Druid question

[natos4unlife]

Hey all.

I'm going to be running a new campaign here in the near future, and have the pleasure of "breaking in" a buddy of mine who's never played D&D. He says he likes the general feel of a Druid, but isn't interested in Wild Shape. It was at this point that I realized I never really paid much attention to the Druid class or its alternates. I've done a bit of a cursory search and am coming up relatively empty handed.

Is there any published alternatives for Druids who want to not have shape-shifting, or would it perhaps be better to point him in the direction of being a "druid-like" nature cleric of some sort?

[Palanan]

Is this 3.5 or Pathfinder?

If it's 3.5 or some mixture, the variant druid from Unearthed Arcana (p. 58) trades away wild shape for several monk and ranger abilities.

[Jarmen4u]

There's always the Unearthed Arcana variants.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...terClasses.htm

The druid might choose to give up her wild shape ability in exchange for becoming a swift and deadly hunter.

Gain
Bonus to Armor Class when unarmored (as monk, including Wisdom bonus to AC), fast movement (as monk), favored enemy (as ranger), swift tracker (as ranger), Track feat (as ranger).

Lose
Armor and shield proficiency, wild shape (all versions).

That might be more like what he's looking for.

EDIT: never been swordsaged before

[natos4unlife]

I apologize, should have been more specific. Yes, it is indeed 3.5. I will investigate this UA varient. Thank you :).

[Rebel7284]

Have you seen eggynacks druid encyclopedia?

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...Druid-Handbook

There are several options for trading away wildshape. All of them are weaker than wildshape, but a well played druid is going to be amazing even intentionally weakening itself by trading it out.

[natos4unlife]

Well, thank you for your speedy responses! I've brought the UA alternative to his attention and he seems pretty keen on it.

[GilesTheCleric]

Ranger has the druid's animal companion and woodsy feel; clerics have a plethora of nature deities and nature-related domains to pick from. Here's some Druid ACFs that will remove or change wild shape:

Spoiler

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City-Shape (CS, web): Smaller wild shapes, but gain the ability to change into vermin.

Deadly Hunter (UA, p 58): Gain bonus to AC when unarmored and fast movement (as monk). Gain favored enemy, track, and swift tracker as a ranger. Lose armor and shield proficiency and wild shape.

Aspect of the Dragon (DrM, p 11): You don't gain wildshape. Instead take on various aspects of dragons.

Drow Druid (DU, p58): Wildshape into a monstrous spider instead of animals.

Halfling Druid Substitution Levels (RW, p 157) 5th level: Undersized Wildshape (wildshape limited to smaller forms, usable more times per day)

Shapeshifter (PHB 2, p 39): Lose animal companion and wildshape. Gain the ability to change into several forms, with set bonuses, at will.

Waste Vermin Wildshape (SSt, p 47): Wildshape into a wasteland vermin, lose 1 wildshape/day.

Don't forget that Wildshape isn't a class feature until 5th level, so he could always just start a regular druid, and then if by level 5 he still feels the same, then he can make a choice about it. I think that you might want to ask what exactly it is about the druid that he likes, especially if it's fluff. Many classes can easily be fluffed to be more in-tune with nature, and if it's more of a character personality thing than a fluff thing, he could play most any class, really. I think that if he's okay with a more complex character sheet, cleric and druid probably offer the most versatility in terms of build if there's something specific he's looking for.