Author Topic: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid  (Read 5403 times)

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Lord_of_Rivendell

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Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« on: March 07, 2010, 01:22:43 AM »
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=733400)0 Level:1st Level:2nd Level:
[spoiler]Acorn of Far Travel (WotC) - A nice spell from the Far Corners of the World (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a), that lets you emulate forested terrain to improve spells such as deadfall, creaking cacophony, fey ring, or splinterbolt. You can also use the acorn as an oak tree for spells like tree stride or transport via plants.

Align Fang (Spell) - Handy for DR problems. It's a third-level spell in MiniHB.

Animalistic Power (PHB2) - Versatility over the animal stat buffs, traded for half the power. It's a style thing; either way is good.

Barkskin - Excellent for use while Wild Shaped, since your AC will often be pretty poor.

Bear's Endurance and Bull's Strength - As useful as it is for everyone. Bear's Endurance will be your main in-combat healing spell for low levels; just keep people alive until you can use Vigor.

Bite of the Wererat (Spell) - A variety of handy stat buffs, plus an additional bite attack for forms that don't have a natural bite.

Blinding Spittle (PGtF/Spell) - Absolutely broken. Blindness with no save, with a ranged touch attack at -4. Why do they keep reprinting this spell?

Blood Snow (Frost) - Only prep it during the winter or when in an arctic or otherwise frozen area, but d2 Con damage/round is awesome.

Bone Talisman (WoTC--Earth Mother's Weapons) - gives a druid a chance to turn undead similar to a cleric or, less interestingly, create a weapon that is particularly harmful to undead. There are some who feel this spell will enable you to get access to Divine Metamagic . . . but that's up to your DM. But turning undead is a big plus on its own. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a

Brambles (CD/Spell) - Excellent weapon buff, especially coupled with Shillelagh.

Briar Web (CDiv) - A handy entangling spell that may also cause damage. (Thanks, Sickseelah1) [

Creeping Cold (CD/Spell) - A great attack spell, and replaces Produce Flame. If you can get away with it, extend it.

Dessicate (Sand) - d6/level (max 5d6) on a single target, with a weird damage type that ignores DR and energy resistance. Can even cause dehydration (which is fatigue on steroids).

Earthbind (Spell) - Ground those fliers.

Embrace the Wild (CAdv/Spell) and Listening Lorecall (CAdv/Spell) - Hopelessly nerfed in Spell Compendium. Unless you really, really need Scent for something, Blindsight is just plain better, save for duration. Embrace the Wild is generally better because of the skill boosts, until you have 12 ranks in Listen, when Listening Lorecall's Blindsight kicks in. Either way, Blindsight is worth it, despite the higher spell level.

Gust of Wind - Very underrated utility spell. Clears fogs, blows away small foes, extinguishes torches, and disperses swarms.

Halo of Sand (Sand) - Yet another druid AC buff. This one is deflection, though, so it stacks with Barkskin and armor.

Kelpstrand (Spell) - I like to think of this spell as webshooters. This spell is excellent for tying down even fairly strong foes (it uses CL plus Wisdom bonus to bolster grapple checks), and remember that you can throw multiple strands on one target. I've found it very effective against tanks and casters alike.

Lesser Restoration - Very handy for healing ability damage.

Luminous Armor (BoED) - An AC boost while you're Wild Shaping, plus light and another -4 for enemies to hit you in melee. Stacks with Barkskin, but not Wilding armor. Mind the Str damage, though.

Master Air (Spell) - Self-only flight, with short duration. Still handy, though.

Nature's Favor (CAdv/Spell) - Excellent (swift!) animal buff spell; cast it on your Animal Companion or summons. Technically better than Greater Magic Fang, but has a shorter duration and doesn't bypass DR. The Complete Divine version is even stronger, but the spell was nerfed in Complete Adventurer.

Resist Energy - Fairly handy when you know a certain type of energy damage is in the offing.

Share Husk (Spell) - A great scouting spell. Use it if Spider Hand isn't available.

Snake's Swiftness, Mass (Spell) - The lower-level, single-target version of this spell isn't anything special, but giving a free attack to all of your party members, plus your animal companion, plus any summons you have nearby is just too fun.

Splinterbolt (Spell) - its the druidic scorching ray, but with no SR (and coupled with a nice high dex animal form, (e.g., Legendary eagle) its nearly as easy to hit with). 4d6 x3 with a 18-20 threat range isn't half bad.

Wild Instincts (RoE) - +1 to spot + listen just for preparing it, swift cast for +10 to both and retain dex when flatfooted or vs unseen opponents for min./level. [/spoiler]
3rd Level:http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-523775).

Vigor and Mass Lesser Vigor (CD/Spell) - Both can be better than Cure Moderate Wounds at low levels, but only outside of combat. It works when you can't summon Unicorns yet and you don't have that handy wand of Cure Light Wounds. Doesn't work with Extend Spell (see CD FAQ), but Mass Lesser Vigor does work with Persistent Spell.

Wind Wall - Another highly underrated spell, this stops archers, swarms, and foes size Tiny or smaller cold.
[/spoiler]
4th Level:5th Level:
[spoiler]Animal Growth - Multiple animals (your pet and any summons running around) get bigger and get some nice bonuses. One of the best buffs in the game, let alone in core.

Anticold Sphere (Spell) - Immunity to cold and great protection from anything with the Cold subtype, with a nice long duration and an area large enough to protect the whole party.

Baleful Polymorph - Turn your opponent into something inoffensive. Toad and cat are both classy forms that offer no advantages to your target. Also handy for transporting oddly-sized Animal Companions or water- or air-breathing Animal Companions Pokemon-style, since, as a permanent spell, it's dispellable. (Classy tricks include polymorphing your Roc Animal Companion into a raven for cramped quarters, or polymorphing your T-Rex companion into a frog to go underwater.)

Bite of the Weretiger (Spell) - A very high str boost, a variety of other boosts, extra attacks, and free Power Attack.

Blizzard (Frost) - Instant battle ender. Great for buying some time to parley or obscuring your plans. Huge area of effect.

Call Avalanche (Frost) While it doesn't cause overwhelming damage (only 8d6), it can bury many opponents in its huge area (size of creatures you can bury scales up as well). It only works outdoors, but it does damage and potential immobilization at long range. For a good trick, follow it up with Blood Snow and all the poor buried victims start taking CON drain while trying futilely to escape.

Call Lightning Storm - Call Lightning, only more so. 5 dice of damage instead of 3.

Choking Sands (Sand) - Miasma, only less so. Alternately, nonpsionic Crisis of Breath. Good for shutting down a caster for a turn.

Cloak of the Sea (CAdv/Spell) - When you're underwater, it's Water Breathing, Freedom of Movement, and Blur, all in one neat little (long-duration!) package. A must-have for any underwater adventures.

Control Winds - Gets you a minimum of hurricane force winds (assuming no wind when you cast it) at Caster Level 13, which covers a 520ft radius, lasts for over 2 hours, and slaughters medium enemies while stopping anything smaller then gargantuan from doing anything useful. And again as soon as you hit 15 its gets even worse, cause you get tornado winds, which will stop anything and destroy cities and non fortified structures.

Death Ward - Powerful, if conditional, defensive buff.

Ice Shield (Frost) - Excellent defensive spell, but its too monetarily expensive to use too often.

Owl's Insight (Spell) - A long-duration scaling boost to Wisdom with an unusual bonus type? Yes please.

Pancaea (Spell) - A broad-based restoration spell, removing pretty much any condition other than ability damage/drain, disease, or death.

Phantom Stag (Spell) - Conjure a very fast mount that it gains a lot of useful additional effects based on caster-level, so that even though its only level 5 its well, it's worth preparing at higher level still, since it, for example, can make you ethereal (as the 9th level cleric sor/wiz spell).

Quill Blast (CD/Spell) - After the Spell Compendium rewrite, this once-broken spell is now not quite as hot. It still outperforms typical blasts for a couple of levels, but by level 9 blasting is probably not the most optimal thing to be doing. It is a really mean spell for a GM to use on the PCs, though.

Rejuvenation Coccoon (CD/Spell) - A decent out-of-combat Heal alternative. Stoneskin - Another excellent defensive spell (Ice Shield is stronger but has a shorter duration), but it's too monetarily expensive to use too often.

Tree Stride - Poor man's Teleport. Saves on overland travel time, but that's about it.

Wall of Thorns - This is a nice battlefield control/stop pursuers/obstruct sight spell, with nice size and a nice duration. Not always useful, but sometimes key. Of course, if you're summoning Greenbound creatures, choose something else. [/spoiler]
6th Level:
[spoiler]Antilife Shell - Exceedingly powerful defensive spell. Anything living without SR just can't touch you. Bite of the Werebear (Spell) - Bite of the Weretiger only more so.

Chasing Perfection (PHB2) - Handy as a self-buff, since it's hard to use magic items in Wild Shape. Won't be terribly useful to the rest of the party at level 13, though.

Drown (Und/Spell) - Save or dying (0 hp). Handy for capturing enemies alive. Not death magic, but obviously doesn't work on non-living creatures, water-breathers, or creatures with no lungs. This has replaced the repeatedly-nerfed Miasma (CD/Spell).

Energy Immunity (Drac/Spell) - Powerful, of a bit situational, defensive buff. Has a long enough duration to have it on all the time.

Enveloping Cocoon (Spell) - This will let you turn the save of any number of nasty spells (Miasma and Baleful Polymorph being the nastiest) into a Reflex save, essentially, or just tie up one enemy that doesn't have a light/natural weapon handy (including incorporeal foes).

Find the Path - Never, ever, EVER be lost. Fire Seeds - Excellent trap spell when used to make holly berry bombs. Couple it with some sort of fire resistance or immunity and you have a killer emanation-from-yourself nuke.

Flames of Purity (CD) / Fires of Purity (Spell) - A hefty melee damage buff, plus Flame Shield lite. Note that, while this spell is three levels higher than Venomfire and only adds one point per caster level instead of d6, it's still a good spell. That's how silly Venomfire is.

Greater Dispel Magic - Unlike mages and clerics, druids very rarely lose caster levels, so this is often a worthwhile spell to prep.

Greater Scrying - Scrying without the long casting time and relatively short duration; the minor spells you can cast through the sensor aren't that useful.

Liveoak - Handy if you need a Treant to guard your camp or home. The casting time and casting limitations limit its general usefulness, though.

Mummify (Sand) - Save or die. Plus, it's not death magic.

Spellstaff - One extra spell slot, of whatever level you can cast. Clerics with Miracle have no reason not to duplicate this very handy spell.

Superior Resistance (Sav/Spell) - +6 on all saves, all day. Its utility is obvious. (Spell Compendium upped the level, but also the duration. It's still worth it, unlike the pounding Major Resistance took.)

Tortoise Shell (CD/Spell) - Basically, Greater Barkskin. Not as good as Greater Luminous Armor, but is natural armor instead of armor.

Transport via Plants - An efficient way to travel until you get Master Earth or Word of Recall.  And take others with you.

Valiant Steed (BoED) - Calls a Unicorn or Pegasus that serves you for an entire year. [/spoiler]
7th Level:
[spoiler]Aura of Vitality (Spell) - You and some friends get +4 to physical stats for rounds/level, a nice bump if you can get it.
 
Constricting Chains (BoED) - Whatever it is, it's entangled and can't move. No save, no SR. Unless it has at least a +20 Escape Artist mod or a 34 Strength, it's staying stuck unless it wears down the chains with attacks (and half of that damage is in turn redirected to the chained target). Mind the Sacrifice cost, though (which doesn't take effect until the spell ends).

Control Weather - Make storms, enhance them, and prepare the context of large scale battle.  Compind with Controll Wind, this could be devastating to approaching armies or the castle you intend to storm.

Cry of Ysgard (BoED) - Calls 2d4 defenders of Ysgard that serve for a year.

Death By Thorns (BoVD) - The Corruption cost is very painful, but this will take the target out of the fight, no matter what. Obviously an evil spell.

Heal - Its uses are obvious.

Master Earth (Spell) - Quite nice as it allows teleportation-like travel, a rarity for druids, without chance of error to any location touching the earth, and also it doesn't have the teleportation descriptor so it can thwart problems such as forbiddance, dimensional anchor/lock, Anticipate Teleport (Spell), etc.

Rain of Roses (BoED) - Continuing Wisdom damage over an area, to evil creatures only. Great if you can limit the target's mobility, as the Wis damage doesn't allow a save. True Seeing - Magic bullet for illusions, invisibility, and shapechanging.

Slime Wave (Spell/CDiv)  You create a spreading wave of green slime that you drop in the midst of your enemies at close range.  An effective, and usually unanticipated surprise.

Word of Balance (Und/Spell) - Somewhat unreliable because of the odd alignment restrictions, but very powerful when it works.
[/spoiler]
8th Level:9th Level:
[spoiler]Nature's Avatar (CD/Spell) - Very, very powerful animal buff, and now a swift spell. Cast it on your Animal Companion, and go to town.

Shapechange - Broken spell, but you already know that. Ridiculously powerful, even if you don't abuse the Chronotyryn (FF) or Choker or Efreeti or Zodar (FF) or...well. You get the idea.

Summon Elemental Monolith (CArc/Spell) - This spell is more of a Spirit Shaman or Sorc/Wiz thing (because of the potential for Spirit Companion or Sonorous Hum or Familiar Concentration spell concentration abuse), but it can be useful for straight druids. The elemental monoliths are ridiculously powerful, especially given the very high save DCs of the whirlwind and vortex abilities of air and water monoliths.

Tsunami (Spell) - The fight is over. This spell will end anyone smaller than Gargantuan who can't immediately get out of the way of the 40-ft-high wave. The spell component is rather expensive, however.

Undermaster (Spell) - Awesome power indeed. This gives you a whole variety of great spell-likes, some of which aren't even on the druid list.
[/spoiler]
*********************************************************
UPDATED AS OF 03/06/10

Thanks and happy gaming, LoR
« Last Edit: March 07, 2010, 08:20:19 PM by Lord_of_Rivendell »

Solo

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2010, 03:00:40 AM »
Hooray.

"I am the Black Mage! I cast the spells that makes the peoples fall down!"

The Legend RPG, which I worked on and encourage you to read.

Anklebite

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2010, 03:08:52 AM »
a great resource; might wanna copy it into the handbook section.
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Negative Zero

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2010, 03:22:58 PM »
Have you looked at the updated version that AMiB posted? It had some pretty good corrections (For example: Greater Call Lightning is not worth it.)

DavidWL

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2010, 04:17:34 PM »
Awesome.  Almost makes me want to play a druid!   (The spell list was always "meh" for me ... but now it is sort of cool).

Best,
David
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Non-PC activities like out of combat healing should be left to wands and NPCs. It's not fun to play a walking wand of CLW. Likewise, being a combat wall is not a viable PC role. A Wall of Force could do that.

-Sort of, but you left out the important note that a Wall of Force does it better.

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I often have to remind people not to underrate divination.  The ability to effectively metagame without actually metagaming beats the ability to set things on fire more times than not.
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Lord_of_Rivendell

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2010, 06:16:32 PM »
Have you looked at the updated version that AMiB posted? It had some pretty good corrections (For example: Greater Call Lightning is not worth it.)

I haven't seen it.  Can you post a link.  I'll update as appropriate.  My goal is for the discussion of solid druid spells to continue.  AMiB did most of the work and all I did was add more too it.  If he's got newer advice, I'd love to see it.    :D  LoR

Negative Zero

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2010, 06:39:31 PM »
Here are the edits to his old list, and here is the revised list he made.

Lord_of_Rivendell

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Re: Revisiting Spells for the Optimized Druid
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2010, 08:12:45 PM »
Here are the edits to his old list, and here is the revised list he made.

I wish I'd seen that before posting.  Looks like I have some work to do.