Little backstory. I've played D&D since 1st ed in 1988. I played 3.0 and 3.5 from the time it was released in 2000 up until 4e came out in 2008 and switched to it.
I've just finished 4e and wanted to return to 3.5 / PF and have begun my first PF campaign last night.
One of my gripes with 3.5 was lack of balance and top-heavy characters breaking encounter difficulty. A big class that gave me headaches was the old druid. They would essentially summon forth a zoo and the rest of the party would camp while the zoo fought their encounters for them.
We have a druid in the new campaign, who has dump stats and has gone top-heavy. She has a wolverine animal companion and of course, the summon nature's ally spells.
I'm not really sure how to deal with a druid. I don't want it dominating the game like they used to do in my campaigns in 3.5. My main issue with druids is their ability to essentially function like several fighters, in essence making a party of 6 characters the equivalent of 8 characters at 1st level (the wolverine is basically a 1st level fighter and summon nature's ally will bring the equivalent of another 1st level fighter).
When designing encounters or placing encounters for the party, the CR system is already forgiving in that a CR 1 encounter against a 1st level party is relatively easy for them to handle. Toss in two more opponents on the PCs side and it's unbalanced.
To get around this before I used to have to artifically inflate encounter numbers. Meaning if the group was going to fight six monsters I would have to bump that number up to eight or so to deal with the extra creatures the druid would bring in.
Another way to deal with them is to have the enemy flee until the spell wears off but indoors there often aren't enough places to run and get away from the party plus their menagerie of creatures.
So basically, do druids still have the ability to bust encounter balance or am I just worried over past experiences and PF fixed them?
How are some good ways to deal with summoner type characters without resorting to artifically bumping up numbers to account for what essentially becomes more party members?
If the druid has dump their physical stats their wild shape is going to be a lot less amazing than it used to be. Most of the animals on summon nature's ally are a lot less powerful than what is on the summon monster list so be sure the two lists stay separate.
Animal Companions are fun but they are also really squishy and prone to dropping out faster than most people are comfortable with unless some good cash is spent on them specifically, and the wolf is far from the best of such creatures.
Take away the spontaneous casting of SNA. Replace with a domain spell list able to be converted. Don't allow the master Summoner.
Take away the spontaneous casting of SNA. Replace with a domain spell list able to be converted. Don't allow the master Summoner.
What is the "master summoner"?
Take away the spontaneous casting of SNA. Replace with a domain spell list able to be converted. Don't allow the master Summoner.What is the "master summoner"?
It's an option in the book Ultimate Magic.
Honestly if I were you and just coming to pathfinder I would limit everything to just the core rulebook for your first game.
That should limit stuff enough to really control the pace fairly well.
Take away the spontaneous casting of SNA. Replace with a domain spell list able to be converted. Don't allow the master Summoner.What is the "master summoner"?It's an option in the book Ultimate Magic.
Honestly if I were you and just coming to pathfinder I would limit everything to just the core rulebook for your first game.
That should limit stuff enough to really control the pace fairly well.
Here is a link to the campaign:
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-age-of-kings
The druid has not uploaded her character yet.
An issue I had with 3.5 is that the splat books and expansions did indeed get broken quickly so I have it set where only the main rulebook can be used. Anything else has to get my approval and I've already had to nix a few requests.
Oh yea. Just use the Core Rulebook. The archetypes in APG are fine, but the Summoner, from the Advanced Players Guide (APG, obviously!) wouldn't work too well if your worries are flooding the battlefield.
Archetypes are like alternative class features in 3.5, but it's an all or nothing thing.
Personally, I'd just allow Core and APG for a first game, because the APG is really well done. UM and UC are all over the place, although there is gold in all of them. Generally, if something is overpowered it's due to somewhat hidden interactions between abilities. The Master Summoner is the only "truly" overpowered Archetype out there, IMO.
For example, the Archaeologist bard from Ultimate Combat is wonderful. Dragon Style and Beastmorph alchemist? Not so much.
Little backstory.Keep in mind:
- Summon Natures Ally has a duration of 1 round/level so those summoned creatures won't be around for long in the early levels. At first level it's only 1 round.
- The Protection spells "prevents bodily contact by [opposed alignment] summoned creatures".
- For any summoned creature, remember this part of the spell description "If you can communicate with the creature.." If the caster has no way to directly communicate with a summoned creature that creature simply attacks the nearest enemy, blindly and with minimal tactics.
Thanks for the pointers. The early levels its not so bad. Its more around the 7-9th level that it gets annoying. However I'm trying to lay the groundwork now so that when that time comes I'm not getting hammered with summoning that stays forever.
The protection spells are a good bit too. As to communicating, I'm going off of 3.5 here, but our druid back then had a way to telepathically communicate to get around that, so she was always able to communicate. I'm not sure if that exists now or not.
Again thanks everyone for the pointers etc...
The Druid in PF isn't nearly as powerful as the 3.5 version. I didn't play much 3.5 over the years but the few times I did there was always Druid doing crazy stuff that made the party feel redundant. I haven't seen that happen in PF yet but then only 1 Druid has been played so far. But then maybe that's exactly why I haven't been seeing as many Druids, they are the unbalanced beasts they used to be.
The Druid in PF isn't nearly as powerful as the 3.5 version. I didn't play much 3.5 over the years but the few times I did there was always Druid doing crazy stuff that made the party feel redundant. I haven't seen that happen in PF yet but then only 1 Druid has been played so far. But then maybe that's exactly why I haven't been seeing as many Druids, they are the unbalanced beasts they used to be.
To be fair, the druid isn't that big a deal when you take away their summoning abilities. They have some cool tricks like wild shape which are fun. My issues center entirely around them breaking encounters by exponating the numbers of the party.
Big boss battle designed for 5 PCs? Not a problem. Now there are 10 of us. Enjoy =)
When designing encounters I had to specifically tailor them *knowing* the druid was going to double their size (this was when they were around 9th level or so).
In the beginning the creatures are only around for a turn or two. Combats last about 5-6 rounds at most so when druids hit 5th level they have the ability to summon monsters that for the most part stay in the duration of the combat.
I don't want to specifically neuter the druid and make it not fun. That's my last desire. What I want are balanced encounters that are not on easy-mode for the party the entire time. Summoning a zoo in quickly breaks the encounter (and is one reason why the developers of 4e said they got rid of summoning for the most part from that game)
Summoning also adds combatants to the map, which adds time, and one of my biggest gripes with 4e was that an encounter took 2-3 hours. I like the 3.5/PF encounters that take 10-15 minutes and you can get things done. Having to wait while a mini horde of animals runs around will have a negative impact on the game.
I also think that the dump stat in strength was chosen because that when wildshaping I think the player thinks that they gain the animal's natural strength (basically gaming the system and not being affected by having such a low strength, because when shaping into a bear they would suddenly have a bear's strength so in essence they would get a "free" high strength on top of high other abilities from dumping strength).
I'll have to look that one up, if they have to keep their low score, that's not that big a deal.
I also think that the dump stat in strength was chosen because that when wildshaping I think the player thinks that they gain the animal's natural strength (basically gaming the system and not being affected...Doesn't quite work that way anymore. Now the Druid gets Beast Shape(x) and gets a fixed size bonus to strength as follows:
Beast Shape I = Medium animal +2 size bonus to your Strength
Beast Shape II = Large animal +4 size bonus to your Strength
Beast Shape III = Huge animal +6 size bonus to your Strength
Cool. Not *as* bad as 3.5. More irritating then anything (still allows a dump stat to not hurt as bad as it should, but a far cry from saying "I dumped my strength to 7, and now i wild shape into an 18 and basically got free points haha")
So looks like it shouldn't be that big a deal other than the summoning, and I added a restriction to prevent it from being spontaneously cast.
Remember that summon spells take a full round to cast. Any damage during that time and it's concentration check time. Anyone with spellcraft can make a check to realise what he's doing and try to do him damage to disrupt the spell. A quick magic missile is all you need to mess up his day.
This, or use archers or ranged attacks at spellcasters, specifically the druid. Once she discovers she is a target she will have to change how she does things.
I too am in a party with a druid, and he does a lot of this too. It does seem to imbalance the encounter especially at lower levels. As they increase in level, it becomes a bit more balanced since the summoned creatures can't "hang" around for long, but it seems to be enough to give the PCs the edge.
You could also make them declare whether their summons are good or evil and take protection from good/evil spells to negate the summoned animals attacks.
I also think that the dump stat in strength was chosen because that when wildshaping I think the player thinks that they gain the animal's natural strength (basically gaming the system and not being affected...Doesn't quite work that way anymore. Now the Druid gets Beast Shape(x) and gets a fixed size bonus to strength as follows:
Beast Shape I = Medium animal +2 size bonus to your Strength
Beast Shape II = Large animal +4 size bonus to your Strength
Beast Shape III = Huge animal +6 size bonus to your StrengthCool. Not *as* bad as 3.5. More irritating then anything (still allows a dump stat to not hurt as bad as it should, but a far cry from saying "I dumped my strength to 7, and now i wild shape into an 18 and basically got free points haha")
So looks like it shouldn't be that big a deal other than the summoning, and I added a restriction to prevent it from being spontaneously cast.
Actually it hurts quite a bit now. If you dump physical stats as a druid no matter what you wild shape to you wont be effective in combat, your to hit and damage will be too low. A level 9 druid will have a bab of +6. With just that 7 strength they end up with a 13 giving them a +7 to hit. That is way behind say a fighter with weapon focus (9+4from stength+1from weapon focus +2 from weapon training +2 from a magic weapon for a total of +18), and gives them a very poor chance of hitting the normal ACs for CR appropriate opponents.
And, as I'm sure you know, this is a bonus to the Strength ability score not the strength bonus. So +2 to an ability nets only a +1 bonus and so on.
Right =) It was used in an abusive way from 3.5. I'm glad to see that they recognized it's brokeness and fixed it a bit. I can deal with the current incarnation of wildshape with no issues. She is indeed maxed out as a spellcaster, so that's fine (it's when you get your cake and get to eat it too that I have issues as a DM).
So basically the main thing I'm going to have to deal with is summoning and design my encounters to take that into consideration. That part is the same as before in terms of encounter-design, and while annoying, at least the other train of fun is no longer going to be pulling into the station with it.
Focus firing on spellcasters, while wise, can also be seen as a dick-move by players and I try to minimize that (depending on the enemy and their tactical accumen). HOWEVER... the party consists of three front line fighters (one with step up and a tower shield), a cleric, a rogue, and the druid, so it will be on the fighters to keep their soft rogue and druid from getting hammered on.
Ideas are forming...
In Pathfinder, it's still possible to build a brutal druid (I've dealt with one in Pathfinder Society play), but the power level of melee-based classes went up a notch. Despite this, you should be able to keep him in check without too much heartburn. Keep the following points in mind:
1.) Concentration is no longer a skill. A druid's concentration score will equal (Level)+(Wis Mod)+(Combat Casting Feat). This should be about +12 for a fairly-optimized 6th level caster without combat casting.
2.) The difficulty of casting defensively has gone up to 15 + ([u]Double[/u] spell level). He'll blow a defensive cast with fair frequency.
3.) As you know, summons have a 1-round casting time.
4.) You may not have noticed feats like Step Up, Following Step, Step Up And Strike, Disruptive, Disruptive Shot, or Spellbreaker. These make casting a bit more perilous than it once was.
5.) His summoned creatures will attack nearby foes without additional actions on his part, but if he wants to control summoned animals' activity, he needs to make Animal Handling checks. ("Pushing" an animal to do something it isn't trained for is DC 25; it's DC 27 if the creature is injured.)
6.) Squeeze things a bit: He can't summon creatures into areas without adequate space.
In Pathfinder, it's still possible to build a brutal druid (I've dealt with one in Pathfinder Society play), but the power level of melee-based classes went up a notch. Despite this, you should be able to keep him in check without too much heartburn. Keep the following points in mind:
1.) Concentration is no longer a skill. A druid's concentration score will equal (Level)+(Wis Mod)+(Combat Casting Feat). This should be about +12 for a fairly-optimized 6th level caster without combat casting.
2.) The difficulty of casting defensively has gone up to 15 + ([u]Double[/u] spell level). He'll blow a defensive cast with fair frequency.
3.) As you know, summons have a 1-round casting time.
4.) You may not have noticed feats like Step Up, Following Step, Step Up And Strike, Disruptive, Disruptive Shot, or Spellbreaker. These make casting a bit more perilous than it once was.
5.) His summoned creatures will attack nearby foes without additional actions on his part, but if he wants to control summoned animals' activity, he needs to make Animal Handling checks. ("Pushing" an animal to do something it isn't trained for is DC 25; it's DC 27 if the creature is injured.)
6.) Squeeze things a bit: He can't summon creatures into areas without adequate space.
All excellent points. I am taking copious notes =)
Focus firing on spellcasters, while wise, can also be seen as a dick-move by players and I try to minimize that (depending on the enemy and their tactical accumen).
Tell them to stop whining. Any archer who gets a clear shot at a caster in mid-spell would be a fool not to take it.
Of course, some archers ARE fools...
Focus firing on spellcasters, while wise, can also be seen as a dick-move by players and I try to minimize that (depending on the enemy and their tactical accumen).Tell them to stop whining. Any archer who gets a clear shot at a caster in mid-spell would be a fool not to take it.
Of course, some archers ARE fools...
Very true. Off topic and not dealing with my current party, but the min/maxers I have had in the past complained whenever their min abilities came into play, like their character's weaknesses should never be targeted and their character sheet only consisted of the abilities and attributes that they maxed out on.
If you're used to 4th ed D&D then the philosophy there is that killing PCs should be avoided so it's going to take some getting used to to adjust back to threats and counters being more effective. (one of the reasons I came back to 3.5/PF)
Are the summons really that bad?
The wolverine looks well below a 1st level fighter in terms of AC and DPR. 3 attacks is nice and the rage helps, but a fighter will be better.
And the 1st level summons are CR 1/2-1/3. They help, but certainly aren't the equivalent of another party member. That seems to hold true as you move to higher level spells.
More weaker things can help, particularly with action economy, but they're also vulnerable to area effects.
Consider a CR 1 encounter and a 1st level party. A CR 1 encounter is pretty much a cake-walk. The book says a CR 1 encounter is designed for about 4-5 players in mind, but reality I put that more at 4 players, and an at-level encounter is still very easy to deal with.
For 6 players I typically add a couple monsters. So last night there were four of them present and they had to fight four bandits that came out to be a CR 1 total and they pretty much owned the encounter with no sweat (which is what I figured and that's cool, you need those type of encounters)
If all 6 players had been present I would have had 6 bandits instead of 4.
Throw in the druid's summon and her animal companion and there are now 8 players versus the 6 bandits for one round, and then 7 players versus the 6 bandits afterward. Still an edge, making an easy encounter very easy.
Throw up the difficulty a notch and essentially the summoner druid can reliably make an encounter one notch easier than it was designed to be.
At lower levels this impact is not felt as bad as it is towards 5th - 6th level when the summoned monsters last most if not all of the encounter length (which I find averaged 5-6 rounds).
Are they that bad? Admitedly I only have 3.5 to go off of as I have not had extensive experience with the new bestiary. We are playing low magic low stats (10 point buy) so the wolverine comes out being about what the first level fighter is minus the feats and tricks. His AC is comparative (not matched but a couple points lower), his to hit and damage output are also comparative. In essence, it becomes the 7th party member and when encounters are designed for 6 PCs, that makes things a little easier to deal with.
Throw in the summoned creatures and that combination with the animal companion makes the encounters a notch easier than they would be without them (it's about like hiring retainers to go with you).
Is that game-breaking? No. It's not game-breaking, but it pushes the game toward easy-mode if the encounters do not take the druid into account. Typically the druid is also not going to stand out in the open to cast either, and making grudge monsters specifically aimed at killing druids seems bad-taste to me.
So they are not game-breaking, but in essence have the ability to summon extra party members which skew the balance of the encounter and on a continual basis this can make campaign paths a lot easier to deal with unless the other side takes that into consideration as well (kind of like playing football when you have 12 men against the opponent's team which only has 11)
I'm trying to find a good way to handle that without being overbearing or overly "punishing". If a player enjoys a character, that's why we play, so punishing someone is not good form (IMO) so I need constructive ways to handle it that restores some balance but doesn't skew things in my favor too heavily.
Look at this thread, it is essentialy the same question, a DM worried about a summoning.
An even level encounter is supposed to be an easy fight for a 4th level group, expending around 1/4th of their daily resources.
Your druid just blew one of his 1st level spells of which he has about 3... so sounds about right to me.
I have always hated summon spells....mostly due to the time when people cast their own hordes...I have used two house rules in my game to deal with this...
1) No summon spells. They don't exist.
2) You can only have one active summon spell at any time.
I don't intend for this to be snarky, but I just want to make sure that you know that spontaneously cast doesn't mean "cast for free." It just means they don't have to prepare them ahead of time. They can "spontaneously" cast a SNA spell in place of a prepared spell. I don't see any reason to nerf that ability.
I played a druid in 3.5 so I can sympathize with where you are coming from. There was a feat in 3.5 that allowed you to cast a SNA spell as a standard action rather than a 1 round action (albeit at the expense of 1 level of SNA). There is no such feat in Pathfinder that I've seen or heard of, so all SNA take 1 full round to cast.
The bigger issue with 3.5 druids in my mind was wildshape, but Pathfinder has modified the ability and it seems to be a nice fix. Good luck!
I have always hated summon spells....mostly due to the time when people cast their own hordes...I have used two house rules in my game to deal with this...
1) No summon spells. They don't exist.
2) You can only have one active summon spell at any time.
The hordes thing is what I am actively trying to avoid having happen. I don't want to flat out ban summoning but I don't want it to be used to create armies in the future, as I've had a couple campaigns wrecked because of it in the past and am mindful of it now.
I don't intend for this to be snarky, but I just want to make sure that you know that spontaneously cast doesn't mean "cast for free." It just means they don't have to prepare them ahead of time. They can "spontaneously" cast a SNA spell in place of a prepared spell. I don't see any reason to nerf that ability.
I played a druid in 3.5 so I can sympathize with where you are coming from. There was a feat in 3.5 that allowed you to cast a SNA spell as a standard action rather than a 1 round action (albeit at the expense of 1 level of SNA). There is no such feat in Pathfinder that I've seen or heard of, so all SNA take 1 full round to cast.
The bigger issue with 3.5 druids in my mind was wildshape, but Pathfinder has modified the ability and it seems to be a nice fix. Good luck!
Yes indeed I realize spontaneous casting is replacing spells for summon.
So essentially as the druid's spelllist grows in size, the number of
available summoning spells grow with it.
Again at low levels, not that big a deal. At mid to high levels, they can bring down skirmish-sized armies to help them which can nullify most encounters not specifically geared towards neutralizing summoning.
Boss fight? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz {summon summon summon you guys go sit down over there i got this summon summon summon}
That scenario is what I'm trying to avoid (as I've had it happen many times in 3.5 campaigns involving a druid created specifically as a summon battery)
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1, You really need to read Core. There are changes to PF from 3.5, and those changes matter.
2, The only thing I would still ban outright is the Leadership feat. It's still too unbalancing.
3, Although this will probably be an unpopular choice, limit the books down to Core. APG, UM, and UC adds lots of things to the mix, and not surprisingly, some of those mixes end up being unbalancing. If you have players that are unhappy with that, I'd consider adding books later on, and then allowing them to rebuild do a limited rebuild for that character. Definitely require them to update their character sheets so you can keep the rebuild honest.
4, Druids are probably the only class to get a flat out nerf from 3.5. I do not think they gained any advantages at all in PF over 3.5.
5, Summoned creatures are weaker than 3.5 versions I believe.
The hordes thing is what I am actively trying to avoid having happen. I don't want to flat out ban summoning but I don't want it to be used to create armies in the future, as I've had a couple campaigns wrecked because of it in the past and am mindful of it now.I have always hated summon spells....mostly due to the time when people cast their own hordes...I have used two house rules in my game to deal with this...
1) No summon spells. They don't exist.
2) You can only have one active summon spell at any time.
Hordes of summons suck, but more because they're a pain to handle than because they're overpowered. One player having 4-5 different creatures to act for slows play down to a crawl, even if he's being efficient.
Still, I suggest talking to your players about this, asking them to avoid it and letting them know you'll house rule it if it becomes a problem, rather than preemptively ruling it out.If they don't abuse it, let it go.
I've put a footnote in the houserules saying if the summoning becomes excessive, slows the game down too much, or nerfs encounters through summoning a small army that it would be restricted. For now, it will just be monitored.
The only corebook that we can use is the core book. The other add on books are at my discretion. For example, one of the fighters wanted monkey-grip which is a feat that has also led to issues of balance in the past (dual wielding great sword lawn mower build).
For now I think that's best, and they are ok with it. Ultimate Magic and Combat I've heard has some cool stuff in it, but have also heard there are broken things in it as well, and as I don't know the difference right now, I am going to be extra leery about what I let in.
Nothing more disheartening than pouring a ton of time into a campaign to see it wrecked by level 9.
Oh in 3.5 druid was just ridicilously overpowered. I'm playing in a 3.5 game, and I was thinking about playing a druid. But even when not optimizing, and actually taking sub-optimal choices on purpose I would have dominated the group, so I decided to not be a druid in the end :)
In PF that's different though, so I'd really say see how it works out without nerfing anything. Tell your players that you are watching the balance and are not sure about a few things and might make changes to it along the way.
But first see if your fears are actually coming true, or if they're unfounded.
You can always counterspell the spells as they are being cast too. Would take a priest or enemy druid (hey druids can be as contrary to each other as any other class) and just counterspell the summons as he/she does them.
Full round casting time, protection spells, counterspelling, Area Dispelling of the summoned creatures themselves. Lots of way to counter them.
And remember, there is NOTHING stopping the enemy from using summons themselves. Just counter his summons with your OWN Summons. Tie up his pets with your own or swarm the squishies with your own so he has to use his pets to counter yours.
Every druid should know that what is good for the goose is good for the gander as well...
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Check it out using the basic rules, and tell the druid player that you might change some things about summoning if it becomes a problem.
At 1st level, to summon something, a druid is sacrificing their action to call up a CR 1/3 to 1/2 creature that will get a single round worth of attacks. (In essence, trading one of their actions to summon something roughly half as tough as them, for one action.) Augment Summoning can help here, but, for a human, at 1st level, Augment Summons (and it's prereq Spell Focus) is all of the druids feats. For a nonhuman, they can't even get that option until 3rd level.
Additionally, that will be half of their spellcasting *for the day,* since a druid who doesn't have a 20+ Wisdom is only going to have 2 spells per day. (And if the party doesn't include a cleric, they'll both be cure light wounds anyway, and still not be enough...)
In my experience, druid companions die fast. Low AC coupled with non-maxed hit points at 1st level result in them being no match for anything that can threaten a 1st level party. Summoned Nature's Allies, even if you aren't forced to spend all of your spells on healing duties, aren't worth summoning until you can at least get a few rounds worth of duration out of them.
Around 3rd level, when even a non-human druid can summon small earth elementals, and have Augment Summons, it's not a terrible choice, particularly if the druid has spent a point of Linguistics on Terran (so that they can order the elemental to flank foes, or use earth glide to get into position, or bull rush foes, etc.). It's still a full-round action, and easily interrupted, as you can't optimize Concentration checks in PF, the way you could in 3.5, and it's easy to force concentration checks with archery (two a round, if the 'spoiler' has rapid shot) or alchemist's fire or a thunderstone or some damaging environmental conditions (smoke and embers, high winds, etc.) that take effect at the end of the round and wouldn't bother standard actions, but could disrupt full-round spells.
I occasionally adopt PFSociety rules for home games or one shots. It eliminates item creation feats and curbs summon-an-army madness. "I want to keep bookkeeping to a minimum and play speed at a maximum" is a perfectly legitimate reason.
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Having played a druid in a Pathfinder campaign, I can attest, that they are not over powered.
Waste of a round to cast the summon, slows down the 'horde' effect, and any decent tactics begins to swarm the party meaning that in general as a druid I only tended to get off ONE summon in a typical combat.
The effectiveness of wildshape, combined with my Animal companion meant I was second to the fighter in melee, but he still beat my out for dealing damage, I was his support service, not the other way around.
I lost my animal companion through one shot kill by the GM once, and my replacement AC often went unconscious.
So unless you simply want to change the flavor of your world, try it out first, and don't let 3.5 preconceptions ruin you or your players fun in experiencing Pathfinder as it is written.
Robyn
I never encountered a problem in 3.5 with a druid overpowering anything. I can remember three druids over the life of that Edition, that were in our game. One of them was big on summoning, but that character never got beyond 8th level or so. At the lower levels there just was no way to overpower an encounter through summoning, because the summoned creatures just didn't stick around that long.
The other two druids were the primary healers of their parties.
From my point of view, this is a play style issue. Your druid's player may not have been concerned with anything else, such as healing, or fire spells, or other important utilitarian functions. Faced with a bunch of opponents, he reacted by simply bringing in a bunch of extra combatants.
One trick ponies are in my opinion, easy to deal with. You present him with a wide range of challenges that cannot all be solved by the same ability or spell. In time, he, or the party will determine that the status quo cannot be maintained.
Matter of fact, a friend just mentioned a couple days ago, that he is GMing a party where the only healer is the druid, and the druid has so far not bothered to cast a single cure spell. He had to practically railroad the party to a place where a wand of cure light wounds was located, just to give them a fighting chance. He's mentioned to the druid's player that healing can also be the druid's role, but evidently the player does not get the hint. Now that PCs are starting to drop, the other players are starting to pressure the druid to help out.
I never encountered a problem in 3.5 with a druid overpowering anything. I can remember three druids over the life of that Edition, that were in our game. One of them was big on summoning, but that character never got beyond 8th level or so. At the lower levels there just was no way to overpower an encounter through summoning, because the summoned creatures just didn't stick around that long.
The other two druids were the primary healers of their parties.
From my point of view, this is a play style issue. Your druid's player may not have been concerned with anything else, such as healing, or fire spells, or other important utilitarian functions. Faced with a bunch of opponents, he reacted by simply bringing in a bunch of extra combatants.
One trick ponies are in my opinion, easy to deal with. You present him with a wide range of challenges that cannot all be solved by the same ability or spell. In time, he, or the party will determine that the status quo cannot be maintained.
Matter of fact, a friend just mentioned a couple days ago, that he is GMing a party where the only healer is the druid, and the druid has so far not bothered to cast a single cure spell. He had to practically railroad the party to a place where a wand of cure light wounds was located, just to give them a fighting chance. He's mentioned to the druid's player that healing can also be the druid's role, but evidently the player does not get the hint. Now that PCs are starting to drop, the other players are starting to pressure the druid to help out.
This party does indeed also have a cleric.