Druids or Clerics?

[Rhûn]

I'm interested to know, which class do you prefer and for what reasons?

I prefer clerics over druids because of the better armour and IMO weapons and druids miss out on some pretty important spells. Plus the druid experience table is pretty strange (lvl13-15 gap, though theres a mod to convert to cleric table) which can result in the druid getting left behind a little as the other characters level up.

However, I prefer the fighter/druid over any other 'priest' class, extremely powerful, especially if you ease of use-it to get available grandmastery proficiency (I dont see why you shouldnt be able to with multis...). Add on those druid only spells, ironskins, insect plague, etc. great fun

[Volever]

I have always preferred clerics to druids. Shapeshifting never interested me much and druids have too many restrictions. If I really want druid spells, becaue many of them are good, I can just take a R/C and I get a more offensive cleric (can get ** instead of only * in weapons) as well as every preist spell available. There is also no horrid progession table, an annoyance you already mentioned

[Nimiety]

I think druids are best for dualling, as you can quickly go up to level 12, and not waste much under any exp cap (only 300K!). However, the ranger/cleric, mentioned before, has the best mix of both druidic and clerical spells and, with the offense to boot, is a really strong character.
N...

[Faust]

I suppose I've always preferred clerics to druids. I'd agree that a well-played druid can be a force to be reckoned with, but they've always been a bit too much hybrid offensive/healing class for my tastes. I generally prefer pure classes with clear cut roles. As such, clerics have always suited my play tastes better. In general, druids seem to lag too far behind clerics in healing, and too far behind wizards in offensive spells to be truly useful for my purposes (and I'm underwhelmed by shapeshifting as well). Moreover, there's enough undead in BG2 to off-set much of the offensive differences between druids and clerics. Still, I've vowed to be more creative in my use of druids the next play through, so maybe I'll change my tune.

[Deadalready]

The experience gaps that a druid suffers from are extremely annoying and when you compare that to the Cleric's level 21 the speed and power of leveling is pretty obvious. I like to level lots regardless of whether it is really beneficial to me, so I tend to like the thief, Bard and Cleric classes since it feels like my experience is well earnt.


Clerics for me have always been one of my favourite classes and they have a good range of spells to use, most specifically Protection from Evil, Aerial Servant and raise undead. Also at high level they get some rather cool spells like firestorm and gate and others to add.

The Druid on the other hand has some interesting spells like Call Lightning, Call Woodland Beings and Summon Fire Elemental and they're good enough to keep a druid around for but other than that I don't think there's much of use to be found from them beyond summoning. Their shapeshifting abilty is just moot to me, all shapeshifting does is disable spell casting and reset my spell quick slots.

The Druid spell selection at level 7 in power just plain bite, there's 8 different spells to choose from if I'm not mistaken and really they're not that interesting too look at.

Nature's beauty sounds really cool on paper but then you look at the range, the save bonus one realises it's not that fantastic at all, there's also those summoning insect spells but I rarely use spells that have "Save for No effect" either.

Finally the weapon selection of Clerics frankly seems a large amount better in SOA, there are some differences but none of them compare to the clubs, flails and maces available.

[Coot]

I wouldn't mind all the cons of playing a druid if there was some compensation in the game. But there isn't. You have to wait until you're level 14 to get a stronghold that is nothing special. There are no great druid npc's (not counting Jaheira) and the druid's balance philosophy seems somewhat warped to me.

[Erenor]

Clerics get better armor and can weild more powerful weapons. Sure, the Druid can use Scimitars, but that's no compensation for all the other restrictions. Cleric spells also seem to be more useful, anyway. Go with a cleric.