Another Druid

I've been thinking about establishing a backup character for our D&D campaign, considering Chris's generally nobody's-safe DM style.  At this point, if any character is going to die, it's highly unlikely to be Norben thanks to his now extremely high AC, fortitude defense, and healing abilities.  However, it can often take me a number of hours to work up another character (and weeks or months to establish a roleplay personality), so I've decided to start a bit early and get some ideas down on paper.  Unlike the earlier DPR-focused characters, I'm not necessarily going for a damage-maximization build.  At this point, my decision tree looks something like:

1) Make a list of classes not already represented in the party
2) Cross off classes that only seem to support roles already filled by existing PCs
3) Pick a class that looks fun to play
4) Use the archetype system to give him an interesting or unexpected system quirk
5) Build a character history and motivations out of his class/quirk combination

For in medias res character generation I think it makes sense to start at mechanics and then flesh out the story, both for group strategy/synergy and for the fact that I have no idea where or when in the plot this character would be inserted, so some flexibility (or ambiguity) is necessary.

Option 1:  BAER

Str: 20 (17 + 1 level + 2 human) [13]
Dex: 14 [5]
Con: 14 [5]
Int: 11 [1]
Wis: 14 (may end up putting the human bonus here, still working out details) [5]
Cha: 7 [-4] {13+5+5+1+5-4 = 25}

Seems twinkish, granted, but this guy's designed to be kind of a front line tank, so the physical stats seemed necessary, plus wisdom for spellcasting purposes, so I needed a heavy dump stat.  A solitary druid seems as likely a candidate as any for low charisma, and he'd fight right in with the rest of the party on that front.

Class: Druid
Race: Human
Archetype: Bear Shaman

The twist of Bear Shamaning is that you get your Wild Shape as a level +2 ability when shifting into bear forms, which qualifies you for Beast Shape III, meaning huge animals instead of just large.  This gives you some extra strength bonus while remaining AC neutral versus large size (+2 natural, -1 dex, -1 size), and also bumps up your natural weapon size, which combined with improved natural weapon is conceptually awesome, though perhaps not so much in practice.

You also get a hybrid bear aspect form, like augmented humanoid, that grants you one of a list of special abilities when you decide to use it, and is nice for the times you're in human/casting form.  And you summon bears more easily/efficiently.  More bears is never a bad thing.

We already know from previous experiments that druids have poor AC in E6 since armor bonuses are impossible, but Bear Shaman offers the opportunity to forego the animal companion in leiu of picking a cleric domain w/ domain spells.  One of the bear options is Protection (subdomain: Defense), which gives you Shield as a first level domain spell.  Let's see if this works out.  For assumption's sake, let's say he has the same +1 deflection bonus everyone else in the game has.

Huge dire bear form AC:
10 base
2 dex (cat's grace)
6 natural armor
3 natural armor enhancement (barkskin)
4 shield (shield)
1 deflection
-2 size
= 24 AC, which isn't necessarily poor, though it does require three buffs.  I'll stat out the rest (omitting buffs) and see how this looks.  Assuming for the sake of argument he comes into the game after next.

Feats:
H1: Power Attack
L1: Weapon Focus (claw)
L3: Weapon focus (bite)
L5: Improved Natural Attack (claw)
L7: Improved Natural Attack (bite)

To hit:
4 BAB
8 str
1 weapon focus
-2 size
= +11

Damage:
+9 [2d8+10]
+9 [2d6+10]
+9 [2d6+10]

This can't compare to the DPR druid because this assumes no combat buffs and doesn't really account for equipment.  GMF is +1 hit, Bull's Strength is +2, and +12 to hit feels more comfortable.  Plus an amulet of mighty fists would be very handy for adding another 1d6 to each damage roll.  However, I'm just establishing kind of a weak baseline right now.

There's also the issue of size affecting reach.  None of the animal-type bears in the vanilla SRD are huge, only large, so I just assumed a size increase and used standard tables to adjust (Size in combat, and universal monster roles).  However, the Embers bear linked from the Dire Bear page is technically an animal type, is huge, and has 10ft reach for being huge.  I have no idea if this is unique to the creature or a general size rule.  10ft reach would be interesting.