Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Evil O 03-08-06, 03:53 PM	Hi gamers I created a Gnome Druid for an existing campiagn and since I am not compleately familiar with any and all spells in various books I am a little at loss. What Spells are "best" in combat? Should I use sahpechange as often as possible? If yes, what mosters should I use? If I need any books wich do I need? And we (DM and me) cant agree upon the rules of companions, do I choose my companions? Can I get a "better" version( like a wolf with fighter levels) I know that I might be in over my head, but I have wanted to try with a spelluser for a long time. Evil O
SilentOne 03-08-06, 04:12 PM	Whoa dude. You don't know druid basics and are playing one at 20th level? My suggestion is to go back to level 1 in a new game, and play your druid up through the levels. You'll quickly learn what does and doesn't work, firsthand, particuarly in the case of your DM. Not everyone runs/plays the same. As for your companion, no. You get the basic guy, with modifiers as per the chart. Anything more unbalances the ability. Plus, I'm not even sure animals can get class levels, just advance in HD as per their advancement rules.
Talisman 03-08-06, 04:25 PM	What Spells are "best" in combat? Depends what type of spellcaster you want to be. A straightforward, blast-the-enemy type? Entangle, flame strike, fire seeds and call lightning storm. A power-booster for teammates? Bull's strength (as similar spells), barkskin, animal growth, healing, curing, etc. A mix-it-up-in-melee type? The spells above, plus combat boosters for yourself. Check out the druid spell list in the PHB and familiarize yourself with the spells. You don't need lots of spells from other sources (although they're nice) if you can use the basics well. And at 20th level, keep in mind that you probably won't be using lower-level (3rd or less) spells all that often. Should I use sahpechange as often as possible? If yes, what mosters should I use? You should wild shape whenever it makes good sense to do so. Humanoid form is awfully valuable, especially since most of your equipment is useless when wild shaped. As for monsters, look through the MM; at 20th level you can take the form of any animal or plant up to size Huge, with 20 HD or less. I suggest the tendriculos, dire bear and dire tiger for melee, and others as needed (birds for flying, rat for stealth, etc). The elemental forms are particularly nice when fighting elemental-themed baddies; i.e., fire elemental form when fighting frost giants. If I need any books wich do I need? You need the PHB and the MM. If you're fighting lots of aberrations, I recommend Lords of Madness. Aside from that, extra books are nice but hardly necessary. And we (DM and me) cant agree upon the rules of companions, do I choose my companions? Can I get a "better" version( like a wolf with fighter levels) You get the basic animal, as SilentOne pointed out. You can pick any you want (within reason; no tigers from an arctic region) from the list in the PHB, then modify for being an animal companion to a level 20 druid. Animals cannot normally take class levels; you have to have an Int of 3+ to take class levels. An animal with an Int of 3+ stops being an animal and becomes a magical beast, and is therefore inappropriate for the animal companion ability. And if you and the GM don't agree, the GM always wins. Just make sure you both understand the rules. The druid section in the PHB spells it out pretty clearly.
Turel 03-08-06, 06:04 PM	9) Rain of Black Tulips - does 5D6 damage (no save) + Nausea 7) Rain of Roses - does 1D4 Wisdom damage(no save) + Sickened 7) Leonal's roar - depending on targets HD; blind + deaf + Stunned + dead + booted back to home plane (area effect) (handy against Giths etc...) (above are all big area spreads) Miasma/Mass Drown - good if the DC's are high enough. One of the essential Druid feats is Natural Spell, if you dont have that then why bother being a Druid. having an "awakened" companion is good too, it wont cost you for Animal companion HD and will still be your ally in all matters (depending on DM ;) ) dont under-estimate how lethal a contagious rat/lizard/cat can be too, we estimated 30,000 were struck down with "Blinding Fever" (i think) from only one person petting me (as a cat) within a 2 week period. nasty druids. sneaky druids... :D
Grace_Jones 03-09-06, 02:21 AM	One thing: Find out who was the diety of the Druid before you get started playing and choose your favorite spells - your diety might not allow things like Fire based spells, or may allow you to wear metal armor, or there might be rituals you have to undertake at given times (Mielikki FTW!!). It will also give you a great idea how to play this 20th level Druid without really knowing how his previous "owner" was RPing him. Spells to Use: I love Mass Drown ... Best spell ever - it can be found in the Magic of Faerun book, but you might want to see if your DM is allowing Faerunian books in your campaign before you go out and get it. You will want want want the Book of Exalted Deeds if the Druid you are playing is of a partially Good alignment (again, see if your DM allows it, it can get pretty overpowered when not balanced with the Book of Vile Darkness) ... in it you will find pretty awesome feats, and some great spells (the aforementioned Rain of Black Tulips and Rain of Roses). Also in the Magic of Faerun book is Owl's Insight which will allow you to add half of your levels to your wisdom score for one hour, which raises the DC's of your spells and comes in very handy. Also one to love and use to your heart's content if your spell DC's are decent is Baleful Polymorph ... a DM hates it when his big bad monster dude is suddenly a cute fluffy bunny. Bombardment is also great, you can knock a dragon from the sky with it (and also really make the dragon really angry), but again I think it's in the Magic of Faerun. One to love and cherish is Repel Metal or Stone ... very good crowd control. Don't like the look of the Blackguard that is approaching you? Cast Repel Metal or Stone on his shiny metal breastplate, and *poof* he's pretty much immobile! Someone got a nasty sword? Remove the sword from the equation! From Stormwrack is a great cinematic mass teleportation spell that I really like using, but it's mainly for great visual effect and everyone's imagination ... it's not very practical for immediate transport - I think it's called Stormwalk (it's a 6th level spell). Also in that book is Thalessema, which turns a monster's blood into salt water ... that one's pretty brilliant as well. Wild Shape: The Druid I play does not really rely too much on the Wild Shape, and spends most of her time standing back and casting spells (buffing, area of effect, direct damage, and the like - to use MMORPG parlance). But a lot of people tend to really like it. Suggestions: If the Book of Exalted Deeds is allowed (and your Wisdom score is better off than your Strength) you might want to ask the DM if you can take the Intuitive Attack feat, which allows you to use your Wisdom Modifier instead of your Strength Modifier when making melee attacks (see how the BoED can really unbalance the game), thus giving you a better chance to hit those level 20+ Monsters you'll be getting thrown up against.
green_yawgmoth 03-09-06, 03:44 AM	9) Rain of Black Tulips - does 5D6 damage (no save) + Nausea 7) Rain of Roses - does 1D4 Wisdom damage(no save) + Sickened 7) Leonal's roar - depending on targets HD; blind + deaf + Stunned + dead + booted back to home plane (area effect) (handy against Giths etc...) (above are all big area spreads) Miasma/Mass Drown - good if the DC's are high enough. One of the essential Druid feats is Natural Spell, if you dont have that then why bother being a Druid. having an "awakened" companion is good too, it wont cost you for Animal companion HD and will still be your ally in all matters (depending on DM ;) ) dont under-estimate how lethal a contagious rat/lizard/cat can be too, we estimated 30,000 were struck down with "Blinding Fever" (i think) from only one person petting me (as a cat) within a 2 week period. nasty druids. sneaky druids... :D You might want to note that almost all of the above spells are from the Book of Exalted Deeds, and that most DMs will beat you over the head with that book before letting you have anything from it. My favorite druid spell (from core) is produce flame: 1d4+10 fire damage with a RTA as an attack action. That's 3d4+30 damage with a full attack, and you get 20 throws! And you could easily empower it for around 55 damage a round for 6 rounds. Not bad for a single 4th level slot. http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v91/yawgmoth/kittyjig.gif
Solidcobra 03-09-06, 08:18 AM	Let's see here... Giant Vermin - Ho-ho-holy ****, this creates three or four hundred hit points, extremely painful attacks, great attack bonuses and poison, among other abilities. This is super. Use it. Love it. Animal growth - Make that large army of dire bears into a large army of wickedly powerful dire bears. A true buff spell if I ever saw one. (note: won't work on you, since you're still humanoid in wildshape form for whatever reason) Fire seeds - What druid doesn't know this one? Each casting creates eight holly berry bombs, each bomb deals 1d8+20 fire damage. Just enter fire elemental form, go up real close, speak the command word...wham. With just one (ONE!) casting of this spell, that's a potential 8d8+160 damage. Since the bombs last 3h20m, you can cast several of these puppies and let them all blow in one single, huge, spectacular BBEG-slaughtering boom. Fire Storm - This is great against large groups. You have fourty 10x10ft cubes to work with here, each that'll deal 20d6 damage. this is a crowd-killer if I ever saw one. All summon nature's ally spells - Great. Creates huge loads of animals for you to direct as you wish. You're generally better off creating several animals per casting of Summon Nature's ally than just using one. Sidenote: Due to the recent errata, wildshape is no longer useful to turn on in the middle of battle. you'll have to take all gear off, wildshape, then put it all on again for your stuff to still work. Pity, huh? (Sidenote nr.2: I suggest some of those plant forms with swallow whole. there's a lot of them. some with loads of yummy tentacle attacks. Just stay away from the group catg-eh..I mean female shifter)
Surgo 03-09-06, 09:08 AM	You'll want to shapechange/polymorph as much as possible. Note that you can still Animal Growth yourself if you shapechange into an animal (changing wild shape so you can't was the worst nerf ever to druids).
Necron99 03-09-06, 09:28 AM	All of your questions answered here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=465005