StormNexus

Building on earaldor's idea (which was inspirational)

Tailoring your Familiar - make them what you want...

Perhaps use some of the 'useless' spells as requirements for making the existing Druid Familiars tougher?

- Each cast of charm animal on the summon adds +1d4 CON (or a fixed amount like +3 or +4)
- Each cast of xxx on the summon adds +1d4 STR (or a fixed amount like +3 or +4)
- Each cast of xxx on the summon adds +1d4 DEX (or a fixed amount like +3 or +4)
- Each cast of awaken adds +3 base AB and increase the damage to it's weapons by a dice. e.g 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 2d6, 2d8, 2d10, 2d12. (maybe divine damage). 7 Castings would just about empty the druid of this spell but give the familiar +21AB and +2d8 divine damage on hit.
- Each cast of xxx adds a point or two of DR (up to some maximum level)
- Casting xxx hastes the summon for 24 hours
- Each Cast of xxx adds +2-4 to the fort/will and reflex save
- Each cast of xxx improves the familiars AC by a certain amount

Druid can either max out spellcasting on their pets and have little left for themselves or come to some balance where the familiar is useful but the druid has some ability to cast other spells.

Suddenly familiars would be useful.

Familiar choice would be important.

Maybe Skills could be improved too, maybe making a casting of xxx multiply skill levels by 1.2 (and allow it to be cumulative) e.g Familiar has 50 hide. 1st cast gives it 60, second cast 72, third cast 86, 4th cast 103, 5th cast 123.

It's an idea that will take a lot of coding though.
Thoughts?

Currently Druid familiars are : Badger, Wolf, Brown Bear, Boar, Hawk, Panther, Giant Spider, Dire Wolf, and Dire Rat.

I like the pet buffs idea but it'd also be nice if pets would upgrade on their properties (kinda like the PM skin changes on here)

example
maybe at druid caster level 10/20/30/40 the familiars can get some DR/ab/ac/stats/saves/skill increase and then only tweak a few of the druid spells.... that may (or may not?) lessen the script work needed?

Although I too would like to see some of the spells changed in damages fire/pos/mag etc. And maybe the range on a few too? i think quillfire or healing sting is practically a touch attack range

I'm liking what I'm seeing/reading. While we're on the subject, the familliar wouldn't be subject to the word of faith or dismissal spell though right? Since it's technically not a summoned critter it's truly one that follows the druid around?

Although, I've not really see the 'make the summon go away' spells work much against gate/big red or green lately anyway. I assume it's a DC save they easily make.

Cool idea with the summons. And should not be dispelled by cleric word of faith. But what about dispelled? Would a mage be able to remove some of the buffs, thus somewhat countering the power of the creature? Do we want that?

Also, it would make sense that the basic creature would be more powerful the higher the druid level. Kinda like now. I don't know about druids, but as a mage goes up in level their familiar gets stronger.. more HP, etc. Should be same with the druid. Thus a mixed class druid/cleric wouldn't have as tough a creature as a pure druid. They could still buff it up and make it tougher, but it would not be as tough as the pure druids.

On a related note, a mage can summon big red and a familiar. Will the druids do the same? That might be, umm... wow.

Don't forget animal empathy a hippo too.

Druid = The master of beasts

Sounds good no?

Heck yeah. I like the idea of druids being beast masters. Nice niche for em.

Here's a wacky idea that be neat...

How about if casting 1-4 spells in succession (up to staff really)- maybe just 'awaken' . That a druid would then summon his/her familiar in a transformed state - like the giant polar bears the old carror giants used to have.

Here's the catch!
*It could be faction based like the 'gate' summon with different types of bears replacing the familiar.

*Saves should be at whatever setting the "Gate" summons are changing to.

*Huge ab/hp/ but damage lesser than epic mummy dust however. +6 (15-30 dmgx2) claws with magic/slash/ enter random damage here - not keened, perhaps improved crit claw (if needed from testing!) ((details really...)

*It lasts a set amount of time. Perhaps as long as the awaken spell or whatever needed to 'activate' it lasts. -Any spell casting would?/should? unsummon it, kinda like the 'black blade of disaster' the mages get.

*Familiar would need a 30min cooldown before morphing back into bear to stop spam resting/morphing for uber bear power

Hey sorry this might be off topic but was the lightning wand meant to enhance call lightning for the druid? Because that could also be a cool change that could be added to the list of things to improve the druid.

I like the new summon idea too.

The lightning wand DOES improve call lightning.
It adds the caster level (druid) to the damage, after meta magic feats have been applied.

Hey Saiph thanks for the quick reply just one last question, does it work with old lightning wands (ones that where around before the druid changes where brought in) or only on newer lightning wands?

thanks again!

Based on what I know of how the wands work with the other spells, I am confident that they will work regardless of which vintage your wand is. The script for the spell checks to see if you have a particular item equipped, in this case the lightning wand, and then does its thing if it sees one.

The spell looks for a particular item name (the code name of the item) and if it's found then the extra code will be applied.
The old / new wands are the same name, so it won't matter which one you have.

Druids are the path to shifters, shifters are the path to... a variety of shapes Is there any way to change these shapes to reflect alliances? This would allow some flexibility for druid/shifter builds - right now some of the shapes are prohibited by some of the alliances - not a "play what you want" scenario

Am I off topic?