I have always preferred the druid/shapeshifter wherever available, but unfortunately it is often an afterthought in the game's development. That usually leads to wildshape being completely useless.

I would like to know if this is also the case in Pathfinder. Has anyone gotten a druid up to lvl12+ and tested elemental shapes in combat? is it a powerful tool, or just a gimmick surpassed in every way by other classes?

Shall I skip Druid and roll a classic powerhouse instead like eldritch knight or sorc/paladin?

In the Pen & Paper game, it's considered a powerful class, especially because of wildshape. But I haven't actually played it myself, either in the P&P or this game, so I can't advise beyond that. You could google for a Pathfinder Druid Guide that will give you some advice. The great thing about how close this is to the P&P is that there is 10 years of info out there & a lot of it is valid for the computer game.

Thanks for the tip!

I did have a thorough look as per your recommendation, and it doesn't look good :(

Most of the powerful tools in wildshape comes from things that aren't included in the game. The powerful forms are missing, and elemental shape is useful mostly for things that aren't in the game (flying, scouting etc). The combat abilities are outstripped by other options. Powerful Shape and Planar Shape feats are both missing, which is a significant hit to both versatility and combat power.

I don't know about the spells yet as I'm progressing slowly on unfair difficulty, but perhaps someone else can chime in on that. In particular, Bloody Claws and Animal Growth would be interesting from the standard spell lists.


All in all, wildshape doesn't seem a viable druid build for higher difficulties at this time.

Ah, that's a pity, at least you were able to find some more info.
In general in Pathfinder, any 'full caster' classes aka '9th level casters' are considered very powerful, although they can have it a bit rough in the early levels. So Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, & Druid in the computer game.
From there, the main differences are the spell lists, with wizard considerd the most powerful/ versatile of all. So it may be that the Druid's best strength is the spell list, plus being less squishy than a wizard & better in weapon combat.

I bit the bullet and went with a blight druid built for wildshape combat (power attack line, 15str/14dex/14con/18wis). I'll update the thread as soon as I get some decent experience (playing on hard)

I am still low level with my druid. She is 4th level and I have only used the wild shape once. Being limited to wolf is a bit of a bummer. But as was pointed out, a lot of the things wild shape is good for in PnP aren't in the computer game. No flying, so no aerial scouting. In PnP version of Kingmaker, the party's druid used eagle and owl forms to scout the Stag Lord's fort.

She is able to support the party with spells and in melee. She summons critters as combatants or speed bumps. Her animal companion is a smilodon and kicks butt in combat. I don't think I will be sending her into combat in wolf form very often. Maybe when she gets other forms.

Druids often work out as crowd controll and damage soak casters. Summons to soak damage and distrast enemies and they usuall have some awsome area effect offensive spells not sure about pathfinders version but (call lightning is always fun)
Look at the animal companion stats I assume the wildshape stats are comparable a leaopard or smileodon with barkskin, magic fand.longstrider ets would be a buzzsaw and I know natural spell is in the game

Right now from what I see, wildshape seems underwhelming.

NWN before would have upgraded animal shapes to replace the large/huge size you're supposed to get as a druid later level.

Kingmaker doesn't seem to have that, but get bear/smildon as substitution... I'm not that level yet but you only get a medium animal form at lv8, making me believe larger size of animal forms aren't available. (despite lots of enemies are large animals like the temple bear, even animal companions'd upgrade to larger size)

You cannot wildshape during text encounter, and there are no specific contents made for druid/ranger despite being a natural outdoor campaign. I think even random enemy encounters use perception/stealth skills rather than nature?

Also, wild armor property isn't in the game either I believe.

So wildshape is quite weak I think, an alchemist with beast form may do better than druid as a shifter.

Dunno if rage power- animal fury & lesser beast totem or alchemist's beastmorph discovery would add attacks to animal forms. Wild shape is down right weak they need it.

No idea if another monk + wildshape work either, there were lots of these back then with absurd AC.

Okay, time for initial impressions.

Wolf only so far. Base stats are 16str/14dex/14con.

Going only wolf and no buffing is a bad choice. While I do gain +1 to hit from str, the AC isn't that impressive at 15. The trip attack is nice though. Running on Hard means that most trips fail.

With buffs? Yes. Very much yes.

Throwing on Barkskin for +2AC, Mage armor for +4AC, Cat's Grace for +2 AC, sacred shield for +2AC helps a lot, boosting AC to 24 (-1 for Enlarge Person). This is needed for running around like a cat with mustard up the unmentionables.

Wolf also gets a Trip attack.
Next, boosting that trip. +2 from wolf form, Bull strength for +4, Enlarge Person (base type doesn't change, so Enlarge animal doesn't work but person does). Now strength is at 24 with a +7 mod. The trips work pretty well now. Charge onto a caster and boom he starts going down like a hellevator in Terraria. The usual stuff (Bless, Aid, etc) is also useful.

All that strength also gives me an excellent to hit, more than making up for the 3/4 BAB (or for balancing out Power Attack). Damage is great (18-25), though the lack of sneak attack hurts since I wanted to reach that wildshape early. The lack of an Arcane Trickster for Divine Casters also sucks here. But the damage is comparable to Amiri with 3brb/2rog sneak attacking and the to hit is slightly better.

All in all it works pretty well, though it should be noted that all that battlefield movement requires a decent mobility score. I'm using wolf more than Amiri now for charging and running around on the field.

Other things.
Greater Magic Fang will help further with to hit.
Enlarge Person doesn't actually change the size of the wolf, though the stats are boosted and the reach is improved. The effect will also disappear if used *before* the wildshaping.
It requires several spells to work (mage armor, sacred shield, bull strength and cat grace, Greater Magic Fang, Enlarge Person). Fortunately there are several tiers that suck for divine casting, so it shouldn't be difficult to find the slots. It also requires an arcane caster for some of those.

All in all, it works. I haven't seen the Wild property on any equipment, so I'm guessing it will become less useful later down the line, but at least at lvl4-5 it works. And it's pretty fun to have Miasma as well as a Blight Druid since it actually sees a lot of use this way.

Update:

After two more tiers of wildshape I'm still not sure.

First off, elementals suck. They can be used defensively for the resists, but those situations are few and far between. Combined with a lack of effective druid offensive spells, they are simply underwhelming, and having only slam attacks means that you don't get the benefits of the few druid items that exist.

Now, to the interesting stuff.
Leopard. Nothing interesting, but with cloak of the winter wolf makes for a minor upgrade over the wolf (unless the enemy has DR). The lack of speed boosting also means that skirmishing is no longer useful (though the reliance on non-sneak attack damage is good for a skirmisher). So far this is the weakest I've felt as a shapeshifter as during the Leopard levels the companions are gearing up with +1d6 elemental damage weapons and +2-3 enhancements, something that comes later for a druid since Greater Magic Fang has an embarassing progression. Couple this with Acid Maw only working for the pet, and Thorn Skin (or whatever it's called) only lasting 1round/lvl and the druid starts falling behind. Your best bet is still boosting str and going for Trip attacks as they provoke an AoO for the rest of your team.

What comes next?
Bear, and medium elementals.
As before, elementals are no good. They are just the same as before, but now with slightly higher stats.
Bear on the other hand is quite interesting. The damage is decent with multiple attacks (2x claw and 1xbite). With cloak of the Winter wolf the bite still causes a Trip attempt, and if both claws hit the druid gets a Rend attack for an extra damage boost. The strength also improves which helps with the Trip. With this tier the druid starts working again as a damage dealer, though the AC is still not good enough without a monk level. The high number of attacks and Rend make up for the loss of decent weapons, and the Trip is quite useful for skirmishing casters and archers. Greater Longstrider helps a lot with the speed, and there are no solid options for that spelltier to compete with anyhow.

I would strongly recommend Use Magic Device and Wand of Shield for this setup since it can be hard to get AC up to respectable levels otherwise.

Two tiers remain.