Druid Help!

[Devmaar]

IMPORTANT: my group has no D&D books. Any advice that relies on material not available online would be useless to me. That said, as DM I will consider homebrew.

Anyway, for a new campaign, one character is a 5th level Druid. I'm hoping for advice on feats and equipment at this stage.

[Greenish]

IMPORTANT:

What is?

[Devmaar]

What is?

I hit post instead of preview by accident

[Starbuck_II]

IMPORTANT: my group has no D&D books. Any advice that relies on material not available online would be useless to me. That said, as DM I will consider homebrew.

Anyway, for a new campaign, one character is a 5th level Druid. I'm hoping for advice on feats and equipment at this stage.

5th level druid:
2 feats are useful: Spell focus Conjur + Augment Summoning?

[Greenish]

Anyway, for a new campaign, one character is a 5th level Druid. I'm hoping for advice on feats and equipment at this stage.

Buy a few riding dogs and studded leather armour for them.

What else you'd want depends on what do you wish to focus on. Summoning, wildshaping and generalist caster benefit from different feats.

What race are you?

[Edit]: Are you taking any of the UA alternative classes or alternative class features?

[jiriku]

inb4 Natural Spell.


Take Natural Spell. Get a bear as a companion. Buff yourself and/or the bear. Wildeshape into a bear. Tear faces off.

[golem1972]

Focus on battlefield control spells like entangle. Summon Natures Ally (with or without Augment Summoning) really adds to the versatility and doesn't need to be prepared.

Don't neglect your animal companion, it can dominate at low levels. Buffs + equipment will make it hardier. I suggest taking in game time to roleplay out training your animals. Buy or find and train more animals (a few big ones are better than a lot of little ones). Two or more trained, equipped, and buffed riding dogs are no joke. An owl by night and a hawk by day are great helpers. A bat can "see" invisible.

Wildshape is limited but still usefull at this level (5 hours), so it's probably best used as emergency "gotta maul someone right now" rather than scouting. Next level it shines (don't forget to pick up the Natural Spell feat, you can't cast spells while wildshaped without it). Become familiar with the available forms and what they're good for (cats pounce, bears grab, snakes constrict, dogs trip, etc...).

Armor + shield + good constitution makes you a decent frontliner.

High Wisdom + Spot / Listen as class skills, means you should always see them trying to sneak up on you. Get some equipment to boost this.

[Devmaar]

5th level druid:
2 feats are useful: Spell focus Conjur + Augment Summoning?

Thanks, under consideration.

Buy a few riding dogs and studded leather armour for them.

What else you'd want depends on what do you wish to focus on. Summoning, wildshaping and generalist caster benefit from different feats.

What race are you?

[Edit]: Are you taking any of the UA alternative classes or alternative class features?

Aiming to be a support caster.
Wild Elf.
Not using any of the alternatives.

inb4 Natural Spell.


Take Natural Spell. Get a bear as a companion. Buff yourself and/or the bear. Wildeshape into a bear. Tear faces off.

Can't get Natural Spell before level 6.

Focus on battlefield control spells like entangle. Summon Natures Ally (with or without Augment Summoning) really adds to the versatility and doesn't need to be prepared.

Don't neglect your animal companion, it can dominate at low levels. Buffs + equipment will make it hardier. I suggest taking in game time to roleplay out training your animals. Buy or find and train more animals (a few big ones are better than a lot of little ones). Two or more trained, equipped, and buffed riding dogs are no joke. An owl by night and a hawk by day are great helpers. A bat can "see" invisible.

Wildshape is limited but still usefull at this level (5 hours), so it's probably best used as emergency "gotta maul someone right now" rather than scouting. Next level it shines (don't forget to pick up the Natural Spell feat, you can't cast spells while wildshaped without it). Become familiar with the available forms and what they're good for (cats pounce, bears grab, snakes constrict, dogs trip, etc...).

Armor + shield + good constitution makes you a decent frontliner.

High Wisdom + Spot / Listen as class skills, means you should always see them trying to sneak up on you. Get some equipment to boost this.

Thanks

[Greenish]

Aiming to be a support caster.
Wild Elf.
Not using any of the alternatives.

Okay, that's pretty straight-forward. If you don't go for Augment Summoning straight away, Extend Spell is pretty nice.

There's a list of all free WotC material (legally) available from the 'nets here. The extra handle animal tricks, for example, would be pretty decent if you chose to get bunch of animals.

[Edit]: Training a bat to "mark" would be a nice way to find and keep taps on invisible enemies.

[golem1972]

Human is generally recomended for Druids. Extra feat helps, most racial features go away when you wildshape. Bonus to dex won't matter much, penalty to con might hurt.

Human would be SF: Conjuration (generally a waste, but it's a pre-req'), Augment Summoning, and Extend Spell (don't extend summons, you're better off using a higher level summon than a lower extended summon).

Elf, maybe Point blank shot and precise shot if you don't want the summoning route. Remember that you're proficient in slings (they're free) and they do bludgeoning damage (+str mod). Clubs are also free and can be thrown.

Core Druid is easier in some ways because there are no Prestige classes to spend skills/feats on. Later, you might look at power attack, or quicken spell. There aren't really a lot of necessary feats besides Natural Spell.

[Cerlis]

just remember, Not sure if you have it yet (Is share spell level 1?) but sometime you get Share Spell, and basically get two spells for the price of one if they effect yourself and ur companion is 5 feet from you (which is why so many player druids ride their pet i guess).
Twice as much healing, twice as much buffing, twice as much ....hmmmm....Feral druid screaming bloody murder riding a bear while both are on fire and made out of metal......

[grarrrg]

Feral druid screaming bloody murder riding a bear while both are on fire and made out of metal......

it needs MOAR BEAR!

[Coidzor]

Druid. That alone is sufficient.

Just pick spells to prepare right, don't get gimped with a bad animal companion, and pick good combat/utility shapes and you'll be worth two fighters at least, more when you summon bears. Also, Summon Nature's Ally allows access to the spell like abilities of the summoned creatures for further utility since one can spontaneously cast it.

My personal favourites:

Levels 5-7: Black Bear for combat, Eagle for flight.
Levels 8-11: Dire Lion for combat, Dire Bat for flight.
Levels 12-14: Dire Bear for combat, Dire Bat for flight.
Level 15+: Never played a Druid at this level, so haven't looked into it. Probably a choice between Air Elemental, Earth Elemental, and Dire Tiger, though.

- Saph

[Killer Angel]

Can't get Natural Spell before level 6.

So, all you had to do, is "wait" only one level...
Anyway, +1 for the augment summoning line.