Help with Druid concept

[Paganboy28]

OK, if things with the Artificer don't work out I might consider a Druid.

I am guessing Human is as good a race as any for the Druid, since taking any LA race would hinder my spell progress. Its just I find humans a bit "dull" since this is a fantasy setting and humans are not "fantasy".

Maybe a Shifter druid? Themetically it works.... Or a Kiloren (though the aspects seem a bit weak to me).

The druid concept I would like to go for is the caster who summons storms, elementals, summoning elementals to his bidding, and such. But can hold his own in combat if and when needed.

I know there's the Stormlord PrC that goes into such things, is that any good?

[Signmaker]

It's okayish. Flavorful enough for your purposes.
Consider jacking up your AC for Control Winds. Then you can spawn tornadoes like a jerk (it's what I do. =P). As for combat, standard druid buffs apply for when you aren't using your shapeshifting class feature, whichever one you aren't using.

[Paganboy28]

How about an Anthropomorphic animal from Savage Species as a race.

Anthropomorphic bat seems good. +6 Wis. LA is +0 and no racial HD.

Anthropomorphic Eagle also seems good, +2Str, +2Dex, +2Con, +4Wis, fly 40ft. +1 LA and 2 racial HD though... hmmm


Though some of these Anthropomorphic animals make no sense....

[Paganboy28]

Wow.

Anthropomorphic Ape seems too good to be true.

+0 LA, +2Str, +6Dex, +4Wis, +3 Natural Armour, 30ft land speed.

Where are the negatives for a +0LA????

[Signmaker]

Anthro races are pretty....yeah.

Try not to use em unless you have a lenient DM.

[olentu]

Wow.

Anthropomorphic Ape seems too good to be true.

+0 LA, +2Str, +6Dex, +4Wis, +3 Natural Armour, 30ft land speed.

Where are the negatives for a +0LA????

It is possible that in theory the 2HD were the balancing factor.

[Paganboy28]

Anthro races are pretty....yeah.

Try not to use em unless you have a lenient DM.

This needs explaining further... pretty sick, pretty broken???

[Paganboy28]

It is possible that in theory the 2HD were the balancing factor.

All that for 2HD seems good to me. Especially compared to some of the other options.

[olentu]

All that for 2HD seems good to me. Especially compared to some of the other options.

I did say in theory.

[Kylarra]

This needs explaining further... pretty sick, pretty broken???

Pretty cheesy.

[Signmaker]

Anthro Bat = All you need is Wis, once you've got a decent wildshape streak going. You have it. Good game.

Nothing says "Screw standard play" like potentially starting out with 27 Wis at first level. 18 + 6(Race) + 3 (Age). Especially if you started off at a druid level higher than 14 and thus managed to completely ignore age penalties during charagen.

[Paganboy28]

Anthro Bat = All you need is Wis, once you've got a decent wildshape streak going. You have it. Good game.

Nothing says "Screw standard play" like potentially starting out with 27 Wis at first level. 18 + 6(Race) + 3 (Age). Especially if you started off at a druid level higher than 14 and thus managed to completely ignore age penalties during charagen.

We are all 8th level characters.

[Signmaker]

Wildshape is granted at 5th*, you're already in a position to really annoy the DM with wis-boosting.

Anyway, the best choice would be that if you really, really like the idea of an anthro-bat, to not invest too much stat-wise in to Wis, in an attempt to balance things out.

*Whoo typo. Thanks.

[Eldariel]

All that for 2HD seems good to me. Especially compared to some of the other options.

It's actually very fair. 2 HD means you'll be 2 levels behind in casting and have 2 levels less of Barbarian/Warblade/whatever otherwise, missing out on some awesome class features. Sure, it feels pretty good, but 2 useless levels is a lot. Frankly, I fear HD more than LA because at least you can buy off LA.

[Mr. Mud]

Anthro Eagle seems like the best bet to me, if you're going to go Anthro's at all. Being a speedy eagle apposed to a hairy ape -when you could well be a hairy human - opens a lot more plot options. And Eagles are way more awesome, anyway.

Also, check out Races of the Wild for some nice Druid stuffs.

[Leon]

Ask your DM before jumping headlong into alternate races such as the Anthropomorphic.

Half Orcs have a nice sub class in Races of Destiny, same with Halflings in Races of the Wild

[Xenogears]

Go WARFORGED! Nothing says druid like being a robot right? Sure you have to take a feat to get rid of having built in class destroying armor, you get no benefits, and the only stat you care about is penalized but it's a funny concept and if your a druid why bother optimizing anyway? You're already super powered so choose an awesomely flavorful option and ignore the mechanics of it.

[HCL]

Ask your DM before jumping headlong into alternate races such as the Anthropomorphic.

Half Orcs have a nice sub class in Races of Destiny, same with Halflings in Races of the Wild

halforc sub levels are great, especially if your dm considers Mongrelfolk to be a halforc sub race :)

im kind of iffy on halfling sublevels since you get the most of them if you ride your animal companion. at a low level a halfling riding a riding dog shooting off sling bullets is nifty, but at higher levels how does an earth elemental ride a T-rex?

If you were in core only I would recommend forest gnome

[sofawall]

Wildshape is granted at 4th

5th level.

[Tempest Fennac]

Page 45 of http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD...asses-Base.pdf contains a neat Shifter variant Druid if you didn't already know about it, and there's also a Storm Druid on page 35 which may help if you decide against Storm Lord. As far as races go, I class myself as decent as far as being able to stat out anthro-animals for LA 0 goes so I'd be willing to help if you had a particular animal in mind, if you think the DM would allow it to be used. (A lot of the Savage Specise Anthos are pretty overpowered.)

[Kroy]

First off: Anthropomorphic (Sp?) animals are cheap, cheesy and ruin the game. Be a raptoran sorcerer (cleric works too!) with the substitute levels in RoW. Fits perfectly.

Also, you are aware you can edit quotes into your post, so you don't have to double post, right?

[Kol Korran]

also, if you're going with shifter, there is one quite nice druid prestige class called Moon Speaker for shifter druids in Races of Eberron. i don't remember it's specifics, but as far as i recall it was fairly good.

also, i think there were elemntal focused PrCs in Magic of Eberron. maybe they can allow you to summons elementals and such? again, i don't remember specifics.

[Gnorman]

also, if you're going with shifter, there is one quite nice druid prestige class called Moon Speaker for shifter druids in Races of Eberron. i don't remember it's specifics, but as far as i recall it was fairly good.

also, i think there were elemntal focused PrCs in Magic of Eberron. maybe they can allow you to summons elementals and such? again, i don't remember specifics.

Moonspeaker is quite good - it's one of the only classes worth taking other than Druid 20. It requires Shifter and is twelve levels long rather than ten, but offers a lot of great options. Wildshape stacks (though at -4), you progress spellcasting, and improve the efficacy of your shifter feats. It requires some forethought to really optimize, but it's a very good choice.

If you're going to go the elemental-summoning route, pick up Augment Summoning (core), Augment Elemental (Magic of Eberron), and Summon Elemental (Complete Mage) to really give you the chops in that particular area. Imbue Summoning is, as I mentioned in the other thread, chock full of buffing potential.

Also, look into Storm Elementals in the MMIII. They seem to be just the kind of creature you want to summon.

Stay away from Planar Shepherd. That should go without saying, but I'm saying it anyway.

[RagnaroksChosen]

I don't remember what book its in but there is also a alternate class feature that lets you swap out animal companion for an elemental..

There are mixed reviews on its goodness...

if you can get a storm elemental i would or air.

[Farlion]

Hmmm... theres a neat way of playing a druid (at least the shapechange variant) if you are going to start at level 8.


In Shadowrun there are so called Shapeshifters. They are actually animals, that can assume human shape. You could translate this to your level 8 shapechange druid. Consider him a wolf/cat what ever, that can change into a human form.

Here some ideas:

- consider your human form as ugly, useless and suboptimal (no claws, no fur, degenerate teeth, bad senses and so forth)

- stay in your animal form most of the time (because that is, what you're used to)

- act like an animal, even in human form (snarl, make animal noises, adopt some peculiarities of the chosen animal form and so forth)

- consider the way people (living in societies) act as "weak", to an animal, too much socialism is unknown (there are forms of altruism, in the animal kingdom, but they are mostly restricted to relatives)


But, be careful not to play a total sociopath. Start off as a shy, but curious fellow and maybe your players can even convince you, that some codes of conduct written by society, are not really that useless.

Cheers,
Farlion