Quick feat question regarding melee druids. Currently I'm playing a human melee druid and my level 1 feats were SF: Conj and Aug Summons. I decided I really don't want to lean on summons in the campaign so my DM is going to let me switch them out. I'm level 5 now and took power attack and natural spell at 3 and 5 respectively. Any suggestions on what to take to replace the level 1s? The main reason for asking input is my DM typically lets me get away with anything within reason (i.e. I could take Step Up even though BAB isn't +1 or Weapon Focus: Claw even though I have no source of claws at level 1).
Stuff that's crossed my mind so far is Dodge, Step Up, WF: Claw, Toughness, Imp. Initiative, Iron Will. Any strong feats I may be missing or a suggested combo? The plan is to follow standard Dire Tiger pounce combat style.
Definitely Weapon Focus Claw. At level 8 you'll be getting 4 claw attacks with rake on a pounce, and only one bite.
Wild Speech is also good if you just want to stay a tiger indefinitely, but it doesn't bump up your killing power, it's just good utility.
One thing I really like is Planar Wild Shape. As a full druid you'll have more uses of wild shape than you'll use in a day by level 8. Expending an extra use gets you the celestial or fiendish template which is quite powerful. You gain DR5/Good or /Evil (becomes 10 at level 11) depending on your alignment, a smite evil or smite good ability that adds damage equal to your hit dice once per day, and resistance to a triad of elements which scales with level. Oh, and don't forget, even if you dumped CHA like crazy, the smite adds your CHA "bonus", not modifier, to attacks, so you never get a penalty, it's minimum +0 to attacks, and your hit dice to damage. Grab a Druid's Vestments for your body slot and the drawback of costing an extra use is pretty trivial.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would go with Toughness and Scribe Scroll. Melee druids tend to have low AC until they can afford Wild armor, and with a d8 hit die you need all the HP you can get if you're a front-liner. Scribe Scroll is really, really nice to have as a prepared caster with access to TONS of utility spells; when I was playing my druid, it allowed me to use my spell slots on buffs and whatnot while still having emergency Fog Clouds and Stone Calls when I needed them. (and Speak with Animals, and Delay Poison, and Spider Climb, and Gust of Wind, and...)
Oh, and fyi, Weapon Focus has a +1 BAB requirement, so you can't grab it at 1st level.