Great surprise: the Druid (surprise)

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:41 am

For the 3rd (or 4th?) time playing IWD 2, I though I'd give a chance to this class I always found useless.

Now I'm surprised. The druid has the coolest area spells in the game (Fireball is just nothing compared to those), not just powerful, but the animation looks pretty cool, too! She's become the caster I mainly rely on beside the Sorceress (which is also a big surprise, I've always played a Wizard - but that's another matter...)

And I found the Holy Hammer of Lucerene for her in the Monastery, which does 10d+3 damage AND works as the Club of Disruption: all undead must make a Fortitude save or die

So, it seems that the Druid is not as useless as it seems until lvl 5

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:44 am

.

druids are quite a good choice for the normal game - in HOF he is completly underpowered without Weimars shapeshift mod - but don't use shapeshift in normal then cause there it's completly overpowered!

concerning sorcs: the "no need to memorize spells" capability is often completly underestimated for sorcs!

.

.

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:55 am

I'm sad to hear the the Druid is not powerful enough for HoF...

I'm planning to enter HoF with this party, and I wouldn't like to get rid of the Druid... What shapes can she achieve with the Weidu mod you mentioned?

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:04 am

Elemental dragons (or half dragons?).
Very strong, elemental resistant and do elemental dmg.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:36 am

.

...red (fire), black (acid), blue (lightning), white (cold) half-dragons...

...and finally at level 21: elemental (all) half-dragon...

...bad AC - but the rest - very powerfull at melee...

...great BAB and damage per hit (all) elements

...more or less imune to (all) elemental damage & good DR & SR!

especially powerfull with a sorc or better bard 9 / druid 21 (and casting MI, blink & blur before shapeshifting)

...think you won't find any other build dealing more damage per round!

.

Aldon · Post by **Aldon** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:15 pm

I am slowely coming to like the druid. I prefer clerics as healers (converting spell to healing spells, more armor flexibility, and domain spells). I prefer socerrers and wizards for arcane damage. I prefer tanks for melee damage.

The good thing about the druid is its flexibility. It is a good backup tank, caster, and healer all in one character. It can make whatever tactic your party is using more effective.

Kblitz · Post by **Kblitz** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:24 am

The Druid is awesome

And they do fine in HOF. They have summon spells out the wazoo.

Erenor · Post by **Erenor** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:32 pm

It's nice to finally have a Forgotten Realms PC game, in which the druid doesn't get stomped on from being too weak.

ishuman · Post by **ishuman** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:07 pm

Favorite build?

So what are folks' favorite race and class builds for a druid going through normal mode? I know the barb 1/ druid x (extra speed, rage and weapons) and rngr 1/druid x (2-weapon, ambidex, fav-enemy, better weapons) are popular. What about barb1 /rngr1 /Druid x?

I've also never used one through any of my campaigns so I've been toying with the idea of doing IWD2 again to include some characters I'm less familiar with. I'm thinking of a 4 or maybe 5 person group of characters that are all something different than what I've played before.

-ishuman

Erenor · Post by **Erenor** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:27 pm

[QUOTE=ishuman]So what are folks' favorite race and class builds for a druid going through normal mode? I know the barb 1/ druid x (extra speed, rage and weapons) and rngr 1/druid x (2-weapon, ambidex, fav-enemy, better weapons) are popular. What about barb1 /rngr1 /Druid x?[/QUOTE]

Aasimars are my first choice for Druids, b/c the abilities they have make perfect sense for a druid. They have higher than normal Wisdom and Charisma, they get reductions in Acid, Cold, and Electrical damage against them, they have darkvision, and they can use Sunscorch 1/Day! The barbarian/druid mix is just grand, b/c a raging animal fits well for role-playing, and the awesome power that a rampaging bear possesses works great for power-gaming. Until ID2, I had no idea druids could be this much fun!

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:42 pm

Mine is an Aasimar, too - yeah, the +2 Wis and +2 Char gave me no choice

ishuman · Post by **ishuman** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:28 pm

Hmmm... so with Aasimar do you leave your hero as a pure single-class Druid with no mix-ins (MC)?

-ishuman

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:22 am

Yes. I never liked mixed classes - though after level 20 or so I might consider it, since levelling up in the same class may not be as rewarding as taking a few levels in another class.

If I take the race's favoured class, there is no xp penalty, right?

ishuman · Post by **ishuman** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:01 am

Right, but with Aasimar thats Paladin which you can't do as a Druid because of alignment restrictions. So its kind of a trade-off between the extra 4 ability points and resistances with the Aasimar vs. the extra weapons, speed and feats of doing human w/ ranger and/or barbarian mixed in. Choices, choices.

-ishuman