Canine Caster

[JasonJi72]

My level 20 Druid has been on hold for a while due to my other projects, but I am thinking about activating it again. I have been torn between playing a caster and playing a healer, and then I remembered that I kinda already have both of those with my level 20 Druid. I am considering using a LR, so I drew up this build on the online character generator. I have never tried uploading a build from this site before, so I have no idea what it will look like. Well, here goes...

Character Generated Using: DDO Character Generator
Direct Link to Build: http://www.ddochargen.com/home.aspx?build=33717

Druid 20
Male Human - True Neutral
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LEVEL 1:
Race Selected: Male Human
Alignment Selected: True Neutral
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 1)
Abilities Raised: STR: 14, CON: 14, WIS: 16, CHA: 16
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +2 (2), Concentration +4 (4), 
Move Silently +1 (1), Tumble +1 (1), UMD +2 (2)
Feats Selected: Power Attack, Toughness
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LEVEL 2:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 2)
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (5), Move Silently +1 (2), 
UMD +0.5 (2.5)
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LEVEL 3:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 3)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (3), Concentration +1 (6), 
UMD +0.5 (3)
Feats Selected: Empower Spell
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LEVEL 4:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 4)
Abilities Raised: WIS: 17
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (7), Move Silently +1 (3), 
UMD +0.5 (3.5)
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LEVEL 5:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 5)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (4), Concentration +1 (8), 
UMD +0.5 (4)
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LEVEL 6:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 6)
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (9), Move Silently +1 (4), 
UMD +0.5 (4.5)
Feats Selected: Mental Toughness
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LEVEL 7:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 7)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (5), Concentration +1 (10), 
UMD +0.5 (5)
Tomes Applied: STR: +2, CON: +2, INT: +2, WIS: +2, CHA: +2
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LEVEL 8:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 8)
Abilities Raised: WIS: 20
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +0.5 (5.5), Concentration +1 (11), 
Move Silently +1 (5), UMD +0.5 (5.5)
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LEVEL 9:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 9)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +0.5 (6), Concentration +1 (12), 
Move Silently +1 (6), UMD +0.5 (6)
Feats Selected: Improved Mental Toughness
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LEVEL 10:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 10)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +0.5 (6.5), Concentration +1 (13), 
Move Silently +0.5 (6.5), Spot +1 (1), UMD +0.5 (6.5)
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LEVEL 11:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 11)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +0.5 (7), Concentration +1 (14), 
Move Silently +0.5 (7), Spot +1 (2), UMD +0.5 (7)
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LEVEL 12:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 12)
Abilities Raised: WIS: 21
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (15), Spot +4 (6)
Feats Selected: Improved Critical (Bludgeoning)
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LEVEL 13:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 13)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (8), Concentration +1 (16), 
UMD +1 (8)
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LEVEL 14:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 14)
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (17), 
Move Silently +1 (8), Spot +2 (8)
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LEVEL 15:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 15)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (9), Concentration +1 (18), 
UMD +1 (9)
Feats Selected: Maximize Spell
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LEVEL 16:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 16)
Abilities Raised: WIS: 22
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (19), 
Move Silently +1 (9), Spot +2 (10)
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LEVEL 17:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 17)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (10), Concentration +1 (20), 
UMD +1 (10)
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LEVEL 18:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 18)
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (21), 
Move Silently +1 (10), Spot +2 (12)
Feats Selected: Skill Focus (UMD)
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LEVEL 19:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 19)
Skills Ranks Raised: Balance +1 (11), Concentration +1 (22), 
UMD +1 (11)
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LEVEL 20:
Class Selected: Druid (Druid 20)
Abilities Raised: WIS: 23
Skills Ranks Raised: Concentration +1 (23), 
Move Silently +1 (11), Spot +2 (14)
Enhancements Selected: Druid Shifting Rake I, 
Human Versatility I, Human Improved Recovery I, Druid Toughness I, 
Druid Energy of the Locus I, Druid Eminence of Hoarfrost I, 
Racial Toughness I, Druid Waxing Hoarfrost I, Druid Wisdom I, 
Druid Beastial Nature I, Druid Toughness II, Druid Vengeful Hunter I, 
Druid Natures Warrior I, Human Improved Recovery II, 
Racial Toughness II, Druid Shifting Rake II, Druid Fatal Harrier, 
Druid Vengeful Hunter II, Druid Eminence of the Storm I, 
Druid Eminence of the Sun I, Druid Eminence of Life I, 
Druid Waxing Life I, Druid Waxing Sun I, Druid Waxing Storm I, 
Druid Beastial Nature II, Druid Blood Moon Frenzy I, 
Druid Zenith of Life I, Druid Zenith of the Sun I, 
Druid Zenith of the Storm I, Druid Zenith of Hoarfrost I, 
Druid Natures Warrior II, Human Versatility II, Druid Vengeful Hunter III, 
Druid Celerity, Human Improved Recovery III, Druid Wisdom II, 
Human Adaptability Wisdom I, Druid Energy of the Locus II, 
Druid Eminence of Hoarfrost II, Druid Eminence of Hoarfrost III, 
Druid Eminence of the Sun II, Druid Eminence of Life II, 
Natural Adept, Druid Aggravate I
Stats at End of Level 20:
HP:302 SP:1697 AC:9 FORT:15 REFL:5 WILL:20 BAB:+15/+15/+20/+25
STR:16(+3) DEX:8(-1) CON:16(+3) INT:10(0) WIS:26(+8) CHA:18(+4)
Balance:10, Bluff:4, Concentration:26, Diplomacy:4, 
Disable Device: n/a, Haggle:4, Heal:8, Hide:-1, Intimidate:4, 
Jump:3, Listen:8, Move Silently:10, Open Lock: n/a, 
Perform: n/a, Repair:0, Search:0, Spot:22, Swim:3, Tumble:0, UMD:18

Ok, now for some explainations regarding my choices.

The main thing I want to change is my inability to raise in combat. Therefore, I had to incorporate significant UMD into this build. I will swap out sf umd once I get the proper gear, probably for Quicken.

My original build had more double strike capability. I really don't want to get into why I took those out, so I will leave it alone for now. Celerity should cover it anyway for when I really need doublestrike.

Why did I take nature's warrior instead of season's herald? Well at first I didn't, but after trying them both out, I found that I really liked NW better than SH. First of all, I could never tell what season I was in, and I found myself in wolf form a lot. Even though I was built as a caster, I found that I could still provide substantial melee damage while in wolf form. The decision to take Nature's Warrior really boiled down to Sleet Storm / Earthquake / Sneak Attack, spell cooldown while in animal form, Fatal Harrier, and Celerity.

Why take 2 Mental Toughness feats? If you played a Druid, you would not ask that question. Enough said.

What role would this character fill? Caster, healer, crowd control, and supplemental dps. Yes, it can be done. I did it already. This re-make is just ironing out the bugs, specifically dealing with the abysmal design of Reincarnate.

Edit: After reviewing the post, I realized I left out one crucial feat... Empower Healing. Yes, it is necessary for my build. I will have to work that one in somewhere. The changes I will probably make is to drop sf umd for empower healing, and drop improved healing III for 2 strength enhancements. Even if it takes 3 tries to umd a raise scroll, it will still save me 42 minutes in casting time. lol. (slight exageration, but not by much)

[Anihsod]

You really don't need that much Cha in order to use scrolls. Especially if you can work in twisting the + umd from the bard ED.

You don't need 2 mental toughness feats, better mana management is all that's needed. You can remove empower spell and replace with empower healing. You can remove a mental toughness and take Evo focus for better earthquake dc. You can remove UMD and take Impr Evo .. again for better earthquake.

Or, you could go pure caster and accomplish all the things your stated goals are for your character.

Casting time on reincarnate really is horrid and imho complertely uncalled for.

[AtomicMew]

Unless something changed, you can't use scrolls or wands in wolf form. So you'll have to exit form first, and at that point you might as well just use reincarnate.

[JasonJi72]

I actually use empower and maximize to manage my sp. Most things I just use empower on, but some things like G Creeping Cold I keep maximized. Of course there are also the times when you just want to kill quickly, and go full auto (max/emp).

In order to raise my wis by 2 points, I would have to drop cha to 8, while raising it by one point would give me a 13 cha (I do not plan on using a +3 cha tome on this guy or wasting a twist slot). I got the idea from Mark2422 who posted the “Healer Druid Review thread”. My build will be more combat oriented, and honestly, I did not change that much from my original build.

I will take sf evocation as one of my epic feats. The other one will be epic mental toughness. I really like sp on a druid.

I did go ahead and LR. The feat I ended up delaying was empower heal. I will use max and/or emp greater mass vigor until I can make a greensteel item for him and swap out sf umd for empower heal. I originally planned on dropping IMT, but I wanted EMT at 21. That is 305 extra sp that can be very useful for a caster/healer druid. I just don't know how long I can live without empower healing; sf umd may get swapped sooner than anticipated.

Of course I would shift into human/elemental form to use scrolls. If it is necessary that I have to raise somebody on the fly in combat, then I am already in 'monkey jumping trying to save the day' mode already, and I really need my stuff to work in situations like that, otherwise I will just use reincarnate.

My catalyst for doing this is that more and more I find myself filling a healer role as a druid. In that role, my biggest problem has been that I had no way to raise dead people in combat. When I would try to use reincarnate to do it, 95% of the time I would die, because I was locked into that 5 minute casting animation. Seriously, I could take a smoke break in the time it takes me to cast reincarnate.

Perhaps my last build was better. I don't know yet. It is fun, however, to come back to a character with a fresh look and think of new ways to play it.

It really does look like the new destiny will fit very well with the way I play my druid. The other two just didn't seem to fit, but Primal Avatar looks promising for me. Yes, I know it will be buggy upon release, but oh well. I will try it out anyway.