After playing a summoning/wildshaping 3.5 druid I decided I love the class, but not the bookwork. My character sheet was a 3 ring binder of spells, summons, and wildshapes accessible to the character. Pathfinder has simplified this some, but here's my idea. I would be interested in how the idea is perceived, and if anyone has built this type of character before how it played out and how much fun it was.
Probably domain druid. Animal companions are awesome but extra bookwork and slows down combat. Might keep it though, not sure yet.
Alternate druid from I believe unearthed arcana(minor easy conversion), give up armor, shield, and wild shape to gain monk armor, monk fast movement, ranger favored enemy(or maybe favored terrain would fit more), swift tracker, and track
1 Combat Casting
3 Weapon Finesse
5 Dervish Dance
7 Weapon Focus(Scimitar)
9 Power attack
11 Quicken Spell
13 Improved Critical(scimitar)
After that I figure a campaign is pretty much done
Spellcasting will be mostly battlefield control, possibly some summoning, and some healing/status removal counting on melee for damage
Scimitar for enemies with SR and flame blade for touch attacks on Big nasties with low touch and no SR.
Criticism/Ideas for improvement welcome
I've considered throwing in a little shadow dancer for HIPS, evasion, and rogue trait fast stealth
Also considered 2 fighter levels to get to dervish quicker
Hm... monk armor bonuses? I assume you mean with the wisdom thing too right? I would almost worry about the wisdom build up there (considering it's also a casting stat for the character) however with the complete lack of wildshape I think you have a fair trade there. If I understand correctly I think you are then trading the animal companion for the domain... I'm not sure the ranger stuff fits in well without giving something else up. Swift tracker and track wouldn't be hard to fit in but that favored terrain could potentially be huge.
Hm... monk armor bonuses? I assume you mean with the wisdom thing too right? I would almost worry about the wisdom build up there (considering it's also a casting stat for the character) however with the complete lack of wildshape I think you have a fair trade there. If I understand correctly I think you are then trading the animal companion for the domain... I'm not sure the ranger stuff fits in well without giving something else up. Swift tracker and track wouldn't be hard to fit in but that favored terrain could potentially be huge.
I pulled the switch giving ranger bonus straight from here. It could need some editing. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid
For this character I would really make the switch without any of the ranger stuff.
I wasn't thinking about the animal domain, probably weather or one of the elemental domains. Just to not have to keep track of a companion. Move speed isn't an issue even as a halfling with the monk bonuses to speed and being a druid so no worrying about tripping on vines.