Druid & Friends

[Garn Greymoon]

Hey all, so after a few months of dabbling, I've fallen into the groove of the server. I've been thinking of a new alt character and I've settled on druid or so I think. My thought is to have a helping hand through the animal companion.

Now I'm not the greatest and building character's mechanically. I can see two routes of going about this and would like some opinions.

First of all, are animal companions viable?

Next, what's a better route to take? Cleric with Animal Domain + 1 other? It's definitely nice here to start out with the heavy armor for the added AC or should I just go pure druid and aim to boost my spell DC and go for dragon shape?

I suppose in the end I'd be taking epic companion and dragon companion.

The overall concept of the build here is a sort of "beast-master"

[Tsidkenu]

Firstly, there are set domain rules for clerics on this server (being an RP server). In order to legally take the Animal Domain you will need one of the following deities:

Faerunian Pantheon: Chauntea, Gwaerom Windstrom, Lurue, Malar, Meilikki, Shiallia, Silvanus, Ubtao

Dwarven Pantheon: Thard Harr

Elvish Pantheon: Aerdrie Faenya, Fenmarel Mestarine

Gnomish Pantheon: Baervan Wildwanderer, Segojan Earthcaller

Secondly, clerics are not druids even if they worship the same deity: druids have their own specific subset of lore and culture. While a cleric of a nature deity may have significant overlap in terms of dogma and praxis, they are not necessarily therefore initiated into a druidic circle, and certainly do not have access to the Druidic language. This is not to mention that only druids get the variety of shapechanging forms; an Animal domain cleric will only get a helpful pet.

In terms of which pet to pick, they're all good except the badger. The boar is particularly tough and the wolf/dog has the rather useful Knockdown feat. Keep in mind that some animal companions are only suitable for Underdark/Evil RP (eg. Hell Hound, Worg, Monstrous Companion). You are expected to RP accordingly and the above named pets are KOS on the surface.

[Nyeleni]

Epìc companion and dragon companion are very good in their own right. They won't solo anything tough on their own, but they can hold for a while.

Even the usual animal companions are very good with epic companion, if you go pure druid or animal domain cleric.

And don't forget pure rangers who with natural bond and epic companion get a pure druid-like friend to fight with too. On top of that they get one buff the druids don't have: "nature's favour", which gives the companion +1 luck bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (unresistable magical damage) for every three caster levels (maximum +5), 1 minute per level, with extend spell, 2 min.

[Garn Greymoon]

Alright so it sounds like the druid route is the way to go, which is what my initial thoughts were.

His connection to the land and animals is going to be either through Silvanus or Chauntea.

So to emulate the theme here, would it be worth picking up any of the summoning feats as well? Such as augment summoning for when he calls a wolf or similar critter.

[Tsidkenu]

Augment summoning is a very useful feat for a druid given their spontaneous summoning. It will add +4 STR/CON to the base stats of the summon which can then be buffed further (ie. stacks with) Bulls/Bears. NB. this does not apply to your animal companion!

[Nyeleni]

It might be useful in the mid levels, but later on even augmented summons will die quickly, whereas your companion should endure for quite a while.

[Garn Greymoon]

So what would be the best route to take with my feats looking at it long term?

Thus far:

General:
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Augment Summoning (maybe)
Augment Elemental (maybe)

Epic Level
Epic Animal Companion
Dragon Companion

Anything I'm missing?

[Tsidkenu]

Natural spell at 6th, Extend Spell is always nice to have too.

[Garn Greymoon]

Here we go, here's a work in progress build, I'd appreciate any suggestions or tweaks I should make.

http://nwn2db.com/build/?247166

Thanks in advance!

[Akroma666]

Suggestion: go evil, choose Malar, join our bearpack!

[Tsidkenu]

Intuitive Attack is for monks only. Swap it out for something like Extend Spell.

Elemental Essence is a Kaedrin's pack feat (its not on BGTSCC). Swap it out for Oaken Resilience or Augment Summoning, or even empower/maximise spell to metamagic your damage AoEs at higher spell slots.

Elephant's hide is a bit meh, because by then a druid is capable of casting Freedom of Movement + Tortoise Shell for far superior Natural AC for a much longer duration than 10 minutes (esp. if the above are combined with Extend Spell).

You might find yourself rebuilding to change Call Epic Lightning Storm, but at least that spell can hit some great DCs and has an immense AoE, but go with whatever suits your RP.

[Hawke]

My suggestions on the feats...

Spell focus is ok... but your wisdom is already going to be very good especially with Owls Insight, and that means your DCs are going to be very very good.

Intuitive Attack is... meh. Even though you are looking at a 40ish wisdom with spell buffs, your strength on your shapes are going to be very close to the same. It's a whole feat to spend.

Elemental Essence... is this on the server? Even if it were, it lasts for a very short time, and you cannot be in Wildshape and activate abilities. Spells yes, abilities/feats no.


Which brings us to Elephant Hide. Neewp. Just leave it alone. If you really want to play with an ability that can make a difference, then Oaken Resilience. Immunity to crits is nice, but it only lasts 10 minutes and you cannot be shifted to use it.

Epic Spells work like feats/abilities. You cannot use them while shifted. If you are making a shifter... don't even bother with it.


What feats to take?

Glad you asked.

Augment Summoning is pretty ok. Takes two feats, but it adds +2 to attack/damage and +2 HP/hit dice. Which is decent. And like what was said before, spell buffs stack with it for a total of +4 attack/damage and +4 HP/Hit Dice.


Extend Spell/Empower Spell... Where are these? Are they needed? Yes. Extend is important to get, very important. Not just because it turns a lot of short duration spells into manageable ones, but it also gives flexibility on spell memorization. Empower is optional, but you will get more mileage out of it than anything else.

Crafting Feats. If crafting is ever put in, druids and clerics have it easier to use spells to enhance objects. Crafting wands and scrolls is pretty good.

Armor Skin, Epic Prowess and Weapon Focus (unarmed) are all ways to boost your AB and AC up as far as it can go.


And of course Magical Beast Shape is the way to have access to even more shapes for RP goodness.



Now your companion will be replaced with a dragon companion, so in the end, it doesn't matter what you choose, as long as you dont mind seeing it for a while.

Just a quick note on companions... Dog/Wolf share the same stats and abilities. Unless there was a change I do not know of, which is naturally possible, knockdown is rarely attempted. Their AB, AC and HP are all below par that of all the other companions. A bonus, however, is Dog. It is the only companion that is able to travel within civilized areas. Just food for thought.

Good luck.


*Edit* Almost forgot, One with the Cold can be useful as it adds d6 cold damage for your summons (not your companion), but makes them vulnerable to fire. Can be a useful feat though... Flame weapon + d6 cold isn't bad.

[Garn Greymoon]

Awesome advice everyone, thank you so much.

So to get into things a little deeper. If i take the dragon companion, does it still count as an animal in terms of using some of the animal only spells (greater magic fang, avatar, awaken, etc.) If not is it better just to go with the epic animal companion and be able to use the above?

If taken the route of normal animal companions, I'm learning towards the bear. Although the knock down on the wolf has always been a classic.

While in wildshape, I assume natural attacks are treated as unarmed attacks? If so then would a
let's say a glove with 1dX work while in the wildshape form? Would any +EB transfer over?

I'll make some adjustments to the build to switch out feats based upon some of the suggestions.

[Nyeleni]

Awesome advice everyone, thank you so much.

So to get into things a little deeper. If i take the dragon companion, does it still count as an animal in terms of using some of the animal only spells (greater magic fang, avatar, awaken, etc.) If not is it better just to go with the epic animal companion and be able to use the above?

If taken the route of normal animal companions, I'm learning towards the bear. Although the knock down on the wolf has always been a classic.

While in wildshape, I assume natural attacks are treated as unarmed attacks? If so then would a
let's say a glove with 1dX work while in the wildshape form? Would any +EB transfer over?

I'll make some adjustments to the build to switch out feats based upon some of the suggestions.

Yes, any spell that affected your animal companion will boost your dragon companion as well.

*shrugs* Bear or boar seem to be the best companions for a non UD and/or non evil druid.

No weapon or glove does transfer to any shape, as long as it is ab, eb and/or damage.

Zen archery might be worth getting too, if you plan on fighting sometimes in original form.

Oaken Resilience might be good at mid levels, but again at epic levels it is a wasted feat.

Even spell focus conjuration could be swapped for something else, as was said, DC will be high thanks to Owl's Insight and raising wisdom every time you get a chance.

My druidess even took wand crafting, with the others being: combat expertise, extend spell, improved combat expertise, natural spell, storm bolt (her rp supports her airy character, she took auran language too) and zen archery.
In epic levels she has 4 great wisdom, epic animal companion, dragon shape and dragon companion.

[Garn Greymoon]

Okay, I've updated the build in the above link.

Real quick question, currently the character is set to Human, but well D&D being D&D I like to get go for the more fantasy approach and not imitate life as much!

What's the thoughts on the following:

Aasimar, Halfling, or Gensai