I'm making a new character for a RotR campaign. We made it about 1/3 through the first adventure with old characters then had a big group change up so we're starting fresh at lvl 3 (where we left off). I like the image of a barbarian/druid who wildshapes into some beast and then goes nuts with rage. Here's what I have so far:
Human (Shoanti) Druid (World Walker) 2/Barbarian 1
Str: 17
Dex: 14
Con: 15
Int: 9
Wis: 14
Cha: 12
Animal Companion: Big Cat (Firepelt)
Feats: Power Attack, ??, ??
Future:
Feats; Natural Spell, Wild Speech, Quick Wildshape, possibly Planar Wild Shape. Maybe Vital Strike?
Animal Companion: Might switch to Roc at some point. Flying is always fun and the character is a Shoanti from the Hawk clan, so that fits well.
I will start with mixing spellcasting and melee with an Earthbreaker. My plan is to mostly go druid until I have 6 or 8 levels and get pretty much everything wildshapey, then do future levels in Barbarian similar to this build. Any suggestions on feats to start with? Or what magic item to purchase with my 3000gp starting gold (minus mundane eqpt)? I'll have plenty of time to work future levels out later but I want to get a good solid start.
The backstory is that he was born of Shoanti Parents in Sandpoint but at a very young age he was called by tribal elders to be trained as a druid. Now,due to his background with more civilized areas (which also accounts for his world-walker status as he moves around a lot), he is a bit of a go-between for the tribe. He came to the festival for some reason or another relating to that. That's the start anyway. I might give him some reason to not like giants, as the ROTR player's guide says that would work well.
I've read Treantmonk's wonderful guide, I've looked at some of Raving Dork's druids, and I've also scoured the boards quite a bit. I think I have enough info to make an effective character. And a fun one, too. Any other suggestions?
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Not interested in the hungry hungry hippo methodology?
The behemoth hippo (a huge animal) can be gained with Druid 4/Barbarian 4 with the Shaping Focus Feat.
It has one 4d8 bite attack, upgradeable to 8d8 with a casting of the Strong Jaw spell.
8d8 is pretty good, but with the vital strike feat line you can make that 32d8 eventually.
32d8 is not bad as a single attack, but with the Furious Finish feat, you can maximize that damage to 256 (+ str and whatever, so up to 270 ish, probably). Bad news, using furious focus ends your rage and makes you fatigued.
You can avoid being fatigued by two methods (basically Rage Cycling)
1: 5 levels of Martial Artist Monk (also allows you to flurry with your bite with Feral Combat Training (Bite)) gives you immunity to fatigue
2: The cord of Stubborn resolve which you can choose to avoid fatigue by taking subdual damage (which you can soak completely with one of the best barbarian archetypes - the invulnerable rager), bad news, it takes your belt slot.
Edit:3 actually : Or one level of Oracle and take the lame curse, this takes 16 levels though.
prototype00
Somewhat, also not my idea. I think DMs react better to it (the ooze thing they see as a bit of an aberration) and there is no argument about whether the Hippo is blind or not. So really, win-win. 256 damage is enough to two shot a baalor after all.
Also, better AC and DR (due to planar wild shape) than the conqueror ooze.
prototype00
You can avoid getting fatigued (once per day) by taking the human alternative racial trait Heart of the Fields, too.
I assume the firepelt is the former AC of one of the goblins near/at Thistletop, then it's only a small cat by the rules (just nitpicking here).
Feats:
So nothing spectacular here, only solid choices that up survivability a lot.
Remember you can PA can only be chosen at lvl 3 since it needs BAB +1.
Gear:
Have you thought about what you're gonna do when getting a roc? I mean, flying around/above the battlefield with no solid choices to contribute are gonna get you bored.
Another option would be to go up to druid 12 so you can wildshape into a huge elemental and enjoy 120 ft. fly speed (perfect), DR 5/--, immunity against bleed, crits, sneak attack, and darkvision.
Your progress (and effectiveness) as barb would receive quite a dent, though.
Ruyan.
Shaping focus keeps wild shape up once barbarian starts.
Lesser restoration spell (druid 2) cures fatigue.
Anything that helps AC helps a wild shaper. Culivate a friend with the mage armor spell or similar.
Shillelagh is as good as an earthbreaker, trading a spell for a magic weapon.
Aspect of the beast will give you claws, which might be a better focus for your barbarian than earth breaker, as feats which improve natural attacks would also improve your wild shapes that have the same natural attacks.
edit:
There's a trait to keep your spell casting up a little once adding barbarian levels.
Barbarian abilities should all add to your wild shape attacks, but are limited by your levels of barbarian for the better ones.
Condsider the one of the archetypes that give rage instead of barbarian, like the inquisiter with rage domain, the viking fighter, or the raging ranger.
Since you'll be focusing on wild shape instead of rage, you might get something you like from on of these other classes that make up for the lesser amount of rage.
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Hmm... Normally I'd advocate for Toughness and Scribe Scroll as 1st level druid feats, but with a Druid/Barbarian build neither is super necessary. Both are still valid choices - extra HP is always good, as is the ability to store utility spells/extra Stone Calls in scrolls. But let's see what other feat lines are good...
-Heavy Armor Proficiency eventually lets you wear Wild Dragonhide Armor, and in the meantime you can still create Heavy Armor Barding for your favorite form.
-Extra Rage will help you rage all day long. Extra Rage Power could be helpful depending on the build but means two levels of Barbarian, which slows Natural Spell & Shaping Focus.
-Heart of the Fields' anti-fatigue ability is probably worth a feat for this build. You could also take the Human ability that gives you 3 Skill Focus feats spread out over your build.
-Endurance/Diehard essentially gives you an extra 19 HP to play around with. Raging Vitality could also do great work to keep you alive. Remember - when Barbarians go down, they go down hard.
-Boon Companion will be very important for keeping your AC relevant. Alternately, taking the Mad Dog or Mounted Fury Barbarian archetypes may be enough to keep your AC at full level - check with your GM.
-Improved Sunder or something could be fun, as could Improved Unarmed Strike/Improved Grapple. Probably better off with a Monk splash for that, though.
If I were you, I think I'd take my first level in Barbarian and grab Power Attack and Raging Vitality at level 1, then go Druid, grabbing Boon Companion, Natural Spell, and Shaping Focus in that order. (Holy feat tax, batman!)
Good luck! Nothing like a raging dire corgi to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies.
Can a Druid wildshape into ANY animal? The only stipulation I saw was "The form chosen must be that of an animal the druid is familiar with." Does that mean I can wildshape into Megafauna if we're saying megafauna exist in Varisia? Some of those do wild damage and would mesh well with vital strike, etc. The problem with Hippo is that I don't see my mountain-forest based druid having a hippo as a go-to animal.
As for "animal the druid is familiar with" how would you play that? I'm not sure if there are Dinosaurs in Varisia but what if my druid owns an encyclopedia?
What would be the best mountain/forest-living animal for the single attack vital strike lots'o'dice build?
Would a ranger work better for this build? Cornielius mentioned a raging ranger, i couldn't find that.
But giving up rage & rage powers, DR, furious finish and some hit points seems like a fair trade for an advancing companion, a few extra spells, a couple extra feats (natural weapon style), stacking favored terrain and favored enemies.
It gets rid of the wildmess of raging but might still be pretty fun to play. Thoughts?
The ranger archetype that gets rage is the wild stalker, but since it gives up both the first favored enemy, a combat style feat, and hunter's bond and doesn't get rage till 4th and a rage power till 5th, it's probably not worth it.
Viking gets rage at 4th, but still gets all the fighter feats till then.
You lose your moving in armor bonus, which won't do anything while wild shaped, and your weapon bonuses as well.
But it comes with all the fighter feats.