Druidic tactics... please!

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 3:35 am

I just tried to start a new TOB game with a (female human) totemic druid.
I found i like the avatar very much, and I love the spirit-pets too!

I'm willing to play that character, but I feel I know little-or-nothing about using that class, especially in combat.
I've always had Jaheira in my party, but she always ended up in the front line fighting by my side. I never figured out "druidic" spells worth the time of casting except the obvious ones like Ironskin and Summon Fire Elemental.

I know there's some veteran druids out there around the forum...
please help me! I'm willing to learn the Ways of Nature

Any comments are welcome, too!

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 3:59 am

Use wondrous recall to double your iron skins or insect plagues.
Call woodland beings gives you loads of free spells.
Nature's beauty -- arguably most powerful spell in the game, blinds loads of enemies and can be cast while invisible...cheesy I know.

Talking of cheese, the staff of thunder and lightning lets you cast call lightning in doors.

Generally there's lots of good stuff for your druid, check out Xyx's spell reference guide if you haven't yet.

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 5:03 am

Thanks for the hints, and expecially for the link.
The guide is nice, I'm reading it now...
But...

Watch this one! (Quoting the guide)

"Level 2 is characterised by a lack of useful spells, especially for Druids. Filling all your Level 2 slots with spells you will actually cast is going to be hard".

....sigh!

Any specific suggestions about level 2 spells?

Rattman · Post by **Rattman** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 5:34 am

Druids are (IMHO) suppost to cast lots of spell to weaken all attackers and then rush in to finnish them off but with other people in your team you should juts keep casting spells

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 6:11 am

Originally posted by serjeLeBlade
"Level 2 is characterised by a lack of useful spells, especially for Druids. Filling all your Level 2 slots with spells you will actually cast is going to be hard". ....sigh!

Any specific suggestions about level 2 spells?

Yeah that's a tricky one. I usually fill those slots with barkskin (for the save bonus) and charm person or mammal at the start of the game and then find traps towards the end...not very useful compared to lvl 2 wizard spells or even lvl2 cleric spells (no chant or hold person).

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 7:35 am

Flame Blade is also pretty good until you pick up a decent weapon, and if you are confident in melee. It causes 1d4+4 points of damage with a bonus of +2 damage to undead or other fire vulnerable creatures.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Wed Jun 26, 2002 8:14 am

Ah, here we are. @serje-Ysh here is the resident expert on druids, and avenger druids in particular.
Any inquiries of a druidic nature should be directed to her.

Chiefthawk · Post by **Chiefthawk** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 8:38 am

The druid

The spirit animals and insect spells make the casters in the game pretty easy. And for AC remember that the druid can where one of the dragon armors (i think the red) that Cromwell will make for you.

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 8:43 am

It is the red dragon scale

If you do not have ToB installed, red scale and rings of protection can be worn together, and if your character has these equipped when you install ToB he/she will keep them. ToB modified the red dragon scale properties to make it magical, hence you will not be able to equip a protection ring/amulet after installing the expansion. My Avenger started ToB with AC-9, which is pretty good for a druid

Littiz · Post by **Littiz** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 9:21 am

anyway 2th level spells ARE crappy, I mean, when you'll be high in level they'll be useless.
While a cleric has Draw Upon Holy Might, for instance...
Of course, this is compensated by druidic high level spells!

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Wed Jun 26, 2002 9:51 am

It's about time another person is trying the Totemic. (**sticks toung out at Ysh's Avenger

) They're my favorite class over EVERYTHING now!

Druidic spells are good when it comes to using them in combat, but I found that I prefer to summon animals and cast spells like Iron and Bark skin ahead of combat time. Best of all, Spirit Animals are immune to just about everything it seems. I love 'em!

One thing to do - Summon a Spirit Animal, Cast Barkskin on it, and send it into a room to clear out the baddies. S'nice.

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 3:59 am

Thanks to everyone, I'm receiving help beyond my hope!

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
It's about time another person is trying the Totemic. (**sticks toung out at Ysh's Avenger ) They're my favorite class over EVERYTHING now!

Druidic spells are good when it comes to using them in combat, but I found that I prefer to summon animals and cast spells like Iron and Bark skin ahead of combat time. Best of all, Spirit Animals are immune to just about everything it seems. I love 'em!

One thing to do - Summon a Spirit Animal, Cast Barkskin on it, and send it into a room to clear out the baddies. S'nice.

Aqua... that's exactly a thing I was planning to try!

(casting barkskins on summoned pets)
Doest it really work?
Spirit Animals AC is not bad. Does Barkskin stack on it?

Originally posted by Littiz
anyway 2th level spells ARE crappy, I mean, when you'll be high in level they'll be useless.
While a cleric has Draw Upon Holy Might, for instance... .

I guess we druids DO have a problem here...

playing with Jaheira, I ended up selling Goodberries in shops throughot the Realms

@ Yshania: Wise. Flame blade is not SO bad, after all. But I'll get better weapons rather quickly after leaving Irenicus' dungeon (Belm... Blackblood... Gnasher....)
I'm wondering: are druids good in double wielding? (How muuch in *? 2 or 3?) And is it possible to double wield, say, Belm and a Flame blade?

New question:
Suggested stile of combat most useful to a druid? (Single weapon... two handed... weapon and shield ...?)
Ops, are druids allowed to use a shield at all?

Ode to a Grasshopper · Thu Jun 27, 2002 5:18 am

Druids can only put one point into dual-wielding, and the only shields they can use are bucklers. I'd recommend (though I have yet to try a druid seriously) giving your druid * in 2-Handed style, and having them use staves. There are some nice druid-only staves in the game.

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 5:40 am

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
Druids can only put one point into dual-wielding, and the only shields they can use are bucklers. I'd recommend (though I have yet to try a druid seriously) giving your druid * in 2-Handed style, and having them use staves. There are some nice druid-only staves in the game.

Agreed....
And there are good spears then, and someone's got to use them...
(bucklers???

...woe... never heard about a buckler with wonderful magical powers in the whole game, am I right?)

No double-wielding Flame Blades then, I guess...

Other tips for good weapons? Opinions about darts over slings for ranged attacks?

Thanks again

Troll Slayer · Post by **Troll Slayer** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 7:30 am

I have a question. Druids in IWD rocked. Especially with HOW. The spells they got made them one of the most fun classes to play. Does anyone know if any one out there as imported over the spells that druids get in IWD:HOW to BG2? If so, is there any where to down load them at. I have been playing with the idea myself, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I have used the infinity editor before, as well as shadow keeper. The problm as I see it would be finding and tranafering all the custom .bam and graphics over with the spell effects. Worst case senerio, you would just have to make the spells from scracth in IEE. Long and boring, but possible. Finally, I must say the reason I have been thinking about doing this is becasue I want to try a druid in BG2. However, I find the kits and spells for them in BG2 lacking. Especially the golden lion! If I play a druid, I am going to buff it up into a a better fighter. Not as good as Drittz's cat, but close. I am also thinking that the elemental transforamtion abilites in TOB are a wee bit weak. Any one agree or disagree? I am thinking about tweaking them a bit also. Maybe adding some slashing and piercing resistance and higher HP to the earth form, and who knows what to the fire form. First and formost, I want to keep the class balanced. Well I'm done rambling.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 7:37 am

Originally posted by serjeLeBlade

Agreed....
And there are good spears then, and someone's got to use them...
(bucklers??? ...woe... never heard about a buckler with wonderful magical powers in the whole game, am I right?)

No double-wielding Flame Blades then, I guess...

Other tips for good weapons? Opinions about darts over slings for ranged attacks?

Thanks again

I always stocked my Totemic on scimitars. Belm +2 is nice, and when dual weilding with +3 Scimitar: Water's Edge...

Clubs work well, too. I found the Gnasher worked wonders, and Blackblood wasn't half bad, either.

I rarely use shields. When you can equip Iron skin, what's the point? (My favorite defencive spell!)

I was always an up-front PC, so I never use slings...

Littiz · Post by **Littiz** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 10:46 am

Just a thought...
The summons are mostly used as cannon fodder
(this is why my neutral supergood char didn't use them!!!

)
So, what about caring_for_animals_druids who summons them and send them to death!?!?

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 10:57 am

Originally posted by Littiz
Just a thought...
The summons are mostly used as cannon fodder
(this is why my neutral supergood char didn't use them!!! )
So, what about caring_for_animals_druids who summons them and send them to death!?!?

Good point, maybe it should have been done like the ring if genie summoning you get from the shadow thieves -- if the genie dies, the ring is forever useless.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 12:39 pm

Spirit Animals are obviously already dead with the exception of thier earthly avatar. No argueing with that!

Other than them, I never use other summoning spells... With the exception of Anomen's Undead.

In other words, everything I summon is already dead.

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Thu Jun 27, 2002 2:27 pm

Originally posted by Aqua-chan

In other words, everything I summon is already dead.

For me, they are elemental dear Watson