Feedback on a couple possible houserules I'm considering

[Shpadoinkle]

1: Marshal and Dragon Shama auras:
Auras do not apply automatically to any friendly creatures within range; instead, you must spend time with the creatures you want to apply your aura(s) to, equal to 1 minute per class level of the class that grants the aura- i.e. a 12th level dragon shaman must spend 12 minutes applying their aura to any creatures they want it to affect. Up to five other creatures can be affected at a time. Applying an aura consists of teaching and drilling the subjects on how to properly utilize the effect, and/or a group meditation or prayer. If this process is interrupted it must be started over. It lasts as long as the affected creatures have line of sight to the aura's originator.

The intent of this change is mostly to keep in-game "Wait, how far am I from you again? Hang on a sec while I measure" instances from occurring. I find it annoying and it slows down combat.

2: Druids choose one of these three options upon taking their first level of druid:
A) Spells per day as per the druid entry in the book, but no wildshape or animal companion.
B) Spells per day as a bard, and either wildshape OR an animal companion
C) Spells per day as a ranger 4 levels higher than your druid level, plus both wildshape and an animal companion.

[Gildedragon]

1) a)Does this limit how many allies are affected?
b)one can assume that the PCs always are attuned, and any allies they they have spent any time with...
2) Druid is pretty cool; puts the ranger as a martial druid variant (trade wildshape and quicker spells for BAB, fighting style, and favored enemy)

[UrsusArctos]

What happens when you level up for the first variant? If I'm a level 1 Dragon Shaman with four allies and we all level up, do I have to reattune with them, spend a minute attuning or spend 2 minutes attuning?

[ExLibrisMortis]

You have to reconsider 'line of sight' for your first idea. What happens when the rogue sneaks behind a tree, or scouts a corridor that you can't see? That won't make the aura any better, even if it's 'realistic' that the encouragement won't work through walls.

What I'd do is make it a bit like bardic music: it lasts for [5 + class level + CHA] rounds after leaving the aura. So a level 1 marshal with 16 charisma gets a 9-round grace period, during which the aura applies normally. That should be plenty for typical combat and quick scouting jobs.

==
For the druid fix: it will power them down some, especially at low levels. However, I personally don't like the choice, as it's still very clear that spellcasting is better than anything else. If you want to make the choice for wild shape appealing balance-wise (and from the houserule, it seems that you do), you have to force all spellcasters down to the bard progression, and then allow druids to give up 6ths for Wild Shape or Animal Companion, and 6ths and 5ths for both.

[AnachroNinja]

I dislike the druid change simply because in the absence of a similar nerf to wizards, clerics, archivists and other tier 1s, it really just serves to make me disinclined to ever play druids. I can play an archivist and have the whole druid spell list and the much stronger cleric list.

[ayvango]

I dislike the auras change: it defeats summoning/controlling strategy. And it makes easier to avoid AoE spells. I support suggestion to make auras last 3 + Cha modifiers rounds after leaving its area of influence instead.

[Sword-Geass]

The first one isn't a houserule that I would ever use, while it likely ends that behavior you are trying to avoid, it also makes it so that:
a) Summons never benefit from auras.
b) Forces LoS checks, which defeat the purpouse of having an uniterrupted combat.
c) Nerfs two classes which are already lackluster, and it even nerfs one class only ability. This could make a Marshal unplayable, and they already have a hard time existing as anything other than a dip.

Your second change in the other hand tones down Druidzilla, which isn't a bad thing unto itself, but if your group is used to optimizing, they'll probably never come back to the class. Then, if they want the class for RP reasons and nothing else, this may not be a bad thing at all, although it does take out some of the feel of the druid to the druid. I would recomend giving them 9th level spells by default, and allow the posibility of sacrificing an entire level of their spellcasting progression in exchange for some of the benefits of Animal companion or Wildshape. As a raw example, you could forgo one spellcasting level (so this level would be the same as taking a level in Fighter in regards to spells), in exchange of having 4 levels of animal companion advance (up to actual druid level) or 4 levels of wildshape advance (again, up to druid level). This way you could be a Druid 7 which exchanged two levels for Animal companion advance, so you are an efective Druid 5 for spells, and a Druid 7 for animal companion (which will advance up to 8 if no more spell advance is exchanged).
This is a tad more complex than what you proposed, but ends almost the same (if you end with full Wildshape or animal companion advance, you are a Druid 15 for spells, ie. one level 8 spell per day, a bit more than a bard. If you go for full advance in both, you'll only reach 5th level spells, a bit more than the Ranger), but it also lets the player chose how much the want to trade for how much. You don't lose two spell levels from the get go for future advance, but go losing them as time goes by for advance in the moment you chose to do so. Also, it lets player have a weaker advance in other areas other than spells, one player could want to have only a bit of wildshaping, with your houserule he would have to give up 8th and 9th for the full advance, even if he only wanted a bit. With this he could lose one or two levels of spell advance to have some wildshape capabilities.

Hope it helped and that it was understandable.