Druid with emphasis on Wildshape

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I'm playing with a character concept at the moment and I'm looking
for some advice. The idea is a Druid that has taken his Wildshape
abilities to an extreme level. Willing to sacrifice other abilities to
get very good at Wildshape. What is the best method for achieving this?
My thoughts so far:

Master of Many Forms: I prefer the 3.0 Shifter version. The fact
that a Druid with this PrC can assume the forms of Aberrations but not
Magical Beasts confuses me to no end. Many Sylvan creatures are Magical
Beasts. Which would seem to be a natural form type for a Druid. How much
more unnatural can you get other than an Aberration?

Natures Warrior: This looks interesting but I've never used it in
play nor seen it used. At only five levels it looks tempting.

Warshaper: Much the same as the Natures Warrior above.

Combing these last two PrC's might be interesting.

Or should I go with a straight Druid and just customize him with
Feats? Extra Wildshapes, faster Wildshapes, etc.

Any thoughts? TIA.

--
Tetsubo
My page: http://home.comcast.net/~tetsubo/
--------------------------------------
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
-- Anatole France

 

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Tetsubo <tetsubo@comcast.net> wrote in
news:saCdnR1-OYNMVB7fRVn-sQ@comcast.com:

> I'm playing with a character concept at the moment and I'm looking
> for some advice. The idea is a Druid that has taken his Wildshape
> abilities to an extreme level. Willing to sacrifice other abilities to
> get very good at Wildshape. What is the best method for achieving
> this?

This is my current version of a "best wildshape" build I have floating
around: Class Level [feats]
1: Ninja 1 [Alertness, Endurance]
//for Wis to AC, mostly, plus free +2 Will saves; feats are Master of
//Many Forms pre-reqs 2: Druid 1
3: Druid 2 [Sacred Vow]
4: Druid 3
5: Druid 4
//consider the planar druid substitution level, replaces resist nature's
//lure with a bonus against outsider (Sp) abilities 6: Druid 5 [Vow of
Poverty, Nymph's Kiss*] //feats* are VoP bonus
7: Master of Many Forms 1
//This only makes sense if you house-rule MoMF to have wilding as
//Nature's Warrior, otherwise the class is useless 8: Master of Many
Forms 2 [Exalted Wildshape*] 9: Master of Many Forms 3 [Natural Spell]
//optional feat, you only have 3rd-level spells
10: Master of Many Forms 4 [Sanctify Natural Attack*]
11: Master of Many Forms 5
12: Master of Many Forms 6 [Open Feat, Open Exalted Feat*]
//Touch of Golden Ice could be good, you should be fighting mostly with
//natural attacks; also Practiced Spellcaster (Druid) for duration 13:
Master of Many Forms 7 14: Master of Many Forms 8 [Open Exalted Feat*]
15: Master of Many Forms 9 [Open Feat]
16: Master of Many Forms 10 [Open Exalted Feat*]
17: Warshaper 1
18: Warshaper 2 [Track, Open Exalted Feat*]
//Track is a pre-req for Nature's Warrior, can be taken anywhere in the
//build 19: Warshaper 3
20: Nature's Warrior 1 [Open Exalted Feat*]
//I'd take claws of the grizzly, +3 damage per natural attack as an
//untyped bonus

You end up with Wildshape as a 16th-level druid (or 19th-level if you
can get wilding added to warshaper as well), 5 free exalted feats, 2
free general feats, though you do only get 3rd-level druid spells, and a
druid 17 with shapechange still wins. You need to be a NG human, though
other races can work if you push all the general feats back one feat
slot.

 

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Porcus the Wombat <ltwombat@no.spam.hotmail.com> wrote:
>This is my current version of a "best wildshape" build I have floating
>around: Class Level [feats]
>1: Ninja 1 [Alertness, Endurance]
>//for Wis to AC, mostly, plus free +2 Will saves; feats are Master of
>//Many Forms pre-reqs
>2: Druid 1
>3: Druid 2 [Sacred Vow]
>4: Druid 3
>5: Druid 4
>//consider the planar druid substitution level, replaces resist nature's
>//lure with a bonus against outsider (Sp) abilities
6: Druid 5 [Vow of Poverty, Nymph's Kiss*] //feats* are VoP bonus

So, umm, why wouldn't you take Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty at 1st level,
and take Alertness and Endurance at 3rd and 6th? Extra Exalted feats.


>7: Master of Many Forms 1
>//This only makes sense if you house-rule MoMF to have wilding as
>//Nature's Warrior, otherwise the class is useless

I don't understand this statement. You get +1 use/day per class level,
so even if every shift only lasts 5 hours, it's not a big deal.


Donald

 

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tsang@soda.csua.berkeley.edu (Donald Tsang) wrote in
news:d60rsu$2km8$1@agate.berkeley.edu:

> Porcus the Wombat <ltwombat@no.spam.hotmail.com> wrote:
> 6: Druid 5 [Vow of Poverty, Nymph's Kiss*] //feats* are VoP bonus
>
> So, umm, why wouldn't you take Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty at 1st
> level, and take Alertness and Endurance at 3rd and 6th? Extra Exalted
> feats.

Uh...to be difficult? Yeah, good call.

>>7: Master of Many Forms 1
>>//This only makes sense if you house-rule MoMF to have wilding as
>>//Nature's Warrior, otherwise the class is useless
>
> I don't understand this statement. You get +1 use/day per class
> level, so even if every shift only lasts 5 hours, it's not a big deal.

The problem is, MoMF as written in Complete Adventurer doesn't increase
the HD limit of things you can wildshape into, so good luck finding
gargantuan creatures with 6 HD (5 druid + 1 nature's warrior levels) to
shift into. This is the aspect of wilding from nature's warrior you need
to add, or the class makes no sense.

 

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Porcus the Wombat <ltwombat@no.spam.hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>7: Master of Many Forms 1
>>>//This only makes sense if you house-rule MoMF to have wilding as
>>>//Nature's Warrior, otherwise the class is useless
>>
>> I don't understand this statement. You get +1 use/day per class
>> level, so even if every shift only lasts 5 hours, it's not a big deal.
>
>The problem is, MoMF as written in Complete Adventurer doesn't increase
>the HD limit of things you can wildshape into, so good luck finding
>gargantuan creatures with 6 HD (5 druid + 1 nature's warrior levels) to
>shift into. This is the aspect of wilding from nature's warrior you need
>to add, or the class makes no sense.

Ahh. You have a point there... although I'd specify exactly that aspect
of "wilding"; there's no reason to gain the other abilities that
the druid normally does. "Levels in MoMF stack with other class
levels (usually Druid) in determining the maximum number of hit
dice a Wild Shape form can have" perhaps.


Donald

 

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Porcus the Wombat wrote:
>> The problem is, MoMF as written in Complete Adventurer doesn't
>> increase the HD limit of things you can wildshape into, so good luck
>> finding gargantuan creatures with 6 HD (5 druid + 1 nature's warrior
>> levels) to shift into. This is the aspect of wilding from nature's
>> warrior you need to add, or the class makes no sense.

Donald Tsang wrote:
> Ahh. You have a point there... although I'd specify exactly that
> aspect of "wilding"; there's no reason to gain the other abilities
> that the druid normally does. "Levels in MoMF stack with other class
> levels (usually Druid) in determining the maximum number of hit dice a
> Wild Shape form can have" perhaps.

Yeah. The Nature's Warrior version of Wilding gives you the normal druid
progression for HD, type, and frequency, but not duration. That's
exactly what I'd expect Master of Many Forms to have, but currently it
only gives you additional frequency (plus some types that go beyond the
normal druid set).
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd

 

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Tetsubo wrote:
> I'm playing with a character concept at the moment and I'm looking for
> some advice. The idea is a Druid that has taken his Wildshape
> abilities to an extreme level. Willing to sacrifice other abilities to
> get very good at Wildshape. What is the best method for achieving
> this?

Master of Many Forms is a great choice if you straighten out some of the
weird bits (mentioned by you and other posters).

> Or should I go with a straight Druid and just customize him with
> Feats? Extra Wildshapes, faster Wildshapes, etc.

That should work well too. My wife's druid went this route, taking
Natural Spell and the quick wild shape feats. It makes her a very
effective combatant and scout without giving up any spell power.
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd