caster druid with good pets

[aaron22]

ok so looking for some input on a caster druid that would have a good array of pets and high conjuration DC for the SoVs, Mass Drowns and swamp lungs.

i looked at a thauma build plan but didnt like the perks when i lose companion levels.

looked at hospit and at 5/6 levels i gain two feats, but need one to make up for the loss and i lose out on 5/6 companion levels

and with hiero i can gain 3 caster levels and oaken friend, but lose 8 levels of companion. tough trade there.

then there is just D30. and that is good can get wis to 32 and still have epic gate or epic comp. or i could take wis to 30 and get epic gate, epic comp and another like ruin or feast. also think i remember there being a dragon comp feat change that did not require dragon shape. truth?

http://nwn2db.com/build/?276722

[Flasmix]

You could take 6 Hierophant and use two feats, Natural Bond and Epic Animal Companion to get a level 30 Druid pet still. It'll let you get 3 of the buffs from Hierophant.

Problem with Swamp Lung/Mass Drown is it's very, very easy to become immune to it. I suggest dropping the Epic and Greater Conjuration Focus, just keep the basic one. It opens up more feat options for you.

If you're looking for an epic companion, then you can take 3 levels of another class and with Natural Bond and epic companion still hit the 'level 33' mark for the upgraded creature.

[chad878262]

As a Grey Orc, would CaveStalker be a good option? It gets full animal companion progression and spell progression while keeping some of your nature based abilities in natural caves. Loses druid wild shape progression, but since this is a caster with good pets you could theoretically go D20/CS10 and still get a level 33 pet. Right?

[Sun Wukong]

I think Dragon Companion requires you to take Dragon Shape.

But anyhow, I think you should stay Druid 30 and get those Conjuration Spell Focuses as those give up to +4 HD to your summons from Summon Creature IX and Conjure Animals.

Thus you will have that fully buffed up Animal Companion, a beastly Beast from Summon Creature IX, and potentially three other lesser animals standing by your side.

Anyhow, you could consider Druid 27/Thaumathurge 3 with the Natural Bond feat. You will be able to get the best animal companion possible, and your summons are automatically extended and come with +4 STR and CON by default. Thus you will have more casts of Flame Weapon to give each member of your small army some extra fire damage per hit.

Also, do not forget how lovely that Nature's Avatar spell is on your animal companion. You can literally just sit back and watch how it tears through opponents. Or you could just cast that high DC Storm of Vengeance and watch how your small army tears your enemies apart.

[Tsidkenu]

Hierophant gets a bonus feat (can be chosen as early as Hierophant 2) to allow full animal companion progression during hierophant levels. Just saying...

[Hawke]

The build looks like it is a mix of dragon shape and a non dragon shape caster.

If you are not focusing on going Dragon... and not shift. Get some Epic Spells.

Otherwise, if you want to focus on summoning but still keep your druid to 30 for dragon... that is possible too.

Thankfully druid gets some serious boost to their spell DCs so you don't need so much wisdom.

If you are going dragon, I would drop ICE and CE and add Augment Summon and Beckon the Frost.

BtF seems to be bad to take as your critters would be vulnerable to Fire, but you have so many spells anyways, just cast Immune: Fire and they dont get crit damage anymore to fire, but now your critters have an extra d6 of cold damage, and with your buff to them, d8 of fire damage.

Keep Epic Conjuration for the +2 HD for your summons.


All in all, I would ask that you figure out what you wanted to do about your wild shape late game. Oaken resilience is ok...but it only lasts 10 minutes, and there are spells (shapes) that simulate the same thing and you dont have to keep dropping out of form (hoping all the buffs hold stable, it is obsidian base code afterall no matter how much our awesome dev team tweaks it).

[aaron22]

there are limited options to do with late game wild shapes. figure oaken at least makes some use of it.

i could drop practiced and take nat bond and then put in three levels of thaum. that gives augment and extended summons for the cost of one feat. could also drop ice and take BtF. 3 AC is 3 AC, but seems smaller compared to the benefit to BtF with energy immunity.

and i could drop to 2 Epic Wis to get ruin/feast/lightning (kind of figure lightning is alot of the same damage though.)

would be nice if a summoner style druid could get dragon companion without having to take dragon form.

ill try to mix up a build for the thaum dip. will be tight with BtF needing the aug summon provided by thaum needing gsf. and then getting nat bond in there too.

[aaron22]

updated build.

http://nwn2db.com/build/?276722

[Nyeleni]

Maybe I'd take zen archery for extend spell. But only if you could start at lvl 18 or so. The rest seems solid enough.

[aaron22]

dont think zen archery would contribute very much. perhaps a reserve feat could go further

[Nyeleni]

You should have an ab of +39 or +40 iirc with that wisdom. That isn't too shabby. A reserve feat is of course another option.

[aaron22]

does spellcasting prod conflict with owls insight for the max 12 to ability score?

[Valefort]

No, they stack.

[Hawke]

If you aren't planning on wildshaping, then Thaum 5 would be beneficial. A little feat heavy because of 2 spell focus, Companion and BTF. Then Oaken would be ok to be taking then.

Also you can look at Harper Priest, but takes two feats that you wouldn't normally use, but very powerful.

Zen archery would be another feat that could be taken and make you pretty strong. Get a wand of haste and get like 4-5 attacks per round at a AB of 40 ish.

[aaron22]

harper priest might be fun, but im not allowed to play with those. (evil)

think im set. dont really need a bow. i would rather RP while my dogs hunt.