Kingmaker Build SOS: Defender of the True World Druid

I got an email from someone requesting help with a build, and I thought I'd upload it to the channel for everyone to see. Be sure to comment with your own SOS or consider email or Patreon to get priority treatment!
Special thanks to Obius for requesting the build.
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[@JustDaZack]

After having spent roughly 3 hrs in the character creation without any decisive result I finally ended up here and decided to go with your build. Being completely overwhelmed in the creation menu gave me nostalgia playing Baldur's Gate as a kid - and the first hours playing this game, as well. Thank you for this well made video. :)

[@definitelynotadam]

This is great. Pathfinder is rather overwhelming to someone who has little knowledge of the system.

[@KingOfMadCows]

Animal Domain is great because it gives you extra spells and you get an animal companion at level 4. With the Boon Companion feat, the animal companion will be just as good as the regular one. So you're basically giving up one feat for 9 spells. Also, animal companions with 1 attack do get iterative attacks once their BAB gets high enough. So a wolf will get up to 3 attacks. And they get 1.5x damage from their strength.

[@darkfireslide]

Do they? I know how it works in PnP but in game I have heard that iterative attacks don't work for animal companions.

[@CarloTheCurious]

You can manually change back from wild shape.

[@Xandaran]

I actually JUST made a second run with this as my mains build. I got it dang nab nearly the same as this one. I am glad I was not too far off with my first custom build on here. It is sure fun to play as a front line druid with animal bros.

[@Elthenar]

How is a leopard more of a tracker than a Smilodon? If you want a tracker animal, the dog is the clear choice. Mechanically, there is one reason to take something other than a Smilodon and that is AC. the Smilodon is on the lower end of AC. That said, take it anyway. The way the Smilidon scales with buffs is stupendous and as a druid, you already bring the buffs. If you don't want a cat, take a bear. Also, you don't need strength at all. If you use the named companions, you really benefit from playing a tank char. You can build a brick wall tank druid and dump strength. Stay with Plumekith Aasimar and go 18 dex 18 wis. Bump up int and cha to wherever you need for skills and put the rest in con. The lower levels will be a bit rough if you go 8 strength until you get some levels but it's not so bad. Take weapon finesse as your first feat and you're good to go. Start the game, equip the best armor and shield you can find and a finesse-able weapon and move out. You should be very hard to hit and your pet will mow things down. As you level, take a single monk level for the AC and take Crane Wing as your bonus feat. Then you can leave Defensive Fighting on all the time. Eventually, you will get an Amulet of Agile Fists, which lets you add dex to damage instead of str with finesse weapons. About that time, you will get Wild Shape and you can take Leopard form. At this point, it's game on. Your natural attacks in Wild Shape are finesse weapons, so now you add that dex to all of them. You'll never do elite damage with this build, but your Smilidon will so it more than carries it's weight. As I leveled, I built as a melee. I stacked dex over wis and took front line melee feats like Outflank, Seize the Moment and Shatter Defenses. You don't really need to get your wisdom extremely high and you don't need spell casting feats (except Natural Spell, which is absolutely mandatory), because you won't need to beat the saves of the monsters, you are here for the buffs and they are strong. If you have another party member with an Animal Companion, this gets really silly. Say you have Ekun's dog. You then throw Barkskin, Bone fists, Animal Growth, Strong jaw, stat buffs and Greater Magic Fang on both pets. That Smilodon starts hitting like Amiri and the Huge dog starts reliably tripping everything. For good measure, you throw Communal Delay Poison, Mass Feather Step, Death Ward and Legendary Proportions around as needed. Throw Seamantle on yourself and keep the rest of your spots for utility like Restoration or remove disease, blindness, heal whatever. Bring in Jubilost to throw Shield on your druid and watch as things need nat 20's to hit you. By the time I was 15, my Touch AC was over 50 too. You have solid Fort and Will saves too, making it hard to land the really bad spells on you. There is nothing funnier than watching my druid crit something and then seeing it take 2 or 3 60 point whacks from my melee frontline.

[@brooksington4696]

Great video, couple small points to make though. Superior summoning only works when summoning more than 1 of a creature type, you should be pretty much always rolling the 1d3 creature type with that feat. Outflank and to a lesser degree precise strike are better imo than most combat maneuvers, as the best status effect is dead, and they help all of your melee more readily inflict that status. Melee Druid is incredibly good in this game, but it does take about 6 levels to really come online.

[@tangledfish]

Just to add to this, the Defender archetype is restricted in their spontaneous conversion. They can't summon fey creatures, and most of the multiple summons are fey so most levels they can only spontaneously summon a single creature.

[@OckertvdW]

Build request: I want to make a good gish: which is better : magus or eldritch knight? What would be a good EK build?

[@adonaigabriel]

Hey! Could you make a 2-Hander Paladin build please? I'm building one and I'm currently level 9 and using a Falchion, but I'm not sure if I'm building correctly.

[@cdgammer]

Nice video, thought i want your opinion on a Magus (Eldritch Scion)/DD (Dragon Disciple) or Magus (Scion)/Eldritch Knight. Plus would Defender of the True World Druid and Monk work well together, even thought your in wild shape almost all the time.

[@Domjot5569]

Nice!

[@MosCraciun777]

I'm currently playing on hard, just finished the season of bloom, I know I still have a long way to go but after I finish the game on hard I want to make a 2nd playthrough on unfair so my request is for you to make the best possible tank in the game, one that will handle it on unfair.

[@esumiwa5583]

When I try to follow this build..in game i only have 20 points to use on the stats..am i missing something?

[@darkfireslide]

The main character has 25 while mercs only have 20.

[@esumiwa5583]

@@darkfireslide Thanks, I did not know that!

[@Badbentham]

@ 12:00 : I would rather shoot for sth. like 16Str/16Dex/17Wis, as Wisdom is, similar for a melee Cleric, still the main stat, and Wisdom 20 (which you aim for, - evidently without gear) is just the bare minimum for high level spells. Also, Druids have a very decent skill selection; going below 10 Intelligence is a big waste. For strength and damage divine casters have their buffs and/or their shapeshiffts; those +1 to damage and to hit from Strength, which may be below 10% more damage output, are at the end of the day really of less value than both more skills and better and more spellcasting. ;) P.S,; Generally, starting with early mid-game (before 10th level), you can skip spells like Bull`s Strength altogether, as everybody and his son has an enhancement belt; - and they obviously do not stack. ;) - Also, Extend Spell from Metamagic is mostly about spell slot efficiency, and you may need very good reasons why a rod can not do the same thing better, and literally for free. ;) Meta-Magic in general is, with some exceptions, mostly best used on spontaneous casters; especially of course on Sorcerers.

[@darkfireslide]

While I agree that spellcasting should be the primary focus of the Druid generally speaking, the viewer who sent the request wanted specifically a strong frontline character. A high Strength is necessary to deal good damage even with buff spells because of how shape change spells actually work. Even with enhancement items, for a while Bull's Strength will be a powerful buff (as well as Barkskin for sure), especially for the animal companion that can't use gear. Its easy to make the argument that you won't need more than 3 Extends a day but a hidden advantage of Extend spell is the ability to use great spells in higher level spell slots. While the +4 enhancement spells aren't eternally useful (few spells are), there are later spells worth extending too and for self-buffing it's extremely useful for clearing out the extremely long dungeons of Kingmaker.

[@Badbentham]

@@darkfireslide "The strong front liner" is 14 to 16 Strength; a caster would clearly be between 7 and 10. ;) Both Wisdom and Dexterity are normally at the start way more rewarding stats than Strength, as they also buff defenses;, apart from a pure melee DPS build, which makes a waste of the spellcaster: The stats are for a Paladin, who is pretty much inept outside of his narrow "Slay-Evil"-thingy. And, especially if you come up with Meta-Magic, for spell duplication, then you want to make sure that you have the necessary slots to put these spells into. ;) For efficient usage: 24-32 Wisdom are highly recommended. :P Otherwise a comment from Treantmonk to the Shifter (15-points-buy) : "Limitations: This build functions better than the Wild Mystic at low levels, it can really hold it's own. Expect to feel like a king between levels 5 and 10. However, unlike the Wild Mystic, expect a more serious decline in the higher levels. Wildshape just stops getting better, and your animal companion advances in power more slowly than a PC. Your spells are not providing many upper level buff options, and you just aren't getting as many attacks per round in comparison to the other players that you used to get. This build should remain viable right into high levels, but the real shine occurs in the single digit levels. At the higher levels, expect to rely more and more on spellcasting, to which you really aren't built towards. " docs.google.com/document/d/1WLR6brLr0EA3LbQ6UihsliPiyPYSlLjrNbUShPty4bo/edit - For 25 points. however, we can afford a character who is great in both early and late game; without the whole usual early game caster downtime. And can still be left in the thick of battle later on. - The gains in Strength over Wisdom are only really good in the shorter term; if anything, we lack the supplements of e.g. a Fighter, to get the very most out of it.

[@darkfireslide]

I tried to acknowledge that early on that this isn't really an ideal Druid build. I wanted to make a custom build that will feel more like what the requester wanted and 16 Dex/16 Wis isn't bad at all. The high Strength really gives it that feeling of being a powerful frontline warrior and moreover Bites gets 1.5x Str on attacks so that really helps get the damage going. It's a different way of doing the Druid that isn't optimal but it doesn't need to be.

[@robcole6]

Does weapon choice matter at all with this build?

[@InvaderSorti]

Just wonted to ask for an opinion on the giant centipede pet.From what iv seen people seem to say that the poison doesn't work enough to be worth it not to mention their their strength/dex are quite low.

[@darkfireslide]

That opinion is probably true, although most animal companions get decently powerful with level and proper buff spells so if you really want one on normal difficulty there really isn't an issue. Just because Smilodon is OP doesn't mean you shouldn't look at other options to have fun.

[@jmmywyf4lyf]

In case someone see this later, I just used the centipede through Varnhold Lot dlc, and it was not good. The poison only worked occasionally, and it was weak (and I kept my pet buffed heavily) but the real issue was when it became larger, it was constantly stuck, and unable to attack a target. It was too big, and couldn't maneuver in confined spaces well at all. Compounded by having several melee classes and the other class with a pet. His Stag did not have these issues that my centipede did. So for roughly half of the encounters, my pet was sitting idle.

[@jean-michelnadeau5447]

Int 7 gives 4 points, but lose 1 skill point. Is it really worth it?

[@darkfireslide]

It depends how much you value skills. In PnP it's a big deal but in the video game I could kind of care less about skill points on classes that aren't Bards or Rogues.

[@joyfulman40]

True dat (to what the other guy said) the game uses the highest rank in the party, so unless your soloing the game or going with a small party just cover one niche and let your other party members shine where they do.

[@DiscipleToki]

Eldritch Arcana Updated makes it so much easier, just take Words of Wisdom as a trait and ignore Charisma entirely.

[@hah-vj7hc]

Yep, and I take trickery as a class feat on my ranger because i don't like rogues that much. Eldritch Arcana doesn't make chracters overly op, just makes it so they can be very diverse and give you that little extra you were missing

[@TrueHikke]

wheelywheelygud

[@darkfireslide]

Do you ever just

[@felixsimon2]

Note that higest level summons for druid are 1 dryad, 1d3 nereid or bunch of mastodons, but as defender of true world, you cant summon any fey, which means you cant summon your strongest option (1d3 nereids), and are stuck with mastodons. Whether 4 nereids (max roll+superior summoning) are stronger than 5 mastodons+Feystalker... I dont know, but if you plan on summoning, it might be better to go regular druid - you will lose some bonuses against fey (and yes, there are alot of fey in the game, but not 100%), but instead you will be able to use nature's ally to it's full potential throughout entire game, instead of being stuck on mastodons...

[@Amonny]

Weird. I followed the guide and Superior Summoning is not available in the abilities list.

[@darkfireslide]

It should be a feat only available after you get Augment Summoning

[@Amonny]

@@darkfireslide Oh, I see. Thanks!!!

[@alexandrejesus8709]

My first playrhrough I did a pali, sorc, eldrick knight and it was awesome

[@AA-di7jw]

Why ty!

[@derrickbonsell]

Inspired by LegendOfTotalWar?

[@darkfireslide]

Sort of yeah. But it might have happened anyway given how many build requests I'm getting.

[@TheExard3k]

Charisma isn't that useless....I know of several charisma / skill checks based on charisma that only your main character can roll.Persuasion is a good campaign skill for any character, so INT (for skill points) and charisma isn't just UMD rolls. I like that build nontheless, good option for a mercenary for me.

[@Chris_KAy]

thats why i built on the Feyspeaker wich gets its charisma added instead of wisdom :P

[@crimsonpotemkin]

Charisma is the most broken stat in the game.

[@herzkonig8030]

what happened to leon the brave? :P

[@darkfireslide]

More is on the way!

[@matthewsteward4980]

yay@@darkfireslide

[@achildofkorn]

S.o.S a mad dog with dual bastard swords please

[@joyfulman40]

Daniel Bösch just make it!? Its a bad build though, lower attack rolls for mediocre damage increase, there are some cool bastard swords in the game but your better off with something more viable.

[@thecentralscrutinizerr]

How the frick does meta magic work in this game?

[@ColdIronKing]

Druid wildshape is great bc its 1hr/lvl, can end at will. Cleave is not for slashing weapons only in 3.5 or Pathfinder. Superior summons only works when a SNA is used to summon multiple creatures. Smart move keeping Wisdom low and increasing it over time as you get higher level spells. I'm only nitpicking because you seem like a tabletop player, I'm also a tabletop player, and know this stuff pretty well, you do a great job covering a lot of info.

[@SeventhheavenDK]

🙄

[@nafihaze]

Defender of the true world loses the ability to convert speels into summon natural allies fyi

[@WrenYena]

You can still use it, just not to summon fey creatures, and the uses for 8th and 9th level summons is limited to elder earth elemental (8th) and elder worm (9th)

[@Folsomdsf2]

minmax version? If your minmax version doesn't put a point into UMD every level, it's not minmax. The entire game is soloable on ANY difficulty with UMD.

[@Domjot5569]

First comment Coolio!

[@nizamdamanhuri933]

Doesn't this build use intelligence rather than Wisdom? I think you made a mistake

[@bruno17289]

No that is a wizard, defender of the true world is a Druid archetype, the Druids cast their spells from their Wisdom.

[@Ragatokk]

Dude, come on. At least put in some minimal effort. You can read that the wild shape lasts 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back. You could start the game as a druid and try the wild shape... I expected more from you.

[@darkfireslide]

My experience so far has been that Polymorph/Beast Shape effects don't allow you to change back into your normal form until the end of the spell--at least they didn't when running them on Octavia. I'm glad that Wild Shape works properly. I like to not have to use a save editor or manually edit saves just to test builds. I am frustrated that this game is inconsistent and that a lot of specific information is missing from ability descriptions and that things like base saves and base attack bonus progression aren't displayed and that there is no manual for new players to learn this information outside of the actual Pen and Paper rulebook. I know how it is supposed to work. I didn't want to spend hours leveling or use a save editor to explain how something fundamentally works. There is a lot of broken/not working as intended content in Kingmaker and that makes it hard to make builds outside of testing that way or including a disclaimer that "this is only true if the game actually works," which, for a while Flurry of Blows didn't actually work for Monks. Which is hilarious. I admit I could have done better in this video. In the future I will try to be more thorough.

[@Ragatokk]

@@darkfireslide I might recommend downloading a re-spec mod for quickly testing out builds.

[@darkfireslide]

@@Ragatokk I might look into that. Thank you.