So, my 8th level druid has precise shot, but still suffers penalties due to cover. "Improved precise shot" would help with that, but even if she had a dex of 19(!) She won't meet the BAB requirement (+11!) until she hits level 15(!).
The odds of this character ever reaching that level are infinitesimal. Its taken five years to get her to level 8.
So, how else can she defeat cover? The "seeking" weapon enchantment defeats concealment but not cover. I don't see any druid spells which defeat cover. Is there a way to use scrolls, wands, wondrous items or any other means to defeat the cover situation?
Hi, If your DM allows for 3.5 material, there are goggles of foe finding for 2.5k in the Magic Item Compendium. They negate all but total cover.
Where are you fighting things that cover is such a huge problem? It should come up sometimes, but shouldn't be a constant thing. As far as options for defeating cover go, depending on what the cover is made of, stone shape or wood shape might be able to just remove it. Other options include having an animal companion, summoned creature, or party member bull rush or drag opponents out where you can better riddle them with holes.
Get behind the enemy, draw them out, smoke them out, destroy the cover. There are some things which just require tactics and not a magical item. I'd also like to know why you're running into cover so often that it's such a big problem.
Brilliant energy weapons could also work. It doesn't outright say that it beats cover, but the wording:
A brilliant energy weapon ignores nonliving matter
seems to suggest that brilliant energy arrows (unfortunately it can't be applied to bows themselves) will go through most types of cover (except things like trees). Check it with you GM perhaps. That's certainly how I would rule it.
It's not a huge issue. But it comes up from time to time. My GM is pretty much a stickler on cover itself, but is quite reasonable about "partial cover" so while the target doesn't get the +4 very much, they get the +2 pretty regularly, maybe 40% of the time in a serious battle.
Usually the cover is due to the movement of the combatants in tight spaces. When things are pretty wide open I can usually maneuver to a good spot where cover doesn't apply. Unfortunately the last several encounters have all been in tight underground hallways and tiny little rooms. Not the best conditions for a bow wielder.
The main reason this is coming up now is that we are on the verge of ninth level and I was planning to take "improved precise shot" until I realized the severity of the prerequisites. So I'm trying to figure out other ways accomplish the same goal.
Flight is an option when we are in a space she could fly, which is probably about 10% of our encounters right now, but still a great point since those fights where flight is possible have been the biggest baddest boss fights.
Getting behind the enemy is a problem in our current situation since she has no ability to teleport, and since she is by far the squishiest member of the party so I don't want her to be the target of a gang-attack.
The bull rush idea is not bad at all, I think that could work.
Great suggestions, thanks for commenting.
Brilliant energy weapons could also work. It doesn't outright say that it beats cover, but the wording:
A brilliant energy weapon ignores nonliving matterseems to suggest that brilliant energy arrows (unfortunately it can't be applied to bows themselves) will go through most types of cover (except things like trees). Check it with you GM perhaps. That's certainly how I would rule it.
I like this, but there is absolutely no way she could afford it.
At your level, stone shape can be used to reshape almost 20 cubic feet of stone. That's easily enough to widen doorways, flatten pillars into the floor, expose alcoves, or make trenches for your allies to defend (to get them out of the way) in the kinds of environments you're talking about. You might not always be able to completely eliminate cover, but you should at the least be able to convert cover to partial cover (is that correct terminology?), or totally remove partial cover. Stone shape also has many non-combat applications such as making holes in walls, closing holes in walls, and so on.
For environments with trees, tree stride is a 5th level spell that will let you basically dimension door a lot. Note the hour per level duration, which makes this feasibly an all-day buff to let get the perfect position every time if there are trees around. Obviously not so useful if you're underground all the time.
Also on the 5th level druid spell list is transmute rock to mud. If your underground adventures are taking place in natural caverns, the applications of this spell are both endless and hilarious. As a 9th level druid you'll be able to affect a total of 180 cubic feet (in 10x10 increments), meaning that combined with its slowing and AC reducing effects, it is likely that this will end all but the most extreme cover situations. Also can be used in a cute combo with its counterpart, transmute mud to rock.
I like this, but there is absolutely no way she could afford it.
Ach, cash limitations. Always annoying.
@Danny, excellent points. I am ashamed to admit that I had never really thought about "tree stride" as such a powerful tactical combat spell in the forest. That I will certainly remember.
Yah, I'm looking forward to her getting the rock to mud spell.
Our GM is very much a stickler when it comes to rulings on spells and such, plus he's very good at math. Stone shape for my druid would affect 18 cubic feet of stone. That sounds like a lot. but it's a cube a bit more than 2.5 feet on a side. Assuming I'm shaping a 25 sq foot section of stone (5'x5', or one square) that means about nine inches of the stone in one square could be affected. Since most dungeon maps assume five foot thick stone walls, that means her ability to widen a doorway or make a pit is quite limited indeed.
On the other hand, it could very well remove a pillar or something like that.
Oh, good point about stone shape. I overestimated how much it could move.
That being said, are you high enough level to wild shape into a mouse? If so, you could use that to get a better firing position. Another, more mundane, option is to try and adjust your position in your party's marching order. Allies can move through your space without penalty as long as they don't end their movement in your space (though they probably can't run or charge through your space), so you don't necessarily need to be in back just because you use a bow.
If you are mostly dealing with partial cover, then weapon focus will make up for half of the ac bonus, you already have point blank shot, but how about zen archery to up your attack bonus more. You could also take a level of sorcerer or wizard, if your int or cha can support that, and take true strike as a spell, and also you could then take the feat arcane strike.
Danny, perhaps some insight into our party dynamic would be useful. Here is a breakdown:
My character is a half-elf/half-dryad who grew up in a wild dryad grove where her dryad "sisters" used to laugh and call her names, and not let her join in any dryad games due to her clumsy half-dryad nature (relatively speaking that is). Growing up as an outcast she turned her attention to caring for the local wildlife, which attracted the attention of a local druid. Because she was only half-dryad, they discovered that she was able to travel farther from her oak grove and for longer periods of time than her "sisters." So she moved in with the druid and began to study under her, along with a local human who was in training to become a ranger. While studying with the druid, a band of goblins and humans invaded the forest in the search of vast quantities of wood to feed the fires of a demonic cult. They totally wiped out her dryad grove, the psychic shock of which nearly killed her (reduced her con permanently by 2 and str by 1). She and the ranger returned to the now destroyed grove to find nothing but tree stumps and dryad corpses. She and the ranger pursued the rampaging goblin/human party, encountering a young sorcerer and cleric who were also seeking the demonic cult at the orders of the local town's mayor. This was the hook for the first adventure she and the ranger played in. At the time she began adventuring she was quite literally a "babe in the woods." She knew nothing of money, culture, history and only what geography the druid had taught her.
Her initial adventuring days were very much learning experiences for her. She leaned heavily on the ranger, who was her only "friend" and who had a worldly past so was aware of how to deal with other people. The sorcerer and cleric at first treated her as some sort of alien freak, but over time they developed a strong bond.
It wasn't until she was level 5 that she even began to assert herself with the party. That was when the cleric left the party and a new cleric joined who took her under his wing and taught her about gold, magic items, shopping and other stuff. However, now she had two powerful personalities to lean on with the ranger and the cleric, and as such she mostly did what she was asked to do in combat. She still viewed herself as a dryad who just happened to have some druid abilities, so she was fine with the arrangement.
But then the ranger was killed (by the cleric actually, but not intentionally and that's a whole 'nother story). The cleric went away in penance and guilt and my druid and the sorcerer were more or less on their own for a while. This was level 7, so not long ago in game terms.
By then she had developed a bit of a reputation in the area so when a strange sort of corruption started to take over the forest, the original druid teacher asked her to join with a new cleric and a rogue to solve the mystery and save the world. The rogue was killed nearly immediately because of some very poor tactical decision making and the cleric who had been the party "leader" was called to a different duty. So a new cleric and rogue joined the party (essentially the two players swapped roles, the original cleric player now playing a rogue, and the original rogue player now playing a cleric).
However, during all this it was clear that the new party had no tactical leadership. The original ranger and cleric had always provided that, and none of the replacement characters had the tactical abilities, and so the party started getting beaten up pretty bad in combat. But still my druid was not fully ready to challenge the overbearing cleric until her second animal companion was killed. The ensuing party politics ended with the cleric/rogue swap, and with no clear leader of the party.
Just in the last few encounters my druid has finally decided that she can do better than the cleric, and the rogue is no use at all. So she has assumed the role of party leader (her charisma of 10 notwithstanding). The sorcerer is not interested in anything but blasting away at targets, so his 20 cha is immaterial.
So she's a sort of reluctant leader and is just learning how to manage tactical combat. So she makes lots of mistakes. She's not George Patton, she's a reluctant leader who relies more on wisdom than either force of personality or tactical brilliance (her int is also 10).
So while there are tons and tons of brilliant tactical things she could do, that's not her personality. Not yet. She's learning. But at this point for her to suddenly morph into George Patton would be way too much for me to contemplate.
Anyway, the TL:DR version of this is that she will not make the most brilliant tactical choices. Her approach to battle is very direct and is built around very simple tactical concepts such as "buff up the party," "concentrate fire," "take out the other side's artillery" and "don't waste resources."
When she thinks of combat, she thinks of her bow. When she thinks about getting better in combat, she thinks about how to be more effective with her bow. She tends to lead from the rear, using her animal companion and bow to take out the lesser powered targets while the rogue, sorcerer and cleric focus on the main bad guy. This is one reason cover hasn't been a huge issue, she's usually not attacking the same target as the melee party members.
She uses spells like "entangle" or "spike growth" or "obscuring mist" much more frequently than she uses "flame strike" or other blasty spells (although she really likes "call lightning"). She sees her role as directing the battle so that the big bad guys with pointy sticks can focus on taking down the biggest threats.
Turning into a mouse to get behind the enemy is simply a tactical option that is beyond her at the moment. She has never really thought about using wild shape except for scouting or melee combat (which she tried, but didn't like).
I just can't play her as a brilliant tactician. Not yet. Maybe in a few more levels.
How about a custom magic item that allows you to ignore cover? Something like that shouldn't be too expensive.