Hiya all,
A friend of mine is planning to run a tweaked version of Kingmaker with characters starting at level 6, I've mocked up a build below for a wildshapin' human druid with a tiger companion.
Planning to be on the front line (hence Toughness), a primary damage dealer with secondary utility. Have you any suggestions/comments?
We're doing 25 point buy, so I went with:
Str - 18
Dex - 12
Con - 14
Int - 8
Wis - 14
Cha - 8
Added the human floating +2 to Str and the +1 from level increase to Str as well, leaving me with strength 21.
Feats:
Power attack
Natural Spell
Toughness
Improved Initiative (wasn't 100% sure about this one, but I figured extra init always helps.
Traits:
Reactionary (+2 to init)
Bastard (Kingmaker-specific-trait, +1 to will saves, -1 on Cha skill checks with certain NPCs)
Gear:
Scimitar
Heavy wooden shield
Hide armour
Ring of protection +1
Cloak of resistance +2
Belt of Physical Might (Con/Str +2)
~16000
Planning to be transforming into a dire tiger, and using an animal companion (big cat, mostly so I can take advantage of its awesome 7th level advancement) to flank and get dirty in melee. The cat has Power Attack, Toughness and Improved Natural Attack (claws) for feats.
One monk lvl for armor with wisdom.
Planar wild shape is a must
Wouldn't this be redundant with the hide armour?
Though with the free Improved Unarmed Strike from that dip I'd be able to take Improved Grapple...
Yo, get any stat on an odd score so your +1 bonus is immediately relevant. Plus, it works better that way at higher levels.
Rather than taking Toughness, I think I'd rather use the Dual Talent human racial trait (because it doesn't seem you care too much about skills either) and take +2 to STR and CON, which provides a similar benefit to Toughness and +1 Fort, plus extra damage you can take before dying.
I gotta say though, you should look into the Feral Hunter archetype for, well, Hunters. It does the whole animal + wildshaped caster thing better and gives you more combat abilities.
Agreed with Secret Wizard about going Dual Talent or just not going Toughness. With retraining rules, you can use your low level feat slots to get stronger feats. I recommend Planar Wild Shape. You could even spend a feat getting Improved Unarmed Strike for iterative attacks once your BAB gets high enough (or just dip into a martial class that gets it and pick up Shaping Focus). Improved Natural Attack is also good if your GM allows Monster feats for players.
I personally don't recommend Feral Hunter. You essentially become a weaker Druid, trading away your animal companion and slowing down spell progression for access to Ranger spells and Animal Focus. You can grab Animal Focus from the Feral Shifter druid archetype, but you lose your animal companion. Could grab it back from feats I suppose.
I also like grabbing summoning feats, even as a Wild Shape Druid.
EDIT: And I believe you would need the Wild enchantment for your hide armor to work in Wild Shape. Going Monk removes that need and may allow you to bump your AC up even higher. Plus, you can do fancy stuff by grabbing Feral Combat Training and Flurrying while Wild Shape. Not necessary to make a strong combat Druid, mind you.
My advice grab a trait that gives an arcane cantrip and take arcane strike feat. Then reduce your strength the cost in other stats isn't worth it Kingmaker utilises skills in particular. Maybe go a shaman archetype as lvl 6 is the magic level for power increase and your summons are half round.
Ooo, that trait + arcane strike trick is very neat.
I'm assuming something like Magical talent (Choose a 0-level spell. You may cast that spell once per day as a spell-like ability. This spell-like ability is cast at your highest caster level gained; if you have no caster level, it functions at CL 1st. The spell-like ability’s save DC is Charisma-based) would be sufficient?
Given it's a bit of a sneaky workaround I wonder if the DM will have issues with it (the Arcane Strike wording is 'Ability to cast arcane spells', after all).
What would you suggest in terms of increasing other stats? I was considering going the warden (based on strength) as it also suits my backstory/being a druid.
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The trait gives you an sla (spell like ability) that you cast at your caster level which is your druid level so the arcane strike damage increases with your cl as well. Improved natural attacks is a good one, planar wildshape eventually. No idea about warden. Read petercos guide to druids. Sla's have been ruled as working for arcane strike search forums.
If you are going to dip, take 1 level of Ranger and 'Divine Hunter' Archetype, choosing a god whos favored weapon is Improved Unarmed Strike. Then take Shapeshifting Hunter and you can double up as a Druid/Ranger combo. 2 Levels of Ranger will give you a fighting style feat (claws and blah) 3 levels will give you free Endurance you can use to buy Diehard.
1 level of Barbarian wont kill you, Rage is pretty useful. 2 Levels means you can take Rage Powers, like Reckless Abandon. If you go Barbarian, take Reckless Rage so that your power attacks do increasingly absurd damage.
I would also advise against Feral Shifter, even taking a domain is better than getting a +2 enhancement bonus to a stat, most of the time it won't stack with items or buffs like bull strength you can already cast on yourself. At level 9 with Bear and Bull this becomes Ghetto Rage, which you can stack with normal rage, but by level 9 in Kingmaker melee combat isn't relevant anymore.