Good afternoon Forumites,
I'm having some difficulty. Tonight my group is starting the Skull & Shackles AP.
I have decided to play a druid, and we are on a 15 point buy system. I have not been able to decide if I want to be a Human or a Dwarf.
I will be taking the Weather domain. If I go Dwarf, I would take the Saltbeard alternate racial trait, and if Human, I would probably take heart of the seas.
I really have been having a hard time deciding what I want to play as.
I would love some additional insight into my stat array as well.
For a Dwarf, my stat allocation looked like:
S 8
D 14
C 15
I 12
W 17
C 8
For human, I was thinking:
S 8
D 14
C 13
I 12
W 17
C 10
Can I get some advice? Also, I have been looking into the Shark Shaman or Storm Druid archetypes. Any input is welcome.
Thanks friends.
-Roward
Have you looked at Undine and the Undine Adept Archetype for Druid? It is basically what the Aquatic Druid should have been.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-undine
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-undine/undine- adept-druid-undine
While the -2 Str that the Undine have would hurt a Druid focused on Wild Shape, the +2 to Dex and Wis is really helpful with such a low point buy, thus making a good caster druid.
The Undine Adept basically lets you get constant water-breathing at level 2 (you already have a 30ft swim speed for being and Undine). Which for an adventure which you are on a ship for is great.
If you are going with a melee druid. Then I would go with just human, or another race that gives you bonuses to Str, and Con. Wild Shape is not as awesome as in 3.5, so you need a decent str starting out to make melee worth your time.
If You want to have good versatility outside of combat, like in Role Play, but less in combat, then I would recommend the Urban Druid. You lose out on a lot of combat ability, but you get bonuses to Diplomacy and 3 knowledges. As well as getting Thousand Faces at 6th level, making it a much more useful ability. You also become immune to Compulsions and Enchantments, which is really nice. If you take the Charms Domain, or Lust Sub-domain you become very adept at ending combat before it even starts. The drawback is that this build is very ability heavy, and with a 15 point buy would make it hard to do. As well as losing 4 levels of wild shape, and the ability to spontaneously cast Summon Natures Ally
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Menhir Savant! Being able to Transport via Plants wisdom times per day alone is pretty cool. Overcomes the pesky "can't teleport accurately onto a ship" thing pretty well. You specify a type of tree and a rough direction - how many trees are growing in the ocean? Not many other than the ones you have potted on your ship I guess.
Plus, everything else it replaces is great. Would fit really well for a mwangi shaman too.
Have you looked at Undine and the Undine Adept Archetype for Druid? It is basically what the Aquatic Druid should have been.
HI Tenshi, thanks for the response. I have definitely looked at the Undine. However my GM has stated that races that get a swim speed, are non-starters. He feels it's a very powerful boon for this adventure path. (I agree)
He has stated that I could trade the swim speed,and relevant bonuses, for a bonus skill point per level."(They also have a swim speed of 30 feet, can move in water without making Swim checks, and always treat Swim as a class skill.)"
Essentially making it so that my Human heritage is more prominent than my elemental heritage. I have considered this also, but it feels a bit powered down, and I feel the character may be losing too much.
Also, I am definitely going caster oriented Druid, as I feel it is less MAD, and so easier to pull off with the 15-point buy.
Thanks Ughbash.
I dislike dump stats as well, and I've been trying to figure out how they could be avoided. I do see the benefits of having more physical stats, however this will be the primary caster of the group, and so I feel wild shape will mostly be me as a bird or elemental, flying around and dropping spells.
At least that's the intention....
however this will be the primary caster of the group....
I thought I should add to this a bit, as it might make a bit of difference.
Our party currently consists of:
Human Buccaneer Gunslinger
Human Freebooter Ranger,
unknown Archaeologist Bard,
Human Witch/rogue/pirate
and myself the druid...hopefully casty
Well... That would be hard. Druids are not the greatest primary casters imho. They are too diversified from being casters. With things like Wild Shape and Natures Sense. They have a lot of flavour to them, but really it's only one flavour, nature. If you are doing a primary caster, you will want to dump quite a few stats in order to do it. Wisdom and Dex are the important stats, Then Con, and the rest you pretty much need to dump to make casting decent.
It's why I hate Low Point buys, they do not encourage diverse characters, they encourage min-max characters.
But for a primary caster, which is more balanced focus more on buffing, as well as spells without saving throws. You will not have to worry so much then about having high DCs on your spells. Dex will be more important then Wisdom really. Weapon finesse would also be your friend.
If you guys are doing more RP then combat, (which the first book of Sk&Sh leans to) Look at the Urban Druid.
They are more diplomacy / rp oriented, and other then losing out on spontaneously casting summon natures ally gaining spontaneously casting their domain spells is a huge boon. They also get different domains then a standard druid, and you regardless can pick an Animal or Terrain Domain, at least I am fairly certain you can. Charm though is a great domain, mainly because you will stop a lot of fights before they even start, the Lust Sub-domain makes you a good anti-caster with touch of idiocy. Community is good for it's buffs, as well as Nobility, especially the Leadership sub-domain
