How could this character be built?

[karossii]

A druid without wildshape, or a ranger with full casting, or a cleric with the druid spell list...

Basically looking for a pure caster based character. Nature oriented. Don't want wild shape, and not really all that interested in an animal companion. I think the cleric with the druid spell list would be the closest to what I want - but would that be balanced/fair to do, just swap out the spell list? Is there any way to do this with existing archetypes, prestige classes, or feats; instead of houseruling it?

[David knott 242]

The Shaman from the Advanced Class Guide playtest is a full caster that casts from the druid spell list and normally does not have wild shape. It has a "spirit animal" that functions more like a familiar than an animal companion.

The Feral Child is the only Paizo archetype for the druid class that dispenses with Wild Shape -- but it also makes the animal companion mandatory. You would have to go to 3rd party products for druid archetypes that lack Wild Shape and do not require an animal companion.. As I recall, Epic Meepo came up with a few such archetypes.

[shaxberd]

The Shaman class from the Advanced Class Guide playtest is pretty close to what you're describing. It's a mix of the Oracle and Witch classes so they also get hexes, but they use the Druid spell list. Full caster class.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[Devilkiller]

If you went with Feral Child I guess you could pick something unobtrusive like a Bird. If you really hate having it along you could even leave it at home.

[LazarX]

karossii wrote:

A druid without wildshape, or a ranger with full casting, or a cleric with the druid spell list...

Basically looking for a pure caster based character. Nature oriented. Don't want wild shape, and not really all that interested in an animal companion. I think the cleric with the druid spell list would be the closest to what I want - but would that be balanced/fair to do, just swap out the spell list? Is there any way to do this with existing archetypes, prestige classes, or feats; instead of houseruling it?

You could simply play a Druid with a domain. My spouse had a heck of a time with a Flame Druid, almost totally caster focused.

[Deadmanwalking]

Urban Druid (who automatically go with a Domain) is a solid choice. They get Wild Shape eventually, but it's never more than mediocre, and they get all kinds of other goodies, and some awesome thematic stuff and Domain choices to boot.

[Sarrah]

Oracle nature revelation?

[Deadmanwalking]

Sarrah wrote:

Oracle nature revelation?

They do sorta the reverse really, keeping the Cleric spell list but getting a lot of the other Druid stuff.