druid bfc and debuff

[King of Nowhere]

my dm asked, as the main build expert of the group, to help build "a druid focused on battlefield control and debuff" for a high level campaign.
i came up blank, so I came to look for knowledge among those more expert than me.

oh, a druid has a lot of bfc and debuff.
problem is, this is a high level campaign. it's been going for a while. everyone in the party has access to freedom of movement.
99% of druid bfc spells are of the "summon plants to grab you" or "summon animals to grab you" or "summon animals that will throw nets at you". anyway, all that stuff is negated by freedom of movement. either that, or if has a for save and a giant neon sign saying "if you think you can beat his fort save, just cast baleful polymorph".

looking in the spell compendium, I come up with a limited selection.
- quill blast would be nice, quills impose a -1 penalty on most check. but it's noncumulative, so it's limited to a single -1. still, quickened could be worth a swift action.
- cast in stone is pretty good, but it's 9th level, limited availability.
- deadfall is interesting. moderate damage that cannot be reduced; knocking prone is not that huge effect, but still useful. it leaves behind difficult terrain, but freedom of movement counters that. it does not work on anyone flying, though
- greater whirlwind could have some success, but i'd be reluctant to use it for the amount of bookkeeping it entails. it's 9th level, anyway
- bombardment... does freedom of movement cover being buried under rabble? if it doesn't, this spell could be the winner.

this is mostly bfc. for the debuff, the only remotely useful thing i see is quill blast; everything else is strictly worse than baleful polymorph (which is a pretty strong spell anyway, if one can buff the saving throw dc). oh, and possibly use an animal companion to make trip attacks.

anything else I'm missing?
thanks

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web. The subject automatically succeeds on any grapple check made to resist a grapple attempt, as well as on grapple checks or Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin.

The spell also allows the subject to move and attack normally while underwater, even with slashing weapons such as axes and swords or with bludgeoning weapons such as flails, hammers, and maces, provided that the weapon is wielded in the hand rather than hurled. The freedom of movement spell does not, however, allow water breathing.

The whole, move and attack normally part doesn't apply to nonmagical effects except being underwater. If they're walking across ice, they still need to make balance checks, because that's moving normally in that circumstance. If they're squeezing through a tight space and moving slowly, that's moving normally in that circumstance. Furthermore, they can move and attack normally but not cast spells or do any other actions via this spell. It doesn't allow them to overcome a Silence effect to cast spells with verbal components.

If you use an instantaneous spell to create an effect that impedes movement, then it creates a normal circumstance that impedes them and acting normally while in that circumstance includes being impeded. If there's no spell duration in effect, it completely circumvents Freedom of Movement. It also doesn't allow characters to bypass magical barriers such as wall spells.

Spells like Kelpstrand are useless, but casting Wall of Thorns around them will still force them to make a strength check as a full-round action to make progress and take damage as they move through. Casting Call Avalanche to bury them in snow, or Bombardment to bury them in rubble, is an instantaneous effect that creates a circumstance where moving and attacking normally includes being impeded. Summoning a huge/greater/elder air elemental to turn into a whirlwind and suspend opponents in the air means they have nothing to push off of and can't move despite Freedom of Movement. Granted there are easily accessible ways to get out of those things, such as short-range teleports or a burrow speed for being buried or a fly speed for the whirlwind.

However, Druids do have an absurd trump card. Get a bunch of Lesser Rods of Extend and enough 1st level Pearls of Power to put Snowsight on himself and all his allies, then cast Obscuring Snow. That makes a 30-ft. radius of blindness that follows you around and completely blocks line of sight. Even better, if you use Invisible Spell on that it only blinds opponents able to see invisibility, so if you also make yourself invisible they either can't see you, or all they can see is a snowstorm. Meanwhile the druid and his allies are all completely unaffected since they can see through snow.

Don't discount the effectiveness of inflicting the ultimate action-negating status: death. Druids are incredibly good at dealing damage, between a powerful animal companion, wild shape, buffing with bite of the weresomething and sharing it with the companion, using summon nature's ally for multiple heavy-hitting animals, and casting animal growth on everything, you've got more than an entire party's worth of pouncing full attacking bruisers. Throw in absurdity like venomfire and you're almost guaranteed to drop a target every round.

[StreamOfTheSky]

If your standard for BFC is "freedom of movement can't negate it", then yeah, it's gonna be tough to find spells that meet your criteria. Honestly as fun as BFC is to me, I think its power is inflated on the internet. A lot of high level common abilities negate it, most notably FoM as you pointed out, and teleportation.

That said, my first suggestion is the Gatekeeper Initiate feat. It gives the Druid a bunch of really important/useful abjurations he normally has no access to. Even gets some of them at a lower level than normal. Dimensional Anchor at 3rd level (instead of 4th) and Dimensional Lock at 6th level (instead of 8th!) help a lot w/ preventing enemies from just lulz-teleporting out of your painstakingly created Zone of Suck (ZoS). And teleport is extremely common between outsiders and all the cheap items in MIC.

Your next issue is that usually you want to layer on 2-3 BFC spells before the enemy is truly "locked down", but you only have one turn per round. Ideally, you have caster allies to tag-team w/ you (Web-Entangle-Black Tentacles is a thing of beauty). Barring that, improved familiars who can use wands of stuff like Grease, Web, Entangle... Barring that as well... Quicken Spell feat or lesser Quicken rods. Druids are the worst of the primary casters when it comes to gaining/applying metamagic and don't really have tools to reduce the level cost besides basic feats like Easy Metamagic available to all. So you probably need the rod...

Feats: Besides Quicken, Sculpt, and Extend Spell (all good as a feat or a rod), there's not much to help w/ BFC or debuff. Extraordinary Spell Aim is decent to leave allies out of an AoE. I've always been partial to stuff like Flyby Attack, Mobile Spellcasting, and/or Extraordinary Concentration. They don't affect area spells directly, but give you a ton of tactical flexibility to get close enough to lay one down and get out or to concentrate on powerful effects while casting other things (like concentrating on an Earth Elemental monolith [or at lower levels a Greater Elemental; 6th level spell in SpC] that can just earth glide under your ZoS as needed and can keep enemies in melee while you build your ZoS or push them back into the ZoS if they leave it).

Spells:

1st level
Blockade (CS): Swift 5 ft wood block... can be pretty tactically useful in tight quarters
Entangle
Impeding Stones (City): It's nearly as good as Entangle (Ref or prone each round instead of entangling) and same radius/duration; works on stone ground
Snowsight (Frost): Use on self/allies and combo w/ Obscuring Snow
Spore Field (CS): 10 ft radius min/CL, difficult terrain, creates plants for Entangle; ( useful to sculpt it)
Vision of Punishment (CV): Rare strong debuff available to Druids. Swift; evil target nauseated; has a sacrifice cost
Wall of Smoke (SpC): wall of stinking cloud, lol

2nd level
Blinding Spittle (SpC): nice blinding effect if the enemy has eyes and does not have water readily available
Blood Snow (Frost): Each round, Fort save or 1d2 Con drain and nauseated till spell ends (obviously needs snow, see below)
Creeping Cold (SpC): Extend it (feat or rod) for 21d6 over 6 rounds. Declare, "Omae wa Mou Shindeiru" and walk away as they're trapped in your ZoS.
Drifts of the Shalm (PHB2): Create 5 ft sq of snow/CL for rounds, half speed and minimal damage; combo w/ Blood Snow
Frost Breath (SpC): Rare Reflex save or suck (1 round stun); the 30 ft cone is ok, but also a nice Sculpt candidate
Kelpstrand (SpC): Because of what the CL and Wis replace (NOT your BAB!), the grapple check scales well. Not enough to subdue big monsters, but enemy outsiders/humanoid types easily
Obscuring Snow (Frost): 30 ft radius of fog follows you for hours combine w/ Snowsight or...Blood Snow?
Predator's Cry (Forge of War): If mounted hordes/armies are a thing in your game, this swift action fear debuff will foil their massed charge pretty handily

3rd level
Dimensional Anchor: The debuff of, "no, you're staying!" You did take Gatekeeper Initiate, right?
Haboob (Sand): While not BFC itself, it's an amazing source of AoE no save untyped damage per round to snuff out those trapped in your ZoS
Plant Growth: For overgrowth; since it lasts forever it's best used a day or more in advance when you get the chance to choose the battlefield
Poison: Strong debuff if foe isn't immune; save scales by CL so you don't even suffer -1 DC for getting it early!
Sleet Storm
Spike Growth
Spirit Jaws (SpC): Buffed Spiritual Weapon that can grapple stuff / keep it in your ZoS for you while you do other things (grapple bonus is not great, though)
Vine Mine (SpC): Large area of heavy undergrowth for a few hours

4th level
Boreal Wind (Frost): Does decent damage per round and can knock foes back and forth, hilarious in a hallway (up to 20ft tall/wide)
Greater Creeping Cold (SpC): Don't bother until high level and extend it. See Creeping Cold, but now at CL 20 and extended, it's 78d6 over 12 rounds
Murderous Mist (SpC): Big radius, Reflex save or be permanently blinded. It moves away from you each round, which can be situationally useful (a friend liked using it w/ Explosive Spell in hallways, catching foes w/ it repeatedly and shunting them back out into its path the next round)
Spike Stones
Vortex of Teeth (SpC): Huge radius, no save force damage each round. Plop a large summon in the safe eye of it and tear up foes in your ZoS.
Wall of Salt (Sand): For some reason Druids get delayed or no access to most wall spells, so this is ok for the level (also can crash the local economy)

5th level
Baleful Polymorph
Blizzard (Frost): Massive area no visibility/ranged atks; combine w/ localized castings of blood snow for maximum effectiveness
Call Avalanche (Frost): Still big area (less than blizzard), but does damage and Reflex or buried (so it's BFC and debuff); combine w/ blood snow
Choking Sands (Sand): Touched living creature suffocates until it makes Fort as full round action (ok as a debuff...)
Control Winds: Can't get better BFC than a literal tornado...
Hibernate (Frost): Touch; Will or helpless; new save whenever damaged
Ice Flowers (SpC): It's "cold Flame Strike" w/ 2x the radius and leaves dense rubble behind so it's semi-BFC
Sleep Mote (Sand): like flaming sphere but it flies and is Will vs. sleep for Medium or smaller foe each round instead of damage
Wall of Fire
Wall of Thorns: Useless vs. high AC or strong enemies but good otherwise. Combos great w/ Haboob

6th level
Cometfall (SpC): Damage and dense rubble in 5 ft radius. Kinda underwhelming on its own but w/ Sculpt you can make the AoE much bigger
Dimensional Lock: Instantly lock down your entire ZoS! You did take Gatekeeper Initiate, right?
Greater Dispel Magic: Probably your best hope of negating Freedom of Movement, sorry...
Mudslide (Storm): Combo w/ transmute mud to rock
Mummify (Sand): Instantly kill and preserves corpse, minor damage/debuff if save is made; not a death effect
Scalding Mud (Sand): Transmute rock to mud but also does fire damage each round
Summon Greater Elemental (SpC): Requires concentration but it's strong for the level; less appealing if you have Ring of the Beast
SNA VI: Huge Elemental or Oread for SLAs (3/day transmute rock <-> mud (both), spike stones, charm monster, stone shape, soften earth & stone; 1/day earthquake)
Wall of Magma (Sand): Upgraded Wall of Fire w/ more damage and reduces speed moving thru the wall to 1/4 (even Clerics get it at level 5...grr....)
Wall of Stone: Better late than never

7th level
Rain of Roses (BoED): Giant radius, each round Wis damage to evil creatures and Fort save or sickened until leaving it
Return to Nature (ECS): Very wonky and usually not worth a 7th level slot, but will strip an aberration of all its Su/Sp abilities all day (or 2d4 of them from an Outsider)
Sunbeam: Very underrated Druid spell, one of the best undead/mold/ooze blast spells in the game and Reflex vs. blind for all foes, multiple uses. Sculpt it for added fun.

8th level
Deadfall (SpC): Untyped guaranteed damage and Reflex or prone, no SR; leaves dense rubble in area.
Frostfell (Frost): Inherently sculptable big AoE that turns foes to ice or does high damage if they save.
Reverse Gravity: Use vs. foes w/o flight or teleport (anchor/lock them if needed), leave them helplessly floating in the air, preferably inside a ZoS (get a cleric to put a Blade Barrier there )
Summon Nature's Ally VIII: Sporebat (Fiend Folio) gives Enervation every round, one of the few ways for a Druid to access it

9th level
Imprisonment
Shapechange: Insanely powerful in general, and opens up a ton of debuffs via Su abilities of monsters
Cometstrike (Frost)

[Kurald Galain]

99% of druid bfc spells are of the "summon plants to grab you" or "summon animals to grab you" or "summon animals that will throw nets at you".

No they're not. Even in core, druids have easy access to BFC spells like Sleet Storm, Spike Stones, Wall of Thorns, Antilife Shell, and Reverse Gravity. If you allow PF material, then there are such gems as Slowing Mud and Explosion of Rot. You don't have to search hard to find condition-afflicting spells or wall/cloud spells that ignore FOM.

[StreamOfTheSky]

No they're not. Even in core, druids have easy access to BFC spells like Sleet Storm, Spike Stones, Wall of Thorns, Antilife Shell, and Reverse Gravity. If you allow PF material, then there are such gems as Slowing Mud and Explosion of Rot. You don't have to search hard to find condition-afflicting spells or wall/cloud spells that ignore FOM.

Other than the Walls, Freedom of Movement does let someone ignore most of those, though. Solid Fog is one of the example spells that FoM lists as negating.
I guess in some cases it's up for debate, but in my experience FoM negates an astonishing amount of magic effects on movement. True Seeing and Mind Blank (and even Heroes' Feast for poison/fear) get all the attention as "hard shut down" buffs, but FoM is just as if not more massive in the array of things it shuts down w/ no way to counter it (aside from dispelling FoM).

[King of Nowhere]

No they're not. Even in core, druids have easy access to BFC spells like Sleet Storm, Spike Stones, Wall of Thorns, Antilife Shell, and Reverse Gravity. If you allow PF material, then there are such gems as Slowing Mud and Explosion of Rot. You don't have to search hard to find condition-afflicting spells or wall/cloud spells that ignore FOM.

my experience dming for a pretty optimized party is that they have counters to every kind of control. i can't think of many specific examples, but several times i try what was touted on this forum as a very strong tactic/spell and it was trivially defeated. especially when it comes to druids, i had several druid opponents and none of them managed to severely inconvenience the party; not with druid powers, at least.
forgive me if i've become very skeptical about what they can actually do

[Biggus]

- deadfall is interesting. moderate damage that cannot be reduced; knocking prone is not that huge effect, but still useful. it leaves behind difficult terrain, but freedom of movement counters that.

Are you sure about that? I don't see anything in the Freedom of Movement description about difficult terrain, and as Biffoniacus_Furiou says above the results of instantaneous conjurations are nonmagical as soon as the initial effect has passed.

[Kurald Galain]

my experience dming for a pretty optimized party is that they have counters to every kind of control

That's fair, an optimized party has counters to pretty much everything.

The question then becomes, what are the party's counters, and can you find counters to those counters? Aside from the obvious Greater Dispel, of course.