Introduction
The Druid is one of the most powerful and versatile classes in the game. Between their excellent mix of offensive/support/utility spells, their animal companion, and Wild Shape, the Druid can do basically everything but open locks and disable traps. Unfortunately, many of the Druid archetypes are very similar. Reading this guide from start to finish might be nearly as boring and repetetive as it was to write.
Disclaimer
We support a limited subset of Pathfinder’s rules content. If you would like help with Pathfinder options not covered here, please email me and I may be able to provide additional assistance.
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Archetypes
Ape Shaman
Apes are an interesting option, but the Ape Shaman doesn’t give you any options which are particularly good.
: Apes are a decent animal companion, and their human-like anatomy makes them very versatile. If you don’t want an ape for some reason, you have a few good choices for domains.
- : I assume that you must still take an ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’s no big loss.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Not the best totem transformation, but you get a few decent options.
(Su): Apes are on Summon III, and Dire Apes are on Summon IV, so you have a very limited range of summons.
(Su): You can turn into a Dire Ape immediately. Because you have human-like anatomy, you may be able to use weapons and cast spells with no verbal components. However, the Dire Ape is the best option available to you at any level.
: Nothing good here. Toughness is the best option, which should indicate just how bad this list is.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Aquatic Druid
Unless you’re playing underwater, this archetype is useless.
(Ex): Aqua Man would be proud.
(Ex): How many games have you played that took place in “aquatic terrain”?
(Ex): Kind of Mandatory, but if you are playing an underwater game you probably already have a swim speed.
(Ex): Water subschool spells are very rare, but the bonus to resist aquatic creatures is nice if you’re always underwater.
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.
(Ex): Now you can live underwater, if you couldn’t already for some reason.
(Ex): Extremely situational.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Arctic Druid
As you would expect, the Arctic Druid is most effective in arctic
environments. If you are playing a campaign which doesn’t take place mostly
in
an arctic readion, skip the arctic druid.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in an arctic climate, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Useful in the snow sometimes.
(Ex): Endure Elements is a first level spell with an hours/level duration. Dazzled is the least annoying status condition in the game.
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.
(Su): The ability to change fire spells to cold damage is great for a Druid; many of the Druid’s direct damage spells deal fire damage. The ability to switch to cold damage is very helpful for overcoming resistances.
(Ex): Gaseous form is a third level spell, so it’s a bit disappointing to get this at such high level. However, it is still a useful escape/infiltration mechanism.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Bat Shaman
Bats aren’t big combatant, and this archetype makes that apparent. Instead of trying to be a wild-shaping combat monster, fly around on your bat casting spells and using ranged weapons. Use blindsight to locate invisible enemies for your party. If you are in melee, you have messed up.
: The Bat isn’t even listed as an animal companion on the SRD. I would assume the Dire Bat is acceptable, which is good because the Dire Bat is a really cool option. It gets blindsight and you can ride it while flying. The domain list is pretty great, too.
- : I assume that you must still take an ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’s no big loss.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Flight and blindsight!
(Su): The Dire Bat is the only bat on the summon list, and it’s not a very good summon.
(Su): Aside from the flight (which you can already do), and the blindsight (which you can already do), there is no reason to transform into a bat.
: With the exception of Improved Initiative, there is very little here worth taking.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Bear Shaman
The Bear Shaman is very close to being good, but falls a bit short. Totem Transformation is a really cool, flavorful ability, and I love the versatility of summoning bears at almost any spell level. However, the limitations on Nature Bond and the weakened version of Wild Shape really bring the archetype down.
: The isn’t a great choice for animal companion, and the domain selection is small and doesn’t contain a lot of good options.
- : I assume that you must still take a bear if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain’s overall power.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): This is a really cool buff with three unique and interesting versions. If you are built for Wild Shape, the natural weapons version can be a great way to get into melee before you get Wild Shape. The rest of the time, toughness is a solid option. The ability to activate the bonus with smaller actions at high levels is nice because you don’t need to plan your bonus before combat starts to save your standard actions.
(Su): Way better than A Thousand Faces. Bears aren’t great animal companions, but summioning them is a pretty good choice for Summon Natures ally. Naturally you might think “but if bears are bad animal companions, why are they good summons?” Animal Companions don’t get stats matching their original animal. The Bear in particular has decent stats to start with, but falls off very quickly compared to other choices. Summoned bears are full size bears with all of their strength and damage and generally awesome bear-ness, and you can enhance them to run the full range up to Summon VIII.
(Su): Unfortauntely, there are only four bears that you can transform into: Black Bears (Medium; Beast Shape I), Grizzly Bears, Polar Bears, and Dire Bears (All Large: Beast Shape II). At level 6 you can Wild Shape as a level 8 Druid if you Wild Shape into a bear. A level 8 druid can Wild Shape as Beast Shape II, so you can be a Dire Bear right from level 6. While it’s certainly nice to get Beast Shape II a level ahead of Wizards, the Bear isn’t a very good option for Wild Shape because it doesn’t get any special abilities, and its damage isn’t good enough to offset the lack of Trip or Pounce. Losing two levels from your other Wild Shape options also hurts.
: A short list of fairly boring passive feats. I would take toughness, Great Fortitude, then Improved Great Fortitude. There really isn’t. Diehard and Endurance just aren’t very good.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Blight Druid
The Blight Druid is a really cool concept. The abilities are a bit strange, but Miasma and Plaguebearer could make for an excellent defender. Without acces to an Animal Companion, the Blight Druid needs to be more self reliant, and more dependant on spell in combat.
(Ex): While not as useful in combat as an Animal Companion, make excellent scouts and assistants. The , , and domains are nice additions to the existing Druid domain list.
(Su): I’m not sure why anyone would ever want to be friends with vermin, but that’s more of a personal problem. The ability to calm vermin and undead animals it situational, but very interesting.
(Ex): Sickened and Nauseated are excellent status conditions, and debuffing anyone unfortunate enough to stand next to you is very helpful.
(Ex): Not as good as immunity to poison, but nice to have.
(Su): Blinding Sickness. Blinding Sickness every time. This is a fantastic deterrant to anything foolish enough to touch you.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy
Compatible Archetypes: None
Boar Shaman
The Boar Shaman is perhaps the worst of the animal shaman archetypes. Board are weak both as animal companions and as a Wild Shape choice, and the abilities provided by the archetype are very weak compared to other animal shamans.
: Boars are some of the worst animal companions, but your domain list is pretty good.
- : I assume that you must still take an ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’s no big loss.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Some decent options, but nothing really amazing.
(Su): Boar and Dire Boar come on Summon III and Summon IV, respectively, which leaves you with very few summon options as you level.
(Su): You can Wild Shape into a Dire Baor immediately, but it’s a very poor option compared to other Wild Shape options.
: All of the options are bad.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Cave Druid
Unless your GM makes special allowances to cater to your skillset, the Cave Druid is only mediocre even while underground. Most of the replacement abilities are even more situational than the abilities which they replace.
(Ex): Knowledge (Dungeoneering) is miles better than Knowledge (Geography).
: The domain is decent, and the Air and Weather domains are fairly bad.
(Ex): Very situational, and I don’t know if oozes are generally intelligent enough to have a “disposition”.
(Ex): Very situational.
(Ex): Very situational, but better than Trackless Step.
(Ex): Very situational.
(Su): Plant Form is garbage anyway, and turning into an ooze could be very useful.
Replaced Features: Nature Bond, Nature Sense, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: None
Desert Druid
Potentially very useful in a desert, but otherwise not very good.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in a desert climate, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Helpful in sandy environments.
(Ex): Endure Elements is a first level spell with an hours/level duration. Food and Water are hard to locate in a desert, so the ability to go extended periods without them is excellent.
(Su): Plant form is awful, but you may be able to find some useful vermin forms.
(Ex): Immunity to blindness is nice considering how debilitating it is. Resistance to gazes and visual illusions is situational.
(Ex): Gaseous form is a third level spell, so it’s a bit disappointing to get this at such high level. However, it is still a useful escape/infiltration mechanism.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Dragon Shaman
Unfortunately, Dinosaurs aren’t classified as lizards in real-world taxonomy. Technically, neither are crocodiles, which makes this archetype very confusing. What qualifies as a “lizard” is totally unclear. Taking real-world taxonomy as the official answer means that this whole archetypes depends on roughly 5 animals, the most powerful of which is the crocodile. Unsurprisingly, building an archetype around a single CR 2 creature doesn’t work very well.
: The crocodile is a solid options for your animal companion, but the monitor lizard is terrible. The Dragon Shaman gets a much longer list of potential domains than other animal shamans, but it’s not any better.
- : I assume that you must still take a lizard if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the crocodile is still a decent choice.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Several excellent options, especially the flight option.
(Su): The only lizards on the Summon Nature’s Ally list are the Crocodile and the Monitor Lizard.
(Su): There are only a handful of lizards which you can wild shape into, and most are among the weakest forms at each stage of the ability.
(Su): More damage is excellent, and you can change the damage type every time you bite. Applying when you are Wild Shaped is absolutely fantastic.
: Nothing really fantastic here.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Eagle Shaman
The Eagle shaman is a cool flavor with garbage stats. Eagles aren’t scary in combat, so turning yourself into one generally doesn’t do you any good. However, the Totem Transformation can get you some easy flight while you fly around summoning piles of angry birds.
: The is a very poor animal companion, and choice of domains really sucks.
- : I assume that you must still take a bird if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain’s overall power.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): While the other options are poor, the flight option is fantastic.
(Su): You can summon eagles from Summon I-III, and a Giant Advanced Eagle might be a decent flying summon. Giant Eagles aren’t actually on the summon list for some reason. Young Rocs come into play at Summon VI, and you can stretch Rocs all the way up to Summon IX, which few other animal shaman archetypes can say. You have a few empty summon levels in the middle, but you can summon multiples of lower-level summons to summon a bunch of enhanced eagles.
(Su): This would be good if you could actually Wild Shape into a Roc. Regretably, you can’t, and the Eagle is a poor Wild Shape choice.
: None of the feats are particularly good. Flyby attack is amusing, but because you can’t Wild Shape into anything that flys and does decent damage, you won’t get much use out of it.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Feral Shifter
Feral Shifter gives up Nature Bond and a few of the Druid’s less interesting abilities to get the Hunter’s Animal Focus ability. Unfortunately, Animal Focus is considerably less powerful than Nature Bond, so this archetype makes the Druid actively worse.
(Su): This is nowhere near as good as an Animal Companion. The buffs are nice, especially if you like to use Wild Shape, but the minutes per level duration won’t get you through the day, and Druid has plenty of spells which provide the same buffs.
(Su): Doubles the effectiveness of Animal Focus, but doesn’t fix the duration problem.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Timeless Body, Venom Immunity
Compatible Archetypes: Wild Whisperer
Jungle Druid
Even in its native domain, the Jungle druid is lackluster at best.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in a jungle environment, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Very important for traversing thick jungles, but not very exciting.
(Ex): Endure Elements is a first level spell with an hours/level duration. The bonus against diseases is very strong, but the resistance against animals’ abilities is very situational.
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.
(Ex): How often do you need to be an immobile tree?
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Lion Shaman
Lions are pretty great. They’re strong, they’re fast, and they get both Pounce and Rake. Now apply that to a Druid. Overall, the Lion Shaman is a great option for Druids who like cats.
: are excellent animal companions, and your choice of domains has some good options.
- : I assume that you must still take a lion if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the lion is still a solid choice.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): All three of the options are useful.
(Su): Felines have a much bigger range of summon levels than bears. The Dire Tiger is Summon VI before templates, and a Giant Advanced Dire Tiger is goes all the way up to Summon VIII, where it is plenty scary. Imagine a tiger the size of an elephant pouncing on things. Beautiful.
(Su): The best feline form you can get is the Dire Tiger, which you get at level 6. This might sound disappointing, but you start with Pounce, and you get to use Rake at level 7, two levels ahead of the rest of the world.
: Dodge and Lunge are solid choices for polymorphing, but your will saves should be fantastic without Iron Will.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Menhir Savant
Stonehenge, the archetype. This is an interesting grab bag of vageuly spirit-related abilities. Each of the abilities is interesting and useful, but there is nothing here that you absolutely need to have. If you like the idea of a very spiritual druid, this archetype has a fantastic flavor without appreciably changing the power level of the druid.
(Sp): Though somewhat situational, this is surprisingly versatile. Also, the description is full of unnecesary semicolonds.
(Su): Boost your caster lever for free a few times per day. This isn’t going to hugely boost your effectiveness, but it’s extra duration on buffs or damage on your direct damage spells when you need it.
(Su): Excellent teleportation effect. You can go basically anywhere in the world several times per day for free.
(Su): Very useful both defensively and for infiltration or escape.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Sense, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Mooncaller
The mooncaller has some interesting flavor and some interesting abilities, but it lacks anything that you absolutely need to have. Pick this archetype for the flavor, not for the stats.
(Ex): Any improvement to your sight is a huge benefit.
(Ex): Situational, and the effects are uncommon, but the bonus is big.
(Ex): Not as good as immunity to poison, but still nice to have.
(Su): DR is fantastic, and very few things can bypass DR/silver.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Venom Immunity, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Mountain Druid
Even in the mountains, the Mountain Druid is lackluster. You gain very little from the archetype’s abilities that you could not get from existring Druid spells or abilities.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in a mountainous environment, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Very situational, but it makes sense for a mountain druid.
(Ex): Even if you live in the mountains, you generally shouldn’t be spending a lot of time fighting while climbing.
(Su): Plant Shape is bad, but Giant Form isn’t really any better. Losing two levels of Wild Shape hurts a bit, but it’s not clippling.
(Ex): Being petrified will really ruin your day, but forced movement is rarely a problem.
(Ex): Like Tree Shape for geologists.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride, Venom Immunity
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Nature Fang
The Nature Fang is a confusing concept. It combines some features of the Slayer with the Druid’s spellcasting, but manages to not be a Ranger. For some reason Nature Fang gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack, but no more than that. As a concept, Nature Fang would make a lot more sense as a Ranger archetype. As it stands, Druids don’t really have a good way to make use of Studied Target, especially considering the Nature Fang gives up Wild Shape.
(Ex): You can only maintain one studied target, but this is otherwise the same as the Slayer’s version. I don’t think that you can apply the DC boost to your spells because Studied Target specifies “Slayer Class Abilities”, and makes no mention of spells.
: Slayer Talents offer a lot of very interesting options, including access to Ranger Combat Styles.
(Ex): Wow. 1d6 Sneak Attack.
: Studied Target works great as a Swift Action.
Replaced Features: Nature Sense, Nature’s Lore, Venom Immunity, Woodland Stride, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Pack Lord
While an amusing concept, the Pack Lord doesn’t work mathematically. Splitting your animal companion levels is completely debilitating. Fortunately, this usage is optional. Instead, take this archetype for the Improved Empathing Link ability if you don’t plan to use Wild Shape a ton of times in a day.
(Ex): Splitting your animal companion levels is a hugely dangerous prospect. Doing so dramatically effects your companions’ hit points, AC, and their ability to hit and deal damage. If you split your levels evenly, you may find that having even two companions makes them completely useless.
(Su): This is fantastic for scouting. If you have a companion smart or obedient enough to follow complex directions, you can send them in ahead of you to look for danger.
Replaced Features: Nature Bond, Wild Shape Uses Per Day (6th level)
Compatible Archetypes: Aquatic Druid, Arctic Druid, Desert Druid, Jungle Druid, Menhir Savant, Mooncaller, Mountain Druid, Plains Druid, Swamp Druid, Reincarnated Druid, World Walker
Plains Druid
Finally an ecosystem-based druid archetype that can travel. The abilities are all well themed to the plains, and may even function best while there, but the abilities are still useful outside of your native environment.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in an open plain, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Permanent speed bonuses are fantastic on any character.
(Ex): Very interesting, but because Druids are not really stealth characters, this won’t get you a lot unless you work to bring it into play. The ability specifies “natural surroundings”, so you can use it even outside of your native environment.
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.
(Ex): Turning during a charge is very useful, and charging through your allies solves a lot of problems for characters who need to charge to reach their targets. THe toehr bonuses are situational, but they don’t hurt to have.
(Ex): A bit late in the game, but Evasion is fantastic at any level.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Reincarnated Druid
The Reincarnated Druid is hard to kill. That in many ways is enough to justify the archetype. However, the abilities don’t really provide anything active that you can do, so they may be somewhat boring on the table.
(Ex): This ability makes sense in terms of flavor, but it’s not very useful.
(Ex): Death effects will ruin your day, and a +4 bonus to saves against them is absolutely fantastic.
(Ex): If you’re careful, this makes death much less scary. However, the random nature of the Reincarnation table makes it very hard to predict what you will be when you come back. Because chanhing races only affects your physical abilities, you may find yourself with a weird hodge-podge of racial abilities, and potentially much better stats than you had before you died.
(Su): Wild Shape is still great, but losing two levels limits its utility.
(Ex): Fantastic, especially on top of your +4 bonus against these effects.
(Ex): Weird, but maybe a little more useful for a Druid than a Monk.
Replaced Features: Resist Nature’s Lure, Timeless Body, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Saurian Shaman
Dinosaurs are awesome, so this archetype is pretty great. You can summon a bunch of scary dinosaurs abnormally fast, and you can Wild Shape into dinosaurs better than anyone else.
: Many of the very best animal companions are dinosaurs. Oh, and you have some okay domain options I suppose.
- : I assume that you must still take a dinosaur if you take the Animal domain, but you probably wanted to do that anyway.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): All of the options are good, though perhaps not as good as other animal shaman archetypes.
(Su): Reptiles and dinosaurs, but I’m being redundant. Dinosaurs run the whole range of summon levels, and the ability to add templates to bring their summon level up or down can allow you to bring a tactically relevant dinosaur into any fight at any level. Because dinosaurs are so much more diverse than the animals allowed to other animal shamans, this ability is considerably better.
(Su): Unfortunately Dinosaurs aren’t the best option for polymorphing because most dinosaurs are too large for Beast Shape to allow. Still, deinonychus is a solid option, and you get Pounce early.
: Nothing really fantastic here.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Serpent Shaman
Aside from Totemic Transformation, the Serpent Shaman has very little going for it.
: While the viper is very weak, the constrictor snake is a good choice for an animal companion. Your choice of domains is also among the best of the animal shaman archetypes.
- : I assume that you must still take a sname if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the constrictor snake is still a decent choice.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): All of the options are great. The poison is very tempting, but unless you dump a lot of resources into your constitution, the DC will be fairly low.
(Su): There are only two snakes on the Summon Nature’s Ally list. A Giant Advanced Constrictor Snake is pretty scary, but you run out of options at Summon Monster V.
(Su): Snakes are among the worst options for polymorphing.
: None of the feints do anything useful for you.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Shark Shaman
Even underwater, this isn’t a great archetype. Sharks just aren’t very good statistically compared to other available options like Orcas.
: Even underwater, there are much better animal companion options than sharks, and your domain choices are poor.
- : I assume that you must still take a shark if you take the Animal domain, and the shark just isn’t very good.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Surprisingly good options.
(Su): Your options run out very quickly at very low levels, and adding rays to your summon list isn’t very helpful.
(Su): Sharks are not a great form to take, even underwater.
: With the exception of improved initiative, there isn’t anything fantastic here.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
Storm Druid
The Storm Druid is a cool concept, but the simple fact that the Air and Weather domains are terrible makes this archetype a non-starter.
: This would be great if your available list of domains were better.
(Ex): You list of domains is awful.
(Ex): Extremely situational.
(Ex): Extremely situational.
(Ex): Extremely situational, but useful if you really like the Fog Cloud spell.
: Your choice of domains is still terrible, but adding a second domain dramatically improves the usefulness of your spontaneous casting.
(Ex): Extremely situational.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Resist Nature’s Lure, Spontaneous Casting, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: None
Swamp Druid
The Swamp Druid isn’t quite as good as the Plains Druid, but it has some interesting abilities which continue to be useful outside of a swamp.
(Ex): If your campaign takes place in a swamp environment, this shoots right up to . The bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.
(Ex): Very situational.
(Ex): Monstrous Humanoids are a huge group of monsters, and many of them have very powerful and very annoying abilities. Swarms are annoying at any level, and being able to stand in them without taking damage is awesome.
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.
(Ex): Fantastic buff. Great for escaping grapples, squeezing into or out of tight spaces, etc.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
Urban Druid
The Urban Druid is an interesting concept. In a lot of ways it’s like a Cleric with the Druid spell list and no metal armor. The abilities aren’t awful, though giving up the option of an animal companion hurts.
: Summon Nature’s Ally isn’t very good compared to Summon Monster, but the ability to cast domain spells can be really great if you pick an interesting domain.
(Ex): Animal Companions are fantastic, but some of the domains are very appealing.
(Ex): Several decent knowledge skills, and a free +2 bonus to all of the new class skills. Diplomacy is kind of hard to justify because Druids want basically every ability except Charisma.
(Ex): Situational, but a +2 on saves against enchantments is pretty great considering how scary enchantment spells are.
(Su): This is much more useful for an Urban Druid, but it’s still situational..
(Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting it fours levels late hurts a lot.
(Ex): Immune to Dominate Person. Fantastic on any character at any level.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Spontaneous Casting, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: None
Wild Whisperer
Inspiration is a fantastic mechanic, but the Wild Whisperer doesn’t get nearly enough of it for it to be useful.
(Ex): Inspiration is a really great ability, and the free bonuses to skills are nice, but Druids typically don’t need Intelligence, so your Inspiration pool is going to be small.
(Ex): Not being able to take the form of a plant or elemental somewhat limits the utility of Wild Shape, but Plant Shape and Elemental Body are two of the worst polymorph spells, so you’re not missing much.
(Ex): Very situational, and not very good when it applies.
: One. You get one Investigator talent. Choose wisely.
Replaced Features: Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride
Compatible Archetypes: Feral Shifter
Wolf Shaman
The Wolf Shaman’s totem tranformation is one of the best, but that isn’t enough to redeem an otherwise non-functional archetype. Wolves are very low CR, and there are very few stronger canines. Higher level canines are generally linear improvements on dogs and wolves, so you don’t get any abilities better than Trip as you level. While Trip is certainly useful, you generrally don’y play a Druid to play a Trup master.
: The Wolf is a decent choice of animal companion, and your choice of domains is devent.
- : I assume that you must still take a wolf if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the wolf is still a decent choice.
(Ex): This is in addition to the normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.
(Su): Lots of fantastic options here. The natural bite with Trip is particularly fantastic.
(Su): The highest level canine on the Summon Nature’s Ally list is Dire Wolf at Summmon IV. By adding the giant and advanced templates, you can get a pretty scary Dire Wolf on Summon VI.
(Su): Wild shaping into a wolf or a dog really doesn’t get you anything that Totem Transformation doesn’t already get you. Your best options are Dire Wolf and Winter Wolf, which are passable, but not fantastic.
: The Trip feats are nice combined with Totem Transformation, but the other feats will be hard to use on a Druid.
Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Venom Immunity, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape
Compatible Archetypes: None
World Walker
Because Druids can cast Tree Stride already, the biggest draw of this archetype is Favored Terrain, which is terrible and boring.
(Ex): Favored Terrain is a lousy, boring ability. “This ability replaces …reduce nature’s lore”. Yes, it certainly does.
At 3rd level, the world walker gains the ranger’s favored terrain ability.
(Su): Good long-distance travel ability.
Replaced Features: Resist Nature’s Lure, Timeless Body, Trackless Step, Venom Immunity
Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord
