Hi guys. I am having an issue with my group. We had 2 martials who would get up in the monsters faces and generally keep them off the casters.
Our martials have both recently left the group due to other commitments.
We are all very attached to our character concepts and nobody wants to make a new character to fit the role and i am the only person who is willing to change his play style.
I play a gnome druid, just hit lvl 4.
str:11
dex:10
con:16
int:9
wis:17
cha:12
feats
1st: spell focus conjuration
3rd: augment summon
I need any and all advice please
If you can take an archetype one of the animal shamans can standard action summon, which is at least as good at getting in faces as a melee character. An animal companion would help too.
If neither of these is possible then you need to make a new character - you can't really be effective melee in person with those stats. You might be able to get into the enemy's face and annoy them and survive (especially if you multiclass as a monk and use wild shape) but most enemies will be able to ignore you and walk around you to hit other casters if they choose, as your AoO's will be nothing special.
thanks avr, i have an animal companion. My dm isnt particularly keen on any archetypes so that might not be the possible. The shaman archetypes would be very useful (making advanced and giant summons :P)
just summon somthing as soon as combat seems to be happening. And then start it before the summoned creature dissaper:)
If your group can survive the next 1-3 levels you will be fine with out front liners. Just make sure every body undestand that you dont have a front Line.
It changes the game a little, it is like playing for higher stakes:)
OK, so it's about making the companion able to stop enemies getting past. They'll need the Combat Reflexes feat. If you haven't got one that gets trip or grab then you want to change which type of animal you have. If they're tripping enemies you want a Weapon Focus or Weapon Finesse feat, if grappling then Improved Unarmed Strike in preparation for Improved Grapple next level.
A tripper doesn't need/can't get fancy feats to aid in their role, but a grappler might find it best to get a +1 Int with the 4th level increase so that they can go beyond the standard list of animal feats.
Remember to buff your companion and use battlefield control spells when summoning isn't the best option of course.
Is a bit of a rebuild a viable option? Druids can make great melee characters (especially since you just got Wild Shape) but you'll need different stats to do it.
using summons for meatshields and gearing your companion for protecting squishies is all great advice. another thing that will help is working on all you casters playing more strategically... when you have melees keeping things away from you its easy to play sloppy, when you don't things like battlefield control spells (anything that slows enemies down from reaching you) and focusing your fire (taking targets out one at a time instead of spreading your spells around, to reduce the number of attackers as quickly as possible) will be much more important.
out of curiousity, how many players are left? if you just lost 2 players you might want to ask your GM about recruiting 1-2 more (and trying to get some new melee support with them), or about the possibility of him running a GMPC melee guy... and there's always the leadership feat if you make it to 7th level but are still struggling...
we have a group of 11 players. only 4 of who actually make it to about 80% of the sessions. we never have more than 6. of those players 1 is a barbarian.
Thanks for the advice so far. At SNA 1,2,3 what creatures would you suggest
IMHO, the type of creatures you summon should depend on what kind of casters you have... if they have a lot of damage output, summon multiple things just to keep enemies off you long enough to blast them down; if you have a good battlefield controller (one who can funnel enemies) summon something really durable that they enemy will need to fight through to reach you); if there's a lot of buff/debuff casters summmon the best damage dealer you can and let them buff it while it fights the debuffed enemies (it might need healing too, i'm assuming with 10 casters you have someone good at that).
we have ALL the casters. another druid focused on battlefield control, a battle control wizard, a blast sorcerer, a bard who shoots at things and sings, she never hits anything, just sings, we have a cleric who heals/ buff, i was buff/ control, oh we have an archer ranger as well.
i should probably look at the most durable possible i think. and then drop some support for it