Pimp My...Wizard/Druid Gestalt?

[Zanos]

Alright, first off, this is not my fault. I don't normally play druids.

As a pretty neat quest reward for giving the God of Growth a helping hand in getting some business taken care of, all of the characters in the party are now getting a single gestalt druid class level. I believe variants are okay and we use all 3.5 material, dragon, even 3rd party but no Pathfinder.

My character is a 5th level eidetic domain wizard with 12 wisdom and he wears some custom built mithral armor which is pretty nice, I would like to not have to remove it to use the druid features. He's a necromancer but primarily focuses on support and control with his spell slots he's not using to keep the various monstrosities he animates on a leash.

So far I'm thinking Sidhe Scholar, since it gets to use metal armor, gets a SF(Kn: Nature) as a bonus feat to qualify for loremaster later, and replacing the animal companion you get from wild one with Urban Companion, giving me a familiar that can easily be resummoned and doesn't cause XP loss when it dies. I lost my wizard familiar when I took Eidetic Wizard. Probably go with hummingbird for the funny initiative bonus or something else with a fly speed and decent detection skills.

Spells don't matter all that much since I can just memorize whatever I want every day, but any advice here for some good stuff that doesn't need CL scaling to keep up would be nice.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Scathing criticisms of my character, both fictional and real?

[Darg]

If it's just a single level, why not give them a spirit shaman level instead? Personally, I think it fits the concept better as a reward. They were given a spirit guide to bargain for spells, don't require an alignment, don't lose their abilities, also receive wild empathy, get the alertness feat of they don't already have it, and don't have to lug around a 1-2HD animal companion.

[Zanos]

If it's just a single level, why not give them a spirit shaman level instead? Personally, I think it fits the concept better as a reward. They were given a spirit guide to bargain for spells, don't require an alignment, don't lose their abilities, also receive wild empathy, get the alertness feat of they don't already have it, and don't have to lug around a 1-2HD animal companion.
I'm a player, not the DM. Sorry if that wasn't clear. As a player I will say I think druid is actually better since there's a lot more variants and ACFs to play with.

[Zarvistic]

I think you need to be a conjurer to take the hummingbird.

What about huntsman variant and carmendine monk at level 6? Could ditch the armor and also gets +10 speed or another +1 ac.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

So you're only getting one Druid class level gestalt with your build, is that right? The character isn't gestalt, it's just one level of Druid that doesn't count toward your character level or grant a HD increase?

Just about every spellcaster gets Obscuring Snow in Frostburn, and now everyone can cast Snowsight on themself as well....

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you want to use any of your druid abilities that aren't hp/saves/BAB/skills/armor&weapon proficiencies, then you're going to have to throw away that armor of yours. If you want to use the armor, then you'll have to ignore your druid abilities.

That is, unless you dispel all the magic out of it, then hire someone (or buy a scroll) to polymorph any object it into stone or dragonscales or something. Just hope nobody dispels it again.

You might consider making it a level in shapeshifting druid, so you'll have access to an at-will alternate form effect.

[Zanos]

I think you need to be a conjurer to take the hummingbird.
It says in the article that it can be either open to any wizards or only specialists. I'll ask my DM but I am probably good to use it because if a variant exists he is almost always fine with it.


What about huntsman variant and carmendine monk at level 6? Could ditch the armor and also gets +10 speed or another +1 ac.

I'm hesitant to ditch the armor because it's expensive caster armor that's nonmagical and gives 5 total AC for no ACP and no ASF, and a shield that gives 2 AC. So I'd have to get a lot of out ditching it. My int bonus is only +4 so going unarmored wouldn't even increase my AC even if I took int to AC.

I do think this is a very good option for later in my character's life when I have more intelligence and spell slots are at less of a premium, so I can stack greater mage armor with int bonus to ac to have an AC of 16+Dex+Int. The DM is generous with retraining, so I might change to this eventually.


So you're only getting one Druid class level gestalt with your build, is that right? The character isn't gestalt, it's just one level of Druid that doesn't count toward your character level or grant a HD increase?

Just about every spellcaster gets Obscuring Snow in Frostburn, and now everyone can cast Snowsight on themself as well....

Yeah, not a full gestalt. 5 levels of wizard, 1 of druid. 5 total hit dice, ECL 5, and the single level that is both uses the gestalt rules.

Obscuring Snow and Snowsight is a great combo. We have two wizards and an artificer so we could get a lot of mileage out of that. The undead make up a good portion of our damage output though, so we'd need a lot of casts to make sure the whole party wasn't impacted. One of the disadvantages of minionmancy.

The other fun thing about all being druids is we all now know a secret language, which is super convenient when we're all talking about whether or not we're going to have to kill the local rulers.


If you want to use any of your druid abilities that aren't hp/saves/BAB/skills/armor&weapon proficiencies, then you're going to have to throw away that armor of yours. If you want to use the armor, then you'll have to ignore your druid abilities.
There's a few druid variants that support metal armor, one of which I pointed out in the OP. I'd need to be getting some pretty major features to not use one of those since mithral chainshirts are such a good base for stacking other armor templates/features on.


That is, unless you dispel all the magic out of it, then hire someone (or buy a scroll) to polymorph any object it into stone or dragonscales or something. Just hope nobody dispels it again.
Possible in the future, but there's a setting feature that keeps mortals from going above 5th level. While the PCs will eventually surpass this, I don't have any access to NPC services that would require a character above 5th level. Even the ones I could access would have to be in exchange for specific political favors, since everyone with PC class levels is elevated to nobility.

One of the other party members is a 5th level artificer, though. We're on opposite ends of the alignment scale but we don't hate each other. Much.


You might consider making it a level in shapeshifting druid, so you'll have access to an at-will alternate form effect.
This is a good idea, and the idea of the entire party turning into a literal wolfpack does amuse me. Shapeshift is usually terrible but an at-will inconspicuous form with 50ft land speed is pretty solid if I'll never be getting access to wildshape anyway.

[Particle_Man]

Would arcane hierophant be a later option since you have that level of Druid “for free” anyhow? Then you could go the other way and use Druid armour without arcane spell failure chances.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Get a pile of 1st level Pearls of Power and you can put Snowsight on all the minions, too.