Druid spontaneous casting replacement

[PapaMojo]

I'm joining a new game this weekend, playing a frontline druid. My GM is new to this and has banned summons as they are too much of a hassle (we're using roll20 so besides bogging down combat you also have to find the tokens so I get where he's coming from. So what do you suggest we could replace the druids abilitu to spontaneously cast summon nature's ally with? Green scourge and restorer archetypes replace it but i'm gonna use naturel weapons so being able to cast weapon buffs is useless, and we have a cleric and we don't need a healer so that's both of them out. I guess you can always use more healing but it is an evil campaign and he would rather prefer the cure spells to ve replaced with inflicts. Ab
d since i'm a melee druid i'd ve better off hitting things.

[Covenant12]

Halfling Substitution levels exist (RotW, 157) but frankly they are both mediocre and are just SNA again at spell level 6+.

Evil campaign just giving the ability to spontaneously cast inflict spells as a cleric seems fine, and far weaker than SNA would be. Spontaneous domain casting is usually a cleric option, but again seems like a reasonable trade. Couldn't really find anything that isn't technically homebrew or what you already turned down, sorry.

[Zaq]

By “Restorer,” you mean the Spontaneous Rejuvenation ACF from PHB2, right? That seems perfect if you have an Inflicting Cleric in the party, since they can’t spontaneously heal. I could see the conflict with a Curing Cleric, but I don’t see the conflict with an Inflicting one. What exactly is the issue there?

Of course, you could also just ignore your spontaneous casting ability. Druids are still crazy powerful without it. It’s a slight nerf, but you can probably handle it.

[PapaMojo]

By “Restorer,” you mean the Spontaneous Rejuvenation ACF from PHB2, right? That seems perfect if you have an Inflicting Cleric in the party, since they can’t spontaneously heal. I could see the conflict with a Curing Cleric, but I don’t see the conflict with an Inflicting one. What exactly is the issue there?

Of course, you could also just ignore your spontaneous casting ability. Druids are still crazy powerful without it. It’s a slight nerf, but you can probably handle it.

The cleric is takibg fiendish vessel, or something like that, and we're gonna make a bunch of wabds of that spell that heals evil people for 10 damage, so they assure me healing won't be an issue. It would be nice to have something that either helps me in combat or my utility out of it.

[Zaq]

Okay, so it’s a houserule (no summons allowed) that got you into the problem, right? If you don’t like the RAW replacements, ask for a houserule to deal with the houserule. Maybe spontaneous access to the spells on the Plant domain or the Animal domain (with no bonus slots, granted ability, or other aspects of the domain)? Or any particularly thematically appropriate domain, really.

I don’t have my books right now, but isn’t there an ACF somewhere (Exemplars of Evil? Champions of Ruin? Dragon Magic?) that lets you trade spontaneous summons for spontaneously inflicting diseases (or maybe it’s just disease-related conditions rather than actual diseases)? That might work in an Evil campaign.

They’re geared for Sorcs rather than Druids, but there’s a series of feats in Dragon Magic that follow the format of “expend a spell slot, get a magical effect that isn’t actually a spell.” They’re rarely terribly powerful and don’t tend to scale very well, so they’re unlikely to be a net boost rather than a net nerf relative to RAW spontaneous summons. You could ask to be given one of those (or something substantially similar) in exchange.

[PaucaTerrorem]

You pick a single Druid appropriate domain. Then gain the spell for each level as a bonus spell.

[Lapak]

Okay, so it’s a houserule (no summons allowed) that got you into the problem, right?
I agree with the ‘house rule got you into this, house rule gets you out. If I was cutting this much out of a Druid as a DM, I might be persuaded to throw you a bone. Especially if you are going melee-Druid.

I’d say ask for Natural Spell as a bonus feat and for a Druid version of Battle Blessing limited to touch-range spells. You’d be able to cast in Wildshape and self-buff while engaging in combat, which should amplify your effectiveness without stepping on anyone’s toes.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Shillelagh (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shillelagh.htm) as your spontaneous spell. Your special version of the spell raises the enchantment bonus on a club or quarterstaff by +1 even if it's already magical, and then you need some reason to use higher level spell slots.

What? It's a melee druid. :smallamused:

[Gnaeus]

I second picking a domain appropriate to your deity and letting you convert to the domain spells. There are VERY few domain lists better than SNA 1-9.

[Candlejack]

I think the Druidic Avenger variant class sounds like a good fit. You lose your animal companion and the ability to spontaneously cast SNA. The animal companion loss sounds like it'll help with bogged down combat your DM wants to fix. In exchange you gain fast movement and rage.

[ShurikVch]

Dragon magazines have some Druid variants with changed Spontaneous Casting CF:
Metal Master (#311) will exchange spells to Chill Metal, Heat Metal, Rusting Grasp, Ironwood, Transmute Metal to Wood, or Repel Metal or Stone.
Wild Reaper (from the same article), in addition to SNA, can also swap spell to Soften Earth and Stone, Warp Wood, Diminish Plants, Poison, Blight, Rusting Grasp, Transmute Rock to Mud, Antilife Shell, or Finger of Death.
Wind Walker (from the same article), in addition to SNA, can also swap spell to any Druid spell with [air] descriptor.
Storm Druid (#328) can swap spell to Obscuring Mist, Gust of Wind, Call Lightning, Air Walk, Call Lightning Storm, Chain Lightning, Control Weather, Whirlwind, or Storm of Vengeance.
Urban Druid (Compendium) swapping spells to "... Repair ..." spells.

[PapaMojo]

I don't think that'll work. My GM isn't allowing 3rd party material. I know 3.5 isn't 3rd party mayerial but I don't know if he'll allow it. Actually, I'm gonna ask him.

[PapaMojo]

Nope.
Apparently, I need at least ten characters to post so Cahf ah nafl mglw'nafh hh' ahor syha'h ah'legeth, ng llll or'azath syha'hnahh n'ghftephai n'gha ahornah ah'mglw'nafh.

[Troacctid]

I don't think people realized this is a PF question without a tag on the thread.

I would go Storm Druid or Tempest Druid. Ancient Guardian and Halcyon Druid are also good options, but they are also Good options, so probably not great if everyone is evil.

[Bakkan]

Cahf ah nafl mglw'nafh hh' ahor syha'h ah'legeth, ng llll or'azath syha'hnahh n'ghftephai n'gha ahornah ah'mglw'nafh.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!

[Ashtagon]

Unearthed Arcana p 64 and p68: Druid Domains combined with Spontaneous Domain Casting. Problem solved.