First I would like to thank you for reading this and for any help you may provide. My group is currently running Rise of the Rune Lords and we just finished Thistletop. Our DM is changing the rules so I have had a chance to rebuild my character.
GM has recently made a lot of home rules like agile maneuvers & weapon finesse our automatically incorporated into our characters. Initiative rolls will be rolled with 1d12. Race requirements are out and many more. Deadly agility from path of war is allowed.
Party Make up
Joey
Warlord2/Bard2(Archeologist) he has been the primary damage dealer of the group with two weapon fighting. His AC is 21, but I don't think he knows how to increase it from here and his fort/wisdom save isn't anything to write home about.
Figit Dual cursed oracle4 from the nature mystery she is the primary damage mitigator and has a celestial wolf animal companion with 6HD. She has no melee capacity herself. Her 6 intelligence pet is going down the improved bull rush line.
Someone shaman4 from necromancers. This class is a druid combined with an oracle. We have a new player that will probably take over this class and I don't know what he will do with it.
Gregor
I am a Druid4
14 STR
16 DEX
16 CON
14 INT
18 WIS
9 CHA
You can play around with these stats anyway you'd like. I am going to be taking craft wondrous item at level 3, everything else is up in the air. I was allowed to take the finding haleen trait and tailor it to rise of the runelords so far I have rolled well so my HP is 41 +1d8 roll.
I want to build a front line character that can be a backup caster. I know codzilla doesn't exist anymore. I was thinking about going 2 levels of ranger for shapeshifting hunter, two levels of monk for maneuver master, or 6 levels of mystic shaper from a 3rd party book after I hit level 5. I feel as if our DM makes encounters harder than playing things smarter. When we fought Nulia it took over 65 damage to put her down. Two of us were level 3 and 2 of us were level 2 and under a time limit so we couldn't rest and just went straight through.
I am considering feats like planar shape, improved initiative, natural spell, power attack
What do you think I should do and what do you see as some of the pros and cons to each? I feel like we don't have someone to absorb the hits and DR and fast healing would be nice with planar shape and mystic shaper, but I'd also be losing a lot and am not sure how I'd be going about armoring up. I could use any general and specific advice you are willing to give.