Wizards

[Essence]

Nothing makes a druid bad at using Diplomacy, except that compared to every other class with the skill, they have no reason to have Charisma, and relatively little reason to have Diplomacy at all. They need their skill points for other stuff more often than they need it for Diplomacy, they don't have any of the other skills that imply social ability, they're role in the party isn't to be the talker...there's lots of reasons, half mechanical and half flavor-text, why druids don't sway crowds.

The point is that if you wanted to sway crowds in the first place, you probably shouldn't have played a druid. While druids have the ability to do so, they damn sure aren't the best at it. Just like necromancers and animating undead.


Essence

[Username17]

Actually, Druids have no reason to have Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.... what the hell are they supposed to do except invest in Social Skills?

Seriously, they only need one stat, and have three dump stats, and a large amount of skills for a spellcaster... why wouldn't they have good Charismas? Seriously, what else are they going to do?

Clerics, Rogues, and even Paladins all have a call on their physical stats that might interfere with their Charismas. Druids don't. Their Diplomacy is excellent.

-Username17

[Essence]

Unless, of course, you'd eventually be interested in fighting in an anti-magic field...or against creatures with the Force Shapechange spell or an equivalent...or with that badass artifact scimitar you found the other day...or below 5th level in general...there's lots of reasons for a druid not to depend entirely on wild shape for his combat stats.

That said, I understand where you're coming from, and I largely agree.

[Username17]

Anyone who can make you fail a save vs. Force Shapechange could just kill you with an actual attack spell. Force Shapechange is not a combat spell - it is a story spell. You say "See? That guy was totally a Doppelganger!" The spell has no other use as in any kind of combat situation it is a high risk mid level spell that you cast on an opponent where even if you guessed right and the spell succeeds your enemy is still in the fight.

Saying "They could cast force shapechange on you is meaningless. It's not a disadvantage of being a shapeshifter. If anything - it's an advantage - your opponents are hitting you with force shapechange instead of cause blindness or planeshift: Negative Material Plane.

You may have noticed that all of the "super cheese" builds at high level are Divine Casters. There is a reason for that - it's because there are no cheese character builds for Wizards. There are cheese spell combos yes, but there is a large difference. The character as a whole doesn't ever become all that impressive.

Clerics and Druids dwarf the power of wizards in just about everything.

-Username17