| Kiba Kurokage |
So, unlike a few of my other posts where I have a good idea for build already in mind, In this case, I just have a theme, and would like to hear some feedback about it. It's mostly for flavor, but I don't want to be a drag on a team that I'm put in.
The idea is of course a Wolf McWerewolf druid, just throwing as much into that theme as possible for fun. I've outlined my few ideas below, but please, let me know if I missed anything, or if there is anything in particular you like or dislike and why. Thank you!
-Race: Starting off a skinwalker (witchwolf) to set the theme.
Most DM's will approve of this race, so you should be able to just do this and default druid as a baseline.
-Class: Druid
This fits into the theme of a natural hunter/one in touch with nature etc, and sets up for wolf animal companions, wildshape into wolves, and is a decent class all around whether you choose to be offensive or support or utility. The problem then comes into default vs archetypes.
-Moon caller &? Pack lord
Moon caller replaces woodland stride(moving through non-magical undergrowth with no penalty) with a vision upgrade in this order. Lowlight -> Darkvision 30ft -> Darkvision +30ft.
Replaces the +4 vs Spell like and Supernatural fey abilities and plant spells, with a +4 on confusion, daze, feeblemind, and insanity, and Extraordinary(?) spell like, and supernatural abilities of shapechangers.
Replaces immunity to poison with immunity to disease.
And replaces At will alter self with scaling DR/Silver
Pack lord can stack with it, and gives another bonus to wild empathy on top the usual for their animal companion, must select an animal companion, and the ability to take multiple companions, splitting up their animal companion levels between them.
And an Improved Empathic link with ALL the animal companions, like a link with a familiar. At the cost of 1 daily use of wildshape(gained at 6th level)
Otherwise, there's Wolf Totem Druid.
You must select wolf is you choose animal companion, or Animal, community, liberation, or travel for your domain.
You can use wild empathy with a +4 as a full round action with canines(normally minutes long)
Additionally, You gain an aspect while in 'normal form' choosing between +20ft enhancement to move speed, Low light/scent/+4 to track by scent, or Bite(1d4 +trip) with +2 CMb to trip. It starts as a standard and upgrades to a swift as you level, and you can do so for minutes per druid level, taken in 1-minute intervals.
Your Summon nature's ally to summon canines is a standard action, and they gain temp HP equal to your druid level. And you can apply the young template to decrease their summoning level, or increase it by 1 to apply either advanced or giant template, or 2 for both. This replaces the at will alter self.
Your wildshape unfortunately functions at -2 druid levels for anything but canines, that instead, functions at +2.
Lastly, you get bonus feats at 9/13/17 from: Greater Trip, Improved Trip, Mobility, Skill Focus (Stealth), or Spring Attack. replacing your poison immunity.
So that was a LOT of info. But quickly going over my opinions...
Moon caller's bonus to sight is always welcome, and the DR silver is really nice. DR/silver is overcome by silver, or a +3 weapon, and not many bad guys outside the BBEG and elites are typically packing that kind of gear.
Pack lord I MIGHT take for the pure flavor of a werewolf druid running her own wolf pack, and then keeping them FAR away from combat. Better for scouting and potentially camp watch.
And Wolf totem is a bit of a mixed bag. I was going to take wolf Animal companion anyway, and the bonus in 'normal form' is always helpful. the problem is that while good early, canines just don't exist into late game, so while there's a few feats you can take to counteract some of these problems though. Shaping focus gives +4 druid levels, to max level for wildshape. And Boon Companion gives a single one of your multitude of animal companions a +4 level bonus, to max druid level.
-Traits There's some fun traits you COULD select, I'll outline a few flavorful ones below.
Child of the Moon: Pick 1, Climb, Stealth, or Swim, +1 bonus with it. This turns to +2 on the half of the month where the moon is fuller, and +4 on the few days of the full moon.
Animalistic Affliction: +1 on handle animal and wild empathy.
Lycanthropic Blood lust: 1/day when you deal damage with a natural attack, gain 1d6 temp HP as an immediate action, lasts 1 minute.
Shared curse: 1/day as a standard, share your cursed blood with an ally, deal 1 point of damage to them with a natural weapon, they gain a natural bite attack, as from skinwalker, for 2 rounds.
Second chance: 1/day reroll on a failed save. Not exactly flavorful, but CRITICAL for reasons we'll discuss in the last point.
Child of the moon is just SO good on a werewolfy character, and gives you an in game reason to track lunar cycles if you are stuck without the actual curse. The affliction more so states the lycan connection in flavor text, and the other two come from the skinwalker(witchwolf) and are racial traits tied to them. Otherwise, typically universal traits like reactionary are good.
-Feats As discussed before, there are a few feats to mitigate the downsides of the archetypes, but otherwise, a few options below.
Fiendish Obedience: see next item.
Demonic Obedience: For this, you don't need to match alignment for a particular deity. As long as you aren't taking the prestige classes. Both of these feats let you pick a deity(evil for fiendish, deific obedience for good) In this case, you can take both for Jezelda, the CE demon lord of werewolves. Her link is included below for those interested. The feat Fiendish obedience gives you a daily task to complete in the name of your deity, and if you do it, you get a bonus. In her case, Under the night sky, offer prayers to the moon. On nights when there is no moon(up to DM if this means new moon or cloudy/foggy etc counts too) you have to also sacrifice a living creature by tearing it's throat out with your teeth and feeding on the still warm body. Nothing says this can't be a game animal, like a rabbit, or even rats. In exchange, when the moon is visible in the sky, you gain a +4 profane bonus on all saving throws, and at levels 12/16/20(less if you prestige class) access to special powers. The default is 12th: charm animals 3/day, summon natures ally II(1 fiendish wolf or 1d3 wolves only) 2/day, OR beast shape I 1/day. 16th gives: You become a werewolf, even if you normally couldn't. If you are already a werewolf, become a true werewolf, if you are already a true werewolf, +2 Str and Con. Lastly 20th: Use the lycan shape change ability as a swift action, you become a true lycanthrope if you were afflicted, and if already true, gain +2 Str and Con. Demonic obedience is ALSO listed, so may be up to DM if you can double stack them, or just pick one or the other. Demonic gives the exact same progression as Exalted default Fiendish. So even if you aren't a werewolf, you are looking at jumping to true Lycan at level 16 or 20, and if they stack, a +4 to Str and Con.
https://aonprd.com/DeityDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Jezelda
Divine Interference lets you sacrifice a spell slot to make an enemy reroll, which is great to avoid crits.
Natural spell is a go to, lets you still spell cast while in wildshape.
Powerful shape augments wildshape to be treated as larger for CMB/CMD/carrry capacity/Size based attacks.
Leadership is ALWAYS one DM will have to look at before you start your druidic circle to the moon.
Then depending on build, you could do melee feats like power attack etc, or casting for intensified or quickened spell, summoning feats.... Depends on what you are doing.
-Lastly, something the DM may not allow of course. The afflicted/true lycanthropy templates, or, more preferably, The corruption rules Lycanthropy. The templates are not advised, and many would have a hard sell for the DM to let them take them. Typically it's viewed as a curse, and not something people WANT, so a template that almost gives you nothing but positives won't be greatly received. The corruption rules shift this however into each ability being a positive AND a negative, which balances it against the usual levels and abilities you ALREADY have.
A quick rundown for those unfamiliar, You have to be reduced to below 10% HP by a werewolf to catch the affliction. Thereafter, you are at Stage 0 Lycanthropy. You must succeed on a DC 15 will save 1 night of the full moon or go wild. You can fail the check, but still be bound up, preventing you from progressing to stage 1, but then all other nights of the full moon you change with no save, and if you make it to the end, the DC increases semi-permanently by 2 until you gain that next stage. Next, typically, for every 2 levels you've lived with the curse, you get a manifestation of the curse. There's 2 versions. If the curse is just a bad thing the DM wants you to get rid of, you'll just get the bad part, probably of a manifestation of their choice, called a stain. If you willingly embrace it, or DM wants to give you some bonuses, you have the option to take the gift. If you refuse the gift, you instead get a +2 bonus on your save to prevent you from going up a stage. Lastly, the DC for the save increases by 1 for every manifestation you have.
So, with this in mind, you should want to lower the chances of going wild, because after 3 failures, you become an NPC and have to roll up a new character. So with that in mind, there is a LOT that works in our favor with this build. Starting at level 1, you are looking at DC 15 will save, once per month. As a druid, wisdom is a big stat, especially if you want to cast, so you might be looking at getting Wisdom up to 19 at least eventually. For now though, we'll say you start at 16 base, a reasonable number. Witchwolf gives an inherent +2 to wisdom, bumping us up to +4. Witchwolves also get the optional bonus of +2 racial bonus to all saves when shifted. Level 1 druid gets +2 to will saves. And finally, if Dm has allowed, fiendish obedience at level 1 gives you a +4 profane bonus to saves, plus the second chance re-roll. Leaving us at +12 to will saves with a re-roll at level 1 for the purposes of this saving throw. You would have to roll a 1/2 twice in a row to suffer the ill effects of the corruption. And if you choose to be older, to up your mental stats, or take another trait to give a bonus to will saves, or get magic gear or spells to help your save, you could push it even further down, with that reroll there to help, just in case.
I figure all of this plays well into each other, and can be role-played pretty nicely. You feed the beast's urges daily, offering prayers and hunting prey to satiate it. Plus you can hold the beast in check due to your strong mental fortitude. And if DM is feeling particularly nice, When you hit level 14(or sooner with prestige classes) the obedience ability would turn you into a "True lycanthrope" or a natural lycanthrope. Which just gives you control over your transformations. So a reasonable handshake between the template wolves and the corruption one, is at this point(with 6-7 manifestations) you no longer have to make the will saves to avoid transforming.
Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear your feedback!