First time spellcasting, so i went druid...

[Darubian]

So I have played RPG games for close to 13 years now, and spellcasting has always been a turn off for me. So here I am now with a party in need of a healer and I really need some help.

I'm torn between wildshape and summoning as both have significant advantages, but I need a way to dumb it down. I fully understand you all aren't able to prepare me for every situation but I'm really in need of help with what I can summon.

I am basically looking for opinions. Did you go with wildshape and if so, what type of things did you find most resourceful? Same with summons!

I'm the party healer, with a 10 to strength. So if I go big, I need to go big!

I appreciate anything you all can give me, and if you have suggestions to make this easier I'll take it!

[Blueluck]

Please tell us more, and our help will be much more useful.

• What does the character look like right now? (attributes, race, gear, feats, etc.)
  
• Is any of that flexible, or are you already committed?
  
• What other characters do you have in the party? (class, race, and primary strategy)
  
• What are your main goals or desires for this character? (Be the best healer possible; be good at combat; just cast spells.)
  

[Darubian]

As you see, post one so thanks for making this easy for me. I'll be happy to give as much as I can.

Let me first throw my parties info out there.

The Ranger well rounded, it is her first time playing as well but she has honed the multi-shot and she is making it work well. Not to mention her general knowledge is just dead useful.

Next we have the barb. Our human tank. Think "Ug Smash" and you have it in the right place.

Then to round it all up we have a frighteningly evil rogue, he seems to be enjoying sneak attack from the distance, and is quite useful when stopping the beasties in their tracks.

As for me, I am currently playing the Druid Elf.
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 18
CHA: 14

So basically I stand in the back, I heal and I am the best my party has at Diplomacy. I don't believe I mentioned in the earlier post but at our DM's request we need to keep this CORE.

Level nine at the moment, and my DM let me splurge a ton of gold on a belt that gave me a bonus to Str, Dex and Con. I am also wearing the Wild Armor that let's me take its +3 AC with me when I shape.

Oh, and I have a bear, and he is nice and big. He likes fish.

[Blueluck]

Excellent! That's exactly the material we need to work with. Do you recall what feats you've already taken?

[Darubian]

Craft Wand - I would like to keep this. It let's me move some heal spells around.
Eschew Materials
Mobility
Dodge

The last two I am up for changing if I can get a good idea as to what for and why.

[mplindustries]

So, with 10 Strength, you're not a fighter of any kind. Therefore, you're focusing on Summoning. Your feats are...kind of terrible, sorry. They should probably look more like this:

Spell Focus: Conjuration
Augment Summoning
Natural Spell
Wild Speech

You should have 5 feats at 9th, though, so you can still take Craft Wand if you must.

Your plan should be wild shaping into the best flying form you can (Air Elemental, usually), and casting safely out of reach of the enemy.

As a caster type, you should probably have gotten the headband to boost your mental stats, rather than the belt for your physical ones. In fact, you only really need the Wisdom and Con, so I'd see if he lets you trade the Belt for a belt and headband, and maybe, if there's enough money left, an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1 and/or a Belt of Strength for your bear.

I'm also not sure how your Wild Armor is working. Are you suggesting you're only wearing +1 Wild Leather Armor? That's the only way you'd be getting +3 AC. Why aren't you wearing a Dragonhide or Ironwood Breastplate? A +1 Dragonhide/Ironwood Breastplate would give you +7 armor--a much better prospect.

[Atarlost]

If you can trade out Eschew Materials you should. Natural Spell is the feat for casting in wildshape and inexpensive spell components are handled so long as you have a pouch.

You don't have the stats for melee so I'd focus on summoning. Drop some points into linguistic to pick up auran and terran at least and depending on the campaign aquan so you can talk to summoned elementals.

If you can change things, I'd make your feat set
Spell Focus Conjuration
Augment Summoning
Natural Spell
Craft Wand

[Rycaut]

As a Druid once you get wild shape - Natural Spell is almost mandatory - it lets you spend a lot of time in wild shape and still cast.

Do you have a domain or an animal companion?

If you are going to focus on summoning the summoning chain of feats makes that much more useful.

Personally for a Druid I'd probably skip eschew materials but it depends on your typical spell selection (or if your CHA would handle it I'd consider whether a dip for a level of sorcerer would get you that feat plus something else useful from a bloodline. With craft wand already you would open up some arcane wands as well.

[mplindustries]

As for the best Summons per level, while there is variability based on situation (sometimes you really need poison, or a swim speed), I think the best overall summon choices are:

SNA 1: Eagle
SNA 2: Earth Elemental
SNA 3: Aurochs
SNA 4: Tiger
SNA 5: Cyclops get to auto-crit on their Battleaxe, but the Ankylosaurus has a nice DC on its Stun, so that's a good back up choice
SNA 6: Dire Tiger
SNA 7: Fire Giant
SNA 8 and 9: There's only 5 options between the two and they're all awesome

[Blueluck]

With STR 10, and WIS 18, you're definitely set up to be more of a caster than a brawler. Especially since you don't have anyone else in the party who casts spells, I suggest you focus on casting.

Here's a great reference document for druid spells from the core book.

Summoning
Don't forget that you can spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally spells, so you don't need to memorize them.

I suggest picking out one big, tough, tank of a monster at each spell level. You can print that critter's stats out from here and keep it with your character sheet. You won't need to summon in every fight, of course, but summoning an enormous dinosaur behind the bad guys can really put a damper on their plans!

Healing
I'm a big fan of a 3rd level Cure Wounds spell with a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Reach Spell. A combination of metamagic feats & rods granting Quicken Spell & Reach Spell can really cut back on the time it takes to run around casting heals.

As magic items go, I suggest that you buy a Wand of Cure Light Wounds for 750 gold. The Ranger can carry it in combat, in case you get clobbered. Outside of combat, it can be a great way to fill up hit points after fights.

Lesser Restoration is probably the best 2nd level spell you can memorize. It won't come in handy every day, but when it does, it's a lifesaver!

Spells
Druids don't specialize in "Save or Lose" spells, or damaging spells, but you're the only source in your party. So, when they're the best solution to a problem, you get the be the hero!

Baleful Polymorph - Basically a fortitude save or lose the battle.

Flame Strike - An excellent area of effect spell. I'd keep one memorized all the time in case of swarms (literal or figurative), oozes, any enemies immune to physical damage.

Wall of Thorns - An amazing "battlefield control" spell. This is just the ticket when you're worried that the party has bitten off more than it can chew! It can be a little tricky to use, so keep a copy printed out to hand your GM when you cast it.

[morrissoftxp]

I like produce flame and summon monkey swarm plus abilities that make your companion do more dmg 4 th level spell gives it better natural attack and more ac forgot what's its called

[Blueluck]

Darubian wrote:

Craft Wand - I would like to keep this. It let's me move some heal spells around.

Eschew Materials
Mobility
Dodge

Craft Wand - Great! Make a handful of 1st level wands of useful spells for half price!

Eschew Materials - In Pathfinder, materials are pretty much automatic. Every caster has a "bag of stuff" that never runs out. You only need this feat if you're stripped of all your belongings, making it almost useless. Especially for a druid, since you keep many of your abilities without spellcasting materials. I would exchange this for Natural Spell. Being able to turn into a bird or bear and cast your spells is awesome!

Mobility & Dodge - Dump them! The rest of your party members stand near the enemy, so you don't need to. There are lots of good choices though:

• Spell Focus Conjuration & Augment Summoning - This is a good combo if you plan to focus on summoning.
  
• Reach Spell - Good for dropping healing where you need it.
  
• Quicken Spell - Eventually you'll want this. Maybe now, maybe in a couple of levels, but you'll want it!
  
• Improved Initiative - Great if you cast a lot of buffs on your buddies, or those big area of effect control spells that work best before the fighters start charging.

[Darubian]

I really appreciate the insight. This is as I said my first experience with magic and I am really starting to appreciate the power behind it. With all of this it's a lot easier to see how these feats help!

[Rycaut]

Something else to remember even if you specialize in one type of magic as a druid (like focusing on summoning) that one of the most powerful aspects of full divine casters like Clerics and Druids is your incredible flexibility.

More so than even Wizards (who have to spend time and money and skills getting spells into their spellbooks) full divine casters have access to ANY spells their god/powers will grant them. This flexibility while hard especially for a new player is incredibly powerful over the course of a campaign..

i.e. sure you will develop a list of what you usually memorize - but don't be afraid to change it up when the moment arises. Go ahead and prepare a bunch of Goodberry spells when you have a few days of hiking to get somewhere (and then prepare some free meals/healing). Or prepare a bunch of Lesser Restorations and other healing spells when the party needs them the day after a big fight. Druids like Clerics can dramatically change their spell selection from one day to the next - one day focusing entirely on buffing your animal companion (and party) - the next day focusing on battlefield control etc.

Always with the option of spontaneously casting summons if that is your best option (assuming you haven't taken an archetype that would change your spontaneous casting options).

[Elbe-el]

First thing: Don't try to specialize in any one thing. Druids are the ultimate generalists, and they work best when they are exploiting that. There is very little that a well-played druid cannot do (or pretend to do for at least a few rounds).

Abuse Wild Shape...it isn't just for combat (in fact, when you first gain Wild Shape, it isn't really useful for combat at all...but it's absolutely magnificent for everything else. How do you keep things away from a character who can fly, swim, earth-glide, or bathe in lava? True, a lower level druid can't do all of those things at once, or any of them for very long, but the fact that they can do them for any length of time at all is a powerful advantage at low levels, and it only gets better...)

Don't specialize in summoning, but never forget that a druid and his allies never have to fight alone. You don't need Wild Shape to support a fighter on the front line, and your party's rouge will (or should) kiss you when you can conjure up some distractions to help him with his or her flanking.

You aren't on par with a Cleric when it comes to healing, but you can heal some. You can't sling nearly as much damage as a Wizard or Sorcerer, but you can throw some fire (or lightning) when you need to.

As far as magic items and equipment go, a druid functions best when they're on their feet and fighting...so focus on things that keep you alive. Necklace of Adaptation, Ring of Sustenance, Bracers of Armor, Amulet of Natural Armor...you get the idea. Your inability to use metal armor hinders you a bit, but only a bit. Wondrous items are far more useful to you than weapons (actually, with your abilities, you don't really need to worry about weapons at all...you ARE a weapon when you know what you're doing).

Regarding feats, have fun. Surprisingly, it's hard for a generalist to pick a bad feat, but it can be done. I would recommend sticking to generally useful feats like Improved Initiative, Toughness, and feats that improve your druid abilities (Extra Wild Shape and the like).

In short, your best bet is a baseline, Core Rulebook, no-changes druid. Don't "tool up" for any one thing, and you should find that once you gain a few levels, you're able to do anything.

[Arizhel]

My advice would be to stick to core as much as possible while you learn. Once you have the basics down, expand, and keep expanding. There is a lot out there. In the mean time, read Treantmonk's handbook on Druids. Part I and Part III are most relevant for you. They are both accessible on the guide to guides page, stickied at the top of the Advice forum.

[Adamantine Dragon]

My preferred way to play druids is for them to be supporting spellcasters. They have a lot of buff and combat control spells that don't really require boosting DCs so you can invest the few feats you have on what you really want to do.

Summoning is a powerful ability, and shaman druids can summon their special type of animals in a standard action. That's a pretty big deal actually in terms of the action economy.

If you want other party members using wands or potions I have always found it to be sufficient to purchase those items instead of investing any of the limited feats druids get creating potions or wands.

My own lion shaman druid is an archer druid who rides her tiger animal companion and does full attacks with many shot and rapid shot to deal pretty good damage without using up spells or getting too banged up in melee.

Love druids. Probably the best all-around, most flexible class in the game.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Keep in mind that healing in Pathfinder should pretty much *only* be used out of battle. It's good to have a few just in case of emergency, but generally the enemies are going to do damage waaaay faster than you can heal it.

You should definitely get familiar with the bestiary and exactly how Wildshape works. In Pathfinder, you don't just get a creature's physical scores - yours increase by a set amount instead, depending on which spell you use and what you turn into. Therefore, even if you morph into a giant dinosaur, doesn't mean you have the strength of a giant dinosaur.

As a caster, you should be using wildshape to improve your defenses and increase your versatility. Smaller forms are generally your friend - small size and increases to dex and natural armor make you much harder to hit in battle or detect with perception. ("Which one of those seagulls cast that call lightning?!") Later on you can get special abilities like tremorsense and poison that can help you deal with different foes, so it's important to know some animals with those abilities so you can turn into them.

Good luck!