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A good solo encounter should be like a woman's skirt, Long enough to cover the subject, short enough to be interesting

So the problem here is that the party will outnumber your actions 4-5 to 1. Lucky for cobra commander you have the great equalizer, time stop. Use it for cool things to happen without dragging out the combat for hours.

Spend your actions flying around and shooting whatever damaging magic you think is good enough to threaten the party without insta gib (I assume you want them to ultimately win)

At X health threshold He uses stop time in order to summon a bunch of necromancy flavored monsters. Create Greater Undead or just Summon Monsters. Skeletal T-rex's or Shades of former enemies (or dead allieS), at this point you can also have him cast any number of buffs that would make the encounter more difficult, but not directly ruin the encounter. (barbarian in your face? better cast invisible and buy time with my skeleton t-rex)

at further lower health thresholds, he can repeat the trick, time stop, buff as necessary, maybe he summons an even TOUGHER monster this time.

General Advice: Give the evil wizard something to do in an anti-magic zone that makes him not a total joke. If the party is competent enough to know how to fight a turbo-lich without meta-gaming, reward them but then say, "you didn't think it would be that easy did you??"

Polymorphing can give him all the tools he needs in melee to be a threat and can happen later in the fight when he is out of spells. like Ganondorf. This isn't even my final form!

Lastly, any necromancer worth his salt has a trick or two up his sleeve to ultimately avoid 'death.' These tricks more than anything make the necromancer infamous. My favorite is the classic Magic Jar, the party 'kills' the wizard and the party fighter picks up the loot, only to be controlled by the BBEG! What will the party do now? bonus points if encounter that follows is even more harrowing for your party.

If you do not want the familiar, the only thing you are gaining out of Croc is sneak attack, which isn't enough to save the Rogue so it won't do you much good either.

Vulture isn't great for a MELEE FOCUSED druid but it's cool flavor

Anger is really good if you plan to multiclass barbarian, but as a single class druid you will lose a lot from not having those spells.

haha gundruid. going to have to try and build that one some day

Consider the following:

Desert: Heat Shimmer is a really solid defensive option at levels 1-3 or so when you are waiting for your druid spells to get good. Free action Blur for a number of rounds. At later levels you can summon genies, which is super cool if for no other reason than summoning genies. Shifting Sand is a great spell to get 1 spell level early.

Plains: The level one ability is not very useful, and actually will come into play probably later than the level 6 ability. But the level 6 ability is a once a day pounce. 3rd level spell is Haste.

Okay, thanks guys

Here is the hypothetical:

Robert Grimdark is a Reincarnated Druid and gains Many Lives at level 5, our druid in question is Neutral Evil and worships Zon Kuthon, taking the Shade of the Uskwood feat. He uses Samsaran + Cleric (or scrolls, what have you) in order to summon a devil and tells the devil to go murder some lumberjacks or protect bambi's mom from hunters or what have you, not important. Zon Kuthon doesn't care cause he's lawful evil too and discussions of alignment will clog up the argument.

Bobby decides that worked out pretty well and decides to take a Level of Diabolist, boom he's damned! One of those lumberjack's brother is a paladin and he hunts Bobby down, a couple of smite youz later Bobby is dead.

Now what?

Reincarnated Druid Many Lives ability says Bobby would show up a day later in a new body in a safe location. It is an Extraordinary ability.

Diabolist Damned says that when a Diabolist dies they are INSTANTLY sent to hell. Get outta here, kitchen's closed unless someone makes a DC 10+bla save in order to resurrect you. It also says 'or the spell fails' does that mean that Many Lives being a Extraordinary and able to break laws of physics breaks laws of hell too?

So in order does the progression go: Dead -> Hell now -> Reincarnate one day later?

Would you allow the reincarnated druid to save against his own damnation? Of course, the devils in hell will probably see this as unlawful and cheating, and no smart devil would make a pact with a person who can get out of jail for free. Would they just torture him REALLY REALLY hard for one day?

Spirit Totem works better on a Skald, but I have played a spirit totem barbarian and it always felt like a cheap way to try and squeeze just a little more damage.

Inspire Ferocity scales better than Inspire Courage and is an untyped bonus meaning it stacks with inspire courage. For the rare party filled with martial characters.

A Barbarian with the Dragon Totem and the Draconic Blood powers gets basically everything a Dragon Disciple gets. (Flight, claws, breath weapon)

Since we are on the subject: I have always thought that you could take the Strangler feat and get your sneak attack damage added to the Death Roll attack from this domain, but upon more thorough reading I am not too sure.

I had never seen the Betrayal feats before, they're very interesting. Thanks for pointing them out. I think alot of GMS might see a problem with Paladins taking betrayal feats. In practical sense, if the paladin is putting themselves in harms way its not evil, possibly? It may reek of dishonesty in corner cases.

based on the wording of the archetypes, do you see a reason why the teamwork feat granted from Holy Guide couldnt be used with Battlefield presence?

The feat Planar Hunter is a great idea for a paladin who picks Hell as their favored terrain. So good idea there. Do you know of any ways that favored terrain can be used to help allies?

For some more specific info, this build is going to be for an NPC commander who helps a low magic party, the party is level 6 and includes a Skirmisher switchhit Ranger, a Martial Artist Monk, and a vanilla Rogue.

Looking through the Advanced Class Guide content I noticed the new Holy Guide archetype should stack with the Holy Tactician Archetype. These archetypes are both about gaining teamwork feats.

questions about the character:

The Teamwork feat granted at level 5 (should be level 6) by Holy Guide requires a use of smite to activate for allies, but the Holy Tactician Battlefield Presence level 3 ability does not and accomplishes the same thing, and the holy tactician removes smite. Would you be able to use the Teamwork feat granted from Holy Guide with the Battlefield Presence ability?

Does Holy Tactician's Battlefield Presence function basically forever as long as the paladin uses a standard action at the beginning of the battle? Is it functioning as an aura to grant any ally that feat?

lastly, how would you build the character? With a boatload of teamwork feats it can grant to allies, Lay on Hands, Channel, some spells, full BAB and a 'group smite' you could build a very good front line leader. Paired Opportunists and Swarm Strike are good together but cant be used at the same time, unless you can use the teamwork feat from holy guide AND holy tactician at the same time

That being said there are plenty of good teamwork feats for ranged characters, such as Enfilading Fire and Target of opportunity.

Does anyone have a good idea of what to do with the favored terrain?

Take the Eagle Domain,

Hawk Familiar +

3+ Wis times per day add half your druid level to a ranged attack roll +

Fly as domain spell

Take Crocodile if you want to Switch hit

Lantern archon [CR 2, SR 0, Will +0, Cha 10] -- eternal laser bolts at your foes. Their aura of menace is weak (DC 13), but they can teleport and fly, and their rays attack touch AC and penetrate all DR. Plus, while they're only 2 HD, you can summon three of them with a single casting, and their gestalt ability allows nine of them to combine into a really nasty monster.

Don't forget their At-Will Aid, similar to the hound archon in use but better since lower HD. I had a summoner who would summon 3 or more of these with a single summon monster 4 use and had them using aid on party members every round, most effective psuedo-healer I've ever seen. They also have an impressive DR 10/good for their size and Truespeech

Are we talking about all possible outsiders to summon or only the ones from the list? If all, then here are some other sub-6HD creatures.

Ja Noi Oni [CR 5, SR 0, Will + 3, Cha 14] Serene Fighter means these guys get to reroll will saves, so probably not the best idea to planar bind them, but they are flying shapeshifting magical regenerators and so they have many uses

Yamabushi Tengu [CR 5, SR 16, Will +4, Cha 16] This guy is a flying shapeshifting regenerator with better spell like abilities, such as Glitterdust and Dimension Door. He comes with a +1 Kusarigama, and a built in silence ability with Steal Voice.

Spirit Oni [CR 2, SR 0, Will +4, Cha 15] You can wear it as a mask!

Psychopomp, Nosoi [CR 2, SR 0, Will +4, Cha 16] these tiny birds are very good at talking to the dead. They can fascinate undead creatures (and living creatures) they also have a +7 to profession scribe

Psychopomp, Ahmuuth [CR 4, SR 15, Will +8, Cha 12] At will summon a bunch of owls. Comes packaged with a +1 returning undead bane dagger (but only when they hold it, drat) and Locate Creature. These guys are super good at fighting Ghosts. +10 UMD

Psychopomp, Catrina [CR 5, SR 16, Will +9, Cha 19] This is a tough tough bind but comes with speak with dead at will, tongues, UMD +10, 3/day major image, and telepathy. 30 feet aura of Calm Emotions. DC 17 Dominate but only to give her/him a smooch. If you give her/him a smooch for 3 rounds you die regardless of hitpoints.

I am not 100% sure if this is legal or intended but when I played a Wild Rager Barbarian, my group interpreted that the class feature Wild Fighting allowed me to take an extra attack with one of my natural weapons (since I didn't use any manufactured weapons to obviously benefit.)

"A wild rager using the full-attack action can make one extra attack per round at her highest base attack bonus."

This doesn't say specifically that it can't be a natural weapon. Would this work?

Likewise if Haste works, then a Amulet of Mighty Fists with the Speed enchant should also work. I think the Wild Fighting feature is adding an extra attack just like Haste is, so I don't think they would stack.

A ninja making a full attack who spends a ki point can also make an additional attack

If you are focusing on Bite, consider using the Dragon Style instead of the Mantis Style to make Bite damage quite good. I am unsure of the viability of Stunning Fist spam against a level 10+ party.

you could also consider taking a second level of Barbarian for both a Rage Power and for the purposes of taking an Archetype like Wild Rager, which I believe stacks with Flurry to give you an extra bite, and you don't need to worry too much about eating your friends since you are a npc.

Strictly speaking about combat,
I have seen a player have moderate success with the Scout Archetype and playing their Rogue like a Barbarian. Without all the good parts of being a Barbarian. They really liked charge gimmicks.

In my current game I have a player who is so sick of trying to be a shortbow rogue that they have approached me with a Slayer who bought 2 skill focuses to make up the skill point deficit.

I usually encourage Ninjas to function as Rogues +1 in parties that have highly optimized characters. That or Vivisectionist Alchemists.

A lot of people are throwing out my personal favorite, Reincarnated Druid. I tried to list off some good reasons in the guide that would give a reincarnated reasons to consider turning to evil, they have a lot in common with Liches, albeit at a different power level.

I do not think the reincarnate druid is good for the big bad villain. They can be dangerous for low level parties but you need bigger evils eventually. Since they are so similar to liches, the only effective long term strategies they have are lich-esque, at which point you should consider why you aren't using a lich in the first place.

However, a Reincarnated Druid makes for an excellent lieutenant. Starscream/dinobot/vegeta/racer-x/protoman/whatever-anti-hero-deuter-antago nist-you-prefer style.

A misunderstood villain works as well since they must maintain some level of neutral. Maybe once the party hits mid levels they see eye to eye and have to work together to defeat a more 'classic' dnd villain, pit fiend, evil god, ancient evil, what have you. After all, the party keeps fighting this guy, but this guy keeps fighting the party. Whats his goals and why can't he accomplish them with the infinite time he has?

Try and make the villain appealing so that your party isn't groaning when he/she returns. THAT is the true route to immortality.

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.

As far as Core only goes, the Druid's 'must have' feats are Natural Spell and it is strongly recommended to buy into augment summoning. Combat Casting is good if your Druid is planning to hang out in melee with the companion. I am a big fan of taking Weapon Proficiency in reach weaponry at low level, Prof: Bardiche or whatever they prefer to keep them out of harms way until wild shape kicks in.

You want to build the companion to it's strengths and that is based upon the companion. If you have a companion with a grab attack, you want grapple feats. If you have a companion with one big bite you want power attacks. If you are going to have a big cat, take whatever you want.

Treantmonk's Druid guide is core only, so a good place to start.

I'm pretty sure the 3 HP loss is supposed to be related to the scar. It takes some DM fiat, but I think it's pretty reasonable to say that while you'll have to undergo the 1 hour ritual (and lose 3 HP) in each new body, the HP loss is a physical thing and therefore won't persist through a reincarnation.

Thats a good point, physical ailments don't travel. It can only be removed with a wish or miracle, which means the intention may be that it travels through death.

Will edit

Would you recommend the Troth of the Forgotten Pharaoh feat? It can allow you to commit suicide at any point.

Honestly I was all in on this feat until I saw that you lose 3 hit points every time you use it. I can't see a way to ever regain those hit points either.

There is a Ring that does a similiar effect, and a spell in paladin as well, but this feat specifically says it prevents people from playing with your body and I think that alone is worth mentioning. It's also very flavorful. The damage and blind isn't very good, but because it can activate 'when you are dead' it can stack with those other things.

Thanks for pointing it out, I'll add it to the guide.

All of it is very tempting.

The monk dip is fine, I'm also a fan of the FoF build, I played a similar character style in older 3.5 when wildshape was vastly different.

There is two cut off points in my opinion. Level 6 for if you wanted Shapeshifting Hunter, and level 7 if you are a Samsaran. Fourth Level spells is where you can get restoration or holy sword.

If you want neither favored enemy or to be a samsaran, then the best cut off is 5 for total multiclass (druid 5/ fighter 15 or something) or ASAP for another prestige. Generally, prestige will be the better option as it will allow you to retain some caster levels.

If you just want a character with Wild Shape and Immortality, there's always the option of Brightness Seeker, which gains exactly those things. Monk 5/Brightness Seeker 5 will make you a better monk, since you can monastic legacy cover those levels, you could also shaping focus and cover most of the wild shape levels.

Erm, I meant to write PF, not PFS. PF is equipment-dependent.

The archetype writes that you can track "your remains". I think they mean your corpse, not your equipment.

No problem, I agree PF is very equipment dependent, but you can build yourself to be equipment independent, and I think it helps to balance this type of character.

I think the 'your remains' is also up for debate. By intention it could mean either only your corpse, or your corpse and whats been done to it. If the DM is picky, you are still a Druid and spellcaster, finding your things after death can be accomplished through magic or good old fashioned survival tracking, and the whole ritual of it is sort of part and parcel for this type of character.

I will add in your point of view, as I think others will see it that way as well.

Basically, nowhere in the Celestial simple template does it say you get the [good] descriptor, so you don't get it. And it doesn't say "Smite Evil as a paladin", it's a separate ability that just happens to also be called Smite Evil. It doesn't do anything more than it says in the template.

I see now what you mean, I think having two abilities have the same name and different effects is foolish but right is right, I will point it out in the guide. Still, it is a large boost to damage and does help chew through some DR

Sadly I don't have any great solutions. But I do think you should avoid creating any dependencies on unique items, like a Living Monolith's Ka/Ba stone or an Uskwood's totem thingy. Because that's almost as bad as a lich wearing his phylactery into battle.

Well, a lich may decide to do that, and many of them do. It's not the wisest choice but still a choice. (Vordekai, the Lich from kingmaker wears his when he fights you)

So there's the argument, is it optimal to carry things you need for class features with you into battle if you are a character who operates mostly through the corner mechanic of death?
In a game where your gear can be more important than your class, and the DM controls what kills you and what happens in the 24 hours you are dead, perhaps worrying about too many contingencies will slow you down. You can choose, let the gear come and go like the rest of the world (you may outlive your gear) or set up treasure hordes and guardians (become the lich you emulate)

One interesting way to circumvent the trouble with Leadership might be to set up a secret society, where all members are supposed to be masked. He who knows all the secret signs and stuff is the leader of the society...

This is an option, I think people who are creative in their use of what they can establish in the world are the type of people who will love playing this type of character, I'll encourage players who truly want leadership to try and be creative.

Thanks for the input

If you're alignment is X Good, being a Samsaran is extra nice... for being able to cast Holy Sword at level 7.

I completely agree, i feel like i have extolled the virtues of holy sword enough, especially for a druid. Unholy sword is also available but anitpaladin has a markedly worse spell list.

First off: interesting guide. Kudos are due.

I like the archetype myself, I have a soft spot for "immortal patron behind the scenes, guiding civilization" kind of characters. That said, I'm worried about how gear-dependent PFS is and how annoying it would be to have to start from scratch if your body's looted beyond recovery.

If your GM is sick of Big Six dependency, maybe you can lobby to reduce WBL and make a lot of the Big Six bonuses built-in as permanent non-gear bonuses.

---

That said, some nitpicks about your guide:

I don't think Planar Wildshape lets you go through DR/Good. That is not paladin-smite there. And you don't get an alignment subtype. You don't count as [good].

Shade of the Uskwood: if you lose the token you can't cast spells unless you get a new one. That sounds pretty bad if you're expecting to be separated from your gear at the hands of your enemies. I should think this class is trying as hard as possible to avoid specific gear dependency?

First of all, reincarnated druid isnt pfs legal. So no worries about that. As far as loot dependency goes, you have a supernatural ability to track your belongings after death, that helps alot if your character has items they can't afford to lose.

Also, i had thought that smite lets you go through all dr regardless of type, if you could point me to a source that clarifies template smite vs paladin smite, id correct mistakes of course.

You are quite right about totem dependency being a big draw back. Ive outlined some complicated familiar fixes for such an occassion, if someone can think of a better solution, id listen to it. The solution as to what to do with your important belongings always varies and may be a character decision, making it an important roleplay choice

One thing you might want to look at adding is an analysis of using the Shaman spell list with Mystic Past Life.

At a glance, it provides a lot of the same options as Cleric plus False Life (and Greater), Fly, and Overland Flight. Gaining flight spells isn't as big a deal for a druid, since you have Wild Shape, but huge flying dinosaurs are always fun.

Also, in your section on wordcasting, you may want to mention the Perfect Body spell. It looks like a good option for a melee-focused druid that doesn't want to invest too heavily in gear that can potentially be lost.

Good point about shaman, ill take a look. Thanks

Hah, didn't realize it was you. Thanks for the guide, it's a great read!

Thanks

The Vulture 'will it apply to many lives' is a debate that's never been had as far as I know. Many Lives says "as the spell" which means anything that would normally apply to reincarnate should apply. However, the Vulture ability specifically says "when you cast reincarnate from your prepared spells" meaning in the case of RAW v RAI it shouldn't work.

However, the odds of you even making it to druid 8 before multiclassing out to agent of the grave is slim, especially with samsaran. I think most DM's would allow it because it feels nitpicky.

you should talk about it with the other players.

This is pretty important as well. Your DM may think the concept is cool enough to let you trade out a class feature for channel, or some other house rule.

Wouldn't technically everything be available if you took still spell?

Hmm... I like Agent of the Grave. If I took that to level 5, I could pick up everything I would've gotten from the Undead domain, which would free me to go with a different archetype, like Reincarnated Druid (which is what prompted the whole idea).

I'm a bit iffy on Swamp domain as a replacement, though. The campaign will take place in a primarily urban setting, so I'm not sure how many animals I'll have to raise. In many ways, animate dead is kind of a secondary thing here; I'm mainly thinking towards a necromancy focused caster.

Ironically, even though the flavor fits well, I would advise against taking Agent of the Grave past 3 especially if you intend to be reincarnated druid. I mentioned this in my guide, but if you take agent of the grave past 3 you basically become undead, and it's sort of a pain to try and heal yourself with negative energy. the druid simply doesn't have access to it.

Now, if you want to build yourself to be a negative energy character you can. Or if you have your eyes set on ultimately becoming an undead creature, you would make a fine lich, but reincarnate druid would enable you to do that without really needing to be undead.

Urban settings can be filled with just as many animals as any other setting, you have Call Animal to help with that. Rats/bats/wolves/stray dogs/ sewer gators. If you become a man of wealth, pay poachers to go and get the animal you want and bring it to you.

Reincarnated Druid + Agent of the Grave 3, Samsaran, Shade of the Uskwood, and Vulture domain will give you access to dang near every necromancy spell in the game, with the only overlap being from getting Circle of Death twice

Have an arcanist who is a savant. Wants to move prty memebers around battlefield without moving herself. Also would like to increase range of said movement. What metamagic feats work on this?

if you specifically want a metamagic feat to do that, there isn't one.

You can pull some shenanigans with Toppling Spell, knocking them prone and then using a feat like Riptide Attack to drag them, which is goofy. If the caster had improved unarmed strike I would probably allow Ki Throw, but most allies won't appreciate being thrown around on their butts.

there may be spells that accomplish this better, but as far as metamagic goes thats your options

In a home game that works. My build was for PFS though (no Improved Natural Attack for example) which means you're broke and intelligent items are very hard to obtain (no custom items or intelligent items by default.)

I just noticed that Wild Speech is level 6 minimum, theres a spell from the Advanced Class Guide called Beastspeak, level 2 druid spell which does the same thing for the purposes of communication, quicker and cheaper.

I've seen alot of people try to get around these limits, I just remember the intelligent item being the most flavorful. I've had players utilize drow sign language, mage hand to write with, I had a gnome try and use haunted fey aspect and prestidigitation and ghost sound to try and communicate, but since none of these actually allow intelligible speech it was usually the players having a laugh trying to interpret what he wanted to say.

Personally I like Wild Speech (talking hippo) or even Eldritch Claws for an always-on while wildshaped DR Magic/Silver bypass.

Get a cheap intelligent item with the ability to talk, saves a feat slot.

hooray necromancer druid!

Adept channel will be up to your DM, may I humbly suggest the Swamp Domain instead?

Eventually, you will want 2 levels of the Agent of the Grave prestige class, this will allow you to treat undead you summon as their original type, for you as a druid you will want this to be 'animals' primarily.

Yes as a Druid you are the master of animals, and now your animals are also undead.

Samsaran and Uskwood are ideal, but with Samsaran you don't specifically need Uskwood, it is good to have both though.

If you want to free up a Samsaran spell slot, I would suggest taking Agent of the Grave to level 3, which will allow you to Desecrate.

If you don't want Agent of the Grave, I would suggest taking the animal companion as an alternative. If your companion falls in combat, you can raise it with animate dead and add it to your horde. In this fashion, you have a living bodyguard, and a semi eternal string of undead ones.

You could also take the Vulture domain, which arguably plays better with a group of other heroes.

I would suggest Valiant Steed and Armor Proficiencies. Narrow frame is surprisingly handy unless you have a magical means of storing companions already

Reincarnate? :D (obvious bias)

You could be a reincarnate druid and it takes care of itself, or have others reincarnate him

he could alter self himself back into a human form, or reincarnate roulette till he became human again.

other people have mentioned the normal paths to eternal youth, timeless body.

Good ol' fashioned Wish spell would probably work. "I wish to be young again" if you really, really don't want a spell caster, perhaps the guy happened into a Ring of Three Wishes, which he uses right before the end of his life, might be 300 years old or so at that rate.

alot of outsides (genies, pitfiends) get the ability to grant wishes, so perhaps he struck a deal or saved their life, or is an incredibly powerful planar binder

Goblins get +4 to dex.

Looking at the reincarnate table on the SRD shows them as getting a +2. they may start with a +4 when you roll one but only get +2 on reincarnate

I saw a post the other day about Druid guides being out of date, so I have updated it with some options from advanced class guide.

In summary reincarnated druid received very little. There are new feat options available, outlined in the feat section and there is a new ranger archetype that makes Shapeshifting Hunter more attractive.

If there are other options that have become available that I am not aware of, let me know please.

I think most of the problems from animal companions comes from people not bothering with the rather expansive and limiting set of rules involving animal training and finding. When your DM permits the druid to have a tiger regardless of setting or training, of course it's going to appear powerful at low levels and mostly out of place. When everyone buys a point of intelligence in order to forget about push actions, of course it feels like that guy is just playing 2 characters.

If someone is willing to role-play out scenarios where training an animal takes just as much time in a day as a wizard would spend researching or a cleric would spend making hail mary's there's no reason not to allow them, especially at the expensive cost of feats.

As a DM I've allowed sylvan for eldritch heritage, it comes with an expensive 13 Charisma cost, and a skill focus tax.

I have disallowed a player from having an animal companion when I felt it was taken purely for more actions. Some players play them poorly, they take too much time, steal time away from others, make other party members look bad or unnecessary, etc.

Unlike eidolons and summoned monsters, animal companions are not magically bound to their masters. When a character is bad at animal training, regardless of what their class allows, the animal companion should not be required to stay.

Elasmosaurus has a land speed, can double as a Lapras if your boat ever gets sunk. int 2

Pternodon is like a Roc, not as good but a huge dex. Quetzalcoatlus is basically better but progresses at 9, very late. int 2

Spinosaurus is a trex that can swim with claws. int 2

Tylosaurus is large and has swim/land and has a grab bite. int 2

if your DM cocks an eyebrow about having a dinosaur, say you found it on a tropical island in the middle of a storm, and you never saw the island again.

Giant Mantis can fly, climb, get large. It's stupid though. int -

Monitor Lizard swims/walks, with a handy poison to go with it. int 2

A Dire Rat can climb and swim, and makes sense being on a pirate ship. Filth Fever is a good amount of con damage. int 2

A Giant Weasel has blood drain and climb. int 2

Death Ward? Cleric 4

The subject is immune to energy drain and any negative energy effects, including channeled negative energy.

You'll want some caster stuff eventually for things like Gaseous Form, Spider Climb, Dominate/charm etc. Do you want to be able to control undead? Do you want to drain blood for healing?

Bloodrager accomplishes alot of debuffing through spells, opens up gradually, allows you to be a full melee fighter, and allows archetypes for both Fast Healing and Grappling for biting people.

If you have your heart set on monk, you will have some difficulty dealing with MAD and being in melee with no means to heal yourself or be healed by others without feat tax.

Hi,

i need a good druid guide, but most of the guides i found are more than 3 years old.
That means most of the options added by later books are not cosidered in these guides.

I would be grateful if someone could direct me to a more actual guide.

Thank you.

Treantmonk and Peterrco's guides are still applicable advice. Since I wrote the reincarnated Druid guide, no archetype or feats have been released to my knowledge that screamed necessary for that type of druid. When it comes to standard druids, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Get a big animal, turn into a big animal, and summon some big animals. Take feats that compliment your favorite thing among those three.

If you don't want wild shape, take Nature Fang, it works well with the Crocodile domain for some serious sneak attack. If you don't want animal companion, take domain or Feral Shifter.

I play a lot of dumb vampire characters, the best Dhampir character I've ever played was a hexcrafter magus, following the Wayang Spellhunter + Frostbite + Rime Spell + Enforcer string. I took the Evil Eye Hex and Hex Strike as soon as possible. You could also do all of this with a 1 level dip of Witch or Druid or do it at level 4 with bloodrager. Granted, this is 3 feats but the combo only gets better over time.

Fatigue = -2 strength and -2 dex
Entangled = -2 to all attack rolls and -4 dex
Shaken = -2 to attack rolls and other stuff

For most creatures, thats a -6 to strength -6 to dex without including penalties to saves and such, and before you get Evil Eye. Now this isn't DIRECTLY ability damage, but it's alot of 'ability damage.' You could probably stack this with Stunning Fist for total shutdown mode or an amulet of mighty fists and Conductive (for channeling other touch attacks) or spell storing. I eventually dipped a level of Rime Blooded Sorceror in order to tag a Slow onto the whole process. I think most of this stuff is pfs legal?

So I am a Lv.6 half orc fighter, I use a spiked chain and am pretty trip focused, my item slots to fill are:

Any 4 magical items 12 500gp and under

a +3 weapon (or equivalent if specific weapon)

a +3 armor (or equivalent if specific armor)

I'm looking for anything with flair, pazaz,and utter coolness.
have at 'er!

A Cloak of the Hedge Wizard (2500gp) will give you 1 at will cantrip and a 1/a day cast of a spell based on the type of cloak. Transmutation is great for fighter.

I am very fond of Mistmail if your dex is good, once a day miss chance for a combat or so. (2,250 gp)

Hat of Disguise is 1800gp, simple and effective for infiltration, useful if you ever need to hide that youre an orc.

Hey everybody, I have done extensive work on my guide on the Reincarnated Druid, seen here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hzA1yye_11SwcEpQ2ccXvmLJGogjY39y4TI94v7 JKMA/edit?usp=sharing

I am working on some character builds, I am focusing first on The Lich, who is a Reincarnated Druid focused on necromancy and Lich flavor using the Shade of Uskwood feat.

Some considerations:
Venerable Age choice in order to boost casting stats with the intention of Reincarnating later.

Samsaran with the Cleric Mystic Past Life in order to gain Inflict spells and Create Undead. Also gaining access to Summon Monster 1-9 to make Augment Summoning more flexible of a choice.

Shade of the Uskwood (animate dead 5) vs Samsaran Mystic Past Life choice (animate dead 3, uses a precious slot, opens up Agent of the Grave faster)

Agent of the Grave to gain Desecrate and be able to treat undead animals as regular animals, opening up Druid animal specific spells.

Swamp Domain to be able to channel and affect animals.

I'd like some help with:
How to help a Druid control intelligent Undead? (no Command Undead or Control Undead) Perhaps more long term than Dominate Animal?

Some spells that work with animals that would have good synergy with an undead horde?

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and inputs. If someone makes a full build that looks good, I'll add it to the guide of course.

Crocodile Domain will give you the ability to use the 'Death Roll' special ability available normally to crocodiles, essentially letting you twist and damage people you have grappled. Crocodile Domain also grants you sneak attack dice, opening up the feat Strangler, allowing you to deal your sneak attack dice to the target of your grapple.

Find a wildshape with the Grab special ability and you have a character who spends their time thrashing and twisting their opponents.

Sorry, I caught up.

nice guide.

you keep mention that summon bring Celestial - how ? druids dont get that...

The summon nature's ally list on d20pfsrd.com lists several specifically Celestial creatures, most of which come from individual adventure paths.

Here's a fun thought. What happens to a Wyrwood Reincarnated Druid when it dies?

Assuming you are talking about the construct race from the race builder, a DM might consider making a separate table for similiar constructs. This is one of those cases where Reincarnate being open ended helps.

ooo this sounds so much fun lol, is this archetype legal for pfs?

As far as I can tell, according to Nethys, no.

Samarasan is practically purple for a reincarnated druid.

Spell Immunity/Greater Spell Immunity means you can ignore the real threats to your existence.

There should be a list of the ultimate spells to choose.

Being a double immortal is made of joy exp.when 2 mental stat bonuses and physical stat penalties that will leave sooner..or later.

Nothing like getting stronger thru death!!

There are so many spells that it's hard to hand pick the best ones, but Spell Immunity is definately a winner, I will add it to the guide.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Storm Kindler (Or, if SRD is used, must worship a god of storms, not just Gozreh). I flat out love this prestige, and the flavor potential with a reincarnated druid is fantastic. In effect, you become a (nearly) unending force of nature, the undying storm.

The Storm Kindler has great flavor stuff, but for normal Druids many of the abilities go to waste. However, with the reincarnated druid your wildshape is already not very good, so taking Storm Kindler for those who want flight is a good substitute. I can't tell if it's an actual polymorph effect, meaning it might stack with wildshape?

So I was looking at the guide again and remembered something when I was reading the monk section of the multi class section.

You aren't wearing wild armor when you use Wildshape, so your Wisdom would get added to your Armor Class while Wildshaped

After looking around online I can't seem to find an official ruling on whether or not Wild Armor stacks with Monk bonus AC. It wouldn't come up until high level anyway, so I would say unless the DM rules they stack that it behooves the player to decide if they want to be armorless or not. The natural bonus from wild shape + monk ac I think would cover the loss of armor pretty well, at least in low levels.

how about starting as Samsaran... it could be interesting.

Talk to DM about always reincarnating as a Samsaran?
or maybe by becoming a reincarnated druid you are getting off the Samsaran Wheel...

Mystic Past life to get Divine Favor(+Fates Favored Trait), Restoration,PlaneShift, Miracle...etc.

Samsarans get +2 vs Death/Necro stuff

+2INT/WIS is good as mental stats stay...
-2Con is bad tho...but if your gonna reincarnate into something else its not too bad. just have to survive those first few levels...

I already had Samsaran listed as a green choice, I'll highlight the +2 against death saves and the int/wis. the -2 con hurts.

Chevalier has a character level based smite 1 time a day.

Divine Scion's Domain Specialization ability comes with a spell like ability that scales with character level

"Ruthless" from Low Templar scales with character level.

"Lantern Arcana" from Lantern Bearer

Sentinels "divine boon"

I would probably build it using weapon finesse with a rapier and a wand in the other hand. Grab quick draw to grab wands quick and maybe attach weapon cords to them so you can just drop them. Kind of a different type of switch-hitter.

Spring Loaded Wrist Sheathes are your friend, swift action wand draw.

Interesting catch on Arcane Training. Don't you have to have class levels in a class to declare it a favored class...and take the favored class bonus? UMD is easy enough to get high level, same as all skills so I wouldnt worry too much about that. I think that dipping is the easy way of making this build work but its not nearly as cool as just being a single class fighter and saying, "what? Martials cant have cool things...take a...SCORCHING RAY TO THE FACE!"

The entry specifically says that you act as a level 1 character if you do not have that class, so I think in this case the alternate racial is intentionally breaking the rule to give you, literally, arcane training for your fighter.

The basic build revolves around, lore warden and the pragmatic activator trait. Focus on High Int.

I am thinking a race with a SLA for caster level then grab craft wand as a feat. Weapon focus: ray, weapon specialization: ray.

Is this fesable?

Consider being a Half-Elf with the Arcane Training alternate Racial.

So basically you declare that your favorite class is "wizard" even though you are a fighter, and you qualify for all wizard wands.

Mordant Envoy will give you the caster levels you need for crafting.

Now as far as actually using it in combat, no one fights with a wand quite as well as a Magus. I have played multiple Wand Weider Magus' and I find it to be excellent as a 3 level dip. With one arcana you can gain the ability to full round attack and activate wands.

A Robe of Runes is 44kgp
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/robe- of-runes frees up your headband of intellect slot
If you do not have a level 1 ring of wizardry I highly recommend it.