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Stephen_E
2007-08-22, 08:58 PM
I was looking at the tactical feats and it occurred to me that a Druid can massively increase his wild shape rip-n-tear by investing a few feats.

Example Human 9th lev Druid (where they get access to Large creatures)
Feats - Natural Spell (Duh), Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush (prereq). Shock Trooper, Leap Attack.

Wildshape as Tiger (This'll work with any of the pounce/rake animals, but tigers can initiate grapple with Claw or Bite attack) for 9hr duration, wearing a Belt of Giant Str +4 and has Greater Magic Fang (9 hr duration). So essentailly we're talking about been permently setup like this.

On a Charge you leap and pounce, reducing your AC by 6 (your BAB) and adding +12 damage to all your attacks.
So we're looking at
Claw x2, +17 melee (1d8+21)
Bite +12 melee (2d6+17)
Grapple +18. You can attempt this on each sucessfull Claw or Bite att untill you succeed. If you succeed you then get two rake attacks.
Rake x2, +17 melee (1d8+17)

And the nice thing is that you don't have to cast a single "in combat" spell to get to this point (one of the common anti caster points is that they have to prep) and you can charge through obstructing undergrowth ecetre due to your Druid "Woodland Stride".

Sure it requires 4 of your feats, but it basically doubles your damage and outside of Natural Spell I'm not aware of any "must have" feats for Druids.

Stephen

yango
2007-08-22, 09:19 PM
Fast Wildshape is very useful for a Druid

Multiattack is also pretty good if you use forms with lots of different natural attacks.

Those are two that I usually take, though admittedly they're not must-haves. IMO regular power attack is nice enough, and any more power-attack investment feats are not that great, since you don't have high enough BAB to really invest in power attack.

Corvus
2007-08-22, 10:00 PM
We use 3.0 core only (so no fluff books, no natural spell etc) and in a campaign (which is unfortunatly on hold atm) I had a PC that used melee feats.

He was a half orc with a couple of levels of barbarian and the rest druid. Took exclusively combat feats - power attack, cleave, imp crit (claw and bite) etc.

Also had a custom set of large non-humanoid magic leather armour made (with the move silent and hide +10 bonuses). He also had a number of non-slotted buff items made (things like +jump, +str, +dex etc) in the form of tooth, bone and hide 'fetishes' that hang from him.

His favoured form was a tiger, and he tended to blender things when he was buffed, raging, power attacking and pouncing.

He was able to take on huge wild shape form...but them the armour wouldn't have fitted.

Person_Man
2007-08-22, 10:39 PM
In my opinion the standard Power Attack->Improved Bull Rush->Shock Trooper->Leap Attack isn't such a great idea for a Druid. They lack full BAB, so the damage doesn't scale particularly well, and their To-Hit will suffer a bit more then it should. Besides, there are much better choices available. My suggestions:

Natural Spell (duh)

Headlong Rush (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030301a): Double damage on a charge. Wildshape into something that has reach to avoid the AoOs. Your type never changes when you Wildshape, so you never lose your orcish blood that's required for the feat.

Battle Jump: Double damage on a charge if you can make an insane Jump check. Obviously, you should Wildshape into something with a Jump bonus. Unapproachable East.

Frozen Wild Shape: Wildshape into anything with the Cold subtype. For example, the cryohydra. Frostburn.

Aberration Wild Shape: Wildshape into an Aberration. For example, a choker, mimic, rust monster, or naga. Lords of Madness.

Vermin Shape: Wildshape into Vermin. For example, a swordspider. Eberron Campaign Setting.

Exalted Wild Shape: Let's you turn into the celestial version of any animal (granting darkvision, energy resistance, and damage reduction). Book of Exhalted Deeds. Obviously, you only need 1 of the Wildshape feats - I ranked them in my personal preference.

Touch of Golden Ice: Any evil enemy you hit with a natural weapon must Save or take 1d4 Dex damage. Unfortunately the Save DC doesn't scale, which means that it sucks at high levels. Book of Exalted Deeds.

Combat Expertise->Improved Trip->Knock-Down (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/divineFeats.html) + Combat Reflexes: Free Trip whenever you deal 10+ points of damage. When you have reach this becomes an excellent defensive combo, literally stopping most enemies in their tracks before they can get to you. And once your enemy is Prone, you get a +4 to hit, making your secondary attacks more likely to hit.

Combat Reflexes + Evasive Reflexes (Tome of Battle) + Dodge + Karmic Strike: Enemy hits you, you take a free 5 ft. step. Thus, you almost never take a full attack. Works even better with Robilar's Gambit instead of Karmic Strike, though, Rob's Gambit isn't available until high levels.

FYI, if you don't take one of the Wild Shape feats, your best combat form at 9th level is a megaraptor, not a tiger. Dinosaurs are animals. Summon one if your PC is not familiar with it.

Also, magic belts and other items meld into your form and become non-functional unless they have special enchantments on them. Check the magic item compendium for this.

Stephen_E
2007-08-22, 11:15 PM
In my opinion the standard Power Attack->Improved Bull Rush->Shock Trooper->Leap Attack isn't such a great idea for a Druid. They lack full BAB, so the damage doesn't scale particularly well, and their To-Hit will suffer a bit more then it should. Besides, there are much better choices available. My suggestions:

So long as you use power attack with shock trooper it doesn't impact on your "To-Hit" at all.

Thanks for the interesting suggestions. Mostly from books I don't have, but still worth knowing.


Combat Expertise->Improved Trip->Knock-Down (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/divineFeats.html) + Combat Reflexes: Free Trip whenever you deal 10+ points of damage. When you have reach this becomes an excellent defensive combo, literally stopping most enemies in their tracks before they can get to you. And once your enemy is Prone, you get a +4 to hit, making your secondary attacks more likely to hit.

Yeah, I was looking at variants of this. In particular usefull with Trip animals because you get two trip attempts, and can only be tripped back on the "knock-Down" trip.

Personally I prefer the Didge/mobility/elusive target over combat reflexes (despite the 2 extra feats required). Gaining AoO's against others can be difficult, but running past others as attracting AoO's is much easier, and with mobility and Combat Expertise you can almost guarantee a good number of misses, which allows you to get a free trip back, with the additional attack from Improved trip.


FYI, if you don't take one of the Wild Shape feats, your best combat form at 9th level is a megaraptor, not a tiger. Dinosaurs are animals. Summon one if your PC is not familiar with it.

Hmm, I hadn't realised it'd been errated to Large.
Interesting trade off. 4 guaranteed attacks vs 3 guaranteed + 2 possible on a successful grapple (although the 3 opportunities to pull off a grapple make it very likely to succeed).
The raptor does only get one main-full BAB attack (talons) vs the two tiger claw attacks.


Also, magic belts and other items meld into your form and become non-functional unless they have special enchantments on them. Check the magic item compendium for this.

Items only meld if you're wearing them in your human form when you change. That's why I stressed you pretty much remain in your form permanently. You have someone put the Belt of Giant strength on you after you change. If anyone claims you can't wear a belt in Tiger form just point them at a cat harness picture - consists of a collar/shoulder loops, a waist belt, and a strap connecting the two (stops the belt sliding down). As you get richer you can always make the collar part an Amulet of Mighty Fists.

Stephen

Person_Man
2007-08-23, 09:02 AM
So long as you use power attack with shock trooper it doesn't impact on your "To-Hit" at all.

Whoops. I meant AC. My bad.



Items only meld if you're wearing them in your human form when you change. That's why I stressed you pretty much remain in your form permanently. You have someone put the Belt of Giant strength on you after you change. If anyone claims you can't wear a belt in Tiger form just point them at a cat harness picture - consists of a collar/shoulder loops, a waist belt, and a strap connecting the two (stops the belt sliding down). As you get richer you can always make the collar part an Amulet of Mighty Fists.

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think that's legal. I don't have a citation though, so I guess if your DM allows it, who am I to argue.