I recently started running my first campaign ever in a Homebrew world. My setting has the PCs starting on the fringes of an evil empire in a small village ruled by a cruel baron. The game started with them walking into town and seeing the tiefling wizard (who was the traveler they had never met) being bundled into a wagon by the baron's men. All being chaotic good they opted to fight the soldiers, though some got away with the wizard. The first session revolved around them trying to save the wizard from lockup at the behest of the village elder. It was received very well, the players really seemed to enjoy it, even the wizard who didn't get to cast a single spell (poor guy had his hands chained up, I gave them plenty of opportunity to break the chains but those particular checks resulted in a surprising number of natural ones).
I recently started playing in a campaign already in progress with a 12th level start. I decided to play a Druid as I haven't tried one before and it sounded fun. However 2 sessions in I'm finding that I'm quite useless in combat, I'm just not sure what to do.
The character started as a 12th level human druid, focusing heavily on casting. She started out as a Human but was killed and reincarnated as a Gnoll during the first session. The rest of the party consists of a Rogue, a Fighter, a Paladin and a Sorcerer, all built in a fairly traditional way to fill the usual roles.
The stat block was produced using JohnnyAngel's sCoreGen sheet
Marit El'Nayran:
MARIT EL'NAYRAN
Female Gnoll Druid 12
N Medium humanoid
Init +6 ; Senses Perception +24
==DEFENSE==
AC 24, touch 16, flat-footed 22 (+8 armor, +2 dex, +4 deflection)
hp 112 (12d8+36)
Fort +16, Ref +13, Will +22
==OFFENSE==
Spd 20 ft./x4
==STATISTICS==
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 29, Cha 8
Base Atk +9, Cmb +10Cmd +26
Feats Armor Proficiency (Light) (PFCR 118), Armor Proficiency (Medium) (PFCR 118), Augment Summoning (PFCR 118), Craft Wondrous Item (PFCR 120), Improved Initiative (PFCR 127), Lightning Reflexes (PFCR 130), Natural Spell (PFCR 131), Scribe Scroll (PFCR 132), Shield Proficiency (PFCR 133), Spell Focus (PFCR 134)
Skills Disguise +0, Fly +16, Handle Animal +14, Knowledge (nature) +18, Linguistics +7, Perception +24, Ride +5, Sense Motive +12, Spellcraft +16, Survival +26, Swim +4
Languages Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Druidic, Ignan, Sylvan, Terran, Thassilonian
Combat Gear Wild Darkwood Breastplate +2
Other Gear Headband of Inspired Wisdom +6, Pearls of Power 1, 2, 3, Cloak of Resistance +5, Ring of Protection +4, Stoneskin Focus, Armor & Shield, Weapons
Class Abilities • FORBIDDEN SPELL ALIGNMENT - No spells with alignment descriptors are forbidden due to your alignment or your deity's alignment. (PFCR 41, 49).
• DRUID BONUS LANGUAGES - A Druid automatically knows Druidic, and may choose Sylvan as a bonus language. (PFCR 50).
• DRUID ORISONS - Druids can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day. They can cast these spells at will as a spell-like ability. 3 at 1st level, or 4 at any subsequent level. Orisons are treated like any other spell cast by the cleric in terms of duration and other variables based on level. Orisons cannot be channeled through spontaneous casting. (PFCR 49).
• DRUID SPELLS - A druid casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list. Her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells. A druid must choose and prepare her spells in advance. To prepare or cast a spell, the druid must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier. (PFCR 49).
• DRUID SPONTANEOUS CASTING - A druid can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn’t prepared ahead of time. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast any summon nature’s ally spell of the same level or lower. (PFCR 49).
• DRUID WEAPONS AND ARMOR - Weapons: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, scythe, sickle, shortspear, sling, and spear, all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form they assume with wild shape. Armor: light and medium armor (but no metal armor); shields (except tower shields) but must use only wooden ones. Prohibited armor or shields render the druid unable to cast druid spells or use supernatural or spell-like class abilities 24 hours. (PFCR 49).
• NATURE BOND (Domain Powers - Weather) - You have chosen nature-related domain powers. The Weather domain is detailed in PFCR 48.
- Storm Burst (Sp) - Ranged touch attack does 1d6+6. to a target within 30 ft. and causes a -2 attack penalty for 1 round. Standard action. 9 times per day. [PFCR 48]
- Lightning Lord (Sp) - Summon 12 lighning bolts per day. As many as you want with a single standard action, but only one per creature and no two targets more than 30 ft. apart. Otherwise like call lightning (PFCR 251). [PFCR 48]
(PFCR 50).
• NATURE SENSE - A druid gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. (PFCR 50).
• TRACKLESS STEP - You leave no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. You may choose to leave a trail if so desired. (PFCR 51).
• RESIST NATURE'S LURE - +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like and supernatural abilities of fey. Also applies to spells and effects that target plants, such as blight, entangle, spike growth, and warp wood. (PFCR 51).
• WILD SHAPE - You can change form 5 times per day. 12 hours, or until you choose to change back. Cannot speak in animal form. Standard action to change. Does not provoke AoO. Possible forms:
- Small or Medium Animal as Beast Shape I (PFCR 247)
- Tiny or Large Animal as Beast Shape II
- Small Elemental as with Elemental Body I (PFCR 275)
- Diminutive or Huge animal as Beast Shape III
- Medium Elemental as Elemental Body II (PFCR 276)
- Small or Medium Plant as Plant Shape I (PFCR 322)
- Large Elemental as Elemental Body III
- Large Plant as Plant Shape II (PFCR 323)
- Huge Elemental as Elemental Body IV
- Huge Plant as Plant Shape III
(PFCR 51).
• VENOM IMMUNITY - You gain immunity to all poisons. (PFCR 51).
• DRUID WOODLAND STRIDE - You may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at your normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion still affect you. (PFCR 51).
Any advice regardng how to play this sort of Druid in regards to spell choices and what to do during combat would be greatly appreciated, currently I use a lot of my spells for buffing which is great, but then I don't really know how to contribute once actually in the fight.
In the game I'm currently playing in CR1/3 races get additional traits as a bonus feat at first level, while CR1/2 races do not. Merfolk are able to trade this feat in for Fins to Feat as an SLA if they choose.
I'm putting together a backup character for a campaign I'm currently playing in. Right now the campaign is at level 7, and I'm intending the backup character to be used at levels 10+ in the case of my PC dying.
The character is an Rogue (Scout) using Shatter Defenses and a Bard cohort (using a mix of Dirge of Doom and Dazzling Display with Versatile Performance) to provide the pre-reqs for Sneak Attack.
Has anyone tried something along these lines and does it tend to work well or not? Any ideas on the best way to optimize either the PC or the Cohort?
My group recently took a break from a 25 point campaign and moved to a 15 point one. The biggest problem I found with low point buys was that it "forced" you to take races with suitable stat allocations for the class, whereas in a 20 or 25 point buy you have a lot more flexibility. We've also had some trouble staying alive but those have toned down as our GM has been dropping extra loot so that he can make encounters harder without TPKing us.
