Best small & medium wildshapes for a druid?

[Plane Sailing]

I'm starting to play a druid, and although the wildshaping level is a little way off at the moment, I started thinking - what are the best wildshapes which are available when you can choose Small or Medium creatures?

Which are best for movement?

Which are best for fighting?

Which are best for boosting Str or Dex?

If anyone has already thought all through this and would like to make suggestions, that would be really great!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hasn't *anybody* had a 5th level+ druid?!?

 

[Merlion]

I was going to play a druid myself but I changed to Sorcerer. Masters of the Wild has a great section on different wildshapes for different purposes.
Generaly bears and/or cats for attack, birds for travel, wolf for tracking/locating(maybe bird also). The smallest thing you can manage for hiding . Dolphins are sharks are great for the water.

 

[Kaji]

Plane Sailing,

There was a fantastic discussion of this in Master of The Wild. Wizards went through all the pros and cons, talked about fighting ability vs speed and all that. I don't have it here so I can give you all the details, but if your playing a druid and your DM allows it, I'd highly suggest getting it anyway. Tons of useful stuff for your druid.

 

[Urbanmech]

For movement on the ground your best bet is the Cheetah or the Wolf both are medium sized and move 50'. In the air an eagle is your best bet at 5th lv, 80' (average). In the water the squid and the shark both move 60' but the porpoise moves 80' and has blindsight.

The best forms for fighting at 5th lv are the black bear with 2 claws and a bite and a 19 str. The wolverine can do more damage if you are hit and rage but that kind of takes away your combat options. The leopard is a nice balance between melee damage and AC. The only problem is that its bite is its primary attack and the claws are secondary. The crocodile is also nice if you want to deliver big damage hits 1d12+6 isn't too bad at 5th lv.

As for Str and Dex boosting, I believe that the black bear has the highest medium creature strength (19), while the highest medium dex is the leopard at 19.

I had an excel sheet of all the animals from tiny to large somewhere, but I can't find it right now. If anyone wants a copy I can email it if they want.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks for all the useful feedback guys.

I'll try to check out masters of the wild for the information there too.

Cheers!

 

[Dwarmaj]

Until my druid got much higher in level I only used wildshape for scouting or mobility (always nice to turn into a bird and fly away).

In melee I always got pounded because my Ac was so low in wildshape. When you get larger sizes and can grapple better things start to improve.

My advice would be to stick to the spell casting aspect and use wildshape for scouting. If you want wildshape for melee go the Shifter route.