Wild Walker Class Druid Type Archetype

The wild walker prefers her animal shape to her humanoid one, and has exchanged her divine spellcasting to help boost her hunting and shape changing capabilities.

Contents show]

Hit Dice

A wild walker has d10 hit die.

Base Attack Bonus

A wild walker has full BAB progression.

Nature's Gift

A wild walker can use all Orisons on the druid spell list as at-will spell-like abilities. The caster level for this ability equals the wild walker's class level.

This ability replaces Spells.

Favored Enemy

This ability acts as the Ranger's class feature of the same name.

Favored Terrain

This ability acts as the Ranger's class feature of the same name.

Spontaneous Ally

At first level a wild walker can use summon nature's ally I as a spell-like ability once per day. Every two levels she gains the ability to use the next nature's ally spell as a spell like ability once per day, and gains an additional use of her previous nature's ally spell-like ability.

This ability alters Spontaneous Casting.

Hunter Bond

At 1st level, a wild walker forms a bond with her hunting companions. This bond can take one of two forms. Once the form is chosen, it cannot be changed. The first is a bond to his companions. This bond allows her to spend a move action to grant half his favored enemy bonus against a single target of the appropriate type to all allies within 30 feet who can see or hear her. This bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to the wild walker’s Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). This bonus does not stack with any favored enemy bonuses possessed by her allies; they use whichever bonus is higher.

The second option is to form a close bond with an animal companion. A wild walker may begin play with any of the animals listed in Animal Choices. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the wild walker on her adventures. Unlike normal animals of its kind, an animal companion’s Hit Dice, abilities, skills, and feats advance as the wild walker advances in level. If a character receives an animal companion from more than one source, her effective druid levels stack for the purposes of determining the statistics and abilities of the companion. Most animal companions increase in size when their wild walker reaches 4th or 7th level, depending on the companion. A wild walker’s animal companion shares her favored enemy and favored terrain bonuses. If a wild walker releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer in the environment where the new companion typically lives. This ceremony can also replace an animal companion that has perished.

This ability alters Nature Bond (differences in bold).

Wild Shape

At 2nd level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any small or Medium animal and back again once per day. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type. This ability functions like the beast shape I spell, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The form chosen must be that of an animal the druid is familiar with.

A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)

As a druid gains in levels, this ability allows the druid to take on the form of larger and smaller animals, elementals, plants, oozes, vermin, magical beasts, and Dragons.

At 4th level, a wild walker may use this ability at will, and there is no longer a limited duration (the effect lasts until she changes back).

At 6th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a Large or Tiny animal, a Small elemental, or a Small or Medium Fey. When taking the form of an animal, a druid’s wild shape now functions as beast shape II. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid’s wild shape functions as elemental body I. When taking the form of a Fey, the druid's wild shape functions as Fey Form I.

In addition she is no longer limited to forms available to a druid two levels lower when changing form as a move action with the Quick Wild Shape feat.

At 8th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a Huge or Diminutive animal, a Medium elemental, a Small or Medium plant creature, a Small or Medium ooze, a Small or Medium vermin, or a Small or Medium magical beast. When taking the form of animals or magical beasts, a druid’s wild shape now functions as beast shape III. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid’s wild shape now functions as elemental body II. When taking the form of a plant creature, the druid’s wild shape functions as plant shape I. When taking the form of a ooze creature, the druid’s wild shape functions as ooze form I. When taking the form a vermin, the druid's wild shape functions as vermin shape I.

In addition she treats all armor and shields that she wears as if they had the Wild special ability.

At 10th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a Large elemental, a Large plant creature, a Tiny or Large Fey, a Large ooze, a Tiny or Large vermin, a Tiny or Large magical beast, or a Medium dragon. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid’s wild shape now functions as elemental body III. When taking the form of a plant, the druid’s wild shape now functions as plant shape II. When taking the form of a plant creature, the druid’s wild shape now functions as plant shape II. When taking the form of a Fey, the druid's wild shape now functions as Fey Form II. When taking the form of a ooze, the druid’s wild shape now functions as ooze form II. When taking the form a vermin, the druid's wild shape now functions as vermin shape II. When taking the form of a magical beast, the druid's wild shape now functions as beast shape IV. When taking the form of a dragon, the druid's wild shape functions as Form of the Dragon I or Form of the Exotic Dragon I or Form of the Alien Dragon I.

In addition she is limited to forms available to a druid two levels lower instead of four when changing form as a swift action with the Quick Wild Shape feat.

At 12th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a Huge elemental, a Huge plant creature, a Diminutive or Huge Fey, a Huge ooze, a Huge Vermin, a Huge or Diminutive magical beast, or a Large dragon. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid’s wild shape now functions as elemental body IV. When taking the form of a plant, the druid’s wild shape now functions as plant shape III. When taking the form of a Fey, the druid's wild shape now functions as Fey Form III. When taking the form of a ooze, the druid’s wild shape now functions as ooze form III. When taking the form a vermin, the druid's wild shape now functions as vermin shape III*. When taking the form of a magical beast, the druid's wild shape now functions as magical beast shape. When taking the form of a dragon, the druid's wild shape now functions as Form of the Dragon II or Form of the Exotic Dragon II or Form of the Alien Dragon II.

In addition she is no longer limited in any way when changing form as a swift action with the Quick Wild Shape feat.

At 14th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a Huge dragon. When taking the form of a dragon, the druid's wild shape now functions as Form of the Dragon III or Form of the Exotic Dragon III or Form of the Alien Dragon III.

At 16th level, when taking the form of a Fey, the druid's wild shape now functions as Fey Form IV.

This ability alters Wild Shape (differences in bold).

Bonus Wild Feat

At 4th level the wild walker receives Quick Wild Shape as a bonus feat. In addition at 6th level, and at every even level thereafter, she gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those that list the wild shape class feature as a prerequisite. When taking feats in this way she ignores caster level and wisdom prerequisites.

If a feat works with spells (such as Wild Speech) it works with her spell-like abilities as well. If a feat requires the expenditure of daily uses of wild shape (such as Planar Wild Shape) she may still use it. If she already has all of the feats that meet this feature's restriction she may select any feat she meets the prerequisites for.

Behind the Scenes

I wanted to make a Druid archetype that focuses on wild shape and does not have spellcasting.

Replacing Spellcasting with Something Equivalent

Spellcasting is exceedingly powerful, and scales as you level up.

The Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain class features from the Ranger is both powerful and scales, however it is not as powerful. The buffs to wild shape (which scale) took care of the rest of the power discrepancy.

Since the first option of Nature Bond modifies their spell casting, I replaced it with the Ranger's first option in order to retain a choice as it works well with the other Ranger abilities they have received.

To keep with the Druid's nature-based theme I gave them the Orisons as spell-like abilities, which I believe doesn't effect their power level dramatically. They retain their ability to use summon nature's ally, however they can not do so as often as their base druid counterparts.

Buffing Wild Shape

I gave Wild Shape to them at 2nd level, made it unlimited at 4th, I gave them the ability to change into vermin, oozes, and magical beasts, and a few other benefits (such as the wild armor special ability and quick wild shape feat modifications).

I gave them built-in ways to access wild shape class feature feats.

Since this archetype focuses on martial combat I have given it a d10 hit die and full BAB progression.

Other Notes

I wasn't able to solve their wild shape not scaling past 14th level, though the expanded types of creatures available and the extra feats they get might be good enough.

I allowed the Bonus Wild Feat to grant regular feats if there are no more wild feats available because the only way for that to happen is if the player selected wild feats using their normal feat allotment, so in the end there is no net gain.

This should be able to work with any of the ANIMAL Shaman druid archetypes.

*Note - There is no spell 'vermin shape III'. It is referenced in Ultimate Wilderness and it's expected an erratta/faq will create the spell.