Wild Form AC

[Azullius Koujou]

Hello Paizo members, I'm playing a druid in a pf campaign atm and just reached 4'th and with it Wild Form.

I looked online for guides to what forms i could take and stumbled upon this site:

http://www.espigabb.comuf.com/pftools/

It looks helpful to me, the only issue is I can't seem to get how the AC is calculated.
Aka the ac differes from what i thought they should be.

Here are the numbers i put into the calculator(looking at a 6'th lwl sample)

Str: 12
Dex: 14
BAB: 4
Character lwl: 6
Druid lwl: 6

Next i look at the Aurochs or Bison.

How does i end up with AC 14?

The way i understood it I get +4 str, -2 Dex and +4 nat armor for taking the form of a Large animal. So 14-2 = 12 = +1 Ac, then add +4 nat armor shouldn't this be AC 15?

How Should I calculate these numbers? and is this calculator correct?

[Skreeeeeeeeee]

Azullius Koujou wrote:

Hello Paizo members, I'm playing a druid in a pf campaign atm and just reached 4'th and with it Wild Form.

I looked online for guides to what forms i could take and stumbled upon this site:

http://www.espigabb.comuf.com/pftools/

It looks helpful to me, the only issue is I can't seem to get how the AC is calculated.
Aka the ac differes from what i thought they should be.

Here are the numbers i put into the calculator(looking at a 6'th lwl sample)

Str: 12
Dex: 14
BAB: 4
Character lwl: 6
Druid lwl: 6

Next i look at the Aurochs or Bison.

How does i end up with AC 14?

The way i understood it I get +4 str, -2 Dex and +4 nat armor for taking the form of a Large animal. So 14-2 = 12 = +1 Ac, then add +4 nat armor shouldn't this be AC 15?

How Should I calculate these numbers? and is this calculator correct?

In addition to the loss in DEX, large creatures take a -1 penalty to AC and attack, as penalties for their large size. That's likely where you're missing one point of AC.

[Azullius Koujou]

Heh, interesting, I thought that the -2 dex and -1 ac for size were related. I think your right this is the one i had forgotten.
thanks

Looks like I really need to stick out of combat in my main wild forms or use it as a last resort, since my main wild form will due to being Large end up with 12 Ac... Unless buffed by spells

[Scott Wilhelm]

You also get a Natural Bonus to your Armor Class as described by the class ability, which at level 4

Core Rulebook, Druid, Wildshape wrote:

This ability functions like the beast shape I

And that means

Beast Shape I wrote:

Small animal: If the form you take is that of a Small animal, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Dexterity and a +1 natural armor bonus.

Medium animal: If the form you take is that of a Medium animal, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Strength and a +2 natural armor bonus.

Every couple of levels, your bonuses will increase as per the descriptions of beast shapes II & III.

Since your Natural Armor Bonus advances as per the Class Ability and NOT as per the Animal Form you choose, it doesn't help to take heavily armored forms. You don't gain anything by Wildshaping into an Anklysaurus instead of an Allosaurus unless you have some roleplaying reason to do.

And remember you are limited to Medium and Small Animals at level 4.

[Azullius Koujou]

Yup :)

I play as a Naga Aspirant, which is why i look towards the large naga form at 6'th. Still 2 lwls of ordinary wild form before I can take my Naga shape.

It mention that when taking the nagashape it works like shapeshift rather than Beast shape which is the normal.
What importance does this change make? It sounded like it might be faster to change form and thats about it. (Seeing one is a 3'rd lwl spell and the toher is a 9'th)

Giwen myself the restriction that I can't wild shape into mamals, to force me to stay with a more reptilic theme.

[Weirdo]

I don't think the reference to the shapechange spell is actually relevant, given that shapechange doesn't allow you to take naga form and nagashape itself describes the appropriate effects. Otherwise the ability works as wild shape, so that takes care of duration and uses/day. Spell level would be relevant for ability DCs but those are otherwise defined by Augmented Form.

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Every couple of levels, your bonuses will increase as per the descriptions of beast shapes II & III.

Since your Natural Armor Bonus advances as per the Class Ability and NOT as per the Animal Form you choose, it doesn't help to take heavily armored forms. You don't gain anything by Wildshaping into an Anklysaurus instead of an Allosaurus unless you have some roleplaying reason to do.

Clarifying here - your natural armour bonus is determined by the size of animal you turn into. You get access to larger forms with better natural armour as you advance, so an 8th level druid can become a huge animal and get +6 natural armour, but if that same druid becomes small they still only get the same +1 natural armour that a 4th level druid would. You do get access to more special abilities with wild shapes of all sizes as you level, however.

[Azullius Koujou]

Thanks for the help everyone.
Another question relate to the link in the opening post:
Why does animal shapes such as Boar, Dolphin and Giant frog get +3 to their damage while Deinonychus for instance get +2 dmg?
+1 from my base str modifier, then +1 from taking the form of a medium animal. Where is the last +1 comming from? or is it a mistke
Sample for lvl 4 wildshapes.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

When a creature only has one natural attack they get STR + 1/2 damage, similar to a 2-handed weapon's damage, when they have multiple attacks they only get their STR to damage.

[Azullius Koujou]

thanks this should solve t :)

[Scott Wilhelm]

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:

When a creature only has one natural attack they get STR + 1/2 damage, similar to a 2-handed weapon's damage, when they have multiple attacks they only get their STR to damage.

Also, when a creature only has 1 natural attack, it is always a primary natural attack, even if it is normally a secondary natural attack. For instance, a Tail Slap is normally a secondary natural attack, but not when made by a Stegosaurus. Fear the Thagomizer!

[Ivan Blanco Catalán]

I had to move the webpage site, now you can find the Druid Shapachange tool to:

http://www.pftools.pixub.com/

Happy Shapechange to you all!

[BigNorseWolf]

i would highly recommend picking a combat form and getting yourself barding for it. Your wildshape lasts hours, so when you reach the dungeon assume the form and have the party armor you up.

You can also use mage armor/wands of mage armor/buy the wizard a pearl of power and ask for mage armor in case you need to swap forms.