Druid Optimization

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#1
11-03-06, 08:07 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
A Man In Black Location: St. Louis, MO
Member
I am a druid! I have special abilities that are more powerful than your entire class!
This is the druid handbook, written by A Man In Black and Paradisio and currently
maintained by A Man In Black. This version is a revival of a rewrite of Paradisio's rewrite
of Yekoj's druid handbook. It's going up more or less piece by piece; until it's done, don't
mind the mess.
Suggestions (or even total rewrites of sections, if you want) are greatly appreciated, and
more is always coming. (I swear I'll get to finishing and formatting the spell section one
of these days.)
Update status:
This book sat unupdated after Five Nations and Champions of Ruin were released, so
updates have been a matter of backfilling.
Books I haven't incorporated:

Spoiler:
Last update:
More spell advice, Gharlane's wild shape corrections, added a link to a new Handle Animal
guide, some corrections about Powerful Build, other miscellanea.
Previous update:
Added Aspect of the Dragon from Dragon Magic (and roundly rejected adding anything
about the lame draconic bobcat or whatever it is). Added a ton of Spell Compendium
stuff, as well as advice on Vigor and how to avoid becoming a curebot.
While I try to accommodate as many variations of D&D3.5, with varying amounts of non-
core material available, I had to rewrite just about everything for the Polymorph errata.
This guide will assume that you play with the Polymorph errata of Feb. 2006; if you don't,
I suggest taking a look at the old version of this thread.
Acronyms:
Spoiler:
In core, the druid is one of the front-runners for most powerful class, and the vast, vast
majority of players will want to take all 20 levels. Druids are full casters drawing from a
versatile spell list, can Wild Shape into any number of combat forms, get a handful of
handy class abilities, and even have a decent skill list (and the skill points to use it).
Druids also benefit disproportionately from the addition of new material beyond core, as
they benefit from the addition of monsters as well as the addition of the usual spells,
feats, and prestige classes. (One would even say they benefit more from the addition of
monsters; few prestige classes work well with druids, and they have relatively few feat
slots.)
Druids fall into roughly three categories, largely defined by their feat choices. There are
summoners, focusing on summoning and buffing animals and Elementals. There are Wild
Shapers, using Wild Shape to fight effectively in melee. There are straight casters, relying
on the damage-dealing and battlefield control spells to destroy or hamper enemies in
combat (and the wealth of druid utility spells outside of it). Bear in mind that a straight
druid can do all of these things quite effectively depending on the player's mood or the
party's needs, as spell selection can change day to day and feats don't have to be used.
Some druids do sacrifice one or two of these three basic abilities, however, generally by
multiclassing or going into a prestige class. These are described in a bit more detail at the
bottom.
-----
STATS:
This is one of he two times a druid player will need to choose a specialty. Wisdom is
going to be your most important stat, no matter what. After that, it depends on what you
want to do.
Constitution is going to be important. While druids have naturally high fort saves, after
the polymorph errata, your natural constitution is going to determine your HP, which is
always important to any druid that plans to spend any time in melee.
Intelligence is handy if your druid is going to be called on to use his or her skills. A
human with intelligence 10 or anything else with intelligence 12 will be able to max all
the skills a non-skill-user will ever want, however. Intelligence is a tertiary stat.
Charisma will be a dump stat for most druids, but bear in mind that certain abilities
gained with some of the exotic Wild Shape feats (or with Assume Supernatural Ability)
can be based on charisma. Most druids will want to make this a dump stat.
Dexterity will be a dump stat for any druid starting at level 5 or higher, and won't be
terribly important in any case. Strength won't be important for any druid, as melee druids
will be relying on Wild Shape.
For those who play with age penalties, nearly every druid is going to want to be middle-
aged (-1 on physical stats, +1 on mental ones). Higher age categories will impair your
HP, but boost your spellcasting.
-----
RACES:
Druids are full casters with a major class ability that scales upward (Wild Shape) but
without bonus feats. Thus the best choices for races will boost their casting attribute
and/or give or duplicate feats, but level adjustments must be avoided at all costs. The
existence of substitution levels does add a few new options, though.
When you're choosing a race for your druid, try and make sure you're not paying for
abilities you won't be able to use in Wild Shape. Physical stat modifiers (save for CON
boosts), innate Special Attacks, natural weapons, natural armor, and special movement
modes all disappear, while you keep other abilities. Note that spell-like abilities are
almost always Special Attacks, and lost while using Wild Shape. Type immunities are
retained, however, making races like Volodni (UE) or Warforged (EbCS/RoE/MM3) much
better than they used to be.
Human is going to be the best racial option for the grand majority of druids. Druids are
feat-poor and don't generally benefit very much from racial abilities, as most of them
disappear during Wild Shape. That said, there are a few good choices.
Strongheart Halfling (FRCS) is as good a choice as it ever is, because of the extra feat.
The halfling druid substitution levels (RotW) are a mixed bag; the first sub level is an
interesting tradeoff, replacing the first five spell levels of spontaneously-cast Summon
Nature's Ally with the ability to spontaneously cast a range of useful mobility spells
(including Freedom of Movement), but the fifth sub level is a Very Bad Idea, unless you
have some sort of clever use of Wild feats.
Buomman (PlHB) grants you +2 to Wis (and -2 to Cha) at LA +0, but they have a racial
vow of silence. Nonverbal Spellcasting (PlHB) makes up for this by allowing you to cast
spells by grunting or singing or whatever, but you're still down another feat. (Note that if
you start at 6th level or above, you can take Natural Spell and not worry about Nonverbal
Spell, as long as you only cast spells while in Wild Shape.) Even then, not being able to
talk to the party still sucks, at least until the party wizard casts Permanent Rary's
Telepathic Bond. Buomman druids are, like all Buommen, unplayable until high levels, but
fairly good after that.
Shifters (EbCS/RoE/MM3) are a great druid race, despite their somewhat less-useful

attribute modifiers. At low levels, any Shifter with a natural attack shifting ability can be
using the druid spells to enhance their natural attacks. Later on, your shifting bonus will
stack with Wild Shape (Shifting is a supernatural ability, so you keep it in Wild Shape),
which not only means stat bonuses, but also gives extra AC, new move types, or even
possibly extra attacks. Dreamsight Shifters (RoE), in particular, give +2 Wis and Speak
With Animals while shifting, but all of the Shifter traits give untyped bonuses to stats that
still work while shifting, so any of them can work quite nicely. (Plus, it allows you to take,
say, Improved Natural Attack (claws) or INA (bite) even if your GM won't usually allow
you to take those for forms you can only take with Wild Shape. Then again, that GM
might not allow INA to transfer to Wild Shape.) Shifters can also take Moonspeaker
(RoE), one of the few good druid PrCs.
Beasthide, Dreamsight, Longtooth, and Razorclaw Shifter traits are good for druids,
because those benefits stack nicely onto whatever animal form you might be using.
Cliffwalk and Longstride are okay; it's nice to add a bit of land speed or climbing speed to
a landbound form, but you can always take a monkey or bird form to completely outdo
these traits. The other traits aren't so hot: Gorebrute forces you to use a somewhat ho-
hum gore instead of your superior natural attacks, Swiftwing negates any claw attacks
you might have and is rendered moot by flying Wild Shape forms, Truedive has too short
a duration to be very useful anyway even if you couldn't turn into fish and mollusks, and
Wildhunt can be replaced with any one of four different level 2 spells.
Taking Shifter also allows you to use the Shifter sub levels. The first Shifter sub level
costs you your Animal Companion, but replaces it with a Beast Spirit that can buff you,
buff your summons, cuts your summons to a standard action, and can eventually cast
quickened spells for you. (All the bonuses make this an absolutely awesome choice for
any sort of druid.) Most druids will want to avoid the fifth sub level, unless you're
planning to specialize heavily in shifting. (The sub levels are in Races of Eberron.)
Dropping Wild Shape for Shifting enhancement at level five is an unusual choice, and I'll
write a guide here for it at some point, honest.
Ghostwise Halflings (FRCS) bypass one of the main bugbears of Wild Shaping druids:
communicating with the party. Their Speak without Sound ability is a supernatural special
quality, so they keep it in whatever form they're in. Plus, being halflings, Ghostwise
Halflings can take the halfling racial sub levels from Races of the Wild.
Half-orcs aren't usually very good at anything, but the half-orc druid substitution level
for level 7 (RoD) gives Augment Summoning for the low, low price of one less use a day
of Wild Shape, saving you the trouble of wasting a feat on Spell Focus (Conjuration).
Plus, the first level gives you some free bonuses.
Xeph (XPH) druids can take psionic feats, and their Burst ability works even while Wild
Shaped. Feats, preferably ones that give always-on benefits (or while-focused benefits,
which amount to the same thing for a character in a non-psionic class), can give a Xeph
druid some rather unusual boosts or abilities, like Psionic Fist and Unavoidable Strike,
Speed of Thought, or Up The Walls.
Kalashtar (EbCS) make surprisingly good druids, because of their Mindlink ability. Their
Mindlink ability (you definitely want to use the XPH version of Mindlink instead of the
EbCS version, because of the much longer duration) allows them to communicate even
while Wild Shaping, and they can take psionic feats to boot.
Warforged (EbCS/RoE/MM3) are an odd case. All of their various boosts are retained
(except for their slam, boo hoo), because they're all special qualities and none of them
are natural armor, movement forms, or boosts to strength or dexterity. (Warforged Scout
(MM3) is similar, with the useful constitution boost traded for a useless dexterity boost.)
This means that the innate armor ability doesn't go away, so Warforged can eke out a
little extra AC and some light fortification in Wild Shape. The Warforged feats also don't
go away as long as they aren't attacks; this means Spiked Body (RoE) and Jaws of Death
(RoE) are both out, but Cold Iron Tracery (RoE), Silver Tracery (RoE), and the very sweet
Ironwood Body (RoE) are all in.
Warforged aren't perfect, though; they have a racial Wisdom penalty, and if your DM
rules that Wild Shaping into an animal form means that all of your nice physical
Warforged goodies go away (which conflicts with the Polymorph errata but not basic
common sense, assuming your Warforged druid doesn't turn into Warforged-y animal
shapes) then Warforged is hideously suboptimal. This is discussed more in the "gross
physical changes" section of the Controversial Options section.
For those who want to try something more exotic, there are a couple of options. There's
the Anthropomorphic Bat (Sav), which gives flight and +6 Wis with no level adjustment.
You'll be Small and will have a -4 Str penalty and a charisma penalty, though, so plan on
spending your time out of Wild Shape casting Produce Flame and running away a lot. In
the same vein, there's the Jermaline (MM2), which is LA +0, with massive Wis and
dexterity bonuses. It's a Tiny, ugly Fey with penalties to Str, Cha, and Con, so it's not
exactly suited to most games, though.
Maybe you want to play something a little more unusual, but not necessarily more
optimized.
Goliaths (RoS) don't seem to have any druid-related traits (and have a pesky LA +1 to
boot), but their racial substitution levels are handy, and their Powerful Build (which is no
longer lost when Wild Shaping, after the Polymorph errata) is very handy for melee
(especially grappling) druids. Their first racial substitution level becomes very handy
when Earth Elementals start to be your best summons.
Half-Giants (XPH) are another odd choice for a druid, with their all-physical stat bonuses
and LA +1. However, they keep Powerful Build when Wild Shaping, like Goliaths, and may
also take psionic feats. As with Xephs, feats that give always-on benefits (or while-
focused benefits, which amount to the same thing for a character in a non-psionic class)
like Speed of Thought (XPH) make Half-Giant a somewhat worthwhile, if less than
optimal, choice.
-----
SKILLS:
 Concentration: Every single spell you cast will be in the thick of melee. Max this
every single level.
 Heal: Handy if you don't feel like taking the secondary damage from poisons.
 Listen and Spot: Always a good choice, especially if the party doesn't have a
ranger. Maxing out Listen also lets you use the spell Listening Lorecall (CAdv) to
full effect.
 Handle Animal: The usefulness of Handle Animal is going to vary from campaign to
campaign. The rules as written mean that you'll need about a +10 in Handle
Animal to teach your Animal Companion all of the useful tricks (assuming you take
10 on the rolls.) If you have a Horrid Animal or Magical Beast as an Animal
Companion, you'll need to get this up to +14. For more advice on how to use
Handle Animal, Arem K has a handy guide here.
 Survival/Knowledge (Nature): Very important in any outdoors campaign.
 Spellcraft: Unless the party doesn't have anyone to identify spells, you won't be
using this a lot...until you get to epic levels. Epic spellcasting is almost entirely
based on ranks in Spellcraft and Spellcraft checks.
-----
FEATS:
To blazes with Heinlein, it's time to specialize. Feats for a druid (and you won't get a lot
of them; most druids only get seven) are going to be beefing up one of your three druidic
specialties (summoning, Wild Shaping, and straight casting). There are a few generalist
and must-have picks, but your options are wide open.
General:
 Natural Spell - Allows you to cast while Wild Shaped. Every single druid will want
this.
 Ironwood Body (RoE) - A must-have for Warforged druids, assuming your DM
allows it.
 Manifest Druid (PGtE) - A flavor feat, with a handful of nice bennies (although the
Sudden Empower for a first-level arcane spell is just weird).
 Natural Bond (CAdv) - Helps out for multiclassed druids, somewhat. May offset the
penalty for stronger-than-standard Animal Companions (ask your GM), which
makes it a much better choice.
 Track - Now that all the bonus feat loopholes are closed, this can be a handy feat
if the party doesn't already have a ranger or barbarian.
 Vow of Poverty (BoED) - Druids are fairly gear-independent, making this a

reasonable choice. If you take it, Nymph's Kiss for the extra skill points (it's also
good if you don't use Vow of Poverty) and Touch of Golden Ice for the Dex
damage to evil creatures at low levels are good candidates for bonus Exalted
feats.
 Beast Totem (EbCS) - You choose a Chimera, Gorgon, or some much less cool
Magical Beast as a totem beast, and get a situational save bonus. (Really, the
other totem beasts suck. Don't pick them.) A lame dump feat so you can take...
o Beast Companion (EbCS) - You get your totem beast as your Animal
Companion.
o Beast Shape (EbCS) - You can Wild Shape into your totem beast, with all
Ex and Su abilities. Chimerae are melee monsters, Gorgons have AoE
petrify. The others...just suck.
 Child of Winter (EbCS) - You can cast animal-affecting spells on vermin and
summon various vermin with Summon Nature's Ally. (Unfortunately, this is
mechanically incompatible with Exalted feats.) Also, you can take...
o Vermin Companion (EbCS) - So you can have a pet scorpion of your very
own. The available vermin companions are by and large worse than the
core animal choices, let alone the many nice non-core companions, but
some players will want a bug for flavor reasons.
o Vermin Wild Shape (EbCS) - So you can...uh...BE a scorpion. Or whatever.

You lose your animal forms, but not your plant or Elemental ones, so you
lose a bunch of power from about level 5 until level 12 where you get your
plant forms. More on handy vermin forms below.
 Aberrant Blood (LoM) - The lame entry feat into the much-overlooked Aberrant
feats. It means a hit to Handle Animal and Wild Empathy, but you'll want...
o Aberrant Reach (LoM) - +5' reach no matter what form you're in. (Some
GMs might be iffy about this; more below in the Controversial Option on
gross physical change feats.) More than worth the -1 to hit drawback.
o Aberrant Wild Shape (LoM) - Wild Shape into Aberrations, although sadly
with the usual Wild Shape restrictions on what special abilities you can gain
from the new form. More on handy Aberration forms below.
Summoning:
 Ashbound (EbCS) - Doubles the duration of summons and gives them an attack
bonus. Bear in mind that it is incompatible with the Child of Winter feats, so you
won't be able to get Vermin Companion or Vermin Shape.
 Augment Summoning - It requires Spell Focus (Conjuration), which is nearly
worthless, but every summoning druid will want Augment Summoning. It's just
too good, plus half of the summoning feats have it listed as a prereq.
 Beckon the Frozen (Frost) - +d6 cold damage on all your summoned critters'
attacks. Good for summoning specialists. Just be careful; your BtF-enhanced
summons will be vulnerable to fire. Not available if you bypass the Spell Focus
(Conjuration) prereq of Augment Summoning, as the Spell Focus is specifically
called out in this feat's prereqs.
 Greenbound (LEoF) - Turns all your animal summons into plants, by applying the
Greenbound template to them. (Greenbound is elsewhere in LEoF.) HUGE power
boost in the short term (to the point of being near broken at low levels), but your
animal buffs won't work on them. Conflicts mechanically with Child of Winter, as it
only works on animal summons, not vermin ones.
 Imbued Summoning (PHB2) - Essentially a free Quicken for low-level buffs on

Summoned creatures. (Personally, I suggest Greater Magic Fang or the
ridiculously good Venomfire.) It's not terribly useful on Spontaneously-cast
Summons, though.
 Initiate of Malar (PGtF) - Gives animal-only Augment Summoning for free, and
also gives some pretty lame extra spells. You have to worship Malar, though,
which conflicts mechanically with Exalted feats (seeing as Malar is evil and all) and
thematically with Rashemi Elemental Summoning. (The Hathrans do not often
teach their secrets to followers of Malar.)
 Rashemi Elemental Summoning (UE) - You want this to turn your Air Elementals
into Orglashes, so they can fire off huge Cones of Cold. Thomil Earth Elementals
are also great for engulfing anything with bad reflex saves, especially spellcasters.
Which summoning feats to pick? Any serious summoning druid is going to want Augment
Summoning (or the half-orc sub level or Initiate of Malar), which stacks with everything.
It's pretty much a must-have for any druid who has the free feats. Ashbound and Beckon
the Frozen aren't terribly strong, but stack with everything (including each other) and add
nice little boosts.
The strongest feats, Greenbound and Rashemi Elemental Summoning, don't stack with
each other, but offer the biggest boosts. Which one you'll want depends on what levels at
which you'll be playing your druid. Greenbound is superior until level 11. For level 11 and
12, they're about the same. At level 13 and above, Rashemi Elemental Summoning pulls
ahead, but not devastatingly so.
Greenbound is great at all levels, but starts to offer diminishing returns at level 11, when
Elementals get good enough to be tempting and you get access to Animal Growth. You'll
still want to summon Greenbound animals at those levels, but you're losing out on those
opportunities.
Rashemi Elemental Summoning, on the other hand, has barely any effect until level 11
when you get access to Large Thomil Earth Elementals, and doesn't really come into its
own until level 13, when you can summon Huge Thomil Earth Elementals and Huge
Orglash Air Elementals.
Wild shaping/melee:
 Multiattack (MM) - Many forms have secondary natural attacks. This makes them
more accurate. Some GMs may disallow this because you don't always have the
natural attacks, however. (This is assuming you're not a Shifter or something.)
Probably only worth taking in a core-only game, though.
 Improved Natural Attack (MM/EbCS) - Extra damage on a single type of natural
attack. INA (bite) or INA (claws) is very handy, and counts as a Shifter feat if
you're a Shifter.
 Dragon Wild Shape (Drac) - Shapechange lite, only limited to small and medium
dragons. If your GM is silly enough to allow it, by all means make it your 12th-
level feat. (A list of useful Dragon Wild Shape forms is here.)
 Exalted Wild Shape (BoED) - Free, if minor, bonuses while Wild Shaping, as the
Celestial template can be applied to any animal form you can usually take. It also
makes blink dog and Unicorn (as well as some other, mostly useless) forms
available, all Ex and Su abilities included. You may be able to talk your GM into
including Scent, Blindsense/Blindsight, and other Ex abilities of animal forms you
can take. (The feat does say you get the Ex and Su abilities of forms you can take
with this feat.) If this is allowed, this feat is much more useful. Note that this feat
doesn't benefit your Plant, Elemental, or any other type of form you can take; just
animals or the limited list of Magical Beasts.
 Frozen Wild Shape (Frost) - This feat should just be renamed Twelve-Headed
Cryohydra Wild Shape. You're stuck with the usual Wild Shape limitations on
acquired abilities, so none of the other Magical Beasts with the cold subtype are
worth using. (It might be worth taking Urskan form if you know you're going up
against a Chillblain or White Dragon or something, though.) - This advice may be
out of date.
 Lion's Pounce (CD) - One of the few good Wild feats, a pounce attack is always
handy. Don't overuse it, though, or you'll run out of Wild Shape uses.
 Assume Supernatural Ability (Sav) - Totally broken feat, if used in in combination

with Aberration Wild Shape or Frozen Wild Shape. (Even without those, there's
any number of Plant forms with, say, Regeneration.) If you're a GM, don't say I
didn't warn you. If you're a player, well, welcome to flavor town. Check the
Shapechange thread to see what's worth taking.
 Powerful Wild Shape (RoS) - This is pointless after the Polymorph errata. Powerful
Build is a Special Quality, which is retained when Wild Shaping.
 Improved Unarmed Strike - Some GMs will allow you to make all of your iterative
attacks as unarmed attacks and then make all your natural attacks as secondary
attacks. If you can do that, super, but don't expect to be allowed to have a
karate-chopping bear in most games. In general this is just a prerequisite feat.
o Improved Grapple - If you do a lot of grappling, you'll want this. A dire

bear-shaped druid with Improved Grapple will win grapples with anything
his size, and many things larger.
Shifter:
Shifter feats, from EbCS and RoE, deserve special mention. Shifters can shift while in
Wild Shape, giving them stat boosts as well as extra attacks, extra senses, or extra move
types. On top of this, many of the Shifter race-specific feats (mostly feats relating to
natural attacks) work even when you aren't shifting, as written, making them extremely
attractive to a druid.
 Dreamsight Elite (RoE) - Grants See Invisibility while shifting. As good for a druid
as it is for anyone else.
 Great Bite (EbCS) - Grants x3 criticals with bite. May or may not apply when not
shifting, as the feat refers to "fang" attacks.
 Great Rend (EbCS) - Gives extra rend attack when you hit with two claws. Works
even when not shifting.
 Razorclaw Elite (RoE) - Gives you a limited form of pounce (two claw attacks
only). Works even when not shifting.
 Longtooth Elite (RoE) - Your bite attack deals a point of Con damage. Works even
when not shifting.
 Shifter Defense and Greater Shifter Defense (EbCS) - Grant DR 2/silver and
4/silver, respectively, while shifting. As good for druids as they are for everyone
else.
 Shifter Multiattack (EbCS) - It's Multiattack, but as a Shifter feat, so it increases

your daily uses and duration of shifting.
Casting:
 Extend Spell - A good choice to extend buffs. Also, ask your GM how this interacts
with Creeping Cold (CD). Three extra turns of 3d6 damage (or better yet, a turn of
4d6, a turn of 5d6, and a turn of 6d6) isn't bad.
 Energy Substitution (CArc) and Energy Affinity (MiniHB) - If you do a lot of
blasting, you may want this. I'd recommend cold or acid, since most of the best
and most popular druid blasts are fire or electric. If your GM is silly enough to
allow Energy Sub (Sonic) (from Tome and Blood), by all means take advantage.
 Empower Spell - Handy for druids who do a lot of blasting, but only druids who do
a lot of blasting. Definitely choose this over Maximize Spell or Energy Admixture.
(Leave those to Incantatrices and Blastificers.)
 Fell Drain and Fell Weaken (LibMort) - These (ridiculously broken) feats are great
for druids, with their variety of damaging spells. For best results, try pairing these
with area-effect spells; Decomposition (CD) is a classy and effective choice.
 Ocular Spell (LoM) - It turns touch spells into rays, and lets you cast two spells as
a full action. Druids can't cheese it out quite as much as some classes, but this
broken feat benefits them greatly.
 Persistant Spell (CArc) - Reeeeeally expensive, but as usual it's an exceedingly

powerful feat even for casters who can't abuse Divine Metamagic. Try it on
Decomposition (CD), self-buffs, or whatever else you can find it applies to.
Apparently Help Desk thinks it can work on touch spells; that's probably not a
good idea to allow as a DM, but a ridiculously powerful option if it's allowed to you
as a player.
 Quicken Spell - A staple of high-level prepared casters. Quickened buffs are

always a good choice.
 Sculpt Spell (CArc) - Sculpt Spell is always handy for blasters, and Druids can do a
bit of blasting. This can be handy to use on limited or weird areas of effect, to
make them more useful.
 Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration - Druids are full casters, making
these feats as useful as ever, especially if you don't focus on buffing up and
slogging into melee while Wild Shaped.
 Initiate Feats - First introduced in Player's Guide to Faerun Initiate feats add a
new, domain-like power and add some spells to your spell list. Usually they're
cleric-only, but a handful are available to druids. Remember, they often come with
alignment restrictions, and in the Realms you can only take one. (Eberron initiate
feats are more flexible, but oftentimes they aren't compatible for thematic
reasons.)
o Gatekeeper Initiate (EbCS) - This druid-only Initiate feat gives you

Knowledge (planes) as a class skill, and gives a ton of great defensive
spells, including Protection From Evil, Dimensional Anchor, and Mind Blank.
A great pick, especially in high-level parties with no cleric.
o Greensinger Initiate (EbCS) - Adds Bluff, Hide, and Perform to your class
skill list, and adds a ton of handy enchantments (plus some oddballs) to
your spell list. A great Initiate feat.
o Initiate of Grummsh (CoR) - Not a great Initiate feat, but once a day you
can quicken a Cure spell. That's worth something, right? Right?
o Initiate of Malar (PGtF) - Mentioned above, this gives you a handful of

mostly-useless spells and free Augment Summoning on all of your animal
summons.
o Initiate of Selune (PGtF) - This is one of the weaker Initiate feats, but it
gives an improved version of Produce Flame, as well as a shield-typed AC
buff, so it's not all bad.
o Initiate of Shar (CoR) - This one takes you pretty far out of the usual druid
specialties. It adds a couple of unusual skills (Bluff and Disguise) to your
skill list, and gives both Disguise Self and a unique armor-type AC buff to
your spell lists.
o Nightbringer Initiate (FoE) - Adds the sneaky skills (Hide and Move
Silently) to your skill list, and gives you access to Darkness, Deeper
Darkness, and a handful of negative energy spells and spells to create or
call natives of Mabar. Enervation is the nicest spell of the lot.
o Warden Initiate (EbCS) - +2 to AC when in a forest, plus a handful of
useful utility spells. Not as good as the other Eberron Initiate feats, but still
a good feat.
o Initiate of Nature (PGtF) - This has some somewhat handy spells

(Briartangle, Mold Touch, and Tree Healing); Mold Touch plus a summoned
Fire Elemental or used on a fire-breathing creature can do ridiculous
amounts of damage. However, the big, all-but-broken draw is the granted
power. Being able to rebuke animals is almost as good as 3.0 Animal
Companions, and sets this feat apart from the other, more mundane
Initiate Feats. Lilt had some ideas on how to (ab)use Initiate of Nature...
Spoiler:
Avoid:
 Exalted Animal Companion (BoED) - Celestial animals make poor Animal
Companions, as the minor benefits don't outweigh the cost of a feat and the
penalty level for Animal Companion bonuses.
 Extra Wild Shape (CD) - Only good for multiclassed druids or heavy users of Wild
feats, and even then still not that great.
 Feral Animal Companion (CoR) - Negligible boosts to your Animal Companion.

Yawn.
 Power Attack - Power Attack (along with Cleave, but don't bother with Great
Cleave or Whirlwind Attack) requires that you take 13 Str, and eats up valuable
feat slots you could be using on something else. Only take it in core-only games.
 Primeval Wild Shape (Frost) - Not worth the feat slot or the in-combat action,
even though you'll be fine for daily uses of Wild Shape by the time you'd want to
take it.
 Spellcasting Prodigy (FRCS/PGtF) - +2 Wis for the purpose of determining bonus

spells. Whee. It wasn't very good for druids back when it still counted for spell
save DCs, so it's a joke now.
 Metamagic not mentioned above - Even without PrC prereqs to worry about,
druids have far too many good feats to choose from to waste time on situational
metamagic feats.
 Wild feats not mentioned above - Besides Lion's Charge and Savage Grapple
(which is mentioned below in the Multiclassing section), all the others totally suck.
Just use Wild Shape or your spells. - This advice may be out of date, if other Wild
Feats have been introduced since DMG2.
-----
Animal Companion:
Animal Companions don't talk, and they share buffs with you. In practice, this means that
they're really only useful as partners in combat and/or fighting mounts.
Save for war-trained animals (of which there are few), your Animal Companion isn't going
to be proficient with armor. Despite this, get them some masterwork or magical leather
or padded barding; every little edge is worth it, and they take no penalties as long as
there are no armor check penalties. Likewise, remember that your animals get feats from
their bonus hit dice (but they don't get size increases).
This list assumes that size Medium or smaller is the ideal size for an animal companion,
so that the companion isn't getting in the way of the rest of the party. Companions larger
than Medium are marked as such. The best Medium Animal Companion is without a doubt
Fleshraker Dinosaur, but if that is inappropriate for your game you'll probably want to
stick with Riding Dog or Crocodile, or look into the alternate Animal Companion feats (like
Exalted Animal Companion and Vermin Companion.)
The Horrid Animal Companions are particularly flavorful for a Gatekeeper druid in
Eberron, although they are hardly prohibited to the other sects or a druid not from one of
the Eldeen druidic sects. It would be exceedingly unusual for an Ashbound druid to have
anything to do with Horrid Animals, though. (Implied by not explicitly stated is the
suggestion that you could make any dire animal a Horrid Animal and take it as your
Animal Companion at effective druid level -3. In that case, a Horrid Eagle is far superior
to a Horrid Bat, and a Horrid Tortoise would be absolutely unstoppable. In general, Horrid
gives much better bonuses than three levels of druid boosts.)
Sandstorm, Frostburn, and the Eberron Campaign Setting add new options for druid
Animal Companions, and many creatures have an Animal Companion listing right there in
the creature's listing. Players' Handbook 2 has a unified list, including errata for many
previous choices.
 Level 1
o Riding dog - Make sure yours is trained for war, per the monster entry.
Tough, relatively hard-hitting, can wear barding without wasting feats.
Superior in every way to a wolf. Good mount (small druids only) and
substitute low-level tank if you give it barding.
o Heavy horse - Fast mount for medium druids. Large.
o Swindlespitter Dinosaur (MM3) - Harasser with paralyzing AoE attack
 Level 4
o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - Pouncer/tripper/grappler with poison.
o Crocodile - Grappler and general slugger. (PHB 3.5 and PHB2 confirm that
this is a level 4 choice. The SRD lists it as available at level 1 for aquatic
druids; the SRD is wrong in this case.)
o Dire Bat - Flying mount for medium druids. Large.
 Level 7
o Brown Bear - Grappler. Not as good in a grapple as Giant Crocodile, but

better-rounded and harder-hitting in a straight fight. Large.
o Cave Anklyosaurus (MiniHB/PHB2) - A tough trampler that hits almost as

hard as a Giant Crocodile. Large.
o Giant Crocodile - Hard-hitting grappler. Huge.
o Dire Eagle (RoS) - Flying mount for medium characters, for games where
Horrid animals aren't available. Large.
o Horrid Bat (EbCS) - Flying mount, replaces Dire Bat. Large.
o Magebred Ghost Tiger (5N) - Hard-hitting and tough pouncer. It's only
arguably better than Fleshraker. Large.
 Level 10
o Allosaurus (MM2/PHB2) - Hard-hitting grappler and quite passable

trampler. (Not as good at trampling as the Dire Tortoise, though.) This is
your ideal offensive choice at this level. Huge.
o Bloodstriker Dinosaur (MM3) - An offensively- and defensively-balanced

choice. (Don't mistake it for a game-balanced choice. It eats melee
attackers alive.) It has tons of HP and decent AC, but can still deal
respectable damage (especially with Powerful Charge). Plus, anyone who
tries to attack it in melee will take a dozen damage per hit.
o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - Trampler, unlikely-but-effective scout and mount.

This is the ideal defensive choice at this level (bordering on being broken;
many CR-appropriate foes won't be able to do much against it), with plenty
of HP and AC. Huge.
o Dragonhawk (5N) - Fast flying mount, with Blindsense and some fairly
decent attacks. It's big enough to carry several party members, depending
on encumbrance. Huge.
o Smilodon (Frost) - Pouncer. It's not better than the Allosaurus, but it's
better than a Ghost Tiger and marginally better than a Brown Bear in a
straight fight.
 Level 13
o Dire Bear - Grappler and just generally mean brute. You could use it as a
mount, I guess. Large.
o Giant Banded Lizard (Sand) - Grappler and general combatant with poison,
possible mount. Huge.
 Level 16
o Dire Elephant (Sand/MM2) - Trampler and possible mount. Gargantuan.
o Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur - Grappler and very stylish mount. Replaces Dire

Bear. Huge.
o Horrid Bear (EbCS) - Grappler, replaces Dire Bear where Tyrannosaurus is

inappropriate. Large.
o Dire Tiger - Pouncer, finally replaces Fleshraker Dinosaur (arguably). Large.
o Roc (Sand/MM) - Flying mount for the entire party, replaces Horrid Bat
(assuming size isn't an issue). Gargantuan.
 Level 19
o Horrid Elephant (EbCS) - Trampler, replaces Dire Elephant. Gargantuan.

o Horrid Tiger (EbCS) - Pouncer, replaces Dire Tiger. Large.
Vermin Companion (EbCS) allows you to take a vermin companion instead of an Animal
Companion. The vermin companion list is short and doesn't have many useful creatures
on it, but some players may want to take the feat for flavor reasons, so here's some help.
 Level 1
o Monstrous Scorpion, Medium - Not actually very good, but the best of the
mediocre choices available, if you must have a vermin companion as soon
as you take the feat.
 Level 4
o Giant Praying Mantis - Flying mount. Not a great flier, but both a good
combatant and a passable grappler.
o Giant Wasp - Flying mount. Better flier and has poison, but only has one
sucky attack.
 Level 7
o Giant Stag Beetle - Trampler/just-plain-attacker, and not a bad mount.
__________________
T-Minus 15.193792102158E+9 years until the universe closes!
Last edited by A Man In Black : 12-16-06 at 02:28 AM. Reason: yet another update
#2
11-03-06, 08:08 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
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Re: Druid Handbook revived
WILD SHAPE:
Just remember...
Druids are competent spellcasters, but a large amount of their power comes from Wild
Shape, which gives them attack power, mobility, and durability. Even after the Polymorph
errata, Wild Shape-using druids are still fearsome melee combatants, able to stand on
the front line of the party.
Before everything else, read Haterkaze's advice on how to play a shapechanging

character. While the bulk of the guide is for characters using Master of Many Form, the
advice on talking to your GM and working with the party is very sound.
You may note the lack of an Elemental Wild Shape section. Elemental Wild Shape used to
be useless, as animals and plants offer more-capable combat forms and utility forms.
(Gharlane did an excellent benchmark test of Elemental versus animal forms,
available here.) However, you now get the Elemental type traits (albeit not the Elemental
type) when you use Elemental Wild Shape. This means you get Darkvision 60' and lots of
sweet immunities. This will be better incorporated into the guide at some point.
More Wild Shaping strategy advice will be coming, but in the meantime... Once you have
enough uses of Wild Shape and a long enough duration to stay in an animal form all the
time, do so whenever possible. If communication is a problem, look for telepathic
alternatives. Rary's Telepathic Bond, Lesser Telepathic Bond (XPH), and the Mindlink
psionic power (XPH) can both solve the problem of your inability to speak. This, of
course, goes doubly for Buommans.
The authors' favorite forms are in bold. These are the forms you're going to want to
trade up to. In general, a plant form is better than an animal form when all other things
are equal, because of the pile of immunities that come with plant form.
Wild Shapes come in a lot of forms, but generally fall into one (or more) of a handful of
different roles. These roles include...
Grappler:
A specialty of the various varieties of bear and squid, and one of the most powerful Wild
Shape strategies, as it maximizes your strengths (high Str, large size) while minimizing
your weaknesses (generally poor AC). These forms are generally some of your best pure
combat forms, whether or not you decide to actually grapple.
All of these forms have Improved Grab, and most of them have high strength, large size,
and/or Abilities like Constrict and Swallow Whole.
Swallow Whole is a double-edged sword: yes, you're damaging the victim and keeping it
from harming your friends or casting spells, but it can attack your very, very low gullet
AC and do nasty damage. (If you get a chance to Swallow something with no light
slashing/piercing weapon or natural attacks, go for it.) And never, ever, ever eat
anything immune to acid. (Grapple checks, where noted below, don't include BAB. Just
add your BAB to the grapple number listed below to get your grapple check total when in
that form.)
 Level 5
o Crocodile - Grapple check: +4 - The grappler form of choice if Fleshraker is
out of the question. Hard-hitting enough to be useful even outside of a
grapple.
o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - Grapple check: +3 - An absolutely OMG

form, if it's allowed. Fleshrakers can charge, pounce, trip, pin, and poison,
all in one round, and also has great AC to boot. You're going to see this
role a lot in the other lists, and it remains awesome whenever you have to
charge something, especially if it's medium-sized or smaller.
 Level 8
o Brown/Polar Bear - Grapple check: +12 - The quintessential grappler

form, with strong attacks, fair AC, and a great grapple check. The bears
are versatile enough to fight a crowd, then grab a tough foe and tear it
apart in a grapple. (Choose Polar if you want to min-max every tiny bit; the
two are identical with regard to Wild Shape save for the Polar Bear's swim
speed.)
o Dire Lion - Grapple check: +11 - If the Fleshraker isn't available, this is an
interesting compromise between first-strike charger forms and slugger
grappler forms like the Polar Bear. It isn't as hard-hitting as most
traditional grappler forms, though.
 Level 9
o Cave Tyrannosaurus (MiniHB) - Grapple check: +11 - Not quite as

hardhitting as Polar Bear, but this is your first form with Swallow Whole
(which only works on Small or smaller foes, mind).
o Smilodon (Sabre-Toothed Tiger) (Frost) - Grapple check: +11 - A marginal

improvement on Dire Lion: x3 critical on bite, best attack is primary, claw
attacks can start grapple.
 Level 12
o Dire Bear - Grapple check: +14 - Like the Polar Bear, only moreso.
o Warhound Impaler (Lesser Battlebriar) (MM3) - Grapple check: +10 -

This isn't the hardest-hitting or strongest grappler, but it can impale
(Medium-sized or smaller) grappled foes on its thorns with a free-action
grapple check, rendering them helpless. Not pinned, not grappled, but
helpless. Plus, it has an AOE attack and tramples! Plant.
 Level 15
o Giant Banded Lizard (Sand) - Grapple check: +17 - Comparable to the Dire
Bear in damage output, but has better grapple check and poisoned claws.
It has terrible AC, though.
o Ironmaw (FF) - Grapple check: +N/A - This isn't strictly a grappler, but it

fights like one. Ironmaws have six tendrils with ridiculous reach, and a
tendril hit can attach to a foe, pulling them within reach of the Ironmaw's
so-so bite or OMG Engulf ability, which does fair damage and suffocates.
Tendril hits also cause bleeding and Con damage. Did I mention the
Ironmaw has great AC? The only drawback is the exceedingly low speed,
which keeps you from staying in Ironmaw form all day. Plant.
o Octopus Tree (FF) - Grapple check: +18 - Eight(!) Improved Grab

attacks, Swallow Whole, great damage, and frightful presence. A top-tier
grappler form. Too slow on land to spend all your time in this form outside
of an aquatic campaign, and it isn't clear if it breathes water or air. Plant.
o Tendriculos - Grapple check: +17 - The ultimate Swallower. Anything that

can't make the DC 20 Fort save before cutting its way out will die. Plant.
 Level 18
o Dire Polar Bear (Frost) - Grapple check: +23 - The ultimate grappler

form.
o Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur - Grapple check: +17 - The core-only alternative

to the Dire Polar Bear or Giant Banded Lizard. Isn't as tough or hard-
hitting, but it's a heck of a lot more stylish, and it does have Swallow
Whole.
Charger:
Bipedal dinosaurs and big cats specialize in charging into battle and dealing as much
damage as possible as fast as possible. The best forms usually have pounce and rakes,
but a few forms with a single powerful natural attack and the powerful charge ability are
also worth using.
Not many charger forms are bolded as recommended; this is mostly because charger
forms are a matter of taste. Big cats dabble in grappling and can only bring their rakes to
bear when charging or grappling, bipedal pouncer dinosaurs hit slightly harder and don't
grapple, triceratopses have the Triceratops Shuffle, and rhinos have one powerful gore
that does double damage on a charge. If you use big cats and bipedal dinosaurs often
enough, you may want Multiattack, and if you use horned chargers often enough, you
may want Power Attack.
 Level 5
o Deinonychus Dinosaur (MM errata) - Nothing can compare to Fleshraker,
but this is fine in a fight on its own merits.
o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - An absolutely OMG charger form. Charge

and you can pounce, trip, pin, and poison (and the poison is Dex poison,
diminishing a foe's ability to use Escape Artist to escape). If it's available,
use it!
o Leopard - The core-only and no-dinosaurs alternative to the Fleshraker and

Deinonychus. Not a dynamo, but decent in its own way.
o Protoceratops Dinosaur (Sand) - A fairly decent rhino-style charger. A bit

tougher and harder-hitting than Deinonychus, but not as good when it
comes to stand toe-to-toe, and definitely not as good as the Fleshraker.
 Level 8
o Cave Triceratops (MiniHB) - The first form where you can try the
Triceratops Shuffle. Charge a foe (doing double damage because of
Powerful Charge), then Trample that foe and move away as part of the
Trample move. Then charge again, and repeat. This isn't the best charger
or trampler, but the combination is killer.
o Dire Lion - The benchmark charger form, with Improved Grab on the side.
Pounce on an enemy, grapple, and tear them apart. (Then again, though, if
you think you can win the grapple easily, Fleshraker might still be a better
choice.)
o Megaraptor Dinosaur (MM errata) - This is harder-hitting than Dire Lion and
doesn't rely on Rakes to deal damage (and is thus better in a toe-to-toe
fight), but it doesn't grapple. Use it for charging and fighting foes you
couldn't grapple anyway.
o Rhinoceros - WHAM. One big nasty hit, especially when charging but even
in a toe-to-toe fight.
 Level 9
o Smilodon (Sabre-Toothed Tiger) (Frost) - This is a marginal improvement

on the Dire Lion. It has x3 critical on its bite, its best attack is primary, and
its claw attacks can start a grapple). That said, you're unlikely to notice the
difference between the two in practice.
 Level 16
o Dire Tiger - An incremental improvement on Smilodon and Dire Lion, and
good for the same reasons.
o Triceratops Dinosaur - The real deal when it comes to the Triceratops

Shuffle. Charge, trample and move away, charge, trample and move away,
repeat until dead. If you've got Power Attack, you're going to want to use
it.
Trampler
A specialty of elephants, herbivorous dinosaurs, and Treants. Most tramplers are Large-
or Huge-sized, and have a high-damage attack or two. Trampling is great for taking out
mooks (including swarms!), but most of the tramplers can also do a decent job of
slugging it out with individual larger enemies. When buffing, remember that increased
Strength ups the save DC for your trample as well as your damage.
 Level 8
o Cave Anklyosaurus (MiniHB) - Large, 3d6+7, DC 18 - Awesome AC and
its single attack is still quite effective, when trampling isn't practical.
o Cave Triceratops (MiniHB) - Large, 3d6+6, DC 18 - As mentioned above,

this is the first form where you can try the Triceratops Shuffle. Charge a
foe (doing double damage because of Powerful Charge), then Trample that
foe and move away as part of the Trample move. Then charge again, and
repeat. This isn't the best charger or trampler, but the combination is killer.
 Level 9
o Diprotodon Dinosaur (Sand) - Large, 2d6+12, DC 22 - It tramples, doing a

better job than the Cave Dinosaurs. Other than that, it's fairly
unremarkable, besides the pathetically low AC.
 Level 12
o Warhound Impaler (Lesser Battlebriar) (MM3) - Large, d8+9, DC 22 -

Besides rendering grappled foes helpless and blasting everyone nearby
with an AOE attack, it also tramples. Not well, but it tramples. Plant.
 Level 15
o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - Huge, 4d8+12, DC 25 - Respectable trample

damage, great AC, and it always gets a surprise round. An OMG form.
o Elephant - Huge, 2d8+15, DC 25 - The first core trampler you'll get access
to, but it's inferior to the non-core alteratives.
o Grizzly Mastodon (MM2) - Huge, 4d8+18, DC 29 - A massively hard-hitting

trampler, either in a trample or a melee. It isn't as tough as the Dire
Tortoise, though.
o Saguaro Sentinel (Sand) - Huge, 3d6+16, DC 27 - A compromise

between Grizzly Mastodon (it's almost as strong) and Dire Tortoise (it's
almost as tough). It doesn't trample as well as either, though. As a nice
little bonus, though, it talks. Plant.
 Level 16
o Triceratops Dinosaur - Huge, 2d12+15, DC 28 - Not quite the trampler the

Grizzly Mastodon is, but it can do the Triceratops Shuffle.
Defensive - I need to hit my books, because this section is out of date. Now, I need to
check for high AC without worrying about Con.
Sometimes you just need to avoid or shrug off attacks. Maybe you're focusing on
spellcasting, or maybe you just want to get away. These forms have high AC, sometimes
paired with defensive abilities (which will need to technically be "Special Attacks", due to
the limitations of Wild Shape). Note that this list doesn't include any non-core choices
without AC of 20 or better or Con of 22 or better. (This means that there are few core
defensive forms.) Exceptions are made for forms with exceptional special abilities.
 Level 5
o Desmodu Hunting Bat - AC 20, Con 13 - Your starter defensive form, with
AC 20 and touch AC of 17. Doesn't hurt at all that it flies.
 Level 8
o Cave Anklyosaurus (MiniHB) - AC 24, Con 21 - Ridiculously high AC for

this level, as well as decent attacks and effective trample.
o Dire Bat - AC 20, Con 17 - This will be pretty much your only core
defensive form for most of your career, if you don't have any access to
non-core choices. AC 20, with touch AC 15, goes a long way.
 Level 12
o Ironthorn (Sand) - AC 24 - A massively tough form, and has ridiculously

high-DC paralytic poison (along with decent reach and some mediocre
grappling ability). Too slow to stay in this form all the time, though. Plant.
o Legendary Eagle (MM2) - AC 25, Con 17 - A very evasive form, with a

ridiculous touch AC of 21. Doesn't hurt at all that it's a fast flier.
o Treant - AC 20, Con 21 - Plant immunities, decent AC, and fairly good Con,
rounded out with decent attacks and okay trample. It's not great at one
thing and there are non-core forms that eclipse it, but it's a versatile mid-
level form. Plus, it talks! Plant.
 Level 14
o Legendary Wolf (MM2) - AC 24, Con 27 - A well-rounded defensive form,

but not strong or large enough to be an impressive tripper or even much of
a melee combatant.
 Level 15
o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - AC 25 - The Dire Tortoise is one of the toughest

forms in the game, and it's nearly impossible to ambush to boot.
o Saguaro Sentinel (Sand) - AC 22 - Plant immunities and great AC, paired

with strong attacks and usably-strong trample. It hits, it takes hits, and it
even talks. Plant.
Aerial:
Besides the obvious long-distance travel and scouting uses, druids who favor using their
spells for offense will spend most of their time in aerial forms, not just because of the
maneuverability but because of the high Dex for touch attacks, AC, and initiative checks.
(Contrast this with grappling forms, where combat spellcasting is usually confined to
buffs before or at the beginning of a fight.) Generally, they aren't as good in melee as the
land- or water-bound alternatives, but maneuverability does come at a price.
 Level 5
o Desmodu Hunting Bat (MM2) - Speed 60 ft. (good) - Very good Dex and
AC, and an odd wolf-like trip attack.
o Dire Hawk (RotW) - Speed 80 ft. (average) - Faster than Desmodu Hunting
Bat, but has slightly lower Dex and AC, and isn't as hard-hitting.
o Eagle - Speed 80 ft. (average) - The best core-only flier at this level, but
has mediocre AC and Dex, and abysmal attacks.
 Level 8
o Desmodu Guard Bat (MM2) - Speed 60 ft. (good) - Exactly like Dire Bat,
only faster. A balanced flier form.
o Dire Bat - Speed 40 ft. (good) - A typical aerial form, with good AC, good
Dex, and a single, mediocre attack. Inferior to the non-core options.
o Dire Eagle (RoS) - Speed 60 ft. (average) - Very strong for a flier, able to
attack somewhat effectively or carry a party member or two. Compared to
the other fliers, its AC and Dex aren't very good, but they're passable.
o Dire Vulture (Sand) - Speed 80 ft. (average) - Inferior to the other choices
for fliers, but not egregiously so, and it's handy if you need to fly and need
a monstrously high fort save for some reason. Plus, its Stench ability can
disable low-Fort enemies.
 Level 12
o Desmodu War Bat (MM2) - Speed 40 ft. (good) - A fairly hard-hitting

attacker, large enough to carry party members. Only slightly less evasive
than Legendary Eagle, but physically much stronger.
o Legendary Eagle (MM2) - Speed 100 ft. (average) - Renders obsolete all

the previous flying forms. Massive Dex means great AC and initiative
checks.
 Level 15
o Dragonhawk (5N) - Speed 120 ft. (average) - A hard-hitting and fast flying
form, large enough to carry your allies. Not as agile as Legendary Eagle,
though. It has Blindsense you can pick up with Enhance Wild Shape, as
well.
Aquatic:
Sometimes, you're going to have to spend some time in the water. These forms have
swim speeds, and, unless noted otherwise, can breathe water indefinitely.
 Level 5
o Crocodile - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Same as the reasons above. Doesn't
breathe water.
o Squid - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Not as strong as crocodile, but has
more attacks and breathes water.
o Medium Shark - Utility form. Fast swimmer, decent biter.
 Level 8
o Polar Bear - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Same as the reasons above.
Doesn't breathe water.
o Giant Octopus - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Not as strong as polar bear,
but has vastly many more attacks, Constrict, and water breathing.
o Large Shark - Utility form. Speedy swimmer, but not terribly handy in a
fight compared to the alternatives.
 Level 15
o Giant Squid - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Hard-hitting and awesome in a

grapple. One of the best aquatic forms period.
o Octopus Tree (FF) - Grappler (Grap +??)/utility form. Eight Improved Grab
attacks, Swallow Whole, great damage, decent swim speed, and frightful
presence. Still need to compare this to Giant Squid.
 Level 18
o Dire Polar Bear (Frost) - Grappler (Grap +??) form. Like the Polar Bear,
only moreso. Doesn't breathe water.
Spy:
Sometimes you need to sneak in, all subtle-like. These forms will help you do that;
nobody will ever be suspicious of a horse.
 Level 5 - Dog, Riding Dog, Donkey, and Pony
 Level 8 - Mule and Heavy Warhorse
 Level 11 - Tiny Viper (use Venomfire (Serp) and it's the perfect assassination
form), Cat, Rat, Hawk, and Raven
 Level 18 - Legendary Horse (MM2) - One of the very few spy forms with some
combat ability.
Tool-User
Medium-sized, more-or-less-human-shaped forms which can use your equipment
normally instead of having it meld into your Wild Shape form. This is a hideously powerful
strategy at high levels, but you need to drop all your stuff and pick it up again, meaning
you'll need a long Wild Shape duration as well as time to prepare. (Many GMs will house-
rule this controversial rule; see more below in the Controversial Options section.)
 Level 5
o Baboon - Str 15 Dex 14 AC 13 - It probably has better stats than your
physical stats, and it has natural armor and a bite attack. All in all, not too
bad.
 Level 12
o Vine Horror (FF) - Str 18 Dex 10 AC 18 - Inferior to Legendary Ape (except

in that it can talk), but Vine Horrors are naturally intelligent and tool-using,
so a strict GM may be more lenient. (Plus, spiffy plant-type immunities.)
Useless at this level except as a tool-user. Plant.
 Level 13
o Legendary Ape (MM2) - Str 30 Dex 17 AC 19 - Massively strong and

surprisingly tough, and has a full set of powerful natural attacks to go with
any weapons you might have. It's still useful without the item-melding rule,
because of high Str, powerful attacks, and rend.
Utility
Everything else. They may have useful or unusual in- or out-of-combat abilities, or
otherwise deserve special mention.
 Level 5
o Swindlespitter Dinosaur (MM3) - AOE blinding poison attack (combine it
with Venomfire from Serpent Kingdoms!), and may double as a spy form in
certain areas. (MM3 says some cultures consider Swindlespitters to be
sacred.)
 Level 8
o Dire Wolf - Has the strength and size to actually use trip ability, in those
situations where tripping is possible but grappling isn't feasible. AC is fairly
low, however.
o Valenar Riding Horse (EbCS) - Long distance travel form, with its 80 ft.
land speed. Plus, you can carry a party member.
 Level 12
o Ironthorn (Sand) - This tough form has a paralytic posion with an insanely
high DC for the level. Use it to paralyze your foes.
o Myconid Sovereign (MM2) - The Sovereign has a range of spell-likes that

aren't really spell-likes. Handy ones you can use include telepathy spores,
animate dead spores, and pacifying spores.
o Warhound Impaler (Lesser Battlebriar) (MM3) - It grapples foes and

makes them completely helpless. It has an AOE attack with decent
damage. It tramples. It's just a handy, versatile form.
 Level 15
o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - The perfect form for while you're on guard duty.
Yeah, other forms may get boosts to Spot, Listen, or Hide, but how many
forms guarantee that you can't be ambushed? Always acting in the surprise
round (even if you don't surprise your foes at all!) is a great ability.
o Grizzly Mastodon (MM2) - At Str 35, this is almost the strongest Wild Shape
form there is. Use it when Walls of Stone need to be pushed over, or you
need to win a tug of war against the entire clan of orcs on your own.
o Treant - Besides being a versatile combatant, Treants do double damage

against objects. When you need to sunder an Unholy sword or break down
a door, the Treant is the form for the job.
o Yellow Musk Creeper (FF) - The Yellow Musk Creeper's Mind Puff ability
makes enemies helpless at range. Plus, you can eat your opponent's brain,
and then as long as you stay in that form, they will serve you until they die
in two months.
 Level 18
o Dire Polar Bear (Frost) - Besides being a great grappler, at Str 39 this is

the single strongest Wild Shape form you can get. (Can anyone find any
that are stronger?) Use it when you need to lift a house off its foundations
or break through an adamantine door.
Vermin:
A druid with the Vermin Wild Shape feat (EbCS), the 10th level wasteland druid
substitution level (Sand), or Vestments of Verminshape (DMG2) can use Wild Shape to
take the form of Vermin creatures.
More to come...
Aberration:
If you take Aberration Wild Shape (LoM), you can use Wild Shape to turn into
aberrations, subject to the other usual limitations of Wild Shape.
This is another section still in development. As such, take the advice with a grain of salt.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
In the meantime, here's some advice on Aberration Wild Shape.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alansmithee

Generally, you can find more attacks with abberations than with animal forms, but
usually at a lower Str. Many creatures with these attacks will have poison, grab, or both
with them. Obviously, these forms get the most milage out of Greater Magic Fang, as
usually 4+ of the attacks are with the same type of natural weapon. As was said above,
having access to assume supernatural form makes abberation wildshaping stupidly
good (a prime target for this feat would be the Beholder's Eye Ray ability, which nets all
10 rays for use). Another benefit of abberation wildshaping is the humanoid form many
take, which makes using equipment much easier, and often will allow for speech.
And from the above list, some of my favorites are the cloaker for casting early on (if
you don't want to waste a spell, fly up and moan), the rukanyr for it's multiple attacks
and stun/poison, the darktentacles for it's insane grapple, and the lifeleech otyugh for
it's grab and high stats.
 Level 5
o Rust Monster - Useful for sabotage, removing metal walls, etc.
o Tako (OA) - Seven arms for weapons or Improved Grab/Constrict, aquatic,

Multidexterity bonus feat.
 Level 8
o Cloaker - Area-effect moan, and goofy Engulf ability.
o Ineffable Horror (Und) - Flight, grapple and blood drain.
o Rukanyr (FF) - High AC at 7hd, one stunning attack, 3 poisoning attacks, 6

other claw attacks
o Mimic - adhesive (auto-grapple, can trap weapons)
 Level 9
o Stonesinger (MM3) - High nat armour, burrow+climb speed, poison bite+6

claws, decent Str
o Lifeleech Otyugh (MM3) - 4 tentacles+bite, imp grab+Constrict, high Str
 Level 10
o Hook Horror (MM2) - Imp Grab, power sunder, decent stats, climb speed
 Level 11
o Chuul - An alternative to Dire Bear. Lower grapple check and less damage
in straight attacks because of lower Str, but its Constrict does comparable
damage in a grapple, it can paralyze grappled foes, and it has better AC.
 Level 12
o Death Kiss Beholderkin (MonOF) - 10(!) tentacle attacks, each doing Con
damage
o Urophion (LoM) - 50' range melee touch attack that does strength damage
and lets you drag the victim in to eat his brain. One of the best aberration
forms.
o Ocularon (FF) - Large 12HD, 90' fly speed (perfect) decent ac (21), imp
grab w/ 4 tentacles, steal eyes and gain poison attack with those eyes
o Darktentacles (MM2) - 12 attacks (up to 3 at a single square), can use

weapons at lowered penalties, decent stats, imp grab w/ +16 racial bonus
 Level 15
o Athach - Human-shaped form, with high stats and a poison bite.
o Deepspawn (PGtF) - Three "hands," great reach, good stats, lots of natural
attacks, Improved Grab/Constrict
o Delver - High AC and an acid attack that is exceedingly effective against

metallic or stony foes.
 Level 18
o Nagahydra (Serp) - seven bites with potent poison, massive stats
o Moonbeast (MM2) - 10(!) powerful attacks, plus Constrict AND bite on a

grapple
 Level 20
o Chilblain (Frost) - A flier that deals respectable damage and has massive
AC.
o Maulgoth (FF) - Send enemies (or allies) to ethereal plane with a touch.
Last edited by A Man In Black : 12-16-06 at 02:31 AM. Reason: Latest update
#4
11-03-06, 08:09 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Placeholder post
#5
11-03-06, 08:10 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Miscellaneous unincorporated notes
Anything here is random tidbits from my near-dead old hard drive. It might be good
advice, or out of date, or duplicated elsewhere. Don't say I didn't warn you.
5th Level
Call Avalanche (Frost) - Low damage for its level, but has a large area of effect (10
ft/level radius) and buries Large or smaller creatures that fail a Ref save. Buried
creatures slowly take nonlethal and then lethal damage if they can't get out of the snow.
Memory Rot (MoF) - Instantaneous spell effect that does permanent Int drain to the
target each round until they make a Fort save. There appears to be no way except a
successful Fort save to stop this, as this isn't a poison or disease and can't be dispelled.
6
entomb (drd 6, FB): can take out several enemies; even if it doesn't kill them it still
keeps them from casting and does cold (and possibly con damage
7
Level 7: control weather, flesh to salt (mass), windwalk
- master earth (drd 7, MoF): greater teleport for druids

Rain of Roses (BoED) - Evil creatures in the huge AoE take Wis damage each round (no
save) and are sickened if they fail a save. Especially great if you get a wizard to cast
Solid Fog or a similar spell first.
Aura of Vitality (CD/PGtF)
Level 8
Mantle of The Fiery Spirit (Sand) - cast this one along with the frost version and become
immune to both cold and fire.
Word of Recall (PHB) - druid's quick escape.
[*]Earthquake- while not combat friendly, this is a very tactical spell.
[*]Word of Recall - your only teleportation ability.
Level 9
[*]Regenerate - Excellent healing spell.
Storm of Vengeance (PHB) - really good in a war.
-----
As Arismir said, something on how druids can have synergy with other partymembers
would be great, but difficult to write because druids can fill so many party roles.
So far it seems rogue is a natural fit, because druids can provide opportunities for sneak
attacks: a grappled foe loses its dex bonus against anyone he's not grappling with, and a
summon-based druid could easily provide flanking opportunities when he summons a
bunch of Nature's Allies. Grapplers generally won't work together with ranged attackers,
because they have 50% chance to hit their ally.
Another druid would also work well, because one of them could cast Animal Growth and
the whole furry bunch would benefit. Besides, druids can fill many roles in a party, they
could focus on different aspects.
-----
Wyrmfang Amulet (Drac) 2500 - Ignore X/magic DR with natural attacks

Sharkskin armor (RoF) instead of studded leather
-----
Still need to add Hound of the Gloom (LoM)
Also, I totally forgot to even check the Lords of Madness for new abberations. Quickly
glancing through, there's a 12HD pouncing, grabbing, poisoning creature (hound of the
gloom, only 22 str though) and a roper-like creature that looks very interesting (can
extract brains, and tentacles that do 2d8 strength [with a save])
-----
Druid PrCs:
Nature's Warrior
Warshaper
Moonspeaker(!) - -3 levels of wild shape, for awesome casting. Bears special mention!
Vermin Keeper (Und)?
Beastmaster (CAdv)
Daggerspell Shaper (CAdv) - Grappling forms (w/Savage Grapple) only - halfling
monk1/druid5/DSshaper2/Nature'sWarrior1/DSshaper8/druid3 - Vine Strike and
Wracking Touch spells in CAdv - This assumes that DS Shaper advances the hit die cap
Mention Arcane Heirophant, Beastmaster, and Blighter (I guess) in passing
Arcane Heirophant (RotW), Fochluchan Lyrist (CAdv), and Master of Many Forms (CAdv)
are beyond the scope of this guide - Any links for handbooks on them?
Unusual druid specialties:

Grappling
Shifting - Warshaper/INA/Braid of Dire Shifting/Shifter sub level stacking.
Controversial:
IUS and nat attacks
Monk's Belt
Druids of Mielikki and weapon proficiencies
Mention brambles/spikes on bronzewood bludgeoning weapons.
If you can get your hands on it, a Dragonhide, Bluewood (UE), or Wildwood (RotW)
breastplate (or full plate, if you get Armor Proficiency (Heavy) from somewhere) is better
than leather armor. Wild Shape Amulets (MoF) are also good for those who can swing a
Wis-boosing ioun stone. (Just get rid of it at level 17...which happens to be when you get
Shapechange.)
A note for possible future optimization: the halfling druid sub level (RoE) at 5th level
opens up access to tiny dragon forms, in combination with Draconic Wild Shape. I
couldn't find any interesting tiny dragon forms, but maybe someone else can. If you can
stomach not spontaneously summoning for a while, the first halfling sub level might be
worth it, too...who doesn't want spontaneous Freedom of Movement?
Last edited by A Man In Black : 11-10-06 at 01:48 AM.
#6
11-03-06, 08:13 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
I dug this out of an old, defunct hard drive, at the same time as the password for the
WOTC forums. I noticed the creaky old Yekoj thread has been linked everywhere as the
Druid Handbook, when Paradisio and I put a lot of work into updating it.
I couldn't find any way to search for it, so a link to the old thread would be appreciated.
Likewise, I've been out of the D&D loop for a while, so any advice on wildshape forms,
feats, equipment, companions, spells, or whatever. I know there's the Polymorph errata
that gets rid of the once-dominant equipment-wearing Legendary Ape and abuse of high-
CON forms, so that's going to be incorporated immediately.
Any other advice?
#7
11-03-06, 08:20 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Some stuff I found:
The old thread

Tealgorthian's very sweet Moonspeaker guide
Polymorph errata, in easy-to-read form
Arismir's guide to the PHB2 Shapeshift druid
Tweedledope's Planar Shepherd (Faiths of Eberron) thread
Xeraph's Spirit Shaman guide
Plus there's the old link repository:
 Druidic Spell Combos - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=290658
 Alter Self Forms - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=176246
 Dragon Wild Shape Forms - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?

t=404381
 Shapechange Forms - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=226959
 Master of Many Forms Bible - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?

t=363632
 Uberling Druid (3.0) Handbook, by Uberling and Yekoj

- http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=165279
 Paradisio's "Updated Druid Handbook", this thread's predecessor

- http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=391598
Last edited by A Man In Black : 11-27-06 at 05:21 AM. Reason: Added the Spirit Shaman guide
#8
11-03-06, 08:33 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Does anyone know if shifting works with post-errata Wild Shape? MM3 is unclear;
"Shifting 1/day" is listed as a SA, but "Shifter traits" are listed as SQ.
Also, are there any good cold-typed Magical Beast forms besides Twelve-Headed
Cryohydra, particularly in later books?
Last edited by A Man In Black : 11-03-06 at 09:02 PM.
#9
11-03-06, 08:56 PM
Join Date: May 2004
fnord Location: CWRU, Cleveland, Ohio
Member

I applaud you efforts in updating this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Man In Black

For those who play with age penalties, nearly every druid is going to want to be middle-
aged (-1 on physical stats, +1 on mental ones) and every druid level 7 and above is
going to want to be venerable (-6 on physical stats, +3 on mental ones).
I'm not so sure that Venerable is a good idea anymore. +3 to mental stats is nice, but -6
Con is a killer (often literally). Middle-aged is certainly still good, though.
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#10
11-03-06, 09:17 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by fnord

I applaud you efforts in updating this.
I'm not so sure that Venerable is a good idea anymore. +3 to mental stats is nice, but -
6 Con is a killer (often literally). Middle-aged is certainly still good, though.
Noted, and it'll fixed be in the next update. Thanks for the heads-up.
#11
11-03-06, 09:30 PM
Join Date: Aug 2003
PhoenixInferno Location: Everett, WA
Member

In Surreal's index, there's a Shapeshift (PHBII alternate class feature) Druid guide. The
Planar Shepherd (from Faiths of Eberron) is disturbing, and a handbook has been written.
#12
11-03-06, 09:35 PM
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Astral plane
Suin Bahhar
Member
High level druids get the bonusses but not the minusses of old age, forgot the name of
this ability but it still makes old druids very scary.
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#13
11-03-06, 09:38 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixInferno

In Surreal's index, there's a Shapeshift (PHBII alternate class feature) Druid guide. The
Planar Shepherd (from Faiths of Eberron) is disturbing, and a handbook has been
written.
Links? I'm a bit out of the loop.
#14
11-03-06, 10:40 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Well, I've done the first pass working on Polymorph stuff, and added a bunch of links. I
found the new Shapeshift druid guide (which I'll just summarize and link, since it's pretty
straightforward), but not the Planar Shepard guide.
Does anyone know if Wild Shape and Shifting still work together? If not, I've got a bunch
to rewrite.
#15
11-03-06, 10:42 PM
Join Date: Aug 2003
PhoenixInferno Location: Everett, WA
Member

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=482636
Just about everything is in there.
#16
11-03-06, 10:53 PM
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Litchfield, MN
Shadow_Fox_Deepwood_Arche
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suin Bahhar

Quote:
Originally Posted by SRD

Timeless Body (Ex)
After attaining 15th level, a druid no longer takes ability score penalties for aging and
cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however,
remain in place.
Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up.
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#17
11-03-06, 11:34 PM
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sang-Drax
Member
I dunno if you're still looking for the link for the previous Druid Handbook, but it's under
my sig
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Domenic

Let's get one thing straight: you can't do ANYTHING with 10 Con as a melee person.
Except DIE. Die a horrible, horrible burning death with pain from a thousand suns.
Which are also on fire. And killing you with their flaming fiery flames of death.
Are we clear?
#18
11-03-06, 11:36 PM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suin Bahhar

It's a little hard to abuse, unless you get to 15th level then stand around twiddling your
thumbs, waiting to get old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sang-Drax

I dunno if you're still looking for the link for the previous Druid Handbook, but it's under
my sig
I actually saw it in your sig in one of the older threads, so thanks for helping already!
#19
11-10-06, 12:31 AM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
I'm working on a real update for the rest of the Polymorph errata bubbles and spots, as
well as for Spell Compendium and PHB2 (the only newer books I have). In the meantime,
I recovered a bunch of notes, so I added them to the thread unedited. Hope someone can
find a use for them.
Still looking for:

A Dragon Magic Wild Shape-replacement thingie guide
A Shifter non-Wild-Shaping druid guide
An Arcane Hierophant guide
Cold-typed Magical Beasts worth using besides Urskan and Cryohydra
Any ZOMG druid stuff from newer books
#20
11-10-06, 01:51 AM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Well, I tossed up a quick update. Not perfect, but there's new formatting and a bunch of
stubby beginner sections. I'm working on it.
#21
11-10-06, 03:17 AM
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada
Part-Human2
Member
Rapid Strike & Improved Rapid Strike feats (Draco) grants extra iterative attacks for high
BAB for type Elemental, Dragon, Plant, Magical Beast or Aberration with paired natural
weapons.
2 notable aberration forms for Aberrate Wild Shape are

Chilblain (20 HD, FB)
Julajimus (16 HD, MMII)
for their natural attacks and special abilities/qualities.
You keep your type with Wild Shape now and it works on Constructs and Undead since
it's no longer based on Polymorph. The Undead Wild Shape feat (LM) is obsolete.
#22
11-10-06, 05:08 AM
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Houston, Texas
Paradisio
Member
Keep it up, I hope you do better than I

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#23
11-10-06, 06:02 AM
Join Date: Apr 2006
Daemoniss
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Master of the many forms.
Mast
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#24
11-10-06, 06:04 AM
Join Date: Apr 2006
Daemoniss
Member
Master of the many forms.
Harzerkatze, re-writed the guide, pretty much what you are doing here =)
updated Master of Many Forms Bible + official wild shape rules:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=639448
Nice guide A Man in Black!
#25
11-16-06, 01:42 AM
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Houston, Texas
Paradisio
Member
Well, we have decided natural bond doesn't work after all, so you will probably want to
remove that.
I think most of the buffs are probably worse after the errata (what with the animal spells
not working on the druid now) than the "bite of the X spells" which actually seem pretty
good, and still function on both you and the companion. On the other hand, most of these
buffs stack with the animal only spells (which seem to be either morale or luck) so I think
you could actually have a pretty impressive druid that relies mostly on buffing their
animals.
Natures Favor + Nature's Avatar + Bite of the Werebear = ouch
Anyways, I've basically been forced to play a druid in a campaign i'm in at this point so
I'm actually thinking about writing my own guide again since I think it would be useful for
myself... so I hope you don't mind the competition.
#26
11-16-06, 02:02 AM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Springfield, IL
NineInchNall
Member
You might want to put each section and subsection within sblocks for readability. Yeesh.
Seriously long posts.
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board quotations
#27
11-16-06, 03:20 AM
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
GenerallyUnique
Member
Good spell:
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but I was looking through the PHBII and saw
the spell As the Frost, and it's amazing.
It turns the caster into an outsider, gaining type bonuses, and you get immunity to cold,
DR10/magic and piercing, and an AOE frost aura that deals damage every round and
slows those damaged by it. It's really nice, if only for the DR. What I think is cool about
it, though, is that you can very, very easily share this with your animal companion,
making those near you take damage twice, and save from the slow effect twice. In
addition, your animal companion is now an outsider, making it easy to alter-self them
(provided you have enough use magic device) into something intelligent. Nice?
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#28
11-16-06, 09:56 AM
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: St Paul MN
Vorlir
Member
The druid in the game I'm running used that spell..once. But someone went down and he
is the backup healer in the group. But he couldnt go heal the guy because he would have
killed him with his cold damage.
#29
11-16-06, 08:32 PM
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Litchfield, MN
Shadow_Fox_Deepwood_Arche
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vorlir

The druid in the game I'm running used that spell..once. But someone went down and
he is the backup healer in the group. But he couldnt go heal the guy because he would
have killed him with his cold damage.
There is a time and a place for everything. If your expected to heal, dont cast it,
obviously. The spells power cant be denied when you can safely wade into melee, cast
this spell, and share it with your companion. Its damage, control, and buffing in one
spell.
#30
11-18-06, 01:45 AM
Join Date: Jun 2003
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradisio

Well, we have decided natural bond doesn't work after all, so you will probably want to
remove that.
I think most of the buffs are probably worse after the errata (what with the animal
spells not working on the druid now) than the "bite of the X spells" which actually seem
pretty good, and still function on both you and the companion. On the other hand, most
of these buffs stack with the animal only spells (which seem to be either morale or luck)
so I think you could actually have a pretty impressive druid that relies mostly on buffing
their animals.
Natures Favor + Nature's Avatar + Bite of the Werebear = ouch

This is going in the guide. I still haven't incorporated Spell Compendium material yet.
Quote:
Anyways, I've basically been forced to play a druid in a campaign i'm in at this point so
I'm actually thinking about writing my own guide again since I think it would be useful
for myself... so I hope you don't mind the competition.
I've got a better idea, I think. Why don't I stick this on the CharOp wiki that someone has
hosted so we can both work on it (as well as get help from anyone else passing by), then
just post the updates here whenever they look good?
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Druid Handbook revived

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Druid Handbook revived

Books I haven't incorporated:

Shifters (EbCS/RoE/MM3) are a great druid race, despite their somewhat less-useful

 Survival/Knowledge (Nature): Very important in any outdoors campaign.

 Vow of Poverty (BoED) - Druids are fairly gear-independent, making this a

o Vermin Wild Shape (EbCS) - So you can...uh...BE a scorpion. Or whatever.

 Imbued Summoning (PHB2) - Essentially a free Quicken for low-level buffs on

 Assume Supernatural Ability (Sav) - Totally broken feat, if used in in combination

o Improved Grapple - If you do a lot of grappling, you'll want this. A dire

 Shifter Multiattack (EbCS) - It's Multiattack, but as a Shifter feat, so it increases

 Persistant Spell (CArc) - Reeeeeally expensive, but as usual it's an exceedingly

 Quicken Spell - A staple of high-level prepared casters. Quickened buffs are

o Gatekeeper Initiate (EbCS) - This druid-only Initiate feat gives you

o Initiate of Malar (PGtF) - Mentioned above, this gives you a handful of

o Initiate of Nature (PGtF) - This has some somewhat handy spells

 Feral Animal Companion (CoR) - Negligible boosts to your Animal Companion.

 Spellcasting Prodigy (FRCS/PGtF) - +2 Wis for the purpose of determining bonus

o Heavy horse - Fast mount for medium druids. Large.

o Swindlespitter Dinosaur (MM3) - Harasser with paralyzing AoE attack

o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - Pouncer/tripper/grappler with poison.

o Dire Bat - Flying mount for medium druids. Large.

o Brown Bear - Grappler. Not as good in a grapple as Giant Crocodile, but

o Cave Anklyosaurus (MiniHB/PHB2) - A tough trampler that hits almost as

o Giant Crocodile - Hard-hitting grappler. Huge.

o Allosaurus (MM2/PHB2) - Hard-hitting grappler and quite passable

o Bloodstriker Dinosaur (MM3) - An offensively- and defensively-balanced

o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - Trampler, unlikely-but-effective scout and mount.

o Dire Elephant (Sand/MM2) - Trampler and possible mount. Gargantuan.

o Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur - Grappler and very stylish mount. Replaces Dire

o Horrid Bear (EbCS) - Grappler, replaces Dire Bear where Tyrannosaurus is

o Dire Tiger - Pouncer, finally replaces Fleshraker Dinosaur (arguably). Large.

o Horrid Elephant (EbCS) - Trampler, replaces Dire Elephant. Gargantuan.

o Giant Stag Beetle - Trampler/just-plain-attacker, and not a bad mount.

Re: Druid Handbook revived

Before everything else, read Haterkaze's advice on how to play a shapechanging

o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - Grapple check: +3 - An absolutely OMG

o Brown/Polar Bear - Grapple check: +12 - The quintessential grappler

o Cave Tyrannosaurus (MiniHB) - Grapple check: +11 - Not quite as

o Smilodon (Sabre-Toothed Tiger) (Frost) - Grapple check: +11 - A marginal

o Warhound Impaler (Lesser Battlebriar) (MM3) - Grapple check: +10 -

o Ironmaw (FF) - Grapple check: +N/A - This isn't strictly a grappler, but it

o Octopus Tree (FF) - Grapple check: +18 - Eight(!) Improved Grab

o Tendriculos - Grapple check: +17 - The ultimate Swallower. Anything that

o Dire Polar Bear (Frost) - Grapple check: +23 - The ultimate grappler

o Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur - Grapple check: +17 - The core-only alternative

o Fleshraker Dinosaur (MM3) - An absolutely OMG charger form. Charge

o Leopard - The core-only and no-dinosaurs alternative to the Fleshraker and

o Protoceratops Dinosaur (Sand) - A fairly decent rhino-style charger. A bit

o Smilodon (Sabre-Toothed Tiger) (Frost) - This is a marginal improvement

o Triceratops Dinosaur - The real deal when it comes to the Triceratops

o Cave Triceratops (MiniHB) - Large, 3d6+6, DC 18 - As mentioned above,

o Diprotodon Dinosaur (Sand) - Large, 2d6+12, DC 22 - It tramples, doing a

o Warhound Impaler (Lesser Battlebriar) (MM3) - Large, d8+9, DC 22 -

o Dire Tortoise (Sand) - Huge, 4d8+12, DC 25 - Respectable trample