First time Druid help!!!

[Stickboybenafer]

First time playing a Druid and still new to playing Pathfinder and Table tip gaming in general.

I am playing a dwarves Druid and trying to plan out the future of my character. We are playing rise of the runelords. Our party is a monk magus swashbuckler ranger and myself.

I have a gorilla companion and we are level 5.

Presently I have taken a few random buffing spells to buff the ape and a few attack spells.

I have yet to pick a feat as the DM is lenient and patient as we learn.

NEED HELP!!!

[Particle_Man]

Natural spell is a good feat to have as you can cast spells while shapechanged.

[daryen]

Personally, I always prefer to just take a domain, rather than a companion, but I certainly understand the choice.

Assuming a pure generic druid, take the following feats:
- Spell Focus (Conjuration)
- Augmented Summoning
- Natural Spell
(As a 5th level druid, that's pretty much your feat list at 1st, 3rd, and 5th levels.)

The point of the first feat is as a pre-req for the second. The point of the second is that you can spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally as a class ability, and this feat gives them more hit points and more damage done. Given that you are 5th level, they should stick around for most of a combat now. Since you can spontaneously cast it, this gives you much stronger minions for their brief sojourn in your service. Plan on summoning a lot, but since this is spontaneous, you never have to actually memorize any of the spells; just use them when needed.

You want to take Natural Spell at 5th level irrespective of anything else you are trying to do. It is just so powerful that you can be in wild shape and still cast spells. So, you can be an ape, along with your ape companion, while summoning another ape. Fun!

Finally, you'll probably want to make sure one of your magic items is a Druid's Vestment. It's relatively cheap (at 3750gp) and gives you an extra use of your wild shape each day.

And ... since you're fifth level your basics are pretty much done. After that, you have another 6000+gp worth of stuff to get.

EDIT: Just looked at your party list. Looks like you are the primary healer. Have the others buy you wands of Cure Light Wounds so you can heal everyone periodically. (It's their healing; they should buy them.)

[Elkad]

Have the others buy you wands of Cure Light Wounds so you can heal everyone periodically. (It's their healing; they should buy them.)

I prefer to take out another share of the treasure for party needs. So split the cash 6 ways in this case. Spend that sixth on healing wands as needed, scrolls of restoration, getting somebody rezzed, buying an emergency Teleport scroll, a few potions in case the guy that can use the Cure wand is the one unconscious, etc.

But I have bought the wand myself and then told the party "your share of this wand is 150gp each". They always pay up.

[daryen]

That's all sensible. The main point is just that this druid is going to be the primary healer regardless of anything else or what was intended. (The Ranger can't really contribute until they are 8th level.) As such, the main point is that the druid should not be expected to shoulder that entire load by themselves. Instead, it should be a shared load. How that load is shared is up to the group.

[Geddy2112]

Second the above advice.

For spells, I would focus on battlefield control and utility spells. The magus and ranger can buff themselves, and the rest of the party is damage heavy so you don't need a lot of attacks and blasts.

The spell focus(conjuration)+augment summoning is pretty default, and natural spell is borderline required. Scribe scroll is not so bad as a druid since you can scroll a lot of those utility spells. Wild speech is good at higher levels if you want to be lazy but you can prepare beastspeak or just shift out by then. Spell penetration is also handy at higher levels if you are going to blast and/or debuff.

Your ranger can still use CLW wands, as it is a spell trigger item and since that spell is on their list they are golden. It is solid to have a couple wands running around the party just in case and for topping off. Although a decent heal skill can also patch up the party.

[Troacctid]

Eggynack's Druid Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?439991-Being-Everything-Eggynack-s-Comprehensive-Druid-Handbook&p=19784406) is a great resource, although fair warning, it's also very large.

[Menzath]

I was also a druid..."healer"... I. A 3.5 game(damn battle cleric).

The best way I found to keep the party up, was to bfc all the major threats. Kelpstrand is amazing when you get the ability to fire two strands(lvl6).
The point being the best way to heal someone is to make sure they don't get hurt.