Saurian Shaman Pathfinder Society


Advice

Scarab Sages

I want a CASTER (not fighter) of Saurian Shaman for society.
Need help ;-)
never done society before.
I OWN the UC, and Bestiary II.
Am willing to buy more PDFs.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

Deinonychus seems like an intersting option,
And would be like having a perment Summons out, so i like it.

Again thanks for help in making me a summon/control Druid.

Grand Lodge

Hello, fellow saurian shaman. I am Xorb, a 12th-level Seeker. I would be happy to offer some insight, for the path before you is filled with trials! Let me take a few moments to reflect and collect my thoughts.

Grand Lodge

Additional Resources Here are some topics that cover the saurian shaman: Who likes (or hates) the Saurian Shaman Druid? & Saurian druid wild shape question

Ability Scores As a caster druid, Strength will not be hugely important, but you’ll want enough to wear armor and carry your gear. Constitution keeps you from death’s door, which makes it very worthwhile. Wisdom will be your chief stat, for obvious reasons. PFS play is demanding on skill checks and social encounters, so I suggest you avoid dumping Intelligence and Charisma. I’d go with ability scores similar to these, before your racial modifier: Str 13, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 10. You’ll almost certainly put ability score bonuses from advancement into Wisdom.

Animal Companion Keep in mind that many assignments for the Society will make it difficult for you to have your animal companion with you at all times. Social engagements or the physical limitations of your loyal beast will require you to be self-sufficient. The value of armor with the hosteling special ability should not be understated. A constrictor snake is a very useful and well rounded animal. I have a hard time recommending anything else. Also, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with tricks, how you’ll teach your animal companion, and how PFS rules modify the Core Rulebook. Read this FAQ.

Armor This won’t have a lot of use to your character by 6th-level as the benefits will be lost while in a very useful Wild Shape. Hide will do you fine for a while. If you are having an impossible time spending your gold then consider the wild enhancement, but I wouldn’t make it a priority. A shield never hurts either.

Deity Worshipping nature is good and all, but sometimes worshipping a deity can give your character motives, personality, and direction. Nalinivati appears in Dragon Empires Gazetteer and Dragon Empires Primer. A character that worships this deity (closely linked to serpents) would likely come from the Tian Xia nations of Dtang Ma, Nagajor, Xa Hoi, or Xidao.

Domains This is a reasonable choice for any druid in PFS play as it bypasses the difficulties of having a companion. I think the War domain is the only one worth considering for a caster saurian shaman. It allows the character to increase the damage of allies, to eventually gain valuable combat feats for a short period of time and to cast reasonably useful spells.

Factions This is a personal choice and can reflect the personality of your character and their motives. Grand Lodge is an easy pick, but I encourage you to choose another faction for flavor.

Feats If you want this character to be proficient at summoning then Spell Focus (conjuration) and Augment Summoning are necessary. Superior Summoning is strong at later levels and should be considered. Sunlight Summons would make your summoned creatures shed light and bypass DR/magic, which is a common defense. Natural Spell is a must pick at 5th-level for most druids, but a saurian shaman arguably needs to wait until 7th-level as access to the wild shape class feature is delayed. Wild Speech helps counter the common problem of not being able to talk to your allies while in wild shape (an alternative is purchasing a wand of speak with animals, but someone has to be able to cast it on themselves to be able to talk to you and the duration is short). Quick Wild Shape becomes very useful at later levels so that you don’t waste a standard action to assume a useful form during combat. You can never go wrong with Improved Initiative either, and can take it any time. Lastly, consider Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration if you wish to cast your spells offensively.

Race Any race that offers a bonus to Wisdom is preferable for a caster druid. At the moment, this is limited to dwarves, half-elves, half-orcs, humans, and tengu. Humans have an alternate racial trait in the Advanced Race Guide called Eye for Talent which sacrifices the human bonus feat for a +2 bonus to one of your animal companion’s ability scores. On the other hand, humans can use this bonus feat to get ahead start on the summoning chain of feats. Racial low-light vision and darkvision aren’t a big priority because a lot of the time you’ll be in wild shape after 5th-level.

Setting A Mwangi human makes a lot of sense for a saurian shaman. The Mwangi see more dinosaurs and reptiles than your typical Avistani. Also see my section on a deity above.

As for how this character joined up with the Pathfinder Society? Perhaps they were hired by a team of Pathfinders as a guide some years ago and it seemed like a good profession. Perhaps this character was sold into slavery and was freed by a Pathfinder representing the Liberty’s Edge faction. Or maybe your character desires to travel to other regions to learn about animals, elementals, and plants who’s forms your character can eventually take.

Skills Putting 1 rank in all class skills is a good short term goal. I encourage you to max out Perception, Survival, and Sense Motive (even if the latter isn’t a class skill [see my traits section]). This is where being a human with the Skilled trait can come in handy. Unfortunately, a caster druid isn’t going to excel at most skills outside these three.

Traits Your character’s Reflex saving throws aren’t going to be very high, so Deft Dodger is a solid option. Reactionary is a fall back if you want a better initiative. However, I think Suspicious is a must pick as it gives your character some use in social situations by granting Sense Motive class skill status and a +1 bonus to boot.

Weapons It is important to carry a main weapon and something for backup, probably a dagger. I doubt you’ll want this character entering melee too often though.

Wild Shape As a caster druid, you will be spending a lot of time in forms that augment your abilities and senses. For a fresh 6th-level saurian shaman, a viper, believe it or not, is a great form to take. You can coil yourself around a fellow adventurer and pretend to be a pet or familiar. You’ll gain a Dex bonus, helping your AC and Reflex saving throws, and initiative. Size bonuses further increase AC, the fly skill, and the often neglected stealth skill. Eventually elementals (especially air) become a wonderful form, granting many benefits not available to animals.

Wondrous Items Eyes of the eagle are one of the better items for this character to purchase first. I’d try to have a cloak of resistance upgraded frequently. Any items with static bonuses are helpful, but remember that these items will almost always merge with your form when you use wild shape. In this case, anything that requires activation, usually with a command, will have limited use. Get your hands on Ultimate Equipment and make some notes with this in mind.


It's hard to go wrong with a saurian shaman. Spell Focus (conjuration), Augment Summoning, and Improved Initiative are pretty much all you need to be a powerhouse.

A nice trick I would recommend is taking the Feather subdomain of the Animal domain. It gives you domain spells (including Fly) and a very nice bonus to Perception checks (and possibly initiative as well.) You don't get your animal companion until 4th level, but then at 5th you can just take Boon Companion and it's a full-leveled deinonychus or allosaurus or whatever else you like. So, you're basically trading one feat for a bonus domain spell of each level plus a sizable boost to your Perception checks, which is a great trade. The downside is your first four levels will be weaker than if you started with your animal companion.

Scarab Sages

Thanks for some insights
Anyone else have any sugestions for A control druid who loves summoning?

Scarab Sages

Bump

Grand Lodge

Black Lotus wrote:

Thanks for some insights

Anyone else have any sugestions for A control druid who loves summoning?

What are you looking for? There is a tremendous wealth of information on this message board and I did a relatively detailed overview already. The only major category that I left out is spells.

Scarab Sages

So if i read it and understood it, in PFS my compain comes with max tricks already?

"Hello, fellow saurian shaman. I am Xorb, a 12th-level Seeker. I would be happy to offer some insight, for the path before you is filled with trials! Let me take a few moments to reflect and collect my thoughts."
Waiting for your thoughts.

What are peoples favorite spells?

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