I have never played a druid before, and am very excited to play one as my next Pathfinder character. I don't know much about making them, though. I have scoured the Advice archive for druid topics and read Treantmonk's guide to learn about building druid characters, but there remains one thing I'm just not sure about...
I want my druid to be primarily Wild Shape/melee-focused, and have decided to take the Blight Druid class variant from the APG, which I believe will work well for this plan. I also intend to take a cleric domain instead of an animal companion, but I have permission from the DM to take the Rage subdomain of Destruction, so at Druid 8 I'll have access to Barbarian Rage.
We are going to be using point buy 20 for our ability scores, which is a fairly generous amount, but as I plan to be a melee/wild shape-centric Druid, I will be focusing on my physical ability scores and want to start with the lowest wisdom score I can get away with.
To make the low wisdom score less of an issue at later levels, I am considering multi-classing. I really like the Horizon Walker prestige class in the APG, and flavour-wise it's perfect for this character. It has full-BAB and d10 hp, both of which should help me as a melee character. I also have a good idea of what sort of climate the game will be taking place in, and even if this drastically changes, I should know where we're at by the time I qualify for Horizon Walker and can select my favoured terrains accordingly.
So, my question is this: as a Wild Shape/melee-focused druid, how much am I really losing if I take 4 or 6 levels in another class? Heal is a 7th level spell for Druids, and so going up to 13th level is non-negotiable for access to it, but beyond that the druid spell list doesn't seem to have a lot going for such a character other than Summon Nature's Ally.
If I do take 4 or 6 levels in Horizon Walker, I can focus on boosting my strength and not worry about needing to reach that 19 wisdom... is this worth it, or is giving up those last druid spell levels too much?
The remainder of the party is going to be a Binder of Vestiges, an Inquisitor, and probably an Arcane Trickster, so my druid and/or summons will probably be the ones soaking up most of the hits.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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I've built a similar Druid.
Druid/Ranger with 4 levels of Druid (to get Wild Shape), the "+1 wild shape a day" vest to get 2/day which I'll never get more, and a 7 Wisdom (which means neither the druid or ranger will ever cast spells.)
But I tend to build strange characters (like my primary PFS character is a "Monk" with a 7 Wisdom.)
For a druid who wants to use Wild Shape, I'd suggest getting 8 levels for the ability to turn into Large animals. After that, you can switch to another class if you like, although it's hard to imagine what you'll get that's better than level 5+ spells like baleful polymorph, wall of thorns, fire seeds, antilife shell, heal, control weather, etc.
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Owner - D20 Hobbies
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hard to imagine what you'll get that's better than level 5+ spells like baleful polymorph, wall of thorns, fire seeds, antilife shell, heal, control weather, etc.
True, but some (like me) love a character and may shy away from the "optimized" or even "baseline" path in favor of something we like better. Sort of "look what I can do with so little" or "look how I overcame adversity" appeal.
hard to imagine what you'll get that's better than level 5+ spells like baleful polymorph, wall of thorns, fire seeds, antilife shell, heal, control weather, etc.True, but some (like me) love a character and may shy away from the "optimized" or even "baseline" path in favor of something we like better. Sort of "look what I can do with so little" or "look how I overcame adversity" appeal.
Absolutely. I was just trying to answer the OP's "how much am I really losing" question; I also get a kick out of playing an interesting (but not necessarily "uber") combination of classes, sometimes.
For a druid who wants to use Wild Shape, I'd suggest getting 8 levels for the ability to turn into Large animals. After that, you can switch to another class if you like, although it's hard to imagine what you'll get that's better than level 5+ spells like baleful polymorph, wall of thorns, fire seeds, antilife shell, heal, control weather, etc.
Well, I'm definitely going up to at least 13th level Druid -- I want those 7th level spells.
What I'm not sure about is if I should really bother with 8th and 9th level spells. I'm not sure how useful they'll be for anything other than applying metamagic to my lower level spells. Usually the highest level spells are the biggest/baddest/best spells on the list, but I don't know, I don't really feel the higher level druid spells. Is there something I'm not noticing, here? Is there some amazing spell that I'm not making the connection on?
Ah...gotcha.
Reverse Gravity and Foresight can be pretty good. I agree that there are some pretty lukewarm spells in there, though.
For a druid who wants to use Wild Shape, I'd suggest getting 8 levels for the ability to turn into Large animals. After that, you can switch to another class if you like, although it's hard to imagine what you'll get that's better than level 5+ spells like baleful polymorph, wall of thorns, fire seeds, antilife shell, heal, control weather, etc.Well, I'm definitely going up to at least 13th level Druid -- I want those 7th level spells.
What I'm not sure about is if I should really bother with 8th and 9th level spells. I'm not sure how useful they'll be for anything other than applying metamagic to my lower level spells. Usually the highest level spells are the biggest/baddest/best spells on the list, but I don't know, I don't really feel the higher level druid spells. Is there something I'm not noticing, here? Is there some amazing spell that I'm not making the connection on?
Druid spells may not have the "bang" of the wizard list, but they're quite useful none-the-less. Your highest level spells succeed wonderfully in disabling your enemies and leaving them in helpless states.
8th - Euphoric Tranquility & Whirlwind are excellent for taking a particularly tough enemy out of combat while you deal with its allies. Earthquake is surprisingly versatile and can do serious harm to large groups of enemies. Repel Metal or Stone is excellent in hallway situations or places with a narrow choke (like doorways), and it doesn't allow a save! Perfect if you've got some ranged abilities on your team. Seamantle is an impressive buff, especially on land.
9th - Winds of Vengeance is an intensely powerful buff for a melee combatant, granting total immunity to any ranged attacks that use physical weaponry and letting you bludgeon foes with wind (1/round) that succeed in hitting you. World Wave and Tsunami are powerful AOE attacks that do impressive damage when going up against large amounts of enemies, like a camp of Orcs. Clashing Rocks does some okay damage but effectively removes any enemy from combat that can't succeed on a DC 25 strength check to dig themselves out. Storm of Vengeance is good against enemy casters & archers. Shapechange, surprisingly, is actually stronger than your wildshape. It gives access Dragon & Giant forms, both of which allow spellcasting.