Stone druid + archtype?

[Giathan]

My group is about to start a new campaign. The character I've created for it is a rock dwarf, druid, order of stone. The theme of the character is derived from the background. Essentially, he touched an elemental stone from the earth plane and had a vision which made him think that dwarves evolved from stone. Now he draws power from stone hence the druid. I've been thinking about a good archtype, geomancer seems to work best but kineticist would meld well with the theme of the character. Looking at the archtype though I don't think it would scale very well and I'd have to burn a lot of feats to get enough utility or damage out of it. Also looked at elementalist and that wouldn't really mesh very well either if im going for just an earth/stone themed ranged/caster. The problem is that I want to take an archtype because the druid doesn't have enough feats that seem to mesh well with the stone theme. So I want to take an archtype to fill the gaps of the druids feats. What do yall think? Is there a better archtype? Should I just stick with full druid? Am I overlooking something? Any help/advice is appreciated.

[Finoan]

I think it depends on what you are wanting: A bunch of earth themed abilities that you can use a few times per day as the need arises. Or a few powerful earth themed abilities that you use constantly.

For the first, an archetype like Elemental Sorcerer (earth) or Geomancer could do well.

Sorcerer would give you earth themed variants of some common spells as well as a few spell slots that you could use for whatever other primal spells you desire.

Geomancer would give you some abilities that could be attached as riders to your spell slot spells, but they wouldn't always be relevant to what you are currently doing. Specifically, Earth spells would give you damage reduction for one round (which could be useful in some situations) or Darkvision (which for a Dwarf is almost certainly useless).

If instead you are wanting a few more earth themed abilities that you can use constantly, Kineticist is probably better. You won't get as many of them since you have to pay a feat for each one. But what you get is probably going to be useful. As for scaling, the 'level' being referenced is still your overall character level, so things like damage scale for an archetype Kineticist's Impulses just as much as they do for a base class Kineticist (so for example, Tremor as a level 7 Druid with Kineticist archetype will still be dealing 4d10 1d8 + 3d10 damage). You may have a lower proficiency and attribute bonus - which is typical for archetypes. You will run into that problem with any archetype you choose.

[Giathan]

The cantrips damage is pretty low compared to other classes abilities. Taking kineticist would be a nice way to beef up a normal attack from the low 1d4 damage cantrips. However, the kineticist dedication doesn't increase the damage of the elemental blast the same way as a devoted kineticist does. It doesn't auto highten the abilities damage. Normally the elemental blast damage would increase every 4 levels. So 1-4 its 1d8 and then 5-8 2d8 and so on. With the dedication, you have to take a feat in order to increase the damage of the blast. Which are not offered in the same increments as the normal ability. First chance to increase the damage is at 8th level. Which by then your already behind in damage and in just another level you'll be behind in damage again. Thats why it doesn't seem to scale well. The lack of auto hightening the elemental blast would put your damage far behind everyone else except for your druid spells. Which is why I made the post. Is it even worth it?

[Finoan]

And Elemental Blast is the only one that has that non-scaling problem.

For a spellcaster taking Kineticist archetype, the cantrips that you get from your base spellcasting class are likely to have better damage than Elemental Blast. Elemental Blast can be thrown out for one action though, so it still creates a nice damage boost for a round when casting a 2-action utility or saving throw spell. (Not recommended to cast an Attack roll spell and then Elemental Blast with MAP. Find something else to do for a third action at that point.)

But for a spellcaster, the draw of Kineticist is the feat-granted impulses like Tremor that I mentioned earlier. And those do auto-scale.

Edit: Oh, and if you are looking for one earth type spell that is both reusable and auto-scales, there is still Elemental Toss from the Elemental Sorcerer. Since it is a focus spell it will scale with your level, you can recharge the focus points that you need to cast it so that it is ready and available for battle, and it uses your normal spellcasting proficiencies.

[Pronate11]

I mean, if your GM is ok with uncommon architypes, Stone Bound seems right up your ally https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=210

[Kilraq Starlight]

Question, will your table be using the free archetype system? If so I'd heavily consider going Earth Kineticist as your base class and use your free archetype feat for Druid instead. It seems to me that would match your theme much better without having to sacrifice much.

Is there a particular reason you are really tied to the idea of druid as the base class?