mer.c
2017-11-27, 01:27 PM
I've had this drive to build a mostly-Druid PC who, in addition to slinging powerful spells, beats the tar out of enemies with a stick. I don't know why. I did the same thing in 3.X, too. Just a thing I have, I guess. And I do recognize that a lot of what I'll be doing with this PC is just throwing Druid spells around, which is fine by me. (Also, this isn't built with any specific adventure in mind, so I'd hope not to have a build that takes until high levels to come online.)
So here's the easy part: Take VHuman with probably 10/14/15/10/16/8 array post-stat-boosts (I think that adds up with point buy). Use Shillelagh and Polearm Mastery. Maybe use a shield; I usually hate 1H quarterstaves, but with Shillelagh involved, maybe I can justify it fluff-wise. We'll also want proficiency in Constitution saves at some point, and/or War Caster since so much of Druids' spellcasting power is in concentration spells, and we're going to be on the front lines. Plus synergy with Polearm Master.
So at level 1, we have 1d8+3 + 1d4+3 (skipping the second attack on the first round if you don't pre-buff with Shillelagh). We get an opportunity attack just from someone walking up to us. We have 14 AC with Hide Armor, with potential +2 bonuses from a shield and/or non-metal Spiked Armor if we can swing that. With those features, we're probably set for a while to run up Druid levels, getting better spells. We won't be melee gods or anything, but that isn't really the idea.
Circle of the Land would be my first choice, since I'm not big on summoning and Natural Recovery plus Circle spells are a huge deal. But Circle of Dreams could also be really strong with extra HP to pass around and the teleportation feature if we think we can make it to Druid 10. If we do go land, we have good defensive option sin Coast (Mirror Image and Misty Step), or Desert (Blur). But the best option seems like Grassland - Haste alone is phenomenal for us, and Invisibility is no slouch either. The problem with Desert and Grassland, however, is how precious our concentration is. Haste is probably worth it; Blur probably not so much unless we need to full tank, in which case something is probably really wrong.
Of course we have lots of cool spells to throw around in combat. The thing I'd really like, for flavor purposes and also for trying out the spell, is to get Druid 7 for Guardian of Nature (Tree). We get 10 Temp HP, 15-foot radius difficulty terrain (for enemies only!), advantage on all Constitution saves, and advantage on all of our attacks since we're using Shillelagh. It's short-duration and takes Concentration, but damned if that doesn't sound amazing. And along the way, we're a perfectly serviceable Druid, with slightly above-average sustained DPR while in the thick of things.
So the big question is: What classes do we dip? Monk makes sense flavor-wise for beating people with sticks, but we don't actually get much from Martial Arts since our bonus actions are in use anyways with PAM (plus our Ki pool and unarmed attacks will kind of suck). We could start Fighter for the Con save (if we swap Dex and Con scores, we can then take Resilient: Dex to bring it to 16) and fighting style (Duelist if we're doing 1-H staves; Defense otherwise), then later get 2 for Action Surge, or 3 for an Archetype - probably Battlemaster. Or we can Paladin-2 for the style and Divine Smite, because channeling nature's wrath through a magical stick seems appropriate. Ranger-3 (Hunter) could get us Horde Breaker for even more attacks. And of course Martial-5 gets Extra Attack. A dark-horse candidate would be War Wizard, for some extra magic and alternately +2 AC or +4 to maintain our critical Concentration spells. (We're concentrating and whapping people anyways; we don't care about not casting a spell next turn.)
Other feats to think about would be Magic Adept for maybe Shield to help us avoid damage and maintain concentration, and Sentinel, because reasons.
What would you recommend doing with this PC? Any obvious features I'm overlooking? Any dip that jumps out at you?
So here's the easy part: Take VHuman with probably 10/14/15/10/16/8 array post-stat-boosts (I think that adds up with point buy). Use Shillelagh and Polearm Mastery. Maybe use a shield; I usually hate 1H quarterstaves, but with Shillelagh involved, maybe I can justify it fluff-wise. We'll also want proficiency in Constitution saves at some point, and/or War Caster since so much of Druids' spellcasting power is in concentration spells, and we're going to be on the front lines. Plus synergy with Polearm Master.
So at level 1, we have 1d8+3 + 1d4+3 (skipping the second attack on the first round if you don't pre-buff with Shillelagh). We get an opportunity attack just from someone walking up to us. We have 14 AC with Hide Armor, with potential +2 bonuses from a shield and/or non-metal Spiked Armor if we can swing that. With those features, we're probably set for a while to run up Druid levels, getting better spells. We won't be melee gods or anything, but that isn't really the idea.
Circle of the Land would be my first choice, since I'm not big on summoning and Natural Recovery plus Circle spells are a huge deal. But Circle of Dreams could also be really strong with extra HP to pass around and the teleportation feature if we think we can make it to Druid 10. If we do go land, we have good defensive option sin Coast (Mirror Image and Misty Step), or Desert (Blur). But the best option seems like Grassland - Haste alone is phenomenal for us, and Invisibility is no slouch either. The problem with Desert and Grassland, however, is how precious our concentration is. Haste is probably worth it; Blur probably not so much unless we need to full tank, in which case something is probably really wrong.
Of course we have lots of cool spells to throw around in combat. The thing I'd really like, for flavor purposes and also for trying out the spell, is to get Druid 7 for Guardian of Nature (Tree). We get 10 Temp HP, 15-foot radius difficulty terrain (for enemies only!), advantage on all Constitution saves, and advantage on all of our attacks since we're using Shillelagh. It's short-duration and takes Concentration, but damned if that doesn't sound amazing. And along the way, we're a perfectly serviceable Druid, with slightly above-average sustained DPR while in the thick of things.
So the big question is: What classes do we dip? Monk makes sense flavor-wise for beating people with sticks, but we don't actually get much from Martial Arts since our bonus actions are in use anyways with PAM (plus our Ki pool and unarmed attacks will kind of suck). We could start Fighter for the Con save (if we swap Dex and Con scores, we can then take Resilient: Dex to bring it to 16) and fighting style (Duelist if we're doing 1-H staves; Defense otherwise), then later get 2 for Action Surge, or 3 for an Archetype - probably Battlemaster. Or we can Paladin-2 for the style and Divine Smite, because channeling nature's wrath through a magical stick seems appropriate. Ranger-3 (Hunter) could get us Horde Breaker for even more attacks. And of course Martial-5 gets Extra Attack. A dark-horse candidate would be War Wizard, for some extra magic and alternately +2 AC or +4 to maintain our critical Concentration spells. (We're concentrating and whapping people anyways; we don't care about not casting a spell next turn.)
Other feats to think about would be Magic Adept for maybe Shield to help us avoid damage and maintain concentration, and Sentinel, because reasons.
What would you recommend doing with this PC? Any obvious features I'm overlooking? Any dip that jumps out at you?