The Urban Druid Handbook

[Soranar]

The urban druid is a class first introduced in a dragon magazine and later reprinted in Dragon Compendium.

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I've been thinking about building a handbook for this class for multiple reasons: I think it's a low end tier 1 class, it has a lot of flavor and it fills are strange niche. Despite its limited class features, which are mostly nerfed versions of what a normal druid gets, I believe the urban druid can be useful to the right party.

With all of this in mind, let's see what the class has to offer

PARTY ROLES (s)
Like the Druid, the Urban Druid's variety of class abilities allows him to fill a number of roles in the party.

Primary Melee: You might think that limited weapon and armor proficiencies which are enforced with a roleplay requirement (making learning new weapon proficiencies a questionable workaround) would make fulfilling this role difficult but it does not. By the time you can afford better armor than those allowed by your restrictions you will be able to use urban shape to compensate for your limitations. In the same vein, limited weapon proficiencies are not that much of an issue when most of your damage comes from natural weapons and/or slam attacks or simply using power attack with a quarterstaff.

Primary Ranged: Your best projectile weapons are crossbows but, probably due to lazy writing, you are proficient with ALL crossbows. This lets you use a Great Crossbow (basically a portable ballista from Races of Stone) to deliver quite a lot of damage at range with an impressive 2d8 damage. Note that no feat can let you take iteratives with that crossbow, not even instant reload (which is EPIC), making this weapon only useful at lower levels against opponents with DR as a double heavy crossbow or a repeating heavy crossbow will likely serve you better. As a side note many races are naturally proficient with bows, letting you use those without much fuss though a strict DM might rule against bows due to the restriction on weapons and armor.

Primary Skillmonkey/Stealth Expert: You lack a druid's high wisdom, hide and move silently, listen or spot. You also lack the trapfinding of a rogue or a beguiler. Move along

Party Face: You are arguably the best party face possible. You get bonuses to those skills in your favored cities, you have a high CHA and access to all the social skills you need. Finally you get all the great Bard spells you need to deal with people including charm, suggestion and glibness. However your urban shapes can make great scouting options and there are ways to add skills to your skill list. Finally anyone can gain the trapfinding class feature (and skills) through catalogues of the enlightenment (kobold domain power).

Primary healer : you have access to most of the important heal spells (cure, heal, restoration, regenerate) with one exception. However you cannot revive the dead in any fashion.

Primary Buffer: you have access to all the STAT boosting spells and barkskin. While this isn't huge it will get the job done most of the time.

Primary Caster: You have access to several save or suck spells and a few battlefield control spells (with the notable exception of entangle). All in all your list might be short but it is useful in most situations and you can target will saves or fortitude saves depending on the situation. While you lack summons you do have access to dominate spells to turn foes into friends and you can summon swarms, create giant vermins or animate objects to serve as meat shields.

RACIAL SELECTION:

Human: As usual humans are good at everything and work well as urban druids.
Strongheart Halfling: Same as human but you can use your medium urban companion as a mount
Gnomes: All the gnomes without a CHA penalty make decent urban druids, like the Halfling they can use their medium urban companion as a mount
Lesser Aasimar : The CHA bonus is what you’re here for.
Elves: Some elves donÂ’t have a CON penalty and the Star Elf has a CHA boost but, roleplay wise, elves make poor choices for an urban themed character.
Kobolds: With your natural weapons you qualify or multiattack, the dragon type feat can give you +3 to all mental STATs and dragon tail can eventually grant you access to multiweapon fighting by using prehensive tail.
Warforged: Despite the CHA hit the sheer amount of immunites combined with the fact that you can spontaneously cast repair spells make these worth it. They also give you a workaround for the roleplay limitation on your armor BUT that bonus disappears while urban shaped so they are not that attractive, a mediocre choice
Killoren : Benefits from being CHA focused, gives you access to charming the arrow for a ranged build. The smite works well for a mounted character.
Azurin: Humans with incarnum, great for a build that uses acidic spittle
Lesser Cansin: bonus to INT and CHA isn't bad
Neraphim: being an outsider gives you martial weapon proficiencies which you can use to qualify for the ardent dilettante later levels


LA Races:
Anything that delays your class features is usually not worth it, might be ok with LA buyoff.

Templates:

Dragonborn of Bahamut: gives you many benefits without much penalties except that you must be neutral good
Unseelie fey: anything that gives you more CHA is good

CLASS FEATURES:
Spells: as I mentioned earlier your spell list is more limited than a DruidÂ’s but you stole key spells of the Bard list that make up for it.
Urban companion: your choices are slightly weaker than a Druid's but they also have their own tricks. Has its own section later.
Urban shape: same as above
City sense: untyped bonuses are always useful
Favored city: a sacred bonus to skills is pretty rare so itÂ’s almost always useful. Also most campaigns tend to be in a handful (if not just 1) large city so this becomes relevant pretty often
Crowdwalk: again, an untyped bonus to a check that happens pretty often
Alley fighting: becomes more and more useful as you grow in size through urban shape, a competence bonus is not that great though
Disease immunity: never a bad thing to have
Information Network: Always useful, always relevant, great flavor to let a DM throw plot hooks. Arguably gives you easy access to black markets and the like if you need to find something exotic

Class Skills:
Bluff: you have access to glibness and this gives you synergy bonuses
Concentration: you are a caster, always useful
Craft:
Diplomacy: the best skill you have
Gather information: the second best skill you have and you get special uses of it
Intimidate: not a bad idea on a party face
Knowledge Architecture/Engineering : rarely comes into play
Knowledge history: leave that to a bard or a wizard
Knowledge Local: humanoids are your bread and butter
Perform: not particularly useful to you
Profession: rarely useful
Sense motive: useful on a party face, max this out
Spellcraft: useful for synergy and to counterspell or dispel magic, not a bad investment
Survival: rarely useful for you, leave that to the woodsy types

Cross Class Skills:
Use Magic Device : you are CHA based and your spell list is limited, enough said

Skill Tricks :
Twisted Charge : great for a city fighter like you
Swift Concentration: lets you use a second standard action while you concentrate

Good Dips :


-a Battledancer dip lets you use your unarmed attacks to deliver damage and you get your CHA to AC. Neither interfere with your roleplay requirements and changing size is the best way to abuse unarmed strikes.
-a cleric dip lets you get turn undead to fuel divine feats and can grant you domain abilities that are probably worth the trouble.
-Barbarian dip for rage, martial weapons proficiencies and pounce, note that rage doesn't work in animated object form since you don't benefit from morale bonuses when you're a construct
-Just like everyone else, a high level tome of battle dip can really give you a lot for your investment

FEATS:

Druid feats:
Natural Spell: Assuming this is ruled to work with urban shape itÂ’s not that useful for you. Humanoid shapes can speak and have no problem casting spells. Until you get the animated objects forms (which only come on at level 16) it might not be worth the investment and you could probably argue that whatever animated object you turn into can speak anyway
Companion Spellbond: can be very useful if your urban companion is ruled to be an animal companion
Natural bond : as above, only useful to multiclass characters

Wild Shape Feats: come under the same cave at as all the other druid only feats since urban shape is not called wildshape (even though it works the same way) you may not be allowed to take these.

Aberration Wild Shape: makes your wildshape as good as a normal Druid
Frozen Wild shape: again, this greatly expands your wildshape use and gives you access to the cryohydra
Exalted Wild shape: not bad, not great. Gives you access to teleportation via the blink dog though and, as people have pointed out to me, free action teleport is pretty powerful
Bestial Charge: not bad but not strictly necessary unless you want to be an ubercharger
Assume supernatural ability: only useful if you have access to frozen wildshape or aberration wildshape

Spellcasting feats:
Extend Spell: always useful to extend buffs
Energy substitution and energy affinity: the only way you can make your thunder do something else than electricity damage but blasting is inefficient for you, skip
Empower spell: you canÂ’t really blast with an urban druid, I would skip this
Occular spell: again, you lack the spells to really make use of this, skip
Persistent spell: worth it despite the steep cost
Quickened spell: might be worth it to buff yourself quickly, you donÂ’t have much to do with your swift actions anyway
Sculpt Spell: you have a lot of area of effect spells, this makes them far more useful
Cold focus/eschew material/snowcasting/draconic aura : this combo can be worth it if you want to maximize your spells DC. Eschew material makes+ snowcasting turns all of your spells into cold spells, draconic aura can give you a massive bonus to your spells' DC.

Other Feats:

Ubercharger chain : not a terrible investment for you. You have many class features that enhance your fighting ability and you have very little ways to deliver damage through spells. Much like a cleric you have the feel of a gish.
Attack of opportunity chain: your urban shapes have a low DEX score so relying on multiple attacks of opportunity is not a great option.
Archery feats: an ok option at lower levels, due to the low DEX of all your forms this is a subpar option for you and you can't rely on intuitive strike or be a Wisdom based archer. The only exceptions are the dark stalker shape (which grants you 3d6 sneak attack and 17 DEX) or a multiarmed multiweapon fighting animated object shape at higher levels.
mounted charger: you need to waste a feat on lance proficiency, not a great option but a killoren with the destruction domain power (obtained through catalogues of the enlightment) and the extra smites feat can make this usable
Vow of Poverty: works just as well for you as it does for a druid. Unlike a Druid your slam attacks can gain the right material to bypass DR and your immunities and spells can cover the rest of the problems with these feats
Education + Knowledge Devotion: difficult to justify with only x4 skillpoints per level but a human has a lot of skillpoints and being a walking library is rarely a bad thing
improved unarmed strike + superior unarmed strike: once you can turn into animated objects this is worth it, until then it's not

URBAN COMPANION:
Since your list is so limited, itÂ’s not hard to simply list them all and see what they offer but IÂ’ll skip to the notable options

Small animated object: Can be ok to terrible depending on your choice. An animated object can be made of anything so, by all means, have it made of adamantine. The problem here is its size : a small animated object will have a terrible grapple bonus and the slam damage will be miserable. The only saving grace is that it provides you with a permanent animated rope (say a chain made of adamantine) which has a climb speed, letting you use it as a portable ladder for your party. Furthermore the slam damage is mediocre but it bypasses adamantine DR. Finally the adamantine chain has hardness 20 and 15 hitpoints, is immune to crits and mind affecting effect and you donÂ’t need handle animal to use it, making it a very tough and reliable tank at early levels. Even without any armor enhancements DR 20 adamantine makes it essentially invincible at early levels.

riding dog: just as good for you as it is for a normal druid, remains the best choice for a while in all around usefulness, can earn extra feats from gaining hit dice unlike the animated object
horse (light or heavy, light warhorse): can be surprisingly good at fighting but the riding dog is slightly superior as dogs are allowed anywhere while horses are not though the light warhorse is trained for war (can wear barding) and has reach. Making it the best adventuring buddy you can pick.
The vermin types lose their vermin traits, have mediocre poison and subpar STATS. The only saving grace is the spider's entangling attack (web).

Level 4
Dire Bat : The only standout at this level due to itÂ’s flight. In all other aspects a 4 HD riding dog or a 5 HD light warhorse is superior to the rest. The medium construct is only slightly better than the small one.

Level 7
Animated object (large): finally a decent animated object. A flexible animated construct shaped like a square can fly, grapple with constrict damage and blind the opponents it grapples. It still doesnÂ’t have the best grappling score (+3 from STR, + 4 from size and +3 from BAB) but a chainmail of adamantine shaped into a rug would also provide the party with a tireless flyer (though it has a terrible flight speed).
Hammerer and Pulverizer: they both have awesome STATS but taking the chance they do nothing half the time makes them mostly useless and, like the animated objects, they canÂ’t gain feats. If you are willing to gamble though their STATS make them superior to most options, even the higher level ones.
Huge Viper /Centipede : decent grappler, ok STATs, has a poison (which has a chance of actually working) but itÂ’s too big to bring most places, never mind go around in a city with it. You do get to pick all of its feats though so some cheese can be achieved that way.

Level 10
Animated object (Huge) : like the large version but better in all aspects. Despite its lack of feats itÂ’s still superior to a light warhorse with 9 HD since its immunities become more and more relevant. A huge animated object has +19 grapple check, can grapple multiple enemies at once if they are smaller than it, can also grapple creatures larger than it is and itÂ’s slam damage is not too bad. The hardness and your ability to heal it are just gravy
Monstrous spider: I wouldn’t bother, entangling loses its appeal at this point.

Level 13
Not a great level, just progress your huge animated object

Level 16
Animated Object (gargantuan) : great STATs, the immunities are extremely relevant at this point, very tough to kill, no reason not to pick this unless you really want your animal companion to have certain feats.

If that's the case use a progressed light warhorse or a dire bat would be the reasonable DM friendly options.

The one surprise could be the gargantuan spider. With 16 HD it gets 6 feats (your choice) and a whopping +31 to grapple. Improved natural attack would give it a 3d8+10 bite, with a 20DC poison that deals 2d6 STR damage it might actually be useful. Tremorsense 60 ft combined with a touch attack web entangle with +15 to hit (12 BAB +3 DEX) means that if can entangle just about anything, making them waste some kind of action to get out of it if they can. The only downside is the size with roleplay requirements: walking around with a light warhorse in the city is no problem, walking around with a gargantuan spider is not ideal.

URBAN SHAPE:
Notable shapes

Level 5+
Humanoids:
Flind : humanoid, has a 16 STR score, you can keep your equipment with it if you just take it off and put it back on after shaping (same applies for all humanoid shapes)
DarkStalker: decent ranged STATs, gives you 3d6 sneak attack
Winged humanoid (avariel or raptoran)
Aquatic humanoid (many options)
Varag: faster than many horses

Non humanoids:

Level 5+
Some of your creature options are not terrible at this level but the Flind or the darkstalker will always have the option to cast spells and wear armor, something you won’t be able to do with your other forms.

Level 8+
Some Large options are pretty nice. The Dire Bat can carry a buddy and the monstrous Scorpion (Large) has decent attacks and STATS. Unfortunately there are no large humanoids to abuse that I’m aware of.

Level 11+
Your tiny shapes provide you with great movement modes to sneak around and scout, otherwise they’re mostly useless.

Level 12+
Object shapes make great disguises

Level 15
The Huge Scorpion is your best bet at this point

Level 16
Animated objects are hilariously easy to abuse for an urban druid. Create shapes with multiple arms and they can wield multiple weapons. Put wheels on your feet to provide you with a huge speed bonus. The construct type lets you ignore so many forms of attack you’re the next best thing to an undead. You can also make yourself out of adamantine if you reduce your thickness to half an inch (since get 20 hardness per inch) so your attacks can bypass adamantine. Likewise if you need a cold iron weapon or an alchemical silver weapon you can just change your material to match what you need. This is when you get your best and strongest class features and it's definitely worth the wait. Finally you can wield weapons appropriate for your size giving you a huge damage bump.

[Soranar]

Create Water: Never run out of water, great if you need to make a scrying pond
Cure Minor Wounds: Good to stabilize a dying PC
Detect Magic Always useful
Detect Poison: Situational but great if you’re a James Bond type
Guidance: not great but it is a cantrip
Know Direction: Just get a compass
Light: Can be useful if you run out of torches
Mending: Pick a pocket with your knife then mend the hole
Purify Food and Drink: Again, channel your inner James Bond
Read Magic: Situational
Repair Minor Damage*: Same as cure minor wounds if you have warforged in your party
Resistance: not terrible for a cantrip
Virtue: same as above

Alarm: Better than to go without sleep, more reliable too
Animate Rope: The poor man’s animate object, not terrible at level 1
Charm Person: Great spell, always relevant
Comprehend Languages: Situational but you can’t have a diplomacy check without language
Cure Light Wounds: Just have someone else get a wand of vigor
Detect Secret Doors: If your rogue is not having a good day, can be useful
Detect Undead: I’ve rarely had to use this, when undead are this close you’re usually already fighting them
Endure Elements: Campaign dependent but literally a life saver
Faerie Fire: Efficient way to counter many forms of defenses
Hold Portal: I would rarely prepare this at lower levels but it comes in handy when you wonder what to do with your level 1 slots
Jump: The bonus is substantial and the duration is pretty good. Only useful for a jump based character (usually a warblade or a swordsage) but he’ll be very happy you have it if you chose to
Longstrider: Not great, I rarely prepare this
Magic Fang: Makes your light warhorse or riding dog the best fighter in the party when you face creatures that require a magic weapon to hit, great spell
Magic Stone: Your crossbows will do more damage than that
Obscure Object: Again, James Bond has many tricks
Obscuring Mist: Concealment is always useful.
Pass without Trace: Rarely need this but when you do you usually didn’t prepare it… situational
Repair Light Damage*: Party dependant
Scatterspray*: Your first area of effect damage spell. The trick to use this is to drop (free action) sling bullets (free action to draw ammunition), move away with your move action and trigger the explosion. Does not scale but it does ok damage at early levels.

Barkskin: Great buff, remains relevant throughout the game
Bear's Endurance: Same as above
Bull's Strength: Same as above, don’t forget your share your spells with your animal companion
Calm Emotions: Good way to setup a situation for a charm spell or a suggestion
Cat's Grace: Rarely worth a spell
Chill Metal: Long duration damage, combines very well with extend spell and you can target multiple creatures (caster level /2) with no cap as to how many creatures you can affect with this. All in all a very powerful spell if you can just stay out of harm’s way. If you can your opponents with their weapons unattended, they get no save.
Delay Poison: Another tool for James Bond
Detect Thoughts: Great scouting spell
Eagle's Splendor Boosts your Save DC, great spell
Enthrall: If you thought sleep was powerful this spell is simply incredible. Lasts up to an hour, can affect ever creature at 4 HD or less and the only way for them to get out of it is a will save or a charisma check. Language dependant and you can’t harm the creatures while you enthrall them but this can end an encounter.
Fog Cloud: No real reason to use this over obscuring mist. 1 minute per level is plenty.
Heat Metal: Same as Chill Metal but fire damage, just as powerful too.
Hold Person: A pretty good save or suck spell at this level
Knock: Who needs a rogue ?
Locate Object: Find the Macguffin spell, always useful, always good. A downtime spell mind, you don't prepare this every day.
Misdirection: Again, a great James Bond spell
Owl's Wisdom: Rather useless for you
Repair Moderate Damage*: same as the minor version
Resist Energy: Great buff at early levels
Restoration, Lesser This comes into play very often
Rope Trick: If you run out of spells in a dungeon, this is for you
Spider Climb: Useful when you’re too low level to use urban shape to get around. You can cast heat metal and then climb to safety while the enemy warrior dies from wearing his armor
Suggestion: Just like charm person, this is always useful
Summon Swarm: Great to distract enemy spellcasters, the damage is not terrible at early levels. Becomes much better once you can use the swift concentration skilltrick but that’s only available at level 9. The bats have blindsense, making them very difficult to avoid.
Warp Wood: Pretty good debuff, it’s rare to find yourself in a situation where this won’t be useful in some fashion. Requires a bit of creativity sometimes.
Wood Shape: Can be used to prepare something to be animated with the animate object spell, not nearly as useful as warp wood though
Call Lightning: Ok damage if you’re safe from harm, gives you a ranged option. Becomes much better with swift concentration
Charm Monster: Better than charm person as it affects anything, great spell
Contagion: Your first save or suck that targets fortitude saves. The blinding sickness can be especially brutal with maximize spell or empower spell.
Cure Moderate Wounds: Healing is never optimal, see cure minor wounds
Daylight: You lose darkvision while in urban shape so this is worth it
Diminish Plants: The Plant type is so rare that this should never see play
Glibness: You win at DnD, if this isn’t banned it can lead to some seriously funny interaction
Halt Undead: Your first anti undead spell, it’s pretty good since unintelligent undead get no saving throw and it can affect up to 3 of them with no HD cap
Keen Edge: just get a scabbard of keen edges
Leomund's Tiny Hut: I prefer using rope trick than wasting a 3rd level slot on this
Magic Fang, Greater: Great buff, long duration, enough said
Neutralize Poison: You can use slow poison until you can rest to prepare this spell. Again, this is for James Bond though poison can become an issue by the time you get this.
Nondetection M: Countering scrying can be useful sometimes but I rarely need this if I’m not a rogue
Poison: If you maximize this it can lead to instant kills but a save or die spell that targets FORT saves is not optimal. Becomes increasingly powerful with each hit since it lowers your targets’ FORT saves
Protection from Energy: Always a good buff in the right situation
Quench: Has many uses and yet I rarely prepare this spell, too situational
Remove Disease: Can be a life saver but you are immune to all diseases so it’s not for your benefit
Repair Serious Damage*: Same as all repair spells
Shrink Item: Very useful, lets you carry something to animate with animate object without wasting space for it. Great to bring back large loot too
Speak with Dead: information gathering is your schtick, if the living don’t know what happened the dead often do
Stinking Cloud: Save of suck area of effect spell that grants concealment, even though it targets FORT saves this is a great spell
Tongues: Useful for all your language dependant abilities and spells
Antiplant Shell: Again, plants rarely ever see play
Blight: same as above
Cure Serious Wounds: same as all the cure spells
Dispel Magic: Very useful, the best way you can counter other spellcasters
Dominate Person: Charm person’s bigger brother. This isn’t just save or suck, this is save or be my friend and go kill yours and you get it as a level 4 spell just like a bard’s. Oh and this is yet another spell that benefits from swift concentration
Freedom of Movement: Insanely good buff, shuts down all forms of grappling and various spells
Giant Vermin: Instant meatshield , unlike summon monster this spell gets better as your caster level progresses
Hold Monster: Again, you get this at level 4 just like a bard. Also works on any creature type not immune to mind affecting effects so this is pretty broad
Legend Lore M F: A downtime spell for when your information network and speaking to the dead doesn’t work
Leomund's Secure Shelter: Again, why not just use rope trick?
Locate Creature: As locate object
Minor Creation: Extremely versatile spell for non combat uses.
Repel Vermin: Vermin are immune to your mind affecting spells (which is half of your good battlefield control spells) so this helps fill your gaps
Repair Critical Damage*: As all repair spells
Rusting Grasp: I don’t like destroying loot but against certain foes (like metallic golems) this can be pretty effective
Scrying F: remember that scrying pool you can make with create water? Well here’s why you need it.
Animate Objects: Animated objects can be incredibly versatile if you don’t leave it up to the DM. Make sure you have your animal companion carry /drag the right object for the job or use shrink item to have it handy. Again, you get this spell earlier than everyone else, even the bard.
Atonement: For when your paladin buddy did something stupid
Call Lightning Storm: Again, use this with swift concentration
Control Winds: Can create tornadoes, smash enemy fleets , prevent flyers from taking the skies. This spell is powerful in the right circumstance.
Cure Critical Wounds: As all cure spells.
Death Ward: Great buff
Fabricate: When you need something new to animate. Great utility spell outside combat.
HallowM: Very versatile spell, lasts a YEAR and can seriously ruin a necromancer’s day if you cast this on his lair, expensive though.
Leomund's Secret Chest F: Screw you rogues
Major Creation: see minor creation
Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum: A form of nondection centered on a place, has its uses
Passwall: give headaches to your DM
Repair Light Damage, Mass*: As all repair spells
Stoneskin M: great defensive buff
Susurrus of the City * F x: A strange spell but it turns out cities know a lot of stuff
Transmute Mud to Rock: I rarely use this
Transmute Rock to Mud: Great way to level a castle
Unhallow ; Same as Hallow but evil
Wall of Stone: Your first wall spell, very good battlefield control option
Antilife Shell: Unlike antiplant shell, this is actually useful
Bear's Endurance, Mass: I rarely use this buff, at this point you usually have this effect permanent with magic items
Bull's Strength, Mass: same as above
Cat's Grace, Mass: As rarely useful
Cure Light Wounds, Mass: as all cure spells
Dispel Magic, Greater. As dispel magic, but better
Eagle's Splendor, Mass: don’t waste a high level spellslot on this
Find the Path: Kind of like locate creature or object but this tells you which way to go
Flesh to Stone: Save or suck that targets FORT saves, unfortunately it allows SR
Guards and Wards: Alarm on steroids , useful
Move Earth: Like Control Winds this is useful in certain situations
Owl's Wisdom, Mass: don’t bother
Repair Moderate Damage, Mass*: as all repair spells
Repel Wood: No saves but rarely that useful
Spellstaff: Basically lets you carry over a spellslot from yesterday, useful when you know you have a downtime day
Stone Tell: You already speak to the living, the dead, cities and now rocks. This brings the hippiness to incredible levels.
Stone to Flesh: Great to have on your list, only prepare it when one of your friends wants to start moving again
Suggestion, Mass: Mass affecting effect, if you feel like stirring up a mob this is perfect
Undeath to Death M: Because simply halting the undead is not enough
Wall of Iron M: Only slightly better than wall of stone
Control Weather: As control wind but crazier
Creeping Doom: You have better meatshields than these and they require lower spell slots
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass: As all cure spells
Disintegrate: A staple of spellcasters, one of your only damage dealing spells worth the trouble as it has multiple uses and it anhiliates undead and constructs (two things that resist many of your spells)
Heal: First healing spell worth the standard action
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion F: again just use rope trick unless you’re trying to impress an NPC
Phase Door: for An escape route for James Bond
Repair Serious Damage, Mass*: as all repair spells
Scrying, Greater: Scrying but better
Sequester: For those who have a dungeon fetish, can keep a target at your disposal for days...
Statue: Provides decent immunities that you can get from urban shape in a couple of levels so this is only relevant for a little while
Transmute Metal to Wood: Allows no save though it allows SR. Combos well with repel wood
True Seeing M: A must at this point
Wind Walk: Fast travel, slower than teleport but still fast travel
Cure Serious Wounds, Mass: as all cure spells
Dimensional Lock: you don’t have dimensional anchor so this will have to do
Discern Location: another great scrying spell
Earthquake: Versatile destruction spell, don’t rely on it for actual damage though since by the time you get it you should have much more potent forms of attack.
Finger of Death: Save of die, nothing fancy but it gets the job done against the right creature.
Iron Body: This spell is useful to you for exactly 1 level, after which you can simply transform in animated objects for a better effect. Much better if you prestige out
Maze: Get rid of a dumb opponent for up to 10 minutes. Offers no save and the only way to get out is an intelligence check, great against anything stupid. It does allow SR and plane shift can get you out but it’s still extremely good.
Polymorph Any Object: Polymorph’s bigger cousin. Uses a spell slot that’s much higher but , if you took a prestige class and lost access to the advanced urban shape forms this is very good to have. The duration can be extremely long or even permanent.
Repair Critical Damage, Mass: As all repair spells
Repel Metal or Stone: Much easier to abuse than repel wood, very effective form of defense against several forms of enemies. Has many non combat uses, a great spell overall. Oh and it allows no save and ignores SR.
Reverse Gravity: As above, too many uses to really think of them all. Offers no saves and no SR. Can cause falling damage by sending people into the air and then letting them fall after the spell is over. Extremely potent spell.
Word of Recall: Finally a teleport spell. Great as a contingency.
Antipathy: Mostly useful for roleplaying purposes, not combat related.
Citygate * F: Another teleport spell, this one lets you bring LOTS of friends with you.
Cure Critical Wounds, Mass: As all cure spells
Foresight: This is a potent buff
Freedom: Freedom of movements’ bigger brother. I would love this as a level 7 or 8 spell, as a level 9 spell it feels a little weak. It is one of the few counters to imprisonment mind but this is more of a downtime spell, only prepare it if you know you need it to free someone.
Imprisonment: seems like overkill compared to maze but it does give you a way to deal with creatures that just won’t die (say a Tarrasque).
Regenerate: Not something you prepare every day but handy when you need it.
Shapechange F: Extremely versatile, extremely powerful. Technically it gives you a cleric’s spellcasting if you change into a solar. Broken good.
Storm of Vengeance: The range and the duration is great. Most of the abilities are mediocre except for one : it prevents spellcasting and all ranged attacks. If you combine this with swift concentration you can be the only thing capable of casting within the storm,very potent spell in the right circumstances.
Sympathy M: great way for you to found your own city.

Differences between the Urban Druid and the vanilla Druid

-The chassis of both classes is very similar

-Same save progression, same BAB, same amount of skillpoints

where they differ

-the Druid has more spells (due to splatbooks)
-the Druid has prestige classes designed for it
-the Druid is Wisdom based divine spellcasting, the urban Druid is Charisma based divine spellcasting
-the Druid's wildshape is far broader : there are a lot animals instead of the urban druid's all humanoid + list
-the Druid can revive the dead and use summon nature's ally spontaneously , the urban druid cannot do the first and can only use repair spells spontaneously (which is obviously a far weaker choice)
-the urban druid has better skills and better non magical abilities (pass without trace is rarely useful)

If I wanted to compare the urban's druid party role to another class, a better choice would be a bard or a beguiler but

-the urban druid has an urban companion (basically a slightly weaker form of animal companion)
-the urban druid has more hitpoints
-the urban druid has less skillpoints, no scouting skills and no trapfinding
-a druid gets the spell animated object as a level 5 spell, unlike a bard who gets it at level 6 and he gets a normal spell progression so he can use it fairly early (level 9), the spell also scales and you can abuse it by carrying the appropriate object to animate
-finally an urban druid knows his entire spell list and has a better variety of spells. It also has several options to deal with undead which is always a problem for both those classes.

Now, as requested, here's the list of sanctified spells that you can cast.

Level 1
Twillight luck No alcohol for 3 days is simply unacceptable to obtain such a small bonus to saves.
Divine inspiration Terrible spell. The cost is too high, the effect is situational (only works against evil) and the duration is too short.

Level 2
Luminous Armor This effectively removes all your roleplay issues concerning armor but this version is only marginally better than the normal armor your can get. At the level you get it I wouldn’t bother with this unless you want to save your higher level spellslots for something more important
Aiyalla’s Radiant Burst: Blinding an opponent at this level can save the party and the cost isn’t too high since you already have access to lesser restoration to pay for it. The problem is you already have a decent save or suck spell that targets FORT saves at this level (hold person) and if you’re not fighting a humanoid a judicious use of chill or heat metal can probably do more for you than this spell at no extra cost. I would pass

Level 3
Phierans’ resolve The evil descriptor is fairly common in anything you’re likely to encounter as a good PC. However I wouldn’t bother with this spell unless I had prior knowledge that I would be facing evil spellcasters.
Path of the Exalted This spell is so vague it’s basically up to the DM to decide what it does. I wouldn’t bother.
Telepathy Tap Discern thoughts does the job and it’s a level 2 spell. skip
Brilliant Emanation: I thought this was merely an ok spell at first but have you looked at this spell’s range ? By the time you can cast this you affect everything within 150 ft of you, if they fail their saves they are blinded. Only affects evil creatures so it’s useless against neutral encounters like animals or constructs but it’s still worth the spell slot you need to cast this and the lesser restoration you’ll need to recover from it. Against small groups of creatures stinking cloud will be more reliable but this definitely has a purpose
Hammer of Righteousness Good range, deals force damage, always hits. This is like a magic missile on steroids. Great addition to your class since you lack decent damage spells.
Celestial Aspect : The armblade is rarely going to be that useful to you. The gaze attack is a standard action and does mediocre damage but it always hits so it can probably serve a purpose against something really hard to hit or vulnerable to fire. The wings are basically flight that lasts 1 minute / caster level . This works on any creature touched which means you can grant the gaze attack to a friend’s familiar or a weak animal companion. Or you can grant your light warhorse flight. Almost as good as Alter Self and it only costs you 1d3 strength damage.

Level 4
Greater Luminous Armor It’ll cost you a level 4 spell and a level 2 (lesser restoration) to use this without penalty but it’s worth it. Lasts hours per caster level (7 hours when you get access to it) and it gives a significant armor bonus (+8) which ignores your roleplay issues with armor and the bonus works while wildshaped.
Sunmantle 5 DR that works against anything is pretty handy. The damage to anyone who attacks you is just gravy, it’s also untyped damage it works against anything and ignores damage resistance unlike a fire shield. Since an urban druid is probably going to melee, this is a decent buff.
Diamond Spray A damaging spell with a minor debuff attached to it but it costs gold to cast. As usual it only affects evil creatures. It’s probably cheaper to just use a wand of something similar. Skip.

Level 5
Inquisition You already have all the mind affecting spells you need to do with via charm, dominate or suggestion. Pass.
Curtain of light Basically a wall of fire with some wonky effects that only affects evil creatures or does double damage vs undead. For this spellslot though, I wouldn’t bother with this.
Sicken Evil: no save debuff that affects everything evil around you. Unfortunately this spell’s level and the cost of casting it is just too high. Pass

Level 6
Exalted Raiment Considering the level of the spell, the duration is too short and the bonus too weak for what you pay. I would skip.
Valiant Steed A unicorn has access to a few spells and a permanent magic circle against evil but by the time you get it it’s pretty weak and an ability drain is a pretty high cost for you. It can assist the defenders of ysgard mind so , if you need to safeguard something or you just need all the help you can get in a desperate situation, go for it.
Storm of shards Ability drain so you won’t be spamming this. Because of that I wouldn't bother.

Level 7
Cry of Ysgard If you have access to restoration, the ability damage isn’t so bad. As a normal summon a defender of ysgard is not that powerful (9 HD, 6 of which are ranger levels) but the summon lasts a year so if you need them to do some task (say guard a macguffin) it’s not that bad. Since an urban druid doesn’t have restoration, I wouldn’t bother with this.
Constricting Chains Entangle an opponent, no save no SR. If your opponent is a spellcaster, he can’t cast spells without a concentration check. The chains also deal mediocre damage as a free action once the round but the best ability is probably that half the damage the chain gets is transferred to whatever they hold. By level 20 that means the chains can deal 50 damage that way. The problem is the thing held can escape with a 32 STR check (which is not hard to do at level 13) or a 40 escape artist check (again not that difficult) making this mostly useless by the time you get it. It only affects 1 opponent at a time too, you’re better off with an animated object (5 level spell) or a giant vermin (4th level spell) with the same caster level.
Rain of Embers Ability drain is a high cost to cast a damage spell, I would skip.
Phoenix Fire The damage is impressive but the level loss and death is just too high a cost. Skip.
Channel Celestial Not worth it by the time you get it. Your Charisma should be sky high already at this point (probably close to 30) so I don’t see the appeal of wasting a 7th level spellslot and paying ability damage to two stats to pull this off.

Level 8
Dragon Cloud 21 HD summon that lasts minute, deals decent damage, has flight. It would say this is worth it. In the right occasion. The 1 minute delay is unfortunate however.
Restore’s soul Treasure If you play with an ancestral relic, this is a way to get it back once it gets destroyed

Level 9
Armageddon : Sacrificing 1 character level to cast a spell is a steep cost. This isn’t a negative level either so there’s no way around it. There’s also a sort of countdown where you keep getting mostly useless summons until you finally reach the astral Deva. The problem is you’re likely dead already by the time this happens. Pass
Exalted Fury Suicide bomber spell, You deal your hitpoints +50 damage to everything evil inside the blast radius. Offers no saving throw. This is definitely useful if you have a cleric buddy (or something else that can raise you). As is though, I find the cost a little steep for what it does, you’re better off not using this and staying in the fight.
Sanctify the Wicked Steep cost , character level loss and this basically takes a year to work BUT you do get to mindrape your opponent into becoming a goody twoshoes. Can be a pretty powerful way to gain an impressive ally.
Channel Greater Celestial Same as before, if you start at 18 your Charisma should be around 34 with various tomes , magical trinkets and STAT increases. Pass

And now here's the corrupt spells. Overall I would say Sanctified spells give you more uses for less cost.

Level 1
Seething eye bane Ouch just ouch . Save of suck and damage to everyone around your target. This is great as a level 1 spell.

Level 2
Devil’s tongue This spell is weird. Improved Grab at 15 ft is not bad and so is improved disarm. 1 minute per level isn’t terrible either but you’ll need a decent STR score to make this work.
Fangs of the Vampire King A bite attack that also deals CON damage, not bad
Lahm’s Finger Darts With no save this spell can cause quite a lot of DEX damage and they always hit. By level 13 that’s 5d4 DEX damage with a level 2 spell. It’ll cost you a lesser restoration or two but it’s worth it.

Level 3
Absorb Mind 2d6 wisdom damage with 75% chance you get no benefit from it. Pass.
Love’s Pain Too weird to use in actual combat but you can certainly make someone you hate suffer with this (say by killing his child by using this).
Red Fester A basic save or suck. But using something like hold person or stinking cloud will do more for you than this IMO.
Rotting Curse of Urfestra This is basically a slow save or die spell.
Serpents of Theggeron This spell causes mediocre damage with poison tacked onto it. The problem is that too many things are immune to poison (undead, constructs, etc). I would pass.
Touch of Juiblex Save of suck in 4 rounds, very hard to counter if you fail the save though.

Level 4
Absord Strength 2d6 Wisdom damage is not minor but this spell lasts 10 minutes per level and can grant you a significant bonus to STR and CON. The problem is finding something suitable to eat. I would pass.

Level 5
Forbidden Speech you have dominate person so you don’t need this
Power Leech Even though you have access to all the basic STAT enhancing spells, this spell lasts 10 minutes per level and only costs 1 WIS point. If you use it on animals from a bag of tricks you can get a very decent bonus out of this.
Claws of Bebilith You gain a mediocre claw attack for DEX damage, too weak for a level 5 spell even with the weird claw mechanic involved.

Level 6
Consume Likeness 2d6 Wisdom drain for a weak version of alter self as a level 6 spell. Even without the time limit, as soon as you take damage you lose your disguise. Just use a wand of alter self, you’ll get more out of it.

Level 7
Death by thorns This spell is just evil… Save or die. If you save then writhe on the ground doing nothing for 1d4 rounds . Very decent spell and at 1d3 Wisdom drain it’s actually usable.
Rapture of Rupture Stunning is a very good effect with few ways to counter and this spell can stun opponents for several rounds. Even if your target saves, it still gets 3d6 damage which causes stunning anyway if it deals 6 damage or more (which is should). Great spell and it’s cost is manageable.

Level 8
Evil Weather Just use control wind or control weather. The cost for this is too high for what you get.
Plague of Nightmares This is a roleplaying spell, hard to rate those. It can take down some pretty powerful opponents though.

Level 9
Apocalypse of the sky The spell is powerful but it can literally kill you if you try to use it. 4d6 wisdom DRAIN + another 1d3 can severely hamper or kill you. Same goes for the 3d6 Con damage. I would pass unless I absolutely need to destroy a neighboring nation. With 10 mile radius per caster level, you can totally abuse this with caster enhancing shenanigans.

[daremetoidareyo]

Let's talk about those animated companions, because you can totally design them. Build yourself a wicker and bone triceratops and you got yourself a rootin tutin saloon buster. Give it a door and make it hollow and you got full cover. Take a barbarian dip and take mounted fury while you ride inside your triceratops tank. Then take a little bear warrior, so that every time you rage you become a bear wearing a bear suit (with construct traits), like somekind of raging matryoshka doll of carnage.

Maybe you build a skate board with a built in towershield and lance. Make ride checks on it, wield a lance of your own. Take stupid mounted feats. Imagine a society of inner city urban druid youth who had skateboard lancing competitions to impress the ladies. Sounds like time for a custom prestige class! first level EX: Ollie, as an immediate action a mount can substitute its riders ride check for a jump or tumble check. If the mount successfully tumbles during it's movement the rider is granted the same benefit as their mount. Second level: EX Wickedly painted underboard: character may spend xp and gold to affix up to 5 warforged components on the board. bonus mounted feat.

Maybe animate a cape and use it for cover all of the time. Use it to fly around like a comic book hero while rain spells down on your nemesiseses

All I'm saying is perhaps use that craft skill and your imagination.

[eggynack]

Interesting idea. You probably need to go deeper on spell stuff if you really want to capture the essence of the urban druid though. It's the fundamental difference between the two classes. Also, without enhance wild shape, it's questionable that aberration wild shape alone gets you really well matched up with standard druid wild shape.

[Soranar]

Interesting idea. You probably need to go deeper on spell stuff if you really want to capture the essence of the urban druid though. It's the fundamental difference between the two classes. Also, without enhance wild shape, it's questionable that aberration wild shape alone gets you really well matched up with standard druid wild shape.

I guess I'll have to do a full review of the spells, I'll work on it and add it later.

[Soranar]

Ok, I added a full breakdown of all the urban druid spells.
also added a color coded scheme (standard blue = good, green = better than average, black = ok, red= bad)

[eggynack]

Yeah, that's a lot more useful. Spells are nice and such. Still, can't say as I agree with all of your evaluations. For example, regenerate is ludicrously situational to the point of being awful, and storm of vengeance is quite likely worse than control winds, not considering spell level, and yet you have the former rated higher than the latter. Never been much of a fan of the +4 stat stuff either, though it may be better with a more limited list of seconds. Oh, and fog cloud's main utility is in its range, not its duration, Not a great spell either way, but it has a role. Not sure if you care, but pretty sure sanctified and corrupt spells are also likely available on this prepared casting base. Almost certainly worth note if not necessarily worth rating. Out of the small list of prepared casters in this game of ours, urban druid may be the class that benefits second most, after healer, owing to how short the spell list is.

Edit: Also, arbitrary note, might want to get rid of the green rating. Unless I'm missing something, you only use it in exactly one place, endure elements.

[Troacctid]

Out of the small list of prepared casters in this game of ours, urban druid may be the class that benefits second most, after healer, owing to how short the spell list is.
I believe there are ~60 prepared casting classes in the game.

[DrMotives]

I've never had an Urban Druid at my table, but I wonder if Call Lighting & Call Lightning Storm might be better just to power the Storm Bolt feat. There's otherwise no blasting at all on the UD list, without looking at sanctified or vile spells, no other spells to exploit for reserve feat tricks. The only other reserve feat that stood out to me was Born Aloft, the fill-in for better flight that can be powered by not casting Control Winds.

[Yogibear41]

I'm not sure if Warforged Plating lets you get around the urban druid armor rule. Since it doesn't let you get around the normal druid rule, since most of them wear the wood based plating.

I did look at playing a warforged urban druid once, who I was thinking of going into WFJ so I had to take adamantine body, and I explored the idea of taking Heretic of the Faith so I could "violate my code of conduct" I never did it, but that might have been a stretch anyway.

[Troacctid]

Warforged plating isn't prohibited armor. In point of fact, no armor is prohibited armor for an urban druid; they simply lack proficiency with most types of armor.

[eggynack]

I believe there are ~60 prepared casting classes in the game.
I specifically meant those that get access to 9th's. Might still be missing some, but I'd assume a lot fewer.

[DrMotives]

Warforged plating isn't prohibited armor. In point of fact, no armor is prohibited armor for an urban druid; they simply lack proficiency with most types of armor.

That's not true, while Urban Druids have no prohibited weapons, but they explicitly lose spellcasting power and all other supernatural abilities while wearing prohibited armor and for 24 hours after they remove it. Allowed armor for the UD is bucklers but no other shields, and any light armor with a base AC bonus of >+4. So from the PH, it's only padded, leather, & studded leather. RAW is a little unclear, but I think RAI is that enhancement bonuses to those armors don't make them prohibited.

[eggynack]

That's not true, while Urban Druids have no prohibited weapons, but they explicitly lose spellcasting power and all other supernatural abilities while wearing prohibited armor and for 24 hours after they remove it. Allowed armor for the UD is bucklers but no other shields, and any light armor with a base AC bonus of >+4. So from the PH, it's only padded, leather, & studded leather. RAW is a little unclear, but I think RAI is that enhancement bonuses to those armors don't make them prohibited.
Gotta say, that armor restriction is stated really weirdly. It's unclear what, if any, armors are actually prohibited, even though it explicitly talks about prohibited armor and the effects thereof. Like, they find armor distasteful, but that's not a prohibition, and then they have a preference, but that's again not a prohibition, and then it finally states that the DM can add other armors with certain qualities, but it's couched in the terms of proficiency. And non-proficiency is not prohibition. Granted, it's also stated in the terms of allowing the druid to wear this armor, but that's coming before prohibition has ever been brought up, meaning proficiency seems to be the context. And the shield thing is only ever stated in proficiency terms, so the claim that there's a shield restriction seems definitely inaccurate.

So, point is, it's weird. It makes sense to assert that other armors are prohibited, but the rules are janky. All of this is kinda irrelevant though. Composite plating doesn't seem to be defined as armor by the rules in its normal state. Acts like armor in a lot of important ways, but it's never explicitly called armor. Really makes me wish warforged made better druids, but that wisdom penalty is so bad, and the best parts of the immunity list are pretty attainable.

[Soranar]

That's not true, while Urban Druids have no prohibited weapons, but they explicitly lose spellcasting power and all other supernatural abilities while wearing prohibited armor and for 24 hours after they remove it. Allowed armor for the UD is bucklers but no other shields, and any light armor with a base AC bonus of >+4. So from the PH, it's only padded, leather, & studded leather. RAW is a little unclear, but I think RAI is that enhancement bonuses to those armors don't make them prohibited.

The description in Dragon Compendium specifically says that any other armor that grants 4 AC or less can be allowed at DM's discretion. The problem with Warforged armor is that it's part of their bodies, so it's no impolite for them to wear it since they can't take it off. And yes, you lose all your powers because you consider it rude to wear body armor in a city. It is allowed while adventuring only so a Monk's belt, the Vow of Poverty feat, a Battledancer dip or bracers of armor remain your best option.

[Soranar]

Yeah, that's a lot more useful. Spells are nice and such. Still, can't say as I agree with all of your evaluations. For example, regenerate is ludicrously situational to the point of being awful, and storm of vengeance is quite likely worse than control winds, not considering spell level, and yet you have the former rated higher than the latter. Never been much of a fan of the +4 stat stuff either, though it may be better with a more limited list of seconds. Oh, and fog cloud's main utility is in its range, not its duration, Not a great spell either way, but it has a role. Not sure if you care, but pretty sure sanctified and corrupt spells are also likely available on this prepared casting base. Almost certainly worth note if not necessarily worth rating. Out of the small list of prepared casters in this game of ours, urban druid may be the class that benefits second most, after healer, owing to how short the spell list is.

Edit: Also, arbitrary note, might want to get rid of the green rating. Unless I'm missing something, you only use it in exactly one place, endure elements.

Thank you for the green rating thing, for some reason my changes didn't save earlier. I'll try to compile a list of sanctified an corrupt spells that might benefit the urban druid.

[Troacctid]

That's not true, while Urban Druids have no prohibited weapons, but they explicitly lose spellcasting power and all other supernatural abilities while wearing prohibited armor and for 24 hours after they remove it. Allowed armor for the UD is bucklers but no other shields, and any light armor with a base AC bonus of >+4. So from the PH, it's only padded, leather, & studded leather. RAW is a little unclear, but I think RAI is that enhancement bonuses to those armors don't make them prohibited.
The class gives you consequences for wearing prohibited armor, but it never goes so far as to actually prohibit any types of armor.

[Soranar]

added sanctified spells, I'll look into corrupt spells when I get the chance

[eggynack]

Don't really know how a red rating on luminous armor is justifiable. The armor is just better than the accessible mundane armor, first of all. Standard armor is offering a +3 if given normal options, or a +4 if the DM is allowing other stuff, at best, and that armor comes with downsides, particularly ACP and max dexterity bonus, with the latter being pretty problematic with forms like dire bat. Luminous, meanwhile, offers a +5 with no downsides, as well as a +4 against melee attacks. That's a +1 at worst, probably a +2, often a +5 or +6, and in some forms even higher. And all of that is ignoring one of the bigger elements on luminous armor, which is that it doesn't meld into you when you use urban shape. That's a pretty big deal, to my mind. I mean, you're giving standard luminous a red rating, and greater luminous, which is giving an extra +3 for two more spell levels a blue rating. Seems wonky to me.

Other things of note. Constricting chains is likely better than you're giving it credit for. DC 32 strength checks are hard. You need a strength of 34 to be getting past that on a 20. Most things have less than 34 strength. The creature is very rare that can get past the spell 50% of the time. Even at 13th level. Also, not sure I buy exalted wild shape as black when stuff like bestial charge and extend/persist (I've gotta think frozen is better in this context due to the lack of dire tortoise form competing at huge) is blue. It's perhaps the best tactical teleportation effect in the game, and that's a good category to be the best in.

[Soranar]

I have two problems with luminous armor. First, you're right it's a great spell to use while wildshaped but

you only get wildshape at level 5 and your best forms are humanoids until level 8 (so you just need to take off your armor, wildshape and put it back on).

Your best wildshapes until level 8 have 16 DEX max, your normal armors cover that easily and ACF is a non issue for you since you're a divine spellcaster.

By level 8, you have access to greater luminous armor.

Finally wasting 2 or 4 level 2 spells (luminous armor + lesser restoration x 2 to cover all day with caster level 3 to 6) on an AC bonus (from level 3 to 6) is a high cost. Wasting a level 2 and 4 by level 7+ isn't so bad. (with your higher caster level 1 casting should cover all day)

As for the chains I find there's too many ways around them (Str check, escape artist check, freedom of movement). The chances that whatever you constrict with your chains have a way out of them is too high. On top of that you could cast another high level spell that will probably be more effective (disintegrate will likely just kill whatever is bothering you, animate object will last longer, etc)

I agree teleportation as a move action is pretty good but you don't get to use a better wildshape form while you do that and that bothers me a lot. What exactly are you going to do while you're in the form of a blink dog that's so good? You do have access to some teleportation spells and anklets of translocation can replace that feat for most encounters.

[GilesTheCleric]

I've played Exalted (cleric) at high levels, and can confirm Constricting Chains is great even against high-HD monsters with high strength. My usual opener (for my lower-op table) is Dimensional Anchor, then Constricting Chains. After that, I let the BSF and ranged characters finish the encounter. There's no save, it debuffs, and even if they try to get out, they've wasted their standard action for the turn, meaning I'm at least net even on action economy, but am likely ahead.

Luminous Armour is absolutely worth every point of str damage. Even if you're frequently using PA/ ubercharging, +3 or +9 less damage really doesn't matter. It's armour that takes no time to put on, doesn't slow you down, and doesn't cap your dex, and is effectively +1 Full Plate you can use for free at level 3. It even stacks with Magic Vestment!

[Troacctid]

Don't see why you'd need two castings of Lesser Restoration when you can fully heal the ability damage with just one and sometimes zero.

[Vogie]

For others interested in the class, there's also THIS local homebrew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?44002-Class-The-Urban-Druid)of the Urban Druid. I really enjoy the Urban aspects that can be applied as one progresses.

[eggynack]

I have two problems with luminous armor. First, you're right it's a great spell to use while wildshaped but

you only get wildshape at level 5 and your best forms are humanoids until level 8 (so you just need to take off your armor, wildshape and put it back on).

Your best wildshapes until level 8 have 16 DEX max, your normal armors cover that easily and ACF is a non issue for you since you're a divine spellcaster.

By level 8, you have access to greater luminous armor.
One critical assumption you're making, one I disagree with, is that greater luminous armor should supplant the noreal version when you get it. The cost of using a higher level spell is very real, more important here than the AC bonus, especially right away. Luminous armor isn't precisely a spell you cast at third, because you want those slots active then, but that argument also works on greater luminous at 7th, and, relative to the standard model, it may never stop working.



Finally wasting 2 or 4 level 2 spells (luminous armor + lesser restoration x 2 to cover all day with caster level 3 to 6) on an AC bonus (from level 3 to 6) is a high cost. Wasting a level 2 and 4 by level 7+ isn't so bad. (with your higher caster level 1 casting should cover all day)
A single lesser restoration will handle most of two luminous armors, and more when you account for natural healing. Add a lesser metamagic rod of extend and natural healing is doing most of the work on its own. And, as not awful as a second and a fourth sounds, one second and a rare other second thrown in sounds way better.


As for the chains I find there's too many ways around them (Str check, escape artist check, freedom of movement). The chances that whatever you constrict with your chains have a way out of them is too high. On top of that you could cast another high level spell that will probably be more effective (disintegrate will likely just kill whatever is bothering you, animate object will last longer, etc)
An opponent is way more likely to have reasonable saves than sky high strength or escape artist. Animate objects simply bears no similarity, in form or function, to chains.


I agree teleportation as a move action is pretty good but you don't get to use a better wildshape form while you do that and that bothers me a lot. What exactly are you going to do while you're in the form of a blink dog that's so good? You do have access to some teleportation spells and anklets of translocation can replace that feat for most encounters.
Free action. Which allows spells in the same round. Every single round with huge range. An urban druid is a full spellcaster, albeit somewhat limited. What can't you do is a better question.

[Soranar]

I never considered using luminous armor instead of the greater version. I'll have to change the rating.

As for the chains I guess it depends on the kind of DM you get. Mine never throws a BBEG without spellcasting support. I guess most of you don't have killer GM.

Finally I thought the blink dog had teleportation as a move action, not as a free action. That's definitely worth a 2 feat investment (natural spell + exalted wildshape)

[eggynack]

As for the chains I guess it depends on the kind of DM you get. Mine never throws a BBEG without spellcasting support. I guess most of you don't have killer GM.
I meant to say, freedom of movement is indeed an issue, but it's not like it's singularly an issue for constricting chains. A lot of spells have that weakness. When compared to other otherwise solid spells that also have that weakness, I think chains does pretty well. You mostly only have that one defense.

[Soranar]

added corrupt spells

[eggynack]

Absorb mind and consume likeness are actually pretty sweet. Both spells have the advantage that they can be used in a strictly out of combat/encounter context, the first because the information itself is permanent, the second because the spell effect is apparently permanent, which means that any ability damage, no matter how great or problematic, can be mitigated. On absorb mind in particular, you actually have approximately no chance of getting nothing out of it. The 25% chance is on a per-fact basis, so you can expect sporadic information, but a lot of it. On consume likeness in particular, yes, damage knocks you out of the effect, but the effect it's knocking you out of is your specific current form, and not your entire spell effect, so you can seemingly just keep reasserting the form. It's less crappy alter self, more seriously wonky disguise self. Also, evil weather does have that one crazy divine magic stopping effect, as well as some other stuff that's kinda workable.

[GilesTheCleric]

Also, maybe this is a little nitpicky, but do you mind changing the bright green colour in the spoiler sections? I absolutely can't read it.

[Story]

Primordial Giant Eneko: The only LA 0 giant race I could find to combine with primordial giant.

Where did you find a LA0 Eneko? As far as I can tell, it is LA+1.

Although there is one LA 0 Giant race that may be useful the Menta Cyclopeans from Dragon magazine. You could also do the Half Giant class progression and then never actually take the level.

[Soranar]

changed the green color, removed the eneko since my source was wrong (website that forgot to include the LA +1)

[Soranar]

Absorb mind and consume likeness are actually pretty sweet. Both spells have the advantage that they can be used in a strictly out of combat/encounter context, the first because the information itself is permanent, the second because the spell effect is apparently permanent, which means that any ability damage, no matter how great or problematic, can be mitigated. On absorb mind in particular, you actually have approximately no chance of getting nothing out of it. The 25% chance is on a per-fact basis, so you can expect sporadic information, but a lot of it. On consume likeness in particular, yes, damage knocks you out of the effect, but the effect it's knocking you out of is your specific current form, and not your entire spell effect, so you can seemingly just keep reasserting the form. It's less crappy alter self, more seriously wonky disguise self. Also, evil weather does have that one crazy divine magic stopping effect, as well as some other stuff that's kinda workable.

I'll repeat my first point to really emphasize the problem with those spells

The first spell gives you a 25 % chance of recovering a particular fact , which should be why you're casting the spell in the first place (say you need a password or a code )

You do this at the cost of 2d6 wisdom damage, that is a huge debuff as a level 1 spell.

The second spell is a wonky disguise self with 2d6 wisdom DRAIN, again the cost is way too high for what you get. You don't have restoration, only the lesser version, so you can't assume you can pay for the cost easily

A very minor magic item (hat of disguise) can do the same thing for far less

[eggynack]

The first spell gives you a 25 % chance of recovering a particular fact , which should be why you're casting the spell in the first place (say you need a password or a code )

You do this at the cost of 2d6 wisdom damage, that is a huge debuff as a level 1 spell.
The damage just doesn't seem like that big a deal when this is being cast outside of an adventuring context. If you cast it, and then use few lesser restorations the next day, when you don't actually have adventuring to do the next day, the downside is practically non-existent. You don't necessarily have to be casting this to gain a specific fact. You can just use it to pick up a pile of information of various relevance, either mission critical, if this is someone from an organization you're opposed to, or more standard, if this is some arbitrary fellow. Knowledge is power, or whatever. And if it's costless power, as is the case if you have time to work with, then that's a very good effect right there.


The second spell is a wonky disguise self with 2d6 wisdom DRAIN, again the cost is way too high for what you get. You don't have restoration, only the lesser version, so you can't assume you can pay for the cost easily

A very minor magic item (hat of disguise) can do the same thing for far less.

It's not all that clear to me whether disguise self grants enough specificity to allow you to full on adopt someone else's appearance, as opposed to standard disguising yourself. If it doesn't, then, well, it's decent if you have some drain mitigation or immunity tools, and less decent otherwise. It is indeed somewhat more questionable due to the difficulty of dealing with drain though.

[Horrid]

Nice Handbook for this kinda weird class! Thanks! :D

[eggynack]

Forgot to note this the first time I was discussing sanctified spells in this thread. Dragon cloud seems pretty awful. Yes, it's a reasonable creature that lasts for minutes, but it also takes a full minute to arrive, making it fully worthless in combat situations. So, you have to assume that you're going to have a combat within the next 20 minutes or so, but not within the next minute, and you're eating constitution damage along with that specificity of purpose and ridiculously high spell level. I suppose it's nice in the sense that urban druids don't get much of that sort of summoning effect, but I'd hesitate to call it blue on that basis.

[Soranar]

I must have missed the 1 minute rule, I probably just saw the 1 round casting time and forgot about it. It's definitely a niche spell then: something to do when you know you'll need a flying summon, otherwise an animated object or a giant vermin should do the trick and they won't eat up a high level spellslot. The duration of the same is still very nice though so in prolonged fights (say vs an army) it'll serve a purpose but it's not worth a blue rating. I'll change it to green

[barna10]

I know I'm late to the game but...Lycanthropes are all Humanoids....Werebear form!

[Yogibear41]

I know I'm late to the game but...Lycanthropes are all Humanoids....Werebear form!


I believe there is something about wildshape being based on polymorph, and you can't polymorph into something with a template, or something along those lines, so I dont think you can urban shape into a lycanthrope.

[remetagross]

Exactly, that's what preventing vanilla Druids to Wild Shape into Horrid animals, for example.

[barna10]

I believe there is something about wildshape being based on polymorph, and you can't polymorph into something with a template, or something along those lines, so I dont think you can urban shape into a lycanthrope.

Good to know! Thanks