I'm looking to have a druid for once of my games who does not use wildshape (a player wants something else that fits the flavor of his character) but we cant find anything in any of the Archetypes that meet what the player want (I don't actually know what he wants, but he's new to the game and probably just doesn't understand the rules enough to make a guess at how it functions). He is a human Druid that has a snake companion and is more a nomadic "nature mystic." Any ideas that would work to replace the wild shape ability with something else that scales would be appreciated.
Wild shape is powerful. Not sure why he wouldn't want it, but it'd need an appropriate replacement.
Edit: perhaps some sort of serious bonus that lasts hours per level tailored to the play style he's looking for.
Show him the Nature Fang and Feral Child archetypes, they both trade out wild shape entirely.
Or, wants nature magic, snake familiar, no wildshape, have you thought of a shaman?
Show him the Nature Fang and Feral Child archetypes, they both trade out wild shape entirely.
Or, wants nature magic, snake familiar, no wildshape, have you thought of a shaman?
I have and he didn't like what they traded for; as for shaman, he is looking for more of a wandering survivor (with Snakemeat as his sidekick) than a actual mystic, sorry if that was poorly worded. However a list of Talents to take might do well, but he wouldn't take the full archetype, just change the one ability.
Wild shape is powerful. Not sure why he wouldn't want it, but it'd need an appropriate replacement.
Edit: perhaps some sort of serious bonus that lasts hours per level tailored to the play style he's looking for.
Wild shape is powerful but the last thing on good new player's minds is power. Do you think a favored terrain bonus (that has the bonuses completely redone to something more fitting) counting his druid level -1 as his ranger level, and limiting his choices to terrains his snake companion's kind is found in, would work? Maybe keep the bonuses that are already there (+2 init and +2 select skills) add KN (nature), some fraction of WIS Mod to AC or attacks, inherent or untyped bonuses to ability scores (like DEX for snakes) and NAT armor, tremor sense (after a certain number of increases to a single terrain's bonus), and/or a bonus to caster level; thoughts?
You could allow him to choose domains in addition to an animal companion.
Hunter might be a good alternative for a no-wildshape druid. Especially that it gets spontaneous casting of limited number of known spells which might be easier to handle by a new player than full list Vancian casting abilities of a druid.
Showed him hunter, he took that happily, many thanks to AnonMD and Drejk. I now however am curious as to custom abilities that can replace Wild Shape (for my own (villains') nefarious purposes).