Like many of the other core classes the druid suffers from not having up to date guides. In my entire career as a tabletop RPG gamer I have never played a druid. Their complexities have always scared me off: are they a pet class? a caster? a wild shaping front liner? I've decided to build myself a druid for the first time and I think I would like to build him as a caster. I am not terribly familiar with the druid spell list or archetype choices, so I am wondering how viable it is to go full caster on a druid? Is there room to take a secondary role, or if I want to be a caster will I have to focus on it?
full casters can go with domains(extra focus on casting) or animal companion(combat force when you don't use spells). That's the main choice a caster druid gets to make.
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As a caster druid I like to wildshape into something with flight and then use spells that do damage and debuffs my enemies at the same time.
When you can afford it an Wild armor will give you a respectable AC and allow you to help in combat with the various melee touch spells you will have available. And you always have the option to start summoning you your party accidentally starts several encounters at once.
Spells that does damage and debuffs for the first couple of levels
1st-level:
Frostbite(fatigue),
Snowball(staggered)
2nd-level:
Burst of radiance(blind),
Frigid touch(staggered),
Pox pustulus(-4 dex + Sickened),
Sickening entanglement(entangle + Sickened)
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Alternatively you can take the Nature Fang Druid (yes I know it trades Wild Shape but hear me out).
It gains Studied Target. "Wait, but I wanted to be a caster!" you're saying.
At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses on weapon attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks and to slayer DCs against a studied target increase by 1
The Druid's Spellcasting is a class feature and should benefit from the Studied Target DC increase.
Focus on some good spells, use the Slayer Talents to offset some of your feats spent on Spell Focus, Augment Summoning, etc. You can move in for some nasty Frostbites with the improved accuracy, DCs and such, or even hang back with a Bow and cheat with the Ranger Combat Styles.
Get a decent Domain and you can replicate roles easily and snag spells like Flesh to Stone and Suffocation.
That Nature Fang idea is actually... Super cool. Never noticed the line about DCs.
It actually wouldn't be too tough to build a Nature Fang caster who was also competent in combat. The spell Stone Discus is a pretty good starting-point for damage and metamagic effects on a Nature Fang, and Ball Lightning is a classic.
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I think a big factor would be the environment in which you'll be adventuring. In a wilderness campaign obviously you'd be better off than in an all-urban/dungeon campaign. A significant chunk of druid spells require plants to function, and others cause lots of collateral damage.
Then again, Stone Shape is pretty awesome and in a dungeon the earth elemental can offset its slow speed (though you have longstrider!) with earth glide to go where enemies can't follow.
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I understand that arquetypes give some kind of flavor to the game but i dont like them.
Why arquetype?, go core Druid full tier 1 full wisdom and enjoy one of the bests classes in the entire world.
Do you want to know how viable a full caster druid is?, is one of the best, simple as that.
Secondary role?, please, buff + wild shape and go into melee, wild shape into something that fly and start casting, or take something small and be support for a while. Or just summon animals with CC and decent stats and overwhelm the enemy.
Reach level 9 and comune with nature and start grinding the whole forest.
IMO, the wizard´s got nothing on the Druid.
That, of course, is subjective, i enjoy mother earth.
Have fun with a druid =).
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Druids can totally be viable casters! While min/maxing for damage output would lend itself to Wild Shaping with an Animal Companion a spell casting druid can still great around the table.
Not having the animal companion will hurt in some respects mechanically but I find not having animals and cohorts around really saves on action economy around the table. The fact that your turn doesn't take twice as long as everyone else will have the rest of the players thanking you.
That means you will likely be going with a Domain (pending archetypes) and they can be fun. If you are the primary Divine caster of your party take Healing. Druids can work well as healers particularly in a low point-buy game as clerics are often spread thin with their stats. It also opens up more racial choices because a negative to Charisma isn't the end of the world (like Dwarf).
The key is just knowing what role your filling in the party and what type of game you're playing when picking archetypes and domains. Natures Fang druid sounds great if you are looking to be more offensive in your spell casting, and a domain like Fire could complement it well. But look to the game as well. The Arctic Druid may just be the way to go in a game like Reign of Winter.
Often the hardest part of playing the druid is finding your niche in the party. Once you do that however they can be a ton of fun.
I play a Druid in our longest running campaign, and one thing I have found is that she can easily fill almost any role.
We were having problems with our paladin taking a little too much damage, so I pick up a few extra defensive spells and gear and with elemental body she can easily be right up there with the paladin, or she can use her amazing speed as an air elemental to easily set up flanking for the rouge. She makes a good support caster, a decent blaster, and okay melee fighter, she can even do scouting if need be by selecting the right form.
So my point is this, I find that as a full caster with wildshape, a diverse spell list and the option of a pet or a domain (went with the eagle domain for evasion), a druid makes for a very versatile and powerful class that can be really fun to play.
What buffs can use the druid - nature fang for a fight with a weapon?
Caster druids are great, they're kind of a halfway point between a Wizard and a Cleric in terms of what they provide to the party.
Storm druids should be nice as caster druids, too. They get domain casting (can cast domain spells spontanously) and get a second domain later on.
Excellent caster class. If you dump physical stats, you'll still get piles of utility our of your wildshapes.
If you don't dump physicals, you can cast flaming spheres while eating something's face off.
Menhir Savant is a very strong subclass.
One of the coolest Druid concepts has to be a Storm Druid who spends all their time as a medium air elemental with a dex-to-damage scimitar and a focus on storm-themed spells.
I made a combat focused Nature Fang Druid with the Crocodile Domain (Protector familiar). VMC-ed with Cleric to get the Rage domain through Gorum and took the feat Ironbound Master to get Armor Training as a fighter. I never had to worry about maxing WIS because of the Studied Target boost to DCs.
The buffs a druid gets are incredible.
How do you think, it is possible to make great melee and caster out of urban druid, and that is for this purpose needed?
I used Druid to create an Aes Sedai caster character. Ancient Guardian archetype and the community (home) domain gives them warding and make it less nature based and more influencing. She was a great face + spells in particular protections and wards.
A lot of fun to play.
Druids can be pretty good spellcasters, especially with wild speech, natural spell, and wild shape form that buffs them and takes advantage of the environment.