Made a druid for runelord

[finaldooms]

So I'm playing pathfinder and the rise of the runelord campaign at lvl 1..so far I've rolled my stats ( nothing below 12) got my gear ( spear and leather)

...now the hard part

What companion and feats would folks recommend?

For companions my only limit is no aquatic ( obviously) and no dinosaur types which is a shame cause they seem fun

[Florian]

*Smirks*

So aliens are ok then?

Fun aside, the main question is, where do you want to go with this? You have three main thrust directions: Personally combat, spellcasting, companions, chose one as primary, one other as secondary, forget the third.

[finaldooms]

Well the party is 6 people...druid(me) a bone Oracle, witch, alchemist, ranger ( archery focus) , and an inquisitor ( who will be melee focused if I recall right)

Alien..would probly be a maybe honestly..the dm did say i could take the giant elk thing or the other rhino so..

Personally i feel like il spend most of my time supporting whatever companion i get in melee combat

[Florian]

Take something disgusting like a Coke Zero and poke your GM into the eye with it for having you roll for stats.

Ok, despite the trash-talk on this forum, you can´t really replace a dedicated front-line class with an AC. Best prep to do that job via Wild Shape yourself, maybe take into account the combination of Druid5/1Ranger1/Druid 6+ and the feat the allows you to advance Fav.Enemy alongside Wild Shape. That makes your AC basically not a secondary tank/first strike weapon you should not invest any resources into, meaning Big Cat for pounce and be done.

[Geddy2112]

As Florian said, the big cat with pounce is pretty hard to beat for a companion. Otherwise you want something that is super fast with a gore attack that you can ride-elk, rhino and the like fall into this catagory. There is also the option of a flying companion, but these are more utility and less melee companions. You could of course, forgo the companion for a domain. If you are focusing on spellcasting you might want to do this.

For feats, natural spell is a must at 5th level, allowing you to cast in wild shape. Spell focus(conjuration) and augment summons are pretty standard choices regardless of build. Improved initiative is never a bad feat for a caster. Power attack is a must if you go with a melee druid.

[the_david]

From a roleplay point of view you've got Auroch, Cindersnake (Snake, Viper), Donkey Rat (Dire Rat without disease), Fire Cat (Cat, Small), Giant Gecko and Storm Rock (Bird).
All of these are native to Varisia according to the original Player's Guide to Rise of the Runelords.

You can find the Auroch, Dire Rat and Giant Gecko in the Bestiaries. I couldn't find stats for the Horned Spirestalker Lizard.

[finaldooms]

I actually rolled pretty well (18-18-18-16-12-16)

I haven't had a chance to read more into pathfinder druid but I thought I saw something about you use your own stats? Unlike in 3.5 where you only kept your mental stats?

Plus if I had to choose it would most likely be combat and my companion as a focus ( most likely going with some kind of rhino cause charging rhinos sound fun)

[Psyren]

I haven't had a chance to read more into pathfinder druid but I thought I saw something about you use your own stats? Unlike in 3.5 where you only kept your mental stats?

Your stats are the starting point that the ability builds from. This means that you probably don't want that 12 to be in Str, Dex or Con if you plan on front-lining. That's okay though, because you can just drop it in Cha. Your other stats are perfectly fine for even a relatively difficult campaign.

[finaldooms]

Ah I have now read wildshape ( aka beast shape spell) ..that's a bit less impressive than 3.5 but I at least understand the reason lol

Definatly glad i rolled rather well and dumped that 12 into cha

Since I have 3 lvls before that even kicks in does anyone know a good starting feat for me and my rhino ( or Elasmotherium if the dm confirms he did say I can have it)

Edit: also I have no idea why but it always cheers me up to see that psyren takes the time to reply to my threads

[Manyasone]

My 2€ for you since my players are endgame in Rise of the Runelords. If you plan on actively using your animal companion be aware that he will have bench time because of cramped conditions considering his size. Have fun with the campaign!

[Xerinos]

My 2€ for you since my players are endgame in Rise of the Runelords. If you plan on actively using your animal companion be aware that he will have bench time because of cramped conditions considering his size. Have fun with the campaign!

Definitely agree that this can be a problem taking large beasties into dungeon crawling with you. I suggest the Narrow Frame feat for your Animal Companion. He will still be moving a bit slower than you'd like, but at least he'll be better off.

[Florian]

It´s simple. Few APs are mount-friendly or even mounted combat friendly. When in doubt, use a Tiger and be done with it.

[finaldooms]

the elasotherium has been approved ..narrow frame does seem like a good idea though

i had just figured id take reduce animal when i had access to 2nd lvl spells since...it actaully does not really penalize animals at all ..+2 dex ( fixes the large penalty) -2 str ( still get +6 net) ac goes up one ( 2 since my dex just went back to positive) and my damage goes down to..1d8 again but still keep my other abilties ( impaling horn and powerful charge for an extra 2d6 anyways)

[Gnaeus]

I’d just warn not to over optimize unless your DM is very good at rewriting encounters. We are almost done and our party (Cleric, Shaman, Sorcerer, Barbarian) has been rolling encounters regularly. And that’s after the DM maxes all the badguy hp and tweaks them and their gear. To give only one non spoiler example, the game seems to assume that high level (12-18) parties will be approaching threats on foot and will have issues with mundane weather. There are a handful of mid level encounters that were challenging (although our party composition has evolved, so there were some mid level encounters which were challenging to a pretty low op group.)

[finaldooms]

Was not planning on going to into being optimized but thanks..I've noticed dnd in general has that issue though