Battle Druid (35 Druid/4 Paladin/1 Monk)

[norrion]

This is something in test right now. I haven't really played it so far...

This a battle druid with 2 epics : shunt and immute.
The AB isn't stellar but not too bad either : 93 at 60 pre-demi.
Defense should be pretty solid for a str tank : 139 AC with girding pre-demi + 47% concealment. This toon wil be using light armors.

Race : Half-elf
"Pharlan" (secret Beyond UltraRare; adds wings and tail)
- FCs: Cleric, Paladin
- STR +4, WIS +4, CHA +4, free feats: Great Strength I, Great Strength II, Divine Might, able to walk on quicksand, base SR 15 +1/lvl

Starting stats (after subrace) :
STR 16 (22)
DEX 14 (14)
CON 12 (12)
WIS 14 (18)
INT 12 (12)
CHA 8 (12)

All stats increases in STR.
4 Paladin / 35 Druid /1 Monk

Pre-epic feats :
Blooded
Weapon focus Warhammer
Toughness
Improved critical Warhammer
SF Transmutation
GSF Transmutation
Extend spell

Epic Feats :
Armor Skin
Great STR III
Epic weapon focus Warhammer
Great Wisdom I*
Epic Prowess
ESF Transmutation*
Great STR IV
Great STR V
Great Wisdom II*
Great STR VI

Tome : evocation for Immutable force

Legendary Feats :
LSA Tumble
LSA Listen
Legendary Weapon focus Warhammer
Great STR VII
Great STR VIII
ESF Discipline
ESF Listen

Skills : max Craft armor, craft weapon, discipline to 43, listen, parry and tumble.

Artifact : STR

At 60, pre demi :
AB : 93
AC : 135 in BURs + strongheart, 139 with Girding + 47% concealment
Saves :
F 63
R 55
W 64
HP : 848

I would really like to get some advice on this build so, feel free !

[MurphysLawAgain]

Do you envision this build casting or just using Druid buffs & epics? If just buffs and epics then you might consider taking less druid levels and more pre-epic paladin? It would help your AB a bit and not cost you anything really. Since your DC is totally nerfed anyway I dont see where you need more than the 25 druid levels to qualify for epics. Or have I missed something?

[norrion]

This build would be a tank with buffs and epics.
Taking druid levels helps with caster levels (for buffs and shunt).

I first thought that 31 druid lvls pre-epic were needed to gain the 2/3 of your wis modifier in AC while wearing light armor / shield. Re-reading it tho, it seems that LL count for the 31 lvls.

[nataani]

Shunt is based on caster levels, so is shroud

[Acaos]

Jan 4, 2009 20:46:01 GMT norrion said:

it seems that LL count for the 31 lvls.

LLs do not count.

Acaos

[norrion]

Jan 4, 2009 21:07:57 GMT Acaos said:

Jan 4, 2009 20:46:01 GMT norrion said:

it seems that LL count for the 31 lvls.

LLs do not count.

Acaos

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

[maljin]

Looks very interesting. I already thought about melee druids (non-dragon of course) because you can build a battle-... of every caster type (dex/str bards, battle clerics, staffies, tank bfms, no melee pm's seen lately but there were some builds) but I didn't hammer out any numbers as a battle cleric seemed to get much more from his buffs while a battle druid gets premo, some wis ac, some conceal and epics. But I really didn't imagine that a battle druid would come out that good (judging by your numbers while keeping those things listed above in mind).

Premo works great for tanks; I've noticed on my staffy (who gets the full +16) and on my bane knight (who gets str tank ac and immunities a long the way). 55 reflex might pose a problem for tanks, but I let others speak about that. Another thing I'm missing is damage output; nearly every other str tank gets some specials like irresistible dmg as a cleric/pally/bg, lots of physical damage via high str as a dragon disciple, weapon buffs as a staffy/assassin/bk/... or lots of attacks as a ranger (nothing to discuss about staffy, cot, lash or barb, as they can pull out oodles of damage anyway). I didn't mention crit immunity as a disadvantage, as with 135+ ac you're nearly as high as a dexer who doesn't get it either.

I could imagine to see some spell changes (blood frenzy comes to mind, probably aura of vitality) that would benefit melee druids.

Looking forward to read who it works out should you decide to build it.

[norrion]

Jan 4, 2009 21:37:22 GMT maljin said:

55 reflex might pose a problem for tanks, but I let others speak about that.

It's indeed quite low. I'll look into possibly swapping some feats around for better reflex save.
Note that for arachills' webs tho, Silks of the arachill is a nice option as light armor for this build.
www.hgwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Silks_of_the_Arachill

[Deleted]

love this idea and I have a lvl 60 druid sitting on the shelf to experiment with it on.

[Paradoom]

Though I can see y immute is so tempting, I think over going for conjuration instead of evocation would be the better way. The paragon epic would improve your (and the other tanks in party) damage output very nicely. +24 for u and +16 for all others per attack for melee weapons.
The normal epic shroud also buffs up your conceal to 58% twice in the end and strengthens your durability in the long run.
And hey summoning something boosted by conj. foci to tank with u is sure not something bad.

Spells that dircetly benefit from conj are restore and (monstrous-)regen. Also Bombardment and Elementalstorm get a boost and might come out good enough to add something against larger amounts of trashmobs if wanted/needed (no idea if the DC would work on bosses, but hey tanking tia and smashing her with divine from the bombardmants would be fun.)

just my 2 cents hope u get something out of it ;D

[arek]

I just crunched some numbers in Shard's Build Tool, and came up with the following build:

Human/Zenythri
STR: 16
DEX: 14
CON: 14
WIS: 12
INT: 12
CHA: 8

Level Progression: 1 Druid, 4 Fighter, 33 Druid, 1 Monk. IMPORTANT: TAKE THE MONK LEVEL AT 40 - THIS DOES NOT GET LSA TUMBLE!!!

Abilities: All Pre-Legendary ability increases go to DEX, all Legendary to STR.

1. Luck of Heroes, Bullheaded
2. WF: Scimitar (FTR)
3. Toughness, GWF: Scimitar (FTR)
5. Blind Fight (FTR)
6. SF: Trans
9. GSF: Trans
12. Improved Crit: Scimitar
15. Extend Spell
18. Power Crit: Scimitar OR Weapon Finesse (hint: If you're leveling this, move this to an earlier level and take Weapon Finesse, otherwise go for Power Critical).

Epic Feats:
21. Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar
24. Epic Prowess
27. Great Strength 1
28. Great Wisdom 1 (DRU)
30. Great Strength 2
32. Great Wisdom 2 (DRU)
33. Great Strength 3
36. Great Strength 4, Great Wisdom 3 (DRU)
39. ESF: Trans.

Legendary Feats:
42. LSA: Discipline
45. LWF: Scimitar
48. Great Strength 5
51. Great Strength 6
54. Legendary Luck
57. Great Strength 7
60. Great Strength 8

Skills: Take 40 tumble and 43 Listen and Discipline at 40, and max Discipline (after LSA), Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor throughout the leveling process. At level 60, you should also max Parry, then dump whatever's left into Concentration. You might be able to start doing this earlier, of course, but only start taking Concentration after everything else is maxed.

AB according to Shard's Build Tool is 93 with Storm Avatar active. AC is 130 not including the monk/druid bonus, which should bring it to 136, assuming you use the Illusion epic (or the SH if you really prefer that). Saves are 62F/62R/61W, which are passable, tho not great.

Pros: Once you get a DEX Artifact (or a STR Artifact if you drop 2 STR for 2 DEX), this will get the same max AB as your build, and the same epics, but it will also get the Battledruid SoV (Storm Avatar), for extra damage, and Shock Weapon (+2 dice over a regular Druid, which will wind up being +1 over a Pure druid for this build), for even more damage.

Cons: Until you get your DEX artifact, Demigod Status, or enough Paragon Levels to get +2 DEX, you're down 3 AB due to not having Storm Avatar. You can remedy this if you want by swapping 2 GStr feats for 2 GDex feats while leveling, but then you'll want to reinc once you get your Dex arti. Also, this doesn't get max Listen and can't go half-elf due to feat requirements, tho it does get both blind-fight and decent Listen.

Also, concerning epics: Don't waste a SH on this - there are better amulets for a Druid. Instead, get the Illusion epic, which will give you +20 Natural AC.

Another note: You can greatly improve this build once you're 2x Demi, by reincarnating it and taking 4 less dex (grabbing 4 STR) You can drop DEX by 2 more if you're Level 80 as well. You don't really need the dex, and the strength will improve your AB even further, or you could probably even squeeze in devcrit while still having 95-96 AB. Heck, you might even be able to free up enough feats and stats by doing this to take Paladin instead of Fighter and go with Half-Elf for better Listen. :-)

Hope you find this interesting. :-)

--Arek

[Torin]

I would go Elf/Able learner route to max tumble, discipline, Listen.

Battle Druids need 30 base Dex and more Dex than Wisdom. Making a STR-Uni with a Battle Druid is, IMHO, not the right way because of the needed 30 base DEX.
Edit: The original build here was made before the Storm master spell was implemented.

4 Paladin levels are way better that 4 Fighter levels. Again only my opinioon. I would drop Tougness, Blindfight (Listen is maxed with Elf to beat conceal) Power crit. Lucl + L Luck can be droped with Paladin saves.

[arek]

Torin, going with Paladin/Elf/Able Learner is very much doable....if you're a Demigod. Otherwise, in order to get enough INT to do it, you're going to have to drop STR, and therefore your AB, which is very definitely not a good thing. Even reincarnating from 1x should be enough, since you could, at least in theory, drop 2 STR at creation, which you would get back during leveling by dropping some DEX for it, and keep at least the same AB, and pump CON, INT and maybe CHA.

As for the build being that old, I didn't see the date on the OP, just that there are recent replies to this build. I still hope someone thinks the new build option is interesting.

Edit: I just crunched the numbers, and in order to max tumble/disc/listen as an elf, you're going to need one of blooded/bullheaded AND at least 16 INT. Not only that, but 16 INT means you also have to drop Parry to do it. The only way you can do this pre-demi without nerfing your AB is to start with 8 CON, so I definitely do NOT recommend it.

If you really want to get max'd listen, you can go half-elf instead of Human (drop LoH), drop the fighter levels for paladin levels (lose blind-fight, toughness, and Power Critical to make room for WF/GWF), drop 2 CON for 2 INT, and grab LSA: Listen instead of Legendary Luck. This also gives you an extra 43 skill points to play around with. Putting 'em in Heal probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

--Arek