Nature's Warrior Question

[Deadtissue]

Quick One:

Do any of the Nature's Warrior, Nature's Armament's affect the character when he is not in Wildshape?

The text says unless otherwise noted they do not. Then the text only notes when you specifically have to be in a wild shape or say nothing. I am confused.
eg. Waters flow and Robe of clouds say "in elemental form" but Earth's resilience says "Nature's Warrior gains DR".

Was there any errata or Wotc Ruling that clears this up?

[Person_Man]

The wording on the ability is inconsistent. But it's clear about when you can use each ability. By default, it's in Wildshape only. When it has descriptive text, then it's based on the descriptive text.

• Armor of the Croc: When in any Wildshape form.
• Blaze of Power: When in Fire Elemental Wildshape form.
• Claws of the Grizzly: When in any Wildshape form.
• Earth's Resilience: When in any Wildshape form.
• Nature's Weapons: When in any Wildshape form.
• Robe of Clouds: When in Air Elemental Wildshape form.
• Serpent Coils: When in any Wildshape form that grants the Improved Grab ability, like bears.
• Waters flow: Requires that "you be able to use Wild Shape to take the form of an Elemental" - ie, effective Wildshape progression of Druid 16. It also states that you can use this ability "while not in Wild Shape form" - ie, all the time.
• Wild Growth: When in any Wildshape form.
• Wings of the Hurricane: When in any avian or Air Elemental Wildshape form.

All of the abilities are basically mediocre or garbage though, and not worth nerfing your Druid casting and Animal Companion.

[Deadtissue]

I was working on a Draconic Lizardfolk wildshape Ranger thought it would be good to improve his NA, natural weapon damage and Fast Heal 1 at the higher levels.

Ah well.

[Person_Man]

I was working on a Draconic Lizardfolk wildshape Ranger thought it would be good to improve his NA, natural weapon damage and Fast Heal 1 at the higher levels.

Ah well.

Mechanically, that's a horrible idea.

Whatever benefits you gain from being a Draconic Lizardfolk would be lost when you Wildshape. Fast Healing 1 is basically meaningless unless you're playing in a low-magic game world. In combat it's rarely enough healing to make a difference, and out of combat there are a ton of different ways to get efficiently healed. The bonus to natural weapon damage is pretty minimal. The NA bonus is nice, but not as good as the Ranger's Evasion.

If you want better Wildshape forms, there are several different feats (Aberratin Wild Shape, Frozen Wild Shape, Dragonic Wild Shape) and other PrC (Master of Many Forms being the big one) that can help you.

[Keld Denar]

I do like the 1 level of Nature's Warrior for Serpent's Coils. If you are gonna grapple, you want Constrict. There are only 3 ways for a PC to gain constrict. This is one of the easiest. The other 2 involve significant investments in ToB or MoI for Crushing Roots of the Mountain and Kraken Mantle bound to Shoulders respectively.