Seems once you hit 8th, continuing on the druid class by itself seems useless if you are planning to be the main tanking/frontline character in the group.
For example: If you went into a huge Rhino. Yes you can have trample and a nice vital strike but you shouldnt be anywhere near getting a wild enchantment dragonhid plate(+4 total enchantment)at that level. You could default and take fighter levels at this point for better feat selection and BAB but is there any reason to keep going druid class if you are strictly a frontline melee character? And would this route severely gimp you down the road?
I had an idea of a massive animal trampling through opponents and goring them but really with the limitations of the druid wildshape, it just doesnt seem comparable at all to the other classes. Yes, the strength is great but the ac is abysmal. Its sad when a shapeshifted druid isnt even on par with the real thing stats and ac wise.
Am I wrong? And no, Im not talking about after the druid spends 3-4 rounds buffing himself. Yes there are some encounters when one has this option but Im talking about out of nowhere getting it encounters.
Again, melee/frontline combatants only. Not talking about dire tigers or birds that fly and nuke from orbit.
Wild Armor starts becoming available at level 7-8 if you're putting a significant portion of your wealth into it. Barkskin has a fairly long duration and if you add in Mage Armor from a helpful buddy/wand you'll be fine before that.
Leaving druid will indeed gimp you down the road as spells become more important at higher levels.
Also what do you have against Dire Tiger form? Seems pretty dang frontline to me.
We just completed our final encounter at level 8 with my lion shaman druid. Her tiger was the party tank in that fight. With magic barding, barkskin and cat's grace his AC was around 30 in the fight, plus he had more hit points than any other party member. To help him out a little my druid also summoned another tiger to soak up some attacks.
It worked fine. We leveled up as the result of that victory and with the level 9 AC advancements his AC went up three more points even before I spend some of the loot on boosting his magical protections. So I feel he will do fine at least at level 9 too.
Oh yes, Barding. Inconvenient to carry, but it works!
At levels 12+ a mountain druid would make a great tank as the giant for abilities also let him change his gear and untill then the right pet can normally do the job.
Keep in mind that dual-tanking is a legitimate tanking strategy for a class that has a companion as a class feature. A wild-shaped druid working in tandem with their buffed up companion is a perfectly reasonable and effective tanking strategy, and one that provides benefits a single character tank can't duplicate, such as providing flanking and doubling potential attacks of opportunity. This also means the "tank" can absorb damage equal to the total of both the AC and the druid's hit points.
And if that's not enough, and the party has at least a round of warning, the druid can summon additional tanking help.
Yeah, also the druid and his companion do heavy damage and have more hitpoints between them two than even the best rolling barbarian can hope to attain.
So, indeed, the Druid and his Animal Companion make great Tanks up to a level where this word has no longer any meaning (depending on group this is usually beginning 15th Level or CR 20 opponents).
make sure you work on lowering the damge and not AC boost.
1. there's a robe (i think) that grunt never ending 20% miss chance, and not costing THAT much
2. DR: stone skin, rhino skin, elemental form, plant from --- all grunt you DR - it help lowering the damge
3. high CON, bears endurance, toughness, elemental from = pool of HP
This is a very good point. AC becomes much less reliable as you gain in levels, to the point where it's really a futile arms race for certain classes (like the druid). Try to keep your AC high enough that it's not an auto-hit most of the time and then rely on other forms of protection. Flat out miss chances and a large HP pool are going to be your strongest defense at the higher levels.
Yes, but not for the reason you would think.
AC in general is pretty worthless past level 8. Any melee threat will hit, regardless of what you wear, and "ranged touch attack" and "reflex half" ignore normal AC entirely.
I don't think AC is worthless past 8th level.
Sure it loses much of its bang and mostly primary attacks will hit you anyway, but a character that investsa little into AC will probably be well guarded against sadditional attacks, such as secondary natural weapons and iterative attacks.
2d6 + 8 hurt a lot less than 8d6+32.
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Do not, under any circumstances, get a wild enchantment.
Get one combat form. Show up at the armorer, tell them your pet is in the stall and you want barding for it.
Walk into the stall and turn into your favorite combat form.
The party will be more than happy to dress their meatshield in stone plate in the morning.
Do not, under any circumstances, get a wild enchantment.
Get one combat form. Show up at the armorer, tell them your pet is in the stall and you want barding for it.
Walk into the stall and turn into your favorite combat form.
The party will be more than happy to dress their meatshield in stone plate in the morning.
Heh, back in 3.5 when wildshaping into melee was a viable tactic for my low str and low con druid, the party cleric lugged her barding around and put it on her when she wildshaped. Not only was it effective, but it was absolute role playing comedy gold material. :)
Do not, under any circumstances, get a wild enchantment.
Get one combat form. Show up at the armorer, tell them your pet is in the stall and you want barding for it.
Walk into the stall and turn into your favorite combat form.
The party will be more than happy to dress their meatshield in stone plate in the morning.
Or, if you want to maintain any sort of versatility as a wild shaper, go ahead and get the wild enchantment. I've found it superbly useful on my druid. Dire Tiger isn't always a feasible option, so being able to choose other forms is a great boon.
The most important thing about the wild enchant is that you put it on HEAVY armor. It's really not worth the cost to put it on a dragonscale breastplate.
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Or, if you want to maintain any sort of versatility as a wild shaper, go ahead and get the wild enchantment. I've found it superbly useful on my druid. Dire Tiger isn't always a feasible option, so being able to choose other forms is a great boon.
The most important thing about the wild enchant is that you put it on HEAVY armor. It's really not worth the cost to put it on a dragonscale breastplate.
I'm sure that wild enchantment is worth it when you have LOTS and LOTS of money to spare. But, until you reach that point, you can get good barding relatively cheaply for most of the time, with decent backups for other times.
Get good armour for your primary combat form. Get secondary armour for one or 2 other likely combat forms. And get Mage armour (wand and/or potions) for emergency use with non combat forms.
Combine with other sorts of armour enhancing items and spells and you can be a tank most of the time while still maintaining a fair bit of versatility for when that matters.
Personally, if I were building a druid tank I would probably drop out of the spellcasting race and switch to a Druid/full BAB build asap. Yes, high level spells are nice. But, if there is a Druid, Cleric, and Wizard at the table I really don't think the Druid's spellcasting is that necessary. There are few high level druid spells I feel are 'gotta have that' type spells when you compare them to the Wizard or Cleric lists.
Now, if I were building a part-time druid tank I would absolutely keep the spells and not multiclass.
- Gauss
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There are two new Prestige Classes in the upcoming Paths of Prestige (16th of August) that would be fun for a Druid. One, Mammoth Rider, has no spell casting progression but turns your Animal Companion into a huge creature and gives it regular Str and Con bonuses to the Animal Companion. The other, Green Faith Acolyte, has full spell progression as well as boosting your wild shape ability but doesn't really help you tank better.
For what you are looking for go with the Mammoth Rider if you want to multi class. Nothing is better then a lion using a huge lion as a mount while charging into battle!