A little help with this custom class? (3.5)

[DrowAndDragon]

Anyway, I had an idea for a base class. I wanted it to be a druid which has improved skills in sword fighting. While a normal druid would get magical abilities from nature, my creation would develop certain sword fighting abilities through similar connections. I wanted it to have a handful of abilities from the druid class, (to be specific, Animal Companion, Wild Empathy, a version of Wild Shape that progresses at a slower rate, A Thousand Faces, and Timeless Body), with a few abilities that would go well with a smooth and fast fighting style. Any ideas? I'm also not opposed to reducing the number of spells the class gets but if its possible, I would rather avoid getting rid of the spells completely.

[AstralFire]

First question: You want this to be ToB gish or straight gish?

Second question: You considered grabbing the Spell Compendium, throwing some of the nifty, martial-attacking-ish ranger spells into druid, and taking a Prestige Ranger: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...prestigeRanger
?

You lose Wild Shape progression, but WS is also very very powerful and if you only take 10 levels of the PRC it's not much of a loss.

[Xefas]

How about removing spellcasting from the base Druid and adding martial progression from the Iron Heart, Tiger Claw, and maybe Devoted Spirit disciplines.

Martial Progression akin to something like, say, Warblade, is already weaker than full spellcasting, and there's no Natural Spell equivalent for it. So, if you disallowed Martial Maneuvers in Wild Shape forms, it might actually be more balanced than a normal druid.

[pyrefiend]

You might even want to find or create some sort of nature-based discipline, since that seems to fit the idea you're going for here. Tiger Claw comes close, but I don't think that it fits the druid style quite right.

[AstralFire]

How about removing spellcasting from the base Druid and adding martial progression from the Iron Heart, Tiger Claw, and maybe Devoted Spirit disciplines.

Martial Progression akin to something like, say, Warblade, is already weaker than full spellcasting, and there's no Natural Spell equivalent for it. So, if you disallowed Martial Maneuvers in Wild Shape forms, it might actually be more balanced than a normal druid.

I think better than that would be to limit your wild shape to smaller creatures to prevent huge martial abuse but still allow "I'm a frickin' awesome wolf that EXPLODES WITH FIRE AND SHADOW TELEPORTS!"

[Xefas]

I think better than that would be to limit your wild shape to smaller creatures to prevent huge martial abuse but still allow "I'm a frickin' awesome wolf that EXPLODES WITH FIRE AND SHADOW TELEPORTS!"

While awesome, that doesn't exactly exemplify the "I wanted it to be a druid which has improved skills in sword fighting." request.

This would allow a druid to be a badass sword swinging blademaster, who, when prudent, could turn into a bear and grapple-maul people to death.

Alternatively, maybe give Swordsage progression, but only allow prepared Iron Heart and Devoted Spirit maneuvers/stances to be used in normal form, and only allow Tiger Claw to be used in animal form.

[AstralFire]

While awesome, that doesn't exactly exemplify the "I wanted it to be a druid which has improved skills in sword fighting." request.

He could be swordfighting and then he could be WOLF fighting!

...But yeah, I see your point.

Alternatively, maybe give Swordsage progression, but only allow prepared Iron Heart and Devoted Spirit maneuvers/stances to be used in normal form, and only allow Tiger Claw to be used in animal form.

Ooh, good idea. As a feat, maybe allow one tree at a time, each additional feat can add another tree, up to a max of three? Setting Sun makes sense for a Baboon or such, while I'm sure something fits with Iron Heart.

[DrowAndDragon]

Yes, yes, I like the ideas. Just to clarify, you guys are saying I should throw out spellcasting all together and add those disciplines? Anything else?