Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Samusic 04-19-06, 04:00 PM	I have a character in a game that is an Elven Druid level 2. He uses a longbow and a quarterstaff and I was considering making the character a little more martial by either giving him a little more skill with the bow or quarterstaff. I was considering giving the character two levels of ranger so that he could get either the rapid shot feat or the two weapon fighting feat. The bow would make sense since he gets the longbow proficiency as an elf and has a high dexterity. The quarterstaff, though, would also make sense because he could use it as a sort of walking stick and cast shallileigh on it to make it do 1d10. Couple that with weapon finesse and two weapon fighting and you've got a druid that just smacked you in the face surprisingly hard. Plus, there's a neat little spell called entangling staff. That's also not to mention spells like barkskin and cat's grace to protect him a little more with spells. Plus, I do already have a ranger with the ranged specialization and it would be nice to get up into combat a little bit. Does any of this sound like a good idea? Does anybody have more experience that would like to offer some advice? I've never played a druid, so it's a little unfamiliar to me.
yuenglingdragon 04-19-06, 04:56 PM	If you'd like to drop the quarterstaff for a pair of daggers, the Daggerspell Shaper from Complete Adventurer is martial and focuses on attacking and spell casting, though you will lose some wild shaping ability.
DocBeard 04-19-06, 05:11 PM	A martial quarterstaff-druid would probably be very effective (though it's hard to imagine a druid that isn't particularly effective, really). The only thing that might give me pause is that, if you invest a lot in weapon-based combat (TWF feats and so forth), you might feel a bit torn when Wild Shapes come into play, since you can't really quarterstaff-fight as a bear. (Unless you've got a really lenient DM). Mind you, you could still build a very effective (and probably comparatively unique) character using wild feats and similar, or simply reserving wild shapes for scouting and the like. Dang, now I'm tempted...
Samusic 04-20-06, 11:17 PM	Wow, I didn't know that my character idea was that compelling. Really, I just thought it would work better for my character concept. If I could get my way, I'd take two levels of ranger for the two weapon fighting feat, then take weapon finesse and rapid shot. I'd like to get a magical weapon called the bowstaff, which is a +2 quaterstaff that can turn into a +2 bow. I'm not really really into the wildshaping more than normal. I see my character using magic in a more subtle way. Do you think that a character like that would be an effective character? I don't want to really sacrifice my spellcasting and shapeshifting too much, but I would like to find that nice balance. Basically, I don't want people to look at my character and say, "man, your character's gimped ! Why would you do that?
tiejaz 04-21-06, 12:53 AM	love it. check this Human Wandering Druid (Druid 20) 1 Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty 2B Intuitive Attack 3 Two Weapon Fighting 4 B Animal Friend 5 6 B Touch of Golden Ice, Cheetah’s Speed 7 8 B Nimbus of Light 9 Lion’s Pounce 10 B Holy Radiance 11 12 B Stigmata, Weapon Focus (Quarterstaff) 13 14 B Sanctify Martial Strike 15 Eagle’s Wings 16 B Gift of Faith 17 18 B Fast Wild Shape, Vow of Obedience 19 20 B Vow of Abstinence B Identifies bonus exalted feats, from VoP. Basically, he travels with nothing but his quarterstaff and animal companion, and uses buffing spells on himself and his quarterstaff.
Samusic 04-21-06, 06:54 PM	Where can I find some of these abilities that you have? Additionally, I was thinking that I could just take the daggerspell shaper prestige class and ask my DM if I could just have it apply to staves instead. What do you think of that? Good idea, or no? How do you think that a druid 7/ranger 2/rogue 1/daggerspell shaper (with a staff) 10 would compare to anything else?