glenstryder's page

Hello,

In a previous campaign I made a druid. We stopped at level 4, but I did look a lot at what my character could do in future levels and I was kinda frustrated (I know it may seem strange, but when I play a character I like to dream about what he ll be able to do at higher level)

there are a lot of things I don't really like for High level druids.
Here I won't talk about balancing versus other classes, just the class itself. Druid is very powerfull, maybe even OP at some point if taking a lion type animal companion, but it's not what I want to talk about.

My asumption is that the druid is very good at low/medium levels.
The animal companion is very powerfull and the ability to shift in lion or tiger offers a lot of attacks that makes him the best damage dealer with all buffs on.

However it appears to me that after about level 12, the druid does not gain any exciting features.

The best shape for combat is obtained at level 8 (for the pounce ability)
There are no spells for buffing animal companion or himself after level 5 (animal growth)
And higher level spells are not really good neither in terms of combat (there are great RP or effect spells though)

Also I find it very frustrating that there is no point in shifting into many different types of animal as the "lion" type is really, really really better.

So I would like to have some feedbacks from high level druids. Is it nice to use at higher levels? Are you exciting in gaining new levels, as a wizard may be?

Hello,

Our party recently encountered a party of ghouls and one of them paralzyed the freshly created fighter( his cleric just died because of a coup de grace in the previous game :D)

Was it possible for another adjacent ghoul to perform a coup de grace and kill the fighter? ( it's specified melee weapon in the coup de grace )

If yes, then a ghoul is freaking dangerous!

I have seen that witches can learn spell from scrolls.
However it is not specified directtly that they can learn from spellbook.

So I suppose it's not possible.

Am I right?

Is a scroll and a spellbook that different?

Thanks

Hello,

I have a question regarding amulet of might fists and whildshape.

I know that while shifted , a druid cannot use objects that needs an activation.
It is told in the "flaming" property description that a flaming object can be turned on using command word.

IMO, a command word object is a object that needs an activation, hence it cannot be used by a shifted druid.

However I see many people here that says they use a flaming amulet with a druid.

Is it possible? Or Am I Right?

What is the "level" of a Druid/ranger animal companion?

I know that a Ranger 20 animal companion is level 17.
I know that a Druid 20 animal companion is level 20.

For a Druid 14/Ranger6? is it 20? or 17?

Thanks

I am currently looking at the bestiary to see in what I could shift with my druid.

I can see that there are some fun dinosaurus to change in , but these only have one attack.

Can I use My BAB to perform multiple attacks?
If not, what is the point in shifting into such creature when I can shift into a tiger? (I am quite sure that the Pathfinder designers are found of tigers!)

I have some questions regarding wildshape.

At level 8, a druid can shift into a huge animal. Can the druid shift into a huge tiger? or should we find an existing huge animal ( There is no yet in the previews, but I suppose there will be some in the bestiary)

I didn't find a real answer to that question

Let's consider I have a druid wildshaped in tiger.
I want that all my attacks to be enchanted ( 5 attacks considering the rake attacks).

How many greater magic fang should I cast on myself so that all my attacks are enchanted?

If 5, then what is the design idea behind it? I don't really understand the balance here.

Thanks

I have not found a post that directly talks about the whole druid design.

My current opinion is that there is a flaw in the design that makes a druid really STR dependant, a lot more than the cleric.

I am not saying at all that the druid is not a powerfull class. I think it is a very nice class. I just want to point out that without strength, the possibility of a druid are a lot reduced.

Basically a druid has 3 main abilities:

1) Spells
2) Companion
3) wildshape

1) Druid spells are mainly divided into 3 parts
1-a) Summon, the worst summoner in the game
1-b) Buff spells: best animal buffer
1-c) Attack spells

The druid has a good attack spell, flame strike (I won't talk about call lightning, I have never understood the design idea behind call llighting... 3d6 damage on a single target with no level advancement is just lame...). However the druid does not have a lot of spells. So basically, the druid won't cast this one that much. Plus it lacks a bit of diversity in attack spells

The summon is very good, but it's frustrating that now the druid has the worst summon spells. But ok I can live with that because of wild shape (see point 3)

Out of that, there are some "effect" spells, communicate with plants, with animals, travelling, and so on. But nothing really shiny at medium high level.

2) Companion

The companion is a good add to the druid. It can deals decent damage , but, if we take the standard wolf companion, it does not deal a huge amount of damage. It's nice, but it's not shiny neither.
The companion can also have nice abilities (fly, stealth, to spy etc...).
These are good but not that mutch in combat.

Ok you can take a tiger... which is awasome ^^ But let's consider that you take a basic wolf.
Maybe the design idea here is to let the low str druid takes the tiger ^^

3) wildshape

Any animal wildshape spell gives a +1 attack bonus (basically +6str for huge transformation is +1 attack bonus only).
So if we take a druid with 10 str, that means a attack bonus of 8 at level 10...
This is very crappy. Very very crappy. It will deal ok damage because of str boost, but will miss a lot... Ok it can be buffed and so on, but it won't be extraordinary.
If we shift into small or tiny creatures, with weapon finess, we can have a nice attack bonus, but the damage will be really crappy.

The main difference here with the cleric is that the cleric has direct bonus on attacks and damages. The size is not modified hence no malus to attack! That means a level 10 cleric with the same str will have attack bonus of 10 with one spell.

Ok so a druid with low str cannot really fight. No issue I can use special abilities of shapes. Vortex of the air elemental for instance...ah...it is str based...hmm

Well, a druid can use wildshape to shift into a air elemental and fly and cast spells from the air...But the spell list is not that fun (compared with cleric and wizards. I don't ask for the wizard list hey, just more fun spells or varied effects)

Ok that's nice, but it's frustrating to be able to shift into that many creatures and only...fly...that's all...(ok immunities, etc...that's powerfull but it's not ...fun to just be immunized and do nothing really shiny).

A druid with decent STR (14 at last) will be a good shapeshifter and will be able to have fun, but I think that without a good str, the druid looses a third of its capacities and the class just becomes less appealing.

In fact, I would like some shapeshifting abilities that would be nice for a low str druid (don't talk about fly or etc...).

Sorry for my english, I m not a native speaker at all ;)

Thanks.

Hello

I want to be a druid dedicated to his pet (I roll a 8 in strength, so I don't think I can be an effective combative shifter).
Hence I would like to be a crafter that crafts items for the pet.

Is it possible for me to craft item for my pet that works with command word and activate them while worn by my pet?

I ve read the "on command" description and nothing specifies that the word needs to be spoken by the wielder of the object :)

Thanks!!

Hello,

I am currently looking at a caster druid build (I mean a druid with 8 str that cannot really fight shifted).
I wanted to focus on summon nature ally and so on. But I just found out that the summon monster spell is just better than summon nature ally.

In fact, you can summon the same thing with summon monster, but the summoned monster has the celestial/fiendish subtype in addition depending on the caster alignement.

Did I miss out something or is the druid the worst summoner ?

Thanks