC by 3druid levels, instead of celestial template.

My wildshape forms are already putting the barbarian and ranger to shame (esp since I have a level of monk, so I get iterative unarmed strike attacks as well as secondary claw claw bite. With bite of the weretiger and a ring of blinking, , I am doing serious damage and am very hard to hit. Celestial wildshapes or blink dog's teleporting would add to the DMs balance issues.

If we had wilding clasps, I would seriously get a mantle of the beast. But I have two rings, an amulet, and two unslotted items (made into earrings) to apply. So I usually take a couple of rounds to change forms. If I change wildshape fast I leave a pile of my best gear on the ground for a party member to have to collect for me.

I think I'm going to go with the death insurance luck feat. Tempting fate. Taking fatal damage but ending instead at -9 and stable is pretty good for a lower hp melee character.