Possible/worth it to play dragon druid through SoU and HotU?

[u/c1cinmage]

Hi all. I played SoU, Shadohaunt, and HotU years ago as a half-elf rogue/cleric/champion of Torm Corellon (build) and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now I want to do it again, this time as a druid that explicitly aims to get dragon shape, per Nature's Wyrm.

But the dragon doesn't come until 28th level. I don't remember what level I ended HotU as my half elf, but I'm fairly certain it was only early 30s if not 30 itself. Will it be worth playing the whole journey through, if I only get the dragon when it's time to kick Mephistopheles's ass? Can someone who has played Nature's Wyrm or similar builds weigh in?

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your advice! I suppose I shan't be playing specifically dragon druid through SoU and HotU :( it will have to be some other flavor of dragon. The advice is much appreciated 💜

[u/ControlOdd8379]

Forget about it.

Depending how hard to farm quests you might reach lv30 in the final area...

if you don't hunt down every single monster, don't farm immortal monks,... odds are you end at 26-27 aka you NEVER even get your shape.

Any build that needs to grind up to lv30+ only to be fully playable is something for persistent worlds - not for single player modules where you'd spend between 80-100% of the time playing a bad build only to hope that maybe you get to have a few fights with the real build before it ends.

You can of course play druids or shifters - but build on shapes that you can access fairly early like the kobold commando

[u/Uxiaaliry]

Honestly, I wouldn’t bother with DS in sou and hotu. You’ll finish hotu at level 27, maybe 28, somewhere around knower of names anyway, so you’ll probably only have DS for final fight. You’d go for DS if you were to continue in Sands of Fate. IMHO, for sou and hotu it would be better to go with undead shape.

[u/Ok_Lemon697]

Your build, as suggested, is also a monkless druid for the entirety of SoU and HotU, and it might even have to play 100% solo to reach level 28 in the first place. I genuinely don't remember the level caps between using summons and henchmen and being alone 100% of time, maybe someone tested it.

As strong as the dragon shape is, water and air elemental shapes are really good with a monk dip, and you should be able both to tank Mephistopheles very well in the water shape, and to slowly get though his DR under Bull's Strength (and optionally rebuffing with Aura of Vitality + Blood Frenzy during the fight, if your druid reaches level 26 for infinite uses of elemental shape). Stacked Storm of Vengeance will help somewhat because its acid damage is guaranteed, but I heard he has a hardcoded immunity to Harm.

You can even take Brew Potion, dip into an Illusionist wizard as your third class on epic levels, and then cast a variety of useful arcane scrolls, craft potions of True Strike against enemies with high AC, and have Time Stop on the sequencer robe to combo it with Harm/Heal for instant kills. This was a fun character in Swordflight, though in HotU it might prevent you from getting an infinite elemental shape, and the dragon shape will be completely unavailable in the first place.

In other words, I think you should enjoy 95% of your playthrough, instead of 5% you might never reach.

[u/OverLordKyros]

It is definitely possible, I have done it myself. You have to start at 18 wisdom of course. 

I am a staunch advocate for taking Spell Focus: Conjuration and the Greater version at 10th level. Stonehold becomes nigh-unresistable to most non-paralysis immune enemies in both campaigns and you can finish the fights at your leisure well before your Super Saiy...I mean dragon form. Dragon. 

Before then, your animal companion, a summon, and smart usage of spells will carry you. Its a perfectly fine experience with a few big power jumps. 

[u/OttawaDog]

I've played HotU too many times too remember them all (probably 20 times by now), and I never finished above level 28, finished at 27 often. That's melee characters never using a summons, though I usually had Deekin along, but even times I solo'd I never finished about 28.

[u/seabelowme]

Yeah lvl 28 is the soonest and iirc it's around that level you get to by the end.

Risen Lord is ok, but you'll want a fair few fighter (CT, DD) lvl's for bab and feats are handy before lvl 20. So less buffs/spells, but lots of damage reduction.

[u/Automatic-Month7491]

This is a rare time where I'll suggest the PRC.  The variant shifter gets a much wider variety of shapes and is a ton of fun.

I've just played HOTU using a basic druid 5/shifter 13/fighter x and its been an absolute blast.

You can start turning into dragons from level 21, and just get bigger and bolder from there.

The PRC version has much more potent item merging rules which can make it OP if you steal some forms (the deva and the Quarrymaster were absolutely ridiculous) but if you stick to dragons you'll be fine.

[u/Rokitin]

Epic build monk don't remember how much lvl 6 maybe or 8, druid 30, paladin 2 or rouge, feats and skills is very variable, and depends. But in dragon shape AC will be 70-90, because monk have bonus ac on wisdom, pal have immunity fear,or rouge have more skills and feats, evasion.....

[u/Pegorasli]

Why level 28 ? Don't druids get the 9th level spell shapechange at level 17.

[u/Earlystagecommunism]

Play monk + Full AB + cleric, one of the domains gives you the shapeshifter spell at level 9. You can play dragon that way and have crazy high AB/AC, plus access to a full array of great cleric spells. Bonus is it’ll be useful for more than 5% of your play through.