Narrowing down feat selection for a roguish druid


Advice


The character concept started with simply wanting to give a Samsaran character a shapeshifting ability flavoured as a sort of extension of his connection to his past lives, and then expanded from there in directions I just found cool, but now I feel like this character doesn't really have a role he fits well beyond a rogue/scout-like spattering of everything (which, in fairness, druids make excellent jack of all trades characters), so I'm curious if, with just 2 feats available, anyone can help this character feel more defined.

Building him to level 12 because we never really play beyond that point, I know there's a campaign looming somewhere in the future but probably not for a while so until then this is essentially theory-crafting.

How he looks so far:
Samsaran Ranger 1 Druid 11, VMC Cavalier
Ranger 1: trapper (no reason not to)
Druid 11: either world walker or something else
Domain instead of animal companion, either monkey domain or vermin domain (if I can swing it).
VMC Cavalier: either order of the green or something else
Using the shapeshifting hunter feat to get scaling favoured enemy bonuses.
Taking mystic past lives to get ranger spells added to my spell list (definitely instant enemy and terrain bond, flavoured as unlocking ancient memories, others?)

Benefits of monkey domain: nice skill bonuses to roguish skills at higher levels, ranged legerdemain. Monkey.
Benefits of vermin domain: vomit swarm is my favourite anything! Tremorsense. +4 Initiative.

Stat array probably looking like
14 14 10 14 18 7, 20pt starting stats after racials, but not set in stone.
Benefits: str/dex enough that going big or going small are both valid choices. Plenty of skill points. Makes the most of mystic past lives.
Negatives: no con makes melee dangerous.

Feats:
1: ?
5: shapeshifting hunter
9: ?
11: teamwork feat, possibly escape route?

I probably don't have the strength to get much use out of Power Attack, I can use the polymorphic pouch and ring of eloquence to get around not having room for Natural Spell to some extent, I don't really have the feats available to make ranged combat a specialty. So what feats can you think of to help solidify this character? I always find myself gravitating towards feats like war blessing when I get the chance, but there are probably better choices that help round out this character or give him direction rather than fun ones that just pile on even more class features to play with. Is that possible with just 2 feats?

Aside: I tend to avoid specialising in summoning, the odd spell here and there is fine but I'm definitely not taking Augment Summoning.


The plains druid archetype is excellent for a roguish type.

There are some interesting spells in the monkey & vermin domains which you might want to cast more than 1/day (and a few near-useless ones, true). Scribe scroll might be worthwhile. If you like crafting you might take the valet familiar archetype and/or take another crafting feat at 9th.

If crafting's not for you, you might still take that valet archetype and invest in teamwork feats. Callous casting adds shaken to the debuffs from entangle etc. Stealth synergy makes stealth more reliable.

If you feel like indulging in combat maneuvers, dirty fighting at 1 and an improved combat maneuver feat at 9 give you some minimal ability there.

If you just want straight combat bonuses then the familiar could take the mauler or protector archetype and you might get combat reflexes and lunge. Both are reliably useful.


Oh that plains druid archetype is a very interesting find, thanks!

I haven't really played in a game before that allowed for crafting feats to be as useful as everyone seems to say they are for them. Could look into it though.

The valet familiar for teamwork feats though looks like it gives a lot of fun options and gels really well with the cavalier part of the character, I've never noticed the Callous Casting feat before so I might have to re-examine the druid spell list with that in mind now, that could be perfect.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Aside: escape route plus valet familiar, virtual immunity to movement-based attacks of opportunity?


What do you mean with "roguish"? Because when I think of Rogue in Pathfinder, that's pretty much "spends a lot of recources to do some stuff casters could do way better, and sucks in combat".


Derklord wrote:
What do you mean with "roguish"? Because when I think of Rogue in Pathfinder, that's pretty much "spends a lot of recources to do some stuff casters could do way better, and sucks in combat".

I mean roguish as in the role/trope more than the class.

Like, out of combat; stealth, scouting/information gathering, infiltration, general shenanigans.
I've wild shaping into birds, rats, monkeys or other small critters (or going straight for Earth Elemental), the skill bonuses from favoured enemy and favoured terrain, spells like Eagle Eye, Jump/Spider Climb, Speak with X and possibly Bloodhound all helping with this. I feel like the Monkey domain really emphasises this part with the further skill bonuses and Ranged Legerdemain, plus I'd both have a tiny monkey and be able to turn into a tiny monkey so that takes care of the "shenanigans" aspect quite nicely.
In combat; mobility and debility (mostly via spells). Maybe a limited spattering of targeted assassination (instant enemy + challenge). I mean, there's always going to be something beneficial I can do in combat, I'm still a druid.

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