Greetings CO board.
I've not played a druid in a long while, and as such, am needing a refresher on which items to purchase at what availabilities. Currently in the game, my druid is 5th level and 10,000 gold to spend. The animal companion will most likely be a fleshraker dinosaur (with the wartrained beast added in, so some gold subtracted for that), so it will need decent barding as well.
I still have yet to do the stats as well, though I was thinking of doing a middle aged route (for the quick bonuses to mentals), be human, and the feats would be as follows:
1st: Ashbound Summoning, Human: Rapid Summoning (a variant my DM is allowing me to have so my summons cast as a standard instead since I plan on being a summoner mainly) and 3rd: Initiate of Malar (to essentially get me Augment Summoning instead of having to invest the Spell Focus pre req). I could grab the Spell Focus and real Augment Summoning, though a flaw would be needed.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I've said, it's been a very long time since I've played a druid.
Since you've got wildshape combat gear isn't so important, as I assume if you want to mix things up you'll turn into a fleshraker yourself. Hmm, maybe spend cash on stuff to make noncombat encounters/problems easier. Spools of infinite rope, hewards handy haversacks, that swanky healing bedroll, tomes of worldy knowledge...
As an aside, any particular reason why you're going with ashbound summoning rather than greenbound other than flavour?
Yeah, I'm heading Ashbound due to the DM not allowing Greenbound, which is fine. I think Ashbound will bring a bit of flavor to the group (with me disliking all those arcane casting jerks, heh). Some of the items I was thinking of was a Traveler's Cloak and a Heward's sack, but past that I'm unsure.
As for shifting, yes, I plan on shifting myself into a fleshraker, and although i would love to add in venomfire, that has been shunned as well. So, basically I'm thinking of doing some sort of battlefield control and enhanced with summons, which is why I humbly ask the board here for assistance.
Consider some of these items:
dragonhide breastplate - 700 gp
large wooden shield - few gp
rod of extend, lesser - 3000 gp
rod of sculpt, lesser - 3000 gp
Rhino Hide medium barding - 5330 gp
wand of vigor, lesser - 750 gp
periapt of wisdom - 4000 gp
Consider some of these items:
dragonhide breastplate - 700 gp
large wooden shield - few gp
rod of extend, lesser - 3000 gp
rod of sculpt, lesser - 3000 gp
Rhino Hide medium barding - 5330 gp
wand of vigor, lesser - 750 gp
periapt of wisdom - 4000 gp
Thanks for some options, Cru. I would love some rhino hide barding, but the problem is it's over 1/2 my total starting, so unfortunately that's a no go (even though that would be very sexy). The wand of vigor I'd normally pick up, but I pretty much told every player in the game that they better be coming with a Healing Belt, else my druid will kill them in their sleep 
.
Regardless, thanks for a good jumping off point. Any other suggestions are welcomed =]
Does your DM allow custom-crafted items using the item creation rules at the back of the DMG? If so, I'd run a ring of animal speaking by him. Per creation rules, the market value is 2000 x 1 x 1 base cost, x2 due to spell's duration, for a total cost of 4,000 gp, for an item that lets you do speak with animals at will. That would be invaluable to a summon-focused druid, since it would allow you to give precise instructions to the majority of your summons (as well as your companion) verbally, rather than rely on "point and attack" hand gestures or using Handle Animal to try to get them to do what you want. It's also great for gathering information in general.
You could also look around for an item that does something similar. There's probably something out there somewhere. Alternatives might be a wand of speak with animals (750 gp) or some scrolls of speak with animal (25 gp each). The problem with those is the limited duration (1 minute/use) occupies valuable time if battle suddenly erupts, and you can burn through charges quickly if you use the spell extensively.
I'd be a little tempted by the dragon hide breastplate and a wilding clasp (in the MIC, 4000 gp), which allows whatever it is attached to to be usable when you wild shape. It is really pushing your budget at this level though; if possible, it is something to consider investing in when you reach a higher level.
For your companion, I'd just go with +1 barding. For yourself, I'd probably stick with nonmagical but masterwork gear, since your intent seems to be to do a lot of summoning--be sure to hang back in battles when you can.
Child of Winter could be a good choice too, unless you can get some very good summonings from Ashbound. A summoned swarm from a second level spell accompanied by Venomfire will always be fun, say 20d6 acid damage without even an attack roll.
Plus you can also advance as Planar Shepherd as a child of winter. You don't even have to be restricted to Mabar if the game doesn't take place in Eberron.
Does your DM allow custom-crafted items using the item creation rules at the back of the DMG? If so, I'd run a ring of animal speaking by him. Per creation rules, the market value is 2000 x 1 x 1 base cost, x2 due to spell's duration, for a total cost of 4,000 gp, for an item that lets you do speak with animals at will. That would be invaluable to a summon-focused druid, since it would allow you to give precise instructions to the majority of your summons (as well as your companion) verbally, rather than rely on "point and attack" hand gestures or using Handle Animal to try to get them to do what you want. It's also great for gathering information in general.
Ah, I couldn't believe I had forgotten about a speak with animals item with continual useage, thanks I'll be sure to try and invest in something like that.
Child of Winter could be a good choice too, unless you can get some very good summonings from Ashbound. A summoned swarm from a second level spell accompanied by Venomfire will always be fun, say 20d6 acid damage without even an attack roll.
Plus you can also advance as Planar Shepherd as a child of winter. You don't even have to be restricted to Mabar if the game doesn't take place in Eberron.
The summon swarms are really good, however, Venomfire has been banished along with Planar Shepard so both those are out.
I would suggest having a bunch of wilding clasps (magic item compendium) so you can use some of the items while in wild shape.
4000 gold each