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esorscher
2008-12-08, 04:35 PM
I'm planning a 3.5 campaign and want to give the party items, in their treasure, that are good for fighting druids. What items would you want if you were fighting druids? At this point the party is Level 3-5.

Thanks.

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-08, 04:35 PM
Metal armor that you can force onto the druid.

OverdrivePrime
2008-12-08, 04:59 PM
A masterwork dragonscale breastplate sounds appropriate for that level, as does a set of lesser bracers of archery, or a +1 wooden shield with resist fire: 10.

For offense, maybe a +1 longspear or greatclub.

The Glyphstone
2008-12-08, 05:07 PM
A masterwork dragonscale breastplate sounds appropriate for that level, as does a set of lesser bracers of archery, or a +1 wooden shield with resist fire: 10.

For offense, maybe a +1 longspear or greatclub.

He's looking for items to use against druids, not treasure for the druids when they kill them.:smallbiggrin:

Perhaps a modified Shifter's Sorrow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#shiftersSorrow)? 12K is a bit much for Level 3-5, but the ability applied to say, a +1 dagger would be neat.

Nets and tanglefoot bags could be good too, to use on their animal companions.

esorscher
2008-12-08, 05:45 PM
He's looking for items to use against druids, not treasure for the druids when they kill them.:smallbiggrin:

Perhaps a modified Shifter's Sorrow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#shiftersSorrow)? 12K is a bit much for Level 3-5, but the ability applied to say, a +1 dagger would be neat.

Nets and tanglefoot bags could be good too, to use on their animal companions.

This is more along the lines of what I was thinking; the situation is that a sultan gives the party items to fight a recurring villain. Like supplies, sort of.

esorscher
2008-12-08, 05:50 PM
Oh, and scrolls, potions, etc.

trehek
2008-12-08, 06:30 PM
A druid bane weapon. Simple.You might also add a unique ability, which forces a polymorphed target to revert to it's original form on strike.

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-08, 06:39 PM
Mistletoe.

Seduce your way to victory.

Tacoma
2008-12-08, 06:40 PM
You can make a Bane weapon for Dragons, right? Why not against Druids?

Also: Animal Bane weapons for use against their animal companions and summoned / beefed up creatures.

Something that casts a special form of Greater Dispel that grants three Dispel rolls instead of one. The lowest roll is used against magic from most sources, but magic from a Druid source uses the highest roll. The item should have a limited number of uses but really plenty for their purposes - after all, how often after this are they going to fight a Druid, and the item does so very little against non-Druids.

Fire-based magic is great for burning down the Druids' home and forcing them into a confrontation. It prevents use of a lot of Druid spells like Entangle and Tree-affecting spells.

Protection from Fire, Cold, and Lightning seems appropriate.

Potions of Neutralize Poison would be great if these Druids are the kind who cavort with spiders, snakes, or scorpions.

And if you're talking sultan, I'm thinking an Efreeti Bottle and a Flying Carpet (that can't quite hold the whole party).

OverdrivePrime
2008-12-08, 06:42 PM
He's looking for items to use against druids, not treasure for the druids when they kill them.:smallbiggrin:

Bwahaha! Sorry for the mix-up. I just figured some of the characters were warrior-type druids. :smallredface:

Try a scroll of Sepia Snake Sigil. His reflex save is about the only weakness that a druid has, and it's senseless to try to go for direct damage against him. Just send the druid a SSS'ed message with a courier and pray he fails his reflex save, then go in and mop up. Your players should at least be able to handle his animal companion in a straight fight.

That or hit him with pollution.

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-08, 06:45 PM
And if you're talking sultan, I'm thinking an Efreeti Bottle and a Flying Carpet (that can't quite hold the whole party).


It's only fair. After all, Ali Baba had them forty thieves, and Scheherazade had a thousand tales...

Tacoma
2008-12-08, 07:04 PM
To be fair, the Efreeti Bottle also can't quite hold the party.

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-12-08, 08:43 PM
I'm pretty sure there's a MIC enhancement that deals extra damage to anything that's not in it's natural form, I'll post it if I can find it later tonight.

Tacoma
2008-12-08, 08:49 PM
The Druids probably give their animal dudes magic collars, right?

Buy Necklaces of Strangulation tied to a command word that must be spoken within hearing distance.

Rogue sneaks in, exchanges collars while they're asleep. The fur hides the slight differences.

Fight begins. Animals attack. Druids start powering them up. Command word is spoken. Animals begin choking and have like 6 rounds to live. Plus they don't have their collar buffs. PCs trot past animals, dropping a Solid Fog on it so they can't do anything, and stick their smelly adventurer fingers in the Druids' noses.

Disrupting their spells.

Collin152
2008-12-08, 09:03 PM
That or hit him with pollution.

"By your powers combined, I am Druid!"?

Leewei
2008-12-08, 09:11 PM
A steel breastplate subjected to polymorph any object by the sultan's wizard to make it into a dragonscale breastplate. Enchant it up nicely, cast an extended nystul's magic aura on it and give it to the party's main fighter the day the PCs set off to fight the druid. If the PCs win, the item was a nice piece of defensive gear for the fighter. If the PCs lose, the druid claims the breastplate as loot. The next time he makes trouble for the sultan, the wizard hits him with an area dispel magic, automatically succeeding at dispelling his own polymorph any object. The druid then loses.

OverdrivePrime
2008-12-08, 09:46 PM
"By your powers combined, I am Druid!"?

Basically. Though I'd bet on a 12th level druid over Cap' and the Planeteers any day of the week. I mean seriously, what kind of lame power is heart? :smallbiggrin:

Jack_Simth
2008-12-08, 10:03 PM
Basically. Though I'd bet on a 12th level druid over Cap' and the Planeteers any day of the week. I mean seriously, what kind of lame power is heart? :smallbiggrin:
You do realize it was mostly run as Telepathy, with the ability to plant certain types of Suggestions thrown in, right?

UserClone
2008-12-08, 10:05 PM
Super Radiation!
Deforestation!
Smog!
Toxics!
Hate!

BY YOUR POWERS COMBINED, I AM...

CAPTAIN POLLUTION!

Rebonack
2008-12-08, 10:30 PM
Take the Bands of Iron spell.

Make a wondrous item based on it.

Stipulate that it binds the target in fused full-plate rather than metal bands.

You now have a weapon that target's the druid's worst save and strips them of their power.

esorscher
2008-12-08, 10:58 PM
Take the Bands of Iron spell.

Make a wondrous item based on it.

Stipulate that it binds the target in fused full-plate rather than metal bands.

You now have a weapon that target's the druid's worst save and strips them of their power.

I like that a lot. A one-use item, very expensive, becomes a +3 mithral breastplate that lasts for 10 minutes. That way you can use it on yourself if necessary.

Seffbasilisk
2008-12-08, 11:11 PM
There's something like that already...a ball of sorts that when thrown becomes Bands of Binding...

Rebonack
2008-12-08, 11:24 PM
Still requires a bit of customization since I doubt a druid would fall for getting shackled.

But regardless I don't think a single use item would cost that much. As I recall Bands of Iron is... what, level 3? That would be 750 GP by the item creation rules. Considering the modification I wouldn't go above 1k.

ShneekeyTheLost
2008-12-08, 11:45 PM
Fighting druids? Not too hard, if you know what you're up against.

First off, what level are they and approximately how many are there? If they'e not level 10 (which would be stupidly overpowered for the group), then their Wildshape really isn't too broken yet. Heck, evne at 6th level, the HD limitation makes their selection sharply limited.

Things to watch out for:

1) Poison spell is Con damage. Watch out for this. Particularly the fighter who has to 'tank' the druid, getting into touch reach.

2) Druid is going to try do do CC like Entangle and then summon stuff on the obvious casters, trying to drop the most powerful things quickest. Either ready a Dispel to Counterspell or find a way to keep him from doing this.

Tactics:

1) Treat this like any other caster, find a way to keep him from casting. Use your own crowd control like Web and an area-silence so you don't have any saves.

2) This is one problem that can be solved with suitable application of Fireball. Druids, and most animals, only have d8 HD. A couple of fireballs and they're probably toast.

3) Tie up the animal companion, go for the druid. The animal companion can't summon more monsters on you, do stat damage, use Entangle to keep the party tied up whilst he is free to do stuff, and in general, isn't nearly as big a nusiance. Kill it after you kill the druid.

Items? Wand of Silence (area effect) would be great. So would a Wand of Web. Wand of Invisibility for the Rogue so he can sneak up and shank the druid. Animal-Bane enchantment works wonders on animal companions and on druids who are Wildshaped.

OverdrivePrime
2008-12-09, 07:11 AM
You do realize it was mostly run as Telepathy, with the ability to plant certain types of Suggestions thrown in, right?

Yes, yes. I was just having fun referring to the old trope, and the fact that as far as 'fun' powers go, poor Ma-ti got shafted. Compared to the rest of the team, he was like Aquaman, but less exciting. Certainly, he could have stomped all over encounters as an all-powerful diplomancer, but that just wasn't Ma-ti's style.

BobVosh
2008-12-09, 07:19 AM
Yes, yes. I was just having fun referring to the old trope, and the fact that as far as 'fun' powers go, poor Ma-ti got shafted. Compared to the rest of the team, he was like Aquaman, but less exciting. Certainly, he could have stomped all over encounters as an all-powerful diplomancer, but that just wasn't Ma-ti's style.

Less exciting than aquaman? Never thought of it that way...but poor, poor Ma-ti. At least he got a monkey, I guess.

Try burning down the druids grove. Always fun.

Bane for druid doesn't make sense, as the "dragons bane" is played more as a physical weakness

Oracle_Hunter
2008-12-09, 07:28 AM
Well... how about some Animal Bane (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#bane) weapons? It'll make short work of their companions and be helpful against most other things they summon. And it might work if they Wild Shape too, now that I think of it... :smallamused:

If the Sultan is really footing the bill, how about some Arrows of (appropriate humanoid) Slaying (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#slayingArrow)? Sure it's a Fort save, but I think a DC 20 will probably still ruin many of their days :smallbiggrin:

Talic
2008-12-09, 07:45 AM
A greatclub.

Masterwork, preferably.

Put in hands of barbarian, with 20 strength, rage, power attack, and leap attack.'

Party wizard should ideally drop a Bull's strength on him.

(optimization would include using orc instead of half orc, to boost the str to 30)

+11 to hit (12 if flaws and weapon focus is used), on a power attack for 3-5, will yield (1d10+15 (str) + 6-10)x2 for leap attack.

So we're looking at level 3? Average of 53 damage on a hit.

Druid: Max HD at level 1, average thereafter, and a 20 Con (he's a dwarf)?
51 HP at level 5.

So he can 1 shot a druid 2 levels above him, unless that druid has a 20 con AND improved toughness...

At which point a Magic missile will finish the job.

Mephit
2008-12-09, 08:26 AM
Well, not specifically for [i]Fighting[i] druids, but a True Divine Focus (Planar HB) is fun loot. Who doesn't like +1CL for one week?

Inyssius Tor
2008-12-09, 12:44 PM
"Let our powers combine:"
"Spells!"
"Beasts!"
"Wildshape!"
"Feats!"
"3/4 Base Attack Bonus!" (oh, poor Ma-Ti...)


"By your powers combined, I am Druid!"