So I have not played druids in a long time and want to play one if people could give me ideas on builds and feats for the builds that would be great
Also guides other then treantmonk's guides would be good
Of course everything I say here is simply my own opinion and will likely be totally repudiated by other posters who disagree... but what the heck, I'll try to give some response.
If druids are not the most flexible class in the game, they are at least one of the top few classes. You can pretty much take on any role you want with druid, from front line melee powerhouse to cowardly healer and buffer. I play an archer specialist druid.
Which "builds and feats" you would want to model your druid after would depend entirely on what sort of druid you want to play. The feats a summoning specialist druid would take are entirely different than the feats a front-line wild shaping melee specialist druid would take.
Narrow it down a bit and you'll be more likely to get some responses.
no pathfinder just not in a while and my druids were not very good, how would you do an archer druid that sounds interesting and new so advice on that would be great.
The archer druid is an acquired taste I think. In fact I've never actually seen one in action other than the one I am playing. Most players would consider it to be a decidely sub-optimal build. And they may be right, although I love my character. She is a bit unique though, in that her archery is an integral part of her backstory since she was raised as a dryad, and still sees herself as a dryad who happens to have some druid powers instead of a druid who happens to use a bow.
There may be more ways to do it, but the way I did it was to have my druid's primary attribute be wisdom, and her secondary attribute to be dexterity. That means she sacrifices constitution, strength and intelligence, all of which are 10.
The main reason an archer druid is considered sub-optimal is because you have to spend your feat slots on the archery feat tree (point blank shot, precise shot, rapid shot, manyshot...) and that means you can't focus on spell boosting feats or melee feats.
However, you'll be able to shoot four arrows with three attack rolls every full attack round at level 8.
You'll want a good magic bow, my druid has a +1 thundering bow to make up for her lack of strength. Plus you will want to look at magic items that boost dex and boost ranged attacks. My druid has a belt of dexterity +2 and the lesser bracers of archery.
Also, you'll want a mount, either one you train or your animal companion. My druid rides her large tiger. That way the tiger can move (and even attack) and she can still do full round attacks with her bow.
In my case my druid is a buff/battlefield control druid. Her most common spells are things like cat's grace, bull's strength, entangle, spike growth, hydraulic push, etc. She doesn't do much blasting, although she can in a pinch (she likes "call lightning" a lot).
She does not do massive damage. She can pump out about 40 damage per round if she hits with all four arrows, but usually is closer to 25 or so damage. But that's usually enough to take care of mooks or minions while the big boys beat down on the big baddies.
She is a lot of fun to play though.
oh so what about a tank druid
a wildshape based druid with an animal companion.
Also guides would be great, other then treantmonk's
A new guide to Druids based on the all the newish options is overdue but nonexistent as far as I know.
The basic division between a melee oriented and a caster based character still holds. Your feat choices are what powers your style, though both can summon like crazy.
so what would you sugest for either build? And way in on either build.
I'd generally go for the Animal Domain and get the animal companion through that. The extra spells and spell slots are always useful, even in WS, assuming you take the feat Natural Spell.
You might want to take a couple lvls in Monk tho, for the unarmed dmg and speed boosts. if you go up to Monk 3 and get Still Mind you can take the feat Monastic Legacy and 1/2 your Druid lvls will apply towards your unarmed dmg.
If you take the Master of Many Styles archetype and get the Mantis Style and Mantis Wisdom as your bonus feats you will also scale your Stunning Fist and get more uses of that ability.
As for other styles, Snapping Turtle Style, Crane Style, and Snake Style are good for defense, while Boar Style, Panther Style, and Dragon Style are good offensive combinations, and the others are either based off Elemental Fist or seem rather situational to me (Monkey Style in particular).
Other feats to consider are Power Attack, Furious Focus, Imp. Critical (US), and Vital Strike for melee, and Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, and the Greater versions of these for spells.
If you really like a specific energy type, I'd take a lvl in Sorc (Elemental Bloodline) so you can switch all elemental spells to your chosen element, and take the Elemental Focus and Greater Elemental Focus feat. This will also allow you to use the feat Arcane Strike to eek out a little more dmg.
Past that, use size for dmg or defense as necessary (larger or smaller, respectively) and make sure to use your buffs. Shaping Focus and Powerful Shape will both add to your WS ability (and free up a lvl if you want something from another class and are willing to take the hit to Druid spellcasting).
If you plan on dipping into another class, options to consider are Sorc (see above, though other bloodlines are also useful), Barbarian (for the Rage bonuses and Rage Talents, tho I'd suggest the Urban archetype if you want to still use spells), Fighter (for the extra feats), Rogue (for SA, trapfinding, evasion, and Rogue Talents), and Oracle (for the scaling curse abilities, Lame being a nice mix with Barbarian).
I'd try to limit your lvl dips, tho, unless you just don't care about casting, in which case you can probably justify it by taking the Shaping Focus feat multiple times.
Edit: Oh, and some decent traits include Magical Knack (to keep up CL), Dirty Fighting (+1 dmg), and Anatomist (+1 on critical confirmation rolls).
Style feats could be good but I would like keep multiclassing to a minimum.
thanks, also I thought you couldn't flurry in animal form.
he sugested monk, but I know that blackbloodtroll, do you have sugestions? i'm thinking of using dragon style because my common form will be a tiger and I'll have a tiger companion probably.
should I use a defense style or offensive style primarily?
would synthesist sumoner be a better choice?
On the one hand more powerful singly but I would not have a flanking partner.
that does sound nice, could I use a ki poit toadd an extra attack or is that only flurry?
That depends on you style of play.
Panther style lets you draw out your opponents
Dragon style lets you deal extra dmg and deal US dmg in an area of effect
Boar style lets you deal extra dmg and change dmg types
Snapping Turtle style directly improves your AC
Crane style improves fighting defensively
Snake style allows you to substitute Sense Motive for a few attack/defense options
If you just want one, I'd go Snake Style as it is the most versatile, but keep up AC as much as possible with items/buffs
Note that they all rely heavily on US tho, and Dragon style relies on Stunning Fist.
Also realize that just because you have a high AC doesn't mean that they will miss you, especially for bosses. Dealing dmg, however, will limit how long they have to do so, and that is likely what the rest of the party is doing too.
I follow Sun Zhu's rule a strong attack is the best defence so an offensive style is best for a druid who want[s to move around the battlefield while taking out enimes which style would you sugest, I almost neglected spells I should take, what do you think?
You will likely be able to get Pounce from your WS ability. Good combinations with this are Dragon Style (extra dmg), Panther Style (extra attacks when opponents take AOOs from your movement), and Boar Style (more extra dmg, and stacking bleed if you take all three feats).
Tiger Style seems suboptimal compared to an actual Pounce, IMO, as it only gives you two attacks (instead of a full attack), and 1/2 movement (instead of full movement or a charge). The only real benefit I see from Tiger Style is the bonus to CMD, which is situational.
Unfortunately, I've not really gone through the Druid spell list with a fine-tooth comb as I have many of the other spellcasting classes, so I'll not be much help with that tonight. Might be a good thread for another night tho.
True, I guess. But I'd rather take the Boar Style and Panther Style trees, get extra attacks off of provoking AOOs with Pounce, and deal extra bleed dmg, some of which will stack with itself in subsequent rounds with Boar Shred. But that's me.
Dragon Style adds in extra Str dmg (which can be impressive with WS), but the upper lvl feats rely too much on Stunning Fist to be of much use without Mantis Wisdom and the extra uses provided by that feat tree, IMO.
And Tiger Strike hurts where this build is already going to be weak, AC. Being a large creature makes you hit like a train, but it also makes you easy to hit. The nat AC from WS is nice, but barely does better than an offset of the size and Dex penalties to AC, if that at times.
Of course, this is all just my way of seeing things.
Besides, Boar Strike meshes wonderfully with the Shatter Defenses feat chain which will allow you to make virtually any creature flat-footed (unless they are immune to fear effects).
Intimidation here also makes them easier targets and decreases their ability to hit you. It costs, but it's worth it, as it can also offset a large part of the Power Attack penalties.
should I dump int and cha
I can take the feat that uses str as your intimidation
what stats should I have in general?
Note that a lot of those features only apply to unarmed strikes, not natural attacks. A druid in Dragon Style does not get extra Strength damage on his first natural attack. He can still charge through allies, but to get the bonus damage he must take Feral Combat Training. The same restriction applies to most all of the Style feats.
thanks take bot do you have a good stat set?
My current druid is a 17 point buy Human.
STR 17
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 8
You'd absolutely need to buy a Headband of Inspired Wisdom +2 before level 9 (and +4 by lvl 13) but at that point it will be cheap.
He's a grappling Bear Shaman and so far the feats have been
1:Improved Unarmed Strike
B:Improved Grapple
3:Power Attack
5:Heavy Armor Proficiency
7:Natural Spell
9:Greater Grapple
Lion Shaman/vanilla druid would have been more optimized though.
ya I'm thinking lion shaman
would it hurt to drop my int?
great, thanks. What would be agood feats/ class lvl. per lvl?
ya probably
What do you think of this pregresion what would add remove or move around?
lvl. 1 (druid) imp. unarmed, toughness
lvl 2 monk
lvl 3 (monk) weapon focus (claws)
lvl 4 (monk)
Lvl. 5 (monk) boon companion
Lvl. 6 (druid) rest of way
Lvl. 7 feral combat training
Lvl 8
Lvl 9 Natural spell
Lvl. 10
Lvl. 11 boar style
lvl. 12
Lvl 13 boar ferocity
Lvl. 14
Lvl. 15 boar shred
Lvl. 16 heavy armor profficancy
The archer druid is an acquired taste I think. In fact I've never actually seen one in action other than the one I am playing. Most players would consider it to be a decidely sub-optimal build. And they may be right, although I love my character. She is a bit unique though, in that her archery is an integral part of her backstory since she was raised as a dryad, and still sees herself as a dryad who happens to have some druid powers instead of a druid who happens to use a bow.
There may be more ways to do it, but the way I did it was to have my druid's primary attribute be wisdom, and her secondary attribute to be dexterity. That means she sacrifices constitution, strength and intelligence, all of which are 10.
The main reason an archer druid is considered sub-optimal is because you have to spend your feat slots on the archery feat tree (point blank shot, precise shot, rapid shot, manyshot...) and that means you can't focus on spell boosting feats or melee feats.
However, you'll be able to shoot four arrows with three attack rolls every full attack round at level 8.
You'll want a good magic bow, my druid has a +1 thundering bow to make up for her lack of strength. Plus you will want to look at magic items that boost dex and boost ranged attacks. My druid has a belt of dexterity +2 and the lesser bracers of archery.
Also, you'll want a mount, either one you train or your animal companion. My druid rides her large tiger. That way the tiger can move (and even attack) and she can still do full round attacks with her bow.
In my case my druid is a buff/battlefield control druid. Her most common spells are things like cat's grace, bull's strength, entangle, spike growth, hydraulic push, etc. She doesn't do much blasting, although she can in a pinch (she likes "call lightning" a lot).
She does not do massive damage. She can pump out about 40 damage per round if she hits with all four arrows, but usually is closer to 25 or so damage. But that's usually enough to take care of mooks or minions while...
Did you level dip in another class to get access to bows? Druids do not start out with bows in their weapon list.
^ comletely forgot about that. Thanks!
would it be better to lvl. dip or not?
I don't think spending 3 levels on monk is worth it. If you do it early you're giving up both spells and better wild shape forms. If you do it at 10+ you're giving up spells that become the dominant force in the game.
If you're a combat-focused druid running an AP that caps at 15 it might be fun multiclassing after level 11. You'll have level 6 spells and almost full wild shape and you'd be able to keep up your melee abilities to finish out the path. Still less powerful than straight druid.