Anyone ever try a druid/sorcerer mystic theurge?

[Wycen]

I joined some old friends in their weekly Pathfinder game, who are still 1st and 2nd level. The DM said they needed somebody either smart and/or charismatic.

So of course the first thing I did was come up with a character background which ended up being somewhat anti-social (i.e. a druid or ranger who comes to the city every once in a while to trade). But of course somebody else decided to change characters and when I got there somebody else clearly wanted a blaster type mage in the group (they have a diviner specialist).

So, pulling together these factors, I considered a druid/sorcerer who will eventually take the mystic theurge prestige class.

Oh yeah, I forgot that the DM is only using the Core book at the moment. Maybe once we get further into the Carrion Crown AP that'll change, but not now.

We are using the 20 point buy. I'm thinking I'll just have a 15 Wis and 15 Cha, but then where do a put racial stats, (I'm thinking human, but not sure yet).

I'm thinking the Magical Knack trait will help keep the sorcerer useful at lower levels. Maybe Augmented Summoning feats route would be useful if I want to spam the battlefield, but I don't usually play druids.

So, anybody have a good build for this? Or input?

 

[Thotas]

I played a Druid-Sorcerer (got to levels 5 and 2, respectively) in 3/3.5, but never went the MT route. I don't know if I would've gone that way with it. The character was fairly ineffective as it was. (I heard lots of people in those days talking about Druids being over-powered. Mine sure as hell wasn't.)

 

[Systole]

1. Blaster mages aren't great at higher levels. Everything has energy resistance/energy immunity/spell resistance.
2. MT is not a great prestige class, as you'll be behind other classes by at least three levels in spell progression.
3. Sorc is a poor choice for MT, as it requires an extra level to meet the prereqs. Witch or Wizard is better.
4. If you've got your heart set on sorc/druid, there's a sorcerer archetype that allows you to use Wis instead of Cha for sorcerer abilities.

 

[dnlas]

Druid's spell list is bad in teamwork compare with cleric. most of them only work on animal or plant but not teammate. Some debuff such as blind, fear ,other mind effect cleric can remove but druid cant.

druid has area CC likes Entangle(environment-depended) that cleric has not, but if you want to build MT, Sorcerer/Wizard Spells list always has better choice (environment-independed) .


So I guess cleric/Sorcerer is the better choice.



Why someone says druid is overpower?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

On top of what Sys said, druid has more class-based features than a cleric, and so loses out much more from going into MT than cleric. Can you say, "no wildshape, ever"? You can do it, but it's fantastically suboptimal.

 

[Wycen]

Good comments, some of which I anticipated. I know this is not considered optimal, but let me explain my meta-game experience and expectations.

With this DM and her husband, I've never got to play any character higher than 7th level in the 3.x system. Back in the 2E days we got to higher levels, but for whatever reason, maybe her husband doesn't like it, but once we got to a certain level, usually 5 or 6, they'd decide to switch campaigns or force us to switch characters. Maybe they don't like high level spells/play. 7 or 8 years ago I was ecstatic to finally get to 7th level and then of course we stopped playing.

So, even though we are playing an Adventure Path, I don't know what to expect once we get to 7th level. Heck, they might stop after the first Carrion Crown module. Honestly, I figure we'll peter out and I'll have to find another game to play. This of course might make you want to squeeze out the best possible character for the short term, but I want to play a character that is interesting. And lots of low level spells seems like a good thing if we never get past the first adventure.

Plus the party already had a cleric and wizard.

 

[Thotas]

Why someone says druid is overpower?

Well, as I say, in my experience, they aren't. But I ran across that complaint on EnWorld boards a lot, years ago when I was on them all the time. Also had an acquaintance that said the druid in a group he played with completely dominated combat. At least part of the problem had to do with wildshape, which my character just got as a ability not long before things came to an end. And of course, Pf has changed the polymorph related rules quite a bit, so that may not be a factor anymore anyway.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

People complained about druids disproportionately because he was the best at putting the Fighter out of a job of the core casters, and that is usually the first thing to trigger people's senses of "broken!" The wizard could do tons of stuff that neither druid nor fighter could do that completely breaks the game, but because it's so different from the fighter's schtick and all exotic-like, the alarm bells aren't sounded as easily.

In any case, in 3E Druid/Wiz/Cleric were all about the same level of crazy powerful, sorcerer not far behind (and IMO with all their splat love, sorcs joined their ranks by the end of 3E).

In Pathfinder, Druid got a few buffs (Wildshape sizes basically come 2 levels early each, constant items meld and remain functional other than armor/shield, and...scythe proficiency...) but got super duper nerfed all over the place really hard (weaker companions + companion esily available to clerics anyway, massive massive MASSIVE wildshaping nerfs, Summon Nature's Ally was nerfed harder than Summon Monster, and more stuff...). On the other hand, wizards gained hp, some free "school powers," and the ability to cast "prohibited" schools' spells. And clerics got vastly buffed domain powers, free prof. with deity's weapon (countered by loss of heavy armor prof., I guess), and spell BUFFS (I couldn't believe it, but Divine Power is better now!) / less nerfings than wiz/sorc spells (compare PF Destruction to PF Finger of Death), and super crazy amounts of healing at 1st level. So, druid's still pretty good, but cleric and wizard leaped right past him in power, IMO.

 

[Qik]

The witch is often cited as a one-class replacement for the MT; that might be an option, depending on how you feel about the character, especially if it'll likely be a low-level game - personally, I'd rather have a class/build come into its own early instead of being geared towards an end that might not even come.

 

[Wycen]

The witch is often cited as a one-class replacement for the MT; that might be an option, depending on how you feel about the character, especially if it'll likely be a low-level game - personally, I'd rather have a class/build come into its own early instead of being geared towards an end that might not even come.

Yeah, its tricky. Part of the reason I'm looking at the theurge is because for the time being we are restricted to just using the main book. I really want to play the summoner, but can't.

Also there is the possibility of dying or another character dying and then we'd probably get to change our party around a bit. While I do like the background I came up with for this guy, I can always do that again for someone else.