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I need help understanding druid armor options and costs. My 8th level druid is loosely modeled after Treantmonk's "Spirit of the Beast" template. Our party has one tank, several strikers, and a couple of glass cannons. Consequently my PC acts as a secondary tank (along with his animal companion and summoned animals) to protect the softer targets. We only use the Core Rulebook (no expansions).

How can I best beef up my druid's AC? His 18 Dex with +1 Hide armor and a +1 Amulet of Natural Armor grants a total AC of 20, with a -3 armor check penalty. This AC is starting to feel weaker than it did a few levels ago.

I've been reviewing Dragonhide, Darkwood, Ironwood, Wild Armor, and Wood Shape. Dragonhide armor with the Wild enchantment appears to be a straightforward choice. Another combination that came to mind was full plate armor constructed of Darkwood with both Wild and Ironwood enchantments. At first reading, it seems that would grant the plate armor bonus of +9, an armor check penalty of -4, and a max Dex bonus of +1. Getting that +9 armor bonus in WildShape form would be a huge improvement.

By comparison, his current armor (sans enchantments) nets +8 AC (+4 for hide and +4 for Dex). While the darkwood/ironwood idea nets +10 AC (+9 for plate and +1 for Dex). But he doesn't get to use that AC bonus when Wildshaped. Ironwood applies an extra +1 magic bonus to AC. Initially I thought Darkwood removed the Maxiumum Dex Bonus restriction, but on a second reading it appears that first impression was wrong.

What would you recommend, and how would I cost these out? Thanks.

Is it correct to say that a character with an 18 Str, 18 Dex, Quarterstaff, and Two-Weapon fighting would attack as follows:
Primary hand: +2 to hit, +6 damage
Off hand: +2 to hit, +2 damage

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Here is my scenario and reasoning. A character has an 18 Strength and an 18 Dexterity. He has a Quarterstaff and the Two Weapon Fighting feat.

Quarterstaff is a Two-Handed Melee double weapon. Regarding 'double' weapons, page 141 states, "A character can fight with both ends of a double weapon as if fighting with two weapons, but he incurs all the normal attack penalties associated with two-weapon combat, just as though the character were wielding a one-handed weapon and a light weapon (see page 202)."

The 2-Weapon fighting chart on page 202 shows -2 primary-hand and -2 off-hand penalties when the off-hand weapon is light and the character has Two Weapon Fighting. Essentially the Quarterstaff gets treated as a light weapon on this chart since it's a double weapon on page 142.

At this point, my understanding is that this character would be able to attack with the Quarterstaff with attack penalties of -2 for each attack. The strength of 18, granting +4 to hit, would offset that penalty, leaving a net bonus of +2 to each attack.

Now we get to damage. Page 16 states, "Off-hand attacks receive only half the characters's Strength bonus, while two-handed attacks receive 1-1/2 times the Strength bonus."

Given this scenario with the Quarterstaff, I take that to mean the character would get +6 damage (1.5 times) on the primary hand attack, and +2 damage (half) on the off-hand attack.

Is this correct? If not, please let me know where that analysis is off base. Thanks for your help.

Our gaming group is starting a new campaign, and we may use Pathfinder for our core rules. We are a pretty hardened group, with experience from AD&D to 4.0. We spent a lot of time in 3.0/3.5, disliked 4.0 (WoW on paper), tried the original AD&D with modifications, and have decided to go back into 3.5, but with limitations.

I purchased the Pathfinder PDF, and noticed many of the feats and spells that I was familiar with in 3.5 are absent.

What has been your experience with using Pathfinder and incorporating spells and feats from 3.5 into Pathfinder? Is that a bad idea or a good idea? Does it unbalance the game? I'd like to know what the Pathfinder veterans have to say about this. Thanks.