Level 12 Druid: Wild Shape Assistance

[Sleep-Walker]

Hello All,

On Saturday I will be playing a level 12 Druid for a few hours. This is not my regularcharacter, just a character for a few hours.

What wildshapes are worth considering. I do not have any wilding equiptment. My physical stats are pretty good.

Thanks guys.

[SpaceChomp]

I would suggest tunneling through d20pfsrd and finding animals that have a large number of attacks, preferably with large die in those attacks.

i.e. - allosaurus, dire tiger, giant squid.

Otherwise, don't forget that druids have a lot going for them aside from shapeshifting. They also have decent spells and a pet with ridiculous buffs.

[RuyanVe]

Greetings, fellow travellers.

I would also take the elementals into consideration, especially since you get access to elemental body IV, which gives you immunity to bleed damage, critical hits, and sneak attacks while in elemental form and you gain DR 5/—. My favorites are air and earth elemental with their adjustments to str and dex.
Otherwise, dire tiger is a staple and gives you pounce and rake.

Ruyan.

[Shar Tahl]

Elder Air Elementals are good, as you are huge and can whirlwind large and smaller creatures. Allosaurus is an excellent huge animal form. You get pounce, rake and grab. If you want to focus on wildshape combat, then I suggest you build yourself that way. High strength and combat feats (Vital Strike, Imp Unarmed Strike, Imp Grapple, Greater Grapple, etc)

[Jaryn Wildmane]

If you get vital strike, forms that have one attack with large damage dice are great for punching through DR. The stegasaurus is the best form from the bestiary, although the bestiary 2 has beasts with better attacks. Otherwise dire tiger and allosaurus will be your primary forms of offense.

[Phage]

I'm a big fan of Deinonychus (Raptor!). Base speed of 60ft, low light vision, and pounce. It begins as medium size with 2 talons (primary) 1d8, a bite (primary) 1d6, and two foreclaws (secondary) 1d4

You can make use of the Giant Template to increase its size, which increases its hit die and stat bonuses appropriately (using Improved Natural Attack progression found under monster feats and Beast Shape rules).

Large talons are 2d6, bite 1d8, and foreclaws 1d6
Bonuses change to STR +4, DEX -2, +4 NAC
Huge talons are 3d6, bite 2d6, and foreclaws 1d8,
Bonuses change to STR +6, DEX -4, +6 NAC

Plus its a raptor. Or, a bigger mega-raptor! If you plan to be in places of varying sizes, using the same base form makes it easier to remember stats/attacks.

As Jaryn mentioned, vital strike would basically let you double the Stegosaurus' 4d6 tail, netting you 8d6 (primary) + 1.5xSTR, PA, etc (bonus damage not multiplied). Basically your best bet against DR, also have scent and trip, but it is less damage and slower move.

Mega-Raptor would be giving you 8d6 (primary) + 2d8 (secondary) + 4xSTR, PA, etc. Personally I'm fond of having more attacks, especially if you have things light Amulet of the Mighty Fist (check it out), multiple Magic Fangs, etc. You could also vital strike for 6d6 if necessary without changing shape.

Another feat you might want to consider is Improved Natural Attack (talon or tail) from the bestiary, which your GM might allow you to use. It would improve stego's tail to 6d6 (VS 12d6) or raptor's taons to 4d6 each (10d6+2d8).

[Sleep-Walker]

We have Bestiary 1 and 2.

I am confused by people applying templates to creatures, I thought that was forbidden for wildshaping. Or was that just 3.5??

[Oliver McShade]

pokes head in, looks around, and flaps wings and flies away

Wildshape is still confusing to me. Maybe because i have an old PF PHB, or maybe because of the size does or does not get added in threads, or because the rules just are not as clear as they need to be.

[Shar Tahl]

Applying a template seems to me like creating custom monsters, which is not RAW. To me, if it doesn't say it can be done, it can't without houserules. My druid only uses animals and creatures of a size listed in the Bestiary. Those are the "common" forms that are used with wildshape. Otherwise it is too easy to exploit it and apply a template to make a creature you want smaller so you have access to it earlier

[Phage]

If you make it smaller to get for BSI, it doesn't get abilities and it's damage adjusts to the comparable size. Many of the amazing big monsters have unique abilities you won't ever get anyways since they aren't listed under Beast Shape.

Many of the small and medium creatures are base low CR and don't have that good abilities to even gain access to. Making them bigger doesn't give them any new abilities, just appropriate damage for their size.

Beast Shape RAW has two conditions: monster family is animals and monster's size. It does not say look in bestiary nor it does not say not to use templates - in fact it says any animal. Resize templates do have listed rules and are legal for any animal.

Also, the raptor's own bestiary description advises using the size templates!
"You can apply the young simple template to create statistics for smaller, more agile velociraptors. Conversely, you can either increase the deinonychus to Large size and its Hit Dice to 8 or simply apply the giant and advanced simple templates to create a formidable megaraptor."

I can understand the fear of trying to get unique abilities earlier, but because BS doesn't give you access to them until higher tier spells and because all the creatures are using the same damage table based on size, it seems like Paizo already balanced and endorsed it.

[Nephelim]

Phage wrote:

Beast Shape RAW has two conditions: monster family is animals and monster's size. It does not say look in bestiary nor it does not say not to use templates - in fact it says any animal. Resize templates do have listed rules and are legal for any animal.

Not exactly. Wildshape acts as Beast Shape\Plant Shape\Elemental Body, which is bound by the limitations of the Polymorph sub-school of transmutation, except when otherwise stated.

PFSRD wrote:

Polymorph spells cannot be used to assume the form of a creature with a template or an advanced version of a creature.

So ... no. Not RAW.

[Lael Treventhius]

Elementals all the way. Either Earth or Air!

[Oliver McShade]

Lael Treventhius wrote:

Elementals all the way. Either Earth or Air!

True

Air is nice for Fly speed = Worth taking the Fly Feats in Bestiary if your a druid like hover/flyby.

Earth is nice for Earth Glide = Blind, but great escape route that most can not follow, which you can do for hours.

Water i like = Because you can breath underwater and get a swim speed. Always like doing underwater adventures in D&D or WOW for that matter when druid.

Fire is nice for damage, but i never liked fire. The vulnerability to cold comes up as a pain. (( Since you do not have the Fire subtype, only its form. Water should not hurt you in Fire elemental form any more that it normal does..... But some DM might not see it that way :))..... Wish they would also add, do not need to breath air, so you could go into outer space or so some gas attack would not work on you. Oh well.

[Phage]

Oliver McShade wrote:

Wish they would also add, do not need to breath air, so you could go into outer space or so some gas attack would not work on you. Oh well.

Technically fire does need air! Of course applying scientific limitations to a human that is changing his physiology...

One thing that Treantmonk's Druid guide pointed out is that you can make use of the dog, horse, and bat/bird forms for both stealthy roleplaying (everyone loves dogs, no one expects a bird to be a spy) and mounting options. Obviously not optimal for combat, but worth noting if you plan to be in cities or encountering people you might attempt to spy on.