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  1. - Top - End - #391
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Has a one-level dip into Arcane Heirophant without dipping into an Arcane spellcasting class first in order to give your Animal Companion an INT score been considered yet? If you use the Southern Magician feat to get in, you won't lose any caster levels, Animal Companion levels, or Wild Shape levels.
    Last edited by ATHATH; 2017-11-01 at 03:42 PM.
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  2. - Top - End - #392
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by Endarire View Post
    -Girallon's Blessing
    Reasonable, though a bit undermined by the fact that a lot of forms will already have two of those claw attacks. Not a huge fan of the 10 minutes/level duration or that it's a combat buff, but it might be worth adding if that's what you're looking for.

    -Mass Snowshoes
    Two spell levels is pretty expensive for the expanded effect. Definitely not as good as the basic version, but it could justify inclusion.

    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    Has a one-level dip into Arcane Heirophant without dipping into an Arcane spellcasting class first in order to give your Animal Companion an INT score been considered yet? If you use the Southern Magician feat to get in, you won't lose any caster levels, Animal Companion levels, or Wild Shape levels.
    Haven't looked at it. Seems like it works, though the feat and skill costs are a little prohibitive for what you're getting. Compared to the surrounding options, it's significantly better than using a watchspider if you're actually going for this plan, and a bit less restrictive but also less good than exalted companion. I do appreciate those neat side abilities that familiars get though.

  3. - Top - End - #393
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    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    Haven't looked at it. Seems like it works, though the feat and skill costs are a little prohibitive for what you're getting. Compared to the surrounding options, it's significantly better than using a watchspider if you're actually going for this plan, and a bit less restrictive but also less good than exalted companion. I do appreciate those neat side abilities that familiars get though.
    Giving your companion Full BAB (due to becoming a Magical Beast (that can still be affected by your Animal-only buff spells, btw)), Improved Evasion, and an INT score of 6 in exchange for 8 ranks in Knowledge (Nature) and Knowledge (Arcana) and one feat isn't a good trade in your eyes?
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  4. - Top - End - #394
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    Giving your companion Full BAB (due to becoming a Magical Beast (that can still be affected by your Animal-only buff spells, btw)), Improved Evasion, and an INT score of 6 in exchange for 8 ranks in Knowledge (Nature) and Knowledge (Arcana) and one feat isn't a good trade in your eyes?
    Looks like the familiar uses your BAB, rather than fancy magical beast BAB. Either way, prolly worth tossing in, especially because I can just put it in as an addendum to the main entry instead of as a wholly new one. It's certainly not significantly worse than the other methods of accomplishing this. It's notable, though, that southern magician restricts your racial choices somewhat, albeit in a relatively low impact way.

  5. - Top - End - #395
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    Looks like the familiar uses your BAB, rather than fancy magical beast BAB. Either way, prolly worth tossing in, especially because I can just put it in as an addendum to the main entry instead of as a wholly new one. It's certainly not significantly worse than the other methods of accomplishing this. It's notable, though, that southern magician restricts your racial choices somewhat, albeit in a relatively low impact way.
    Could someone describe how this solution is superior to the Urban Companion feature, from the Cityscape WE, and then paying a feat for an Improved Familiar?

  6. - Top - End - #396
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nifft View Post
    Could someone describe how this solution is superior to the Urban Companion feature, from the Cityscape WE, and then paying a feat for an Improved Familiar?
    Well, for one thing, I'm not entirely sure that works in the first place. Sure, your ability to summon the urban companion is identical to the sorcerer ability to summon a familiar, but does that mean you yourself are summoning a familiar? I'd argue that you aren't, because for all the claim to identicalness, the creature you're getting is explicitly an urban companion, and urban companions are not familiars. Thus, you wouldn't be able to take the feat at all.

    Moreover, it seems to me that the two creatures cover fundamentally different roles. A good improved familiar, like an imp, is about weird utility, compared to the animal companion which is about beating face most of the time with maybe some utility added in. The main utility to getting an animal companion intelligent is that your animal companion can start hitting smarter, maybe using some feats that need smarts to use like martial study (a normal companion can technically take the feat, but the open question is whether they can make actual use of it). As such, far from this being a better or worse solution, what we're looking at here are two different solutions for two different problems. I'm inclined to think, personally, that a companion that can beat face lines up somewhat better with what a druid is looking for than familiar stuff does.

  7. - Top - End - #397
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    -Girallon's Blessing has a touch range, meaning you can aid allies and animal companions with it. The spell also lets you do stuff like 4-hand a weapon (like an uberized quarterstaff in Legendary Ape form). You can use it to carry more objects than normal. It's noteworthy, but still handy.

    -Even if you can normally speak their language, how do you direct summonlings while Wild Shaped into something that normally doesn't speak a 'language?' Dinosaurs, elephants, wolves, etc. aren't listed in their stat blocks as normally being able to speak a language. (Certain 3+ INT creatures, like Elementals, are, but those aren't the main topic here.) Would you need a tongues spell or similar to speak the relevant summonling language in a form normally not able to speak?
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  8. - Top - End - #398
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by Endarire View Post
    -Girallon's Blessing has a touch range, meaning you can aid allies and animal companions with it. The spell also lets you do stuff like 4-hand a weapon (like an uberized quarterstaff in Legendary Ape form). You can use it to carry more objects than normal. It's noteworthy, but still handy.
    It seems reasonable, certainly. Might wind up tossing it in. It sees mention enough, and it's pretty cool as spells go.


    -Even if you can normally speak their language, how do you direct summonlings while Wild Shaped into something that normally doesn't speak a 'language?' Dinosaurs, elephants, wolves, etc. aren't listed in their stat blocks as normally being able to speak a language. (Certain 3+ INT creatures, like Elementals, are, but those aren't the main topic here.) Would you need a tongues spell or similar to speak the relevant summonling language in a form normally not able to speak?
    You typically don't, not in any high level way anyway. Speak with animals does it, of course, as do effects that mirror that in general, but you're generally limited to what you'd expect out of a straight up animal. They attack nearby enemies automatically, and do so to the best of their abilities, and that's a lot of what you'd want anyway. Beyond that, you're limited to handle animal stuff.

  9. - Top - End - #399
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    -SNA IX's Celestial Charger lets you cast restoration indirectly which can remove ability drain. It's a long wait and niche use, but a Druid can kinda cast restoration on his own.

    -Talking while Wild Shaped: I was mostly concerned about how you would, if you're Wild Shaped into an animal, be able to use Terran, etc. to direct summons who don't require speak with animals to direct.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Have you considered adding the Create Frenzy Dog spell to your list of Druid spells? It combos especially well with Aspect of the Wolf, although you should try to cast it on things other than yourself.
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  11. - Top - End - #401
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by Endarire View Post
    -SNA IX's Celestial Charger lets you cast restoration indirectly which can remove ability drain. It's a long wait and niche use, but a Druid can kinda cast restoration on his own.
    I guess. I've gotta think there's a ton of shapechange based solutions by that point though.
    -Talking while Wild Shaped: I was mostly concerned about how you would, if you're Wild Shaped into an animal, be able to use Terran, etc. to direct summons who don't require speak with animals to direct.
    Ah. Yeah, it's a tricky one. You'd presumably want either some speech mode that isn't one language specific like a pearl of speech is, or you'd just want multiple pearls.
    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    Have you considered adding the Create Frenzy Dog spell to your list of Druid spells? It combos especially well with Aspect of the Wolf, although you should try to cast it on things other than yourself.
    I think it's come up and that I thought it was a weak option. As for the specific self targeting mode, you run into the problem of having too much HD and not precisely being a normal animal

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    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    I guess. I've gotta think there's a ton of shapechange based solutions by that point though.

    Ah. Yeah, it's a tricky one. You'd presumably want either some speech mode that isn't one language specific like a pearl of speech is, or you'd just want multiple pearls.

    I think it's come up and that I thought it was a weak option. As for the specific self targeting mode, you run into the problem of having too much HD and not precisely being a normal animal
    Yeah, but it's still somewhat useful for permanent (weak) minion creation during downtime, which makes it noteworthy on my book.
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  13. - Top - End - #403
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    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    Ah. Yeah, it's a tricky one. You'd presumably want either some speech mode that isn't one language specific like a pearl of speech is, or you'd just want multiple pearls.
    The solution my druid used (before our party wizard started regularly throwing "telepathic bond" about) was a custom magic item: an Indiana Jones-style fedora with a permanent Speak with Animals effect on it.

    I know it's controversial, but the rules say you can communicate with other animals of the form you are wildshaped into. So my DM interpreted this to mean that I'm speaking Tiger when wildshaped into a tiger.

    The hat is usually in my AC's saddlebags. I used to give it to a party member when communication was important, so they could understand Tiger.

    Theoretically, you could probably nonverbally tell a summoned elemental to put the hat on. Then they would understand you, too. Plus, the fun of a huge earth elemental beating face while wearing a jaunty little fedora. (Just be careful with fire elementals.)
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    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    Yeah, but it's still somewhat useful for permanent (weak) minion creation during downtime, which makes it noteworthy on my book.
    I love me a permanent weak minion, but my issue with this one is that there's no apparent mechanism, with the loss of animal friendship, to place that minion under your control. Low scale dog chaos is vaguely amusing, but not all that useful if you're looking for straight up chaos without aim.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    What templates do you advise for Druids who can get them for free or otherwise handily and efficiently buy off their LA?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Endarire View Post
    What templates do you advise for Druids who can get them for free or otherwise handily and efficiently buy off their LA?
    The Phrenic and Half-Fey templates are (almost) always nice, and the Dark and Shadow templates are pretty good for characters who are investing in stealth.
    Last edited by ATHATH; 2017-11-04 at 01:52 PM.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Besides Dark, Half-Minotaur, and Fire-Souled which I had considered, what other +1 LA templates would likely be worthwhile for a Human Druid?

    Also, the feat Improved Flight (Complete Adventurer 110) is wonderful for certain companions and Druids. It turns a Dire Eagle or Dragonhawk into a (Good) maneuverability flying creature!
    Last edited by Endarire; 2017-11-11 at 02:53 AM.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    I was disappointed at a lack of mention of wall of fire. It's sorta shapeable, lasts for Concentration + 1 round/caster level, and, most importantly, deals DOUBLE DAMAGE TO UNDEAD for arbitrary reasons! This may be blue in an Undead-heavy campaign despite it being a blast spell.

    But after rereading the spell, I felt annoyed that the damage per round was so low. Even doubled, 2d6+9 fire damage per turn (the lowest it's expected to be as a Druid) averages to 15 (or 30 if doubled). It seems meant for killing minions and acting sorta as an inspiration for the psionic power energy current. At least 'firewall' has no save. It kinda feels like an AoE flaming version of produce flame or call lightning: It's a blast spell with damage meant to be spread over a variety of rounds and sometimes to more than one target. There's secondary use to the wall since it's fire and can be permanencyed.
    Last edited by Endarire; 2017-11-11 at 04:20 AM.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    I can confirm that Wall of Fire is especially hilarious in a zombie survival scenario. They just walk right in!

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Eggynack: What made you like Druids so much that you made this guide? What's your history with Druids?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Endarire View Post
    Eggynack: What made you like Druids so much that you made this guide? What's your history with Druids?
    I don't have any kind of crazy history with the class. I played it some and picked up a lot of optimization knowledge both from that and parallel to that. I don't know precisely why I got the idea, but it was an outgrowth of a lot of druid threads I was hanging out in. I started out putting together the ACF list, because I was particularly dissatisfied with the way existing handbooks were treating those, and then I just kinda continued on from there.

    As for what appeals to me about the class, I tend to have an affinity for things that are attritiony and complex. Ensnaring a pile of enemies in inevitability before defeating them by way of summoned meatshields that slowly surround them is a great thing. And, from an optimization perspective, I really appreciated how dense it is. I have a ton of stuff, but even now there's no doubt I could have more. The whole class stacks up in this really weird way, where you have individual druid elements that in and of themselves contain crazy complexity, to the point where one piece of that complexity could itself contain crazy complexity. You consider something like spells in a broad sense, and it's obviously going to be pretty dense, but then you get to an individual spell like animate with the spirit, which is itself dense, and then you find individual usable monsters with the spell that are themselves dense, and you finally recognize that one of those monsters has a spell that's also dense. Who's to say the handbook shouldn't have gone on a weird digression into how best to use a movanic deva's divination capabilities?

    Druid optimization touches a significant percentage of the entire game. Which I think is neat.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    I agree that understanding Druids means understanding a large part of the game.

    Having played Wizards extensively and pretty much exclusively for years, I'm finding Druids to be a wonderful alternative. No more spellbook tracking. I just know THOUSANDS of spells and can choose what I feel like preparing, GM willing of course. And while I've felt that Druids pre-Natural Spell have had similar troubles as Wizards pre-level 5ish spells, at least we have animal companions and party healing to help.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    True seeing: Druids get it at L7, CLERICS get it at L5, and WIZARDS get it at L6. Fix the levels of non-Druids in the guide and you're set!
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    I guess. I've gotta think there's a ton of shapechange based solutions by that point though.
    Friendly reminder that there now exists an ability-indexed handbook for shapechange, which you're welcome to link to in lieu of Emperor Tippy continuing his description :-)

    I've made some recent improvements, detailed here.

    Alas, I've yet to find anything that grants you restoration except via wish. I haven't gone through the non-Core dragons yet though (of things that have been recommended or requested specifically), and for non-Core stuff in general there's still a ton of material I haven't gotten to. If you have something that does it, please let me know so I can include it.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    The Shifter substitution levels look like absolute garbage- why are they not red?

    1st level: You're trading your Animal Companion for... the Alertness feat, small bonuses to meh abilities, a shiftable+6 (usually +4-ish) to a physical ability score of your choice (so a +3 bonus to some melee-related things), Slippery Mind, the ability to lose the aforementioned physical ability bonus to give it at doubled strength to a summoned animal (so not a cool elemental, magical beast, or fey) as a move action, an extra auto-quickened low level spell per day, and a heavily delayed ability to cast SNA as a standard action. Of those abilities, the only one that I really think is somewhat valuable is the ability to cast SNA as a standard action, which comes online quite late. After 12th level, when the Animal Companion is starting to get less useful, yeah, this is at least a black trade, but before that, I think it should be a red one.

    4th level: You're giving yourself an insight bonus to two things in exchange for an untyped penalty to another thing? Why? Isn't that going to hurt you in the long run, since that insight bonus will be overwritten by the insight bonuses given by magic items? Also, there are much better things to trade Resist Nature's Lure for instead of a bonus to Reflex saves and initiative rolls, such as the ability to convert all of your spell slots into healing at the end of the day (4th level Fangshields Druid substitution level) or immunity to the Nauseated condition (Iron Constitution ACF).

    5h level: You already went over why this is bad in your handbook.
    Last edited by ATHATH; 2017-11-20 at 02:00 PM.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    The Shifter substitution levels look like absolute garbage- why are they not red?

    1st level: You're trading your Animal Companion for... the Alertness feat, small bonuses to meh abilities, a shiftable+6 (usually +4-ish) to a physical ability score of your choice (so a +3 bonus to some melee-related things), Slippery Mind, the ability to lose the aforementioned physical ability bonus to give it at doubled strength to a summoned animal (so not a cool elemental, magical beast, or fey) as a move action, an extra auto-quickened low level spell per day, and a heavily delayed ability to cast SNA as a standard action. Of those abilities, the only one that I really think is somewhat valuable is the ability to cast SNA as a standard action, which comes online quite late. After 12th level, when the Animal Companion is starting to get less useful, yeah, this is at least a black trade, but before that, I think it should be a red one.

    4th level: You're giving yourself an insight bonus to two things in exchange for an untyped penalty to another thing? Why? Isn't that going to hurt you in the long run, since that insight bonus will be overwritten by the insight bonuses given by magic items? Also, there are much better things to trade Resist Nature's Lure for instead of a bonus to Reflex saves and initiative rolls, such as the ability to convert all of your spell slots into healing at the end of the day (4th level Fangshields Druid substitution level) or immunity to the Nauseated condition (Iron Constitution ACF).

    5h level: You already went over why this is bad in your handbook.
    Heh, I was thinking about posting basically this, after helping someone with a Shifter Druid concept (... for which my help was basically: "Don't.")

    You're saying something true ATHATH, but the situation is even worse than it looks, because Shifter racial levels have a massive anti-synergy with Moonspeaker.

    If you go into Moonspeaker at 9th level, you're never going to see the 9th level Beast Spirit bonus, since Beast Spirit effects derive from Druid level. The first half-decent effect is the 9th level effect, so yeah. All Shifter racial levels are hot garbage if you intend to go into Moonspeaker.

    Moonspeaker seems more suitable for a Cleric -- the Planar Ally stuff isn't exciting, but Wild Shape very much is exciting, and holy cow class features every level, Clerics never get class features -- or maybe a Favored Soul, but for a Druid there's just so much anti-synergy.


    I mean, it's true that Druids are so ridiculously strong that they can tolerate a heaping spoonful of anti-synergy, and still pull their weight for the team -- but a self-nerf should really be labeled as such.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by ATHATH View Post
    1st level: You're trading your Animal Companion for... the Alertness feat, small bonuses to meh abilities, a shiftable+6 (usually +4-ish) to a physical ability score of your choice (so a +3 bonus to some melee-related things), Slippery Mind, the ability to lose the aforementioned physical ability bonus to give it at doubled strength to a summoned animal (so not a cool elemental, magical beast, or fey) as a move action, an extra auto-quickened low level spell per day, and a heavily delayed ability to cast SNA as a standard action. Of those abilities, the only one that I really think is somewhat valuable is the ability to cast SNA as a standard action, which comes online quite late. After 12th level, when the Animal Companion is starting to get less useful, yeah, this is at least a black trade, but before that, I think it should be a red one.
    The "melee-related thing" in this case is very likely to be HP, which is pretty nice, for one thing. But, in general, the neat thing about beast spirit is that it offers its abilities directly to the druid's casting and survivability, and those are two really important things. Alertness and extend shifting are just whatever, with feral empathy a bit above that, but the ability bonus, will of the spirit, and transfer spirit are quite good, and prepare spell and rapid summoning are very good. The animal companion is really great, but I think that density of solid to good abilities, boosts to things a druid really wants boosts to, is a great thing. Also, most things that you summon which you'd want to stat boost are going to be animals.
    4th level: You're giving yourself an insight bonus to two things in exchange for an untyped penalty to another thing? Why? Isn't that going to hurt you in the long run, since that insight bonus will be overwritten by the insight bonuses given by magic items? Also, there are much better things to trade Resist Nature's Lure for instead of a bonus to Reflex saves and initiative rolls, such as the ability to convert all of your spell slots into healing at the end of the day (4th level Fangshields Druid substitution level) or immunity to the Nauseated condition (Iron Constitution ACF).
    Which insight bonus precisely is being used here to overwrite the druid one? More importantly, the bonus from resist nature's lure is to something kinda pointless, so if you're getting hurt to any extent, it's pretty minimal. As for the other options, they're good but initiative is pretty sweet. I'd maybe rank it above fangshields and below strong stomach.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nifft View Post
    If you go into Moonspeaker at 9th level, you're never going to see the 9th level Beast Spirit bonus, since Beast Spirit effects derive from Druid level. The first half-decent effect is the 9th level effect, so yeah. All Shifter racial levels are hot garbage if you intend to go into Moonspeaker.
    This is why I think you generally want to go druid 12/moonspeaker 8, or some other ordering that includes twelve levels of druid. The last levels of moonspeaker aren't all that great.
    Last edited by eggynack; 2017-11-20 at 08:58 PM.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Hm. Okay, yeah, you've convinced me (barely).

    Quote Originally Posted by Nifft View Post
    Heh, I was thinking about posting basically this, after helping someone with a Shifter Druid concept (... for which my help was basically: "Don't.")

    You're saying something true ATHATH, but the situation is even worse than it looks, because Shifter racial levels have a massive anti-synergy with Moonspeaker.

    If you go into Moonspeaker at 9th level, you're never going to see the 9th level Beast Spirit bonus, since Beast Spirit effects derive from Druid level. The first half-decent effect is the 9th level effect, so yeah. All Shifter racial levels are hot garbage if you intend to go into Moonspeaker.

    Moonspeaker seems more suitable for a Cleric -- the Planar Ally stuff isn't exciting, but Wild Shape very much is exciting, and holy cow class features every level, Clerics never get class features -- or maybe a Favored Soul, but for a Druid there's just so much anti-synergy.


    I mean, it's true that Druids are so ridiculously strong that they can tolerate a heaping spoonful of anti-synergy, and still pull their weight for the team -- but a self-nerf should really be labeled as such.
    +1 to this. You should probably mention the anti-synergy of the Shifter Druid substitution levels and the Moonspeaker Prc.
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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Actually, Moonspeaker looks quite good for a Spirit Shaman.

    Maybe Rangers would benefit from the natural attack stuff and permanent stat buffs? That 3/4 BAB might sting a bit, though.
    Last edited by ATHATH; 2017-11-20 at 08:38 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Honest Tiefling View Post
    Is this a good OJEBUWIP WHAT IN THE NINE ABYSSES, or a bad OJFBUEWIP WHAT IN THE NINE ABYSSES?
    Quote Originally Posted by Kid Jake View Post
    "Oh no, I'm bleeding out of my eyes...it's only now that I see that the delivery fee isn't a substitute for tipping your pizza guy!"
    Quote Originally Posted by Arguss View Post
    "No" means "yes".
    Quote Originally Posted by daremetoidareyo View Post
    My other idea was to be a troglodyte were-cockroach and just smell bad in people's squares.

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    Default Re: Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    Which insight bonus precisely is being used here to overwrite the druid one? More importantly, the bonus from resist nature's lure is to something kinda pointless, so if you're getting hurt to any extent, it's pretty minimal. As for the other options, they're good but initiative is pretty sweet. I'd maybe rank it above fangshields and below strong stomach.
    There's an MIC weapon enhancement that gives you +5 Insight to Initiative, for +1 equivalent (8k gp).

    Bluesteel Bracers soulmeld gives you +2 Insight to Initiative, +1/essentia.

    That's two; there are others.

    Quote Originally Posted by eggynack View Post
    This is why I think you generally want to go druid 12/moonspeaker 8, or some other ordering that includes twelve levels of druid. The last levels of moonspeaker aren't all that great.
    So you'd get Rapid Summons, but lose the +6 ability bump (not that +4 is bad), lose the 6th level slot, and lose Manifested Spirit (though that last one doesn't seem so great).

    Getting Rapid Summons seems like the key thing. And it's quite decent.

    However the loss of an animal companion especially at the lower levels is really a significant decrease in utility.

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