I have a druid and I am big fan of the animal aspect (aka being able to talk to them etc.) When I picked my first two languages I picked Sylvan and Terran. I don't have much knowledge of creatures thus far in the game and do not want to waste a language on something I will never use. For a druid what languages would you recommend to start with if you have a +2 intelligence modifier? I thought Sylvan for Fey, and the others listed with it. I picked Terran so that logically controlling elemental's = awesome = follower. How should I optimism my druid's language capabilities? I picked the half-elf race so no language barrier.
[RPG] What languages makes the most effective druid
character-creationdruidpathfinder-1e
Related Solutions
I would recommend starting with a race that provides a Wis bonus and a bonus to Con or Dex, so Elf, Dwarf, Razorclaw Shifters, Githzerai and Wilden of the various PHB races.
Using an array of 15, 15, 15, 11, 10, 8 for stats you can get Wis and either Con or Dex to 17, and then Str and the other get 15 and 11, giving you a pretty beefy 17, 15, 11 in your physical ability scores, and still retaining a 17 Wis.
Unfortunately Driuds lack at-will powers with secondary stat kickers, so your secondary stats being high isn't as much of a win as it is for many other classes.
The starting -2 to hit that you suffer against the pre-racial adjusted 18 wisdom druid can be mitigated first by taking implement/versatile expertise, superior implement training-accurate staff, and also your odd number in wisdom means that a level 4 attribute boost to wisdom gives you a +1 to hit.
I’d say those guides are wrong.
Racial bonuses don’t tend to be super-important in general; as long as you don’t literally have a penalty to an important score, it’s probably fine enough. What are some things a druid wants from his race?
A bonus feat. Well, yes, dwarves don’t get this and it’s amazing. Shame to miss out. But this also applies to almost-everything that isn’t human. Even beyond that, druids need exactly one feat: Natural Spell. After that, everything else is gravy, and unlike literally every other class in the game, it is optimal (barring planar shepherd, which you should) to take 20 levels of druid without multiclassing or taking a prestige class, so druids don’t have to burn feats on meeting prerequisites.
A bonus to Wisdom. Dwarves lack this, but it’s also extremely rare in the first place. The only options are decidedly weird, not to mention frequently banned: anthropomorphic bat (blatantly overpowered), buomman (can’t speak), jermalaine (Tiny-sized and ridiculous ability scores), and lesser aasimar (clearly overpowered, though not as much as anthrobat).
A bonus to Constitution. Hey, dwarves have got this!
Some way to communicate while in Wild Shape. Options here are rather limited, but a few races exist that do it.
So yeah, humans are probably better druids than dwarves. Which is nearly meaningless, as humans are probably better than almost anything else at almost everything. For the dwarves, the Constitution bonus is good and the Charisma penalty is minor. The bonuses on bull rush, trip, and various saving throws are quite nice as extras. The weapon familiarity goes to waste, and the armored movement thing is a bit harder to use, but those are minor anyway. The low land speed doesn’t matter much because it’ll be replaced when in Wild Shape.
Best Answer
Sylvan covers plant creatures and lots of other 'forest' creatures other than fey, it's a pretty good choice for what you're going for.
Terran on the other hand, is a bit rarer. Very little speaks Terran. In my games, I have underground creatures often speak Terran, aerial/flying creatures often speak Auran, underwater creatures often speak Aquan, and a disproportionate number of outsiders speak Ignan.
But RAW, you're looking at like, Earth Elementals, most of which don't talk to people. Summoned Creatures charge at foes automatically, so you don't need to talk to them usually.
Language choices - Treant is a language in pathfinder, or as I like to call it, Entish. That would work for a druid. Unlikely to come up though.
You already speak Common and Elven, but Dwarven is the other traditional trifecta of languages, although nearly all GMs will never have it be important.
Undercommon covers probably the broadest category of races and situations, but again most GMs won't have it come up.
Surprisingly large numbers of common PC enemies speak Giant, and ogres, giants etc are all 'wild' humanoids, they mostly don't live in cities.
Dragons and dragon-related things are pretty common, and Draconic is also (apparently) the most common language of arcane magic (sort of like Latin in Ars Magica).
Just have a look here, and pick something interesting. Mention to your DM that a big part of your character is that your character considers himself a linguist, and the DM might get ideas about working that into the story.