UPDATE 58 PREVIEW 1 - Blightcaster Druid

[kpak01]

...its there for 1 tick of damage and they are out.

You're not describing a spell problem, you're describing a you're-doing-it-wrong problem. Use CC spells.

[Zeklijan]

Mirroring the sentiment of many people here with Acid Rain, it would be really nice if there was an acid spell that did straight AoE damage in the spell level 6-8 range, without doing DoT. (To complement Acid Well at cap, much like Ice Flowers is the complement to Tsunami.)

Another thing I think would be really cool is if there were a few elemental form only spells for Hive and Thorn, just like the base druid has on live. Adding some flavor, maybe a few debuffs in there, etc.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

[Kivandel]

Giving broken OP Imbue to broken OP Wolf... At least add some breasts to WF and Dragonborn females.

[kellendir3000]

Hello all. I copied the post and shall be attempting to interweave my initial feedback into the post itself.

========Organization and Methodology========

a) All feedback shall be demarcated via ***Feedback*** appearing before my thoughts.
b) All feedback shall be be marked for easy reference via a superscript applied to the right of the ***feedback***⁰ in question for ease of reference.
c) The blight druid used for testing was an Asimar with maxed starting wisdom and a +7 supreme stat tome (this was to provide an in-between betwixt the meekness of a first life and the "your strength
befits a crown" of a many times reincarnated chadcaster).
d) The character was tested with two quest runs on each difficulty (up to reaper one) with no quests being outside a range of two levels higher or lower than the druids own.
e) Every pair of quests (for a given difficulty) was chosen to encompass the following challenges: a boss, a horde, casters known to have reasonable spells in their arsenal, groups with multiple champions,
at least two reapers when in reaper mode. When the two dungeons chosen failed to produce one or more of these challenges more dungeons where run.... in some cases wwwwaaaaayyy too many
were run (extended testing has concluded that reapers are afraid of blight druids and refuse to come out and play).
f) The druid was tested at levels 1, 3, 5, and 6 (as the early levels can be a touchy time for spellcasters). And then at levels 10, 15, 18, 20, 26, and finally 32.
g) All gear was level appropriate standard quest/chest acquirable gear. No raid items. No set bonuses were ever attained (intentionally). Expansion loot was valid (Borderlands, Barovia etc.) While these
restrictions do not mimic the profoundly powerful arsenal many veteran players can call upon (while also not reflecting the paucity of a new players choices/understanding) they did allow me to make
sure I had careful control/understanding of all my stats/bonuses and made testing much easier.
h) This test only covered a blight druid caster. I have not played any animal focused druids, and as such do not feel like I would provide useful feedback regarding them. So remember, all feedback ONLY
covers the caster focused blight druid!
i) When it comes to balance I am focusing on whether or not the blight druid is powerful enough to meaningfully contribute to your group/solo run on difficulties up to reaper 1. It doesn't have to be "the
best", it just has to be good enough so as to feel fun in groups/solo. Things are "overtuned" if they unreasonably trivialize what should be reasonable challenges for your character at your level/past life
progression.



========Post & Feedback========

New Archtype for Druid

New Tree: Blightcaster
Replaces: Nature's Protector.

Themes: Death, Famine, Decay, Plague, Poison, Insects, Moss, Fungus. Bleached Bones. Scavengers.

Summary:

Thesis statement: Death is a necessary part of life.

A dark take on druid that celebrates the cycle of death & decay. This druid's power still comes from the "cycle" of nature, it just focuses at the end of that cycle.

***Feedback***¹ (Most of the depictions of blight druids tend to render them as anathematic towards the natural cycle. A fascinating mixture of evil, corrupted, and insane. I don't mind this shift in their portrayal, but i am curious to know if this shift was triggered by the fact that we have no ability to play as evil aligned characters, or if it came about for other reasons?)

BASE CLASS PROGRESSION:

LEVEL 1: Disease Immunity - (applies to natural diseases like other immunities)

LEVEL 2: Wild Shape - Plague Wolf (note All wildshapes are using PLACE HOLDER ART in this build)

Basic Wolf Form replaced by Plague Wolf: Transform into a magically diseased wolf.

***Feedback***² (I was pleased to note that the Blight Druid caster has an easier time leveling, from 1 to 5 specifically, without resorting to running as a wolf, than standard druid does. The swift progression of SLA's, coupled with the inherent debuffs they inflict upon spellcasting, pairs with their good 'caster level to dice of damage ratios' to make the progression feel more enjoyable. The relative power of many of their spells, combined with a hefty dosage of SLA's, also reduces the drain on their spell point reserves (something that can often discourage players new to the game/new to casters).)

• 10% Combat Style bonus to attack speed, a +3 bonus to attack while flanking
• +10% enhancement bonus to movement speed.
• While in wolf form, you gain access to a number of spells and enhancements that require Wolf form, but the cooldowns on your non-animal form spells are increased to 2.5 times their normal length.

Bonus Feat: Imbue Toggle that only functions when in any animal form, pick 1 of 2.

• Biting Acid: 1d6 acid damage with all melee attacks. Scales with spell power. This can only be used in Wolf or Hive forms.
• Biting Poison: 1d8 poison damage with all melee attacks. Scales with spell power. This can only be used in Wolf or Hive forms.

LEVEL 4:

Minor Elemental Kin Form Pick (1 of 2)

WildShape - Thorn-Kin:

You create a suit of living thorny wood around your body armoring you from harm. Note: Note this will be gearset over-ride instead of an animal form so the player will fight with their regular weapons. Basically you become a knight in plate mail made of wood and thorns.

• +1 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Physical and Poison spells
• 10% exceptional bonus to armor class and 50% fortification.
• You gain access to the thorn imbue.
• 10% vulnerability to fire damage

***Feedback***³ (The vulnerability to fire is not in any way an unreasonable detriment, just nice flavor with some situational repercussions. The form can also be easily shifted out of to avoid repeated crisping. Blight druid actually has a large enough repertoire of physical damage spells so as to make this a reasonable choice early on. Overall, solid and in no way over overperforming. If this was a higher level form I would critique it for not going far enough in allowing a more interesting shift in gameplay... but as this is available at level four it works very well (the same goes for Hive Keeper). One of Thorn-kin's saving graces is the strength of the early level physical spells (though we will look at that in more detail later on).)

WildShape - Hive Keeper:

You give part of yourself to the hive, gaining insect like reflexes and senses. Your bodily fluids become poisonous to others, and the swarm is always close.

• +1 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Poison and Acid Spells
• You gain 25% concealment and Evasion.
• Your reflex saves are increased by 1 for every 3 druid levels.
• 10% vulnerability to cold. Your diplomacy checks are reduced by 5 (Jeff Goldblum early in The Fly)

***Feedback***⁴ (This is the better of the two initial caster form choices... but not to any really large degree. Cold damage is not as common a threat as fire, it is easier for a druid to boost acid spellpower/crit as apposed to force/untyped (though future itemization may shift this/feydark gives lots of force spellpower [caveats about feydark later on]), and the physical spells, because of their nice damage scaling/mostly non DOT nature (we will get into the interesting nature of DOTs later on), are still super useful even without this buff. Also, by the time the 10% increased AC can begin to save you from enough hits per quest to equal evasions utility, you already qualify for the advanced forms/monsters to-hit does not scale with difficulty in the same way that monster dc's do. As a caster it is often easier to make a save than it is to boost your AC to the point where a threatening melee wont hit you the vast majority of the time (though these are only generalities and you can totally make a supper armored caster). Overall Hive Keeper works well and is in no way sooo much better than Thorn-kin soo as to be overbearing. You can have fun with either one.)


BONUS FEAT - Thorn Imbue: Your weapons sprout sharp thorns adding 1d6 piercing damage to all your weapon attacks. Scales with spell power.

LEVEL 5: Venom Immunity

LEVEL 8: Minor Elemental Kin Form Pick (1 of 2) - lets you pick the other form from level 4

LEVEL 11:

Wild Shape - Blighted Wolf

Plague wolf upgrades into Greater Plague Wolf:

• you gain a 15% Combat Style bonus to attack speed, +5 bonus to attack while flanking
• Grants +1 imbue dice while in this form.
• +1 per druid level (max 30%) bonus to movement speed.
• If unarmed, your natural attacks do 1d10 damage, do both piercing and slashing damage, and critically hit for triple damage on a roll of 19 or 20.
• You are considered a magical beast
• Wolf spell access as above.

BONUS FEAT: Imbue Toggle pick the other one from level 2.

LEVEL 13:

You gain access to full Elemental forms

WildShape - Thorn Knight: - (upgrade to thorn kin)

A more advanced version of Thorn Kin where you actually become a plant under the armor.

• You are considered a plant for purposes of most immunities, poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, mind effects. You can no longer drown in water.
• +3 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Physical and Poison spells
• You gain 10% absorption against piercing damage and 5% absorb against blunt damage.
• You gain +2 imbue dice
• 10% exceptional bonus to armor class and 100% fortification.
• 15% vulnerability to fire damage

WildShape - Hive Master:

You have become one with the swarm. Your body shifts between yourself and a cloud of insects, as you merge in and out of the swarm.

• You are considered vermin for the purposes of immunities and are immune to mind effects and knock down.
• +3 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Poison and Acid Spells
• You are ethereal to monsters while tumbling.
• You gain 50% concealment as displacement and Improved Evasion.
• You gain +2 Imbue Dice and +1 to Reflex saves for every 2 druid levels (Max 10)
• 15% vulnerability to cold and -15 on diplomacy checks (Yeah Jeff is just pretty creepy now).

***Feedback***⁵ (Hive master is still slightly 'better' in most circumstances (displacement is real good) but if you want to play Thorn Knight you will in no way be disappointed. Thorn Knight allows for a heavily armored, more melee range, caster druid that could be really cool... But it is undeniable that the gear investment for survivability in harder gameplay will be more intense for the Thorn Knight. They both are totally viable. I would love to have just that little extra nudge added to the Thorn forms to bring them up to par. But that is a want not a need.)

LEVEL 15:

Timeless Body (as druid)

LEVEL 17:

2nd Wildshape Elemental Form Pick (Thorn Knight, HiveMaster)

....

DRUID FEATURES REMOVED FROM SUBCLASS

• No Wild Empathy (Or empathy in general...)
• No Goodberry
• No Wolf Companion
• No Bear Form
• No Fire or Water Elemental Forms
• No Auto Memorized Spells

SPELL BOOK ADJUSTMENTS:

New Spells:

These appear in BOTH base druid and Blightcaster books.

Thorn Strike- Level 1: Conjuration - Cost: 2 Sp, Cooldown 2.0 seconds. Sends a giant thorn toward the target doing 1d6+2 piercing damage per caster level (max 10d6+20 at caster level 10).

***Feedback***⁶ (Very nice spell. Good single target for the early through mid game (SLA is nice for far, far longer). It's one problem is that it seems to sometimes think it hit an object right as it is launched, resulting in the spell 'poofing' about a foot in front of your character?)

Thorn Bloom- Level 3: Conjuration, Cost: 15 SP, Cooldown 3.5. Point Blank AOE - Send a wave of thorns out from your body dealing 1d6+4 piercing damage per caster level (max 10d6+40 at caster level 10). Reflex save for half.

***Feedback***⁷ (The big brother of Thorn Strike, this spell also does exactly what it says on the tin and is also very nice. I should note here that the caster level caps on these two spells seem to be off from their Lamania tooltips/test-results...)

Plant Growth- Level 4: copy of Animal Growth for Plants (which the thorn knight form works with)

Thorn Wave- Level 6: Conjuration, Cost: 25 SP, Cooldown 4.5. Cone - Fires a wave of powerful thorns in a tight arc in front of you dealing 1d6+6 piercing damage per caster level (max 20d6+80 at caster level 20).

***Feedback***⁸ (I could not get this to land on monsters (was this just me?) and as such could not test its efficacy.)

Grasping Roots- Level 6: Conjuration, Cost: 30 SP, Cooldown 20 seconds. Duration 10 seconds. Powerful thorny vines rip out of the ground siezing all enemies in the area. Enemies save vs Reflex or become entangled, with a Re-occurring Strength save to break free. Entangled targets also take 1d6 in piercing damage every 2 seconds (max 15d6). All enemy movement through the area is slowed by 30%, no save. Area of effect fire spells will destroy these vines and free any entangled creatures. Incorporeal creatures and oozes are naturally immune. Fire elementals and other fire creatures are immune because they burn through the plants.

***Feedback***⁹ (This is what happens when Evard gets freaky at a dryad party. I love this spell. It is the bane of corporeal, non-fire creatures. I would consider this a core component of the caster blight druid arsenal (acid or physical focused there is good reason to use this spell). The only problem with this spell is not actually a problem with this spell... The problem is that Evard's Tentacle Touch-pit of Demonetization is not also a wizard/sorcerer spell! Evard was a WIZARD for crying out loud! How is a spell invented by a wizard not in the wizard spell list!?)

Thorn Lance-Level 8: Conjuration, Cost: 20 SP, Cooldown 5.5. Bolt - Fires a single powerful thorn that pierces through targets for 1d6+8 piercing damage per caster level. (Maximum 20d6+160 at caster level 20.)

***Feedback***¹⁰ (This is thorny Sun bolt but better. This spell shares the same fun gameplay element that both Lighting bolt and Sun bolt have... Namely that it is really satisfying to line up a nice shot that punches through most of an enemy pack. Very fun spell to use!)

New Animal Spells: - Blight Caster Only

Blighted Charge: Requires Any Wolf - Cost: 25 sp Cooldown: 15. You leap forward with the speed and ferocity of a sudden avalanche. You attack enemies in your path, dealing an extra 2[W], and targets caught in your wake are blinded for 20 seconds. A successful reflex save negates the effect, and creatures can attempt fortitude saves to escape every 3 seconds. Creatures also suffer 1d4 per caster level in acid damage every 2 seconds. This damage is changed to 1d6 poison damage if you are using Biting Poison Imbue. (Not functional in this build)

Jaws of Doom: Any Wolf - Cost: 20 Cooldown: 20 seconds. As your jaws close over your enemies, they begin to dissolve. This attack deals an extra 6(W), +1 bonus to critical threat and multiplier, and if it counts as a sneak attack, your foe is stunned for 6 seconds and are considered helpless. Fortitude save negates, and the creature gets and additional save attempt every two seconds. Stun vs Fortitude DC: 10 + Druid level + Highest of Wisdom, Dexterity, or Strength + Stun Bonuses. The target also takes 1d8+6 Poison damages. If you are using Biting Acid Imbue this damage is changed to 1d6+6 Acid damage. (Not functional in this build)

Blighted Bite: Valid Forms: School: Evocation Cost: 10 sp. Any Plague Wolf. You gain +2 Imbue dice while in any wolf form for 20 minutes.

Blighted Breath: Valid Forms: Cost: 20 SP. Cooldown: 2 seconds. Any Plague Wolf. Sends out a breath of poisonous gas in a frontal cone dealing <rgb=#00BFFF>1d8+2 points of Poison damage per caster level every 2 seconds for 6 seconds</rgb> (up to a maximum of 90 to 195 damage at caster level 15). If you are using the Biting Acid Imbue this damage is converted into 1d6+2 Acid damage.

Revamped Spells: - applies to all class versions of these spells.

Contagion - focused down to 3 versions instead of 7.

• Blinding Sickness: Target goes blind and they take 1d4 ability damage to strength and dexterity
• Cackling Fever - Target is stunned for 6 seconds and takes 1d4 ability damage to wisdom and intelligence
• Slimy Doom - Target takes 4d6 acid damage +1 per caster level every 3 seconds

***Feedback***¹¹ (Contagion is WAY better than before... Sadly I still think it wont see a ton of use because hard-cc/blowing things up is just way more spell point efficient.)

Melf's Acid Arrow - Now does 1d6 acid damage per caster level (Max caster level 10 for 10d6). Applies damage and ticks twice again over 4 seconds (Damage occurs 3 times in total)

***Feedback***¹² (Are people going to begin using Melf's as a staple spell? Probably not (unless you are an Earth Savant). But the SLA of Melf's is now really nice to have while leveling! The damage ticks swiftly enough that you honestly feel like you can use it on priority targets on higher difficulties!)

Black Dragon Bolt - is being updated to do 1d10 acid damage per caster level (Max caster level 25, caps at 25 to 250 damage). Applies damage and ticks twice again over 4 seconds (Damage occurs 3 times in total)

***Feedback***¹³ (Sadly, Even this buff has still left poor Black dragon bolt feeling pretty anemic (especially when compared with other acid DOT options the blight druid has). I would love to see Black dragon Bolt's spell point cost be doubled or even tripled and its damage raised to the point where it is a costly but very nasty damaging spell. As it is now, there is sadly no place for this spell on my hotbars.)

***Feedback***¹⁴ (Let us talk about DOT spells for a moment... Why do DOTs suffer in ddo? Well, there are a few reasons: (1) Often non-boss/reaper/special enemies just don't live long enough to warrant the attention of a DOT. This means that a DOT is a spell you have to slot/learn while knowing that it has a narrow use-case. (2) Often blaster casters will just opt to "blast harder" instead of using a DOT because the DOTs available to them just aren't appealing enough to warrant switching things up. (3) When you go and hit something with DOTs it is often because you need to deliver "the sickness to the thiccness" before that beefcake comes over and brutalizes you as if you were a Blizzard QA tester... DOTs (as they are now) often just aren't a fast enough option. This can be especially true in higher difficulty content or when solo. (4) DOTs are more harshly effected by non-percentage based resistances because their damage comes in smaller dosses.
While DOTs on the whole are often not the best, blight druids are actually able to make great use of them! In Sharn on reaper 1 (with no reaper points) the AOE DOTs that a blight druid can bring to bear can efficiently and swiftly wipe out packs of enemies. This is not a fluke for the blight druid but rather the norm once you get past the first 7 levels of the game!)

Spells Added to the Druid spell book for Blightcaster

• 1st level - Night Shield, Thorn Strike, Chill Touch, Acid Spray
  
  ***Feedback***¹⁵ (Acid spray is your one real low-level AOE on blight druid. Getting its SLA is super useful.)
  
• 2nd level - Gets Contagion at level 2 instead of 3, Melf's Acid Arrow, Web
  
  ***Feedback***¹⁶ (Non-metaed Melfs is nothing to write home about... But web is glorious!)
  
• 3rd level - Acid Blast, Thorn Bloom, Stinking Cloud
  
  ***Feedback***¹⁷ (Acid blast go Splat! That spell alone makes level five on the Blight druid rewarding. The other two spells are good additions as well.)
  
• 4th level - Fear, Acid Rain, Plant Growth, Wave of Fatigue
  
  ***Feedback***¹⁸ (Acid rain is another good addition the the toolkit. It has a good cost-to-damage ratio, and is another AOE DOT that we will throw into the inevitable acid-storm we become.)
  
• 5th level - Negative Energy Burst, Blighted Breath, Cloud Kill
• 6th level - Negative energy ray, Jaws of Doom, Blighted Bite, Thorn Wave
• 7th Level - Acid Fog, Wave of Exhaustion, Horrid Wilting
• 8th level - Black Dragon Bolt, Thorn Lance
• 9th level - Acid Well, Wail of the Banshee, Rend the Soul, Blighted Charge
  
  ***Feedback***¹⁹ (The acid spells are solid (except Black Dragon bolt) and the thorn spells are also nice. Overall blight druid has a series of very nice additions to its spell-book.)
  

Spells Removed from Druid Book for Blightcaster

• No Animal Summons
• No Basic Cure Wound Spells or the Heal Spell (you keep Vigor but get them 1 level later, no mass regeneration)
• No Fire Spells
• No Sun Spells
• No Fire Shield
• No Bear Spells
• No Elemental Fire/Water Elemental Form Spells
  
  ***Feedback***²⁰ (While the blight druid definitely gives up a number of good spells, the new spells feel like a fair and thematic trade. No complaints from me.)
  

Skills: as Druid

Past Life

Blightcaster:

Past Life: x3 (stacks)

+5 Acid and Poison Spell Power

BLIGHT CASTER TREE:

Core 1:

The Cycle of Decay - You gain 5 Force, Poison, Negative, and Acid Spell Power per core in this tree.

Core 3:

Spread the Blight - Your offensive spells now apply a 10 second debuff called Blight: reduces saves by 1 and incoming positive healing by 20%.

***Feedback***²¹ (Not only is this very thematic, but that lowered save can really make a difference for never players with fewer stats/past lives!)

Core 6:

Death Eater - You gain 1 temporary hit point equal to your wisdom score whenever you kill an enemy (Creatures 2 levels below you do not count). These hit points remain until damage removes them or the quest ends. This can stack 5 times and is refreshed on each kill.

***Feedback***²² (Death Eater is super cool... But is, at the moment, over-tuned. It renders you nigh unstoppable; to the point where I had to unselect it in order to test blight druid self-healing! It would be super cool if, instead of directly nerfing it, the temp health 'decayed' non-linearly (much like qi does) albeit at a much faster rate. This would allow you to stack the awesome numbers, but have them 'rot' off of you instead of amounting to a very unfair perpetual damage shield.)

Core 12:

Know the End - You gain Know the End which acts as a permanent Death Block. Blight effect is improved to reduces saves by 2 and incoming positive healing by 40% for 10 seconds.

Core 18:

Vile Eruption - Earth Quake now deals 2d6 + 1 per caster level in acid damage every 3 seconds in addition to it's regular effects.

Core 20:

Master of Decay:

• +2 Wisdom & Con
• SLA Creeping Doom Cost: 20 spell points Cooldown: 15 seconds
• Blight now reduces saves by 4 and positive healing by 60%
  
  ***Feedback***²³ (Nice capstone that is both useful and thematic. I am very fond of useful SLA's in caster capstones.)
  

TIER 1:

Prickly: 1/2/3 PRR, rank 3: +1 to damage with weapon attacks.

Kiss of the Blight: You gain 5/10/15% Absorption against Poison and Acid Damage.

Pick Your Poison I Multi Selector

SLA: Thorn Strike 3 ranks, cooldown 7/5/3 Spell Cost 3,2,1
SLA Acid Spray 3 ranks Cooldown 12/8/4 seconds , 4/3/2 SP cost

***Feedback***²⁴ (This SLA chain really stands out to me. There are no useless or super niche spells in the line! Every spell here could reasonably be chosen by a player, and that is awesome to see!)

Sharp Edges 1: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Lore of the Great Plagues: You gain a +1/2/3 saving throw bonus against poison and disease. Rank 3: Gain 5 Poison and Negative Spell Power.

***Feedback***²⁵ (While this is definitely thematic, blight druids are going to wind up being mostly immune to these things... The spell power at the end really does not seem like a worthwhile reason to put points into this enhancement.)

TIER 2:

Defiled Growth - Your Entangle and Spike growth spells now cause 1d4 negative energy damage per spell level every 2 seconds.

***Feedback***²⁶ (Super thematic, and honestly not bad at all! When combined with some of the other Spiked Growth perks (think Primal Avatar, not just the rest of this tree) it makes an otherwise meh spell rather useful.)

Meta Selector, Empower, Max, Quicken

Pick your Poison II Mutli Selector

SLA Splinter Bolt 3 ranks, Cooldown 8/6/4, Spell Cost, 6,4,2

SLA Melf's Acid Arrow 3 ranks, Cooldown 8/6/4, Spell Cost, 6,4,2

Sharp Edges II: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Every Rose Has it's Thorn - Spike Growth damage is increased by 100%.

***Feedback***²⁷ (By itself this sucks. When joined with its fellows, it turns spiked growth into a very spell-point-to-damage efficient spell.)

TIER 3:

Out Break - upgrades the contagion and insidious spores spells to also hit enemies near the primary target.

***Feedback***²⁸ (Even with the updates, I think these spells just don't warrant this enhancement. You just have so many better spell options as a blight druid that it is hard to imagine taking these.)

Meta Selector - Empower, Max, Quicken

SLA Enveloping Swarm - 3 ranks, Cooldown 16,12,8, Cost 8,6,4

Sharp Edges III: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Stat Boost - Wis/Con

TIER 4:


Fast Acting Poison - The Poison spell now does 1d6 per druid level poison damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds in addition to its original effect. A successful Fort save applies this dot at half strength.

***Feedback***²⁹ (While interesting in theory; I am just not sold on this one. Turning poison into a single target DOT is fine... But 'fine' is all it will ever be in its current form.)

Murder of Crows - 120/90/60 second cool down, A swarm of crows blasts through you and a narrow path ahead. Enemies in the way take 1d3 piercing damage per druid level and must save vs confusing and blind separately DC: 20+ druid level + Conjuration DC. If you have a crow summon active from the falconry tree when you used this ability you gain the Murder in your Eye effect for 10 seconds; All your spells and attacks apply 1d6 piercing damage to blind targets for every druid level. This damage can only apply once every two seconds.

***Feedback***³⁰ (This looks sooooo cool! But I could not get the piercing damage buff to work properly. There is also another problem... Blight druids who go the force rout are often going to want to put points into Feydark Illusionist to boost force spellpower/get other goodies. But you cannot have both a Falconry bird and a familiar out at the same time. Just some things to consider.)

Pick your Poison III Multi Selector

SLA Thorn Bloom - 3 ranks, Cooldown 16, 12, 8, Cost: 20,15, 10

SLA Acid Rain - 10 SP cost, Cooldown 20/16/12 seconds

Sharp Edges IV: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Stat Boost, Wis/Con

Tier 5:

Thorns in your side - Multi Selector -

Poisoned Thorns - Your Splinter Bolt and Thorn Spells now also cause additional 2 points of Poison damage for every spell level. This scales with spell power.

Vile Thorns - Your Splinter Bolt and Thorn Spells now also cause additional 1 point of Acid damage for every spell level. This scales with spell power.

SLA Grasping Thorns - Spell Like Ability: Thorny Vines erupt from the ground seizing all enemies in the area. Save vs Reflex or be Entangled. On Successful save the targets have their movement slowed by 35%. Targets also take 1d6 piercing damage every 2 seconds per caster level. This double is doubled on targets which are entangled.

Everything Decays - Gain 5/10/15 Acid & Poison Spell Power Rank 3: Your spells remove Acid and Poison Immunity for 30 seconds.

***Feedback***³¹ (I appreciate the fact that this strips immunities for a pretty long period so that your DOTs have time to actually run their course.)

Doomsayer - Gain a +1 Bonus to Conjuration, Evocation and Necromancy DCs


ADDITIONAL CHANGES....


Changes to Seasons Herald

Core 3 (level 6) updated to : +1 to max caster level of your season. Your Shillelagh does one extra W of damage. Your plant spells like entangle, spike growth and grasping thorns will no longer be dispelled by fire effects.

Changes to Nature's Warrior: - (Not in this build, coming next preview)

• Howl of Winter renamed: Hunter's Howl to make it agnostic to Blighted Wolf or Winter Wolf
• Great White Wolf Gets a multi selector with the alternate called Doom Wolf - 10/20/30 acid spell power, 10/20/30% Acid Resistance
• Jaws of Winter get's renamed "Feasting Jaws" - Gain 10 times your character level in temporary HPs for 30 seconds after using Jaws of Winter or Jaws of Doom
• Cold Breath damage will be updated to match current spell damage formulas

Notes on things coming down the line:

• Will be adding a Flame Blade equivalent to the Blightcaster (thorn themed, weapon type or types TBD. We might do a few) for the next preview
• Will be adding Master of Thorns Epic Feat: +140 SP, will boost thornstrike, thornbloom and splinterbolt by 10 max caster levels.
  
  ***Feedback***³² (This could be very tempting indeed!)
  

KNOW ISSUES

• NO ART IS IN YET (it's all place holder on the wildshapes. Only a few spells have a basic vfx pass)
• Blighted Charge and Jaws of Doom and the new Contagion effects are not set up yet.
• Nature's Warrior Changes are not in this build mostly
• Don't think Mind Immunities on Hivemaster are done yet
• Thorn Knight's water breath perk isn't in this build
• Blight debuff makes undead take less damage from healing
• Murder of Crows works with the RAVEN in falconry (ability will be renamed to a Raven theme. We got our birds mixed up)

========Final Thoughts========

1. Blight druid is a very old dnd archetype and it is awesome to see it added to the game!

2. As long as the temp health problem is tuned down in reasonable way, blight druid looks like it is going to be a blast to play.

3. It is really nice to have a class that can use DOT spells to such great effect as they are often... Less than ideal.

4. Blight druid is looking like it is going to be a very strong caster (up there with sorcerer).

5. Blight druid debuffs and CC will make them a nice addition to groups.

6. Blight druids may find that Conjuration DCs are more important than Evocation.

7. Blight druid casters are very good levelers (I paired mine primarily with Primal Avatar in the end game and it fits like a glove).

8. Inherent access to concealment effects via the Hive forms plugs a weakness on traditional druid that can normally only partially be solved via itemization.

As always, these are just my thoughts and opinions. Have a good day.

[Scrag]

You're not describing a spell problem, you're describing a you're-doing-it-wrong problem. Use CC spells.

You are absolutely right. I had web for a short while, but everything was dead by the first or second snowball storm, and now everything is dead by the first cone of cold.

Even if I swap out one of my sorc spell slots for web or the like (slots are like hens teeth!), it doesn't stop them from killing me from range for the things that don't close.

As a pure, first life water savant/cold/white dragonborn sorc, im not exactly sturdy and I can tell you for sure my hireling clerics work overtime. Dumping vast quantities of cold damage ultra fast is easy. Acid is my current backup for cold spells, but I will probably swap that for something else like electric. I would just be happy if the acid dots would pack it in faster.

As much as I would like to hive it up, it just seems that blight caster thorns is probably the better route to take, at least for me. Especially since grasping thorns is boosted by thorn form. It does seems that blightcaster dots are a lot better than what I am currently working with.

[LurkingVeteran]

This basically looks offensively better than the Earth Savant tree, with defensively better temp-hp than ES Warlock. The only thing holding back is that you need 2+ spell powers to fully leverage it.

Defensively: If Death Eater replenishes the whole stack on each enemy killed, it is probably OP solo, at least up to low reaper where you can one-shot stuff. A competent player will get one spell off per second, which if you kill something is ~500 temp hp every second. All other temp hp abilities have CDs. The ES aura is only 2x con every 2s. Maybe put a 3s CD on it and retune the numbers? EDIT: Not sure where I got it from that it was every spell cast. Since it is enemy killed, I actually think it's not as OP at the high-end where enemies are harder to kill, but it will make heroic / low-reaper leveling a total breeze. Some tuning may be needed for this imo but not sure what.

Offensively: Stacking the new gasping thorns/roots (do both get 2x1D6 on held mobs per caster level?) + damage on earth quake + the crow thing and the +2 poison damage on everything is going to be massive sustained AoE damage for very little spell points, however with the burst focus of the current meta, I suspect it's not that OP in PUGs. Definitely extremely strong solo leveler though. The entire build pairs extremely well with PA:Acid/Poison SLAs, which were already borderline OP if you cared about sustain. You also get dual immunity break.

At the moment, this druid is most likely the strongest solo caster tree L1-30 by a fair margin (assuming animations are fixed), although maybe not the fastest.

It's nice that Earth Savant gets some much needed buffs as well via Melf's and BDB being buffed, which I think were fair. Earth Savant could use one more high-level spell though. Maybe buff Acid Fog?

[btolson]

Death Eater should be based on CON, or some other non-WIS stat cuz WIS is already primary for everything else a druid does. CON seems to make the most sense.

[Maldrick]

Admittedly I haven't gone onto lamania to test it, but in concept I don't see the problem with it?

If you are a vet, heroic levels are already easy with or without this temp shield. If you are a noob, having a large margin for error might make you want to stick with the game more or allow you to be bolder in parties.

By the times we get to endgame high skulls, enemies hit far harder than 500 temp hp will ever stop. Even if it's being frequently reupped you will get smacked for 2k damage, and then how great is your temp shield? I would rather have more less often.

Just my (potentially incorrect) thoughts on the matter.

[SpartanKiller13]

Admittedly I haven't gone onto lamania to test it, but in concept I don't see the problem with it?

If you are a vet, heroic levels are already easy with or without this temp shield. If you are a noob, having a large margin for error might make you want to stick with the game more or allow you to be bolder in parties.

By the times we get to endgame high skulls, enemies hit far harder than 500 temp hp will ever stop. Even if it's being frequently reupped you will get smacked for 2k damage, and then how great is your temp shield? I would rather have more less often.

Just my (potentially incorrect) thoughts on the matter.

There's easy and there's "don't worry about your survivability from level 6-26 because of one enhancement" lol. Have you tried a Blood Strength Barb? Sorta just 12+ you don't need to self-heal, even in mid-Reaper. Or like Pale Master 7+ if you're not in mid-high skulls.

Also while I'm in favor of things helping new players, A) there won't be a large percentage of new players running a Druid Archetype, B) I don't want to tie new-player survivability to one enhancement in one tree, and C) new players in groups often won't be getting kills = they won't get any stacks anyway = very sad.

Endgame high skulls is about the only place where it's vaguely balanced lol. It's still very good, 500 temps for ~free ~constantly is a lot cheaper than self-healing in R8. Stack it with Affirmation, Elemental Blood, and Blood Feast for 3k temp HP, and suddenly you're in a pretty good spot lol vs the occasional 2k hit. Absolutely some are easier to keep up but Death Eater is basically free and always up so it's really good compared to (say) Affirmation where you (usually) need gearswaps and it has a 1min CD as well as 1min duration.

[GramercyRiff]

I dislike this archetype like I dislike most archetypes despite thinking archetype is a great idea. It's typical SSG. They copy some great idea someone else made up, but they ruin it somehow someway. The one exception to this SSG rule is Ravenloft. They really did other people's great ideas justice there.

[Maldrick]

Endgame high skulls is about the only place where it's vaguely balanced

What if Death Eater scaled with tier much like the Warlock Aura that gives your con hp at heroic, and double your con hp at epic?

So Death eater could then be 1/3rd wis per stack heroic, 2/3rds wis per stack epic, full wisdom legendary? Or alternatively, 2 stacks heroic, 3 stacks epic, full 5 stacks legendary.

[SocratesBastardSon]

kellendir3000, thanks for the excellent write-up.

+1

There's lots to think about here, but I'll just highlight one.

There appears to be some agreement that Death Eater needs to be toned down a bit. For instance, Strimtom suggested spreading additional stacks across subsequent cores. I like your version better both thematically and dynamically: it creates pressure to be more aggressive in increasing your kills than a simple timer can.

Thanks!

[SpartanKiller13]

What if Death Eater scaled with tier much like the Warlock Aura that gives your con hp at heroic, and double your con hp at epic?

So Death eater could then be 1/3rd wis per stack heroic, 2/3rds wis per stack epic, full wisdom legendary? Or alternatively, 2 stacks heroic, 3 stacks epic, full 5 stacks legendary.

I'd probably vote for the 2/3/4 stacks with Core 3, Core 5, and Core 6 suggestion someone wrote earlier in this thread, but there's quite a few reasonable-seeming solutions it should definitely be at least more backloaded than Preview 1's version.

Or like 1 stack at Core 3, +1 stack per Core after that (just smoother than the above suggestion but stronger).

I've already theorycrafted a few builds around Death Eater just because it looks super strong lol. Idk. 8/6/6 Barb/Fighter/Blightcaster with Ravager T5 + Kensei C3 + Blightcaster C3 + Falconry T4? Do Cleric instead of Fighter, run OS for temp HP memes and go Silvanus?

[SocratesBastardSon]

I agree with kellendir3000 and some other players that I've talked to that Thorn Knight is a little underwhelming. The force spell power is a good feature for spell casters, but it feels marginally beneficial for melee. Fortification will be very helpful in HC, but for most player on Live it's usually not an issue at level 13.

I propose adding some new form-specific spells to make the form more attractive, spells that would not make it overpowered at all.

• A plant version of Magic Fang. You could call it Magic Thorn or Thorny Weapon.
• A plant version of Maul, which you could call Brier Scratch.
• A more thematic spell, but helpful at lower levels for Thorn-Kin, could be an armor buff based on Thorn Guard. If the damage scaled it could have a useful role at higher levels too. I like the idea of making it a spell for those situations when you don't want to be damaging mobs around you, like Let Sleeping Dust Lie in the Vale.

EDIT:

We also need a level 9 spell equivalent to Anger of the Noonday Sun and Mantle of the Icy Soul. Bring back the old Primal Wild Shape: Avatar of Nature! But now it's angry, and thorny. You know you want it! Tree lovers unite!

[Pretty_Good_Old_One]

Hi All,
my initial reaction to Death Eater was it seemed way too powerful. i couldn't believe it could stack 5 times. It seemed too good to be true, and I was sure it wasn't supposed to be that strong.

But then I played it a little at mid level, and it was not as strong as it seemed. Sure, if I had better equipment or a better build, it might have been better, but a few things kept it reasonable at mid level.

1. I had to actually kill something to make it trigger. Sounds easy, but it only works if you are within 2 levels of the target, and you have to land the killing blow. Unlike the level 1 Warlock or Alchemist abilities, you have no way to refresh it other than killing something... and it has to be high enough level. I actually ran into multiple situations where I could not get temp hps up fast enough. A spammer alchemist can get temp HPs out much more reliably at level 1. At level 6+, both the Dark Apostate and Warlock can throw up a lot of temp HPs, and keep them up easily.
+
2. Stacking was great when it built up, but it was tough when I pushed it. Running elite at level, I was getting hit more often than I would have thought, and the results were very bursty... sometimes I would run up a bunch of temp HPs, other times I would get hit early and it was touch and go. If I ran difficult content at level, I did not feel invincible just because of the temp HPs.

3. The temp HPs cannot be shared. Almost all of the other temp HP options protect the entire party, where here it is just you... and you have to beat out your teammates for the kills to get them. A few of the arguments that this class can generate a 500hp shield at will are assuming 100 stat points. That only happens at high levels. A 20+ warlock is throwing up 200hp every 2 seconds to the entire party, without doing anything. Throw in some spell buffing, and a 20+ warlock can effortlessly put 300hp shields on the whole party and 800 more temp hps on youself every 30 seconds. To reach those numbers, the druid would have to kill 11 enemies that are within 2 levels of the character level (or higher).

I think solo, there are situations where the blightcaster can easily throw up 5 stacks... but there are lots of situations where that won't happen. I worry about nerfing it already, as there are already characters that have other ways to throw up big levels of temp HP.

Some of the ideas like, at core 3 only getting one stack, really weaken this character. If Death Eater is supposed to be character defining, the drop to just one stack at level 6 (all the way up to level 12) lowers the power level to not even close to character defining. Multiple level 1 characters could keep up temp hps more efficiently than a level 6 Blight Caster, if all you can do is 1 stack of Wis temp HPs. I totally get the concern that it could be overpowered, but I think this ability could easily become underpowered. Dark Apostate is a great example of a character that at level 6 can start to put up large numbers of temp HPs. If you are clever, you can get 40 temp HPs almost infinitely at level 6, with it spiking up to almost 100hp before each battle. And you don't have to kill anything to get all of those temp HPs. Dark Apostate goes up from there over the next few levels as you add more imbue dice, and a few builds can get really obnoxious with regenerating turn undeads and cross class imbue dice.

This really doesn't seem more powerful to me than Dark Apostate at mid levels, and not stronger than Warlock at high levels. It can spike very high, but I think the level restriction and the kill requirement already create situations where it will not work when you expect it to. Add in being in a party, and it may be much less than expected.

That said, if it really ends up being over powered, how about making it more situational: make death eater only trigger on killing living creatures, no temp hp vs. undead or constructs.

But still, I think this ability will end up being a little less powerful than people are worried. I really like the idea that it makes you have to keep killing, and I worry under that scenario, that making it a lot weaker (like 1 stack per core after 3) will make it too small a bonus to justify taking chances to keep the killing going.

[Zeklijan]

I agree that Death Eater is not as almighty powerful as some people have described it here. In my opinion there is nothing to change.

Nobody complains about warlock getting more temp hp every 30s without all the extra criterias. Death Eather requires you to kill something, and there are plenty of situations where this will not be possible. Meanwhile, warlocks can still hit the same button for their temp, kill or no kill.

The difference to note is that Death Eater is gained at level 6 and Shining Through at level 12. If it proved too much for level 6, adjustments could be done for lower levels. Nothing needs to change for higher levels though.

[Maldrick]

I agree that Death Eater is not as almighty powerful as some people have described it here. In my opinion there is nothing to change.

Nobody complains about warlock getting more temp hp every 30s without all the extra criterias. Death Eather requires you to kill something, and there are plenty of situations where this will not be possible. Meanwhile, warlocks can still hit the same button for their temp, kill or no kill.

The difference to note is that Death Eater is gained at level 6 and Shining Through at level 12. If it proved too much for level 6, adjustments could be done for lower levels. Nothing needs to change for higher levels though.

Title is all I have to say

[Indubitably]

I feel the Inflict line of spells to replace the cures makes sense.
The archtype does revolve around negative damage and there is a big lack of that.

I wouldn't suggest adding in a way to heal from negative damage though.
Vigor and temp HP are enough and the whole balance to extra damage it gets.
Just be too powerful otherwise.

Circle of undeath also feels like it might belong here.
Maybe circle of death to? Thematically it SOUNDS like it should be there.

[Ultinoob]

In the lammania release notes it says that thorn wave is a level 6 spell.

But in strimtoms video found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn_TnAU2xGA&t=475s at 7:41 you see that the thorn wave is a level 5 spell...

So now i am confused.

[Marty89]

New Archtype for Druid

New Tree: Blightcaster
Replaces: Nature's Protector.

Themes: Death, Famine, Decay, Plague, Poison, Insects, Moss, Fungus. Bleached Bones. Scavengers.

Summary:

Thesis statement: Death is a necessary part of life.

A dark take on druid that celebrates the cycle of death & decay. This druid's power still comes from the "cycle" of nature, it just focuses at the end of that cycle.

BASE CLASS PROGRESSION:

LEVEL 1: Disease Immunity - (applies to natural diseases like other immunities)

LEVEL 2: Wild Shape - Plague Wolf (note All wildshapes are using PLACE HOLDER ART in this build)

Basic Wolf Form replaced by Plague Wolf: Transform into a magically diseased wolf.

• 10% Combat Style bonus to attack speed, a +3 bonus to attack while flanking
• +10% enhancement bonus to movement speed.
• While in wolf form, you gain access to a number of spells and enhancements that require Wolf form, but the cooldowns on your non-animal form spells are increased to 2.5 times their normal length.

Bonus Feat: Imbue Toggle that only functions when in any animal form, pick 1 of 2.

• Biting Acid: 1d6 acid damage with all melee attacks. Scales with spell power. This can only be used in Wolf or Hive forms.
• Biting Poison: 1d8 poison damage with all melee attacks. Scales with spell power. This can only be used in Wolf or Hive forms.

LEVEL 4:

Minor Elemental Kin Form Pick (1 of 2)

WildShape - Thorn-Kin:

You create a suit of living thorny wood around your body armoring you from harm. Note: Note this will be gearset over-ride instead of an animal form so the player will fight with their regular weapons. Basically you become a knight in plate mail made of wood and thorns.

• +1 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Physical and Poison spells
• 10% exceptional bonus to armor class and 50% fortification.
• You gain access to the thorn imbue.
• 10% vulnerability to fire damage

WildShape - Hive Keeper:

You give part of yourself to the hive, gaining insect like reflexes and senses. Your bodily fluids become poisonous to others, and the swarm is always close.

• +1 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Poison and Acid Spells
• You gain 25% concealment and Evasion.
• Your reflex saves are increased by 1 for every 3 druid levels.
• 10% vulnerability to cold. Your diplomacy checks are reduced by 5 (Jeff Goldblum early in The Fly)

BONUS FEAT - Thorn Imbue: Your weapons sprout sharp thorns adding 1d6 piercing damage to all your weapon attacks. Scales with spell power.

LEVEL 5: Venom Immunity

LEVEL 8: Minor Elemental Kin Form Pick (1 of 2) - lets you pick the other form from level 4

LEVEL 11:

Wild Shape - Blighted Wolf

Plague wolf upgrades into Greater Plague Wolf:

• you gain a 15% Combat Style bonus to attack speed, +5 bonus to attack while flanking
• Grants +1 imbue dice while in this form.
• +1 per druid level (max 30%) bonus to movement speed.
• If unarmed, your natural attacks do 1d10 damage, do both piercing and slashing damage, and critically hit for triple damage on a roll of 19 or 20.
• You are considered a magical beast
• Wolf spell access as above.

BONUS FEAT: Imbue Toggle pick the other one from level 2.

LEVEL 13:

You gain access to full Elemental forms

WildShape - Thorn Knight: - (upgrade to thorn kin)

A more advanced version of Thorn Kin where you actually become a plant under the armor.

• You are considered a plant for purposes of most immunities, poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, mind effects. You can no longer drown in water.
• +3 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Physical and Poison spells
• You gain 10% absorption against piercing damage and 5% absorb against blunt damage.
• You gain +2 imbue dice
• 10% exceptional bonus to armor class and 100% fortification.
• 15% vulnerability to fire damage

WildShape - Hive Master:

You have become one with the swarm. Your body shifts between yourself and a cloud of insects, as you merge in and out of the swarm.

• You are considered vermin for the purposes of immunities and are immune to mind effects and knock down.
• +3 bonus to caster level and max caster level of Poison and Acid Spells
• You are ethereal to monsters while tumbling.
• You gain 50% concealment as displacement and Improved Evasion.
• You gain +2 Imbue Dice and +1 to Reflex saves for every 2 druid levels (Max 10)
• 15% vulnerability to cold and -15 on diplomacy checks (Yeah Jeff is just pretty creepy now).

LEVEL 15:

Timeless Body (as druid)

LEVEL 17:

2nd Wildshape Elemental Form Pick (Thorn Knight, HiveMaster)

....

DRUID FEATURES REMOVED FROM SUBCLASS

• No Wild Empathy (Or empathy in general...)
• No Goodberry
• No Wolf Companion
• No Bear Form
• No Fire or Water Elemental Forms
• No Auto Memorized Spells

SPELL BOOK ADJUSTMENTS:

New Spells:

These appear in BOTH base druid and Blightcaster books.

Thorn Strike- Level 1: Conjuration - Cost: 2 Sp, Cooldown 2.0 seconds. Sends a giant thorn toward the target doing 1d6+2 piercing damage per caster level (max 10d6+20 at caster level 10).

Thorn Bloom- Level 3: Conjuration, Cost: 15 SP, Cooldown 3.5. Point Blank AOE - Send a wave of thorns out from your body dealing 1d6+4 piercing damage per caster level (max 10d6+40 at caster level 10). Reflex save for half.

Plant Growth- Level 4: copy of Animal Growth for Plants (which the thorn knight form works with)

Thorn Wave- Level 6: Conjuration, Cost: 25 SP, Cooldown 4.5. Cone - Fires a wave of powerful thorns in a tight arc in front of you dealing 1d6+6 piercing damage per caster level (max 20d6+80 at caster level 20).

Grasping Roots- Level 6: Conjuration, Cost: 30 SP, Cooldown 20 seconds. Duration 10 seconds. Powerful thorny vines rip out of the ground siezing all enemies in the area. Enemies save vs Reflex or become entangled, with a Re-occurring Strength save to break free. Entangled targets also take 1d6 in piercing damage every 2 seconds (max 15d6). All enemy movement through the area is slowed by 30%, no save. Area of effect fire spells will destroy these vines and free any entangled creatures. Incorporeal creatures and oozes are naturally immune. Fire elementals and other fire creatures are immune because they burn through the plants.

Thorn Lance-Level 8: Conjuration, Cost: 20 SP, Cooldown 5.5. Bolt - Fires a single powerful thorn that pierces through targets for 1d6+8 piercing damage per caster level. (Maximum 20d6+160 at caster level 20.)

New Animal Spells: - Blight Caster Only

Blighted Charge: Requires Any Wolf - Cost: 25 sp Cooldown: 15. You leap forward with the speed and ferocity of a sudden avalanche. You attack enemies in your path, dealing an extra 2[W], and targets caught in your wake are blinded for 20 seconds. A successful reflex save negates the effect, and creatures can attempt fortitude saves to escape every 3 seconds. Creatures also suffer 1d4 per caster level in acid damage every 2 seconds. This damage is changed to 1d6 poison damage if you are using Biting Poison Imbue. (Not functional in this build)

Jaws of Doom: Any Wolf - Cost: 20 Cooldown: 20 seconds. As your jaws close over your enemies, they begin to dissolve. This attack deals an extra 6(W), +1 bonus to critical threat and multiplier, and if it counts as a sneak attack, your foe is stunned for 6 seconds and are considered helpless. Fortitude save negates, and the creature gets and additional save attempt every two seconds. Stun vs Fortitude DC: 10 + Druid level + Highest of Wisdom, Dexterity, or Strength + Stun Bonuses. The target also takes 1d8+6 Poison damages. If you are using Biting Acid Imbue this damage is changed to 1d6+6 Acid damage. (Not functional in this build)

Blighted Bite: Valid Forms: School: Evocation Cost: 10 sp. Any Plague Wolf. You gain +2 Imbue dice while in any wolf form for 20 minutes.

Blighted Breath: Valid Forms: Cost: 20 SP. Cooldown: 2 seconds. Any Plague Wolf. Sends out a breath of poisonous gas in a frontal cone dealing <rgb=#00BFFF>1d8+2 points of Poison damage per caster level every 2 seconds for 6 seconds</rgb> (up to a maximum of 90 to 195 damage at caster level 15). If you are using the Biting Acid Imbue this damage is converted into 1d6+2 Acid damage.

Revamped Spells: - applies to all class versions of these spells.

Contagion - focused down to 3 versions instead of 7.

• Blinding Sickness: Target goes blind and they take 1d4 ability damage to strength and dexterity
• Cackling Fever - Target is stunned for 6 seconds and takes 1d4 ability damage to wisdom and intelligence
• Slimy Doom - Target takes 4d6 acid damage +1 per caster level every 3 seconds

Melf's Acid Arrow - Now does 1d6 acid damage per caster level (Max caster level 10 for 10d6). Applies damage and ticks twice again over 4 seconds (Damage occurs 3 times in total)

Black Dragon Bolt - is being updated to do 1d10 acid damage per caster level (Max caster level 25, caps at 25 to 250 damage). Applies damage and ticks twice again over 4 seconds (Damage occurs 3 times in total)

Spells Added to the Druid spell book for Blightcaster

• 1st level - Night Shield, Thorn Strike, Chill Touch, Acid Spray
• 2nd level - Gets Contagion at level 2 instead of 3, Melf's Acid Arrow, Web
• 3rd level - Acid Blast, Thorn Bloom, Stinking Cloud
• 4th level - Fear, Acid Rain, Plant Growth, Wave of Fatigue
• 5th level - Negative Energy Burst, Blighted Breath, Cloud Kill
• 6th level - Negative energy ray, Jaws of Doom, Blighted Bite, Thorn Wave
• 7th Level - Acid Fog, Wave of Exhaustion, Horrid Wilting
• 8th level - Black Dragon Bolt, Thorn Lance
• 9th level - Acid Well, Wail of the Banshee, Rend the Soul, Blighted Charge

Spells Removed from Druid Book for Blightcaster

• No Animal Summons
• No Basic Cure Wound Spells or the Heal Spell (you keep Vigor but get them 1 level later, no mass regeneration)
• No Fire Spells
• No Sun Spells
• No Fire Shield
• No Bear Spells
• No Elemental Fire/Water Elemental Form Spells

Skills: as Druid

Past Life

Blightcaster:

Past Life: x3 (stacks)

+5 Acid and Poison Spell Power

BLIGHT CASTER TREE:

Core 1:

The Cycle of Decay - You gain 5 Force, Poison, Negative, and Acid Spell Power per core in this tree.

Core 3:

Spread the Blight - Your offensive spells now apply a 10 second debuff called Blight: reduces saves by 1 and incoming positive healing by 20%.

Core 6:

Death Eater - You gain 1 temporary hit point equal to your wisdom score whenever you kill an enemy (Creatures 2 levels below you do not count). These hit points remain until damage removes them or the quest ends. This can stack 5 times and is refreshed on each kill.

Core 12:

Know the End - You gain Know the End which acts as a permanent Death Block. Blight effect is improved to reduces saves by 2 and incoming positive healing by 40% for 10 seconds.

Core 18:

Vile Eruption - Earth Quake now deals 2d6 + 1 per caster level in acid damage every 3 seconds in addition to it's regular effects.

Core 20:

Master of Decay:

• +2 Wisdom & Con
• SLA Creeping Doom Cost: 20 spell points Cooldown: 15 seconds
• Blight now reduces saves by 4 and positive healing by 60%

TIER 1:

Prickly: 1/2/3 PRR, rank 3: +1 to damage with weapon attacks.

Kiss of the Blight: You gain 5/10/15% Absorption against Poison and Acid Damage.

Pick Your Poison I Multi Selector

SLA: Thorn Strike 3 ranks, cooldown 7/5/3 Spell Cost 3,2,1
SLA Acid Spray 3 ranks Cooldown 12/8/4 seconds , 4/3/2 SP cost

Sharp Edges 1: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Lore of the Great Plagues: You gain a +1/2/3 saving throw bonus against poison and disease. Rank 3: Gain 5 Poison and Negative Spell Power.

TIER 2:

Defiled Growth - Your Entangle and Spike growth spells now cause 1d4 negative energy damage per spell level every 2 seconds.

Meta Selector, Empower, Max, Quicken

Pick your Poison II Mutli Selector

SLA Splinter Bolt 3 ranks, Cooldown 8/6/4, Spell Cost, 6,4,2

SLA Melf's Acid Arrow 3 ranks, Cooldown 8/6/4, Spell Cost, 6,4,2

Sharp Edges II: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Every Rose Has it's Thorn - Spike Growth damage is increased by 100%.

TIER 3:

Out Break - upgrades the contagion and insidious spores spells to also hit enemies near the primary target.

Meta Selector - Empower, Max, Quicken

SLA Enveloping Swarm - 3 ranks, Cooldown 16,12,8, Cost 8,6,4

Sharp Edges III: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Stat Boost - Wis/Con

TIER 4:


Fast Acting Poison - The Poison spell now does 1d6 per druid level poison damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds in addition to its original effect. A successful Fort save applies this dot at half strength.

Murder of Crows - 120/90/60 second cool down, A swarm of crows blasts through you and a narrow path ahead. Enemies in the way take 1d3 piercing damage per druid level and must save vs confusing and blind separately DC: 20+ druid level + Conjuration DC. If you have a crow summon active from the falconry tree when you used this ability you gain the Murder in your Eye effect for 10 seconds; All your spells and attacks apply 1d6 piercing damage to blind targets for every druid level. This damage can only apply once every two seconds.

Pick your Poison III Multi Selector

SLA Thorn Bloom - 3 ranks, Cooldown 16, 12, 8, Cost: 20,15, 10

SLA Acid Rain - 10 SP cost, Cooldown 20/16/12 seconds

Sharp Edges IV: Spell Crit +1 to Force/Neg/Poison/Acid Spell Crit Chance. (costs 1 AP, instead of the usual 2)

Stat Boost, Wis/Con

Tier 5:

Thorns in your side - Multi Selector -

Poisoned Thorns - Your Splinter Bolt and Thorn Spells now also cause additional 2 points of Poison damage for every spell level. This scales with spell power.

Vile Thorns - Your Splinter Bolt and Thorn Spells now also cause additional 1 point of Acid damage for every spell level. This scales with spell power.

SLA Grasping Thorns - Spell Like Ability: Thorny Vines erupt from the ground seizing all enemies in the area. Save vs Reflex or be Entangled. On Successful save the targets have their movement slowed by 35%. Targets also take 1d6 piercing damage every 2 seconds per caster level. This double is doubled on targets which are entangled.

Everything Decays - Gain 5/10/15 Acid & Poison Spell Power Rank 3: Your spells remove Acid and Poison Immunity for 30 seconds.

Doomsayer - Gain a +1 Bonus to Conjuration, Evocation and Necromancy DCs


ADDITIONAL CHANGES....


Changes to Seasons Herald

Core 3 (level 6) updated to : +1 to max caster level of your season. Your Shillelagh does one extra W of damage. Your plant spells like entangle, spike growth and grasping thorns will no longer be dispelled by fire effects.

Changes to Nature's Warrior: - (Not in this build, coming next preview)

• Howl of Winter renamed: Hunter's Howl to make it agnostic to Blighted Wolf or Winter Wolf
• Great White Wolf Gets a multi selector with the alternate called Doom Wolf - 10/20/30 acid spell power, 10/20/30% Acid Resistance
• Jaws of Winter get's renamed "Feasting Jaws" - Gain 10 times your character level in temporary HPs for 30 seconds after using Jaws of Winter or Jaws of Doom
• Cold Breath damage will be updated to match current spell damage formulas

Notes on things coming down the line:

• Will be adding a Flame Blade equivalent to the Blightcaster (thorn themed, weapon type or types TBD. We might do a few) for the next preview
• Will be adding Master of Thorns Epic Feat: +140 SP, will boost thornstrike, thornbloom and splinterbolt by 10 max caster levels.

KNOW ISSUES

• NO ART IS IN YET (it's all place holder on the wildshapes. Only a few spells have a basic vfx pass)
• Blighted Charge and Jaws of Doom and the new Contagion effects are not set up yet.
• Nature's Warrior Changes are not in this build mostly
• Don't think Mind Immunities on Hivemaster are done yet
• Thorn Knight's water breath perk isn't in this build
• Blight debuff makes undead take less damage from healing
• Murder of Crows works with the RAVEN in falconry (ability will be renamed to a Raven theme. We got our birds mixed up)

Could there be a multiselector enhancement that would add thorn guard when using Barkskin or Poison Guard when using Spiderskin? Just for some added flair that keeps with the forms motifs whilst utilizing spells that already fit thematically.