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I love animal companions. I love charisma casters and party faces. I love skill points.
So, when I saw the new Fey Speaker Druid Archetype, I got very excited. Especially since this archetype gets diplomacy and bluff as bonus skills!
If I make this character, it will likely be paired with a woodsy legacy aasimar holy guide paladin of Erastil that my boyfriend Bret created before I joined PFS. Since Bret always plays with me, he hasn't gotten to play this character for a long time.
--> This is for PFS. <---
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How do I build this?
However, I have no idea how to build it. I understand that it's a prepared caster, and I haven't run very many of those. I've only done one cleric and that was a while ago. As for druids, this makes so many changes (wild shape later, no shifting into elementals, 1/2 BAB, light armor only, no spontaneous casting of Summon's Nature Ally) that the current druid guides won't prove helpful to me.
This will be a castery druid. With delayed wildshape and 1/2 BAB, it's not going into melee. With the addition of some enchantment or illusion spells from the sorc/wiz list, it feels like a prepared sorcerer to me, only using the druid list. So emphasize charisma as the caster stat, yes?
I am thinking of going with a ROC animal companion. I want to ride and fly. What do I do when the spells run out?
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The racial options I'm considering:
SMALL OPTIONS
Halfling -- So cute and light! I can go outrider and have bonuses to both ride and handle animal, and I'm light enough that I might even be able to ride my Roc without using anthaul spell.
Gnome -- A bonus to the DC of illusions, potential darkvision and a "fey" background to go with being a Feyspeaker. Plus, gnomes are somewhat mischievous troublemakers. Awesome.
MEDIUM OPTIONS --- requires a wand of ant haul and undersized mount to work
Aasimar -- I have an unused aasimar boon from GMing. I could see creating a furry agathion aasimar. The bonuses to handle animal and survival could be fun. Or doing a peri-blooded one and trading off the skill bonuses for double languages with linguistics and having weird flames coming off me in honor of the new elemental season. An aasimar to go with Bret's aasimar could be totally fun!
Human -- Cause I really like humans, and humans get "Eye for Talent."
Kitsune -- Fey flavor! My favorite race ever! Bonus to enchantment DCs!
Ifrit -- Because I've never done an ifrit. But only if I can come up with a really quirky background to explain the Roc and Nature focus. I'm not sure this one would fit for this concept, really.
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Spells:
Given that I'm not going into melee myself, what are the best druid spells to help the party for battlefield control? What are the best ones to put on my animal buddy? What do you recommend? I've never done anything with the druid list before!
Hmm
In case it matters, here is the Paladin that the druid would most likely be paired with.
Male aasimar paladin (holy guide) 4 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 107, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 7)
LG Medium outsider (native)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8
Aura courage (10 ft.)
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 36 (4d10+8)
Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +8
Immune disease, fear; Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk cold iron glaive +7 (1d10+3/×3) or
. . sap +6 (1d6+2 nonlethal) or
. . silver light mace +6 (1d6+2) or
. . spiked gauntlet +6 (1d4+2)
Ranged darkwood composite longbow +7 (1d8+2/×3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 15, 2d6), smite evil 2/day (+3 attack and AC, +4 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . 1/day—daylight
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . At will—detect evil
Paladin (Holy Guide) Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st—hero's defiance[APG]
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Statistics
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Str 15, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 18
Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes
Traits observant, patient optimist
Skills Diplomacy +10 (+12 to influence hostile or unfriendly creatures), Heal +5, Knowledge (geography) +4, Knowledge (religion) +7, Perception +8, Sense Motive +5, Survival +6; Racial Modifiers +2 Diplomacy, +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common
SQ favored terrain (forest +2), lay on hands 5/day (2d6)
Combat Gear cold iron arrows (40), cold iron arrows (10), oil of magic weapon, potion of cure light wounds (2), potion of feather step, potion of fly, silver arrows (40), silver arrows (10), wand of bless weapon (50 charges), wand of cure light wounds, acid (4), healer's kit, holy water (4), holy weapon balm[ACG], weapon blanch (adamantine)[APG]; Other Gear chain shirt, mithral agile breastplate[APG], arrows (20), blunt arrows[APG] (10), blunt arrows[APG] (10), darkwood composite longbow (+2 Str), mwk cold iron glaive, sap, silver light mace, spiked gauntlet, wayfinder[ISWG], bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, grappling arrow[UE], hot weather outfit[APG], masterwork backpack[APG], signal whistle, silk rope (50 ft.), trail rations (2), waterskin, wooden holy symbol of Erastil, 846 gp, 6 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Courage +4 (10 ft.) (Su) Allies in aura gain a morale bonus to saves vs. fear.
Blind-Fight Re-roll misses because of concealment, other benefits.
Combat Reflexes (3 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Detect Evil (At will) (Sp) You can use detect evil at will (as the spell).
Energy Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Energy Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Energy Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Favored Terrain (Forest +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls when in Favored Terrain (Forest).
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Immunity to Fear (Ex) You are immune to all fear effects.
Lay on Hands (2d6 hit points, 5/day) (Su) As a standard action (swift on self), touch channels positive energy and applies mercies.
Paladin Channel Positive Energy 2d6 (2/day, DC 15) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Smite Evil (2/day) (Su) +3 to hit, +4 to damage, +3 deflection bonus to AC when used.
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At six foot tall with copper hair and golden eyes, Sul tends to stand out in a crowd. He generally wears a simple shirt, wool breeches, a sturdy belt and sturdy boots. If the weather is bad, he will wear his cloak.
Animal Companion: I would give your Roc some combat gear and use it for when spells run out. Probably should get toughness and leather armor ASAP to help with the low Con. Keep Ride maxed for Mounted Combat and eventually so you can Fast Mount/Dismount.
Spell Longevity: Well, if you use control spells you can probably average 1/fight. With the Druid List in particular blasting can last an entire fight as well, with spells like flaming sphere and produce flame. Gozreh's Trident could be fun to mix things up in melee if you need to. That said, I would take the flare cantrip and buy a decent supply of Acid flasks to give something to do. Extra fun if you use it to perform air raids.
Race Selection: I would pick Gnome or Halfling for the ability to fly the Roc sooner. Get a Heavyload Belt or Muleback Cords for it though, so it isn't weighed down.
Spell Selection: The Druid list alone is one of the most varied lists in the game, and you get to expand it by adding various illusions. I normally make sure to have scrolls of lots and lots of these spells (faerie fire, obscuring mist, longstrider, barkskin, chill metal, lesser restoration, cure mod, wood shape, neutralize poison, etc).
Offensive Spells include control spells (Entangle, Stone Call, Soften Earth and Stone, Spike Growth, Spike Stones, Mad Monkeys, fog spells, Faerie Fire), Blasts (Produce Flame, Flaming Sphere, Aggressive Thundercloud, Snowball, Flurry of Snowballs, Gozreh's Trident, Flame Blade, Flame Strike, Fire Snake), Buff spells (Magic Fang, Bristle, Barkskin, Air Walk, Strongjaw, Animal Growth), and Save or Lose spells (Heat/Chill Metal, Calm Animals, Moonstruck, Baleful Polymorph). I usually prepare a wide variety of these for different situations.
For expanding your spell list, picking up Disguise Self and some of the Image spells can give more utility for urban scenarios, mirror image is a fantastic buff which you can even place on your animal companion, and you might consider getting invisibility. Or you might pass and rely on wildshape+stealth.
The Fey Spell lore feat would be a good choice, I think, since it expands your spell list even more and fits the flavor of your character pretty well.
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I have access to a very large selection of books for PFS, and undersized mount is a PFS legal feat. This is the first druid that interested me, since this is the first to actually be a charisma caster with diplomacy. I recognize it won't play with a normal druid's strengths, so I want to figure out what strengths I can play to and build towards those.
Hmm
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Um, don't? Every single trade this archetype makes is to your disadvantage.
Also, I believe it is forbidden for anyone of any size to ride medium mounts in PFS.
She loves her Charisma casters. She loves all the Charisma skills. That is the thing that caused her to become interested in this archetype.
The question isn't if it is as powerful as The Ultimate Druid (TM), it is how to best take advantage of this archetype.
Also, there are a lot of small characters riding medium mounts in PFS. I don't know where you got the idea that wasn't allowed.
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A dip in to fey blooded sorcerer to boost the DC of save or die enchantment spells. If you are a gnome you will also get a +1 to illusion spells. It puts you one level behind in casting but way a head for dcs. I think it also has nice story possibilities if you want. Started out with uncontrolable powers sought the refuge of nature to control them.
I would grab a ring of seven lovely colors. This is the type of wild shaping you will want small and dexterous. So you don't have to worry about the delay as much. Natural spell to go with it for sure.
Get umd as a class skill (trait) and max it. Now you can throw bless up or any other wand spell you want. This gives you things to do between actual spell casting. You will have sorcerer spells, umd and druid spells. You will be capable of casting a lot of support spells. Buy every useful partial wand on a chronicle sheet.
Carry 4 spell storing ioun stones with you. Put things like shield, gravity bow, mage armor etc. on them so your team mates can buff themselves.
Use you animal companion for dpr and protection at low levels. Take something good like a tiger you have a weaker archetype so dont feel bad about a strong AC.
Extended produce flame will get you through some lower level combat until things pick up at later levels.
Lock gaze is a decent low level compulsion spell. Maybe aphasia its newish but it alright.
Effortless Trickery is a great gnome feat that lets you exploit silent image to its max. I would get is and silent image. Before you enter a dangerous place you throw up a "for cloud". Tell your friends it's an illusion and let them save against it. You see the enemy they see a patch of fog. Then the arrows fly.
Hope some of these ideas will help.
It may be useful eastern mysteries traits or charming traits
and take Hideous Laughter spell and metamagic -))
Alright, this is what I would do if I made this kind of character:
I think being small is a huge advantage if you are sticking with a Roc animal companion. If weight is an issue, grab a wand of ant haul for 2pp. You'd be getting 2 hours of ant haul per charge.
I don't think I'd think about it as a prepared sorcerer. You don't get near as many spells and your flexibility is much better. I would focus on buff spells for your Roc and crowd control. You can do damage too, but I would only consider damage over time to get the most efficiency out of your spell slots.
Some Specific Druid Spells to Consider
1 - Charm Animal (combo with wild Mischief), Entangle (having a flying creature AND an archer makes this really nice to have), Longstrider, Magic Fang
2 - Aggressive Thundercloud, Barkskin (with Rod of Extend is so nice), Flaming Sphere, Resist Energy, Sickening Entanglement, Stone Call, Summon Swarm
3 - Call Lightning, Greater Longstrider (Rod of Extend), Greater Magic Fang (Rod of Extend), Communal Resist Energy, Spike Growth
4 - Greater Aggressive Thundercloud, Atavism, Ball Lightning, Grater Flaming Sphere, Ice Storm, River of Wind, Spike Stones, Strong Jaw, Volcanic Storm
5 - Animal Growth, Call Lightning Storm, Fickle Winds, Hungry Earth, Insect Plague, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire, Wall of Thorns
6 - Roaming Pit, Sirocco, Communal Stoneskin, Tar Pool, Wall of Stone
The basic combo here being stopping/slowing enemy movement and applying some sort of AoE DoT effect while your archer buddy takes pot shots. For more fun, when you can start wildshaping into a flying creature, the archer can mount your Roc for flight.
Fey Magic (Class Feature) Spells
Level 4 - Color Spray
Level 6 - Invisibility
Level 8 - Heroism
Level 10 - Greater Invisibility
Traits
Beast of the Society
Open
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 18
Alternate Racial Trait:
Fey Magic (Obsessive)
Feats
5 Natural Spell
7 Wild Speech
All other feats can go wherever you like, but based on your love for charisma based skills/talking, I think those feats should go there.
Other Feats you Might Like
Casual Illusionist (ARG)
Spell Focus (CRB)
Metamagic Feats (Various)
Effortless Trickery (Gnomes of Golarion)
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Thank you for all the feedback, guys. Fey spell lore looks great!
If we're talking about color spray as one of my spells, wouldn't it be coming in too late to be useful? I've been wondering if I should dip heavens oracle for colorspray relevancy, but there might be other spells to consider. I'm excited to see snowball on the druid spell list, too.
Hmm
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The archetype isn't the best. It isn't particularly good*. But it is still viable. Not getting elemental forms can hurt, but you still have most of the utility you had without them. Flight, Burrow Speeds+Tremorsense, Swim Speeds, and really fast land speeds are all features of animals which exist already. They aren't as strong in combat, but being small/tiny/diminutive, having extra senses, and having unique mobility is still incredible.
Spontaneous Summoning is a nice fallback, but unless you are really really bad at picking spells you don't need it much. At levels 1 and 2 its pretty bad, as it doesn't last long enough to justify skipping a turn. At level 3 it starts to get good, but you also start getting enough spells to last an entire day. If you pick spells that are useful enough to cast, then you should be fine without it. The druid spell list is a bit vulnerable at low levels, but there are still solid choices.
If I have a good understanding of society, it doesn't require too much power to succeed, but can rely heavily on the presense of diplomacy in a party. Unlike normal Druids, this one is actually good at it. Every trade does make you weaker than a normal druid, but not weak enough to no longer be worth your space at a table, and it can make you more useful in social scenarios.
If we're talking about color spray as one of my spells, wouldn't it be coming in too late to be useful? I've been wondering if I should dip heavens oracle for colorspray relevancy, but there might be other spells to consider. I'm excited to see snowball on the druid spell list, too.
Colorspray still can be useful for 1 round stun (free disarm and facilitates melee), but there are better picks. I would go with Silent Image personally, because of how flexible it is.
Further advice: I would recommend getting a good stealth. Combo with Wildshape and you become the best scout in the game. You have an incredible stealth bonus (size bonus+dex bonus+good stealth to start) and if you are seen, you look like a bird/bat/rat/mouse/etc so most won't look twice at you.
EDIT
To help refine things a little and save Hmm some time:
A Sylvan Sorcerer would do most of what the OP seems to want with a much better spell list.
She already has one in PFS, hehe. I believe she also has an oradin, a Psychic Searcher oracle, a Duettist bard, a Watersinger bard, a Mysterious Avenger swashbuckler, and a bloodrager/bard - to give you an idea of what sorts of characters she enjoys. Hopefully that will help refine suggestions for a Feyspeaker a little more :)
*edit*
If it's the only druid that excites you maybe you shouldn't play a druid.
I'm going to gently disagree with this. If anything, I feel that PFS is a good venue to experiment with character options and ideas that you might not have a chance to try otherwise. Depending on the nature of home games and non-PFS PbP, you may not get the chance to try everything you'd like to try. Worst case scenario with a PFS character is that you find the build/class doesn't suit you and you opt to play other characters instead.
This isn't meant to rag on or disparage the advice you've posted, by the way. I can't speak for Hmm on this but I do generally find that most people appreciate having other options pointed out ala, "If this is what you're wanting to do, these other concepts might do it better for you so check them out too!" :)
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Other things. I would invest in meta magic heavily. Persistent and heighten will be your friends.
Druids have a lot of spells that stick around, thunder storm spells and ball/orb/sphere spells which all benefit from persistent.
Heighten is generally a weak meta magic feat but when you have limited spells. The best option for a spell to be cast may be one of your lower level spells but you may want the highest dc available to you that is where heighten comes in.
Maybe you want to have one entangle preped. But you don't want to use a higher level spell slot on the thorny version. Prep a regular entangle and if the fight is tough heighten it.
By the way, it would be possible to look at Fey Trickster (Mesmerist Archetype)...
Um, don't? Every single trade this archetype makes is to your disadvantage.
Also, I believe it is forbidden for anyone of any size to ride medium mounts in PFS.
She loves her Charisma casters. She loves all the Charisma skills. That is the thing that caused her to become interested in this archetype.
The question isn't if it is as powerful as The Ultimate Druid (TM), it is how to best take advantage of this archetype.
Also, there are a lot of small characters riding medium mounts in PFS. I don't know where you got the idea that wasn't allowed.
Your right, that's what matters most and I can see the appeal but even I can't help cringe at how badly put together this archtype is.
"here's a character you may like to play, now suffer for it"
Going down the enchantment side as the topic creator likes Kitsune may not be so bad, enhantments are heavily dependent on save DC's so don't suffer as badly from being bumped up a level, people even intentionally do that with heighten.
I doubt this is at all the kind of thing you are thinking of, but if I was looking at trying to make Feyspeaker work within PFS levels, I would consider shifting the basic assets of the archetype into something like Fighter 1/ Feyspeaker 4/ Divine Scion. Divine Scion of one of the Eldest gods would be pretty thematic, and you can eventually get 3/day Divine Favor to wield a scythe or rapier fairly well.
I have access to a very large selection of books for PFS, and undersized mount is a PFS legal feat.
Just remember that undersized mount doesn't make YOU any less of a burden to your mount. Your weight and that of all your gear will factor into it's encumbrance, which will very likely slow it down considerably.
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I guess it does not matter. This character is just not gelling for me. I can't get a handle on a story or a personality, which means that the mechanics don't matter. I'm blocked on this character where it matters -- the personality.
I wanted it for a playing of the Confirmation, but if I cannot figure out its personality, maybe I shouldn't be playing it...
Maybe I should just get out a pregen and leave it a blob unless someone can help me get a quirk to build an interesting personality from? I've never been so blocked on a character concept before...
It really depends on what you're looking to get out of Feyspeaker. Worshipping the Eldest goddess Magdh, who is basically a Fey Fate/Luck diety, would be a really interesting foundation for a character - particularly one with Fey leanings. What would an avatar of a Fey deity of Fate be like?
Since this thread got me stewing on how to use Feyspeaker in an interesting way...
The Shining Blade of Magdh
"This striking scion of fey powers is draped in strings of rune-marked black stone, and carries high a great scythe that shines unbearably bright with fierce magic..."
Fighter 1/ Feyspeaker Druid 6/ Divine Scion 4
Dual Talent Human: 16/18STR, 10DEX, 14CON, 9INT, 7WIS, 16/18CHA
Traits: Magical Lineage: Dazzling Blade, Fate's Favored
1F. Weapon Focus: Scythe / Iron Will
2FS. (Animal Companion)
3FS. Boon Companion
4FS.
5FS. Power Attack / (Learn Dazzling Blade)
6DS.
7DS. Persistent Spell
8DS. (Divine Favor 3/day, +2 Reflex)
9DS. Greater Weapon Focus: Scythe
10FS.
11FS. Weapon Specialization: Scythe / (Learn Heroism)
Casts assorted Druid spells, and uses Dazzling Blade / Persistent Dazzling Blade to blind targets for easy flanking and striking. Wears stoneplate (with Longstrider for movement 25).