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Venomous Raging Wildshaper
Because wildshape while cool could be so much cooler. I've potentially taken a couple of rule liberties so if anyone wants to call me out on rules be my guest. The major one I couldn't find an answer on was growing additional natural attacks in a wildshape. e.g. giving elementals bite and gore attacks on top of their slams. but can't find a reason why not. all the growing is free action stuff too so easy to do once wildshaped.
For the most part I've tried to find ways to improve wildshape that don't cost you your actions in combat, being either free or swift.
Also the growth domain is just my go to domain for the free swift enlarge at early levels open to better suggestions for a better tail end domain power, or maybe better domain spells (would kill for Fluid Form , +10 reach on a Huge wildshape and no penalty for sqeezing into any space YES PLEASE )
Appreciate any suggestions to tighten up the build
Level 1 (20 point buy)
17STR 12DEX 14CON 8INT 13WIS 14CHA
14HP
40 speed
Melee +4
Ranged +2
Feats: Power attack, Skill Focus Diplomacy
Abilities: Rage
Skills: Climb, Swim, Intimidate, Perception
Notes: Basic barb start, skill focus explained later
Level 2
Druid Level
Abilities: Domain (Growth)
Skills: Know nature (x2), Acrobatics
Notes: swift enlarge is a nice kicker for the early levels, and fast track druid to 4th for wildshape
Level 3
Druid level
Feats: Eldrich Herritage (Serpentine) Serpent’s Fang (Ex): 1d4+STR Bite + DC10+(1/2Char-2)+CON poison 1CON/rnd for 6 rounds save ends. (Importantly free action to grow)
Skills: Know Nature, Perception (x2), Intimidate,
Note: the poison is CON based so biting someone while raging (+4CON) increases the posion DC by +2.
Level 4
Druid Level
Skills: Know Nature, Perception, Intimidate, Acrobatics
Ability: +1 Strength
Notes: Level 2 spells
Level 5
Druid
Ability: Wildshape
Feat: Shaping Focus (+4 to druid level for wildshape up to HD)
Skills: Knowlege (Planes) (x4)
Notes: The Fangs you can grow as a free action can either increase the number of natural attack on forms without a bite attack e.g. A Chimp with two slams can now have a poisoned bite and 2 slams.
Level 6
Barbarian
Abilities: Rage Power (Lesser Fiend Totem) 1d8 Gore attack while raging (importantly grow on rage and rage is a free action), uncanny Dodge, (Wildshapes now Large)
Skills Knowlege (Planes), Perception, Fly
Notes: Its about here things start getting interesting, And you've got lots of options. You can either beef up what is already a good wildshape choice e.g. tiger with pounce , and give it a Gore attack to increase its natural attacks to 4, plus the bite does poison.
You can also turn very mediocre elemental forms into useful as 1 slam becomes 1slam 1bite 1gore. a water elemental +2CON stacks with rage +4CON increasing you poison DC another +1. Ape Form with 2 slams and a climb speed goes up to 4 attacks as well.
And the bite and gore are both primary so you getting alot of full BAB attacks.
Level 7
Barbarian
Feats: Planar Wild Shape OR Natural Spell (take other at 9th)
Notes: I'd probably go with Planar at this point to juice up your animal wildshape which are about to hit Huge size. Good to be a neutral druid you can choose which template each time to tailor vs what your fighting. DR10/good or evil, resist 10 to 2-3 elements, some token SR5+CR and smite good/evil which while nothing huge with only 14CHA is still free damage. The DR and tailored resistances are the big win here.
Your Posion Bite attack just became magical and does 1d2CON
Level 8
Oracle
Abilites: Lame Curse (offers RP opportunity to be maimed in a previous battle ), Battle Mystery: (Surprising Charge)
+1 Wisdom you need it for level Druid spells later (unless your confortable having +2 and +4wisdom items do it for you in which case put into STR)
Note: oddly enough this is taken for the lame curse more than anything else. with wildshape giving you access to high base speeds and a barbs natural +10movment you'll barely notice the -10 speed from the curse. However next level you become immune to fatigue greatly improving your Rage efficiency, allowing you to drop out of rage between full attack opportunities to save rage rounds without being fatigued.
Level 9
Druid
Feat: Planar Wild Shape or Natural Spell (take the one you haven't taken)
Notes: Natural Spell more relevant at the back end as your filling out the rest of your druid levels and can benefit from some of the better shorter duration buff spells. (plus with free entry in and out of rage you can rage off to cast now with natural spell)
At this point Druid until the end (12th level) as we've used up our 4 non druid levels and we want to keep wildshape maximised, at this point you can pretty much flavour the back end how you like, As for feats, extra revelation or extra rage power are worth looking at e.g. war sight for 2 d20 initaitve rolls or a battlefield Clarity for reroll +4 save vs some nasty afflictions. Improved Natural Attack (Gore) to bump its dice up, this stacks with the size increase of your wildshape so growing Gore on a Large creature is 2d6, if you've got improved feat its 3d6. Or use feats to grab Improved Overrun and mix with Barbarian Rage Power to Overrun prone and do your STR bonus in damage
There is also some flexibility with the order I started with Barb for the HP and BAB benefit to grab power attack and be effective in melee for the early levels. You can grab 2 barbarian level first if you want to grab gore attack early and mix a bite and gore into your normal greataxe/greatsword attack for 3 attacks very early while raging.
To max out your poison DC
Huge Water elemental +8 CON
Rage +4 CON
Effec Sorc Level = 10
Item +2 maybe +4CON
10+5+4+2+2= 23
12th level
Poison Bite 1d4CON , DC 23, for 6 rounds, 2 saves to end
*****
On a final note I think something similar could be achieved with Oracle/barbarian maybe rage prophet and the Dark Tapestry mystery (or flame or waves if you don't mind waiting), but it loses out on the polymorph not being wildshape.
*****
any thoughts ?
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Not to be a drag and I am really trying to help you out. But, I see one problem already, Shaping Focus has a prerequisite of Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks and you have only 4.
Another problem I see is that unless you GM is generous and lets you pay for all your skills at 1 skill point per level, you need to go over your skills and figure out which ones are cross class and cost 2 skill points per level.
The barbarian's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
The druid's class skills are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Level 1 Barbarian - Skills: Climb, Swim, Intimidate, Perception - are all class skills and cost 4 points.
Level 2 Druid - Skills: Know nature (x2), Acrobatics - Knowledge (nature) is class skill for 1 point x 2 = 2 points, Acrobatics is cross class for 2 points for a total of 4 points.
Level 3 Druid Skills: Know Nature, Perception (x2), Intimidate - Again Knowledge (nature) is a class skill for 1 point, Perception is a class skill for 1 point x 2 = 2 points, Intimidate is a cross class for 2 points, for a total of 5 points. Now maybe I have had stricter GMs but I was told that you only got the 1 point class skill cost for the class skills of the class that you were currently raising.
Level 4 Druid Skills: Know Nature, Perception, Intimidate, Acrobatics - Again Knowledge (nature) is a class skill for 1 point, Perception is a class skill for 1 point, but Intimidate and Acrobatics are each cross class for 2 points, for a total of 6 points.
Level 5 Druid Skills: Knowledge (Planes) (x4) - Knowledge (Planes) is cross class for both of your classes. This would normally cost you 8 points. But if you haven't picked out any traits yet. Hopefully you are allowed traits, there is a feat called Additional Traits but you can only pick traits from lists that you haven't already chosen from.
Traits that give Knowledge (Planes) as a class skill
Name, Category, Bonus, Additional
Scholar of the Great Beyond, Faith, +1, +1 Know(history)
Teacher's Pet, Campaign, +2, -
Foster Child, Campaign, +2, -
Spiritual Forester, Regional, +1, +1 Know(nature)
Secret Knowledge, Religion, +2, -
Best of the Best: Secret Knowledge - Easy to get and gives a +2 bonus.
Honorable mention to Spiritual Forester for giving a bonus to another nice skill.
Level 6 Barbarian Skills: Knowledge (Planes), Perception, Fly - Knowledge (Planes) cross class for 2 points (unless you take one of the above traits), Perception class skill for 1 point, Fly cross class skill for 2 points (unless you switch it with one of the Knowledge (Planes) from previous Druid level).
A feat you may want to look at is Powerful Shape at 8th Druid level.
You want fluid, at 6th level a Druid can change shape into a small elemental (including water but it may not be what you expect, look it up in the monster manual), and a 8th Druid level a medium elemental, and a 10th Druid level a large elemental, and a 12th Druid level a huge elemental.
I am also making a powerful druid but from the advice here on the message board, I am taking a different direction. I decided on going Half-Elf for a prestige class though that may change. My stats are Str 17, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 11, Wis 16, Cha 7. I am going Saurian druid with Ferocity a subdomain of Strength and I am still looking at other Archetypes. I am also adding about 4 or 5 levels of Monk (and looking at archetypes there too) which adds my Wisdom modifier to AC and CMD. With Augmented Summoning (and its prerequisite of Spell Focus(Conjuration)), I will be able to call up a wide range of powerful dinosaurs, reptiles, etc. I will be able to take feats like Crushing Blow, Dragon Style(You ignore difficult terrain when charging, running, or withdrawing. You can charge through ally spaces, and your first unarmed strike on a given round can be 1-1/2 times your Strength Bonus). I will be able to Shillelaghly my quarter staff and use it with flurry of blows. I will also be able to use a crossbow. With monk it is true that I won't want to use any armor but you will lose that anyway when you wild shape unless you pay for the wild armor feature. I figure on using spells and magic items to enhance AC. I am also getting one level of Empyreal bloodline Sorcerer which uses Wisdom modifier instead of charisma and then I will be able to use their protection spells as well.
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Umm Not to be a bummer but you need to read over the Skills Page cause you don't have to put 2 ranks into a cross-class skill anymore. You just don't get a +3 to the check.
I really like this build but I wonder how it looks with the snake shaman archetype over straight druid?
and a skill either is, or is not, a class skill.
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Umm, guys, the original post is a year and a half old...