Guardinal Grovekeeper (Druid 38 / Monk 1 / Bard 1)

[johannhowitzer]

Over a decade ago, new to Higher Ground, the first character I took into the endgame was a tin can build.  Later, when I understood this world better, my real endgame main character became my Druid, Karina.

I played her for years, in both normal and hardcore, went demi, went to places like Elysium and Shuzantuhal.  There were some glaring weaknesses with the build, and as she was a Doppelganger who had undergone the appearance change to a guardinal, I just dealt with the weaknesses and never reincarnated.

Since I recently started a new account for the fun of rebuilding everything from scratch, I find myself revisiting this build.  The weaknesses were lack of Frailty, no Ruin, and low saves, especially Reflex.  Paragon levels also did not exist back then.  What, you may be asking, did I take if I missed out on all this?  Illusion.  I had Veil and bug inflicts.

So, all this said, here is the updated build.  I know Doppelganger is not the ideal race for building a Druid, but I much prefer playing a build I enjoy over one that is slightly more optimized.  Legendary Valor fixes the saves, the most important schools are maxed, wisdom goes as high as an UR race can, and I was able to fit Frailty.  I'm told Ruin has fallen out of favor and was advised to skip it, which is great as I can take the Paragon Necro spell. Wanted double immute, but this build is very tight on feats and I just could not find something to drop for it. Also, as Doppelganger gets a Charisma penalty, Paladin is less useful, and I've always loved having a Bard level, since it's the only way for a Druid to get Greater Sanctuary.


Human, Doppleganger, Lawful Neutral

STR 8 (6)
DEX 14
CON 14 (16)
INT 10
WIS 18 (23)
CHA 8 (6)
All increases WIS

Animal Empathy 63
Concentration 63
Discipline 43
Lore 63
Tumble 40
Use Magic Device 43


1-SF Evocation, Strong Soul (trade for Dauntless)
3-GSF Evocation
6-Silent Spell
9-Empower Spell
12-SF Necromancy
15-GSF Necromancy
18-Spell Penetration
20-Monk, dump Discipline and Tumble

21-ESF Evocation
24-Greater Spell Penetration
25-Epic Spell Penetration
27-ESF Necromancy
29-Great Wisdom 1
30-SF Transmutation
33-GSF Transmutation, ESF Transmutation
36-Great Wisdom 2
37-Great Wisdom 3
39-Great Wisdom 4
Become non-Lawful before this point, preferably Neutral Evil
40-Bard, dump Discipline, Tumble, Use Magic Device

Read an Abjuration book

42-Legendary Spell Penetration
45-LSF Transmutation
48-LSF Necromancy
51-Legendary Valor
54-Great Wisdom 5
57-Great Wisdom 6
60-Great Wisdom 7

63-PSF Transmutation
66-Paragon Spell Penetration
69-PSF Necromancy
72-PSK Necromancy
75-Great Wisdom 8
78-Great Wisdom 9

[simpetar]

Apr 30, 2020 4:36:59 GMT johannhowitzer said:

I've always loved having a Bard level, since it's the only way for a Druid to get Greater Sanctuary.

In low levels perhaps, but since you are planning this build into PLs, I doubt your main area of interest is pre-60 content. Potions of Etherealness are readily available as soon as you start doing Hells and I dare say that their drop rate alone covers creating a reserve for your druid, should things go poorly. After first demi, drop rate becomes non issue, since you can buy them. There are other drops that provide etherealness, starting from the Precious ring (that I know you are familiar with), or Essence of the Last Word later on.
UMD is great, it allows you to equip the dispel immunity helm, if you manage to maintain 65+ after penalties, but depending on what parts of the game you wish to explore with this build, it may never become a relevant piece of equipment. UMD just for scrolls becomes less relevant after demi as well, as you will be able to buy rods.
By splashing 2 classes you are cutting yourself off from using a CL ego and the related bonuses, most notably full power of NB. But then again, depending on where you plan to play, it may not even be a factor
Oh and btw, if you manage to squeeze in at least LSF: Abjuration, your group will love you for bigger fonts. Otherwise you will have to recast and reposition them very often. Fun fact: having a font reliably restore you will often better contribute to your survival than higher saves; the penalties and inflictions just go away.

[johannhowitzer]

This is all great information and I'm glad I posted here and talked to Sabre before building. Right now I'm just waiting to do the appearance change at creation, and coming up with a name I like.

Dropping to one splash moves Monk to 40, which drops saves a little.
Two splash: Fort 67, Reflex 61 (Paladin)
Two splash: Fort 63, Reflex 57 (Bard)
One splash: Fort 62, Reflex 55

I guess this is my main concern going down to one splash, really. Memories of my original druid getting stuck on every arachill web. As for LSF Abjuration, I could either drop two points of wisdom and pick up Epic Reflexes in the process (bringing Reflex to 59), or drop PSF Transmutation.

I plan to go everywhere with this. And I don't have a CL ego, but I did happen to randomly get a Druid DC ego out of one of the first full Desert runs I did. Game is screaming at me to play druid right now, I even have Druid UR light armor and a full Dachy set after only a few runs.


Name ideas...
Original Druid's name: Karina
New: かお理嵐中の雨 (Kaori, Arashi-chuu no Ame = "Kaori, the Rain in the Storm")
or: かお理嵐中の聖獣 (Kaori, Arashi-chuu no Seijuu = "Kaori, the Sacred Beast in the Storm")

[simpetar]

Arachil webs can be gusted by sirocco. In cania you will be spamming it to kill living colds anyways and destroying webs comes as nice side effect. If you are really scared of those webs, Silks of the Arachil from phleg isn't exactly the top pick for most people and there is no shame in wearing it.
Once you are high level enough, you may consider reinc, take monk at 20 and still reach 40 tumble and 41 discipline, courtesy of PLs. Your saves won't suffer that much, but frankly at that point you might have other worries than low reflex
I would advice against dropping any wisdom feats, or PSF trans. It is rare to get a group full of cores and you will need every DC you can muster. In fact Kenku is much better suited for end-game druid than Doppleganger, but if you like to change your looks, dop will have to do

[johannhowitzer]

Reinc is nice, but I would also have to re-do the appearance change. I don't know if Sabre still caps to 3 per account.

Think I will go with one-splash, monk at 40, and not change anything else. Love the idea of maxing out my DC, I think the original build only took like five Great Wisdom feats, and at the time Elemental Swarm was good and I didn't have LSF Conjuration, so I was hitting for rather weak damage. Going to be especially fun with that DC ego, blowing up LLs. >: D

[Deleted]

Drop Necromancy in PLs and take Abjuration to PSK. PSK Abjuration gives Rejuvenation Field, it is a god tier ability and that paired with one Greater Dispel stripping all buffs off enemies raks and other mobs, etc. You'll get more benefit from that in my opinion.

[johannhowitzer]

So should I drop LSF, PSF, and PSK Necromancy for the corresponding feats in Abjuration, or just drop PSK Necromancy and the last two Great Wisdoms? That's a three-feat advancement in Abjuration there.

[Deleted]

I'd drop Legendary Valor for LSF Abjuration, and then flex the PSKs from Necro to Abjuration. If you're worried about the webs, their are items to make you immune. The feat leaves your saves in a still very awful spot and so why invest in something that doesn't get you remotely close to where you need to be anyway?

[woqued]

If you are worried about saves, pal splash and saving the feats is a better bargain - but if you want to go for the sturdy route, that is also an option, though it will be hard to land spells on enemies that require DC.

Luckily, as a Druid, if you have Abjuration + Transmutation you get pretty far even without concerning yourself with DC offense; just Nature's Balance + Fonts (Resto/Truestrike mainly) + epics + other supportive duties (pickup, gusting, storm tower, lesser restoring, mass healing, and so on) goes a long way. But assuming you are on Doppel and assuming you won't get anywhere close to 75/78 for the last two wis feats [in quite some time], landing spells might be hard unless you are paired with good and mindful other players - mostly cleric with solid performance with prayer/bt, but also other sources of save dropping on top of curse.

You will find that fitting all the offense and supportive spells in your book is gonna be tricky though until you get your hands on tia gear and other good stuff.