Need to make sure i'm doing this right (Druid)

[Abra_Volta]

We recently made level 6 for our characters.

I am currently playing a Half-Orc Bear Shaman (Druid with Animal Shaman type).

I have avoided most of the druid stuff because my stat block and animal companion have made me a pretty decent tank at these low levels.

But now i'm ready to try and unleash the full power of the druid class.

I just need to figure out how...

Since I am a level 6 druid, that means I can Wild Shape as a Small/Med and Large/Tiny animal or small elemental. But since I have the Animal Shaman it says I can Wild Shape into my totem animal (Bear) as my level +2 and the rest of my Wild Shape as -2.

So..that means I can Wild Shape into a Huge Dire Bear (Like level 8 Wild Shape) and anything else I choose is just Small/Med (like level 4 Wild Shape)?

Also...regarding Summon Nature's Ally.
I'll mostly only be summoning bears so that means I have nothing available right? I can I apply the Young template t make the Grizzly Bear summonable with my level 3 spell?

[Matthew Downie]

As a level 6 bear shaman you can wild shape once a day into a small or medium animal - the same wild shaping ability as a level 4 Druid - but not into an elemental yet. Or you can wild shape into bears as a level 8 Druid. This means you can do it three times in a day, and you could wildshape into a huge bear if huge bears existed. Unfortunately, normal bears aren't huge, so playing by the rules as intended, you can really only use that ability to turn into Large bears. (The rules are confusing here but they say "Polymorph spells cannot be used to assume the form of a creature with a template" and huge bears only exist by applying the "giant template" to regular bears.)

Not sure what you mean by "I have nothing available"... You can summon a young grizzly bear with your level 3 spell (and do it as a Standard Action, unlike a normal summoning). When you get level 4 spells, you can use them to summon 1d3 small grizzlies, which is on average better than one big one.

[Abra_Volta]

Dang...i knew it seemed too good. But now that you've said it that way I can understand it. I can't change into Huge versions of animals...but only Huge Animals.

For Summons...is it generally better to get one animal from the level 3 list (crocodile or leopard) or 1d3 from the level 2 list or 1d4+1 from the level one list (eagles...6 to 15 attacks per round seems cool).

[Matthew Downie]

It varies - multiple low level creatures generally have trouble hitting the Armor Class of higher level opponents. Also, they tend to annoy the rest of the group by taking up too much time. But it's good for providing battlefield control and flanking.

In the case of the Young Grizzly, it's generally better than other creatures of the same summoning level - good AC, hit points and attack bonuses - plus they appear immediately instead of next round. So summoning them is usually the best option until you get to a much higher level.