Just recently played the start of a PFS campaign at my FLGS. I built a sort of odd Bat Shaman Druid and I'd like some help planning for the future to make him as cool as possible.
Nahaak "Speaks With Shadows"
Lvl 1 Human(Shoanti) Druid (Bat Shaman)
STR: 13
DEX: 15
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 15
CHA: 12Druid Doman: Night
FEATS:
-Point Blank Shot
-Precise Shot
-Blind Fight (from Night Domain)Traits:
Shoanti Tattoo
Heirloom Weapon (Proficiency-Longbow)WEAPONS:
Longbow
Club
Scimitar
Shoanti BolasThat's the basics I've got so far. I added "Heart of the Wilderness" to his Human racial traits as well. I intended for him to be a sort of shamanic hunter, his main mode of attack being the longbow (which I will have Masterwork Transformation cast upon ASAP), and using his druid spells for support and utility. I'd like to stay a primarily ranged character, as the rest of the party are primarily melee (Samurai, Rogue, and melee focused Cleric). I can still rebuild, since I'm level 1, so aside from wanting to stay ranged and a Bat Shaman I'm not super attached to anything else here. Any advice for the future of this character?
To many odd stats
Eldritch Hierage feat chain to get (Shadow bloodline) powers like:
Shadowstrike (Sp): At 1st level, you can make a melee touch attack as a standard action that inflicts 1d4 points of nonlethal damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. In addition, the target is dazzled for 1 minute. Creatures with low-light vision or darkvision are not dazzled by this ability. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Drop "Precise Shot" to Skill Focus (Stealth)
Use Focused Study abilty for humans Skill Focus (Stealth) so the long term feat tax of Eldritch Hierage feat chain is tax free.
Focused Study: All humans are skillful, but some, rather than being generalists, tend to specialize in a handful of skills. At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, such humans gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choice as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.
You will never have enough feat to make you a good archer. So do not try. Try hitting touch AC as much as you can with things like Produce Flame and Shadowstrike.
With this guy you should start the fight Hidden and attack a target with your Shoanti Bolas trip and trip the target and leave them for the other melee to finsh off. While you you move on to other tagets with your range touch attacks. This give you a reason not to have Precise Shot because you are never attacking the one that melee are piling on. Also if thier is no targets for you move on to then move in to melee to give basic flank and aid other to your melee guys so they finsh off the down target. -4 AC vs melee prone, -2 AC flank, +2 to hit form Aid other that is a +8 point swing you gave to your melee ally. In my group we call it set the "Pick" so the melee can take Power attack "Shoot". It called team fighing or team play.
I'd like to stay a primarily ranged character, as the rest of the party are primarily melee (Samurai, Rogue, and melee focused Cleric.
With out see the other build I would say you party is a melee and up close type of fighters 60 ft or less. ie Charge and the melee fight is on. So having long range shot with the long bow maybe nice it gose against the strength of the rest of the party and yours with wild shape. For you I would think about a Pilum as the Heir loom weapon.
Pilum
This tip of this heavy javelin is designed to break off and embed itself into a shield once it reaches its target.
Benefit: Like ammunition, a thrown pilum that hits its target is destroyed. If you hit an shield-using opponent with a pilum, he loses the AC bonus from that shield until he takes a standard action to pry out the remnants of the pilum.
Pilum 1d8x2 20ft
Or make Shoanti Bolas the heirloom weapon so it +4 to trip CMB roll.
There by let you switch Shoanti Tattoo trait to Strong Arm, Supple Wrist.
Strong Arm, Supple Wrist
You have been trained in the javelin and the spear, and know how to make the best use of your momentum.
Benefit: Whenever you move at least 10 feet before making an attack with a thrown weapon, you add 10 feet to the range increment of the weapon thrown.
Restriction: You can only gain this benefit once per round
This Range set of weapon mess up bad guys action ecomany or they suck.
-2 or more to AC for no shield or give up move action to get rid of the pilum in the shield. So no full attack on a round = win for the party.
-4 to attack rolls or stand up proking AoO form you and you and your allies. So no full attack on a round = win for the party.
I agree that you're wasting a lot of your build points on odd stats that aren't helping you. Plus, I'm not sure how much good the 13 Int and 12 Cha are doing you, especially since you don't have an animal companion. And if you want to stick to buffing and utility with your spells, you don't need much Wis. I'd recommend stats more like: 12/17/14/11/14/10
And with no buffing spells, medium BAB, and no bonus feats, your archery is going to be subpar; you can probably only afford to take Deadly Aim OR Rapid Shot, not both. I'd probably pick up one of those at level 3, and Weapon Focus at level 5 (or possibly the other way around).
And there's a trait for Andoran characters (and possibly another one for worshippers of Erastil as well, IIRC) that gives proficiency with longbows. If you take that instead of Heirloom Weapon, you won't run the risk of losing that one specific bow, and can spend 2PP to pick up a masterwork composite longbow, to save yourself some cash early on.
Only reason I thought I might need a little Charisma was in case I had to Wild Empathy something. Then again, I guess dealing with animal NPCs is what Charm Animal is for, when you get down to it. My summoned bats will attack without me having to Charisma check against them won't they?
There is no handel animal roll needed for any Summon type of spell.
Debuff Druid spell list is small but it there.
1st
Entangle
Mudball
Ray of Sickening
Weaken Powder
2nd
Pox Pustules
Accelerate Poison
binding-earth
Frigid Touch
Pernicious Poison
Tar Ball
3rd
Contagion
Nature's Exile
Pup Shape
Poison
4th
Moonstruck
Touch of Slime
5th
Old Salt's Curse
6th
Plague Storm
Sirocco
Yes, you can still change factions as part of your level 1 rebuild.
And you'll never be able to cover all the skills. Pick a few you want to be good at, and then maybe throw a rank into some others that are class skills just for that one-time bonus.
It carries over.
Wasting trait to get long bow for flavor is not that big deal. I see where you are coming from. Look at wildshape and your spells that is where your strenght is form. Wild shape it strong melee for most Naturel Attacks use your full BaB. I do not know of any wildshape forms that are good for archer.
Archer long term you will need to add one of the following class: Fighter, Ranger, and/or Barbarian. To keep it strong but, if you take one of those class to add to your druid then you will truely waste abilty to use the long bow via Heirloom weapon due to the fact that they all give profecnty with a long bow.
Ranger/Druid is a classic combo or Druid / Barbarian they both have some abilty to work with wildshape.
To me I see this guy if straith druid wild-shaping in to bat form flying over the battle field and droping spells like a jet plane drops bomds. Also you can drop Summon Nature Alley in the back field like falling paratroopers to help with your party main thrust vs the bad guys to flank them. But that my point of view. The Long bow gives you range but long term you will not need it. It will sit there and collect dust.
If there is 4 or 5 fight per mod it range will come in to play 1 per mod. 3 mod per level time 12 levels mean your bow range will be usefull about 36 maybe fights for the whole build. Your range touch stuff even thou limted by it short range will be more usefull long term about 3 or 4 per mod. There for 3.5 x 3 x 12 = 126 vs 36. That is greater by factor of about 3 times.
If was me I would Shoanti Tattoo or Heirloom Weapon (Proficiency-Longbow) one or the other but not booth.
I like Shoanti Tattoo for the Range attack weapon and the Big Freken Hammer( realy just so I can say "I hit with Big Freken Hammer!"lolol).
Heirloom Weapon weapon strength now come in the fact it +1 with and AoO and +2 on CMB roll. So I would chose a Weapon that give either reach and/or plus to CMB rolls as well.
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If you want something off the wall Go Halfling Monk 1, Bat Shaman 6. Go for at least an 18 starting Dex (16 before racial) and grab weapon finesse, piranha strike, risky striker and natural spell by 7. (Array something like 10/18/14/12/14/9) At level 7 turn into a dimunitive bat and flurry for +14/+14 for 1d2+16 damage while flying around with a +29 stealth score and dropping spells when you don't feel like going into melee. Enjoy that AC of 24 before any gear or spells too. The size/dex bonus from size will easily overcome the penalties for not having precise shot with your produce flame shooting bat.
Don't forget to ride around on your dire bat pet at level 1.
Focusing too much on ranged combat with this character seems like a mistake, unless I am not seeing something. Your free blind-fighting feat is for melee so it seems like you would want to be anti-range/caster focused. Use obscuring mist to shut down anyone not involved in the main melee (keeping it away from your melee folks). Then, you swoop in and maul them with your concealment advantage. You are the scout of the group. Aware of hidden enemies through blindsense and hidden through the night domain. I would play to those strengths rather than staying away from the melee.
Grapple
Move: You can move both yourself and your target up to half your speed. At the end of your movement, you can place your target in any square adjacent to you. If you attempt to place your foe in a hazardous location, such as in a wall of fire or over a pit, the target receives a free attempt to break your grapple with a +4 bonus.
If that going to be your schick I implore you to take a level of
Barbarian for rage to boost your STR. Also to lower your DEX and Raise your STR because your CMB suck being 3/4 per level +1 for STR. Becasue that cool idea but you build dose not suport that tacit well.
It before you put them in the hazardous loction so before your movement.
Also you if you are moving them up while grappeled you have to worry about your Carrying Capacity to lift them off the ground. Again higher STR.
Not only can you fly up you can drop them on some one as well! :)
Take out 2 foes with one attack.
Dump the charisma harder. You were raised by bats.
I'm only counting 18 points in your point buy. If you drop Cha to 8, you could get a 14 Con.