Being playing around with a simple wild shape buff that your DM can house rule in if you feel your wild shape simply ain't cutting the mustard so to speak.
Simplest I could come up with is this.
While in wild shape the druid may add half his level as a bonus to his physical attributes.
e.g. 4th level druid has a pool bonus of 2 pts
Beast Shape I
+2 STR +2 AC , he could make this +2STR (+2CON) +2AC or (+4STR) +2AC
8th level druid has a pool bonus of 4 pts
Beast Shape III
+6STR -4DEX +6AC , he could go +6STR +6AC (canceling out DEX penalty) or +10STR -4DEX +6AC
20th level druid has a pool of 10pts
Earth Elemental
+8STR -2DEX +4CON +6AC -> could go to +16STR +4CON +6AC (+10 split => +8 to str +2 to dex)
If you want to impose a limit on the stat buffing then I suggest no stat can be buffed higher than your current druid level i.e. at 8th level your max bonus is +8 however at 12th level your max bonus is +12, just to curb the mix/max aspect of this.
Hows that sound ?
The think i like about it is that the bonus keeps scaling all the way up to 20th level, and is easy to calc and implement for any form.
A second bonus you can consider either taken instead of or together with this bonus is a +1 magical enchantment to attack / 4 druid levels to a maximum of +5 to all natural attacks at 20th level.
If your looking for something to take from the druid for the bonus your giving try -1 spell slot for each spell level.
I said this in the other thread, but it's bears repeating:
Asking the DM to change the rules is all fine and dandy, Pahsics, and it may even be an acceptible fix. I even like your suggestion.
But the idea here, now, is to make rules that work.
If what we want to do is ask our DM to change the rules, then why do we buy the rules from Paizo?
Hey, DM, can you change the rules to let my dwarf fly at will? And to let my brother's wizard cast spells normally in full plate?
Where does it end?
Ultimately, we pay a game company to make a good game. Our good money is spent so we can pick up a package of good rules, saving us the trouble of making our own rules.
Asking the DM to change rules is fine, once we have the book and the bad rules are printed in it.
But now, now, is the time for us to influence Paizo, so that they print good rules in the book, so we don't have to ask our DM to fix bad rules that never got printed.
Maybe they'll listen to you. I like your fix.
Or maybe they'll implement a better version of the Beast Shape spells.
Maybe they'll just allow all the size modifiers AND the Beast Shape modifiers.
Or maybe they'll do something else.
But I hope, very dearly, that they actually fix this problem, now, before the book is printed.
Before we have to ask our DMs to make houserules to fix something that needed to be fixed before it went into print.
This is a Beta Playtest Forum. The idea is to fix rules, not to simply plan ahead for what houserules we want when the broken rules make it into print.
By the way, if the Pathfinder rulebook were already in print, and if this forum were discussing the problems with Pathfinder, I would have responded very differently here, and would have taken your suggestion to my group to discuss adding it as a potential house rule.
Well Paizo are more than welcome to include said druid fix if they think it has merit
If you want an official balance option that would go into the official rules ?
A third option of Nature's Bond
The Druid may choose her Nature's bond to tie her closer to her wild shaping abilities, this option is taken instead of a Animal Companion or Domain.
The druid gains 1point per 2 druid levels of attribute score increases which she may spend on any physical stat STR DEX CON while in Wildshape, with no single attribute being increased by more than her current druid level, this stacks with the attribute bonus granted by wild shapes.
The Druid also gains +1 magical enchantment to his natural weapons on all forms for every 4 druid levels, capped at level 20th with +5 magic natural weapons.
(examples given in OP)
Best part is you can add it straight into the current druid no changes required since its just a 3rd option for Nature's bond, and it even makes sense hehehe
While in wild shape the druid may add half his level as a bonus to his physical attributes.
My initial thoughts are
(1) at caster level 8 and higher, this makes beast shape I a better buffing spell than bull's strength or similar spells (all of which are 1 level higher than beast shape I. This, it's a bad idea.
(2) It means the utility of beast shape I scales up to be incredibly powerful at high levels, moreso than other low-level spells. A Drd20 shouldn't be relying on a 2nd-level spell for an awesome buff, that's why she has 9th-level spells.
While in wild shape the druid may add half his level as a bonus to his physical attributes.My initial thoughts are
(1) at caster level 8 and higher, this makes beast shape I a better buffing spell than bull's strength or similar spells (all of which are 1 level higher than beast shape I. This, it's a bad idea.
(2) It means the utility of beast shape I scales up to be incredibly powerful at high levels, moreso than other low-level spells. A Drd20 shouldn't be relying on a 2nd-level spell for an awesome buff, that's why she has 9th-level spells.
Sean, I don't understand your comments:
- Beast Shape I is a 3rd level spell, not a 2nd level spell.
- Druids can't cast Beast Shape in the first place; it's a wizard/sorcerer spell.
- The original poster is not suggesting making Beast Shape better, only Wild Shape (which is based on Beast Shape).
For the original poster:
I suggested that a druid's Wild Shape bonuses should improve past level 12, which is sort of like your suggestion. I'm not convinced that Wild Shape is really that underpowered at lower levels than that (and I've playtested it somewhat).
I'm not sure underpowered is the right word to describe wild shape.
more that wild shape is currently not central to a druid.
and I figure this might go some way to making it more central.
If you want to compare to existing class have a look at PHB II Druid Shifter
+4 STR at 1st level
+8 STR at 8th level
+12 STR at 12th level
+16 STR at 16th level
no animal companion and +1 magic/4 druid level on natural weapons.
If you wanted to make it a bit more restitcive the 1pt/2 druid level you could make fixed bonuses i.e. you pick a stat every other level that it will apply to in wildshape and you cannot change it.
Sean, I don't understand your comments:
- Beast Shape I is a 3rd level spell, not a 2nd level spell.
- Druids can't cast Beast Shape in the first place; it's a wizard/sorcerer spell.
- The original poster is not suggesting making Beast Shape better, only Wild Shape (which is based on Beast Shape).
Sorry, I was distracted eating breakfast when I wrote that, I think.
1) fair enough.
2) irrelevant, he's talking about druids. :)
3) I'm too tired to look this up at this point. :p