I think druids benefit from fighter, barbarian, or ranger depending on where they want to go with their character. Even a druid with some levels in rogue could do some heinous damage with a sneak attack whilst in elemental form. Personally I would take 1 level of fighter at lvl 13 so I could have access to ironwood full plate and a great sword O.O!!!

I'm currently struggling to find a way to get decent ac on a melee druid. I'll be level 4, 15pb.

Not sure what your race is but if I had intended on making a melee druid, I would have rolled a human for the extra feat and taken Dodge and Shield Focus. With Hide Armor and a Heavy Wooden Shield, your looking at 18 AC without throwing in your dex bonus, bark skin, or cat's grace. Also I would use Aspect of the Bear (APG) over bark skin for the gained combat manuevers.

But what if your PC wanted to knock one of those demon lords out of that power chair and take over his seat. Would all that power/worship flow to him/her as soon as she gained the title. Also is there a demonlord, archfiend, or Overlord (yes Disgaea rocks) template anywhere that you can bestow upon the PC that attains it?

Encyclopaedia Arcane - Constructs.

Thanks for the info :).

This question kinda is more about constructs in general. Has wizard or any other D20 company made a book about building your own constructs. I mean what if a PC wanted to build one but didnt want to use the stats found for an Iron Golem? What if they wanted to improve their golem so it would maintain its effectiveness as the PC leveled?

I have yet to find a book that explains how to create your own custom golems as far as figuring out their stats, costs for different ingredients, adding spell/psy like abilities, or even bestowing sentience. I think someone should make a book like this so those of us that like to create "toys" to play with have a foundation to build on.

The reason I bring this up is because I had a psion that created a body for himself and transferred his mind into it. My DM had no problem with me doing it but I think the process would have been alot easier if we had more to go off of.

The Complete Psionic introduces a number of new feats, powers, and prestige classes. One of them is the Ectopic Adept which focuses on manifesting Astral Constructs. Its a decent 5 level progression prestige class however it is completely dwarfed by the Constructor prestige class found in the Wizard online archives. That prestige class can be found here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b

My thing is, even though the Constructor is a 10 level prestige class you gain far more advantages and versatility choosing this one. A 5th level Ectopic Adept can create 2 Astral Constructs at one time, a 9th level Constructor can create 4 Astral Contructs by spending 6 additional power points when manifesting the power. A 2nd level Ectopic Adept gains rapid creation wich allows you to manifest astral construct as a standard action 1/day/level, a 10th level Constructor gains quickened contruction, which allows you to manifest the astral construct power as if Quickened Power were applied it. You must send your psionic focus but it doesnt cost any additional power points; it does however count against your quickened powers for the round.

In addition, as a 1st level Constructor you gain additional abilities to menus A,B, and C.

Dont get me wrong, I think Ectopic Adept is a good prestige class but with the Contructor out there, why even take this class? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

I have never played a paladin myself (I wouldnt last two days without having to atone for something), but I have been in parties with them. I see paladins as the good boyscout to be teased. The ones I traveled with were always a bit uptight, suspicious, and judgemental. Don't get me wrong, they were a great help to the party, but my bard,monk, or druid always butted heads with them at some point because we handled things differently.

For instance as a druid, nature is neither good nor evil. You wouldnt call a cobra evil for using its venom for catching its prey. Nor would a druid see it as an evil act to use poison or weaken his enemies. But man, let the paladin get wind of that and you might as well pick an evil alignment in his eyes.

Dont get me wrong, paladins can survive situations a fighter or barbarin wouldn't and they'll be the first I run to against undead if a cleric isnt around but it holds true what they say. Justice can be cruel sometimes and i treat Paladins like a fantasy version of Judge Dredd

I think a druid without the use of its animal companion ability is pretty gimp and takes away a large portion of his power and versatilty. The whole danger behind fighting druids in the first place, is because of their backup! No other class can send the whole forest at you. The alternate system might have removed the animal companions because druids would be overpowered with limitless wildshapes AND a companion (i grudgingly agree) but I'd take the limited Wild shapes a day for my animal companion abilities in a heartbeat.

Being able to shape at will takes something away from wild shape. Its not as spectaculr when you can do it on a whim. It starts to lose that flavor after a while. Where as a normal druid will wait for that crucial battle to unleash his new "war form" that attained through his spiritual journey away from the party.

No no, what he needs to do is go Ranger/Druid. His Wild Empathy will stack, his animal companion levels will stack, he'll have the Fighter BAB, proficiency in simple and melee weapons, decent hit points, good saves all-around, possess a lot of skill points and wilderness abilities, gain access to druid and ranger spells that will enhance his abilities even further. He definitely needs to max out Knowledge (nature), Survival and Handle Animal. He can use Handle Animal to rear animals/magical beasts to follow him and perform combat tricks. Handle Animal will also help with Wild Empathy.

While he's at it he needs to take the feat "Natural Bond" from Complete Adventurer (increases animal companion level by 3 for purposes of special abilities). There's a number of other feats wise for him to take such as "Druidic Theurgy", which allows spells that appear both on the Druid and Ranger spell list to be cast at a caster level equal to the sum of both classes. "Mystic Companion's" another feat he could take which increases Ranger caster level by 4 when animal companion is within line of sight.

Yeah, definitely Ranger/Druid is the way to go with the whole "Beastmaster" route...and there's also the prestige class "Beastmaster" in Complete Adventurer, too.

To combine the druid with a ranger would be a waste of levels IMHO. Your gains would be slow in either class as far as abilities go, rangers get their spells later in the game and as a druid your spells are far more powerful and effective. As far as animal companion levels stacking it would be less of an advantage because a ranger's cap is 1/2 his level where as a druid's is x2 his level. a lvl 4 druid would have an AC cap of 8, where a druid 2/ranger 2 would have an AC cap of 5.

Want to have the BAB of a fighter, cast Bear's Frenzy (Quintessential Druid), it gives you the BAB of a barbarian equal to your level and sends you into a rage. There isnt an enhancement spell that you would gain from the ranger class that you couldnt top on your druid lists.

Once you get the ability the wild shape large you can turn into a dire ape,bear or tiger and leap into battle and tear it up. Worried about losing that precious AC when you transform. Take the Equipment Master feat which allows you to choose which gear remains on your person and what gets melded, anything remaining shapes itself to your new form.

And the new Dragon issue that came out opens the door even more for druids with the paraelemental templates. You can add that template to any animal or magical beast to make an elemental version and a druid can wildshape into it as long as its an elemental in a size category he can shape.

Bottom line no one does animal companions like a druid. A druid can fill a fighter's shoes but the other can't do the opposite. If your PC really wants to play a nature tank beastmaster have him roll a druid take the "Improved Animal Companion Feat" which adds +4 to his animal companion cap at lvl 1, and tell him to invest into some Ironwood fullplate as soon as possible. with that +4 to his companion cap at lvl 1 he will be able to have a 6HD companion, thats a tiger right off the start!!! Also if your druid worships Meilikki from Forgotten Realms, she allows her druids to wear and use the same weapons and equipment as a ranger!

There is a feat that does just that. Its called Improved Animal Companion, it increases the druid animal companion cap by 4 and it can be taken multiple times. This feat is found in the Quintessential Druid.

Here's some more info that you could use:

The Slayer's Guide to Amazons by Mongoose Publishing

Here's a Link:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/d20/detail.php?qsID=37&qsSeries=10

Levels 7-16 are my favorite to play. But true satisfaction comes with bringing your character from a rookie to a veteran. I always build my characters to be the weakest in the group, emphasizing more on his diplomacy. But as we gain levels and my character starts to have a bigger impact on party battles and towards the mid teens he is one of if not the party powerhouse.

Basically, its not about the beginning or the end, but the journey in between.

The monk class is one that starts of slow but becomes a powerhouse at the end. Monks have THE best saves in the game. Because of their strict martial practices its hard to affect them with anything. If you want to improve your monk skills, get the Oriental Adventures Book, and Sword and Fist. They both have excellent feats, classes and strats for monks. One of my favorites is Roundabout Kick. If your monk gets a crit on his target he immediately gets an additional attack at the same base attack bonus as the one he crits on! He then continues with his normal attacks.

Example: Shadow has 3 attacks, if he crits on his 2nd attack he would gain an additional attack and then continue with his thrid attack. Also, it does not say that a monk will not gain another attack if he crits on his extra one, so its perfectly feasible to gain a ridiculos amount of attacks off of one flurry of blows.

To use monks you gotta play to their advantages.

Though I don't technically have a group right now, I still do have two players from the old one I had in high school, and we are all sort of just waiting around while the search for more people continues.

In the meantime, we've been looking over some things, including the Player's Hadnbook II (which we did when it came out, too, but now we've got nothing better to do relating to D&D).

We all have found that we really like the alternate wild shape ability for the druid. In essence, for those that don't have the book, this gives the druid shapechanging ability from first level, and without a limited number of uses per day or duration of each use. There are a set number of general forms the druid can take, each one giving a specific array of abilities and adjustments to the druid's own stats. More forms, and more powerful versions of old ones, become available as the druid increases in level.

As a DM, I love this, as it takes out the whole consideration of what animals the druid has and hasn't incountered yet, and thus what shapes it can assume, which often come up when someone wants to, say, turn into a cheetah for a speed boost, but you know it's likely they've never seen one. The exact appearance of this shape in this alternate system is left to the player, though it should be something within his experience. That doesn't matter so much, however, since the statsitics are the same no matter what.

It also stops a lot of confusion over the exact nature of the wild-shaped druid's stats, and flipping through books to find a bit of information about this or that animal is eliminated, as is the need to create whole different stat sheets for the druid's favored forms. These adjustmets are simply applied to the druid's own normal abilities, like a very simple template or buffing spell.

It also favors characters with high stats. If you rolled a whopping 18 and put it in Strength for your druid, it can be hard to actually find an animal to wild shape into that is actually better in combat than you are. While...

I haven't read the PHBII but from what has been said I think it gimps druids more than helps them out. Natural Spell gives druids the ability to cast spells that are treated as if affected by the still and silence spell feats. No enemy is going to assume that the dog accompanying the party through town is anything more than a dog. That is until that dog launches a flamestrike on some unsuspecting fool.

Also, if you have a druid with a whopping 18 in Strength (why its in Strength and not Wisdom beats me), once he can wild shape into large animals, there are plenty of forms that will put his normal form to shame (Apes and Bears for example). If he chooses ape form he can still keep any armor on due to its humanoid shape and even continue to wield his sword and shield.

As far as animals encountered, druids dont become druids on their own. They are taught by other druids at a grove. Every grove has a treant, an archdruid and a number of mid to low level druids. Anyone of those higher level druids (especially the arch druid) can teach your PC how to wildshape into a more powerful form. As a player you should use all your resources available, and as a DM you should make sure you understand the versatility of your players' classes.

Also I advise any Player that plans on playing any class that has the potential to transform or summon other creatures to invest in a MM 3.5 . You dont have to choose a new creature everytime you wildshape, go through and pick ones for certain situations and ones you want as favorites and have them marked in the book so you can easily access them. Druids have a huge library of animal forms at their disposal but when do they ever use every animal form known to the world.

To truly expand on the druid class, get The Quintessential Druid I and II by Mongoose Publishing. Those are the bibles of the druid class.

Also I've yet to have a reason to frequently wild shape in and out of forms in one day. Even at the lowest wild shape level a druid can maintain that form for 5 hours. I dont know many battles or ventures that last that long.

Vegipygmy - Good point re: spellcasting and the OP. I overlooked that.

Out of curiousity, what do you recommend as a build to take advantage of the animal companion. I always find the low AC of animal companions and their relatively low BAB to prevent them from being truly effective in melee. Is there a particular animal that doesn't suffer from this or a particular strategy to compensate?

I will post a druid guide here in a few that will give you a good foundation to build one off of. Druids can be just as good (if not better) than fighters or barbarians in melee combat. I had a lvl 13 druid do over 100d6 of damage in a round. It sounds crazy but easily done within the normal D&D game mechanics.

To be honest I think you should tell him to play as a druid, worshiping Mielikki (hope I spelled her name right). Druids can become some pretty wicked melee fighters if built right. Most people dont see the use in a 1st lvl animal companion but wolves have a cool feat called Improved Trip that can be a real thorn in your enemies rear. I would advise him to take an owl or eagle as a 1st lvl animal companion. He can easily have it fly behind an enemy, staying above melee range but still affectively flanking the enemy.

With him worshiping Meilikki his druid vows are not as strict and he is able to use the same armor as a ranger (mithril armor and the such). But even without a druid in Ironwood full plate with a ironwood heavy shield and a scimitar in hand makes for a pretty good tank.

I personally disagree with the new changes to wild shape that the web errata brought, but luckily I own the "Quintessential Druid" Books I and II. My DM allows me to use the wild shape progression in there. It goes like this:

- regains hitpoints as a full days rest
- If the new form can use the equipment it changes to suit the form
- retains original Int,Wis,Cha,level,class,alignment,BAB, and BAS.
- acquires Str, Dex, Con of new form
- At 5th level druid gains creature's extraordinay abilities
- At 9th level druid gains creature's supernatural abilities
- At 13th level druid gains creature's spell-like abilities

This progression in addition to new feats and types of wildshape (partial and combination transformations) open a whole new aspect to the druid class.

Druids are all about versatility, they can fill the role of primary fighter, healer, or spellcaster. Its up to you what you allow but even without using the alternate methods he can make a pretty awesome druid. They dont all have to be the "tree huggers" people think they are. My character worships the darkside of nature, following the belief that only the strongest survive. A druid is a survivalist, using his knowledge, environment, skills and abilities to defeat his enemies. In nature there is no honor or fair play, its survival of the fittest. If he's looking for some insight and ideas/strategies, he can drop me a line :).