So, I want to make a druid, and I have NO IDEA even what a druid is supposed to do. I've never even played with a player who had one as a PC. I'm just like... what?
Any advice? Even just vague build types. I'm open to any play style or role.
Consult the Role section and read the class features.
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Basically choose if you want to be a melee druid or a caster druid, I imagine that you are familiar with the polymorph school mechanics. Always take the Menhir Druid archetype, there is frankly no reason not too.
Always take the natural spell feat.
It should be noted that nowadays, the feat Animal Soul is a must have on any druids, as you count as an animal...yeah enjoy all your animal buffs even in human forms or elemental form later on with wild shape etc...
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The great and powerful Treantmonk's guides should always be the first thing beginners or at least those new to a class, should be directed toward.
There are various roles:
The Summoner: possibly the strongest type, take Augment Summoning and probably a shaman archetype (Lion Shaman or Saurian Shaman if you're going for power.) Spam the battlefield with summons.
The Beast: focus on wild shaping, fight in melee. Possible take Vital Strike, definitely Power Attack. Build for strength.
The Controller: focus on battlefield control spells like Entangle, Aqueous Orb, Geyser, Tar Pool or what have you.
Or you can be a blaster, or buffer, or utility caster. Or you can mix and match the casting roles. Basically you just have to decide upfront whether you're going the melee Wild Shape route or the casting-focused route.
Right. I have the books, I know the abilities, but they seem pretty jumbled and not very intuitive. Like, you get spells like a Cleric with decent BAB and an animal companion but also Wild Shape and like... what are you supposed to DO in combat situations? Literally EVERY other class has pretty defined strengths and weaknesses or some sort of feature (Bloodline, Mystery) which influences their style and Druids are just like 'I get a bunch of clashing abilities and an animal which will probably be a liability!'
I get WoW druids. I don't get DnD/Pathfinder Druids. Never have.
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There are a couple of rather effective and extensive guides in the Guide to Class Guides section of this forum.
To paint it in rather broad strokes, the traditional paths are either melee focused (get a decent strength score and just enough wis so you can cast all your spell levels, and then turn into something big, scary, and preferably with pounce) and the caster druid (high wis score, tends to turn into defensive things like wind elementals, which lord their flight over puny humans while spamming things like flame strike or flame sphere that have been metamagiced to the abyss and back as well as battlefield control and summon nature's allies spells)
So, rather than further reiterate the suggestions from the guides, I will now suggest weird and possibly interesting things.
With nagaji becoming free race choices in PFS, you could try Naga Aspirant for a caster druid. It gives you a more 'wizardy' selection of spells for the 1-4 spell levels (which happen to be the most commonly used and can be most easily meta magiced to higher levels....-FIREBALL!). Trades out the usual wildshape in order to make you into even MORE of a snake person.
An interesting fact- elementals (which you can start turning into at level 6 with wild shape as if using elemental body) can in fact use weapons if they are humanoid shaped according to their subtype. That kind of implies hands and corporeality that could allow weapons and armor to be worn. If you have a humanoid shape (hands) and can speak (elementals have a language)...then what is the difference between that and enlarge person for hours/level? Besides the fact that a large earth elemental works as a huge buff (+6 str, +2 con, +6 natural armor, -2 dex). You could pick up normal leather armor and still have great AC, and you could do a reach build with either scimitars or spears (they hit like greatswords when you are large). Definitely something to consider if you are a melee type and if you don't particularly like natural attacks and/or being furry.
Note: earthglide might be troublesome. Besides the fact that there is a mostly unsubstantiated belief that you can't take equipment with you (can't see that bit in the universal monster ability, spell, or any of the half dozen ways to get earthglide via class), you can't really see where you are going. Detecting enemies can be solved with the cave domain (the terrain one), which lets you get tremorsense (EDIT-if you don't like animal companions, grab a domain instead. That is an allowed option. Come on- tremor sense!). You might need the blind fight feats though. Still... have you ever seen a show where ninjas rise up from the ground/shadows? And remember that large earth elementals have 10 foot reach? Mwhahahaha
Right. I have the books, I know the abilities, but they seem pretty jumbled and not very intuitive. Like, you get spells like a Cleric with decent BAB and an animal companion but also Wild Shape and like... what are you supposed to DO in combat situations? Literally EVERY other class has pretty defined strengths and weaknesses or some sort of feature (Bloodline, Mystery) which influences their style and Druids are just like 'I get a bunch of clashing abilities and an animal which will probably be a liability!'
I get WoW druids. I don't get DnD/Pathfinder Druids. Never have.
I see. Ok, so lets start off with some basics:
Thematically, druids are nature themed shamans. They have potent spell casting, magical abilities and they get a bond with nature either via domain or an animal companion. Some druids prefer to turn into a bear and eat your face, other druids will call lightning, entangle you in vines and summon a bear to eat your face.
Now, mechanically.
Druids dont really have weakness, just strengths, and parts that are only good and not amazing.
Lets break it down shall we:
3/4 bab d8 hit die and medium armor proficiency. This is actually pretty descent, and sure at first you are limited to leather and hide armor (no metal) but thats not aweful and you eventually can get ironwood or dragonscale armor instead of metal, to get stuff like breastplate.
Spells. Druids are 9 level spellcasters, their spell list is full of useful buffs for animals (which they can both summon and turn into, plus the animal companion) and some control spells (entangle shows up right away and pretty much is good anywhere it can be used), and then some very specific nature themed spells that will rarely be usable (charm animals and such). Focus on control spells if you are a casty druid, buff spells if you are fighty druid. You do get some descent damage spells, particuarly with the right domain, but thats not a strength of the druid list.
Spontaneous summon natures all. Mind you SNA is not an all powerful spell, even at higher levels. But what it is, is a universally useful spell. Any combat is better with a critor full attacking/flanking the bad guy with your fighter buddy or your animal companion. Also remember these are animals, boost your handle animal and you can 'push' them to do specific tricks (get an animal to do a trick it doesnt know). Learn the tricks that are possible, its surprising how useful this can be. Need to sneak into somewhere? Summon a rat and have it run across the floor as a distraction. Not fight anyone, just run around.
Animal Companion: This certainly doesnt need to be a liability if you both choose well and equip it well. The big cat and the dinosaur that can pounce are pretty much the best options for combat. Pouncing is really really potent. Just remember to buff them/equip them with magic items AND remember to give them armor proficiency and buy them barding. Barding will stack with their natural armor bonuses. A wolf in chainshirt barding is a really effective tank. If you arent as worried about combat, pick a bird, make sure you prep speak with animals and use it for scouting. Make sure to teach it lots of useful tricks too.
Wildshape: This is by far the most useful single ability in the game besides spellcasting in general. Great for sneaking (turn into something tiny), mobility (turn into something with a climb, fly, burrow, swim speed) or combat (turn into a thing with lots of claws and teeth). Just remember a combat druid still needs to have descent physical ability scores to be competant.
Everything else: Crazily enough the above isnt everything the druid gets. It gets lots of other stuff mostly for flavor purposes that you can make use of or not, doesnt really matter. The previous abilities pretty much lay out everything you could possibly remember. Just remember, you should choose either casty druid, or fighty druid and make choices occordingly. Not that a druid cant to both, but he will have to focus on one to excel.