Drow Killing Druid

[elvengunner69]

Okay - here is the basic...

Lvl 7 starting going Druid with Aaismar (so lvl 6 with LA of +1).

Our basic goal (at least so far) is to go rescue some other adventures from a Drow plot and of course scupper that plot.

Pretty much everything is open so I took the following feats:

Natural Spell (of course, right?)
Brew Potion (we might be light on healing so I thought having some cure whatever might be handy)
Light to Daylight - with my ability to caste light as a spell-like ability (being Aaismar) I can turn it into Daylight and do it 3x a day - which I assume might be handy against the Drow! :)

Spell Compendium is also open - I've never used it before and wondered what are some good Druid spells out of there. Lots of the spells look pretty tasty but I imagine we will be in the Underdark for a bit and want to be effective.

Any suggestions, thoughts?

Cheers!

[Spuddles]

Drop Brew Potion.

Are you allowed to shop for items? Grab a wand of Cure Light Wounds or Lesser Vigor. They only cost 750 HP and can heal gobs of HP out of combat. Otherwise, picking up craft wand wouldn't be terrible.

If you suspect that you're going to need in combat healing in a fight (remember, as written, drinking a potion costs your standard action and provokes of opportunity), you can always spontaneously turn one of your 4th level spell slots into Summon Nature's Ally, and get a unicorn. Those heal more than the equivalent heal spell, and come with circle of prot from evil, meaning it can keep the injured char a little safer.

Your allowed source books would be helpful.
There are some pretty neat tricks you can pull with your feats as a druid. Spell Focus: Conjuration & Augment Summoning are helpful for getting tougher summons. As a druid, you can summon really awesome grapplers.

Ashbound, from Eberron Campaign Setting, doubles the duration of all your SNA spells, and gives them +3 attack/+3 damage. I highly recommend it, if you plan on summoning and have access to it.

You can also try out Lesser Aasimar. Give up Outsider type, lose the level adjustment.

[elvengunner69]

Drop Brew Potion.

Are you allowed to shop for items? Grab a wand of Cure Light Wounds or Lesser Vigor. They only cost 750 HP and can heal gobs of HP out of combat. Otherwise, picking up craft wand wouldn't be terrible.

If you suspect that you're going to need in combat healing in a fight (remember, as written, drinking a potion costs your standard action and provokes of opportunity), you can always spontaneously turn one of your 4th level spell slots into Summon Nature's Ally, and get a unicorn. Those heal more than the equivalent heal spell, and come with circle of prot from evil, meaning it can keep the injured char a little safer.

Your allowed source books would be helpful.
There are some pretty neat tricks you can pull with your feats as a druid. Spell Focus: Conjuration & Augment Summoning are helpful for getting tougher summons. As a druid, you can summon really awesome grapplers.

Ashbound, from Eberron Campaign Setting, doubles the duration of all your SNA spells, and gives them +3 attack/+3 damage. I highly recommend it, if you plan on summoning and have access to it.

You can also try out Lesser Aasimar. Give up Outsider type, lose the level adjustment.

We were able to spend 5k or less on armor and up to 10k on a weapon or magic item. I got some +2 Hide armor and Circlet of Blasting, minor. So I can't buy more.

Lesser Aaismar would also make me lose the ability to cast light right?

We don't have much melee in the group so i'm thinking I need to gear my animal companion towards being a 'tank'

[elvengunner69]

We were able to spend 5k or less on armor and up to 10k on a weapon or magic item. I got some +2 Hide armor and Circlet of Blasting, minor. So I can't buy more.

Lesser Aaismar would also make me lose the ability to cast light right?

We don't have much melee in the group so i'm thinking I need to gear my animal companion towards being a 'tank'

anyone comment on this?

[Edenbeast]

I detest level adjustment, especially with spellcasters. Your animal companion will also benefit from no level adjustment. As druid you already have access to the Daylight spell.

Lesser Aasimar characters possess the following racial traits.

Type: Humanoid
+2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma.
Medium size.
A Lesser Aasimar’s base land speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Lesser Aasimars can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Racial Skills: Lesser Aasimars have a +2 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks.
Racial Feats: A Lesser Aasimar gains feats according to its class levels.
Automatic Languages: Common, Celestial. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan.
Favored Class: Paladin.
Level adjustment +0.

Not too bad compared to human..

[Gray Mage]

anyone comment on this?

Daylight is a 3rd level spell in the druid list, do you really need it from Aasimar?

[Fates]

If you're an assimar mostly for flavor, that's fine, but if not, I would strongly suggest being something without level adjustment. Your DM may be opposed to lesser aasimar, and it's not really all that handy. Druids are the shiniest guys around. They can already cast Light and Daylight just fine, as well as spells like Searing Light, which might actually be worth your time. If you ask me, don't waste a level on aasimar or a feat on light-to-daylight. Choose something practical, and don't focus too heavily on the light thing. Drow are tricky, and might be protected from it, or at least might have a pet lying around that's not very vulnerable to it.

[elvengunner69]

Awesome thank you! The previous group that got ambushed/killed had a tough time with the darkness that the Drow were dealing thus I thought of the Daylight option and being able to cast it like a spell like ability gave me the feat option Light to Daylight and I can do it 3x a day. Seemed like it might be handy and I don't have to use spells.

After what you all said though I'm 50/50 going away from Aaismar...I like the darkvision ability obviously since we'll be in the underdark...food for thought at least.

Thanks again!

[Shpadoinkle]

Definitely drop Brew Potion, it's pretty mediocre, and take Craft Wand instead. Make a couple wands of CL 1 Lesser Vigor and the feat will have more than paid for itself. A wand of Bull's Strength, even at CL 1 (few fights are going to last more than ten rounds) is also a pretty sound investment- cast it on your animal companion or the party beatstick (or both if you're running low on otherwise useful spells) at the beginning of every fight. The only reason you might want the caster level to be higher is to make it harder to dispel, but you'll be doubling the cost to create it just to make it 5% harder to dispel, so I don't really consider it worth the cost.

Also, if you want Darkvision, there are Goggles of the Night (DMG, 12,000 GP,) the Belt of Dwarvenkind (DMG, 14,900 GP; a MUCH better item as in addition you get a +2 to saves vs. spells and spell-like effects, plus +2 CON, and you can speak and read Dwarven, and couple other minor effects,) or you could play a dwarf or half-orc instead. There's also the Darkvision spell, which you could buy a wand of and have the party rogue or sorcerer/wizard use on you, but it only lasts 1 hour per caster level.

[Spuddles]

Darkvision cannot see through a darkness spell. Unless the drow are using a feat, item, or spell, they too are blind in their own darkness. Well, dimness. Darkness only inflicts a 20% miss chance and isn't actually real darkness. You can actually cast darkness in a dark room and have enough light to see by.

Wild shape into a dire bat, or having a pet dire bat, will help you with the darkness with its blindsense or whatever.

You can also summon allies that can deal with, or ignore, the darkness.

Some Feats to look at are:
Ashbound for better summons
Natural bond so higher level companions dont have a druid penalty
Natural spell so you can cast in wildshape
Spellbond companion so you can share spells with it over a great distance

From faerun, rashemi elemental summons and greenbound summoning make your summons unfairly overpowered.

Craft wand wouldn't be a terrible investment. There are a few druid spells that work fine out of a wand.