tecnowraith said:
In that case, I'd suggest a Halfling rider build for 1st through 4th, followed by a fairly standard DZilla build at 5th+. A Dwarven build (for the darkvision and Con) or Gnome build (for the Con and small size) is also very solid.
You need:
Stats:
Keep Wisdom (spells) and Constitution (hit points). Dump strength (you're listed desire says nothing about melee - so stay out of it before you get Wild Shape). Charisma is useful (for Handle Animal), but will become progressively less so as your skill ranks in Handle Animal go up; Don't invest too heavily in it.
Feats:
Eh, a Druid's feats are mostly flavor, except the 6th level feat, which for a power-player, is pretty much always Natural Spell. For a halfling Rider, you might want to pick up Mounted Combat at 1st (for the ability to roll your Animal Companion's Armor Class once per round) but it's not going to be overly valuable later on (when Wildshape takes over). If you can convince your DM it works that way, and the feat is available, use Natural Bond to mitigate the adjustment on the advanced animal companions. Other feat slots? Go with either metamagic type stuff for later spellcasting, or item creation feats for making stuff that's useful to you (although it's better if you can convince the party Wizard to take the feats and collaberate on the gear). Weapon Finess will come in very handy with certain wildshape forms, and Improved Initiative is always a solid choice. Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple are also surprisingly useful (mostly because Grappling enables other party members, namely the Rogue), especially with forms that get Rake.
Skills:
1st-4th, max Concentration (for spellcasting), Handle Animal (for training your animal companion, so you can justify directing it intelligently), Ride (as you'll be riding a lot), Spot (always good to know what's sneaking up on you), and Listen (ditto). Other skills to taste.
5th+: Drop Handle Animal and Ride; otherwise, same as above.
Animal Companion:
Train your animal companion for Combat Riding. It's usually the way to go, has really useful set of tricks. Use Druid Bonus Trick 1 for getting the upgraded attack (attack anything). Later on, Work and Fetch are useful.
1st-3rd: Riding Dog; this is the combat monkey of the 1st level group.
4th+: Either go with a Dire Bat for the permanent Fly speed, or an Ape for the combat monkey. At some difficult to define point, the mobility from the Dire Bat will outweigh the flagging combat usefulness of the Ape - at which point, you stick with the Dire Bat. The reduced druidic abilities of the higher-level companions usually aren't worth it.
Equipment:
Get leather barding for your animal companion (until the critter's Dex bonus is higher). No ACP, so proficiency doesn't matter, and it's rather cheap.
Tactics (assuming Core)
1st-4th: Take a Riding Dog (as it's the combat monkey of the 1st level group) and ride it basically full-time. This permits you to do melee even with no strength (as it's the dog that's attacking). Spend your combat actions either using buffing and Healing spells on the mutt, or with combat control spells (Entangle!). If the situation doesn't warrant spells, use a sling.
5th+: Wildshape into a melee monster and go to town with your self-buffs up. Do remember to share them (freely with your Animal Companion, at a cost of slots with your party members).
5th-7th, a deinonychus is about the best Core combat form, although some DM's nix dinosaurs. If no-go on the deinonychus, try a leopard. Do pay attention to the Errata - the Deinonychus was moved down from Large to Medium.
At 8th, you want a Megaraptor (basically an upgraded deinonychus) or a Dire Lion unless something's restricting you to Medium or small sizes (e.g., dungeon walls). You'll have a lower speed and fewer attacks, but a better chance to hit and more base damage as a Dire Lion. Dire Lion has better special attacks, though.
At 16th, you want a Dire Tiger.
