RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
My friend is starting up a D&D game this weekend and I have decided that I would like to play a druid in this campaign. Here's the catch: he's running the game in the Dragonstar setting, which means that we'll be dealing with laser guns, talking robots, spaceships, and hand grenades. What I want my character to be able to do is provide the party with as much defense as possible against technological weapons. Laser weapons deal fire damage and blaster weapons deal electric damage, so obviously protection from energy will be infinitely useful. There are a few setting-specific spells to help me disable technological items as well and, of course, things like heat metal are always fun.
It's been a long time since I've played a druid, however, and I have to say that they've never really been one of my 'strong' classes, so I'm looking for advice on feats that I should keep an eye on, prestige classes that might be a tremendous asset, and things like that. I've already considered Elemental Savant, but focusing on one energy type is not likely to be terribly helpful. Also, in a technological setting, should I consider some of the Wild Shape variants available or should I stick with animal forms (and possibly some of the Wild feats that allow me to perform other actions with my wild shapes)? I'm going to be the party's main divine caster (and thus, primary healer by default) so I don't want to stifle my spellcasting much (if at all). Suggestions are welcome.
As the party's main divine caster, that limits you quite a bit, especially as a druid. You'll need to 'prepare' the Cures just in case you need them, and dropping them for Natures Ally if you want. Because of this, maybe you want to focus your feats on improving your healing or summons because healing is your primary concern for the party, summons a second (whether you want to use it or not), and miscellaneous buffs or attacks third.
Depending on what level you start out at and how you feel about combat, Wild Shape would be a good offensive option. The Nature's Warrior out of complete warrior offers some good additions to your Wild Shape if you're intending on fighting or merely defending yourself.
It sounds like a difficult class to play trying to fill the clerics role and in a SF environment. If nothing else, I imagine spaceships have rodents and vermin as well...
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
As the party's main divine caster, that limits you quite a bit, especially as a druid. You'll need to 'prepare' the Cures just in case you need them,I'm actually looking to pick up Spontaneous Healer from the Complete Divine in order to allow myself the freedom of choosing spells I want and then having the ability to swap out for Cures like a cleric can early on.
Depending on what level you start out at and how you feel about combat, Wild Shape would be a good offensive option. The Nature's Warrior out of complete warrior offers some good additions to your Wild Shape if you're intending on fighting or merely defending yourself.
I'll take a look at Nature's Warrior. Is that a variant, a PrC, or a feat? I'm not trying to impress anyone with my martial abilities in this game, especially not in the face of laser rifles that deal 4d10 damage. (Eek!) I'm also kind of leaning towards picking up a bard level or two and going for the Fochlucan Lyrist PrC from the Complete Adventurer (since I can take Evasion as a feat due to some of our house rules). It won't hurt my spellcasting (much) but having the ability to use some of my bard spells for healing as well as the various bardic music abilities could be extremely handy. Plus, I've wanted to play this PrC forever and never really had a good opportunity for it.
It's looking like this game is probably only going to be 3 players, so I will probably be filling the healing and skill/support roles. Of course, at this point I have no clue what the others are playing.
|
There are 2 variants for druids in the PHB2 that would help you out alot! Spontaneous Rejuvenation replaces the spontaneous summon nature's ally ability and lets you convert spell energy into fast healing for all allies in 30 feet for 3 rounds, damage healed each round = spell level.
And the Shapeshift variant replaces animal companion(weak anyway)and wild shape (not as powerful). You gain the ability to shaeshift into various forms (predator, aerial, etc.) as you gain levels. There is no limit to the amount of time you stay in a form or how much you shapeshift and the forms are pretty cool!
I would suggest using both variants and trying to get ahold of some wild armor.
just some random thoughts.
FH
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
There are 2 variants for druids in the PHB2 that would help you out alot!
Yeah, I looked at those. Spontaneous Rejuvenation could be handy, moreso than summon nature's ally will be in most cases, so I will probably take that. The shapeshifting thing, however, I'm not sure will be so useful in a sci-fi campaign. I'm thinking about the Aspect of Nature wild shape variant in Unearthed Arcana. Having access to the elemental forms will be super handy since, as I said, a lot of the high-powered weapons we'll be up against do energy damage (which the appropriate elemental would be immune to).
As the party's main divine caster, that limits you quite a bit, especially as a druid. You'll need to 'prepare' the Cures just in case you need them, and dropping them for Natures Ally if you want. Because of this, maybe you want to focus your feats on improving your healing or summons because healing is your primary concern for the party, summons a second (whether you want to use it or not), and miscellaneous buffs or attacks third.
Depending on what level you start out at and how you feel about combat, Wild Shape would be a good offensive option. The Nature's Warrior out of complete warrior offers some good additions to your Wild Shape if you're intending on fighting or merely defending yourself.
It sounds like a difficult class to play trying to fill the clerics role and in a SF environment. If nothing else, I imagine spaceships have rodents and vermin as well...
I'm currently playing a Barbarin 2 / Druid 6 / Nature's Warrior 3 in the Age of Worms, and NPC Guy is right. Nature's Warrior is a pretty cool PrC (from CWar). Add some wild shape feats and you have yourself a real monster!
That character, Tarnak, is also the only divine caster in the party. We also have a bard, whom also can cast CLW's. Despite that, I *never* rack CLW's more than twice, nor waste a higher level slot on CMW's, and neither does the bard. Instead, we regularly pool our resources (as a team) and purchase wands of CLW's & CMW's, etc - and use those when we need to, and it's worked out extremely well! Both the bard and my Tarnak get to use our spells to our greatest effect & not just as healing batteries. At this point, I'd even recommend this for clerics, too. It'd be a lot more fun to play a cleric who casts spells besides healing.
- FM
I'll take a look at Nature's Warrior. Is that a variant, a PrC, or a feat?
It is a 5 level PrC. You lose spellcasting on 3 of the levels.
If you are going to be the primary (only) healer, you need to get your hands on the Spell Compendium - if it is allowed.
Some really handy Druid spells (for healing):
Healthful Rest (Druid 1) Spell Compendium 111
Healing Lorecall (Druid 2) Spell Compendium 110
And if you are serious about Bard, might I suggest the following:
Healing Hymn Alternate Class Feature (Replaces Fascinate) Complete Champion 47
Summon Elysian Thrush (Bard 2) Spell Compendium 214
Depending on how your DM will allow stacking of these effects (As usual, there is no real clarity since the effects are unnamed) you can boost your allies "overnight" healing to quadruple normal. Or more, if they take the Faster Healing feat, and / or the Rapid Metabolism feat.
Plus a few other handy things in there.
Also, the Spell Compendium really opens up options for the Druid's spellcasting.
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
I'm leaning more and more towards the Druid/Bard combo heading for the Fochlucan Lyrist PrC now. I've been comparing my options and deciding what variants and feats I need to pursue. Here's what I've got so far (and none of this is set in stone yet, but it's what I have in mind right now):
Class Ability Variants:
- Spontaneous Rejuvenation variant (PHB2)
- Aspect of Nature variant (UA)
- Healing Hymn bardic music (CCha)
Feat Selection:
- Level 3: Music of the Heart (Eberron)
- Level 6: Evasion (UA)
At this point, I have no idea what I want to do with my level 1 feats or my level 9+ feats. Spontaneous Healer won't be quite as useful since I can just take the cure spells as bard spells and cast them spontaneously anyway plus the fact that I'll have the Spontaneous Rejuvenation option available to me. I want to focus my druid spells on being mostly defensive while my bard spells will be largely utilitarian. Since our fighter-types will be dealing 4d10 damage at range several times per round, I'm not going to concern myself with trying to do much on the damage scale, though spells like entangle may occassionally come in handy.
Any idea what I should do with my feats? I plan on being human.
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
With the Fochlucan Lyrist PrC and the build I have in mind, this is what my 20th-level build will look like:
Brd 2/Drd 8/Foc 10
HD: 2d6 + 8d8 + 10d8
BAB: +17
Base Saves: +9F +12R +13W
Effective Caster Levels: Brd 12/Drd 18
Spell Access: 4th level Bard Spells, 9th level Druid Spells
The PrC also allows my bardic music and bardic knowledge abilities to progress unhindered, so I will have access to the song of freedom as well as all the lesser songs (and my Inspire Courage will be at +3 thanks to Music of the Heart). Additionally, the Fochlucan Lyrist PrC relaxes my druidic armor restrictions, giving me access to metal armor that I am proficent with.
Looking at all this, Practiced Spellcaster (bard) might not be a bad idea, since it would raise my effective bard caster level to 16, allowing many of my spells to persist longer (and also increase my chances of punching through SR).
At 1st level, take Extra Music (Complete Adventurer) for four extra uses of bardic music per day (it's definitely worth it in both the short and long run). For the extra feat as a human, it depends on the type of character. An information-broker could have Obsure Lore (Complete Adventurer). A mystic performer might take Arcane Flourish (Player's Handbook II). Open Minded (Complete Adventurer) might be an option if you need some extra skill points. Arcane Disciple (Complete Divine) can improve your spell versatility.
Later on, Practiced Spellcaster is definitely a good choice.
Don't forget about Augment Healing (CD: 79) either.
Diehard is also a possibility, because if you are dropped, that will cripple the group. With this, at least you will be able to heal yourself.
Toughness, and / or Improved Toughness might be good choices as well.
You might also consider making sure you are proficient with those ranged weapons. It shouldn't be your focus, but being able to back up the group from time to time can't hurt.
Finally, if you take Combat Expertise and Weapon Focus you can qualify for the War Chanter PrC (Complete Warrior 87). Yeah, I know. It is another PrC, and it doesn't keep up your spell casting... But the Bardic Music abilities can be useful.
Mostly, you have a pretty strong build here. You need to feel out how it fits in the campaign, and see what you need from there.
Doesn't Fochlucan Lyrist require Evasion as a prereq? This requires you to dip 2 levels into rogue at some point (or else go Rgr 9). The one in our STAP campaign is Rog 2/Wiz 4/Prestige Bard 3/Druid 1/Fochlucan Lyrist 8 currently.
Yep:
"Requirements
To qualify to become a Fochlucan lyrist, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Decipher Script 7 ranks, Diplomacy 7 ranks, Gather Information 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 7 ranks, Perform (string instruments) 13 ranks, Sleight of Hand 7 ranks, Speak Language (Druidic).
Alignment: Neutral good, neutral, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil.
Spells: Ability to cast 1st-level arcane and divine spells.
Special: Bardic knowledge and evasion abilities."
Doesn't Fochlucan Lyrist require Evasion as a prereq? This requires you to dip 2 levels into rogue at some point (or else go Rgr 9).
(since I can take Evasion as a feat due to some of our house rules).
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
I started putting the character together last night. Noticing that the skill requirements were going to be a little tricky without extra rogue or bard levels, I decided to give myself a bit of a boost: Human Paragon from UA. The first level of it allows me to declare any 1 skill that I choose from my Human Paragon skill list to be in-class for all my classes, making the 13 ranks of Perform much easier to attain with a mostly-druid build (Perform is cross-class for druids). Here's what I've got so far:
Bard 1/Druid 1/Human Paragon 1
STR 10, DEX 14, CON 10, INT 14, WIS 16, CHA 14 (32 pt. buy)
Feats: Extra Music, Improved Initiative, Spontaneous Healer
Bard Spells Known: mage hand, light, read magic, detect magic
I'm using the following variants: Spontaneous Rejuvenation (PHB2), Domain Druid (sidebar in the UA, gives me access to the Sun Domain spells and awards me the ability to turn undead 1/day), Healing Hymn (CCha).
Additionally, one of the special quirks of the setting: If a druid chooses not to take the 'Technical Proficiency' feat for free (which gives them the ability to use high-tech items like communicators as well as laser weapons, etc.), they may treat their effective druid level as 1 higher for the purposes of spells per day, caster level, etc. Basically, since I've forsaken the ability to use high-tech gizmos, my attunement to nature is stronger and I'm actually casting as a 2nd level druid at level 1.
My intended build now looks like: Bard 2/Druid 5/Human Paragon 3/Fochlucan Lyrist 10. I'll be basically giving up all but 1 of my wild shapes, but my druid caster level will only suffer 1 hit (since Human Paragon's 2nd and 3rd levels increase caster level by 1).
I might take a look at DCP's suggested feats. I kind of wanted the Spontaneous Healer feat now because my spells are pretty limited at this point, but I'm wondering if it might be a poor decision in the long run (especially since I have the Spont. Rejuv. thing going for me). Hmmmm... I'll consider it some more. The game isn't until this Saturday. Keep tossing out ideas and I'll keep checking! Thanks again!
EDIT: Nevermind, your build looks great! Which isn't surprising, really.
(since I can take Evasion as a feat due to some of our house rules).
Aha! Thanks, DE, I missed that. I considered doing the same in my campaign, but deferred when every single non-rogue character, without exception, immediately wanted to take it: Evasion is MUCH better than a feat, IMHO.
The need to dip 2 levels into rogue is one of the primary balancing factors for FL, but it looks like he's taking some levels in Human Paragon, which seems like a perfectly reasonable substitute (and also makes for a really cool build, so I'd allow it if I were his DM). Call Evasion a racial feat (to distinguish it from "just any feat") and pretty much all of the balance issues are resolved.
Does anyone know if there's an 'Extra Wild Shape' feat that gives you more uses of the Wild Shape ability per day? This would be very useful if combined with some of the various Wild feats that allow me to burn the shapes for other effects.
Yep, from Complete Divine, I think; it adds 2/day (and 1/day to elemental wild shape, if you have that, too).