Sentinel vs pre-Essentials Druid

[Kevka Palazzo]

I've started a little project where I remake all of the characters I've ever made in D&D in 4E, starting with my very first character: a D&D 3.5 elf druid. I remember being pretty traditional with her, and she had a coyote animal companion. I never actually got to play with her, she was just the first character I made as a test. The next earliest character that I remember making was a human...battlemind? Were those in 3.5? And a tiefling rogue who sounded like Eliza Doolittle.

So now I'm looking over the PHB2 Druid and the Sentinel, and remembered that pre-Essentials druids didn't have an Animal Companion (at least not in PHB2: I don't have access to Primal Power right now).

So basically, what's the dealio between these classes? This is more a thought exercise than prepping a character for a campaign, so optimization is pretty much my lowest priority. I remember having this idea in my head that she'd be a caster while she let the coyote handle things up close, which makes me think I really want the Sentinel, but I was wondering what sorts of controller-y builds there were for the pre-Essentials Druid.

[Yakk]

Sentinal druid is a leader not a controller (nominally).

Hybrid is a good way to get a companion; either hybrid druid|ranger for beastmaster companion, or hybrid sentinal|other. I like hybrid sentinal.

Sentinal | Shaman possibly with Were theme (for beast form) might work.

[Kevka Palazzo]

I hadn't considered Hybrid classes, though multiclassing had crossed my mind. Druid|Ranger sounds the best, but I'll check out those other options. Sentinel|Shaman sounds especially interesting.

Thanks again for the prompt, helpful response!

[masteraleph]

Sentinel|Shaman gets interesting because you get the healing features from both sides, the companion/spirit from both sides, and encounter powers from both sides. It's a known trick with the Essentials classes- the hybrid forms get you access to the non-Essentials class' Encounter powers, which generally makes them much more useful than the pure forms.

[Vhaidara]

Another option is to go Wild Shape druid (WS Druid) and use the Fey Beast Tamer theme to get your scaling pet.

When making a hybrid, Sentinel is almost universally better than WS druid, because you can't use non-beast form powers while in wild shape unless you are level 10+ and a member of one of the Werethemes. And all that WS druid gives a hybrid is WS, while sentinel hybrid gives you the animal companion and the encounter heal, which is very handy.

[noob]

You can also do essentials errata shenanigans and play a 3.5 druid or multi-class from sentinel to 3.5 druid.(the latter gives you more endurance early on but delays op 3.5 spells access)

[Kurald Galain]

So now I'm looking over the PHB2 Druid and the Sentinel, and remembered that pre-Essentials druids didn't have an Animal Companion (at least not in PHB2: I don't have access to Primal Power right now).

So basically, what's the dealio between these classes?
The deal is that the sentinel is one of the weakest classes in the game (although if you stay at very low level then that doesn't really matter), and is really not a controller in any way, shape, or form.

The straightforward answer is to play a Shaman and refluff its spirit companion as your animal; or to use a regular Druid and refluff its summon spells as your animal. The less straightforward answer is hybrid, as mentioned above.