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A few options:
- Barkskin
- Barding for your favourite form (though transporting this can be tricky)
- Wild armour eventually
- Change into an elemental they get a higher AC bonus
- Crane Style (ok option for casters. Accuracy hit is bad in melee)
- Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone (+2 to CMB/D in a wayfinder)
- Snake Skin Tunic
- Mage armour (potion wand)
In our Serpents Skull campaign my Sorcerer routinely casts Mage Armour on our Druid.
If you don't have a friendly caster, then the options Grandlounge sets out.
or just wear armor. you have hours/level, you can last pretty much all day at level 6 (2 sets of 6 hours),and why would you want to be anything other than a tiger, or preferred pouncer of your choice?
sure, you can't turn into an eagle with out some logistics.... but ac comes up much more often.
A second character couldn't carry an amulet of natural armor (higher than the animal's natural armor), and tie it on the druid once he changes?
Might take a round.
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i was thinking to have a single level in monk (maybe unchained) to add wisdom to ac...but i would avoid to lose even a single caster level...could it be possible to add wisdom in other ways (feats, traits or so on)?
thanks in advance
Nice thought, but it also means you can't wear armor. Although your armor does not provide it's bonus when you wildshape, you are still considered to be wearing armor and take any penalties (like ACP).
In any case, the Wild enchantment for armor has always been my mainstay. Expensive, but get it as soon as you are able.
My Tiger Shaman had Red Dragonhide Breastplate +3 Wild armor... gave him +8 to his AC. Costs 36,400 gp though! Even a +1 version gets you +6 Ac, and only costs 16,400 gp.
Barkskin, Cat's Grace, Reduce Animal, Greater Magic Fang & fight defensively, Foresight.
Can qingong monks get Mage Armor at 1st level? Wis to AC + 4 might be worth a dip...
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I wouldn't multi-class into monk. You can wildshape into a medium creature 1/day at Level 4, but that's not too great. You can wildshape into a Large creature at Level 6 (and you get pounce if your animal form has it normally), that's where you start to get good. Multi-classing into Monk delays your progression.
What I did was just wear the best armor I could get until I had enough money to get the Wild enchantment, and I didn't bother wildshaping for combat purposes until Level 6 or later.
If you want to multi-class, take one level of Ranger and the Shapeshifting Hunter feat. It lets you stack Shapeshifting times per day with Ranger Favored Enemy progression. I took the Ranger level at L7, and the feat at L9. You still lose the wildshaping size/creature progression (just not the number of times per day), and spellcasting progression, but if you know what kind of enemies you'll be fighting, the Favored enemy bonus is aewsome!
I guess it comes down to if you want to be a warrior with some spells, or a spellcaster that can fight. Both can be fun.
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A one level dip puts you decently in between. I have a druid with one level of UnMonk. I still managed to start with 16str and 19 Wis after racials.
Some nice things. Your damage is decent with rime frostbite. You save spells because you can do damage once your done casting. Your stunning fist DC is good. Good ac, cmd, and fort and wisdom save.
Bad half the time being one spell level.
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I have played a number of druid/monk in Pathfinder Society as well as straight druids. The loss of a level hurts, but puts you more in line with Sorc/Psychics for casting so its not quite as bad. You will definitely miss out in those odd levels when you wish you had the next level of spells but your options for higher saves, AC and options can offset this.
Druids tend to have two build types, caster or melee. For the caster, the level loss is a big blow. For the melee not so much, since for the most part you will be dropping buff spell(s) and moving to melee.
Frostbite, Produce Flame, Vinestrike, Barkskin, Magic Fang and Greater, Freedom of Movement, Echolocation, Resist Energy all work very well. Life bubble is another great one. You can always grab Magical Knack if you don't want to lose the caster level and/or go Menhir Savant to push it up another 1. At 8th level my Druid 7/UnMonk 1 can drop an extended (rod) +4 barkskin for 3 hours.
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It is worth mentioning anointing oil at this point. +1 cl for harmless spells it can mean +1ac or attack and damage with things like barkskin and magic fang, greater at the right levels.
A second spell I would mention is resinous skin dr5 piercing and the ability to "disarm" once you have been attacked. Being a earth elemental that by the end of the fight is covered in daggers is really fun.
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Half orc FCB also provides the 1/3 nat AC bonus
i was thinking to have a single level in monk (maybe unchained) to add wisdom to ac...but i would avoid to lose even a single caster level...could it be possible to add wisdom in other ways (feats, traits or so on)?
thanks in advanceNice thought, but it also means you can't wear armor. Although your armor does not provide it's bonus when you wildshape, you are still considered to be wearing armor and take any penalties (like ACP).
In any case, the Wild enchantment for armor has always been my mainstay. Expensive, but get it as soon as you are able.
My Tiger Shaman had Red Dragonhide Breastplate +3 Wild armor... gave him +8 to his AC. Costs 36,400 gp though! Even a +1 version gets you +6 Ac, and only costs 16,400 gp.
And lest I forget, he also had a +1 Heavy Darkwood shield Wild. You can use the Wild enchantment on Shields too!Why would we stop at heavy shield and breastplate, when Stoneplate and Tower Shields exist? Why make it a Darkswood shield at all?
Thanks, I was wondering the same thing!
Some characters have dex.
So does mine, especially in air elemental form.
Fortunately wild armor doesn't have max Dex to AC limiters, or acp, while wild shaped.
That's not what the pathfinder design team said about the faq.
Care to quote source? Last time I checked that was the ruling, if it's changed I'd love to know.
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Here is how the ruling goes.
When wearing melded armor and shields, if you gain no benefit from the melded armor, you still count as wearing an armor of that type, but you do not suffer its armor check penalty, movement speed reduction, or arcane spell failure chance.
If you don't gain benefits you count as wearing the armor of that type (bolded text) but get to ignore armor check penalty, movement speed reduction and only these, thus max dex still applies.
If you get a benefit from the armor you get all your ignored penalties back.
If you do gain any benefits (as with the wild property), then you do suffer the armor check penalty, movement speed reduction, and arcane spell failure chance.
Alright thanks, I only had the first quote that I had misread, I'll modify my stats accordingly for when I'm wild shaped.
Eh it just makes it balanced :-)
In 3.5 I had an elf druid archer with a monk's belt that added Wisdom to AC. It was pretty sweet. Sorry to see they changed that rule for PF. But I guess it's understandable.
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i was thinking to have a single level in monk (maybe unchained) to add wisdom to ac...but i would avoid to lose even a single caster level...could it be possible to add wisdom in other ways (feats, traits or so on)?
thanks in advanceNice thought, but it also means you can't wear armor. Although your armor does not provide it's bonus when you wildshape, you are still considered to be wearing armor and take any penalties (like ACP).
In any case, the Wild enchantment for armor has always been my mainstay. Expensive, but get it as soon as you are able.
My Tiger Shaman had Red Dragonhide Breastplate +3 Wild armor... gave him +8 to his AC. Costs 36,400 gp though! Even a +1 version gets you +6 Ac, and only costs 16,400 gp.
And lest I forget, he also had a +1 Heavy Darkwood shield Wild. You can use the Wild enchantment on Shields too!Why would we stop at heavy shield and breastplate, when Stoneplate and Tower Shields exist? Why make it a Darkswood shield at all?
I was wondering why I hadn't responded, then I realized this thread and my posts were from March of last year!
In any case:
1. Druids do NOT have heavy armor proficiency and my Druid is feat starved, so dropping a feat on Heavy Armor proficiency is a no go. I do multi-class one level of Ranger, but Ranger doesn't get Heavy Armor either.
2. As for a Tower shield, see #1.
3. As cleared up by others, the ACP and Max Dex penalties apply, which are more severe with Heavy Armor. Also, this explains the Darkwood shield as it has a lower ACP.
My Druid was built to be good at Fighting, Spell-casting and Summoning.
He was a Tiger Shaman, so could do standard action summons AND could mess around with the summoned creatures since they can apply certain templates.
He had near full Druid casting, lost one level for Ranger, but he had Natural Spell, so could cast when wildshaped. Also had magical knack to help offset the caster level hit.
He was awesome in combat in Tiger form, had full Ranger favorite enemy from multi-classing and the Shapeshifting Hunter feat.
At higher levels he literally spent all day as a Tiger. The biggest problem was communication as I couldn't get Wild Speech until Level 13 (feat starved).
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In case anyone is confused. my Tiger Shaman was (as allowed by my GM) a "Lion Shaman", but I was allowed to swap "Lion" with "Tiger", so he was run as a "Tiger Shaman". But, I've played this build (fun each time) as a Bear Shaman and as a Saurian Shaman. I've also played it with an animal companion which is very powerful combat-wise, or with a Domain - both work depending on what you're looking for.
One downside is that the Animal Shaman gets a slightly delayed wildshape, so you're swinging a weapon until Level 6.
I was going to say mistmail, but that was nerfed at some point...
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Are you sure animal shamans gain Wildshape at 6th? It says:
At 6th level, a bear shaman’s wild shape ability functions at her druid level – 2. If she takes on the form of a bear, she instead uses her druid level + 2.
Regular Wildshape starts at 4th, and this is worded like a modification that applies to it starting at 6th...
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This was updated in the APG FAQ.
Druid, Animal Shamans: At what class level do these archetypes gain wild shape?
The animal shaman archetypes for the druid class do not gain wild shape until class level 6.
(The other druid archetypes in this book use clearer phrasing to explain that the character doesn't gain the ability until level 6, and the animal shamans should also use that language. Furthermore, the descriptions of the modified wild shape class ability should include "This ability replaces wild shape.")