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Looking for advice on improving my latest character, Nudel, the Protector. She is a savage tribal druid/shaman who is more comfortable in her wild shape form than in her natural form, the former of which she spends most of her time. (Due to it being melded in her form much of the time, she largely ignores the non-proficiency penalties from her armor.)
She's meant to be a one hit wonder (lots of damage in a single attack), a tank, and a protector of her allies.
Her bodyguard feat and benevolent armor allow her to take the aid another action whenever an adjacent ally is attacked, granting said ally a whopping +7 untyped bonus to AC.
Her Improved Vital Strike feat, and strong jaw spell allow her to average over 100 damage in a single hit each round (not spectacular compared to full attackers at this level, I know, but still pretty nice).
To make up for her weak ranged ability, I've given her potions of fly which, thanks to potion sponges from the Advanced Race Guide, she can just pull out of her pouch with her mouth and then swallow whole. To this end, I've also given her the ability to "throw her natural weapons" with a range increment of 10 feet via a +0 furious throwing amulet of mighty fists. I envision it as her flinging her tail spikes at enemies, manticore style.
Due to her lack of caster levels and high Wisdom, her spells are relegated to support roles: a mix of battlefield control, buff, defense, and utility.
Her rage powers were selected to keep her alive and to allow her to cast a spell mid-rage if needed.
If you can think of a way to improve the character, either conceptually or mechanically, I'm open to suggestions. Also, please feel free to point out any errors, typos, or anything else I might have overlooked. It seems there is always something.
Thanks.
Nothing? Dork is a sad panda. :'(
Dazing Assault is a very nice feat. Especially should you ever hit Barb 12 and obtain Come and Get Me. Even w/o it, if you get AoOs often enough to justify having combat reflexes, presumably you'll get great use out of it.
Won't increase damage, but daze-locking is more devastating than damage anyway. :p
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Dazing Assault is a very nice feat. Especially should you ever hit Barb 12 and obtain Come and Get Me. Even w/o it, if you get AoOs often enough to justify having combat reflexes, presumably you'll get great use out of it.
Won't increase damage, but daze-locking is more devastating than damage anyway. :p
This.
Thanks for the input, but I fear that by the time she's able to take Dazing Assault (19th from the looks of it), monsters' Fortitude saves will make the DC a joke (especially since she doesn't have full BAB). And that's assuming she can even land the attack (a -5 without weapon training, weapon focus, and other stackable attack bonuses REALLY HURTS).
I think I'd rather take Greater Vital Strike and Devastating Strike to deal an additional 8d6+6 damage each round.
How do you talk to your allies? I'm in a silly mood and imagine a Speaking Mouth Animal. Perhaps a humorous Evangelist Cleric cohort that is a dinosaur enchanted with a permanency-ed Anthropomorphic Animal spell. It rides on your back (carefully because of those plates) while chanting ballads about your greatness, and protests eloquently when it is not allowed to take you into a fine restaurant which hypocritically allows Humans with Seeing Eye Dogs. In combat it Inspires Courage while protected by your ability to boost its AC.
Perhaps add Vicious to the AoMF? You have lots of hit points.
Ignoring the silly cohort idea, who did you imagine is the ally standing next to you? How does that PC's abilities mesh with you improving their AC rather than flanking?
And no puns with "noodle"?
if you can qualify for it (imp bullrush), Rhino Charge from the Sargava Companion is great for 'one hit wonders'.
the main pre-req, improved bullrush, synergizes with the barb rage power knockback (more likely to move them/further)
knockback works great with unexpected strike (8th level barb pre-req), but if you just have reach, that's almost as good.
Strength Surge is something you might consider in combo with Imp Bullrush/Knockback.
...Rhino Charge lets you take a swift + move, and then spend a standard for a readied partial charge.
if you have pounce, that is possible to do, or just do a regular charge attack.
you just need to be start with your triggering event so that you don't waste your turn.
Combat Patrol is another way to potentially get alot of full BAB AoO's, albeit it's most useful vs. multiple enemies.
She can talk in wild shape form thanks to her feats.
Remember, many of her AoOs will be used to protect her allies from attacks.
AC sucks for druids? Since when? This one here has 50 AC. Most CR 20 creatures need a natural 20 to hit that!
Dazing Assault requires BAB +11, Str 13, and Power Attack, nothing else.
Your sheet says BAB +13, and...you're trying to make a one big hit build and you don't have Power Attack... ok, then. Nevermind. *Mind blown*
If I had full BAB as well as several other attack bonuses stacked on top, then I might have considered power attack.
As is though, using it on a one-hit wonder build would actually reduce my DPR/round (since she does 0 damage on a miss). It's a much more worthwhile feat when used on full attack builds. More attacks per round means more likely to hit which means more multiples of the bonus damage.
The math doesn't add up to your wildshape AC.
How much have you spent? +5 everything! Can you really get all that for 240k - pretty good if you can.
I thought Armour didn't work in wildshape.
EDIT: I can't add up! But still your DM must be crazy - how on earth does he challenge your party, he'd need CR 20 critters!
Benevolent is only 2,000gp. Wild is a +3 property (and allows armor and shield bonuses while wild shaped with none of the drawbacks). That means the magical properties of the armor (totaling +8) is only 66,000gp. Thanks to Craft Magic Arms and Armor, he could craft both his armor AND his shield for only a little over 69,000gp.
I even used a spread sheet to make sure I wasn't making any mistakes. EVERYTHING falls within the expected WBL guidelines.
And it's hardly epic, what's more. She may be hard to hit, but she is nowhere near as powerful as a full on druid (or any other spellcaster) with high end spells, or a duel-wielding rogue, a THW fighter (with dazing assault), a pouncing barbarian, or an archer; all of which can easily deal 200-250 or more damage each round with their full attacks or metamagic'd perfected spells at this level. If anything, she is more of a support character, averaging only a little over 100 damage each round (and even then only with a 2/day spell), casting low-level support spells, and defending her allies (and only if they are adjacent).
She is perfectly RAW legal as far as I can tell. The ONLY things that might make her stand out as "really powerful" over another character in traditional games, is that our group uses 25-point buy and, for premades that may never see play, give them 75% of the maximum variable of hit points (primarily for consistency's sake).
As for the AC math, it looks fine to me:
14 armor (+5 full plate)
13 natural (+6 wild shape, +5 amulet, +2 half-orc/druid favored class)
10 base (flesh and bone)
07 shield (+5 heavy shield)
04 deflection (ring of protection +4)
03 Dex (reduced from +5 due to wild shape, increased from +1 for lack of armor penalties)
01 insight (dusty rose prism ioun stone)
-2 size (decreased from +0 due to wild shape)
50 AC
Well, not really....
You are wearing heavy armor, with no heavy armor feat , how?
Also, you can't create a plus 10 armor as caster level 8 that you are....How ?
Also, no dm should allow that level of items crafted
I'm not sure why I should have to defend myself in my own thread, particularly when your comments are wholly non-contributing, but I shall humor you in the hopes that you may learn something from it...for a time.
You are wearing heavy armor, with no heavy armor feat. How?
Anyone can wear any any armor they want. Proficiency is not required to do so. Proficiency only helps to mitigate the penalties involved.
You can't create a plus 10 armor as caster level 8 that you are. How?
This is false. You can ignore any magic item requirement (excepting creation feats, and caster level for constructs) by adding +5 to the DC per requirement not met. Seeing as my character has max ranks in Spellcraft, and can take 10 while imbuing her armor, this was quite easy to accomplish.
If you, or anyone else wishes to debate this matter, please do so here.
What's more, it is NOT equivalent to +10 armor. It is equivalent to +8 armor.
Also, no dm should allow that level of items crafted.
This is the expected level for characters who can craft magic items. Any character who didn't have this level of gear at 15th either isn't trying, isn't a crafter, or plays under an unnecessarily dictatorial GM. A crafter who didn't have most of the big six maxed out by 15th-level likely won't last too long as an adventurer.
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Looks good. Would probably be a bit strong compared to most people I game with (most aren't very good at optimizing), but everything seems to be in order. Plenty effective, wild shape gives good reach for Bodyguard, and you can deal decent damage to boot. It's an odd multiclass choice, imo, but if it fits, it fits. Nicely done.
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To the general AC-related disbelief: upper level crafting can be extremely ridiculous. That said, it's fairly essential for builds like this that require specific gear to function and are unlikely to find them in an AP. The only problem I can see this character having would be functioning outside of wild shape. Large creatures are frequently unable to fit in dungeons, and your limited uses of Wild Shape aren't doing you any favors; three uses are precisely enough for a one change from your large form to medium and back again. You can help that a little bit with a Druid's Vestment (3.75k) and the Shaping Focus feat. Between those two, you'll be sitting comfortably at 7 wildshapes a day.
In the meantime, when your wildshapes are up, you'll basically be relegated to using nothing but bodyguard and aid another (you can at least hit an AC 10), since you have a -5 armor check penalty on your attack rolls and no magic weapon.
This build works great on paper (and vast, featureless plains), but would be a bit more challenging in a campaign with character.
If you haven't yet seen the spell Resinous Skin, I'd recommend it. Even with a low save dc, it's pretty awesome. Additionally, the combination of Touch of the Sea and Sky Swim can give you a slightly cheaper means of flight if speed isn't overly essential.
Davor: I believe Bodyguard only works against adjacent allies, so no help from reach there.
Illeist: You make some good points, but reverting to normal form does not count against the daily wild shape limit. That would be ridiculous, especially when you consider that 4th-level druids would find themselves trapped in their animal forms until they reached sixth level.
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Davor: I believe Bodyguard only works against adjacent allies, so no help from reach there.
Illeist: You make some good points, but reverting to normal form does not count against the daily wild shape limit. That would be ridiculous, especially when you consider that 4th-level druids would find themselves trapped in their animal forms until they reached sixth level.
Sorry; I should have been more clear: I wasn't speaking of reverting back to half-orc form, but of assuming a medium-sized Wild Shape (fitting with the current flavor, probably a Deinonychus). Yeah, you'll want to avoid being in people form at all costs for a while.
