Building a Druid (Need advice!)

[Junkermanz]

Hey folks!

 

After checking in with the Beta on and off since its release I've been struggling with some of the mechanics of this game and I truly have no idea where to even begin with building my character. I'd like to play a druid as I'm a fan of spellcasters and the themes of the class but I'm confused as to which stats I should be selecting for and which ones can safely be dumped.

 

I'm a veteran of RPG's so I have a pretty strong understanding of how to build good characters in 2ed through 3.5ed dnd and I think what I'm lacking right now is detailed information on how things are running under the hood. I find the current stat descriptions to be pretty vague and many of the talens are just written descriptions without any actual numbers; which I find makes it very confusing to pick and choose and see what works without having to make two douzen characters which I dont have the time or interest at present to do.

 

So my question for those who have taken the time to delve deeper then I have: How do I build a good druid?

 

• What stats should be focused on?
• What skills?
• Which weapons to use?
• Which talents to select?
• Which spells are worth using?

My thanks for your time everyone! Excited for the final release!

[Quadrone]

That's a lot of pretty broad questions.

You say you are experienced with DnD, so my answer would actually be that's it should be rather hard for someone like you to mismanage a Druid to a point where he is not effective.

Druid is said to be one of the most powerful classes right now, so as long as you don't invest your stats in a completely silly manner you're good.

The rest depends on how you want to play your Druid.

Well, you probably shouldn't use Single Weapon Style or wear heavy armor but otherwise... *shrug*

[mrmonocle]

My druid uses pike and plate armor and he's an awesome 2nd frontliner with a reach weapon, shapeshifting and aoes.

 

No matter how u build your druid, max str and int + Heart of the storm talent is a must!

[Voss]

D&D knowledge won't help much, except for broad outlines of some of the copied spells.  Its more likely to lead to false assumptions in some places, in fact.

 

Stats:  might (for damage), Int (for AoE increase and duration increase).  Dex may help, but you likely won't have enough points to speed yourself up enough.

 

Skills:  whatever.  stealth and mechanics are obviously useful.  Survival may be for potion effects and etc.  The others don't seem to matter much as long as someone in the party has them (and can be chosen for scripted events). I'm honestly a bit fuzzy on some of them, but there might be PC-only scripting that can mess up your plans with skills, but few skills are seem all that tightly tied to class. (except rogues and stealth).

 

Weapons- ranged (but avoid bows ATM).  you don't want to be where people can smack you, though pikes/quarterstaves can give you a couple paces if you absolutely must melee for some reason.  Armor- none.  It's a trap

 

Talents-  avoid wildstrike. Too many conditionals and percentages, and melee isn't where you want to be.  

It really depends.  ideally you want talents that you're going to use all the time, and not situational ones.  you can grab extra spells if you really want to focus on casting (but I'm not sure the talent investment for a single low level slot is really worth it), or you can stack up weapon focus, gunner, penetrating shot and so on so that all your non-spell ranged attacks are even more worthwhile. 

 

Spells- kind of a non-issue for druids, because you have access to all of them (of the appropriate levels) all the time.  That said, I'd prioritize damage and debuffs over buffs.  When combat ends so do the spells, so buffs have a high resource investment and minimal return.  (And firebrand [think D&D flameblade) and the like are really worthless without persistent durations). 

[Odd Hermit]

What stats should be focused on?

• What skills?
• Which weapons to use?
• Which talents to select?
• Which spells are worth using?

 

I've spent most of my time w/a Druid PC character so far and done more druidry than another classry.

 

My current "best" druid is -

 

Coastal Aumaua for +2 might and prone/stun resist

 

20 Might (18 + 2 from race)

8/8/8 Con/Dex/Per

19 Int (18 + 1 from Old Vailia culture)

15 Resolve

 

However there's some potential variation - if you wanted you could put more in Dex rather than Resolve, I like having decent resolve for interrupt resist, but sometimes casting faster helps as well. Might/Int are your staples though, it's best to prioritize maxing them.

 

Other race that's good is Dwarf again for +2 Might, Poison/Disease resist is more situational and usually less worrisome than full CCs like Prone/Stun though, and Druids have Poison/Disease removal anyway. I'm taking a Dwarf 'cause I like their look better than Aumaua myself though.

 

Skills it doesn't matter too much, but Lore is a good choice for a PC for conversation options probably and Druid has a bonus to it. I'm not a big fan of survival but since Druids get +2 to it you could pump that up to meet certain skill checks to. Some stealth (~2-4) and athletics is a good idea to have on all characters too. The BB isn't too big on skill checking so it's hard to judge what'll be most valuable in the full game.

 

Weapons it depends on talents -

 

Talents: Secrets of Rime is the big one, +20% damage to Icy Wind, Blizzard, Hail Storm which are your heavy hitting large AoEs. Heart of the Storm is worth considering too just for Returning Storm which is an awesome Shock Damage spell. Scion of Flame and Spirit of Decay don't seem worth it to me, not enough strong or stand-out spells of those types.

 

Penetrating Shot is a decent choice for putting out damage while not casting but toggle it off when you are as I believe it reduces spell cast speed. Could pick up gunner if you choose a Crossbow or Gun sort of weapon for ranged damage - if not I'd pick War Bow probably, which is cheaper talent wise and still decent output with just Penetrating Shot.

 

Vulnerable Attack is a no-brainer if you plan to use shapeshifting a lot which is pretty good damage now. I don't think the form is worth specializing in more than that though - we'll see how it performs when they buff wildstrike but I'm skeptical. If you really like shifting you could add two weapon style for +20% attack speed making up for -20% from vulnerable attack.

 

Otherwise 2h talents are probably better(Savage Attack/Two Handed Style), I'd go with Pike and be the back-up melee rather than front-line personally.

 

Bonus Spells are alright when there's nothing else exciting. Spell levels 1 / 2 have some workhorse spells that can never have too many of. 3 and 4 aren't bad either.

 

Bloody Slaughter is also just a +Crit Damage buff, and converts some hits to crit vs. low damage targets. Can't hurt if you just want more damage output, although Druid isn't a very crit-heavy class since their base accuracy is low so I'm not a big proponent of this one.

 

 

 

Most notable spells:

 

1: Tanglefoot, Icy Wind, Sunbeam, Nature's Vigor on occasion.

2: BLIZZARD! Can never have too many Blizzards. Otherwise uh... nothing else is amazing here IMO, so cast Blizzards instead.

3: Returning Storm, Stag Horn, Beetle Shell on occasion if somebody is in trouble. Purge of Toxins also situational for Poison/Disease removal/resist.

4: Calling the World's Maw for knock down/good damage. Moonwell is good for defense+healing. Hail Storm was bugged but if it's fixed it's a strong AoE.

[Junkermanz]

Thanks for the great response Hermit! This is exactly what I needed/was looking for.

 

I'm a little torn on skills still, I think I'll be going Lore, Athletics, Survival for RP reasons. I gather the beta isnt the best place to test these things but is there any word on what the skill checks are going to look like? IE: Will I need to max min to be able to use them or can I safely spread it between three?

 

Is a weapon focus feat worth it at all? 6 accuracy doesnt seem like very much in the grand scheme of things. The Druid just better off hanging back and slinging spells as needed?

 

I'm pretty bumed out to see how poorly the shape shifting was handled; I feel like it'd be pretty easy and balanced to just make it super strong and one use per day or something you can spec into but all the wildshape feats seem like total garbage from my paltry experience with the game so far.

 

I remember reading a long time ago that low level spells would eventually be unlimited uses per day; any word on that or was that scrapped through development?

[Odd Hermit]

Thanks for the great response Hermit! This is exactly what I needed/was looking for.

 

I'm a little torn on skills still, I think I'll be going Lore, Athletics, Survival for RP reasons. I gather the beta isnt the best place to test these things but is there any word on what the skill checks are going to look like? IE: Will I need to max min to be able to use them or can I safely spread it between three?

 

Is a weapon focus feat worth it at all? 6 accuracy doesnt seem like very much in the grand scheme of things. The Druid just better off hanging back and slinging spells as needed?

 

I'm pretty bumed out to see how poorly the shape shifting was handled; I feel like it'd be pretty easy and balanced to just make it super strong and one use per day or something you can spec into but all the wildshape feats seem like total garbage from my paltry experience with the game so far.

 

I remember reading a long time ago that low level spells would eventually be unlimited uses per day; any word on that or was that scrapped through development?

 

Without the full game it's hard to judge skill checks - there are some in the BB but they're not too frequent or high. I had to min/max mechanics in the beta, but got by with middle values of everything else on other characters. I think going for very high lore will be the route I go in the full release though, for dialogue.

 

Weapon focus isn't worth it for druid IMO. I suppose for a shifter build if it ends up being good enough to bother you could take peasant if unarmed affects shifting - it might not though I haven't tried), but peasant weapons suck right now so it wouldn't do much for you in human form. If peasant had a good ranged weapon it might be worth it.

 

I'm against per rest on shifting personally, but I prefer per-encounter for everything at this point so that's my bias. They are buffing wildstrike talents, they just didn't get that change into the beta build. Druids are so good as a caster though, I'm okay with shifting being a longevity/versatility tool rather than an entire alternate playstyle. And if it were per-day that'd ruin that aspect of it for me.

 

Not sure about low level spells becoming per-encounter. I really hope they do, but we get up to level 8 in the BB without seeing this so I fear that may've been scrapped. I think they should come into play earlier personally. Though some low level spells are very strong right now, there's nothing to stop us from resting when we're out anyway, and health limits us from going on indefinitely.

[Junkermanz]

Is ranged combat the way to go then when you're not slinging spells?

 

I wouldnt mind giving him a gun just because its a novelty of this new setting but a crossbow or bow would be fine too. Is one a clear winner over the others?

 

Is dex a big deal for casting speed? I feel like I'm leaning towards resolve as well for RP as well as interrupt resist. I've experimented with dex a little bit with some of the other characters but never really noticed that big of a difference.

[Odd Hermit]

Is ranged combat the way to go then when you're not slinging spells?

 

I wouldnt mind giving him a gun just because its a novelty of this new setting but a crossbow or bow would be fine too. Is one a clear winner over the others?

 

Is dex a big deal for casting speed? I feel like I'm leaning towards resolve as well for RP as well as interrupt resist. I've experimented with dex a little bit with some of the other characters but never really noticed that big of a difference.

 

Ranged combat is the safe route. You can use shapeshift as well though, I got decent mileage out of it this build. It depends on the fight for me, so I try not to focus too much on one or the other and keep it mainly caster except for a few high value talents(Vulnerable Attack for Shapeshifting is a big increase in damage).

 

Blunderbuss is good still, if you want a gun. Arquebus is now kind of weak and Druid doesn't have great accuracy to make up for the penalty. Blunderbuss gets a chance to hit w/each projectile which is nice. If you use anything other than Crossbow, Arbalest, or Arquebus though I think you'd want Penetrating Shot which needs to be managed(toggled off) to avoid its speed penalty to spells when you're not shooting.

 

I'm going resolve over dex. I tried dex this build now that it isn't borked and was underwhelmed. Casting faster is nice but I rather have more interrupt resist + I imagine resolve will get more dialogue play. Might and Int are what I'm maxing first and foremost though.

 

Here's what my Druid looked like by level 8:

 

http://i.imgur.com/n81zT04.jpg

 

I did take Two Weapon Fighting here to try out Shapeshift damage. I think Vulnerable Attack is more important but Two Weapon Fighting does help a bit. I'm on the fence about it vs. taking Penetrating Shot for ranged damage. Not a big deal though, since these are convenience talents more for the fights where you're not relying on your casting.

[Junkermanz]

Looks good!

 

Do you think the +1 to X Spell Level are worth it at all or do Druids have enough between rests to not need it? I guess that a lot of those feats you took instead go a long way in making the druid more potent when its not needing to pull out those spells.

[Odd Hermit]

Looks good!

 

Do you think the +1 to X Spell Level are worth it at all or do Druids have enough between rests to not need it? I guess that a lot of those feats you took instead go a long way in making the druid more potent when its not needing to pull out those spells.

 

I personally wouldn't take them, there's enough else to take. But they're not bad and occasionally you might want to cast a lot of a particular spell level in one fight.

[gkathellar]

You probably want Lore and Survival on your main PC, if only so you can use them in dialog trees.

[Enoch]

I like the idea of doing a Coastal Aumaua Druid-- a wanderer with a staff of driftwood, at home among the tidepools, marshes, and mangroves.  Too bad none of the wildshape forms really pair well with a druid originating from a littoral or estuarial biome.  Forget the wolves and bears-- we need a 'gator!

[Gromnir]

I like the idea of doing a Coastal Aumaua Druid-- a wanderer with a staff of driftwood, at home among the tidepools, marshes, and mangroves.  Too bad none of the wildshape forms really pair well with a druid originating from a littoral or estuarial biome.  Forget the wolves and bears-- we need a 'gator!

how 'bout an octopus?

 

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/150224-octopus-attacks-crab-vin

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Namutree]

IF you intend to keep out of danger and attack from a distance than invest in DEX over RES as the interrupt resistance should never come into play.

[Enoch]

That's be awesome, but would also probably require a prohibitive amount of new animation work to do right.  I wouldn't want a Squidward that moves just like a biped does.

[Gromnir]

That's be awesome, but would also probably require a prohibitive amount of new animation work to do right.  I wouldn't want a Squidward that moves just like a biped does.

we suspect an octopus would kinda float on the ground, which might look a bit odd.  however, an alligator snapping turtle would be keen.  snappers  do live in estuaries where the water is brackish. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Cantousent]

The funny thing is, I would dread the idea of having a namesake in any of the games.  I'm sure the depiction would not be flattering.  I would understand why and I'd just suck it up.  ...But I can't imagine I would be the only person who actually *doesn't* want the notoriety.

 

Whether you 'get' Gromnir's shtick or not, he's been the eminent personality of the online rpg communities for years.  Well over a decade.  Probably a couple and giving a nod to that seems perfectly appropriate.  I think Grom does a lot for the community and I even thought that at times when he got under my skin.

 

I also think that someone who is and has been key to this community is Fionavar.  I'm not just saying that because he's my friend.  He's done a lot for the community here and the vast majority of members don't even know that.  I think Fio should get a nod in a game one of these days.  He'd probably be irritated that I said that, but he'd do his best not to show it.

 

If it's done well, I think having some of the community in the game is kind of cool, but too many inside jokes and self reflecting community cameos isn't all that great.  At least I don't think so.  Maybe a few members and then you hope that the green eyed monster of envy doesn't cause mayhem.

 

EDIT:  And I should really actually try to be more on topic.  I'm fairly ignorant of the number crunching still, so I'll just fumble around a bit with a melee rogue build.  Unless of course I don't have any decent range dps options, in which case I'll have to tune the stats for ranged dps and get some other class to cover melee dps.

[Gromnir]

ps visual aid included for selling snapping turtle as druid shape change.

 

 

 

however, since we is talking shape-change into some kinda hybrid human + _________ form, there is a danger o' looking a bit like a cartoony ninja turtle.  regardless, we still got votes for octopus, even if it is simple a bipedal with a weird shaped head, extra appendages and a beaked mouth, and snapping turtle.  perhaps have octopus auto-squirt ink when endurance drops below 30%?  

 

HA! Good Fun!