Need character build!

[Cowboy_ninja]

My long time friend is back in town for good and wants to pick up his old role as a DM. GREAT!

I need a lvl 2 build. Core only. I am sooo out of my element here. I'm generally an optimization type of guy. I pull and combine from every legitimate WotC D&D source out there. Now I have to stick to core only. PHB that is it.

The day he surprised us with it I quickly made a half orc druid. But we got no story or gaming in that night and now i actually have a little more time to come up with a build.

Any ideas?

[Last Laugh]

Any particulars?
preferred race/class/mode of combat
Abilities? I'm guessing no variant rules.

[Tinydwarfman]

Straight druid is good. I suggest dwarf or human (as the only physical stat that matters is CON). Ditch half-orc if you can, it's terrible. The druid handbook has lots of general and core only advice.

The most powerful stuff in the game is core, so any of the fantastic 4 (CoDzilla, wiz/sorc) will do well for power.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Gnome Druid, use a wooden tower shield nonproficient until you get wild shape and let your pet do the fighting.

[Eldariel]

As should be abundantly clear from the various answers "N Druid" is the good option. Small race (Gnome's stats beat out Halfling) and Human are slightly ahead, but anything works. Feats...well, there's little that would be useful to you on this very juncture. Metamagic, Spell Foci -> Augment Summoning and Spell Penetration are all fine feats, but all will mostly take some levels to mature.

You could pick Improved Trip or Improved Grapple, but again, both will really kick off in a couple of levels with Wildshape, though they're already usable if you go Human. Power Attack is in the same boat. Overall...yeah. They aren't gonna have a big impact for now. Your Animal Companion though, that matters a bit more. War-Trained Riding Dog is a solid combatant for the first levels. On level 4, Dire Bat is just made of win. Then Bears and so on.


But yeah, this is all optimization 101. Optimize your spells (Entangles, etc.) and profit. Produce Flame is something to not underestimate early on; it doesn't do lots of damage and it does damage, but it's a multiround spell that's great for conserving resources and hits easily with reasonable damage output. And pack a ranged weapon, or even melee if you end up with more than usual Str.

[Last Laugh]

Until just now I thought that Augment Summoning was from a splatbook somewhere... I feel silly.

[Tinydwarfman]

As should be abundantly clear from the various answers "N Druid" is the good option. Small race (Gnome's stats beat out Halfling) and Human are slightly ahead, but anything works. Feats...well, there's little that would be useful to you on this very juncture. Metamagic, Spell Foci -> Augment Summoning and Spell Penetration are all fine feats, but all will mostly take some levels to mature.

You could pick Improved Trip or Improved Grapple, but again, both will really kick off in a couple of levels with Wildshape, though they're already usable if you go Human. Power Attack is in the same boat. Overall...yeah. They aren't gonna have a big impact for now. Your Animal Companion though, that matters a bit more. War-Trained Riding Dog is a solid combatant for the first levels. On level 4, Dire Bat is just made of win. Then Bears and so on.


But yeah, this is all optimization 101. Optimize your spells (Entangles, etc.) and profit. Produce Flame is something to not underestimate early on; it doesn't do lots of damage and it does damage, but it's a multiround spell that's great for conserving resources and hits easily with reasonable damage output. And pack a ranged weapon, or even melee if you end up with more than usual Str.

I was under the opinion that a small race would restrict how large you could wildshape, or is there no such limitation?

[gallagher]

Dire Bat is made of wins. as a small character, at low levels being able to fly is supreme, and you can do it in a cave. pick up a longspear or something and you are effective as a melee combatant when you are out of wildshapes.

mix that with tanglefoot bags and entangle and people are afraid of you with minimum effort. summoning swarms and other guys to give you flanking will make you also the best friend of the party fighter and rogue.

[Keld Denar]

Also, at level 2, a half-orc druid with a decent Str score can actually go nuts with a Shaleiligh'd quarterstaff held 2handed. You'll have nearly the same HP and damage output of a similar level fighter, especially if you have a wolf or similar tripping animal to further lower your foe's ACs.

At 3rd level, you have access to SNA II, and the vastly overpowered-for-its-CR Hipogryph. Summon one, it'll probably be stronger than both you and your companion together at level 3. Complete badasses.

[Eldariel]

I was under the opinion that a small race would restrict how large you could wildshape, or is there no such limitation?

Reading zem rules is a good idea

But yeah, as written right now (after half a billion errata, though I think it's been like this all of 3.5; don't even remember 3.0 tho), Wildshape is identical for creatures of any size. You start with Small and Medium forms and gain Larges on 8, Tinys on 11 and Huges on 15.


That said, there are issues with Riding if you're more than one category smaller than your mount (for example, you can't use Fast Mount and Dismount at all), so for Dire Bat riding, Human is quite optimal. And yeah, Dire Bat is truly amazing; Blindsense, 40' Good fly-speed, great AC (toss it Leather Bardings and it'll quite possibly have the highest AC of the entire party at 22), fine Spot & Listen and Large size for any combat maneuvers (e.g. Grapple or Trip; it's not unreasonable to teach one of those as a Trick).