Race for Druid and stats

[mikrisar]

Which race would be to make the druid? half-orc or half-elf or elf? any ideas for a build of 36 points? should be distributed as?

[Diyon]

The answer to this question is: yes.

Human- extra wis, extra feat, HV if melee type
Halfling- SA bonuses great for a melee build
Dwarf- Con bonuses are great
Elf- arguably not that great, but could put together some sort of scimitar focus.
Drow- Okay, so drow is probably a bad choice generally.
Half elf- How many classes is this a bad choice for?
Half orc- Str bonuses good for melee type, no penalties where it hurts.
Warforged- can use PDK docent for PDK set, gets to be a real boy. Con bonuses.

As to stats, that highly depends on what you build. The druid class is looking to be extremely versatile build wise. You could make a nuker/buffer, a healer, a caster/melee, a melee/caster, a tank, High STR/dump STR, high WIS/dump WIS, or something in between, and all of these can heal to some degree. And that's without even touching the multiclass options.

[Eladiun]

Depends what type of druid that you want? They can be built with amazing role flexibility. Max DC's, Melee, Primary Healer, Maximize Form Damage...

[mikrisar]

The answer to this question is: yes.

Human- extra wis, extra feat, HV if melee type
Halfling- SA bonuses great for a melee build
Dwarf- Con bonuses are great
Elf- arguably not that great, but could put together some sort of scimitar focus.
Drow- Okay, so drow is probably a bad choice generally.
Half elf- How many classes is this a bad choice for?
Half orc- Str bonuses good for melee type, no penalties where it hurts.
Warforged- can use PDK docent for PDK set, gets to be a real boy. Con bonuses.

As to stats, that highly depends on what you build. The druid class is looking to be extremely versatile build wise. You could make a nuker/buffer, a healer, a caster/melee, a melee/caster, a tank, High STR/dump STR, high WIS/dump WIS, or something in between, and all of these can heal to some degree. And that's without even touching the multiclass options.

I would like to make a druid specializing in melee... caster/ meelee

[Asar]

Drow- Okay, so drow is probably a bad choice generally.

Please, tell me this is not right info. I've wanted to create Drow druid because of RP reasons :/

[Diyon]

Please, tell me this is not right info. I've wanted to create Drow druid because of RP reasons :/

Well look at it this way:

-You get automatic build points of +2 each into DEX, INT, and CHA. DEX isn't really all that helpful, bit of reflex, bit of AC, maybe TWF prereq help if you go humanoid TWF melee, but I imagine to make that a viable idea you'd have to do some sort of multiclass. INT, you don't have a lot of skill points that are important, and pretty much nothing else based on this. CHA, you get +1 umd, and +1 on wild empathy, bluff, and diplomacy. Some of that's useful, but nothing really important.
-You get -2 CON. This sucks in general, able to be overcome, but not helping the case.
-You're left with 28 points to put into other stats. The important ones for druids are generally WIS, CON, and STR, the importance of each depending on what type you are building. But the point being none of the racial bonuses are here, and one of the penalties is.
-You get SR. Nice, but not reliable.
-Pretty much no enhancements that help out.
-Elf is in the same boat mostly, except it can have 32 points to spend, and can maybe use the scimitar enhancements.

Best bet is some sort of rogue/druid multiclass is going to be the about the only thing a drow would be ok-ish for.

[Osma77]

Warforged- gets to be a real boy.

+1. Made me laugh out loud, startling the people around me.

I disagree with the idea of dumping wis, but play as you like. With my wolfform druid that had around 20 wis and nearly 40 str, i was nowhere near as powerful as i should have been imo.

As someone mentioned, +8 Wis and -8 str = +4 dc to spells and -4 to damage. The to-hit is negligible while the +dc is significant.

[Diyon]

+1. Made me laugh out loud, startling the people around me.

I disagree with the idea of dumping wis, but play as you like. With my wolfform druid that had around 20 wis and nearly 40 str, i was nowhere near as powerful as i should have been imo.

As someone mentioned, +8 Wis and -8 str = +4 dc to spells and -4 to damage. The to-hit is negligible while the +dc is significant.

Well, completely dumping WIS might not always be a great idea, but my point was you can could make a fairly servicable melee focused druid without much wis. I mean, yes the attack spells have saves on them, but they don't effect damage (using the animal based spells that is).

[oweieie]

Human is always the right choice. The extra feat can't be beat.

[azrael4h]

Human or Half-Elf, for me, will be reaching for top status for Druid caster builds. Human alleviates some of the feat starved nature of the class, Half-Elf grants a bit of versatility or survivability or dps, depending on which dilettante is taken.

Half-Orc and Dwarf are right behind, Horc for melee damage, Dwarf for durability.

I personally will likely TR my Sorc into a Half-Elven Druid, though Human is a possibility. Pure caster, max WIS with everything into it, 16 CON, rest into STR. Mostly, I'm waiting to see what sticks as far as feat changes go. If my numbers are right, it'll be 16/8/16/8/18/8, so I'll be able to gear and buff up enough to be capable of meleeing in an emergency. It'll basically be the difference of 5 build points and relevant feats in the end.

[Rhysem]

Dump wis on a druid when the flame blade is wis to-hit and damage and (I think) persists through forms? Why would you start at anything but 18 wis? Its an invitation to have amazing DCs and not suck in melee if you care to. 18 wis, 16 con, rest in dex if you want to hit TWF and you're probably fairly set. Maybe some in str, just for carrying cap or power attack.

TBH the biggest deal will come with the enh redo pass. Is there another prestige that offers your druid type (feral or boom...seasons) a major advantage. If so, human is probably where you want to be. If not, then maybe you want some helf.

[Ryiah]

Dump wis on a druid when the flame blade is wis to-hit and damage and (I think) persists through forms? Why would you start at anything but 18 wis? Its an invitation to have amazing DCs and not suck in melee if you care to. 18 wis, 16 con, rest in dex if you want to hit TWF and you're probably fairly set.

This is mostly what I'll be doing on my Druid. Max WIS with CON and DEX for TWF, a couple Monk levels for stances and extra feats, and possibly Elf for the enhancement lines that improve scimitar attack and damage. Might even be able to pull off a fair amount of AC though that wouldn't be my focus.

[Jsbeer]

Human is always the right choice. The extra feat can't be beat.

Pretty close to the truth - I once had a in-forum debate with Wax-On-Wax-Off about this (needless to say he ended up convincing me that my view that Humans were the best race overall viewpoint is not as clear-cut as I thought).

Basically I now feel that Human is probably optimum for the majority of casters, but Half-Elf is superior for most melees (except Barbarians).

[Diyon]

Dump wis on a druid when the flame blade is wis to-hit and damage and (I think) persists through forms? Why would you start at anything but 18 wis? Its an invitation to have amazing DCs and not suck in melee if you care to. 18 wis, 16 con, rest in dex if you want to hit TWF and you're probably fairly set. Maybe some in str, just for carrying cap or power attack.

TBH the biggest deal will come with the enh redo pass. Is there another prestige that offers your druid type (feral or boom...seasons) a major advantage. If so, human is probably where you want to be. If not, then maybe you want some helf.

Because if you go all out melee, flameblade is not the best choice, especially since there are some cases where it will be absolutely useless.

But it is great for a main caster that wants to melee sometimes.

This is what I meant by there is a huge variety of build types for this class. Yes, in general you'll want high wisdom, but there are options that will do great without it.

[HalfOrcBeautyQueen]

Dump wis on a druid when the flame blade is wis to-hit and damage and (I think) persists through forms? Why would you start at anything but 18 wis? Its an invitation to have amazing DCs and not suck in melee if you care to. 18 wis, 16 con, rest in dex if you want to hit TWF and you're probably fairly set. Maybe some in str, just for carrying cap or power attack.

It does not persist through form.
Once you're an Animal it uses your STR for hit & damage.

[Osma77]

Well, completely dumping WIS might not always be a great idea, but my point was you can could make a fairly servicable melee focused druid without much wis. I mean, yes the attack spells have saves on them, but they don't effect damage (using the animal based spells that is).

Your right, sort of.

Dont know about bear spells, and yes wisdom does not effect the direct damage of wolf form.

However, the spells for wolves all have debuff effects that make killing stuff without them killing you back much much easier. The only "exception" is baiting bite, where if you are able to make the bluff hit, actually will increase your damage due to sneak attacks. Of course baiting bite is bugged (say that 5 times fast). But being able to freeze, paralize, or trip the enemy makes it much easier to take them down, or concentrate on someone else. And all those abilities use wis.

Yes, a full str build with minimal (19) wis will work fine, i had one and it was ok. It is just that a pure str build in wolf form wont do the damage you want it to because there is no twf or thf. Non-power attacks for me with near 40 str was only doing 25 damage. Until and unless they increase the basic damage of an animal (through feats, or like a monk with increased damage die due to level), the extra str just isnt going to help your damage much.

[Diyon]

Your right, sort of.

Dont know about bear spells, and yes wisdom does not effect the direct damage of wolf form.

However, the spells for wolves all have debuff effects that make killing stuff without them killing you back much much easier. The only "exception" is baiting bite, where if you are able to make the bluff hit, actually will increase your damage due to sneak attacks. Of course baiting bite is bugged (say that 5 times fast). But being able to freeze, paralize, or trip the enemy makes it much easier to take them down, or concentrate on someone else. And all those abilities use wis.

Yes, a full str build with minimal (19) wis will work fine, i had one and it was ok. It is just that a pure str build in wolf form wont do the damage you want it to because there is no twf or thf. Non-power attacks for me with near 40 str was only doing 25 damage. Until and unless they increase the basic damage of an animal (through feats, or like a monk with increased damage die due to level), the extra str just isnt going to help your damage much.

The str applies the same way it does with any other nonTHF weapon. In case you hadn't looked though, there is natural fighting. And the shield mastery feats. That will get you a 26% doublestrike alone, and that's pretty significant.

The bear form attacks have some knockdown abilities and such, but I think it would be okay to neglect wis some for str and con on a tank build. I'm thinking of making one with 6 fighter for stalwart, haven't decided whether to go 11 starting WIS, or 15-16 starting WIS (lvl ups into STR or CON, not sure which yet).

But like I said, my point being there are a number of options. For instance, my acrobat druid with 7 or 8 lvls of druid won't be bumping up WIS very high, I won't be in animal form so that's out, and I can forget about dc's for other stuff. Plan on maybe going with draconic incarnation and bumping creeping cold and icestorm damage, which should still be pretty good that lvl (if you look where the enhancement lvl gates are and that they don't scale much with CL, should work out okay as supplemental damage).

[fatherpirate]

There are SO many ways you can go with a druid, but oddly enough..Jack of all Trades is a poor choice.

Druidic melee DPS non-animal
Half orc, heavy Str starting 14 Wis good dex and con - just increase Wisdom as needed to keep spells
available, skip most of the druidic enhancements..use orc combat ones, grab a good 2handed weapon feat

Pro's melee killing machine with fighter hp, pet spec to not draw agro so can stay in there
very nice druid buffs to improve leathality

Cons boring, low mana...and various monks screaming "quit stealing my kills, 1st it was arties now this ??"
---------------
Druidic animal tank
just about any race good wisdom but not extreme, balanced stats otherwise

Pro's looks cool, looks very cool

Cons - you look like the other million wolves out there, also you really need to watch
your enhancements or you can end up gimping yourself
-------------
Druidic Nuker

Some race that is not wisdom gimp, half elf with monk del. can work nicely if you
don't mind cloth armor

Pro's in the later levels your hp will make a wizard gag and you will nuke just about as hard
in the form of an elemental..with blistering maxed out strikes

Con's for the first 6 or so levels, your a gun with little ammo
-------------

Wild west build

half elf with arty Del, or 1 level arty splash...then go nuker

Con's - well, add one more level of waiting for your big nukes

Pro's - While your waiting for the nukes you can happily mow things down with a repeater
like duke nukum.

---------------

Decepticon build

2 levels of druid for animal form of choice - then some other class

wolf assassin 2dru/18rog or 18 monk
a really raging barb 2 dru/ barb pick bear...or even 3 dru or 5 dru with barb..for extra bear moves
holy cow..I mean wolf 2 dru/18 cleric
ect...

here is the point

druids can be built to do some 'task' very well, but they are bad multitaskers at high lvl

-----------

almost forgot
HEALER druid...yes can be done
go with halfling + dragon mark....that will fill in the lack of early heals, also they are on
different cool downs so later you can spam multi heals quickly using both DM and spells

Note: the thing never to forget....your armor is extremely limited, choose carefully

[HatsuharuZ]

The answer to this question is: yes.

Human- extra wis, extra feat, HV if melee type
Halfling- SA bonuses great for a melee build
Dwarf- Con bonuses are great
Elf- arguably not that great, but could put together some sort of scimitar focus.
Drow- Okay, so drow is probably a bad choice generally.
Half elf- How many classes is this a bad choice for?
Half orc- Str bonuses good for melee type, no penalties where it hurts.
Warforged- can use PDK docent for PDK set, gets to be a real boy. Con bonuses.

As to stats, that highly depends on what you build. The druid class is looking to be extremely versatile build wise. You could make a nuker/buffer, a healer, a caster/melee, a melee/caster, a tank, High STR/dump STR, high WIS/dump WIS, or something in between, and all of these can heal to some degree. And that's without even touching the multiclass options.

Why would you dump Wis? O.o

[Diyon]

Why would you dump Wis? O.o

As I explained in following posts, some melee build possibilities, depending on their focuses could do just fine with fairly low WIS, primarily bear form more so than wolf. Multiclass types even more so.

That said, most druid type builds will want moderate to high WIS scores.