So, here's my dilemma in short: should I spend two feats to get Augment Summoning with my warrior-druid?
Here's the story if you want more detail. I'm making a character for a sandbox game in the River Kingdoms and everyone else claimed characters before I could decide. The party now has a Rogue, a Sorcerer, an Inquisitor inspired by Judge Dredd, and the last guy wanted to be a blaster, so I built him an optimized fire blasting Oracle of Flame/crossblooded sorcerer. A few weeks in, we'll have someone coming in with a Summoner, and the last guy is still undecided. That basically sticks me (and probably the undecided guy) with front line duties.
I love fighter types in every RPG ever except for games based on 3rd edition D&D, so I had some trouble figuring out what to do--I'm almost always a full support or battlefield-control character in Pathfinder.
I ultimately decided on a warrior-Druid. I like the versatility offered by the class--spells, wild shapes, pets, animal training, all the kinds of fiddly bits that I love. That said, my primary role is a front line body dishing out melee damage.
As such, I'm torn. Augment Summoning really beefs up my Nature's Allies and provides me another layer of versatile options--calling up the right summon for the job. There's a lot of pluses--they can absorb damage for us, fill the front lines out even more, bring special abilities to counter what our specific foes are doing--but there are major downsides, too. First, that full round casting time bothers me--I'm not super optimized for casting, so my concentration checks won't be ideal, and if I'm the party's frontline, wasting my first turn casting isn't going to help the party.
I would prefer being human--I'd be willing to consider half-elf or maybe elf, but I'm vain and am opposed to playing "ugly" or short races.
My plan was to take Str 16(+2 racial), Wis 16, Cha 10, and either (Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12) or (Dex 12, Con 16, In 10), and rely on a Scythe or Shillelagh and Power Attack (my 3rd level feat for sure) until 5th when I can take Natural Spell and I'll be more comfortable existing as an beast most of the time (deinonychus is very attractive to me early).
I haven't decided on traits--I was thinking of just being boring and taking Dirty Fighter and Reactionary since I can't see anything better and getting +1 CL for Call Animal seems kind of cheesy--I'm trying to fight the temptation.
Oh, and since we get 3k, I can afford a Dragonhide Breastplate to start with!
I did some analysis on the companions and what I'd enjoy most combined with what ends up mechanically the strongest results in a Deinonychus. They start with just barely less damage than an Allosaurus or Big Cat, but they're little tanks--they're a small creature with more Con than most bigger ones--and I'm excited for all those attacks at 7th combined with the convenience of being medium sized so I won't need to worry about squeezing or anything until I get Animal Growth. His feats will be Light Armor proficiency and probably Power Attack. And no, I don't think I can afford the feat past level 1 to get a domain with a weak companion and use Boon Companion to fix it (since I need Natural Spell, probably Wild Speech, Powerful Shape, etc.).
So the expanded version of my dilemma is, should I use my 1st level and human bonus feat to take Augment Summoning or take more "fighty" stuff?
Not that I really know what a better "fighty" feat is for 1st level--maybe Toughness? I don't know. I do know that I could take Eye for Talent and give my Deinonychus +2 to any stat--Str is quite attractive, since +1 to hit and damage on so many attacks is awesome and he'll have Int 3 next level anyway.
I don't know, what would you do?
Since you are picking a dinosaur AC and want to play a warrior druid, should I assume you want to be a Saurian Shaman? If so, then yes, definitely take augmented summons. Summoning as a standard action at level 5 makes it much more attractive, and with the templates you can add onto dinosaurs and reptiles with this archetype, you will have about 51 great summoning options over just about all levels.
No, I'm not a Saurian Shaman. I happen to like the Dinosaur companion and the best level 4 form is one, too, but I don't want to be limited to just dinosaurs, nor does it especially fit thematically.
If I could standard action summon, I would totally be all over Augment Summon, but it hurts Wild Shape too much and, like I said, the main thrust of the character is a wild shape tank type.
I'd consider being a Menhir Savant, but that's the only archetype I'm currently thinking about.
Take it anyway. A flanking partner is always nice, or even better, if you need to fight something that can fly. (Just summon something that can fly too.)
That is the way I am leaning at the moment, but I wanted to see if there was anything totally awesome I was missing that I could take instead.
+2 Strength to my companion seems nice, but Augment Summoning still seems nicer.
Side note, anyone have any opinion on the relative value of HP vs. AC in general when weighing Dex vs. Con with point buy? I'm having a tough time deciding as I explained in my first post.
I think AC might be more useful at the lower levels, especially losing armor when wildshaped.
Power attack is pretty ubiquitous, but very useful for melee. Dodge would help with your wildshaped AC as well.
It's late and I can't offer more than basic suggestions.
Ah, not taking saurian shaman? Too bad. Dinosaurs tend to rather good as tanks. But I guess some forms meant for straight defense might make excellent tanks too. I hear that the Tendriculos at level 12 is a great option for tanking since it has regen 5 and 15 foot reach.
I think I would go for CON because your DEX will be tanked by your wild shaping anyway if you start going into the larger size categories. The natural armor bonuses will more than make up for your AC lost.
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The shamans delaying wildshape is a pretty painful penalty, but if you're going for summoning, I think the saurian shaman with Augment Summoning is a good choice.
For traits, take a look at Two-World Magic: learning Ghost Sound allows you to speak in wild-shape without spending a feat on it. It'll be a bit slow (Standard Action to speak), but it also has some miscellaneous utility.
I'm currently playing a druid without Augment, also built for melee duty. I rolled well on stats and got (after racial):
Elf, Druid 4, Barbarian 1;
Str 18
Dex 19
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 9
For feats I took:
1) Combat Reflexes
3) Craft Wondrous Item
5) Natural Spell
The damage output of Rage, Str, Deinonychus, AoMF and Bull's Strength is pretty amazing; 2x 1d8+10, 1d6+10, 1d4+5.
I took Combat Reflexes and the Barbarian level to do a Reach Cleric variant at lower levels, and eventually to abuse Reach monsters such as the Emperor Cobra at higher levels. And maybe at some point Vital Strike+Furious Finish with all the size-increasing spells on the Arsinoitherium. (The "where is your god now" druid.)
So far, it's working quite well. I don't think Augment Summons is necessary for a melee druid. I thought about it, but CWI was a better choice. As a druid you need a lot of wondrous gear (AoMF is crucial), I wanted to be sure I got it in time for a good price.
Ghost sound shouldn't work for that. Not only do I dislike the idea of spending a standard action to talk, but figments can't create intelligible speech unless the spell explicitly says it can.
"Figment: A figment spell creates a false sensation. Those who perceive the figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. It is not a personalized mental impression. Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can. If intelligible speech is possible, it must be in a language you can speak. If you try to duplicate a language you cannot speak, the figment produces gibberish. Likewise, you cannot make a visual copy of something unless you know what it looks like (or copy another sense exactly unless you have experienced it)."
Ghost Sound:
"Ghost sound allows you to create a volume of sound that rises, recedes, approaches, or remains at a fixed place. You choose what type of sound ghost sound creates when casting it and cannot thereafter change the sound's basic character.
The volume of sound created depends on your level. You can produce as much noise as four normal humans per caster level (maximum 40 humans). Thus, talking, singing, shouting, walking, marching, or running sounds can be created. The noise a ghost sound spell produces can be virtually any type of sound within the volume limit. A horde of rats running and squeaking is about the same volume as eight humans running and shouting. A roaring lion is equal to the noise from 16 humans, while a roaring dragon is equal to the noise from 32 humans. Anyone who hears a ghost sound receives a Will save to disbelieve.
Ghost sound can enhance the effectiveness of a silent image spell.
Ghost sound can be made permanent with a permanency spell."
No mention of intelligible speech.
My general go to forms are going to be multi-attack pouncers, but I want to be a versatile shifter in the end. A single attack constriction beast is perfect against a caster, for example, while the Tendriculous and Quickwood are very intriguing for tanking later.
I'm heavily leaning towards taking Augment Summoning at the moment, but I'm still interested in hearing alternatives.
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The noise a ghost sound spell produces can be virtually any type of sound within the volume limit.
Previous editions had explicit text inside Ghost Sound that it couldn't mimic speech; but this text has been replaced with the above.
It's not like this is terribly OP. You're saving on a feat (Wild Speech) with a Trait (estimated by the devs to be worth half a feat), but speaking through Ghost Sound is spellcasting and takes a Standard Action.
You basically get to talk like a Vorlon
The noise a ghost sound spell produces can be virtually any type of sound within the volume limit.Previous editions had explicit text inside Ghost Sound that it couldn't mimic speech; but this text has been replaced with the above.
I understand why you would interpret what you have, but I disagree with your interpretation, so I would not use the trick, even if the GM agrees with you.
The problem is the line, "A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can."
Producing "virtually any type of sound" is not specifically saying intelligible speech is possible.
If your GM lets you, awesome. As much as I like Vorlons, I'm just going to wait for Wild Speech.
For reference, the game is tomorrow, so unless someone has contrary advice before then, I'm sticking with Augment Summoning.
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Well, it's up to you. My interpretation is that "virtually any type of sound within the volume limit" means that volume is the only significant limit; intelligible speech is an example of "virtually any type of sound", so it's specifically allowed by Ghost Sound.
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That said, I play a wizard with Augment Summoning, and I'm quite impressed by it. For a druid I recommend the Small Earth Elemental (SNA-2) which packs a nice damage whollop. If you learn Terran, you can also command it to use Earth Glide to attack enemies on the other side of walls and such. I remember saying in a combat "fortunately these walls are stone, not wood..."
Also good are Stirges (Con damage) because they can effectively damage high-HD enemies. Since they're SNA-1, you can usually summon a large cloud all at once with a higher-level spell.
At SNA-3 I recommend the leopard: with Augment Summoning that's a lot of good attacks. Charge-Flank-Pounce-Rake-Grab is brutal.