I saw the demonslayer ranger archtype and it's perfect for what I want, a sword fighting demon/monster hunter who also has wildshape. To get wildshape I plan on taking 4 levels of Druid and the shaping focus feat. I get level 8 wildshape... That's enough. I want it mainly for non combat. But turning into a dire tiger is also awesome.
I'm not looking for the best build, I want a ok fun build with these things. I am wondering what Druid archetype, race, spells and what feats would be good for this build? Any suggestions are welcome!
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Dwarf is a great race for Wisdom based casters, frontliners and people who fight spellcasters.
Your character is all three. Be a Dwarf.
This endorsement paid for by the Dwarven Overlord Initiative
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Another feat you'll want to look at is Shapeshifting Hunter Ranger will stack with Druid for number of shifts per day. Druid stacks with Ranger for Favored Enemy.
Here's my build, which is sort of the opposite of yours, I really just took a level of Ranger to get Favored Enemy, and some rogue-like skills.
Female half-elf druid (world walker) 7/ranger (trapper) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 43, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 65)
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +27
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Defense
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AC 25, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (+8 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +3 shield)
hp 58 (8 HD; 7d8+1d10+14)
Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee +1 scimitar +10/+5 (1d6+4/18-20) or
. . mwk cold iron shortspear +10/+5 (1d6+3) or
. . silversheen dagger +10/+5 (1d4+3/19-20)
Ranged ranged touch attack +8 (As Spell) or
. . sling +8 (1d4+3)
Special Attacks favored enemies (humans +4, undead +2), wild shape 3/day
Druid (World Walker) Spells Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +12)
. . 4th—freedom of movement, life bubble[APG] (DC 19), river of wind[D,APG] (DC 19)
. . 3rd—call lightning (DC 18), fly[D], greater longstrider[ACG], water breathing
. . 2nd—barkskin, eagle's splendor[D], frigid touch[UM], resist energy, wood shape (DC 17)
. . 1st—aspect of the falcon[D,APG], frostbite[UM], hydraulic push[APG], liberating command[UC], liberating command[UC], snowball (DC 16), snowball (DC 16)
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance, light, stabilize
. . D Domain spell; Domain Eagle domain
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 10
Base Atk +6; CMB +9; CMD 23
Feats Alertness, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Natural Spell, Shapeshifting Hunter[UC], Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Tribal Scars
Traits ease of faith, narrows survivor
Skills Acrobatics -1 (-5 to jump), Diplomacy +15, Disable Device +13, Fly +3, Handle Animal +6, Heal +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5, Knowledge (nature) +14, Perception +27, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +3, Survival +14 (+19 when tracking); Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Druidic, Elven, Sylvan
SQ aerial evasion, elf blood, favored terrains (underground +4, urban +2), hawkeye, nature bond (Eagle domain[UM]), nature sense, track +1, trapfinding +1, wild empathy +8, woodland stride
Combat Gear wand of cure light wounds, blood-boiling pill (10), sharpstone sling bullets (20); Other Gear +2 dragonhide breastplate, +2 darkwood light wooden quickdraw shield[APG], +1 scimitar, mwk cold iron shortspear, ranged touch attack, silversheen dagger, sling, belt of giant strength +2, cloak of resistance +2, goggles of minute seeing, headband of inspired wisdom +2, lenses of detection, ring of protection +2, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, belt pouch, blanket[APG], fishhook (2), flint and steel, grappling hook, holly and mistletoe, masterwork thieves' tools, sewing needle, signal whistle, soap, spell component pouch, spider's silk rope (50 ft.)[APG], spiritbane spike, string or twine[APG], thread (50 ft.), torch (5), trail rations (5), waterskin, whetstone, 4,975 gp, 9 sp, 2 cp
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Special Abilities
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Aerial Evasion (Ex) While flying you take less damage on a successful Reflex save.
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Druid (World Walker) Domain (Eagle) Granted Powers: Your spirit soars with the mightiest and noblest of all winged creatures.
Elf Blood Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Familiar Bonus: +3 to sight-based Perception checks in bright light You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Favored Enemy (Humans +4) (Ex) +4 to rolls vs. Favored Enemy (Humans) foes.
Favored Enemy (Undead +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs. Favored Enemy (Undead) foes.
Favored Terrain (Underground +4) (Ex) +4 to rolls when in Favored Terrain (Underground).
Favored Terrain (Urban +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls when in Favored Terrain (Urban).
Hawkeye +3 (8/day) (Su) Swift, gain bonus on one perception check or ranged attack.
Lenses of detection +5 to track with Survival
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Narrows Survivor You gain a +1 trait bonus to Initiative and Sense Motive checks. Sense Motive is always a class skill for you.
Natural Spell You can cast spells while in Wild Shape.
Shapeshifting Hunter Add your druid and ranger levels for favored enemy
Speak with Animals (Ex) Your familiar can communicate with animals similar to itself.
Speak with Familiar (Ex) You can communicate verbally with your familiar.
Track +1 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.
Trapfinding +1 Gain a bonus to find or disable traps, including magical ones.
Wild Empathy +8 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
Wild Shape (8 hours, 3/day) (Su) Shapeshift into a different creature one or more times per day.
Woodland Stride (Ex) Move through undergrowth at normal speed.
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I really went back and forth between Green Faith Initiate and World Walker. Green Faith Initiate would have made it a much better "Face" with it's bonuses to Diplomacy, but in the end having a Druid with Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain was just too enticing.
I took the Eagle Domain for the bonus to hit with Ranged Touch Attacks and Perception for Trap Finding. Also a Familiar gives me Ranged Cure spells.
Interesting :-) Thanks for the build. But not melee enough for me I think, my balance is more to the (melee) ranger than the druid.
You could just turn into a melee creature. Pretty sure the ranged aspect could easily just be backup.
Azten, Ranged is not what in looking for, see my first post in the topic :-)
A lot of questions :-)
No shields and only swords, I like basterd swords or longswords. I knew about the nibmle guardian, I just don't really like a monk... Therefor I'm back to druid :-)
I know that it's not the best option to want a sword and wildshape since they both have a different focus, but I was hoping for some feats that were beneficial for both... And some basic one that make both a viable option. I just found this one to give something special to fighting in wildshape:
Eldritch Claws (Combat)
Who needs magic weapons? Eldritch tricks are no match for your bestial ferocity.
Prerequisites: Str 15, natural weapons, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: Your natural weapons are considered both magic and silver for purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
The sword is than mainly for the "normal" enemies and when I'm casting.. the wildshape is for the monsters/supernatural... The spells from the ranger demonslayer help with the demons...
Weird idea or just fine?
I thought about a magus, but since the shapes only last minutes and I like the more natural thing I thought I'd go Druid. But in essence I want a natural magus :-) I was looking at archetypes but couldn't find any that prolongs wildshape... Another option is a natural weretiger but I never really got how that works..
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If going Druid with sword, why not Goliath Druid?
Goliath druid cab get some nifty abilities, and gets to keep all their gear when they shift, too. :)
If you want swords and Wildshape, consider that 4 levels of Druid + Shaping Focus means that you can spend 24 hours/day as a medium elemental that can be humanoid in shape, talk, and wield a weapon. Earth elemental grants a major strength and natural armor bonus, while air elemental has equally good defenses and amazing mobility (and a +1 height bonus pretty much all the time). As long as you drop your weapon for a moment while shifting, your character can essentially just be an elemental form of themselves all the time.
Goliath Druid does a similar thing with some pros and cons.
I've been toying with the idea of a dex-based swordmaster with four levels of Storm Druid to basically be a "wind dervish". Maybe an Urban Barbarian, so that Wild Shape: air elemental and Controlled Rage combine for a +8 to dexterity...
Sounds like great build, just not for me ;-) I do like a more animalistic approach.. Sword and claw :-)
There are ways to actually literally do sword-and-claw, though it's usually pretty inefficient. If you have claws, a sword, improved unarmed strike and two-weapon fighting, you can attack with sword/unarmed/claw, which might just be worth it on the right build.
Goliath druid would enable a sword+claw type of pc.
Goliath gets no animal shapes :-(
Thanks for the advice! Some great suggestions :-) Feats like power attack are awesome, win win is the best option :-) where would you put the split, 4 levels in Druid or more?
I was also looking into the feral hunter, although a lot less flavour I do like to compare agains the menhir savant/demonslayer.. Although playing a sort of lycanthrope hunting the supernatural has a thing :-)
Feral hunter gets 1 less feat in total than a druid4/rangerX who takes shaping focus and shapeshifting hunter... His spells are better.. The feral focus should make up for the less bab... But I miss the supernatural hunter flavour... Eldritch claws I like for my concept.. but I'm not sure how to give him more flavour besides packing some blessed water and that sort off stuff :-) what are your thoughts??
Have you consider being a skinwalker?
Also, considered the feral hunter Hunter archetype? You can stay in a single class whose parent classes are Druid and Ranger, and whose class abilities are all based around Shapeshifting.
With Magical Knack (Hunter), you won't lose casting progression, and since you won't have an Animal Companion, you don't have to worry about losing levels when you dip two levels of Fighter to up your BAB and pick up at least 2 extra feats.
=)
Whoops. Ninja'ed by OP! >.<
Shaping focus.
Crimlock NL, could we get some feedback about how your final build finally fared in real gameplaying?