So for a while I have had my eye on the Druid class, specifically the Leshy Warden archetype. So I was thinking of doing a Syrinx Leshy Warden VMC Witch because it boosts my Leshy while also giving me some hexes. The main problem is that while I can think of what Class/Race combo I wanna play I have no actual idea how to build a casting focused Druid and the class guides gave no assistance on this front. So I have a few questions
- What stats should I use? High Wis is obvious but I'm not sure what else
- What familiar archetype, if any, do you think would be most useful, Mauler maybe? I plan to stop him at Gourd Leshy and take stat boosts from there
- Are there any incredibly glaring weaknesses that the Syrinx has?
- Are casters heavily dependant on feats? Is VMC Witch a poor choice?
- And lastly what other advice do you have on building a Druid focused on spell casting as opposed to wildshape?
Gnome reincarnated druid with the Storm domain.
At around level 7 (or maybe 9) you can basically live in air elemental form and throw lightning/summons at people.
So for a while I have had my eye on the Druid class, specifically the Leshy Warden archetype. So I was thinking of doing a Syrinx Leshy Warden VMC Witch because it boosts my Leshy while also giving me some hexes. The main problem is that while I can think of what Class/Race combo I wanna play I have no actual idea how to build a casting focused Druid and the class guides gave no assistance on this front. So I have a few questions
- What stats should I use? High Wis is obvious but I'm not sure what else
- What familiar archetype, if any, do you think would be most useful, Mauler maybe? I plan to stop him at Gourd Leshy and take stat boosts from there
- Are there any incredibly glaring weaknesses that the Syrinx has?
- Are casters heavily dependant on feats? Is VMC Witch a poor choice?
- And lastly what other advice do you have on building a Druid focused on spell casting as opposed to wildshape?
The Leshy archetype would promote more of a melee-oriented build, since it essentially gives you both a familiar, and a fairly powerful subdomain (Growth), instead of an animal companion. The problem with that is that it actually reduces your effective Druid level for Wild Shaping, which would be your primary means of being melee. Also note that once you transform your Leshy familiar, it doesn't receive any stat increases outside of the transformation it undergoes. So keep that in mind before you decide to transform it.
Most people recommend going Storm Druid, since you (eventually) get access to 2 Domains that are pretty powerful, as well as other goodies, but that's if you plan to be a blaster. Personally, if you want to generalize, I'd recommend the Menhir Savant, as its +1 CL feature and other abilities are great for just that. But it all depends what you want to accomplish with your casting. Buffs? Blasting? Summons?
Your statistics after Wisdom don't particularly matter; if you can start with 20 Wisdom, then do so. From there, you could go Constitution for more durability, Dexterity for higher avoidance, or go Strength for more melee capability. If you need skill points, go Intelligence. Dump Charisma like the plague.
As for archetype, this also depends on what niche you want to fill. If you want your familiar to be in the front lines, then Mauler is good. If you want more of a defensive use for it, then Protector is better.
As long as you have a Race which grants a bonus to Wisdom, you don't need to worry too much about the other details. Some things can be nice, but others not so much.
VMC for a Druid can be great, it depends on how many feats you believe you need to sink for your stuff to work, and if you can deal with delaying some feats. Summoning specialists might not want to unless they're Human (or get a Bonus Feat of their choice). All Druids would want Natural Spell (which can be delayed to 5th level); from there, the world is your oyster. Maybe take Spell Penetration feats, Metamagics, etc.
That being said, I'm not seeing a whole lot of VMC that can synchronize with a caster druid all that well. You might be better off just keeping the feats for miscellaneous stuff that would be useful, as that would probably have a better return than whatever class features you could hope to acquire.
If you do plan on being a pure caster, Wild Shape into something that grants great maneuverability and/or defenses. The offensive capabilities you could normally Wild Shape into don't mean anything for a Caster Druid.
I hope you don't mind but since it was a long post I'm gonna cut it up an reply to parts.
So for a while I have had my eye on the Druid class, specifically the Leshy Warden archetype. So I was thinking of doing a Syrinx Leshy Warden VMC Witch because it boosts my Leshy while also giving me some hexes. The main problem is that while I can think of what Class/Race combo I wanna play I have no actual idea how to build a casting focused Druid and the class guides gave no assistance on this front. So I have a few questionsThe Leshy archetype would promote more of a melee-oriented build, since it essentially gives you both a familiar, and a fairly powerful subdomain (Growth), instead of an animal companion. The problem with that is that it actually reduces your effective Druid level for Wild Shaping, which would be your primary means of being melee. Also note that once you transform your Leshy familiar, it doesn't receive any stat increases outside of the transformation it undergoes. So keep that in mind before you decide to transform it.
- What stats should I use? High Wis is obvious but I'm not sure what else
- What familiar archetype, if any, do you think would be most useful, Mauler maybe? I plan to stop him at Gourd Leshy and take stat boosts from there
- Are there any incredibly glaring weaknesses that the Syrinx has?
- Are casters heavily dependant on feats? Is VMC Witch a poor choice?
- And lastly what other advice do you have on building a Druid focused on spell casting as opposed to wildshape?
yeah I wanted it more for the familiar+domain rather than the melee capabilities, plus Leshies are awesome :D. As for stat boosts I can still take the stat boosts at levels after the gourd Leshy and apply those
Most people recommend going Storm Druid, since you (eventually) get access to 2 Domains that are pretty powerful, as well as other goodies, but that's if you plan to be a blaster. Personally, if you want to generalize, I'd recommend the Menhir Savant, as its +1 CL feature and other abilities are great for just that. But it all depends what you want to accomplish with your casting. Buffs? Blasting? Summons?
Well, I was thinking maybe going battlefield control for the first time in my life (*gulp*) along with maybe a few blasting spells on the side
Your statistics after Wisdom don't particularly matter; if you can start with 20 Wisdom, then do so. From there, you could go Constitution for more durability, Dexterity for higher avoidance, or go Strength for more melee capability. If you need skill points, go Intelligence. Dump Charisma like the plague.
I see. *scribbles notes in a pad of paper*
As for archetype, this also depends on what niche you want to fill. If you want your familiar to be in the front lines, then Mauler is good. If you want more of a defensive use for it, then Protector is better.
I am still unsure if I should have it go melee or instead just have my familiar hang back and throw those entangling seeds, though thinking about it Protector might be better since I'm sorta squishy
As long as you have a Race which grants a bonus to Wisdom, you don't need to worry too much about the other details. Some things can be nice, but others not so much.
Good to know *scribbling continues*
VMC for a Druid can be great, it depends on how many feats you believe you need to sink for your stuff to work, and if you can deal with delaying some feats. Summoning specialists might not want to unless they're Human (or get a Bonus Feat of their choice). All Druids would want Natural Spell (which can be delayed to 5th level); from there, the world is your oyster. Maybe take Spell Penetration feats, Metamagics, etc.
I personally LOVE VMC, I have always struggled with figuring out what to spend feats on as a caster and the ability to trade a bunch out for some cool class features was a godsend, as far as fears go I'll probably go with Natural Spell, maybe either Telepathic Bomd or Wild Speech depending if that proves to be an issue, then just grab some of the fun metamagics like say Dazing Spell... Though I will consider maybe just going without VMC
Wild Shape into something that grants great maneuverability and/or defenses. The offensive capabilities you could normally Wild Shape into don't mean anything for a Caster Druid.
Ah yes the good old songbird of death trick, I'll make sure I will do that :)
Aaaaand I am done with editing that huge reply post ;)
Gnome reincarnated druid with the Storm domain.
At around level 7 (or maybe 9) you can basically live in air elemental form and throw lightning/summons at people.
I wasn't really thinking of going gnome, is the storm Druid archetype compatible with Leshy Warden?
I wasn't really thinking of going gnome, is the storm Druid archetype compatible with Leshy Warden?Gnome reincarnated druid with the Storm domain.
At around level 7 (or maybe 9) you can basically live in air elemental form and throw lightning/summons at people.
Gnome favored class bonus gives you energy resistances. Plus I think they get a wisdom bonus. Once you start shapeshifting your base race is mostly negligible.
Not sure about the archetype compatability.
I wasn't really thinking of going gnome, is the storm Druid archetype compatible with Leshy Warden?Gnome reincarnated druid with the Storm domain.
At around level 7 (or maybe 9) you can basically live in air elemental form and throw lightning/summons at people.
Gnome favored class bonus gives you energy resistances. Plus I think they get a wisdom bonus. Once you start shapeshifting your base race is mostly negligible.
Not sure about the archetype compatability.
Really? That's interesting but I was really hoping to play a Syrinx
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Gnomes get a Charisma bonus, not a Wisdom bonus. Dwarves get a Wisdom bonus. Not sure what Syrinxes get, but like Sparel said, once you can wild shape, your base race isn't important, so go with what you want.
If you go full caster, conventional wisdom is that you want to be wildshaped into either an elemental or a plant. Air/earth elemetals can fly/burrow and cast from a safe distance, while plants get a whole bunch of defensive traits like energy resistance and natural armor. Since you need an upgraded form of wild shape to do that, you probably don't want an archetype that slows your wild shape progression.
You do need some feats as a caster druid. They're heavily skewed to stuff you want later on: Spell Penetration, Persistent Spell, Quicken Spell, maybe Dazing Spell if you think your GM is OK with you locking down everything. A familiar with dazing produce flame, via share spells, can give you a hideous action advantage over your enemies. Natural Spell is for all druids of course, but you might think twice about investing heavily in summoning if you're going to be short of feats.
No archetypes are compatible with Leshy Warden as far as I know. Gnomes don't get a wisdom bonus (+2 con, cha, -2 str) and I wouldn't aim for a gnome caster druid.
The valet familiar archetype gets to share your teamwork feats, which allows you to use Improved Spell Sharing with it if you get that feat. This is efficient both on actions and spell slots.
Some of the best aspects of Syrinx are overshadowed when you can simply turn into an Air Elememntal at level 6- darkvision and fly. Even at level 4 there are birds that'll come close.
Caster Druids are utility monsters and have wonderful options during battle. When you start running across spell resistance and energy immunities it can suck, especially without spell penetration.
Gnomes get a Charisma bonus, not a Wisdom bonus. Dwarves get a Wisdom bonus. Not sure what Syrinxes get, but like Sparel said, once you can wild shape, your base race isn't important, so go with what you want.
If you go full caster, conventional wisdom is that you want to be wildshaped into either an elemental or a plant. Air/earth elemetals can fly/burrow and cast from a safe distance, while plants get a whole bunch of defensive traits like energy resistance and natural armor. Since you need an upgraded form of wild shape to do that, you probably don't want an archetype that slows your wild shape progression.
actually, one of the cool things about the Leshy warden is that they can wildshape into plants from the moment they gain wildshape at level 6, as for Syrinxes they are owl-like humanoids with a natural fly speed and -2 dex +2 wis, you can look them up in Cartmanbeck's race guide
Some of the best aspects of Syrinx are overshadowed when you can simply turn into an Air Elememntal at level 6- darkvision and fly. Even at level 4 there are birds that'll come close.
after reading the archetype I'm not sure it even GAINS non-plant wildshape forms.
Correct, it does not.
At 6th level, the leshy warden can assume the form of only Small or Medium plant creatures, as plant shape I. At 8th level, she can take the form of a Large plant creature, as plant shape II. At 10th level, she can take the form of a Huge plant creature, as plant shape III.
Considering you get both a powerful domain and a pseudo-companion, it's only fair. Growth is only really useful for Melee, and the Plant domain itself just stinks.
Correct, it does not.
At 6th level, the leshy warden can assume the form of only Small or Medium plant creatures, as plant shape I. At 8th level, she can take the form of a Large plant creature, as plant shape II. At 10th level, she can take the form of a Huge plant creature, as plant shape III.Considering you get both a powerful domain and a pseudo-companion, it's only fair. Growth is only really useful for Melee, and the Plant domain itself just stinks.
well, you can't win em all I guess, any suggestions for what feats and/or items would be needed outside of Natural Spell?
well, you can't win em all I guess, any suggestions for what feats and/or items would be needed outside of Natural Spell?Correct, it does not.
At 6th level, the leshy warden can assume the form of only Small or Medium plant creatures, as plant shape I. At 8th level, she can take the form of a Large plant creature, as plant shape II. At 10th level, she can take the form of a Huge plant creature, as plant shape III.Considering you get both a powerful domain and a pseudo-companion, it's only fair. Growth is only really useful for Melee, and the Plant domain itself just stinks.
Spell Penetration boosts are a must. Elemental Spell will be great for your blast spells since you don't have the flexibility of Admixture Specialist abilities (or the like), and believe me, you will need it for any planned battles. Extend Spell could be useful for your buffs/crowd control abilities to last twice as long; amazing for summons.
Outside that, I'm not entirely sure. Could always invest in Crafting feats, putting ranks into Spellcraft.