Bard (Animal Speaker/Negotiator/VMC Druid)

[Zhentarim]

Would this archetype make a realistic merchant that regularly caravans across vast wilderness? Perhaps a kitsune bard that has made friends with brother bear and sister wolf?

[Geddy2112]

Yeah, but I don't see the point of being a VMC druid. The wild shape won't come into play till late in the game and it will be far behind.

If you want the animal companion, you could burn 2 of the 5 feats you give up to get the animal ally feat. Then take boon companion, and get another feat. I also think the idea of the animal speaker and friend of nature works well, but do you really need an animal companion to do so?

Animal speaker already gets SNA and a MUCH better wild empathy ability than the druid. What else do you need?

[Zhentarim]

Yeah, but I don't see the point of being a VMC druid. The wild shape won't come into play till late in the game and it will be far behind.

If you want the animal companion, you could burn 2 of the 5 feats you give up to get the animal ally feat. Then take boon companion, and get another feat. I also think the idea of the animal speaker and friend of nature works well, but do you really need an animal companion to do so?

Animal speaker already gets SNA and a MUCH better wild empathy ability than the druid. What else do you need?

Well, it said that the wild empathy I gain from animal speaker stacks with what I get from druid, so since I start at level 5...I could overlevel wildempathy.

[Extra Anchovies]

Well, it said that the wild empathy I gain from animal speaker stacks with what I get from druid, so since I start at level 5...I could overlevel wildempathy.

Animal Speaker's wild empathy performance only stacks with wild empathy from another class, so it helps for multiclassing but not for VMC.


If the bard already has wild empathy from another class, he adds the class levels that provide wild empathy to the result of his Perform check to influence an animal.

[Zhentarim]

Animal Speaker's wild empathy performance only stacks with wild empathy from another class, so it helps for multiclassing but not for VMC.

VMC is multiclassing