Irrelevant, not only do Druids lack Charisma as a main stat, but the vast majority of creatures encountered will be undiplomacisable anyway. This doesn't contribute to Druid brokenness in any way, shape or form.
Relevant only at lower levels. At higher levels hit points are irrelevant due to the large number of SoGF spells in effect, at mid levels Polymorph solves all Wizard HP needs.
In post 2623, Meransiel wrote:3. They are proficient with much better armor. And the "wood" restriction stops meaning anything after they hit level 11.
Also irrelevant, spells ignore AC.
In post 2623, Meransiel wrote:4. They have an animal companion that is basically a Fighter of the same level. And that is only the starting list. If you pick from alternates you can easily get to a very high Tier 4.
Relevant, i'll cede you that point, i forgot about Animal Companions. Wizards do have plenty of summon opportunities though so it's not a huge an advantage as you might think.
Relevant but not significant, it's only one extra spell of levels 1 - 5 by level 20 and 2 extra cantrips. An advantage certainly, but not major.
Useful, but Nature's Ally doesn't have any of the really broken summons on it and the Druid already has his Animal Companion to be a meat shield, so it's more of a way to burn up extra unused spells at the end of the day than anything else.
In post 2623, Meransiel wrote:7. Yes, Wildshape is supremely powerful even if you don't spellcast in it. And you get it at level 5, when your spells per day are going to finish rather fast anyway.
Wild Shape is a great ability, but spellcasting is better than most of what it can do (there are exceptions, if you get the feat that lets you turn into a 12 Headed Cryohydra then yes that's broken). If you remove the ability to spellcast while Wild Shaped then the Druid can choose to be a powerful physical fighter OR a powerful main caster. While that level of flexibility is good, it's not broken by any means. It's the ability to be a main caster and be a powerful physical fighter
at the same time
which breaks the class in half.
Har de har.
Are Druids without Natural Spell better than Wizards? A bit. But they're not completely broken. Do the same comparison but with a Cleric instead of a Wizard and you'll find that much of the time the Druid without Natural Spell gets beaten by the Cleric, especially if the Cleric has access to
his
broken-as-fuck feat Divine Metamagic. The same is true for the Archivist, and is doubly true for the Artificer who is just better than Druids even
with
Natural Spell and Psi Artificers are just silly.
