So I have this idea for a monk druid archer with animal friends. He doesn't wear armor and he uses a longbow.
The problem I'm running into is this:
-Without increasing monk levels my armor class doesn't go up.
-Without increasing my druid levels my animal companions and spells suffer.
-No social class skills on either front. Diplomacy and bluff sure would be nice.
I could really use some advice. I'm dead set on my race, Agathion-Blooded Aasimar, but aside from that I'm willing to consider any options. I care very little for wild shape and do not want to focus on it at all.
One of the things that this character has going for him is that because of a trait he can take monk despite being an unlawful alignment and because of another trait, both monk and druid can be favored classes at the same time. Also antlers... he has antlers.
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The traits I was talking about. I'm also considering paying the cost for a third one in order to shore up my skills or to actually have enough gold for a longbow.
Enlightened Warrior
&
Finding Your Kin
And I think his first and most important animal companion will be a Buffalo or Auroch (same stats), which is one of the animals you can ride.
@ Tailer Tombs: I would suggest the feat Boon Companion from the Pathfinder Player’s Companion: Animal Archive.
Your bond with your animal companion or familiar is unusually close.
Prerequisites: Animal companion or familiar class feature.
Benefit: The abilities of your animal companion or familiar are calculated as though your class were 4 levels higher, to a maximum effective druid level equal to your character level. If you have more than one animal companion or familiar, choose one to receive this benefit. If you lose or dismiss an animal companion or familiar that has received this benefit, you may apply this feat to the replacement creature.
Special: You may select this feat more than once. The effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a different animal companion or familiar.
The wondrous item Monk’s Robe could help at some point although it doesn’t help a zen archer as much as some other monk types since you’re going to be using a bow.
Robe, Monk's
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 10th
Slot body; Price 13,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
DESCRIPTION
When worn, this simple brown robe confers great ability in unarmed combat. If the wearer has levels in monk, her AC and unarmed damage is treated as a monk of five levels higher. If donned by a character with the Stunning Fist feat, the robe lets her make one additional stunning attack per day. If the character is not a monk, she gains the AC and unarmed damage of a 5th-Level monk (although she does not add her Wisdom bonus to her AC). This AC bonus functions just like the monk's AC bonus.
On Alignment a druids/monk can be lawful/neutral without a trait. Of course the trait opens up other alignments so it has its uses.
Things to keep in mind - Mixing a caster with a martial is only a good idea when there is supreme benefit to one side or the other.
By lowering your druid casting level, you're gimping both your spells and your companions effectiveness greatly. Monks and Druids have craptastic charisma too btw, so just forget about being a face for the party. :P
Since Zen Archers use your unarmed strike for damage with your bow, you could use Strong Jaw(rangers get this too) and further enhance it. You'd be at Huge sized damage. Just saying, that damage may be needed often :P
I'd highly recommend combining Ranger and Zen Archer... as they too can get an animal companion, you don't have to worry about wildshape, and you get a lot of bonus feats for ranged abilities and enhanced attack/damage.
Zen Archer and Druid just aren't that great together - not to say you shouldn't try it out, or it can't be done. If you were a Melee Monk/Druid, you'd be ravaging the field with very high defenses, maneuverability, and attack/damage.
I hope this helps.
Fair enough. I was thinking of making up for the poor AC with spells and keeping attackers at bay with companions. I feel like the stat synergy is there and, for druid, charisma is not a complete dump if you want anything to do with animals. A low strength and constitution are how I make up for it.
Str 10
Dex 14
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 14
I'll consider ranger, but that means my animal companion level will take an even bigger hit and I will only be allowed one. Boon companion couldn't even make up for that and I would be forced to defend myself in melee with a modest AC because of a lack of spells and companions. I also wouldn't even have a weak companion until level 4 and it wouldn't get much better until level six.
Any ideas how to make druid work? Boon companion is sweet. Thanks. And I can make up for it only being for one animal by taking some extra care with their advancement.
Barkskin, cure spells, hydraulic push, entangle, ect. can be used to help keep me safe at low level. Spells will continue to make up for reduced monk AC from leveling(which wasn't much anyway)
The archery side of things is trickier. Reduced BAB, no STR for composite, and not as many bonus feats as I could have. Not much druid synergy that I can see. Magic fang on the buffalo, keep it alive with cure, and shoot people in the face with multiple arrows when not casting?
Aditionally, I just discovered that i can take qinggong monk to better optimize my monk levels, since there are a number of useless abilities for an archer type. It, for some reason, is allowed as a second archtype for monk.
Just curious, you do know that you take a penalty to archery when your mount double moves?
Quote: You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a –4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed) at a –8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally. prototype00
I have a Zen Archer/Menhir Savant Druid whom I play in PFS - he's currently a monk 4/ druid 5. I took the Shaping Focus feat so I can wild shape like a 9th level Druid (though I may have to retrain or wait a few levels to get Natural Spell as well). I didn't take an animal companion at all - partially because running a companion on a PFS table can be a pain but also for a variety of character reasons the Menhir Savant w/domain route made more sense. (I took Eagle Domain which does give him a bird familiar and some useful spells for archers - aspect of the falcon is very powerful for a Zen Archer)
My thinking was that in general as a Zen Archer I have very strong defenses, move quickly and frequently close once then mostly attack from the same area (with Point Blank Master I can shoot without provoking). I didn't go Qinggong because nothing offered me anything particularly interesting.
If you do want the animal companion then I would think a lot about how you plan on using it. Boon Companion would be an amazing feat for you (if you keep your monk levels to 4) if you do take more monk levels then your companion will fall a bit behind.
For me wild shape is both my "get out of grapple" plan, my "need to scout ahead" plan and my way to adjust to situations. There could even be some forms I could take that would allow for me to still use archery (provided of course I have dropped my bow & efficient quiver ahead of wild shaping - the rules are less than clear on this but likely elemental forms could wield a weapon (and get some really great situational bonuses / movement speeds / special attacks.
As a monk / druid wild shaping is actually pretty good - though Zen Archer's don't get every monk ability - their AC bonuses will persist into wild shape form so you are not as troubled by AC as many druids when wild shaping.
My focus as a caster is utility spells, self buffs (aspect of the falcon etc) and minor party support spells - as a multiclassed caster I'm not trying to take the role of a full caster. But druids, like clerics also have the major benefit of the ultimate in flexibility when it comes to spell casting - you can prepare entirely different arrays of spells as the situation requires (assuming you have a day or more to prepare) and that helps even as a multi-classed caster to have some usefulness to the party as a whole (and being a Menhir Savant in particular means my casting is a bit less weak than it would otherwise be - mostly helpful in longer durations in my case.
I am aware that shooting a bow while riding is bad unless you have a feat. I haven't decided yet if I will get the feat or only ride when necessary. I just think the option is kinda cool.
The eagle domain idea is a good one. I'll look into it.
Thank you, Sindalla. I'll check it out.
Sindalla, Green Faith Acolyte confuses me. You have to be able to cast level 3 divine spells to become one, but it has this ability:
Companion Bond (Ex)
At the indicated levels, a Green Faith acolyte increases her effective druid level by 1 for determining the abilities of her animal companion. If she has no animal companion, she instead gains a druid animal companion, treating her effective druid level as 1/2 her class level (minimum 1).
I'm trying to figure out how I could use it.
Lowering your Str and your Con for raising Charisma is not a wise decision. You should definately start with 12 in each, with 14 being preferable.
Other than that, Pack Lord druids and Huntmaster cavaliers are difficult to be utilised efficiently if you multiclass, because you lose too many animal companion lvls when you have more than one.
For example, at lvl 10 if you have only one animal, with boon companion you can afford to dip up to 4 lvls of other classes and do not lose AC lvl progression. Instead, as a 10 lvl pack lord / huntmaster, you have two lvl 5 animals, that can scale up to lvl 9 with two boon companion feats and at 10 lvl with the Huntmaster feat if they qualify. No place for multiclassing.
As a result, what I suggest is to take a look at the Hunter class of the advanced class guide. It is a combination of Druid and Ranger, it has full BAB, 6 lvl divine casting, lets you choose an animal companion from the full druid list and also lets you use teamwork feats with your animal companion like Inquisitor's Solo Tactics. There are also a couple of nice new teamwork feats geared for archers in the same pdf.
Just today I was looking at the Beastmaster Ranger archetype. It allows you to have more than one animal companion and divide your druid level between them, so if you had an effective druid level of 4, you could have one companion at 3 and another at 1, etc. I might be worth taking Boon Companion on your main one and then get a few extra simple animals that can help a little like a monkey and a bird or whatever. There is also the Falconer Ranger archetype which gives you a bird at first level, but with half HP and it goes to full HP when you hit 4th level.
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