Druid tweaks

[kraze_ivan]

I was looking at various Druid variants and was curious what everyone thought of a battle-druid type. I was thinking of giving up the animal companion in favor of full BAB and a possible bump up to d10. I am mostly looking for the full BAB, though my gut feeling says that full BAB and d10 HD is a bit too much. What does everyone think?

[Dark_Wind]

Full BAB and d10 hit die... on a full caster. On a Druid. Your gut feeling is correct. Druids are crazy strong as it is, what with Wild Shape and full casting (good spell list, too).

If you drop Wild Shape, then maybe, but something still feels off...

[Rama_Lei]

What's next, trading in Trackless step for Full Wizard casting? Way overpowered.

[Indon]

You would not make Druids any stronger by giving them full BAB and a D10 HD in exchange for Wild Shape.

I wouldn't give them either in exchange for just the animal companion, though. Maybe the animal companion and some spellcasting...

[PlatinumJester]

I would maybe give them fast movement +10ft.

[Yechezkiel]

I was looking at various Druid variants and was curious what everyone thought of a battle-druid type. I was thinking of giving up the animal companion in favor of full BAB and a possible bump up to d10. I am mostly looking for the full BAB, though my gut feeling says that full BAB and d10 HD is a bit too much. What does everyone think?

Plain, PHB Druids are fully battle ready. Most variants only weaken them.

[Kurald Galain]

The druid as written in RAW is a battle-druid type.

[kraze_ivan]

I was going to use the Druid variant where you give up wild shape for the monk movement and ranger favored enemies and pare it with this possibility of giving up the animal companion for full BAB.

Ultimately I was thinking about a gestalt character which would be way overpowered regardless. A druid with no wildshape that hates different monsters and can move fast; in this regard, does giving up an animal companion for full BAB still seem way too much? And as an aside, which is more powerful the BAB or the d10HD? If you say the d10 is the lesser of the two, would trading an animal companion for the HD seem reasonable?

[Indon]

I was going to use the Druid variant where you give up wild shape for the monk movement and ranger favored enemies and pare it with this possibility of giving up the animal companion for full BAB.


That's pretty reasonable. You lose out on the Wild Shape losing variant but gain something back on losing the animal companion.

The BAB is way more powerful than one HD upgrade; each HD step is an average of 1 hit point per level.

[Rofl-Falafal]

If you gave up animal companion and wild shape for BAB and d10 HD, then you're basically making a fighter that has traded bonus feats for druid spells. Holy crap that's a powerful trade! I'd say go for one or the other (full BAB or d10) but not both, and let them keep one of the two features (animal companion or wild shape).