Gaming Discussion

hecklenjyde · 11:12pm

I have recently begun the Kingmaker campaign and the GM has allowed us to create characters using races from the Bestiary books, the restriction being no CR higher than 6 was allowed. I've wanted to play a pure druid for a while, since I have found in the past that PF does not do

I've played a Bard/Ranger and a Barbarian/Rogue/Shadowdancer and have found myself underpowered both times when compared with other characters who stuck to a single class.

multi-classing very well. We're starting at level 3 and will get to level up our race (if the CR is more than 3) over a period of time determined by the GM. So far in the party we have 2 adolescent silver dragons (one will be a sorcerer, the other a cleric/monk), 1 tiefling witch, and 1 celestial sylph ninja, plus my blodeuwedd druid. The blodeuwedd is a creature that comes from the 3rd Kingmaker book, if you're wondering. We've just made reached 4 in the game.

All the other players in the game except one are power gamers to the max, while I am more of a roleplayer, and are the sort to strip the gold leaf from the statues and adamantine bars on the window in order to sell it, as well as typically charging into a fight and stopping only when no enemy is

Though I will admit they've not been doing that lately and more controlling the battlefield than full scale slaughter, it's kinda abnormal for them.

left standing. In order to not be stuck on the sidelines all the time watching them do useful stuff while I'm relegated to scratching my head trying to come up with something that'll be effective, I feel it's important to squeeze everything I can out of my chosen class/race. I've read Treantmonk's Guide for Druids which is a little outdated, and recently found Peterrco's Guild to Druids which I have been studying extensively. Both of these guides however use the standard races and thus need a bit of tweaking to suit the blodeuwedd.

The GM has broken down the blodeuwedd to each CR level and if you're interested the HD, stats and special abilities have been included below.

Here's what I've come up with so far: (stuff in grey can't be changed.)
Concept: - Blodeuwedd druid of Gozreh, focus on spell casting/summoning. A strong emphasis on nature means she'll probably fill the Marshal role and have a hand in ensuring good crops (which may also include hops and vineyards).

Blodeuwedd 3/ Druid 1
Str 15 | Dex 19 | Con 25 | Int 18 | Wis 19 | Cha 16 (dice were rolled, not points buy and have blodeuwedd mods added)

Racial Traits
Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort
Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 3 hrs into owl or single unique humanoid
Nature's Infusion (Su): 1/day, 1 hr, temp HP 1d10 + 7 CL(6)
Spell-Like Abilities
Constant-speak with plants; At will-dancing lights; 3/day-entangle (DC15); 2/day-spike growth (DC17); 1/day-deep slumber (DC17), goodberry, whispering wind

Feats
Combat Casting, Spell Focus Conjuration, Augmented Summoning,
Class Feats
Nature bond, nature sense, orisons, wild empathy
Campaign Traits
Reactionary +2 Initiative; Magical Knack - Druid +2CL

She's a worshipper of Gozreh (being neutral herself she's not limited by what spells she can cast or beast she can summon, and aiming for more of a spellcaster than melee/damager, I've opted to take the Domain instead of Animal Companion (though I could be persuaded against that). Looking at the available domains for

Domains: Air, Cloud, Plant, Water, Weather.
Subdomains: Cloud, Decay, Feather, Fur, Growth, Ice, Oceans, Seasons, Storm, Winds.

Gozreh the best option for spell versatility (not to many duplicates with the druid or blodeuwedd spells) seems to be Water with the Oceans subdomain. This adds: 1st—obscuring mist, 2nd—slipstream, 3rd—water walk, 4th—control water, 5th—ice storm, 6th—cone of cold, 7th—elemental body IV (water only), 8th—horrid wilting, 9th—tsunami to her spell list, 6 of which are

I count Elemental Body in there because wild shape allows you this ability already.

duplicate spells on the Druid list, and adds the ability to push/pull a creature and gives cold resistance at level 8.

I'm also seriously looking at the Menhir Savant which not only ties in brilliantly with the blodeuwedd but gives more casting power, the option to take her companions with her via plants and detecting fey/undead etc. automatically within 60 ft.

QuestionsFeats - I know having Augmented Summoning in there so early is perhaps a bit redundant, so what are the suggestions you'd recommend instead?

Toughness, Superior Summons, Natural Spell, Wild Speech, Hover, Improved Initiative. Other options are: Quicken Spell, Improved Natural Armour, Spell Penetration, Moonlight Summons, Starlight Summons, Sunlight Summons, Aspect of the Beast, Powerful Shape, Quick Wild Shape, Planar wild shape

Planned Feats to take

Menhir Savant - Is it worth giving up nature sense,

blodeuwedd gives you this anyway but it won't increase with druid levels

wild empathy, woodland stride,

blodeuwedd can turn into an owl or person 1/day so she could fly everywhere at higher levels. Also party members can leave tracks too.

trackless step, and a thousand faces for a 1 round increase to CL, transport via plants, detecting fey/undead/outsiders and all astral, ethereal or incorporeal creatures, and the ability to turn ethereal for a dozen or more rounds a day?

Domains - Other suggestions for domains which might suit the concept better? Or ditch that idea and keep the animal companion (which animal would you suggest would work best in the River Kingdoms?)

Since she can change into an owl or one sort of humanoid that's not her natural form, what sort of humanoid would be best? Dwarf, to get darkvision? Or Merfolk to get the swim 30 ability?

hecklenjyde · Jun 28 '12, 11:12pm

I guess that either people are experiencing character optimisation burn out, no one is familiar (or interested) enough with PF to offer suggestions, or that no one has any ideas to offer at all. A pity, as I was looking forward to hearing what ideas people had to share.

Greycloak · Jun 29 '12, 2:26am

Isn't a Blodeuwedd a 7(fey) HD, CR6 creature, or are you using the new Race Guide to make this creature?

If so, you'd really have more luck on the Paizo Advice board as you're looking for a small subset (those who have the brand new guide) of a subset (those who to Pathfinder at all on MW) of this community.

Other than that, and the huge misbalance that comes from trading a single casting level for a gazillion ability score points and a bunch of spell like abilities, the biggest problem would be the allergen thing. Because it says it's a free action to suppress and says nothing about resuming it, I'd interpret that allergen aura as being something that's always on except for when you consciously suppress it with a free action. In my mind that would mean you would sicken your allies every time you slept (and couldn't take free actions).

hecklenjyde · Jun 29 '12, 2:48am

The blodeuwedd is indeed a CR6 creature with 7HD. The GM has come up with an advancement system to allow me to create a CR3 version for the game which will eventually end up being CR6.

Not being a member of the Paizo forums I thought I'd ask here before looking elsewhere, but that's a good suggestion, thanks.

Since every other player has also traded off being one of the standard races, I figure that any imbalance is going to be offset by that, and the GM will be the biggest controller to mitigate that. Being a CR3 creature who can cast spells, her CL is also 3 - now 4 since she's taken 1 level of druid.

However I didn't think about the allergen thing being on when she sleeps, and that could work in her favour in case of being ambushed at night. The party has been working around it during daylight hours (if she's not supressing it) by spending a few minutes every day getting used to the aura until everyone makes their Fort save which makes them immune to it for 24 hours. One character is also looking at alchemy and the GM has ruled that he can concoct a potion which will aid in resisting the hayfever effect.

Greycloak · Jun 29 '12, 4:33am

There's a good general Paizo guide here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...ilebasic?pli=1

It's kinda tough to give optimization advice when you are playing a pretty crazy custom character like this. Are the other characters as over the top?

hecklenjyde · 7:02am

Yeah, 2 adolescent silver dragons (one will be a sorcerer, the other a cleric/monk), 1 tiefling witch, and 1 celestial sylph ninja. I don't think the idea's that much crazier than taking some of the monsters from the bestiary and giving them character classes. The base race is a little out of the ordinary I'll admit, but that's probably because it comes from a PF adventure, rather than the Bestiary books. Thanks for the link, I'd been looking a lot at the guide when I created to concept.

CR	HD	Stats	Special Abilities
1	1	Str +0 \| Dex +2 \| Con +2 \| Int +2 \| Wis +0 \| Cha +2	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 racial bonus to wild empathy
2	2	Str +2 \| Dex +2 \| Con +4 \| Int +4 \| Wis 0 \| Cha +4	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 ~Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 2 hrs.
3	3	Str +2 \| Dex +4 \| Con +6 \| Int +4 \| Wis 2 \| Cha +6	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 ~Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 3 hrs.
4	4	Str +4 \| Dex +6 \| Con +8 \| Int +4 \| Wis +4 \| Cha +6	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 ~Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 5 hrs. ~Nature's Infusion (Su): 1/day, 1 hr, temp HP 1d10 + 7 CL(5) ~Verdant Step (Su): 1/day teleport self any dist in same field
5	6	Str +4 \| Dex +8 \| Con +8 \| Int 4 \| Wis +6 \| Cha +6	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 ~Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 6 hrs. ~Nature's Infusion (Su): 1/day, 1 hr, temp HP 1d10 + 7 CL(6) ~Verdant Step (Su): 2/day teleport self
6	7	Str +6 \| Dex +10 \| Con +10 \| Int +4 \| Wis +6 \| Cha +8	Allergen Aura (Ex): 30 ft aura DC20 Fort ~Wild Empathy (Ex): +6 ~Change Shape (Su): 1/day up to 7 hrs. ~Nature's Infusion (Su): 1/day, 1 hr, temp HP 1d10 + 7 CL(7) ~Verdant Step (Su): 3/day teleport self

Gaming Discussion

Pathfinder: Advice on creating spellcasting Druid Blodeuwedd