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"Roagun nimbly cascaded down the mountain face. The dawn was here and he could feel the warmth of the new sun rolling over the mountainside. The wind had just picked up and the scent of the pines from the forest below wafted to his senses. A small grin emerged beneath his black beard as he skipped from stone to stone down the facade. While many at the local Inns would tell you that a Dwarf is about as nimble as a tree stump, they would only be half right. While Roagun and his kin can be quite adamant, emotionally and physically, here in the Mountains and in the caves they call home, they are mercurial.
The morning was his favorite part of the day. The new light brought a new promise and hope for things ahead. Birds sang, creatures stirred, and trees danced. This was home. In that instance he remembered his vows and the training he had undertook to ensure that it would always remain this way. Roagun was a sentinel of the wild, warden of the land, a Druid of the Mountain."
Hey guys new player here. I will be playing my first PFS game this Friday at Comicpalooza here in Houston. I have played D&D before, and currently play 4E, however PFS seems to be a lot of fun and I want to give it a try.
I need your adivce on building a "solid" (maybe not completely optimized Druid.) I have a few key points for this character I would like to adhere to for character flavor.
1 - Dwarven Druid.
2 - Animal Companion Options: Boar, while weak for offense, has a killer AC and would be a great tank. Badger, would be good companion for an angry Dwarf. The Badger is also the favored animal of the Dwarven Diety, great flavor. Lion (Mountain), if I feel like taking a more offensive approach. If I did go Lion, I would also go Lion Shaman. The 2nd level access to movement speed would be cool.
3- Not sure if I want to be a hard core summoner, however I do like the idea of summoning earth elementals.
4 - Mountain Shaman looked cool because you can change into giants later. Not sold on the rest of the Archtype though, but again great flavor.
5 - Wild Shape vs Casting. If I went with a badger or boar I would probably lean toward casting, but it looks like Melee would be a good way to go. I am thinking a Warhammer (Stone) with a Shield, then charge into the fray with my stumpy companion.
I checked out Treatnmonks guides which were great! However, I am left with the decision that plagues most players: character vs competency.
Any advice or tips on bringing Roagun to life would be greatly appreciated!
Welcome!
My very first piece of advice is that you don't need to sweat all the details right away. In PFS you can rebuild your character up until you play him or her at 2nd level, so you don't need to figure this all out before friday. Give Roagun some playing, and feel free to let your experiences guide your choices.
Amusingly enough, I have a 1st level dwarven druid named Dolgun at the moment, though I decided to go with a domain instead of an animal companion for now. But he may change wildly; I have some crazy ideas for that one.
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"3- Not sure if I want to be a hard core summoner, however I do like the idea of summoning earth elementals."
There is nothing more dwarvish than this. Plus, summoning is a very potent combat technique. And, the druid can do it very, very often. Just be sure to learn Terran, so you can order it around and not be subject to GM fiat.
I agree with David, and would like to add that wild shaping into and earth elemental(which can take one any shape, so it could still look like you!) would be the epitome of stony goodness!
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I checked out Treatnmonks guides which were great! However, I am left with the decision that plagues most players: character vs competency.
There is no verses.
There is nothing that prevents you from making the sweeping, emotional Epic of Roagun the minmaxed, nor will gimping yourself imbue Roagun with any more personality or depth just because you lack stats.
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Thanks for moving the thread, I apologize for not noticing the advice sub-forum.
Also, a big thank you for your advice. I did not know you could adjust the character after before 2nd level. That is very helpful.
Since this is my first character, I think I may keep it simple.
One of the best things about the Druid is their ability to do a bit of everything as the situation requires. I think Roagun will fall under this category. I will max out Wisdom to keep his spells solid and summons strong.
I may choose the Animal domain to still get a companion and and extra set of spells.
Are there any special feats particular to Elementals that I should plan for? The thought of an Earth Elemental in the shape of a boar is too cool.
The adventures of Raogun and his companion Boar, Dolemite the Surly, will begin soon. With Tusk and Stone they will forge a saga for the ages!
You're going to want boon companion and natural spell ASAP. If you're summoning you want spell focus conjuration, augment summoning, moonlight summons, and starlight summons.
If you have both critters and summoned monsters you need to have index cards out for all of them and MOVE combat along. Don't summon a flock of giant eagles and make 14 attacks around while trying to look up what their attack bonus is. Summon something with one big chomp.
if you're going to take the animal domain you should definitely look into the boon companion feat. also, keeping your Wis maxed is a good plan if you intend to use a lot of spells that allow saves but if you're focusing more on summons (and want to be able to melee/stealth/etc with wildshape) you'd probably be better off taking a mediocre Wis and spreading your points around more...
a dwarven generalist druid could start with:
str 14, dex 14, con 14 (12+2), int 12, wis 16 (14+2), cha 9 (11-2)
or for even more generalist, drop wis to 15 (13+2) and raise cha to 11 (13-2)
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Go charisma 5! you're a dwarven druid. You were raised by wolves and thrown back for being too ugly.
Be sure to pick up terran ignan aquan and auran as languages. You may want to tell your elementals to do something other than beat on things. Air elementals make good vacume cleaners vs gas attacks for example.
Fire doubles for anti-swarm even better than water and air, since against the weapon-immune swarms the fire damage will go through. This doesn't take whirlwind/whirlpool into account though.
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I don't think that fire elementals can damage diminutive swarms unfortunately, since the burn ability is tied to the slam attack being successful. Maybe the slam can be successful, damage reduced to zero, then burn comes into play. That would make more sense. It's stupid if fire elementals can't affect diminutive swarms.