Druid Archetypes Breakdown – Pathfinder

Introduction

The Druid is one of the most powerful and versatile classes in the game. Betweentheir excellent mix of offensive/support/utility spells, their animal companion,and Wild Shape, the Druid can do basically everything but open locks anddisable traps. Unfortunately, many of the Druid archetypes are very similar.Reading this guide from start to finish might be nearly as boring and repetetiveas it was to write.

Disclaimer

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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.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Archetypes

Ape Shaman

Apes are an interesting option, but the Ape Shaman doesn’t give you anyoptions which are particularly good.

Nature Bond: Apes are a decent animalcompanion, and their human-like anatomy makes them very versatile. If youdon’t want an ape for some reason, you have a few good choices for domains.

Animal: I assume that you must still takean ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’sno big loss.
Community (Family subdomain)
Destruction (Rage subdomain)
Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Not the besttotem transformation, but you get a few decent options.

Totemic Summons (Su): Apes are on SummonIII, and Dire Apes are on Summon IV, so you have a very limited range ofsummons.

Wild Shape (Su): You can turn into a DireApe immediately. Because you have human-like anatomy, you may be able to useweapons and cast spells with no verbal components. However, the Dire Ape isthe best option available to you at any level.

Bonus Feat: Nothing good here. Toughness isthe 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.

Wild Empathy (Ex): Aqua Man would beproud.

Aquatic Adaptation (Ex): How many games haveyou played that took place in “aquatic terrain”?

Natural Swimmer (Ex): Kind of Mandatory,but if you are playing an underwater game you probably already have a swimspeed.

Resist Ocean’s Fury (Ex): Water subschoolspells are very rare, but the bonus to resist aquatic creatures is nice ifyou’re always underwater.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Seaborn (Ex): Now you can live underwater,if you couldn’t already for some reason.

Deep Diver (Ex): Extremely situational.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, VenomImmunity, 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.

Arctic Native (Ex): If your campaign takesplace in an arctic climate, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Icewalking (Ex): Useful in the snowsometimes.

Arctic Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements isa first level spell with an hours/level duration. Dazzled is the leastannoying status condition in the game.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Snowcaster (Su): The ability to change firespells to cold damage is great for a Druid; many of the Druid’s direct damagespells deal fire damage. The ability to switch to cold damage is very helpfulfor overcoming resistances.

Flurry Form (Ex): Gaseous form is a thirdlevel 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, VenomImmunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Bat Shaman

Bats aren’t big combatant, and this archetype makes that apparent. Insteadof trying to be a wild-shaping combat monster, fly around on your batcasting spells and using ranged weapons. Use blindsight to locateinvisible enemies for your party. If you are in melee, you have messedup.

Nature Bond: The Bat isn’t even listed asan 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 blindsightand you can ride it while flying. The domain list is pretty great, too.

Air
Animal: I assume that you must still takean ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’sno big loss.
Darkness (Night subdomain)
Trickery (Deception subdomain)

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Flightand blindsight!

Totemic Summons (Su): The Dire Bat is theonly bat on the summon list, and it’s not a very good summon.

Wild Shape (Su): Aside from the flight (whichyou can already do), and the blindsight (which you can already do), there isno reason to transform into a bat.

Bonus Feat: With the exception of ImprovedInitiative, 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 Transformationis a really cool, flavorful ability, and I love the versatility ofsummoning bears at almost any spell level. However, the limitations on NatureBond and the weakened version of Wild Shape really bring the archetype down.

Nature Bond: Thebear isn’t a great choice for animalcompanion, and the domain selection is small and doesn’t contain a lot of goodoptions.

Animal: I assume that you must stilltake a bear if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain’soverall power.
Earth
Protection
Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): This is a reallycool buff with three unique and interesting versions. If you are built forWild Shape, the natural weapons version can be a great way to get into meleebefore 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 nicebecause you don’t need to plan your bonus before combat starts to save yourstandard actions.

Totemic Summons (Su): Way better than AThousand Faces. Bears aren’t great animal companions, but summioning them is apretty good choice for Summon Natures ally. Naturally you might think “but ifbears are bad animal companions, why are they good summons?” Animal Companionsdon’t get stats matching their original animal. The Bear in particular hasdecent stats to start with, but falls off very quickly compared to otherchoices. Summoned bears are full size bears with all of their strength anddamage and generally awesome bear-ness, and you can enhance them to run thefull range up to Summon VIII.

Wild Shape (Su): Unfortauntely, there areonly four bears that you can transform into: Black Bears (Medium; Beast ShapeI), Grizzly Bears, Polar Bears, and Dire Bears (All Large: Beast Shape II). Atlevel 6 you can Wild Shape as a level 8 Druid if you Wild Shape into a bear. Alevel 8 druid can Wild Shape as Beast Shape II, so you can be a Dire Bearright from level 6. While it’s certainly nice to get Beast Shape II a levelahead of Wizards, the Bear isn’t a very good option for Wild Shape because itdoesn’t get any special abilities, and its damage isn’t good enough to offsetthe lack of Trip or Pounce. Losing two levels from your other Wild Shapeoptions also hurts.

Bonus Feat: A short list of fairly boringpassive feats. I would take toughness, Great Fortitude, then Improved GreatFortitude. 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 bitstrange, but Miasma and Plaguebearer could make for an excellentdefender. Without acces to an Animal Companion, the Blight Druid needs tobe more self reliant, and more dependant on spell in combat.

Nature Bond (Ex): While not as useful incombat as an Animal Companion,Familiars make excellent scouts andassistants. The Darkness,Death, andDestruction domains are nice additions to theexisting Druid domain list.

Vermin Empathy (Su): I’m not sure whyanyone would ever want to be friends with vermin, but that’s more of apersonal problem. The ability to calm vermin and undead animals itsituational, but very interesting.

Miasma (Ex): Sickened and Nauseated areexcellent status conditions, and debuffing anyone unfortunate enough to standnext to you is very helpful.

Blightblooded (Ex): Not as good asimmunity to poison, but nice to have.

Plaguebearer (Su): Blinding Sickness.Blinding Sickness every time. This is a fantastic deterrant to anythingfoolish enough to touch you.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Resist Nature’s Lure, TracklessStep, 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, andthe abilities provided by the archetype are very weak compared to otheranimal shamans.

Nature Bond: Boars are some of the worstanimal companions, but your domain list is pretty good.

Animal: I assume that you must still takean ape if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it’sno big loss.
Destruction (Rage)
Protection
Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Some decentoptions, but nothing really amazing.

Totemic Summons (Su): Boar and Dire Boarcome on Summon III and Summon IV, respectively, which leaves you with very fewsummon options as you level.

Wild Shape (Su): You can Wild Shape into aDire Baor immediately, but it’s a very poor option compared to other WildShape options.

Bonus Feat: All of the options are bad.

Cave Druid

Unless your GM makes special allowances to cater to your skillset, theCave Druid is only mediocre even while underground. Most of thereplacement abilities are even more situational than the abilities whichthey replace.

Cavesense (Ex): Knowledge (Dungeoneering) ismiles better than Knowledge (Geography).

Nature Bond: TheDarkness domain is decent, and the Air andWeather domains are fairly bad.

Wild Empathy (Ex): Very situational, and Idon’t know if oozes are generally intelligent enough to have a“disposition”.

Tunnelrunner (Ex): Very situational.

Lightfoot (Ex): Very situational, butbetter than Trackless Step.

Resist Subterranean Corruption (Ex): Verysituational.

Wild Shape (Su): Plant Form is garbageanyway, 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.

Desert Native (Ex): If your campaign takesplace in a desert climate, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Sandwalker (Ex): Helpful in sandyenvironments.

Desert Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements isa first level spell with an hours/level duration. Food and Water are hard tolocate in a desert, so the ability to go extended periods without them isexcellent.

Wild Shape (Su): Plant form is awful, butyou may be able to find some useful vermin forms.

Shaded Vision (Ex): Immunity to blindnessis nice considering how debilitating it is. Resistance to gazes and visualillusions is situational.

Dunemeld (Ex): Gaseous form is a thirdlevel 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, VenomImmunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Dragon Shaman

Unfortunately, Dinosaurs aren’t classified as lizards in real-worldtaxonomy. Technically, neither are crocodiles, which makes this archetypevery confusing. What qualifies as a “lizard” is totally unclear. Takingreal-world taxonomy as the official answer means that this wholearchetypes depends on roughly 5 animals, the most powerful of which isthe crocodile. Unsurprisingly, building an archetype around a single CR 2creature doesn’t work very well.

Nature Bond: The crocodile is a solidoptions for your animal companion, but the monitor lizard is terrible. TheDragon Shaman gets a much longer list of potential domains than other animalshamans, but it’s not any better.

Air
Animal: I assume that you must still takea lizard if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility,but the crocodile is still a decent choice.
Destruction
Earth
Fire
War
Water

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Several excellentoptions, especially the flight option.

Totemic Summons (Su): The only lizards on theSummon Nature’s Ally list are the Crocodile and the Monitor Lizard.

Wild Shape (Su): There are only a handful oflizards which you can wild shape into, and most are among the weakest forms ateach stage of the ability.

Dragon Bite (Su): More damage is excellent,and you can change the damage type every time you bite. Applying when you areWild Shaped is absolutely fantastic.

Bonus Feat: Nothing really fantastichere.

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 scaryin combat, so turning yourself into one generally doesn’t do you anygood. However, the Totem Transformation can get you some easy flightwhile you fly around summoning piles of angry birds.

Nature Bond: Thebird is a very poor animal companion, andchoice of domains really sucks.

Air
Animal: I assume that you must stilltake a bird if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain’soverall power.
Nobility
Weather

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): While the otheroptions are poor, the flight option is fantastic.

Totemic Summons (Su): You can summon eaglesfrom 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 Rocscome into play at Summon VI, and you can stretch Rocs all the way up to SummonIX, which few other animal shaman archetypes can say. You have a few emptysummon levels in the middle, but you can summon multiples of lower-levelsummons to summon a bunch of enhanced eagles.

Wild Shape (Su): This would be good if youcould actually Wild Shape into a Roc. Regretably, you can’t, and the Eagle isa poor Wild Shape choice.

Bonus Feat: None of the feats areparticularly good. Flyby attack is amusing, but because you can’t Wild Shapeinto anything that flys and does decent damage, you won’t get much use out ofit.

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 lessinteresting abilities to get the Hunter’s Animal Focus ability.Unfortunately, Animal Focus is considerably less powerful than NatureBond, so this archetype makes the Druid actively worse.

Animal Focus (Su): This is nowhere near asgood as an Animal Companion. The buffs are nice, especially if you like to useWild 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.

Second Animal Focus (Su): Doubles theeffectiveness 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.

Jungle Guardian (Ex): If your campaigntakes place in a jungle environment, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Woodland Stride (Ex): Very important fortraversing thick jungles, but not very exciting.

Torrid Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements isa first level spell with an hours/level duration. The bonus against diseasesis very strong, but the resistance against animals’ abilities is verysituational.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Verdant Sentinel (Ex): How often do you needto be an immobile tree?

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, WildShape, Woodland Stride

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Lion Shaman

Lions are pretty great. They’re strong, they’re fast, and they get both Pounceand Rake. Now apply that to a Druid. Overall, the Lion Shaman is a greatoption for Druids who like cats.

Nature Bond:Lions are excellent animal companions, andyour choice of domains has some good options.

Animal: I assume that you must still takea lion if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility,but the lion is still a solid choice.
Glory
Nobility
Sun

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): All three of theoptions are useful.

Totemic Summons (Su): Felines have a muchbigger range of summon levels than bears. The Dire Tiger is Summon VI beforetemplates, and a Giant Advanced Dire Tiger is goes all the way up to SummonVIII, where it is plenty scary. Imagine a tiger the size of an elephantpouncing on things. Beautiful.

Wild Shape (Su): The best feline form youcan get is the Dire Tiger, which you get at level 6. This might sounddisappointing, but you start with Pounce, and you get to use Rake at level 7,two levels ahead of the rest of the world.

Bonus Feat: Dodge and Lunge are solidchoices for polymorphing, but your will saves should be fantastic without IronWill.

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-relatedabilities. Each of the abilities is interesting and useful, but there isnothing here that you absolutely need to have. If you like the idea of avery spiritual druid, this archetype has a fantastic flavor without appreciablychanging the power level of the druid.

Spirit Sense (Sp): Though somewhatsituational, this is surprisingly versatile. Also, the description is full ofunnecesary semicolonds.

Mooncaller

The mooncaller has some interesting flavor and some interesting abilities, butit lacks anything that you absolutely need to have. Pick this archetype forthe flavor, not for the stats.

Night Sight (Ex): Any improvement to yoursight is a huge benefit.

Resist Call of the Wild (Ex): Situational,and the effects are uncommon, but the bonus is big.

Purity of Body (Ex): Not as good asimmunity to poison, but still nice to have.

Wolfsbane (Su): DR is fantastic, and veryfew 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 verylittle from the archetype’s abilities that you could not get fromexistring Druid spells or abilities.

Mountaineer (Ex): If your campaign takesplace in a mountainous environment, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Sure-Footed (Ex): Very situational, but itmakes sense for a mountain druid.

Spire Walker (Ex): Even if you live in themountains, you generally shouldn’t be spending a lot of time fighting whileclimbing.

Wild Shape (Su): Plant Shape is bad, butGiant Form isn’t really any better. Losing two levels of Wild Shape hurts abit, but it’s not clippling.

Mountain Stance (Ex): Being petrified willreally ruin your day, but forced movement is rarely a problem.

Mountain Stone (Ex): Like Tree Shape forgeologists.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, WildShape, Woodland Stride, Venom Immunity

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Nature Fang

The Nature Fang is a confusing concept. It combines some features of the Slayerwith the Druid’s spellcasting, but manages to not be a Ranger. For some reasonNature 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, especiallyconsidering the Nature Fang gives up Wild Shape.

Studied Target (Ex): You can only maintainone studied target, but this is otherwise the same as the Slayer’s version. Idon’t think that you can apply the DC boost to your spells because StudiedTarget specifies “Slayer Class Abilities”, and makes no mention of spells.

Slayer Talent: Slayer Talents offer a lot ofvery interesting options, including access to Ranger Combat Styles.

Sneak Attack (Ex): Wow. 1d6 SneakAttack.

Swift Studied Target: Studied Target worksgreat 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. Splittingyour animal companion levels is completely debilitating. Fortunately,this usage is optional. Instead, take this archetype for the ImprovedEmpathing Link ability if you don’t plan to use Wild Shape a ton of timesin a day.

Pack Bond (Ex): Splitting your animalcompanion levels is a hugely dangerous prospect. Doing so dramatically effectsyour companions’ hit points, AC, and their ability to hit and deal damage. Ifyou split your levels evenly, you may find that having even two companionsmakes them completely useless.

Improved Empathic Link (Su): This isfantastic for scouting. If you have a companion smart or obedient enough tofollow complex directions, you can send them in ahead of you to look fordanger.

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, ReincarnatedDruid, World Walker

Plains Druid

Finally an ecosystem-based druid archetype that can travel. The abilitiesare all well themed to the plains, and may even function best whilethere, but the abilities are still useful outside of your nativeenvironment.

Plains Traveler (Ex): If your campaigntakes place in an open plain, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Run Like the Wind (Ex): Permanent speedbonuses are fantastic on any character.

Savanna Ambush (Ex): Very interesting, butbecause Druids are not really stealth characters, this won’t get you a lotunless you work to bring it into play. The ability specifies “naturalsurroundings”, so you can use it even outside of your native environment.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Canny Charger (Ex): Turning during a chargeis very useful, and charging through your allies solves a lot of problems forcharacters who need to charge to reach their targets. THe toehr bonuses aresituational, but they don’t hurt to have.

Evasion (Ex): A bit late in the game, butEvasion is fantastic at any level.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, VenomImmunity, Wild Shape, Woodland Stride

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Reincarnated Druid

The Reincarnated Druid is hard to kill. That in many ways is enough tojustify the archetype. However, the abilities don’t really provide anythingactive that you can do, so they may be somewhat boring on the table.

Mysterious Stranger (Ex): This abilitymakes sense in terms of flavor, but it’s not very useful.

Resist Death’s Touch (Ex): Death effectswill ruin your day, and a +4 bonus to saves against them is absolutelyfantastic.

Many Lives (Ex): If you’re careful, thismakes death much less scary. However, the random nature of the Reincarnationtable makes it very hard to predict what you will be when you come back.Because chanhing races only affects your physical abilities, you may findyourself with a weird hodge-podge of racial abilities, and potentially muchbetter stats than you had before you died.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is stillgreat, but losing two levels limits its utility.

Cheat Death (Ex): Fantastic, especially ontop of your +4 bonus against these effects.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon (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 bunchof scary dinosaurs abnormally fast, and you can Wild Shape into dinosaursbetter than anyone else.

Nature Bond: Many of the very best animalcompanions are dinosaurs. Oh, and you have some okay domain options Isuppose.

Animal: I assume that you must still takea dinosaur if you take the Animal domain, but you probably wanted to do thatanyway.
Destruction
Strength
War

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): All of theoptions are good, though perhaps not as good as other animal shamanarchetypes.

Totemic Summons (Su): Reptiles anddinosaurs, but I’m being redundant. Dinosaurs run the whole range of summonlevels, and the ability to add templates to bring their summon level up ordown can allow you to bring a tactically relevant dinosaur into any fight atany level. Because dinosaurs are so much more diverse than the animals allowedto other animal shamans, this ability is considerably better.

Wild Shape (Su): Unfortunately Dinosaursaren’t the best option for polymorphing because most dinosaurs are too largefor Beast Shape to allow. Still, deinonychus is a solid option, and you getPounce early.

Bonus Feat: Nothing really fantastichere.

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 littlegoing for it.

Nature Bond: While the viper is very weak,the constrictor snake is a good choice for an animal companion. Your choice ofdomains is also among the best of the animal shaman archetypes.

Animal: I assume that you must still takea sname if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility,but the constrictor snake is still a decent choice.
Charm
Trickery
Water

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): All of theoptions are great. The poison is very tempting, but unless you dump a lot ofresources into your constitution, the DC will be fairly low.

Totemic Summons (Su): There are only twosnakes on the Summon Nature’s Ally list. A Giant Advanced Constrictor Snake ispretty scary, but you run out of options at Summon Monster V.

Wild Shape (Su): Snakes are among the worstoptions for polymorphing.

Bonus Feat: None of the feints do anythinguseful 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 verygood statistically compared to other available options like Orcas.

Nature Bond: Even underwater, there are muchbetter animal companion options than sharks, and your domain choices arepoor.

Animal: I assume that you must still takea shark if you take the Animal domain, and the shark just isn’t verygood.
Death
War
Water

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Surprisinglygood options.

Totemic Summons (Su): Your options run outvery quickly at very low levels, and adding rays to your summon list isn’tvery helpful.

Wild Shape (Su): Sharks are not a great formto take, even underwater.

Bonus Feat: With the exception of improvedinitiative, 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 Weatherdomains are terrible makes this archetype a non-starter.

Spontaneous Domain Casting: This would begreat if your available list of domains were better.

Nature Bond (Ex): You list of domains isawful.

Air
Weather
Cloud
Storm
Wind

Windwalker (Ex): Extremely situational.

Stormvoice (Ex): Extremely situational.

Eyes of the Storm (Ex): Extremelysituational, but useful if you really like the Fog Cloud spell.

Windlord: Your choice of domains is stillterrible, but adding a second domain dramatically improves the usefulness ofyour spontaneous casting.

Storm Lord (Ex): Extremely situational.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Nature Bond, Resist Nature’s Lure, SpontaneousCasting, 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 interestingabilities which continue to be useful outside of a swamp.

Marshwight (Ex): If your campaign takesplace in a swamp environment, this shoots right up toblue. The bonuses are fantastic and apply toInitiative and some very crucial skills.

Swamp Strider (Ex): Very situational.

Pond Scum (Ex): Monstrous Humanoids are ahuge group of monsters, and many of them have very powerful and very annoyingabilities. Swarms are annoying at any level, and being able to stand in themwithout taking damage is awesome.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Slippery (Ex): Fantastic buff. Great forescaping grapples, squeezing into or out of tight spaces, etc.

Replaced Features: A Thousand Faces, Resist Nature’s Lure, Trackless Step, WildShape, Woodland Stride

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Urban Druid

The Urban Druid is an interesting concept. In a lot of ways it’s like a Clericwith the Druid spell list and no metal armor. The abilities aren’t awful,though giving up the option of an animal companion hurts.

Spontaneous Casting: Summon Nature’s Allyisn’t very good compared to Summon Monster, but the ability to cast domainspells can be really great if you pick an interesting domain.

Nature Bond (Ex): Animal Companions arefantastic, but some of the domains are very appealing.

Charm
Community
Knowledge
Nobility
Protection
Repose
Rune
Weather

Lorekeeper (Ex): Several decent knowledgeskills, and a free +2 bonus to all of the new class skills. Diplomacy is kindof hard to justify because Druids want basically every ability exceptCharisma.

Resist Temptation (Ex): Situational, but a+2 on saves against enchantments is pretty great considering how scaryenchantment spells are.

A Thousand Faces (Su): This is much moreuseful for an Urban Druid, but it’s still situational..

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic,but getting it fours levels late hurts a lot.

Mental Strength (Ex): Immune to DominatePerson. 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 nearlyenough of it for it to be useful.

Inspiration (Ex): Inspiration is a reallygreat ability, and the free bonuses to skills are nice, but Druids typicallydon’t need Intelligence, so your Inspiration pool is going to be small.

Wild Shape (Ex): Not being able to takethe 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, soyou’re not missing much.

Natural Expertise (Ex): Very situational, andnot very good when it applies.

Investigator Talent: One. You get oneInvestigator 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 enoughto redeem an otherwise non-functional archetype. Wolves are very low CR,and there are very few stronger canines. Higher level canines are generallylinear improvements on dogs and wolves, so you don’t get any abilitiesbetter than Trip as you level. While Trip is certainly useful, you generrallydon’y play a Druid to play a Trup master.

Nature Bond: The Wolf is a decent choice ofanimal companion, and your choice of domains is devent.

Animal: I assume that you must still takea wolf if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility,but the wolf is still a decent choice.
Community
Liberation
Travel

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition tothe normal Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Lots of fantasticoptions here. The natural bite with Trip is particularly fantastic.

Totemic Summons (Su): The highest levelcanine on the Summon Nature’s Ally list is Dire Wolf at Summmon IV. By addingthe giant and advanced templates, you can get a pretty scary Dire Wolf onSummon VI.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild shaping into a wolfor a dog really doesn’t get you anything that Totem Transformation doesn’talready get you. Your best options are Dire Wolf and Winter Wolf, which arepassable, but not fantastic.

Bonus Feat: The Trip feats are nicecombined with Totem Transformation, but the other feats will be hard to use ona 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 archetypeis Favored Terrain, which is terrible and boring.

Favored Terrain (Ex): Favored Terrain is alousy, 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.

Path of Trees (Su): Good long-distancetravel ability.

Replaced Features: Resist Nature’s Lure, Timeless Body, Trackless Step,Venom Immunity

Compatible Archetypes: Pack Lord

Druid Archetypes Breakdown – Pathfinder – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Disclaimer

Archetypes