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Skjaldbakka
2007-11-15, 02:44 AM
Had an idea for fixing druid:

You split it into two classes, a warrior class and a spellcaster class.

The warrior class loses the spellcasting and the animal companion of the druid, and gains a full BAB.

The caster loses wildshaping and drops to 1/2 BAB and d6 HD.

Jack Zander
2007-11-15, 02:54 AM
I'd say give both animal companion goodness, but at 4 levels slower than normal. Animal companions don't need to be just as strong as other party members, but the flavor still suits both classes.

Skjaldbakka
2007-11-15, 04:08 AM
I think that wildshape + animal companion is a bit too much. I like the idea of the druid who fights by buffing his animal companion, though.

Grynning
2007-11-15, 04:18 AM
Doesn't the Shapeshifter Variant (PHBII) kind of address this already? Removing Animal Companion and nerfing Wildshape?
Also, many Druid PrC's address this in a way by keeping one progression or the other going but not both. Sure, Master of Many Forms is used for Pun-Pun Cheese but on its own it's not too terribly bad to have in a game. Most other Druid PrC's keep up casting but not Wildshape, and the ones that do both (Daggerspell Shaper and the Sea Druid thingy from Stormwrack, for example) at least limit the shapes and make them lose a couple of spellcasting levels.
Of course, this begs the question, why would a Druid want to PrC into anything but Planar Shepard given these options? Simple. Not everyone wants to be OP.

KIDS
2007-11-15, 04:39 AM
Grynning said what needed to be said. That's a good explanation of PrCs and I also second the idea of using Shapeshifter Variant from PHB2, if you feel the druid should have an animal companion he can take Wild Cohort feat. All in all, quite close to a well balanced character...

Melayl
2007-11-15, 10:11 AM
For those of us who haven't bothered to get the PHBII, the OP's suggestion looks mighty nice.

Thinker
2007-11-15, 11:14 AM
The "warrior" druid would still be a better fighter than the fighter because of the massive bonuses in animal forms. When compared to the ToB classes this may be a bit more even, because the druid still doesn't have maneuvers.

The "caster" druid would suck. The spells may be what push it over the top, but it would have to get more class abilities or spells to compensate. Of the full casters it probably has the weakest spell-list.

I don't like "pet" classes in DnD very much. They make it so the player isn't the one doing anything, its the minion. Its easy to circumnavigate or completely ignore the minion to bring great harm to the person controlling it. I hate to bring up MMO's, but this was WoW's problem with the Warlock and the Hunter: In PvE they operated as intended, creatures would attack the creature and all would be fine, but in PvP players just ignored the pet and easily killed the master. The way they fixed it was by making it an option to simply not need the pet at all.

In DnD the enemies are way smarter than in any computerized act. In a world where everyone knows that a druid's power is in its companion they will try to simply kill the druid or asassinate the companion in its sleep or some such thing. All-or-nothing classes are poorly designed, imo.

Frosty
2007-11-15, 11:54 AM
Warlocks do fine. Fear + drain life not breaking Fear = dead enemies in PvP

Thinker
2007-11-15, 03:44 PM
Warlocks do fine. Fear + drain life not breaking Fear = dead enemies in PvP

They didn't do so fine when it came out, which is why they fixed it :smalltongue: