Hi all,
I was wondering if it is possible to make a swordfighting druid. If multiclass is needeed, no problem :-)
He should be ok at mêlee and i would like to change into animals.
Well, Druids are by default proficient with Scimitars, so there's that. You could also play a Half-Orc to be automatically proficient with Falchions, which is one of the best 2-handed swords there is.
A falchion is a very Nice 2 handed sword.
Half orcs get the proff for free.
20 point buy. Str 14(+2), dex,con and wis 14, int and cha 10. If you take a animal companion get spirits gift as your level 1 feat for DR 5/adamantine at level 1.
Power attack at level 3 natural Spell at level 5 and from level 6 ish the falchion will mostly be a fall back weapon for the akward figths where you fore some reason dont want to turn into a giant animal. Half orc have a Nice FCB that will sent the AC in animal for sky high.
Ok, lets put that scimitar proficiency to use. There are three basic ways to do this kind of build effectively: Nature Fang Archetype, Goliath Archetype, and Elemental wildshaping. The choice is somewhat of a personal choice of taste.
I personally find Nature Fang a bit boring compared to the other options, but it more than works- it trades wild shape for the slayer's attack/damage boosting mechanics. One of the main advantages of this approach is that you are not using any form of transmutation- that means you can use certain buffs that wild shaping druids cannot usually use. With the animal soul feat, you can choose to count as an animal for the purposes of spells. That means spells like animal growth (large size, +8 str) and atavism (+4 to ALL stats, +2 natural armor) are great choices.
Goliath druid is the next option, and it is the most user friendly. Instead of turning into elementals or plants, it gives you giants. Since giants are humanoids, that means your equipment sizes up with you, which is convenient. Until level 12, the boost from this form are not too amazing (but hey, large size and reach!), but you can pretty much keep it up all day long as soon as you get it. At level 12, the ability works like giant form I, which means you WILL be a troll, since that gives you regeneration- you can't die unless you are hit with fire or acid. So....diehard feat?
The last option is available to most druids- go with elemental shapes. If elementals have a humanoid form, they can use weapons, and you can always get armor for that body to stack with the natural armor. That means you can get equipement...but it had better be sized for your new form since it lacks the user friendly options of the goliath. Still, since you have hands and a voice, it is not too inconvenient to just use an elemental form all the time. At level 12, your wildshape acts as elemental body IV, so that gives you DR 5/- and immunity to bleed/sneak/crits (so no too shabby compared to the giant form).
Typically, if you go elemental, your main advantage compared to goliath druids is your extra utility. Earth elementals (who have the best str/natural armor stats for a regular 2 hander build) can earth glide. Unfortunately, elemental body does not give tremor sense, which means you may have to pick it up from the Cave domain instead if you want to take full advantage of that.
Normal druid is also a good option but the sword is gonna tale back seat to Wildshape after level 6.