So I'm looking to create an optimal Druid (probably Menhir Savant) build. Help would be greatly appreciated.
Race is already set on Dhampir (Nosferatu heritage), so this can't be changed. Please give a overview with the best LV. 1-20 feats and traits. I'd love an animal companion but if you think that messes up a lot in the build you're gonna suggest, feel free to suggest a domain instead. Was hoping to get a good balance between casting and fighting in wildshape. I already know level 5 feat is gonna be Natural Spell. :p
Thanks in advance for any helpful comments!
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First thing first, what kind of druid do you want to build? I know you said Menhir Savant and Nosferatu heritage Dhampir, but that still leaves a lot of options open. With a bonus to strength and wisdom, both a caster focused and wild shape focused druid are possible. And both can use either a domain or animal companion effectively. So do you want a blaster caster? Crowd Control? Maneuver based wild shape? Or do you just want to focus on pouncing with a large number of natural attacks, or even vital striking for a large amount of damage dice?
A druid can do all of these pretty well, but the more you focus on one or two roles, the better you're going to be.
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Honestly? Shoot for the 3.5 Druid. It has the same power imbalance: wild shape uses the animal form's base physical stats, allowing you to spike Wisdom. (Keep at least 13 natural Strength for Power Attack). Get the 3.5 Summon Nature's Ally list with the widar variety of magical summons. Get the usual Summon feats (Augment, Superior) and of course your animal companion is a pouncing dire tiger or something like that.
With the PF druid, your stats will be stretched too thin to cast like a boss AND hold your own in wild shape. I'm not up to snuff on archetypes for this class (Except for the one that grants a quartet of Eidolons ♡) so my general advice is to focus on casting, using Summons and a buffed up Large Cat to shred things to bits. Abuse Share Spells whenever you can,nd don't be afraid to flood the board with meat walls when it suits you.
Just make sure you have premade Augmented stat cards of your favorite summons. Otherwise each fight will take HOURS.
First thing first, what kind of druid do you want to build? I know you said Menhir Savant and Nosferatu heritage Dhampir, but that still leaves a lot of options open. With a bonus to strength and wisdom, both a caster focused and wild shape focused druid are possible. And both can use either a domain or animal companion effectively. So do you want a blaster caster? Crowd Control? Maneuver based wild shape? Or do you just want to focus on pouncing with a large number of natural attacks, or even vital striking for a large amount of damage dice?
A druid can do all of these pretty well, but the more you focus on one or two roles, the better you're going to be.
Hm, if I can choose to combine any of two above, I'd say my preferences lay with Blaster Caster and Maneuver wild shape. After racials I've got a STR of 19 and a WIS of 18. Stats I rolled were a stunning 17-16-16-15-11-10. If possible I'd really love an animal companion with the "Vampiric Companion" as 1evel 11 feat. Perhaps the animal can focus on maneuvers and me on damage or the other way around.
How strong do your fellow players build? Druid is one of the strongest classes already, and optimizing it can result in a character which messes up a table. Especially with the rolled stats. If the druid overshadows the martial's damage output, the arcane caster's battlefield control and the skill monkey's flexibility, your fellow players might end up frustrated fast. And this can mean a soon end to the campaign.
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Well, blasting and maneuvers aren't really the best combination, since both require a fair amount of investment to be great at. And blasting tends to favor domains, while maneuvers generally work better with a flank partner. But that being said, with stats like you rolled, you can probably do fairly well at both.
A key thing you're going to have to remember is that you're going to be fairly feat starved, considering you're likely going to need natural spell, and with vampiric companion, you're down to 8 feats. So you're going to need to divide your 8 feats between blasting and maneuvers.
One of the best feats for a maneuver druid is celestial obedience:Falayna, it's +4 to grapple, but requires you to be within one step of Lawful Good to worship Falayna. Combining it and powerful shape will do a lot for your maneuvers. And I'd also suggest a 1 level dip into monk at some point for the wisdom to AC and CMD, along with the chance to take improved grapple.
As for the blasting, you probably want the usual, spell focus, spell penetration + greater, things like dazing spell, persistent spell, possibly rime spell. Basically pick your favorite meta-magic feats, and apply as needed.
But personally I'd suggest maybe to focus on crowd control and maneuvers, or blasting exclusively. You'll get a lot better returns for your investment.
Maneuver Master Monk is a very potent one-level dip, since you get a free maneuver on a full attack.
If straight damage works for you, using Wildshape to turn into a humanoid elemental opens up things like using a weapon (just drop when shaping) or using unarmed strikes. An earth elemental form with one level of Unchained Monk smashing away with a Dragon Style/Ferocity flurry full attack leaves smoking craters, and it can also carry a longspear for making standard reach attacks and AoOs.
How strong do your fellow players build? Druid is one of the strongest classes already, and optimizing it can result in a character which messes up a table. Especially with the rolled stats. If the druid overshadows the martial's damage output, the arcane caster's battlefield control and the skill monkey's flexibility, your fellow players might end up frustrated fast. And this can mean a soon end to the campaign.
Well, we DO have a fully optimized Synthesist Summoner and a Investigator/Inspired Blade, so I'm definetely not gonna jump out anytime soon. :p
Well, blasting and maneuvers aren't really the best combination, since both require a fair amount of investment to be great at. And blasting tends to favor domains, while maneuvers generally work better with a flank partner. But that being said, with stats like you rolled, you can probably do fairly well at both.
A key thing you're going to have to remember is that you're going to be fairly feat starved, considering you're likely going to need natural spell, and with vampiric companion, you're down to 8 feats. So you're going to need to divide your 8 feats between blasting and maneuvers.
One of the best feats for a maneuver druid is celestial obedience:Falayna, it's +4 to grapple, but requires you to be within one step of Lawful Good to worship Falayna. Combining it and powerful shape will do a lot for your maneuvers. And I'd also suggest a 1 level dip into monk at some point for the wisdom to AC and CMD, along with the chance to take improved grapple.
As for the blasting, you probably want the usual, spell focus, spell penetration + greater, things like dazing spell, persistent spell, possibly rime spell. Basically pick your favorite meta-magic feats, and apply as needed.But personally I'd suggest maybe to focus on crowd control and maneuvers, or blasting exclusively. You'll get a lot better returns for your investment.
Allright, had an another awesome idea this evening! Truly hope you can help me out here. I'm picturing riding an undead animal companion (not set yet, probably Tiger or Roc) into battle while swinging around a scythe and casting awesome spells from my mount's back. Using Wildshape as backup for when my mount is unavailable like indoors, or in dungeons. So Mounted Combat will probably be my level 1 feat, Natural Spell level 5 and Vampiric Companion level 11. What else would u suggest? Combat casting for when I'm in melee with my mounts perhaps? Or not? Thanks in advance!
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Consider looking at getting the Scythe with the Sizing enchant and wild shaping into an Earth Elemental at level 6 to both wield scythe and ride AC. At 8th you can be medium and go to it from there.
Focus on spells that either Crowd Control, Summon or buff yourself and AC. Don't be afraid to mix and match some blasts in just for the occasional swarm/heavy minion fight even if you don't specialize in it.
Have fun casting nauseating trail on your AC and running around the battle field to create shapeable areas of stinking clouds.
Bump.
So got this so far:
1. Mounted Combat (dodge the few attacks that would get through Roc's incredible AC)
3. ???
5. Natural Spell (obvious pick)
7. Planar Wildshape (so good)
9. Vital Strike (since attack after riding an animal companion can only be standard attack + adds some damage on most wild shapes
11. Vampiric Companion (yes)
13. Metamagic?
15. Metamagic?
17. Metamagic?
19. Metamagic?
Metamagic: if you're a caster, awesome. If you're going to Melee, maybe only 1 or 2. Instead, perhaps some Figher feats, like weapon focus or improved initiative? Maybe the "Improved Summon" chain?
Personally, I'd keep 13-19 free until you figure out your specialty, and fill in 3 to fill a gap you find during your first two levels.
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So, just going to point out that as a character that can easily be large or huge, riding your animal companion won't be as useful as it would be for a ranger or cavalier. In fact, between earth and air elemental, you're likely more mobile while wild shaped than riding an AC, even a flying AC. Mounted Skirmisher would be the only reason to ride the mount, which requires 14 ranks of the ride skill, so would likely be your 15th level feat. You'd be much better served with a flanking partner the majority of the time. My suggestion would be to start with a level of monk, then go with a grapple build druid, combining it with a tripping wolf companion. Something like this:
1 Toughness (you have -2 con after all), Improved grapple (monk bonus feat)
3 Power Attack
5 Natural Spell
7 Planar Wild Shape
9 Celestial Obedience:Falayna,
11 Vampiric Companion
13 Powerful Shape
15 Vital Strike
17 Improved Vital Strike
19 Greater grapple
Then have the wolf take:
1 Toughness
2 Weapon Focus:Bite
5 (after upgrading to 3 Int)Dirty Fighting
8 Improved Trip
10 Greater Trip
13 Fury's Fall
16 ...anything really, at this point
18
There's a couple things that you can swap out for, like outflank on both, or multiattack on the druid. Quicken SLA is great if you're allowed to take it with the divine favor SLA you get from celestial obedience. Vital Strike isn't overly necessary, considering you can often have a 15 foot reach, and spells for when you're out of reach, so you can easily swap those out for other feats. I know there aren't any blasting feats on here, but frankly, you should need them, between tripping and grappling you shouldn't need things like rime spell, or dazing spell, you'll be doing enough on the control front. You might be missing out on spell penetration and the like, but when your spells don't work, your fists should.