Druid help


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Hey folks. Hope I am posting in the right place. My pathfinder mastery kinda sucks and I am getting rocked in our game. I want to play my caster blight druid better and I was hoping to get some info on the best wild shape forms. Pathfinder books only please.

my blight druid is level 10 with only 900 gold, a cloak of res +3, (or 2 I forget), boots of teleportation, and a pearl of power 1. That's literally it.

I have been trying to follow the treantmonk guide, including the caster attributes, but it is a bit outdated now in the way of spells and such. I have just been turning into an eagle, flying, and casting control spells. I am trying to figure out if I should just keep using eagle form, start using large air elemental form, or what.

I prefer working things out on my own but I hit a wall here, and am pretty much stuck. I need help not getting totally destroyed when a fight comes up. We keep winding up indoors where I have no room to maneuver so I need survive and actually be useful in a fight.

Oh, and I dropped to NE from N cause without thinking, I cast control winds twice into a building full of enemies and the tornado took out a good chunk of the city we were in. So, no more mass destruction on that level maybe.


Did you tank str? Or kept it minimum levels?
What caster kind are you? Blaster? Control.? Summon?


Well, one of the biggest most glaring things I see is your VERY under WBL. So you're going to have a harder time being effective than normal since you don't have the expected amount of gold.

If you're mostly casting spells you'll want something that is small and hard to hit, so a small bird is a good choice.


I THINK my stats are str 7, dex 14, con 15 (just got a belt +2), Int 12, wis 23 (headband +2), cha 11.

Our party's combined wealth, as 6 characters at level 11 now tonight, is about 30,000 GP. My casting is a bit all over I think.

I was doing control for a while, but that is hindering our martials and gunslinger. I don't think I have done any blasting really, save for call lightning from both the domain spell and the weather domain ability. I do try to summon if I am able, but it is hard to pick a decent summon because they are getting destroyed in 1 or 2 attacks even though I have augment summoning. I just got access to level 6 spells finally, but most wont be helpful as we wont be going anywhere with access to plant or wildlife. It will be all indoors now.

I wild shape into an eagle a lot but the enemies barely need to roll to hit me since, in human form, my ac is at 17 before Barkskin. Hide armour, ring of protection +1 (just got.) From what I saw, the elder air elemental looks fun at level 12 but I wont be able to make use of the whirlwind because my strength will be low.

If it matters, and I don't want to say any spoilers, I am in iron gods book 5 right now. But please, no spoilers. I do know that fortitude based spells are worthless right now based on what we are facing, as is a fair chunk of will based.

Also trying to pick a feat for level 11. I have spell focus conjuration, augment summoning, scribe scroll, natural spell, I forget the name but a feat that lets you talk in wild shape, and improved initiative.


I post my level 13 druid standard spell list so you can compare and get a idea.
I used this spell list to finish council of Thieves AP, i don't think a lot of this spells will work well against robots but i'm posting it anyway..

1st- produce flame x5
2nd- barkskin x2, stone call x2, cat's grace
3rd- resist energy(communal), stone shape x3 , magic fang(greater)
4th- strong jaw,freedom of movement, ball lighting x2 , flame strike
5th- wall of fire,frickle winds, wall of thorns x2
6th- Sirocco,dispel magic(greater)
7th- heal (or sunbeam)

stats at 13th

str 11,dex 14,con 20,int 10,wis 20 (headband +2),cha 10

feats: spell focus(conjuration),augment summoning, natural spell,Toughness,Superior Summoning,powerful shape,spell penetration.

Favorite forms:Any elemental (GM let me speak normally in elemental form)


Summon spells are still effective if they are getting killed fast consider summoning a Dire Tiger with SNA 6 it gets 5 attacks at +20 each for about 15 points of damage and can grab a medium opponent. A typical 6th level blasting spell would so about 38 pts of damage save for half, so your tiger has probably done as much damage in the 1st round as an attack spell would have. Next if the enemy spends a full attack killing it then you have done as much or more damage than most other spells and effectively incapcitated the enemy for a round as he did nothing to your party.
Your summoned tiger may also have allowed a rogue to flank or may currently be chewing on the caster who was hiding at the back and has a lot of trouble casting or breaking grapples

If that is 30000gp between 6 characters you are incredibly poor , roughly 80,000 per pc is expected at that level.

You should use Ironwood to get better armour you can get a Breastplate which will help, and spellstaff lets you store another 6th level spell .

There is a feat (Versatile Summon Natures ally) which allows you to apply different templates to summoned creatures, the Aerial template means that creatures you summon do bonus electrical damage which robots tend to be vulnerable to.
Wildshaping into an Earth elemental is often good as you can walk through many walls(not so much in Iron gods) and hide in the wall after casting a spell, Air Elemental is also a good choice for mobility. By taking such a low strength you decided not to use Wild shape for combat so don't try to rely on your casting.
Also given your party is dirt poor spells like Bull'strength and Cat's grace are probably good buff;s for your other pc's and Barskin should be excellent for them. Most technological weapons do elemental damage so cast Communal Resist/Protection from Energy against whatever your enemy are armed with (fire for lasers etc)


I wish I could do the whole wood shape ironwood thing for armour, but they are arguing that you still need a craft check otherwise it is broken. And yeah, that is 30,000 between six characters. For the versatile summoning, I am not sure but I don't think summon nature's ally allows you to add templates. Oh and the GM is annoyed with me because of my use of stone shape to imprison enemies, but I will have to change it soon due to going into a place made of metal.

Edit: I misread and typed the wrong feat into the srd. Okay, I lose the augment summoning though so it feels kinda risky.


If your GM is running the AP anything like written and you are actually counting the value of all magical items found it is absolutely inconcievable that you are that poor.
There is more than 30,000gp of Loot in Book 1.

Broken is having no money in a game system balanced around having money to get equipment. I would be somewhat upset with my GM in your place but as long as everyone is having fun. The gunslinger and any mellee fighters must be pretty useless without magical gear at all. On the plus side your summon's will be realtivly much more impressive than they should be.

The feat I quoted is SPECIFICALLY for Summon Natures ally so of course it works with Summon natures ally , the Summon monster version would not.

Your gm sounds like he should be running games exclusively for 1st level characters or some other system which does not feature powerful characters.


He says he is it is because we are not fully exploring the dungeons, and that is fine but he does not understand that once you introduce a strict timeline/race against the clock, you kill the desire to explore. Also we use spells to take short cuts through stuff and we are generally not allowed to re-visit dungeons once we leave. See, once we beat the last boss of a dungeon, he tells us everything we missed so now if we go back, it is meta. We are in book 5 right now, by the way.


well... earth elemental with earth glide or air with flight are the best caster forms.

summons are great, and a lot better as shaman archetype that can summon as standard.
druid can be a great buffers as well, making the fighter a super tank that kill well.
if you want a list of good spells tell me.

dazing spell feat is great.


I'd like to point out that in addition to being poorer than you should you are also lower level than you should. Book 5 is written for 13-15 level characters.
We just finished book 3 and the only race against the clock that I remember was in book 1. Your campaign sounds really challenging, hopefully you have a few admantine weapons at least.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Are NPCs and monsters casting lots of fireballs and lightning bolts at you?

If so, I would suggest the Improved Counterspell feat. You could ready an action to dispel, then exchange a 4th level flamestrike to counter enemy fireballs and lightning bolts and searing rays and empowered magic missiles or intensified scorching rays, etc. etc.

It's a little passive, but can really save on healing later. And you can use your summoned monsters for the more active stuff on your turn.

It's a bit feat intensive, but Point Blank Shot + Rapid Shot + Intensify Spell can get you 4 attacks per round at level 15 that target touch AC and do 1d6+10 or 11 (with PBS), using a 2nd level spell. Maybe save up for a metamagic rod that converts to electrical damage for robot enemies.

Or maybe take Craft Wondrous Item and make your allies boots that give them freedom of movement so you can lay down the battlefield control spells that druids excel at.

Quicken Spell might be good, too.

Can druids take that Divine Protection feat?


SmiloDan, it is a little late for that many feats, and we are too poor for crafting. When I said we had 30,000 between us, that is in gear. I only have 250 GP myself and everyone else is around that too. At this rate, we think we will be level 13 by book 6 ending because we get kill exp, not mission completion exp or milestones.

With how underpowered and poor we are, he is practically asking us to find ways to break the game. Also we have no arcane caster. Fighter, Gunslinger, Ranger, Blight Druid, Summoner (Host third part archetype), and warpriest. There are also some NPCs that tag along with one being a cleric.


Well the GM has told you what to do, it's really in your best interest to do so.

Explore the areas more and stop skipping areas. They exist to outfit you.

Edit: sorry if that sounds rude. Just you had the person running the game give you the best advice possible. He knows your weak spot even better than you do. Follow the words of wisdom.


Cavall, he flat out said we only have weeks before the BBEG is ready to do the big bad whatever thing. We don't have time. He put us on a race against the clock. Explore = game over cause of the clock.


Ah, I had the same issue with serpents adventure path. But frankly, 2 fights or 4 fights, the difference is literally 6 minutes at most.

I do think crafting won't help. You don't have the time.

But try to find out his "plan" and see what you can do t slow it down. Bottle neck in his resources may allow you more time.


If you are level 13 with your gear at the end of book 6 you will all be dead , on the other hand it is inconceivable you will not get more gear , but it is also inconceivable you could have so little gear by this point. Unless your GM is rebuilding all the encounters and giving them no high tech guns or magical gear either. I can think of multiple individual opponents you have probably faced who carry 30,000+ GP of gear each

Divine interference is available to druids and makes low level spell slots useful at high level , but you should probably be using those low level slots to buff people with the spells standard gear makes obsolete by this level.


Yeah he already told us there is nothing we can do to hinder him. He has everything he needs now and just needs time now. Basically he pulled a "already too late" situation. And no, the fights are taking 4-5 rounds and for some reason that can take us an hour real time. Some of us take almost 7-10 minutes just to roll their dice with a lot of "uh uhm..yeah..okay...what book was that in again?" and he refuses to take the book off the shelf before his turn and he is on facebook on his phone a lot. That would be the war priest.


John, He is doing a bunch of rebuilds. The guys with magic tend to escape and the only one any guns tend to work for is the gunslinger. That's just guns really, nothing else as he is the only one with the technologist feat and he wont let us use the technology companion player book. I am wondering if I should just say, at our next game, "Show of hands. Who says this game is already over?"

Sorry. The main reason I am asking for help on my druid is to make this salvageable.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

What kinds of enemies are you fighting?

Single, pair, 3-6, or mobs of weaklings? Mostly martial stuff, or are they spellcasters?

What tactics are they using?

In general, how much warning do you get that a fight is coming? How many rounds do you have to buff and pre-summon? Do you use scrying a lot to get advanced warning of what you are going to fight?

Your fights are probably going slowly because you have a relatively large group with lots of summoned beasties. Even with your distracted warpriest.

Do you and your allied summoner have the stats of your beasties printed out and already adjusted for Augment Summoning and other buffs? If not, that can really speed things up. Also, maybe summon stuff with 1 big attack instead of 3 or 6 smaller attacks.

In 3.5, I played a druid that used Improved Counterspell to great effect. It was a smaller party, with my dog, a sword & board fighter, and a two-weapon fighting fighter/arcane trickster. I found countering spells took up less resources than healing afterward.

And maybe have a private conversation with the warpriest and ask him (politely, of course!) to focus on the game and not social media during game time.

Also, maybe try speaking to your GM and explain your concerns to him? If you're not having fun, something probably needs to change.


We are fighting mostly robots and casters. There is little to no real warning.

I got hit with scrying 40 times in three game days.

Our summoner is using the host archtype which means no summons or spells, rather he is merged with his eidolon completely as it is a symbiote in his body. He is a front line fighter with a 40 strength.

We talked to the warpriest and the GM a lot. Both refuse to do anything and say it is our problem not theirs.

The enemy tactics, in our last real fight, was fire rocket launchers and hit us with spells where we still take half damage or there is no real save like magic missle. Also they make decent use of tech weapons and we have to keep trying to avoid some tactics because if we do any planning out loud, in meta, the GM adapts the encounters so it wont work so we have to avoid planning infront of him. It is partially why he got mad when I used stone shape to imprison an enemy, then didn't want to discus the width of the wall because "even if it is a foot thick it still takes the whole cubic foot." So he argued if I wanted to encase a single large creature with 20 cubic feet in stone shape, it would be paper thin.


Is this one of your first campaigns as a group ? I ask because some of the issues sound like one's I had when I ran games 20+ years ago.

It seems there are several problems with the group and game and it is hard to tell what they all are. The most important thing though is that everyone is enjoying themselves and also talking to each other about expectations and the experience so everyone does have fun.

I don't know what a Host archetype is but it sounds a lot like Synthesist summoner , which is fairly powerful particularly if noone else has magical equipment. it seems odd allowing such a powerful option and then being difficult about everything else. Also a GM should not deliberately and consistently take advantage of his knowledge of In character planning unless the npc's are aware of it. The exceptions are when dealing with highly intelligent opponents who know a lot about your characters as it can then sometimes be useful to cover the npc's being smarter than the GM and having more time to prepare.

Depending on the size of the creature you are encasing you may indeed get a fairly thin stone shape but against a human sized target , as 20 cubic feet is not all that much. Stone shape is an odd spell the description of its effects leaves a lot of room for different interpretations. Use Wall of Stone for all your entombing needs.

When you defeat these people with Missile launchers and similar are you able to take and resell these weapons? This is a baseline assimption of the game and if you are not able to it may explain some of your poverty.


one tactic you can do is summon monster 6 and summon 1d3 cyclopes. have them surround the strongest enemy use flash of insight for a free 20 and then have them confirm the crit. If you can talk to any of the other players without the GM in earshot see if they can throw out any buffs for crit confirmation. Remember you can still plan if you arent at the table.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

If you are dealing with lots of evocation spells targeting you and your party, Improved Counterspell could negate those spells.

Also, try to use those tech items. Even if you are not proficient, you're only taking a -4 on attack rolls. Think of it as the penalty Power Attack would give you for +12 to damage. How much more damage does a rocket launcher do than your sling?

Is this a game amongst friends, or just a group that gets together for gaming, like PFS?


We have been playing for close to a decade but I think one of the players is dyslexic, and the war priest just is easily distracted. For the large creature, it was about ten feet tall with a large sized base. With making the walls a foot thick, I could have touched the ceiling since I can shape 20 cubic feet of stone. I tried to show on our grid map that a five foot cube fills an entire five foot square on all sides, and filled in the middle. The GM just said we'll get it right next time and refused to correct his error.

I made good use of the cyclops once but, feat wise I think I am going to take versatile summon nature's ally, if the GM allows the book. He does not generally like allowing more books since they are supposed to be thematic to a setting, at least back in TSR and WOTC 3.X days I guess, but I don't think he gets that the adventure paths assume you are building with full access. Anyways, enough GM and group bashing. I think versatile summon ally will be my level 11 feat unless there is a better option. The thought of flying dire tigers that do electrical damage is scary, but I wish you did not lose augment summoning for it. Oh geeze, 1d3 cyclops with the air or earth templates. Flying or burrowing cyclops.

Edit: SmiloDan, it is among friends but still. And rocket launchers are non-reloadable. Also we do use our consumable tech like grenades. The timeworn condition is also rocking us. In the first round in a fight, I got hit by three rockets. It dropped me from 77 to -2 and I passed my reflex each time.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

One option is try and make yourself a bit more of a tank. You have a decent wisdom so you could grab your next level as Sensei monk. This will add Wis to AC and CMD and limit the need for armor investment. Have the Summoner cast mage armor on you to further boost your AC. Combined with large air elemental this will boost your ac by 4 (mage armor) 6 (wisdom) 1 (dodge, monk bonus feat) plus 4 natural armor, 2 from dex -1 from size putting at +16 AC. Throw up barkskin for another plus 5 and you can have a pretty good AC.

Run around casting but goin whirlwind when you need it, DC of 22 reflex or get picked up.Damage will be limited by your low str but you can use greater magic fang and abilities like Vine Strike and Produce Flame to increase damage.

Sensei will also let you buff with Inspire Courage for 7 rounds a day plus you can get linger song, so your advice will buff your whole group. Lingersong will also help extend your rounds.

In Elemental form as a blight druid you will be immune to nauseated, sickened disease, critical hits, bleed and sneak attack so it becomes a bit harder to kill you. If you are fighting grab nauseating trail and run around the board nauseating the wizards then picking them up in your whirlwind.


Taenia, couple things. I appreciate your guide, but the third party archetype the summoner is using makes it so he does not cast any spells. At least it seems that way since he never does. I am hoping to avoid a level dip in monk for thematic reasons, since I try to stay in character with stuff and I am dealing with trying to get out of NE and go back to N, since I am the only one my GM EVER hits with an alignment slap even if the others are being evil jerks when they are good aligned. Also, I believe whirlwind's reflex is based on your strength score for the DC, so it would not be 22. My strength is at 7 and, since this is not 3.0, your physical scores are not replaced with the creature. Rather, you just get bonuses and penalties.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Actually it follows the polymorph rules which follow the Beast Shape/Elemental Body spells, the DC of all abilities from a polymorph effect is based on the DC of the spell, which for you is Wis based.

Note that means you can assume forms like tiny vipers with wild shape and since you would be using the Beast Shape 3 spell (lvl 5) the poison DC for you would be 10 + 5 (spell level) + 6 (Wis mod).

This is true for abilities like the Burn of fire elementals, the Whirlwind/Vortex DCs as well as Trample DC's for large forms.

If you do not want to grab monk levels consider smaller forms like dimunitive birds, these will boost your Dex by 6, provide nat armor +1 and a +4 size bonus to AC. If you cast freedom of movement on yourself and fly around you should not have to worry about grapple or other movement impairing effects and still have respectable defenses. Barkskin still works, also increases your touch AC vs. those guns.

Your best bet for offense is to prep animal growths and atavism spells, summon ankylosaurs or another animal and buff it as best you can. At level 11 make sure to make use of Spell Staff and Liveoak for some additional spellcasting power and follower.


The spells "Destroy Robot" and "Antitech Field" are druid spell which would be super useful, but it's in the Tech Guide, which you said your GM wouldn't let you use.

So in your situation I would take two spells from the Core Rulebook: "Find the Path" and "Transport Via Plants"

Use Find the Path to find the nearest active portal to Castrovel, then use Transport Via Plants to go there with the three members of your party you like the most. If there are no plants near your current location, wildshape into a small earth elemental and earthglide your way to where plants are. Then you can leave the Big Bad to destroy Golarion while you play Captain Kirk with the alien hotties, trading one set of extraterrestrial being for another to keep with the spirit of the AP.

Because seriously, your GM is cheating your party by imposing an artificial time limit which isn't a part of the AP and by not allowing your to get the gear you need to be effective with the AP, AND by not allowing you to use the book of resources designed specifically for the AP.


Sani, I am totally putting that last one on the backburner if I am ever fed up with this adventure. I swear, these APs should level you at the milestone points in the book at least. Exp just promotes grinding sometimes, which can be fine in open world games.


Taenia wrote:
Barkskin still works, also increases your touch AC vs. those guns.

Increasing natural armor does not increase touch AC.

Jacinto, if you can, grab the Planar Wildshape feat for survivability. At your level you get DR 10/evil (or good) and elemental resistances.
To those who say to loot the missile launchers, unfortunately you can not loot the integrated weaponry of robots. Of course, if they are humans useing the launchers that is different. I would not be surprised if this GM says they are all worthless when trying to sell them.

Scarab Sages

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Have you tried unplugging your Druid, then plugging it back in?

...

...Yes. Yes, you have to plug your Druid in, or it will not turn on.

...

...Did you remember to reformat after Wild-Shaping?

...

...Did you insert the correct Animal Companion CD?

...

...No, that one only runs on Cavaliers, please try the other one....

*sigh*....


Dang. Tough pick between versatile summon nature's ally and planar summoning. Both are good. Also, as a side note, any advice on how to get my alignment to go from NE back to N? You level on city block, accidentally, and it sets you back. Ah well.


If your character didn't mean to destroy the whole building then that was at most a chaotic action That would have shifted you to CN not NE. If that was the only time you performed an action like that then that shouldn't have been enough to shift your alignment. If you can't appeal to your GM abut changing alignment you can always have an atonement cast on you though I don't know if you have the time for it.


I loved playing my Blight Druid. Try the spell, Explosion Of Rot. I used it a lot in later books of Carrion Crown as it works on Undead. It works on Constructs too, so I'd think it would work well in Iron Gods as well.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

@Wagnersika, that is true and not quite what I intended to convey. I was more referring to being a dimunitive bird increases your touch ac by the Dex (+3) and Size (+4) rather than Barkskin increasing your touch AC but alas in head and in post turned out to be not quite the same. Thanks for pointing that out.


fearcypher, yeah the building was intentional. Character was pissed cause we were losing, I was at 4 hp, so not wanting to die I teleported to the roof with my boots of teleport. Healed up with a wand of cure light wounds. The party, still inside, were losing fast so they used an adamantine great sword to cut a hole through the wall and escape. Not wanting to let the enemy win, I flew down to ground level and cast create winds twice into the building through the hole they cut, which has an area of over 400 feet in radius. The building and the enemies inside was intentional, the city block and all the people hiding in their homes were not.

Also, in all the games we played, I am the only one that ever gets hit with alignment. Legacy of fire, the monk in the group kept breaking the bard's puppet and end up throwing him in the ocean cause he was annoyed. He never changed from Lawful Neutral. Iron Gods, Chaotic Neutral gunslinger shoots any monster that tries to talk with the party first just because he does not speak their language. He also, when he gets a new tech gun he does not understand, would test it on the party. To this day, he is still CN. Kingmaker, I am a CN dwarf gunslinger and I torture an enemy we capture, I am now CE. Iron Gods, I made an elven rogue that was a merchant. The DM said from the start that there was another merchant in town that is constantly stealing my business, always undercutting my prices, and everyone loves him. He tried to kill one of my allies to rob him and then did the same to me and burn the house down that I was in to hide the evidence, so I knocked him out and killed him, and I started a fire to cover it up. Dm declares me chaotic evil from CN and that this catches a whole street on fire and because I was not seen helping put out the fire with the entire rest of the town, because apparently everyone has perfect recall and knows everyone in town in the city of Torch and they say I was never there, I am arrested, charged with starting the fire with no evidence, and proclaimed an arsonist and murderer without me getting a chance to talk. I had to argue that one cause I was ready to quit right there. I lost that character because I went outside at night somewhere because the DM said some monsters attack and I am not allowed to try to do anything about it, the character is just gone now, tough luck. And now my druid.

There are other cases of the DM not hitting anyone's alignment out there but meh, tired.

Edit: Sekitou, I was using that spell, but my allies keep huddling around enemies, and I want to avoid friendly fire now.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Yikes, sounds like a pretty toxic environment. Have you tried talking to the GM outside of a session and express your feelings to him?


SmiloDan. Yup. He avoids conflict and gets defensive, or he gets all self-defeatist and depressed talking about how bad and worthless he is so there is no real resolution. He's a good guy but..okay no more GM bashing. We gotta go back to the topic. Druid. So, versatile summon nature's ally or planar wildshape? Any other ideas for my level 11 feat, let me know. Remember, time is against us and crafting is not an option.

Edit: My dog just tried to bite the mouse cursor on my laptop.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

What are your feats again?

You mentioned no arcane caster in your party. The druid spell list can do a lot that arcane spell lists do.

Empower Spell would combine well with flame strike. 11d6 x 1.5 is pretty fun!

Are you looking for new types of actions to take? Or are you trying to specialize in a particular style of combat (summoning, wildshaping, blasting, battle field controlling, etc.)?

beating a dead horse:
Not to beat the dead horse of DM bashing, but next session, just declare your alignment has returned to True Neutral or whatever. Say you meditated, prayed, did some charity, were kind to animals, gave a homeless guy a sandwich, etc. It's your character, you choose your alignment.


Spell focus conjuration, Augment summoning, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Scribe Scroll, and Wild Speech. My level 11 slot is open and I was hoping to avoid metamagics. In combat, I was control but it is hard since I always either screw over our ranged combatants or our melee focused ones. I do summoning, also I wildshape mainly for surviving since my AC with armour is 17, and I know that it does not count without wild. I have done a couple blasts but I have to use them sparingly because I never know what is coming. Once you use them, they're gone. Get into another fight after you blew your spell load and you're screwed.


It sounds to me like your DM has a philosophy that he has to defeat the players. Otherwise, I don't see why he'd balance things so drastically against you.

I'll be honest, if this is the kind of stuff he pulls on you in any campaign (killing your characters off without giving you a chance to interject, causing your well-understood actions to have the worst possible result and shifting your alignment for things that are totally out of your hands), it just sounds to me like he's trying to force you out. Personally, I'd ask him, directly, OOC, why he chooses to make things this difficult, knowing that putting such a strict time limit means your party won't be able to finish the campaign if they take time to explore dungeons, and won't have sufficient levels to finish it if they don't explore dungeons and find treasure. He has quite literally engineered the game in such a way that you cannot win. Perhaps it's me being salty, but I'd write myself out of the game and hang back and watch the next campaign he runs to see if it goes any better.

I'm sorry, I know you wanted to pull the focus away from the DM, but the way you've described him... I've known people like that, and while I may be wrong in his case, in the people I've known with this attitude, the self-deprecation is a ploy for sympathy and nothing more. Especially if he's not actually making an effort to improve and shift his attitude from "I must keep the players from completing this campaign" to "Let's work together to make the story good and the gameplay fun."

Again I apologize, it's just that this kind of thing makes me really angry.


I know you wanted to stay away from metamagic but if you want to mix in some control with summons then Selective spell Might be a good idea for you so you don't have to worry about hurting your melee friends

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Yeah, the limits the GM is putting on you (low wealth, time limits) mean you cannot buy or make gear, and PF is a gear-required game.

WBL is a thing for a reason. Honestly, WBL should be a level-dependent upgrade, and awarded when a PC goes up a level, like hit points and skill points, etc.

But that's scree for another thread.

But you really should speak to your GM and fellow players if you're not having fun. Don't fall for passive-aggressiveness, either. It's a trap! Don't be bullied by his wishy-washiness.


Also if this druid dies make your next character a wizard and use anzyr's explosive runes trick/exploit/strategy.

Basically put a bunch of slips of Explosive Runes in a bag. Scatter contents in a five foot square around enemy. And cast Greater Area Dispel Magic to set off all the runes with no saving throw.

Cheesy? yes. Passive aggresive as hell? yes. Any more toxic than your GM? no


In my 16 years of playing this, I have not had one single character ever die save for GM Fiat. I know how to survive in a fight and I am never afraid to escape. Always have an escape plan. I have changed characters simply because I felt like it, making some retire, or a Gm pulls a "Ok you're dead, no you didn't see it coming, no you can do no rolls to prevent it, no you can't argue it."

So, assuming I am not still sick tomorrow, I think the feat I will take is planar wild shape so I can get the energy resistance.

For the alignment, we argued and he said the reason he only ever hits me with it is because he doesn't count small stuff, no matter how consistent it is. Heck, I got an alignment slap for killing another player character because he was killing civilians in the town square to sell their body parts. Also collateral damage is always evil, unless the GM decides it is okay. I used the death star as an example and he said because when Luke blew it up, since it did not cause any other planets to be destroyed (He argued scale), it is not evil even if there were innocent crew on board. But mine was evil cause it was to kill six or so people and about 400 innocents in town died, so it is a full shift from N to NE, no redemption until he offers it as an opportunity so I may say "Fine. I'll run with it and be an evil blight druid" but I know he will just hit me with chaotic and make me lose my powers.


Jaçinto wrote:

In my 16 years of playing this, I have not had one single character ever die save for GM Fiat. I know how to survive in a fight and I am never afraid to escape. Always have an escape plan. I have changed characters simply because I felt like it, making some retire, or a Gm pulls a "Ok you're dead, no you didn't see it coming, no you can do no rolls to prevent it, no you can't argue it."

So, assuming I am not still sick tomorrow, I think the feat I will take is planar wild shape so I can get the energy resistance.

For the alignment, we argued and he said the reason he only ever hits me with it is because he doesn't count small stuff, no matter how consistent it is. Heck, I got an alignment slap for killing another player character because he was killing civilians in the town square to sell their body parts. Also collateral damage is always evil, unless the GM decides it is okay. I used the death star as an example and he said because when Luke blew it up, since it did not cause any other planets to be destroyed (He argued scale), it is not evil even if there were innocent crew on board. But mine was evil cause it was to kill six or so people and about 400 innocents in town died, so it is a full shift from N to NE, no redemption until he offers it as an opportunity so I may say "Fine. I'll run with it and be an evil blight druid" but I know he will just hit me with chaotic and make me lose my powers.

If he hits you with chaotic you can actually just go for atonement. right now the use of atonement to restore your original alignment is iffy but if you lose the features of a class then going for atonement should be a lot easier for you.

Again you should attempt to coordinate predetermines strategies with the other players OoC if you can, if the GM is going to counter if you talk at the table. Of course sometimes that isn't really an option. You should talk to the summoner as well, if he does in fact have spells and just doesn't cast them he could be saving the party a load of trouble if he puts out time to buff, and surely other characters might not be playing at their full potential either. So if you can bbring the whole party's strength up then it won't require you to be the absolute best.

On the note of other players alignments, ask him "who is more evil? Those who live a life of minor evils and care not about their deeds, or those who rarely commit great acts evil, but do so in hopes of saving themselves and/or their allies?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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It sounds like you GM is CE. :-(


SmiloDan wrote:
It sounds like you GM is CE. :-(

I dunno. If he's twisting the rules to suit his needs and relying on the rules to back up his personal issues, doesn't that make him more LE?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

But he's not doing that, he's just ignoring rules and causing suffering.

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