Normal Druid or totem animal archetype?


Advice


Hello, i'm gonna create a new character and the druid catched my eye for their versatility at filling roles, i want to be able to tank some damage while dealing some myself so im focusing on the Wildshape aspect of the druid. However i saw that the Lion or Saurian shaman get some bonuses to wildshape even if they do get it at level 6 and the animals they can shape into are good for combat, are those bonuses worth it or should i just be a normal druid?

I'm also planning on being a Half-Orc for the bouns AC of the favored class to get more tankyness.

Silver Crusade

From a pure power perspective there are now more powerful archetypes than the various shamans. The most powerful Shaman (by far) is the Saurian Shaman since dinosaurs (as defined in Paizo) can fly, swim, tank, etc while "normal" animals can't.

The various shamans (EXCEPT Saurian) are about on par with a normal druid. You lose some, you gain some. Which is better depends on level.

But, for the vast majority of campaigns, druids are already QUITE powerful enough so going a less than totally optimal route will STILL leave you VERY effective (quite possibly the most powerful character at the table) so I'd pick a Shaman far more by "how cool it is to you" rather than by pure power.

Limiting your choices can actually be a very good thing in practice. You always (or nearly always) summon puddy tats you're going to become really good at using puddy tats in combat (hint, do it sparingly or you'll take 1/2 the table time).

If you want a straight wild shaping druid then a Feral Shifter can be a lot of fun. Less powerful than a straight druid but lots of fun


Druids are great! I agree with pauljathome their are better choices than the shaman archetypes. I recently played a Goliath Druid and it was fun (much different feel from a regular druid). Used weapons more than natural attacks.

Since most builds are strength based you don’t need may feats other than power attack, natural spell, and wild speech. Grab you toughness too if you have room.


Progenitor druids give fast healing to summons (yes please) and can cast spells for free with a chance of incurring a wild magic event. They can also turn into fey with wild shape, which gives you some unique abilities. Not too much more powerful than other druids (they lose a domain or animal companion to gain their primal bond), but very fun.

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