Requesting a kenku druid build viable for endgame.

[xakila]

Hi new player to HG and casters in general (in nwn usually play melee).

Just hit 34 on my dryadkin druid and noticed I was folliwing a way old byild guide so want to reincarnate at 40 once I unlock kenku. Anyone have a kenku based build guide viable for current high levels to share? I know 1 level of monk and will be reincarnating in to it at 40.planning on bard 1 at 40 unless umd isn't needed as much.

Want to go ahead and reinc at 40 to reduce the cooldown timer in case i get a bur book within a month, so the build has yo be good for the next month at least.

Being a newb I'm looking for a farming capable build with solo and group play in mind. I know ill need SF in trans and going the abj route to take advantage of kenku, after that looking for experty advice on 3rd(maybe 4th? Which sf to take and which to book?) Focus. Doesn't have to be a full guide just what to focus on feat/skill wise in the current environment building up with no post 40 eq.

Or if any of the current guides out there and still up to date with all the changes which should I pay the most attention to. Thanks. Xak

[Deleted]

I made the following modifying a build from Poliwhirl. The original can be found here: highergroundpoa.proboards.com/thread/24848/newbie-druid-september-2016. It has lots of useful information including Open -> UR -> BUR progression. My own personal opinions are that Conjuration is very weak and you benefit MUCH more from Abjuration foci and this build mainly adjusts that. Given that Kenku has Abjuration it naturally works toward that anyway.


The starting stats I haven't been able to test as I can't access my client from work. But the feats are solid.


Kenku (Human Base)
[38 Druid/1 Paladin/1 Monk]
Neutral Good <- some alignment changes on the way

Human Base Stats:

STR 8

DEX 14

CON 10

WIS 18

INT 13

CHA 8

--> Kenku
STR 7

DEX 14

CON 10

WIS 22

INT 12

CHA 10

Skills @ 60:
Craft Armor 63
Concentration 63
Discipline 43 (Monk/Paladin sink)
Lore 63
Parry 63
Tumble 43 (Monk sink)
-> Spare skillpoints at Levels 41+ can go into anything you want - Spellcraft is cool just to see what everyone else is casting. Heal is another option.

Leveling Order:
1-19 Druid
20 Paladin [Discipline sink]
31-39 Druid
40 Monk [Discipline/Tumble sink]

--- Pre-Epic Feats
1 – Spell Penetration
1 - Spell Focus: Evocation
3 - Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration
6 - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
9 - Spell Focus: Transmutation
12 - Greater Spell Focus: Trasmutation
15 - Metamagic: Empower Spell
18 - Metamagic: Extend Spell

--- Epic Feats
21 - Epic Spell Focus: Abjuration
24 - Epic Spell Focus: Transmutation
24 - Epic Spell Focus: Evocation [Druid Bonus Feat]
27 - Great Wisdom 1
28 - Great Wisdom 2 [Druid Bonus Feat]
30 - Greater Spell Penetration
33 - Epic Spell Penetration [Druid Bonus Feat]
33 - Great Wisdom 3
36 - Great Wisdom 4
37 - Great Wisdom 5 [Druid Bonus Feat]
39 - Great Wisdom 6

Wondrous Tome: Necromancy (Free ESF: Necromancy)

--- Legendary Feats
42 - Legendary Spell Penetration
45 - Legendary Spell Focus: Transmutation
48 - Legendary Spell Focus: Abjuration
51 – Legendary Spell Focus: Necromancy
54 - Great Wisdom 7
57 - Great Wisdom 8
60 - Great Wisdom 9

Artifact: Pyramid Energy (Wisdom)

--- Paragon Feats
63 - Paragon Spell Focus: Abjuration
66 - Paragon Spell Knowledge: Abjuration
69 - Paragon Spell Focus: Transmutation
72 - Great Wisdom 10
75 - Paragon Spell Focus: Necromancy
78 - Paragon Spell Knowledge: Necromancy / Paragon Spell Penetration

[magecat]

If I'm nae mistaken, don't you need to flip the GSF at L1 and the SF at L3 because you don't get the freebie until first log?

[xakila]

So heal is not really needed cept the area healing spells which may not see too much use? And animal empathy besides creeping doom is just for the (admittedly fun) pet? Also are the saves on this build enough once you factor in the paladin bonus? Build I was going by before was using dauntless and whatever the legendary step up is.

Thanks for the build

[Deleted]

Heal is useful versus undead in some of the abyss areas where "Heal" are / can be used as an offensive spell. I don't bother with more than a single rank of Animal Empathy for the pet. Why not? Saves will be fine, especially with Paladin. Follow the build as posted and win.

[xakila]

Cool thanks not knowing the high level areas saves were a concern seeing all the builds that sacrifice to fit in save feats. In general is it safe to say all geared up 60 is the safe spot for all saves? Guess i should look for posts about what saves to shoot for and what stat levels are needed for high level area checks.

[xakila]

Oh and meant heal skill not heal spell, seeing heal skill affects mass cure spells and healing circle. Am familiar already with mass heal as an offensive tool.

[simpetar]

Healing spells for the purposes of keeping your party alive are slightly devalued by existence of healing beaker (that everybody in your group will probably have). There absolutely are situations where you might want to spam healing spells (white slaads etc.), but you will more than likely default to Mass Heal that does not scale with the skill. Your fonts, especially Font of Purification, and later on Rejuvenation Field (PSK abjuration) will contribute to your group survival lot more than spamming Mass Cure X.

Using Mass Heal as offensive tool against undead is definitely an option, but AoE healing spells vs. undead allow reflex and/or will saves. Keep in mind this build does not (and rightly so) feature any conjuration focus past what you get from gear, so your DC will be very low. Sunburst will serve you better in most situations, or you can simply leave killing undead to arcanes and clerics with UtD.

This all being said, if you have leftover skill points and nowhere better to put them, go for it. The good news is that druids sport high wisdom, do you don't need to overcommit.

[Deleted]

Saves for casters come from their gear, or their class combination. Casters generally, especially BUR+ ignore all save feats and go for spell foci. The paladin splash here gives you what you need. You will drop it at BUR tier.

[xakila]

*Edit*

What does a druid lose by going from 39 druid to 37 druid? I know 2 spell pen, and (unless you have druid ego) minor loss in soak amount), but is there anything else I am missing? Seems they get all their bonus feats still and most druid spells I looked at were based on druid/5 or maybe druid /4... so Spell pen is the thing I notice most.

[xakila]

I guess I should ask since Spell resist is my main concern, how many monsters that a druid needs to use DC spells on have ridiculous spell resist?

[Paradoom]

When it comes to Spellpen, think of it that way: what good is my spell, if the target doesnt even have to make a dc check, cause my spell bounces off?

While a druid has the ability (and a MUST do in high level LL runs) to lower the SR of monsters, it is still wise to push it as high as possible. For Hell and Abyss you might forgo the paragon SP. and be happy. But the LL Spellpen, esp. since you will be splashing 2 off classes, is a must have for you. Past that alot of gear is needed and you want to push your DCs as much as possible with it.

While alot of monsters can and will be dealt with by your party members, you must be able to contribute or take over sometimes. Higher tier monsters have quite some boost to their spell resistance and you dont wanna struggle on that. DC will and should be your main concern, and yes, pre demi it will be a struggle!

One of the prime targets in hell are the kocrachons. Those can only be instant killed with drowns and higher tiers only stoned and crumble to death for an instant kill.
Antswarms (abyss critter in zion) can only be drowned for instant kills.
You can greatly help on gusting fume based monsters too.


Pre-Bur:
Amulet - Wavecaller's Necklet (Locatha set loot drop)
Drown immune (Waterbreathing)
+1 DC for level 6 and under for Druid Spells.
Where a light armor and shield.
Armor - Hide of Adoril Arcanscape - Level 50 light druid amor.

Bur:
Amulet - Penadant of the Seer +2 lvl 9 slots; +1 DC for level 6 and under Druid/Cleric spells
Robes - Wrap of Raphael - 2x lvl 7/8/9 Slots; +1 DC for level 6 and under Druid/Cleric spells
Gloves - Dreams of the Poisoned Forest (Abyss set loot drop from shedaklah) - Lots of slots lvl 4 to 7 - GSF Necro and +1 DC on defioliate
Off-hand - Confluence of Silvanus (aboleths set loot drop) - +1 Slot through level 1 to 9; +1 SP for druid spells, +50% Natures Balance radius

Alternatives:
Before demi and with light armor and shield combination:
Armor - Glory of Toril (Malad set drop) - lots of slots through 4 to 9; Flesh to Stone immunity; 50% and 50 absolute electrical immunity/resitance
Also a great piece for rushing through the desert

Some Hints:
The Gloves and the Off-Hand is gear you typically want to go for after you hit double demi and enter the mentioned areas. Especially using the torch requires experience but is simply BIS. You drop alot of defence in comparison to light armor + shield, hence the recommendation to use it after double demi.

Ego item (yeah the dream item you want )
Silvanus - Druid DC-Ego

[woqued]

Key spells that roll vs SP often vs targets with sr/high sr: Drown, Infestation of Maggots, Poison, Slay Living, Finger of Death, Stoning spells, almost every relevant damaging spell if you use them. For a super utility character designed for later areas you might intentionally drop Spellpen in favour of a niche specialist type character that uses instakilling/damage only against monsters without SR, but dropping levels seems quite counterproductive.

If you want to splash more levels into something else, might as well run with a weapon instead of a staff and splash a couple more. If you're feeling extra bad about it but still want to caster druid and ease into it a bit, just use a Visor of Vigilance as a countermeasure - but honestly, druiding just comes with a learning curve with defensive casting => queue 1-3 spells or as many as you need, and interrupting the following casts before wasting spells to avoid being flatfooted. Learning it is better than intentionally gimping your character build-wise. While you're picking it up, you can put some non-instant lvl 1 spells in your book to use as "filler" casts if you're low on spells and take your time figuring out; click yourself to a place you wanna end up in, press defensive casting (this should be bound to your best button for ease of access) while moving to that location (just before reaching it and queueing spells), queue the actually wanted spells you want to cast, queue the filler lvl 1 spells (or beaker potions, but this causes Attacks of Oppourtunity) to fill up the bar and avoid flatfoot/AoO, after the main spell you wanted to cast is through, interrupt the following queue by moving you to another location and do the same trick again.

On any caster, 1 or 2 points of SP or DC in a D20 system designed for "near capped out characters for that content in a group environment" is crucial, zuper big.

[xakila]

nods, playing on an older PC that gets jumpy sometimes and hard to keep track of the chaos... and reallly missing uncanny dodge I've always used on other mods for ac toons.

Finding it hard to do the click to move and que defensive casting on runs that aren't in more open spaces in higher runs.Keep finding myself either getting stuck on monsters hit-boxes or clicking on party members, so I usally hold down mouse button to move and find myself rubber banding a lot... finding myself casting NB a bit backwards from where I mean it to go off so missing entirely. It's the clicking where I want to end up that's the hard part when things are running around or we're in a group huddle situation, and getting to the back parts of spawns etc. Maybe I have to get better at zig zagging and then doing surgical strikes. And yes drooling over the torch.

I guess I should look at the compendiums for different areas and get a feel for monsters sr values, I find it hard to keep track of anything in the spam so don't notice what's being resisted and what things are just immune to. Current build has paly splash so sitting at 38 druid as is, and I know 2 extra spell pen from 39 druid (as opposed to 37 druid 2 barb 1 monk) will be good in 3 months or so when I can reincarnate but not dieing 3 times a spawn could be good too, burning up all those possoms! Just wondering how much of a gimp it is at 80 with a good set of eq.

Was just musing, and wondering as druid with NB how much that 2 spell pen mattered (especially noticing assay resistance in the spellbook). Have usually played tanks in nwn (or battle cleric types) so being relatively squishy is new to me.

[magecat]

Just in case you aren't aware, you can move using the WASD cluster. It isn't as precise, but, since it doesn't have the potential to click on something, sometimes it is the better choice.