Spee's page

Thank you for your advice. I read through most of those guides and that how I ended up where I was.

I've never understood the purpose behind Shield Other, especially if you're a front line party member. I can take half the HP damage instead of the fighter or barbarian, who already have more HP than me. So I die faster or spend more of my time healing myself and not fighting. Sounds like I'd be my own heal-bot instead of the parties heal-bot. :(
As for the deflection AC, most people already have it, same for the resistance bonus.
So for hours/level I have to stay close to a guy, so I share his pain and need to heal myself more often to stay alive? Not sure how that helps much.

I've looked at the variant channeling abilities and have not been impressed at most of them. Most clerics choose to heal their allies and thus get only the Heal portion of the variant. Variant channeling means I'm half as good at healing through channels and then my buddies get an additional affect for about 1 round. If I'm spending the time channeling, it's probably because someone needs the HP, which varient just cut in half. Otherwise I'm variant channeling to provide that benefit and wasting what little healing it usually gives.
For this character, the CHA is too low for Selective Channel, which means any healing and variant good also affects my enemies. I don't see how this helps.

Quick channel looks interesting. It'd have to be either my 5th or 7th feet.

Noticed that half-elves can get Ancestral Arms to get the Shield Slam proficiency and thus I wouldn't have to take the Fighter dip.

Kurgess gets the travel domain and his favored is the Javelin which would work better with the shield, so I think I'll switch to him.

We just finished part of an adventure path and we're being given the option to rebuild our characters. We had a disfunctional party that lacked most of the normal roles. 2 of us decided to rebuild our characters and we'll end up with a Blaster Wizard, Druid, Fighter or Barbarian, and I agreed to provide healing. I was an Oracle (Heavens) and ended up feeling like a 1-trick pony that either got off an encounter breaking Color Spray, or buffed the party and then tried to stay out of the way to survive.

So, for my new character, I'd like to have some combat options. I like the idea of Shield bashing, you get AC and can do some damage with it. What I've come up with is a Crusader Cleric of Abadar who's main weapon is his Heavy Shield. Figured I could throw up a buff and then wade into combat to help out the fighter, step out when needed to heal.

Problems, he'll be light on spells and looks like I'll be using Channel mostly for healing. Another Problem, I either spend a feat for Martial Weapon Focus shield or dip into another class to get the proficiency.

My current concept is:

Half-elf
Cleric - Crusader 6 levels
Fighter - Unbreakable 1 level

Str 20, (2 from half-elf, 2 from belt)
Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10

Feats:
1st: toughness
Fighter: Endurance and Diehard (Unbreakable switches these out for the fighters bonus feat)
Crusader 1: Improved Shield Bash
3rd: Weapon Focus Shield Bash
5th: Power Attack
Crusader 5: Shield Focus
7th: Furious Focus

Traits:
Adopted to get Shield Bearer for +1 dmg with the shield
Focused Mind to improve combat casting

Equipment:
Mithril Breastplate and then cast Magic Vestment each day
Heavy Darkwood Shield with a +1 enhancement and then the Bashing property.
Light Crossbow (for a fallback ranged weapon and it's dieties favored weapon. I'll have to drop the shield to use it and thus may never actually use this.)
Cloak of Resistance +1
Ring of Protestion +2
Belt of Bull's Strength
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone (+1 insight AC)
Cracked Dusty rose ioun stone (+1 initiative)

Wand of CLW

Looking through the cleric spells, I'll probably prep Magic Vestment, Weapon of Awe, Bear's Endurance, Grace, Bless, Divine Favor and Liberating Command.

Any recommendations or suggestions about this builds combat viability and still being able to provide healing as needed?

Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can select any feat they are physically capable of using. They'll get a stat increase at 4th level.

Look into some of the Teamwork Feats, Precise Strike and Outflank have worked well for me.

A team of Wolf 6, Wolf 6 with Weapon Focus (bite), Precise Strike and Outflank can be nice. Getting better at Wolf 7, Wolf 7.

Pack Lord Archetype for the Druid Class. This allows him to have more than one companion, effective Druid level split between those companions. IE Pack Lord Druid Level 6 could have a Wolf 3 and Roc 3.

Boon Companion Feat to boost an Animal Companions level by 4 (but no higher than your characters level).

So, if you were Pack Lord Druid Level 6, you could have Wolf 1 and Roc 5, Take the Boon Companion Feat for the Wolf and half Wolf 5 and Roc 5.

Or, Wolf 2, Roc 2, 3rd animal, 3 Boon Companion Feats and all animals would be at 6.

Pack Lord Druid gets an Improved Empathic Link at 6th level so it might help to have a disposable scout creature, say Wolf 2, Roc 2, Hawk 2. and take 2 Boon companion feats to have Wolf 6, Roc 6, Hawk 2.

Keep in mind that when you gain a level, you only advance 1 companion. If the Druid wants to reset HD, he has to release at least 2 companions and then reacquire them.

I don't have the books in front of me, but beast shape 1 & 2 allow you to wild shape into any creature of the Animal type. Beast shape 3 will allow S&M magical beasts. So, as long as the creature is an "animal" and eventually a "magical beast" of the correct size, then you can wild shape into it.
It's been a while since I've played a Druid, so things may have changed since then, but templates aren't allowed for the creatures you've shaped into. So you can't do a Young Allosaur to reduce it's size so you can beast shape into it.

Yes, you could do unarmed strikes while wild-shaped. However, if you combine Unarmed Strikes with Natural attacks, all of you natural attacks become secondarys and suffer a -5 to hit with them.
So if your normal attack is:
Unarmed Strike at +0
or
Claw +0, Claw +0, Bite +0
I think it would become
Unarmed Strike +0, Claw -5, Bite -5.

I may be wrong.

Never noticed you can use Pearls at any point in the day to recall a spell. I'll have to reconsider them for future characters.

A previous character was a Druid x/Monk 2/ Barbarian 2. I wasn't as concerned about spell casting and leaned more towards combat.

Took the Magical Knack trait and the Shaping Focus Feat to reduce the multiclassing penalties.

Consider taking a level of Martial Artist Monk (any alignment). If you have a high wisdom (at least 18), the monk AC bonus is equal to the Armor bonus you could wear for most standard material armors (Hide is +4). Plus the Monk AC counts towards Touch and Flat-footed. Now you don't have to buy fancy expensive armor for it to work when you're wild shaped.

The Monk level also gives +2 to all saves, Improved Unarmed Strike and a Bonus Feat. I don't see Flurry of Blows or Stunning Fist helping much while Wild Shaped, so you could consider an Archetype that replaces them.

Monk makes your unarmed strike a larger damage die (d6 vs d4) and Improved unarmed strike means your Amulet of Mighty Fists works for you even when you're not wild shaped. Meaning you don't need to buy a weapon for when you're not wild shaped.

Net loss for 1 Monk level instead of 12th level in druid would be 1 to all saves, a point of BAB and a 5 & 6th level spell. Might be worth it depending on your build.

As for gear:
Amulet of Mighty Fists should help both Unarmed Strikes and your Natural attacks.
Additional Wisdom helps your AC and your Spells.
Metamagic Rods and Pearls are great, but if they're melded with you, I don't think you can use them.

Hope this might help.

You might consider taking a Monk level:
No BAB, but +2 to all your saves
Unarmed Strike (D6 and no need for weapons)
Monk AC bonus which is good for flat-footed and touch attacks. Plus, if you have a decent Wisdom, you don't have to buy that expensive wild shape armor for when you're wild shaped.
A feat and
Stunning Fist.

Fighter would get you +1 BAB, +2 Fort & a feat. I'd say the Monk AC and all three saves are better then the 1 BAB.

Barbarian gets you +1 BAB, +2 fort, Fast movement & rage. A faster raging lion or bear is always a nice idea. However, I'd still go with the Monk AC.

Me, I'd go Monk 1/ Druid X. That Monk AC is great, plus the extra saves. Flurry will always suck, but the better unarmed damage and the occasional stunning fist make up for that. Plus not having to worry about expensive armor (wild ability) makes buying equipment cheaper.

I'd say yes, you can snipe while casting a spell.

You can snipe while sneak attacking (ranged attack w/in 30ft) and you can sneak attack with spells (any that deal damage and require an attack roll). So I don't see why you couldn't snipe while casting spells.

Sniping: If you’ve already successfully used Stealth at least 10 feet from your target, you can make one ranged attack and then immediately use Stealth again. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check to maintain your obscured location.

It just states that you must be at least 10 feet away and that you can make one ranged attack. Doesn't say what kind of ranged attack; bow, crossbow, thrown weapon or item, spell. As long as you make an attack.

So, if you can over come the stealth penalties for the verbal component of your spell, then I don't see why you couldn't do it. Either that or find spells without the verbal component. I.E. Silent Spell.

You could also try to convince your DM that your whispering your verbal component, which makes it 15 points harder to hear then a normal converstaion (see the Perception skill).

My group's having a little trouble about the abilities lost section of the Polymorph description. PG 212 PHB.

You lose all Extaordinary and Supernatural abilities that depend on your original form.

Some are straight forward and easy to understand.
If I'm a Dwarf, I'd loose darkvision.
But would a Dward loose his Hardy Trait? He has it because he's a Dwarf after all.

Our group is very confused on this issue. I loose Darkvision (EX) because I'm no longer a "Dwarf", but I'm still a Dwarf and keep all my Dwarf Racial Traits except that one. What about the Hardy trait?

I know the PG 212 description says supernatural and extraordinary, but which ones are which for the race? Which apply and don't? Under the Darkvision description later in the book it state's it's an extraordinary ability. So Darkvisions gone. Do the rest stay?

Then we get into the "You lose any class features that depend on form..." part. Which class features depend on form? If I'm a Druid/Barbarian, Fast Movement is an (EX) ability, so do I loose it? I would assume that it's not based on my being a "human barbarian", but because I'm a Barbarian and thus doesn't matter about my form. Since most class features are (EX) abilities, does the polymorph section not cover them?

So, by the polymorph description, if it's a racial Supernatural or Extraordinary ability, you loose it.
What about Class abilities?

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this as well.
In the description of the Transmutation school, it lists how polymorph affects you (PHB PG. 211).

You would gain the Boar's base speed of 40ft. Even if your's was better.
You would loose your Armor bonus to AC.
Gore is a natural attack, so you would get it. If you have the Bestiary
refer to Table 3-1 on PG 302 for a list of natural attacks. My group just noticed that the Primary and Secondary rules changed a little from 3.5 as well. Look at the same table. Most creatures Bite/Claw/Claw routine are now all Primary attacks.

I'm trying to find rules for flight. I see some details for skill checks under the Fly Skill, but I don't see where it differentiates between Average, Poor, etc....