Shinzaemon's page

I couldn't stop thinking about Nature Fang druids with the crocodile domain and rogue-vmc all day.

I'm not entirely sold on the survivability of a mauler caiman, but you did a lot to calm my nerves Lizard King. Going for a mauler makes me want an 18 con, making for an all around beefier duo. I'm still not sold on the survivabilty of a low level mauler caiman, but you probably shouldn't start using one until you start picking up Sneak Attack Dice anyways. At level 1, even if you invested in 18 con,FCB in hp, and mauler's endurance you're looking at a 13 hp druid and 8 hp croc. I'd be scared to death to rumble with that.

And then there's the 10ft land speed. Longstrider seems like the only real solution, it's just annoying you're pretty much forced to have it up for the familiar to go anywhere. Again, this seems a detriment at lower levels where you want to be prepared with as many defensive buffs as possible. Are there any other viable ways to turn the familiar into a flanking buddy at lower levels? I'm thinking improved familiar is a very smart pickup at level 9, but that leaves 8 levels of trying to make the caiman familiar do work.

I'm also kinda stuck on the combat style choice. TWF is the obvious one for optimizing sneak attack, but the more I think about it the more I like the idea of shield style with an open hand for spellcasting. Spellcasting + Combat Reflexes is my favorite way to create melee casters and shield bashing seems like a nice AoO tactic with the free bullrushes you'll pick up from shield master. Natural attacks is also a very real option, especially considering all of the druid's best buffs target natural weapons.

I'm not usually a huge fan of VMC's but I think the rogue VMC fits the nature fang just perfectly. Trapfinding and the right traits tacked onto the druid skill set and spell list makes for an awesome and very effective wilderness rogue type. VMC Rogue + Nature Fang + Crocodile Domain + Accomplished Sneak Attacker gives you 6d6 sneak attack dice at level 11, on par with your average rogue. Add to that 6th level druid spells and an improved familiar and this build seems to have a lot to offer in the way of role versatility and action economy.

Here's an incomplete level 12 build stub. Thanks for the inspiration Tyrant.

Race: Not sure yet, and one of the beauties of the build. Human is obvious, but I also really like samsaran for poaching the best buff spells off of the cleric/inquisitor or paladin list. Tengu makes a lot of sense for getting three natural attacks right away if that's what we're going for,but then maybe so does that one race that gets a gore and hooves since claws and a bite are so easy to pick up via spells. Half-Orc is always a favorite of mine and great at producing melee druids. Lizardfolk makes the same sense as tengu does but also wins on some flavor points. Dwarf seems perfect for the mauler familiar route with the con and wis boosts and the longhammer is a great weapon pickup for the two-handed style chain. I'm definitely floundering when it comes to race, but I don't consider that a bad thing. I love the possibilities.

1. Nature Fang 1. Crocodile Domain, Open Feat
2. Nature Fang 2.
3. Nature Fang 3. VMC Rogue - Trapfinding
4. Nature Fang 4. Open Slayer Talent SA: 1d6
5. Nature Fang 5. Accomplished Sneak Attacker SA: 2d6
6. Nature Fang 6. Open Slayer Talent SA: 3d6
7. Nature Fang 7. VMC Rogue - Sneak Attack SA: 4d6
8. Nature Fang 8. Open Slayer Talent
9. Nature Fang 9. Improved Familiar
10. Nature Fang 10. Open Slayer Talent
11. Nature Fang 11. VMC Rogue - Evasion SA: 6d6
12. Nature Fang 12. Open Advanced Slayer Talent

Each one of the open slayer talents can be used to pick up combat feats, and there are up to three open feats if human is chosen (one or two at first level and one at twelfth thanks to the advanced slayer talent). This gives a lot of build flexibility and I'm struggling to decide how best to round out the character.