Druid 8th vs. undead? (3.5)

[Rerednaw]

Just curious on which spells you would use? Or wildshape forms? Figure fighting 16HD+undead.

Druid with VoP (Vow of Poverty) So no gear folks. All 3.5 sources but no third party.

I know about magic stone, sunburst (LONG way away), looking for other ideas.

There is an exalted feat for 1d4 damage but it's pretty weak, more fluff than real impact.

Any ideas welcome.

Thanks.

[Beheld]

Well what do you mean "16HD" undead?

Are they mindless zombies with 16HD?

Looking at SRD, I see, Bodak, Mohrg, Shadow, and Spectre, obviously mindless undead are possible at any level.

Right off the bat, if you have the Spell Compendium, you can cast Moon Bolt. Which is will save or helpless for undead. That's pretty good. While Undead saves are not particularly weak, it's nice to have. Over that, You can probably turn into a wildshape form that can fly and fly circles around any zombie, and most zombies and skeletons won't have ranged attacks or flight.

For the most part, if you cast Sheltered Vitality (Or sheltered Vitality Lesser) against a Shadow that negates it. Deathward next level for Spectres and Bodaks, but you could get a Cleric friend to cast it if you know what you face and have one. Then you can beat them all to death with your magic fanged claws. Morghs you want to Moon Bolt.

[Bronk]

There's the 2nd level spell 'bone talisman' from here:

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a

Regular bones aren't worth anything by themselves, so it should work fine with your vow.

[ATHATH]

Smear an Ungent of Timelessness on a bone, then cast Bone Talisman on it. Repeat this as many times as you want. You can have both abilities up at the same time if you cast the spell twice, I believe.

[ATHATH]

Ah, I've been ninja'd.

Note that a Dragon Magazine article (from issue 319, IIRC) defined the stats for bone weapons (or was it just armor? I can't remember), which were/are weaker than normal weapons.

[Dagroth]

Smear an Ungent of Timelessness on a bone, then cast Bone Talisman on it. Repeat this as many times as you want. You can have both abilities up at the same time if you cast the spell twice, I believe.

Can't do this... VoP.

[ATHATH]

Can't do this... VoP.
Have a friend do it(,) then, or cast the spell on their Ungent-ed bone.

[Bronk]

You could also take 'exalted wild shape' to become celestial creatures, which have their once per day smite evil.

[eggynack]

You could also take 'exalted wild shape' to become celestial creatures, which have their once per day smite evil.
Or just use blink dog. Blink dogs are cool. The whole free enhance wild shape thing plus celestial bonuses thing is useful and all, but free dimension door all the time is where it's at.

[Jack_Simth]

Just curious on which spells you would use? Or wildshape forms? Figure fighting 16HD+undead.

Druid with VoP (Vow of Poverty) So no gear folks. All 3.5 sources but no third party.

I know about magic stone, sunburst (LONG way away), looking for other ideas.

There is an exalted feat for 1d4 damage but it's pretty weak, more fluff than real impact.

Any ideas welcome.

Thanks.

Depends greatly on the undead.

In general, though? Get out of reach and use ranged effects.

You can get out of range pretty easily for most undead - with Wildshape, you can fly like an eagle (80 ft move - and at 8th, you can do it three times per day for 8 hours each, which is likely enough to get you to the sea if you let your spirit carry you).

You might consider an offensive reserve feat (Complete Mage).
If you combine, say, Fiery Burst (an at-will 30-foot range 5-foot burst of fire - 4d6, if you're holding Flame Strike for it) with Flyby Attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#flybyAttack) and Wildshaping into something with a high fly speed, you can probably strafe anything that doesn't have good ranged effects to death quite easily.
Another option would be to use Summon Elemental (with a 4th level Summoning spell in reserve, lets you get a Small Elemental at whim). They vanish if they end their turn more than a little ways from you... but an Air Elemental can Charge 200 feet in that time frame. You can lazily circle well out of range of most things and rain (minor) damage on your opponents from something like 230 feet up (possibly 430 feet up, what with the double speed on downward flight thing). Tricky for you to get this one at that level, though, due to how the qualifications work.

[Fizban]

As above, seriously depends on the undead. When I hear "16HD undead," I assume big zombies and skeletons since those are where HD rating is significant, otherwise you're fighting Nighshades or Dread Wraiths or something. If you had one more level, Wall of Fire is where it's at with automatic double damage against undead. Just combine with any other PC/spell effect that can hold the line and watch it fry.

In addition to Moon Bolt, Shadowblast may apply to some foes. Murderous Mist is pretty ridiculous, damage and permanent blindness over the whole moving area-and as a non-necromancy non-fortitude save for an effect undead are not immune to, it can permanently blind any sort of undead or indeed anything without an alternate sense or specific blinding immunity. Vortex of Teeth is a great 4th level grinder spell until you've got Wall of Fire.

BoED doesn't have much that can help you since the Druid spells are so narrow and you don't get Celestial Brilliance, but Champions of Valor could help. Create Lantern Archon, Dawnshroud next level as the poor man's CB, and Holy Fire Shield gives you access to the best reprisal damage.

Depending on your goals, there are plenty more effects worth using. Meld Into Stone lets you avoid just about anything. Sleet Storm is great lockdown against anything, or just Entangle. Summoning a pack of Dire Wolves also works against a lot of things. Bottle of Smoke and Air Walk are long duration mobility spells, while Bite of the Wereboar gives a massive boost to you or your companion. Summon Swarm (spiders) has no max duration and cannot be killed by weapon damage, assuming their swarm attack is made up of bites (blunt, slashing, and piecing all at once) it will bypass skele/zombie DR and generally grinds down anything that can't fight back against you or the swarm. Burrow/Mass Burrow lets you hide underground multiple times if you're fighting on dirt (breaking all line of effect), and Mass Snake's Swiftness is worth as much damage as you can pack allies in against your target. You also have access to sor/wiz favorite Heart of Earth for DR.

Wildshape forms are the same as usual. You have Wild Shape (Large), which means Brown Bear is king of offense, you also have Dire Wolf for land speed and tripping and Tiger or Dire Lion for charging, Dire Bat if you want to fight in the air or Eagle if you just wait air speed. Dire Bat has the best AC of those starting at 20 before buffs, VoP means you don't have some of the armor loss problem but going toe to toe with something twice your HD is still usually a bad idea unless you're built like a brick.

[Bronk]

Oh! Or, next level, take 'exalted companion' switch to a celestial fleshraker, and have it take 'vow of poverty' as well. Now it has a smite attack, vow bonuses, and extra exhalted feat slots. Then, wild shape into a fleshraker as well, cast venomfire on yourself, share it with your companion, and you're good to go.