Looking for some help with a Druid build for a campaign that will have a large outdoor component with significant underground and underwater elements. Also, Aberrations will will be a reoccurring enemy throughout the campaign and I hope this adventure will continue to level 15.
I want to be a caster that can do some blasts and control the battlefield but that can also skirmish in Melee. (Note: I do not want a pet or to focus on summoning. Also want to keep wildshape) Additionally, I don't know the make up of the rest of the party.
I am looking at the Menhir Savant or Storm Druid archetypes with core races. I prefer not to dip or multi class but am willing to listen.
Here are the have the stats (before racial) S:17 | D:14 | C: 17 | I:10 | W:18 | C:11
I was thinking about going with the spring attack chain but I am not sure if this is a good idea. Any advice on builds, feats, race, domains, traits, or spells would be appreciated. (Or anything else)
Thanks,
Controlling the battlefield comes naturally to druids. You don't necessarily need to spend any resources other than spell slots, though Persistent Spell may help.
Blasting requires a little more to be useful. The Menhir Savant archetype does help a little and if you take the Acolyte of Apocrypha trait the Lightning subdomain will help more. By RAW the Storm Druid can't take that subdomain but you might be able to talk your GM into it. The Tempest Druid could work with a similar arm-twisting too. A couple of feats in Spell Focus, Spell Penetration or related feats would be a good idea.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'skirmish'. Does it mean hit and run, or just that you will only engage in melee occasionally? If the first then Flyby Attack is easier to reach than Spring Attack as a druid. You might invest in grappling to snatch a victim and carry them off, or else Vital Strike & followup feats. If the second then Power Attack for extra damage and maybe Panther Style or Snake Style for defence.
A single level of Monk or Barbarian can have absolutely enormous combat benefits for a Druid. Losing one Druid level still leaves you with Oracle spell level progression, so it hardly ruins spellcasting ability. It's not necessary power-wise, but those dips should be seriously considered for a Druid who wants melee combat ability.
I very much like Elemental shaping Druids, as they can shape into humanoid forms and speak; this means they have an easier time casting spells and can wield weapons (since they can speak and manipulate objects in elemental form, they can just be elementals for hours at a time - and they can just drop their weapon while shaping and pick it back up again). Storm Druid works really well conceptually with elemental forms.
It's possible to have concepts like an Urban Barbarian 1/ Storm Druid who uses a scimitar with Dervish Dance and Controlled Rage and Wildshapes into an air elemental (massive DEX bonuses for combat), or an Unchained Monk 1/ Ancient Guardian Druid who adds WIS to AC and who shapes into earth elemental form to use Dragon Ferocity with huge stone 'fists'.
With your fantastic stats, you could really go either way (spell casting / combat). I suggest you bump up your wis to a reasonable 20 (give or take) and focus strength. You could go the vital strike route (rhino/behemoth hippo, VS and eventually IVS, strong jaw and win) or the pouncer master with dire tigers. Anyway take the animal companion ( tiger all day). For the VS route you might wanna grab the cave Druid archetype for 7d8 slam.
PD
Whoops just realized you want casting and no AC's. well then, get your wis as high as possible and go with a few meta magics, natural spell and vital strikes, as your ״to hit" won't be very high. I recommend on a single level dip in monk for a bajillion extra ac.
M'two vents.
PD
There are also a couple of Druid domain options like Arctic that offer a modified form of Channel Energy; this allows a Druid to take things like Guided Hand. A Guided Hand Druid/Monk1 could stack a primary WIS score and pick up Crusader's Flurry. So you could potentially have a WIS-based Druid/Monk1 using an elemental form and using Unchained Monk Flurry of Blows with a scythe (lawful neutral, worship Magdh, the Eldest goddess of fate). WIS-based means huge AC from Monk, and scythe flurry is pretty dangerous (and really badass).
I'm not a very experienced player, but I would go Feral Hunter.
A single level dip into Ranger for the Favored Enemy class feature (plus Wildshape from Druid) qualifies you for the feat Shapeshifting Hunter. Your Druid levels now stack with that single level in Ranger for the purposes of determining your Favored Enemy bonuses (aberrations of course, plus others over time), and Ranger stacks with Druid to determine Wildshape times per day (nice, but overshadowed by the FE bonus). A Wildshaped giant octopus that realllly hates aberrations....and other shenanigans.
The obvious race to me seems to be an Oread, you don't really need to do much to be good at melee as a Druid in a water campaign, you turn into a giant octopus and take multiattack and you're pretty much done, you can't dive in and out of combat but you can attack from 20ft away.
For control you just use the spell list and pump wis and you're pretty much there, spells like entangle, thorny entanglement work on land, control water in the water.
So with that said you have two feats Spent (natural spell and multiattack) which leaves you with enough room for a Blast build, picking the typical things, Mage tattoo, spell pen, spell focus, 3 metas and spell perfection. Might I suggest ball lightning as the spell of choice :)
Wow a lot of good stuff to digest. But it leads me to a couple of more questions.
1. I did not know Player characters could take fly-by-attack or multiattack. Where does it say this, I though only monsters could take these feats?
2. Yes by skirmishing I meant hit and run tactics or ways to mitigate opponents from hitting me. Things or tactics that reduce the opponents hit chance. Any ideas in this direction? (like using the various fog/mist spells which give concealment or like arcane casters can grab mirror image or displacement).
Also, you've given me a couple of multi-class options to consider. Thank for all the great advice!
Going Elven Druid Favored Class Bonus + DEX-based fighting + air elemental form + Urban Barbarian or Bloodrager can stack up some pretty absurd AC.
I've been wanting to try creating a possibly non-shaping Eagle Shaman Druid for a while, since Eagle Shaman gets to use Divine Favor (Nobility Domain) and has a polymorph power for easy flight plus Flyby Attack. Instead of turning into a giant bird, it would be a Druid flying around with polymorph wings, wielding a sword with Divine Favor and aerial tactics.
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If you are willing to focus on natural attacks only, you can consider the following (rough outline) build.
4 levels of Druid - For Wildshape. You will use a the feat Shaping Focus to count yourself as 4 levels higher for wildshape and a Druid's Vestment to up your number of wildshape.
2 levels of barbarian - For the Fiend Totem, Lesser (Su) rage power, which will grant you Horns, an additional natural attack.
2 levels of monk (monk of many styles) - Pick up dragon style and its path for more damage and DT avoidance. Also more feats
Feral Combat Training - Get this feat to use Dragon style with your claw attacks.
2 levels of fighter - More feats. You will need it.
This is just a very rough outline. Its been too long since I saw this build in action, but its a very powerful wildshape focused build.
If you do this properly, you can wild shape into a large-Huge creature that can pounce and do a ton of damage each round.
Your Str will be way up thanks to wildshape + rage.
Most things will die with 1 charge from you.
You are a god among insects.* Never let anyone tell you different.
*if you take Vermin Heart, anyway
our dm says earth elemental cant use weapons. they use slams and lack usable hands. cant find any "proof" of otherwise
Expect table variance. There isn't any definitive answer on this one.
our dm says earth elemental cant use weapons. they use slams and lack usable hands. cant find any "proof" of otherwise
It is possible for elementals to have humanoid form to the point that they can wear armor and use weapons and shields (as evidenced in the Beastiaries and the Creature Types listing). Nothing in Elemental Body suggests a player may not assume such a humanoid form.
Also, a player using Elemental Body does not become a true elemental; they simply take on some aspects of the form of an elemental. A character using Elemental Body II to take air elemental form isn't even immune to bleeding, and they can certainly be damaged by a mundane weapon. Therefore, any type of elemental form character clearly still has the substance to wield a weapon.
