Playing Carrion Crown. GM is letting us play evil characters with access to monster races. I'm playing a TN janni druid currently level 6.
He more or less sees himself as an aspect of nature itself, almost a demigod in his own right, and uses the wild shape to only be an elemental, has the weather domain instead of an animal companion, basically only uses elemental based spells, etc. All the guides I've read advocate beasting out for the martial druid. I'm curious how much I'm holding myself back. Now, I am having fun with the build. That's no issue. I'm just curious how much, if any, I'm holding back the class itself.
His ability scores are 18, 16, 16, 14, 16, 10. I got lucky with 4d6 drop lowest, our ability gen method.
An interesting thought: Did you know, according to the elemental subtype, that they can use weapons if they have a human-like shape? So could a druid weild weapons while taking an appropriate elemental form?
While druids do not have the best proficiency list in the world (they don't even have all the simple weapons), they do have access to the scimitar (it can really take advantage of a good strength score if you two hand). Combined with the size you get when you get higher level versions of elemental body, you get something akin to reach. I'd advice sticking to large when you get up in level, since there is the sticky problem of how your weapon doesn't change size with you, thus it would just be easier to buy a large weapon from the get go. Obviously taking huge into consideration for equipment is a bit hard, since not every location can support it.
By level 8 though, you could possibly keep the form up all day, which would certainly be interesting RP wise. And since elementals can talk, you could argue that you wouldn't even need wild speech (I mean, you are not normally planning to take on other forms, so why not?)
As some might have guessed by now, I have had similar thoughts (using earth elemental with the cave terrain domain for tremor sense though). I might as well take this opportunity to ask: can you take carried or worn items (as in outside of the elemental body) with you when you earthglide? I am haven't found much commenting on this. If so, then the idea of an armed and maybe even armored elemental seems appealing to me. Who wouldn't want to be a living monolith?
Polymorph spells don't grant subtypes or types else that'd be cool. You only get what the specific effect says you get.
Last session I did have fun doing a 120ft charge as a small air elemental. :D
As for earth glide, I have no idea. I've always assumed you carry what you have on you. If you were a wizard and cast the spell, they'd bring their gear with them. I have been curious if a larger creature than you with earth glide could hold you and carry you along, though.
I have no interest in wild speech though. I wouldn't even need wild spell would I? They have arms, can talk. Though, I couldn't access material components without it. Even so, I could drop my pouch, wild shape, and pick it up. I don't see why that wouldn't work.
This isn't a theory question, is it? How are you doing at the table? Do you get outclassed by other characters? Do opponents use your character to mop the floor?
If the answer is no, then you're doing 'good enough', which is all that you need. You've also got HUGE stats, so that also helps.
Druid is a strong enough class that you don't have to squeeze our every drop of usefulness to have fun.
I mostly brought up the subtype thing to serve as evidence....of HANDS! Hands...that can hold things!
Which means you can could use your normal weapon profiencies. It is basically the same argument as "they speak a language, so I can use the mouth to speak the languages I actually know like normal". Admittedly, I think being a fire elemental might still destroy wooden weapons and such. Earth, and maybe water, seem safe and consistent enough to use things normally though.
Anyway, I brought up the whole day thing because I got the idea into my head of a druid that just doesn't ever want to be their original shape. If you work from that assumption, you just wear your backpack and material pouches fitted on a belt for your wildshape. Basically, turning into a force of nature becomes another morning ritual like taking a shower and brushing your teeth before getting dressed.
This isn't a theory question, is it? How are you doing at the table? Do you get outclassed by other characters? Do opponents use your character to mop the floor?
If the answer is no, then you're doing 'good enough', which is all that you need. You've also got HUGE stats, so that also helps.
Druid is a strong enough class that you don't have to squeeze our every drop of usefulness to have fun.
I'm doing fine. We have a fighter character that I can side-by-side front line with and well. I'm just curious how much, if any, focusing solely on the elemental/weather effects of the class is holding me back. If it's a lot I may want to re-evaluate some things. But, this is my first run with a druid so I'm beseeching those with more experience than I.