Switch Hitter Druid

[Khalid Zyrul]

A player wants a switch hitter. The party already has a ranger and I wouldn't want too much overlap. Is a switch hitter Nature Fang druid viable with scythe and bow

[DeathlessOne]

Depends what you mean by viable. But, yes, simply by being a full caster. It won't have the same attack bonus as the ranger (unbuffed) but it will get many of the same tricks (combat styles) that the Ranger gets.

[Nymor]

Nature fang has the advantage of get a bonus from Studied Target on his class abilities DCs, i guess it also applies to druid spells.
The ranged part of a Nature Fang druid could be his spells and not his bow to avoid some overlap with your ranger.

[Gray Warden]

A vanilla Druid wildshaped into a melee beast with Natural Spell, launching ranged spells when needed?

[Zolanoteph]

So when you say you wouldn't want much overlap, I have a bit of a negative gut reaction. When you talk about two barbarians or two wizards that's a bit repetative because they have such specific styles in combat, but a ranger can be so many things.

There's the combat advice/covering fire/share his favored enemy bonus approach, the classic archer, the switch hitter, the melee guy, the more magical ranger via witchguard or woodland skirmisher, the sneaky trapsetter, the guy with the powerful wolf,etc.

Although their magic will always be relatively weak, in every other way the ranger is a blank slate

ALTERNATIVELY, the Forrester archetype for hunter looks interesting. You loose the animal companion but gain combat feats which helps a switch hitter. The flavor is very ranger but he's more magical.

[VoodistMonk]

Is the bow-sword/bladed-longbow still a thing? Seems like just the right flavor for your switch hitter druid. Maybe be the big hands Teifling so the bladed-longbow is size large.