Description
Druids cast divine spells much the same way clerics do, though most get their spells from the power of nature rather than from deities. Their spells are oriented toward nature and animals. They strive to live in harmony with the natural world, and hate anything that is not part of the natural cycle, especially aberrations and undead creatures. In addition to spells, druids gain an increasing array of magical powers, including the ability to take the shapes of animals, as they advance in level.
Alignment restrictions: Any partially neutral - druids, in keeping with nature's ultimate indifference, must maintain at least some measure of dispassion.
- Ex-Druids = a druid who changes to a prohibited alignment keeps all of their abilities but is prevented from gaining levels as a druid until she regains an alignment with a neutral component.
Class Features
| Hit die : d8 | |
| Base Attack Bonus progression : | Medium |
|---|
| Saving throws : | ||
| High = | Fortitude & Will | |
| low = | Reflex |
| Proficiencies : | ||
| Weapon: | Druid ~ club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, sling, and spear).
They are also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form they assume with wild shape. | |
| Armor: | Light, Medium & Shields. (except tower shields) |
| Skill Points : ( 4 + Int modifier ) ×4 at 1st Character level. |
| Class Skills : Concentration, Craft (all), Diplomacy, Heal, Listen, Lore: Local, Lore: Nature, Lore: Religion, Parry, Profession (all), Ride, Spellcraft, Spot and Survival. |
Additional progressions
| Level | Features gained |
| 1 | Animal companion, Nature sense |
| 2 | Woodland stride |
| 3 | Trackless step |
| 4 | Resist nature's lure, |
| 5 | Wild Shape 1/day |
| 6 | Wild shape 2/day |
| 7 | Wild shape 3/day |
| 9 | Venom immunity |
| 10 | Wild shape 4/day |
| 12 | Wild shape 4/day (dire animal shapes); Plant Wildshape (MOTB) |
| 14 | Wild shape 5/day |
| 16 | Elemental Wild Shape 1/day (huge elemental shapes) |
| 18 | Wild shape 6/day, Elemental wild shape 2/day |
| 20 | Elemental wild shape 3/day (elder elemental shapes) |
| 22 | Wild shape |
| 24 | Bonus feat |
| 26 | Wild shape |
| 28 | Bonus feat |
| 30 | Wild shape |
Animal Companion
A druid begins the game with an Animal Companion. Animal companions are loyal allies in any battle. As your character gains experience, his or her animal companion will also grow in power.
Animal companions cannot be directly controlled by their master. They can be controlled with limited efficiency through vocal commands, and set to defensive or offensive behaviors as well as force them to enter stealth. They become more powerful as the master advances. The only penalty the master suffers from the animal companion's death is that they cannot summon the companion again until they have rested. Animal companions can be named, but cannot be tinted.
Highest level pet comparison
- Epic Animal Companion was taken at level 29 druid, level 27 when acquiring the Dragon Companion.
- Saving throws are in order of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will.
- Epic animals have all the feats of their earlier form they just don't show up on the character sheet for some animals.
- All vanilla pets only have Hide, and Move Silently skill progression except the Panther, who dumps points into parry/spot/listen crippling its own stealth abilities. It does nothing well as a result.
- Badgers/Spiders(both the same), Bears, Wolves and Boars(in that order) are the stealthiest pets, outperforming the Epic Panther even at non-epic levels.
- Bronze Dragon, Blue Dragon are the most alert, and observant pets. The Dragons in particular have higher detection skills than the other pets have in unbuffed stealth.
- Only Badgers, Bears,, Dragons, and Panthers can be buffed using Flame Weapon.
- Spiders are considered Vermin, but druid pet spells still affect them unlike the Dragon Companion(which can't benefit from pet buffs). Poison DC is 17, unsure if this increases to 24 at epic levels.
- Figure in +6 to all saves versus spells for the Dragon Companion due to Spellcraft.
Pet Tips
- Solid buff chain, cast in the following order at levels 18-30: Owl's Insight, Awaken(Pet Buff), Superior Resistance, Jagged Tooth(Pet Buff), Freedom of Movement(Extend Spell), Tortoise Shell, Greater Magic Fang(Pet Buff), Cat's Grace, Flame Weapon(Extend Spell, where applicable), Nature's Avatar(Pet Buff).
- The Epic Gate(Balor) feat, or an Orglash summoned from the appropriate charm are both great additions alongside an epic pet. Be sure to protect your pet from cold(Orglash), and fire(Balor) damage depending on which one you use. If you use the Orglash, be sure to cast Energy Immunity(Fire) on it due to its 50% fire vulnerability.
Nature Sense
A druid gains a +2 bonus to Survival and a +2 bonus to Search and Spot while in wilderness areas.
Woodland Stride
Starting at 2nd level, a druid gains a +10% movement increase when in outdoor, natural environments.
Trackless Step
At 3rd level, a druid gains a +4 competence bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks when in wilderness areas.
Resist Nature's Lure
Starting at 4th level, a druid gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against all Fear spells and effects.
Wild Shape
- At 5th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into an animal and back again once per day. A druid can use this ability more times per day at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, 26th and 30th level. The forms available to him are bear, boar, wolf, or badger.
- At 12th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into a dire animal. The dire form replaces the current animals with dire bear, dire boar, dire wolf, or dire badger.
More details about this ability can be found on the Wild Shape description page.
Plant Shape
At 12th level, a druid is able to wild shape into a plant creature - a shambling mound or a treant. Using this ability counts against his normal uses of wild shape.
More details about this ability can be found on the Plant Shape description page.
Elemental Shape
- At 16th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a huge elemental (air, earth, fire, or water) once per day. These elemental forms are in addition to his normal wild shape usage. In addition to the normal effects of wild shape, the druid gains all the elemental's immunities, extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities. At 18th level, a druid becomes able to assume elemental form twice per day, and at 20th level he can do so three times per day.
- At 20th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into an elder elemental. The elder form replaces the current elementals with elder air elemental, elder earth elemental, elder fire elemental and elder water elemental.
More details about this ability can be found on the Elemental Wild Shape description page.
Venom immunity
At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons.
Spellcasting
| Key ability | Type | Prepared |
| Wisdom | Divine | Yes |
- Druid spell list
- Druid spell progression: Druids have the same spell progression as clerics.
A druid casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list.
To prepare or cast a spell, the druid must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid's spell is 10 + the spell level + the druid's Wisdom modifier.
A druid can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.
A druid may prepare and cast any spell on the druid spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare before resting.
Spontaneous Conversion
Druids can spontaneously cast any summon creature spell (eg. summon creature I).
Special Feats Notes
Druid specific feats
There are a number of feats specifically designed to be used with the Druid class. The following list covers these feats for convenience.
- Extra Wild Shape: +2 Wild Shape uses/day. Up to +1 Elemental Shape use/day.
- Not very useful unless you have Natural spell which lets you cast spells in when shifted.
- It can however prove useful to players who want to take advantage of Elephant's hide or Oaken resilience multiple times.
- Does not count towards minimum Wild Shape requirements for feats like Magical Beast Wild Shape and Dragon Shape.
- Elephant's Hide: You can spend one of your wild shapes for the day to give yourself a natural armor bonus of +7 for 10 minutes
- It only provides +2 AC higher than Barkskin or Spiderskin at their highest levels and they do not stack together.
- Useful if someone needs to free up the spell slots for Barkskin or Spiderskin.
- Also has these advantages over Barkskin and Spiderskin: it is "cast" instantaneously and is not dispellable.
- Cannot be used while shifted. Short duration.
- Natural Spell: Can cast divine/arcane(multiclass) spells while in Wild Shape.
- A must-have ability for any druid who wants to take full advantage of Wild Shapes.
- Allows a shifted Druid to cast Magic fang and Greater magic fang on himself.
- As of v1.12, the Druid does not benefit from casting Nature's Avatar on himself in Wild Shape, severely limiting the usefulness of Wild Shapes.
- It does NOT permit a Druid to cast Epic spells while in Wild Shape (v1.12 - 1.23)
- Oaken Resilience: Can spend Wild Shape use to be immune to poison, sleep, and critical hits.
- Fantastic ability for the critical hit/sneak immunity alone.
- Cannot be used while shifted, but can prior to shifting. Short duration.
- Magical Beast Wild Shape(Epic): Use one wild shape use to transform into a celestial leopard, phase spider, or winter wolf.
- Only the Celestial Leopard can be buffed using Flame Weapon, and the added damage bonus of Storm Avatar.
- Dragon Shape(Epic): The character may use wild shape to change into a dragon.
- As of v1.22, the Druid DOES benefit from casting Magic Fang, and Greater Magic Fang on themselves but can no longer do so using the Treant shape.
- They can use Flame Weapon, and the added damage bonus of Storm Avatar.
- Dragon Companion(Epic): The Druid can summon a small blue dragon or bronze dragon as a companion.
- See Pet Comparison.
- Epic Animal Companion (Epic)
- Your animal companion's abilities are determined as if you had three additional levels.
- See Pet Comparison.
- Legendary Animal Shape (Epic): The character may use wild shape to change into a Legendary Animal.
- Epic Elemental Shape: The character may use wild shape to change into a Epic Elemental.
Feats from other classes
All Automatic, and Activation(if activated before shifting) class feats should carry over to the Druid whether he is shifted into an animal, elemental or other form. There should be no restrictions unless where specifically noted, and this should open up many more combat possibilities and build styles for the player. The following list are some examples of how to use them to your greatest advantage.
- Sneak attack: All sneak attack bonus damage works normally when a Druid is shifted.
- Barbarian Rage does work in creature form if activated before Wild Shape.
- Frenzied Berserker Frenzy does work in creature form if activated before Wild Shape.
Other combat feats
Using Wild Shape, the feats Weapon Mastery Unarmed, Unarmed Weapon Focus, Unarmed Weapon Speicalization, Unarmed Improved Critical, and Unarmed Power Critical translate or "morph" temporarily into the appropriate Creature Weapon Feats (only while Shaped, and return to normal when unShaped).
Some other Combat Feats should function normally whether the Druid is using his Wild shape ability or not. Passive feats that you don't have to pick from your hotbar are best. For example, a player with Great cleave, Circle kick or Improved parry will get full benefits from this feat while attacking in Bear form. However, the same does NOT hold true for feats such as Knockdown, Stunning Fist, Whirlwind attack, Expose Weakness and so on...
- As a general rule, Activation type feats(knockdown, expose weakness) are best avoided if you intend to spend your time in wild shape, because changing form prevents you from using most activated abilities(with the exception of spells if you have the Natural Spell feat).
- On the other hand, modes like Greater Flurry, Track, Darkvision and Power Attack should work normally.
Important Wild Shape and Character Creation Notes
Druids intending to spend most of their time in a Wild Shape form (be it animal, plant, elemental, etc) should take note of a few important features of this feat when crafting and leveling their character. Even players who will spend only limited time shapeshifted would do well to become familiar with some of the less obvious caveats and benefits of creature forms.
Ability Score
- The druid's mental ability scores(Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) transfer to the creature form. Wisdom will be especially important for spellcasting whether in or out of creature form. Players who intend to learn the Natural Spell feat for casting spells in creature form should also make sure their wisdom score is high enough (19 for 9th level spells), as their animal forms will not increase their wisdom.
- Be careful about relying on items to increase wisdom(see equipment/spellcasting).
- The druid's physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution) are completely ignored, and replaced by the new form's physical abilities. See the entries for Wild Shape, Plant Shape, Elemental Wild Shape, Magical Beast Wild Shape, and Dragon Shape for the specific amounts. These new physical abilities affect skills properly, such as additional stealth, tumble, concentration, etc.
- Racial ability bonuses, and penalties do not apply when shifted. This means you will not receive your bonuses or penalties to strength, dexterity, etc while shifted.
- Svirfneblin do however retain their natural spell resistance when using wild shape, this is due to the fact it is classified as an Automatic feat and all such feats are typically carried to the new form. I have not tested Drow/Yuan-ti Pureblood spell resistance, but both races use seperately numbered feats which may make this ability exclusive to Svirfneblin if it's a bug.
- Because mental ability scores transfer and physical ones are replaced, the physical abilities can be lower for a wild shape focused druid, or could even be used as dump stats. However, it should be noted that Strength may be important for any druid intending to carry items without being encumbered outside of her creature forms, and Dexterity and Constitution are important defense stats if she gets attacked before she can change forms.
Equipment
- In this new form any Activated bonus abilities(that do not appear on the mode bar), or spells granted by the three items will not function due to the hotbar issues with shifted druids. Max Dex Bonus on armor is ignored when shifted, due to forms having set AC.
- Your highest enchantment bonus to armor or bracers will transfer as an enchantment bonus to AC
- Half of your enchantment bonus (rounded down) to your shield will transfer as a shield bonus to AC
- Your highest deflection bonus will transfer as a deflection bonus to AC
- Your natural bonus will transfer as a natural bonus to AC
- Dodge bonus does not transfer to AC
- Multiple instances of ability enhancements do not stack
- For a given skill only the highest bonus is kept
- The "Creature Weapon" that wild shape forms use rather than unarmed strike cause special problems for the Sacred Fist class, because having creature weapon isn't the same as not equipping a weapon. Thus druids with levels in this class that wildshape will take a -8 attack penalty for using a "weapon". Similarly, medium sized forms will not benefit from Weapon Finesse due to the creature weapon not being the appropriate size classification.
Spell and Feat Limitations
- Your quickbar is disabled when shapeshifted. Any action classified as Activation that doesn't appear on the mode bar, including Epic Spells, wild shape racial abilities (Pulses, and the like), character racial abilities (unless cast from right-clicking yourself or an enemy), and the druid's own Oaken Resilience/Elephant's Hide feats do not function while shifted.
- Druids cannot naturally cast spells in creature form, and they need to learn the Natural Spell feat to overcome this. For a character who has a wisdom score of at least 13, this becomes available as soon as she gains wild shape. This is an important feat, as it allows the wild-shaped druid to use attack spells on enemies, support spells on allies, and even creature boosting spells on herself (including Magic Fang, Greater Magic Fang, and Nature's Avatar).
- Natural Spell allows any form of spellcasting, including spells from other divine classes (Cleric, Spirit shaman) and even arcane spells (Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer) to be cast while shifted.
- However, you still must have enough Intelligence/Charisma to cast the arcane spells, and characters relying on items to boost their attributes may not have enough after they change form (if the item is not one that takes effect in creature form, such as a helmet). Note that spells like Eagle's Splendor/Fox's Cunning should stay in place while you change form, so if an item bonus disappears but a spell's bonus keeps your charisma high enough, you will still be able to cast. Thus a combination of item and spell boosts can overcome this limitation (though you may lose some prepared spells due to the drop in your main casting stat, which wreaks havoc on a wizard's spell book. You'll have to re-prepare your spells all over again frequently).
- These same problems apply to using items to boost a low wisdom.
- Natural Spell and some other druid abilities usually only affect forms obtained through wild shape and other druid abilities. If a druid casts Shapechange (9th-level druid spell), it is not the same as using wild shape and she will not be able to cast spells in this form, even with Natural Spell.
- Bard songs and inspirations do not work when wildshaped.
Size and Movement
- Wild Shape can change a character's size as well. For example, a Dire Bear is considered large, while a badger is considered small or tiny(exact size isn't mentioned in documentation). This makes it especially unfortunate that Knockdown is not available in creature form, as some large creatures would receive very nice size bonuses against most enemies.
- Besides affecting AC and defense against Knockdown(among other effects), size can also affect a creature's ability to move. A Treant, for example, takes up a huge amount of space and is unable to move through some areas of the game. Shapeshifting into a treant can sometimes get the character stuck in small areas, if part of the druid's newly sized form is now overlapping with something, forcing her to change back to druid and move to a more wide-open area. These caveats are very important to consider before changing form, especially during combat.
- Some feats, such as Weapon Finesse will also be useless due to the increased size of the creature weapon.
Multiplayer Bugs/Notes
- Racial ability bonuses(Svirfneblin/Gray Orc Confirmed) to strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma are taken away while shifted causing you to lose bonus spells unless you have cast Owl's Insight/Owl's Wisdom prior to shifting. This is merely a workaround for losing spells, you still lose -1 AC, DC, and Will Saves.