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Seems that ppl are trying out some less popular solo (by which I mean beastmaster, wizard slayer,etc), I'd also want some challenge for myself. I had soloed a f/m and never played any druid type PC before. I looked at the kit descriptions and choose the totemic druid coz he only has to give up some lousy shapeshifts, great for a beginner in the druidic order.
Here are my stats:
Nafuyr(idea comes from "nature's fury",I usually can't think about good names)
human male TN alignment,of course
Str 13
Dex 18
Con 16
Int 11
Wis 18
Cha 15
Proficient in club,spear,sling and single weapon style, will take staff later.
I barely defeated the first mephit(sp?) without myself being killed, and found that the spirit animals rocks during the fight with the ogre mage.The rest of the dungeon was easy then, I just let my spirit animals do the dirty work for me, while I throw in a few sling bullets. When I get to the surface, I've only scored about 10 kills myself! How can I become the Lord of Murder this way?
*More later*

Go for it! Sounds like fun.

I think that those spirit animals can't hit monsters that require magic +1 to take damage, so they are great at first but at some point their usefulness diminishes. I'm not positive about this, however.

Might I suggest instead of quarterstaff you try dual-wielding clubs? With Gnasher in one hand, and Blackblood in another, and ironskins, and a little more buffing your Druid would be OK in melee. He's already got great spells, that's not a problem.

Any way you do it, it sounds fun.

I'm glad you are trying this obscure solo!

I think their attacks are considered regular, altho they need +1 or better to get hit, wich is nice for lower lvl and very essential for a soloer until you can get better summons

I believe that at least on of the spirit animals weapons are +1, wolf maybe. I love totemic druids actually. They are great. Enjoy. Remember to use the spell find traps a lot. I've found there are a lot of traps you can just avoid by walking carefully.

As to my advice, speak softly and carry a big stick. Or maybe 2 small ones that deal acid and splinter damage

Go for it. Soloing is pretty fun. I would definitely reccommend Gnasher. The club rocks in SOA. There are some Vampires and Demons that it can't hit, but otherwise, it's very effective. Good luck and keep posting. I'd love to hear how you make out.

cool cool! haha.. I always wanted to know whether the Totemic Druid is good enough for soloing.. i mean, I know Avengers are able to (possibly).. but yeah.. should be interesting. Keep us posted..

Off Topic: You know what Bioware should have done? Like.. for ever 10 levels or something, the Totemic Druid should, on top of their current spirit summonings, they should get ANOTHER. Like, when they reach level 20 (in ToB of course).. they should get.. I dunno... a Spirit Human/Whatever.. coz IMO, these spirit summonings they have right now, wont be able to last in ToB. mmy 2c worth.

The random things a litl anoyin too... I liked the snakes, and would spend a fair amount of time getting my sommuns right - then again thats just me being a superficial prick.

A spirit hawk would of been nice too.

Couldnt get Tetomic to work well in the end and went Werewolf. Best of luck, i guess.

Valyissiun

Oh undead tend too rip through you, so try and side with Bodhi (most Shadow Thieves cant hit spirit summons ), make sure to hold onto Bone Club +2 +5 vs Undead - really helps for later encounters.

Valyissiun

[ 09-05-2001: Message edited by: Valyissiun ]

After clearing the circus tent and copper coronet, plus a few random encounters, Nafuyr now gets fire elementals and it really kick a$$! The whole druid grove is a joke with the help of fire elementals. I don't find too much difference between totemic and normal druids now, except the spirit animals still serve as good fodders, while the fire elementals do the real fighting and I sit back and watch. Didn't do much today, coz I've got to attend more lectures.
BTW Gnasher IS excellent, but druids can't dual wield too well, so I chose proficiency in quarterstaff and get the staff mace, it is quite good for it does bastard sword damage. Nafuyr would like to try to play with the thunder staff very soon.
Pls stay tuned.

Good thread Promise, sounds like fun. I am actually soloing with a Shapeshifter druid. Irenicus' dungeon was a cakewalk with just the regular wolfwere shifts and wolfwere. I just cleared the Copper Coronet and got fire elementals. I'm on my way to the druid grove.

I had heard so many people bash druids that I was hesitant to try soloing one. But I think that they can be a very powerful class if used right. They get great offensive spells (insect plague, etc) that make some battles with mages very easy.

Let's hear more druid stories

Don't forget to save a prof. in spear. The Impaler does great damage too.

Zeyk>Wow, you're trying the shapeshifter kit? That's what I'd like to do next.

Now Nafuyr is at deArnise keep and he doesn't have enoungh summons to finish all the badies, so he had to go toe to toe with a few trolls and umber hulks. He got badly injured and ran out of spells, so he decided to retreat for a while.

Nafuyr bought a giant strength belt form adventurers' Mart and did some very minor quests to go up a level. Now he is a 13th level druid and is planning to deal with the Umar Hills problem before returning for revenge in deArnise keep.

Nice thread. Very interesting to read about your progress. For the moment I play an Avenger myself, although I don't solo (to fond of the NPCs to do that).

IIRC, back in early spring lots of people considered the Totemic Druid to be the best of the druidic kits. Personally I think shapeshiftning is one of the things that makes a Druid (even though I rarely use the Wolf and Bear forms).

I've played a lot with Cernd and I like his kit. After he get the Elemental Transformations I mostly let him use these, though.

IMO, the Avenger is by far the nicest kit. I admit that the only useful shapeshift form of the Avenger is the Swordie. However, that one is good! Five attacks per round eat through Stoneskin in a few seconds and, as soon as they're gone, the scared little ennemy Mage gets poisoned. And the extra spells you get are all excellent (with the exception of Web but you don't have to memorize it so...). And the drawbacks really are no drawbacks. A Druid doesn't need more than 16 in Str and will get no extra HP for a Con above 16, anyway.

[ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Astafas ]

Nafuyr kicked the shade lord's butt with no problem. He then had a very nice tour to the harpers' hideout, and is now crawling around in the sewers. Guess what is the BEST item he got today? It's the potion case bought from WK!(I know it's silly running all the way to do so, but I needed it badly) Inventory management is one of the worse problems when solo IMO.

Now we have fans for all druid kits, just which class/kit haven't been, or is being attempted now? A diviner?

I have been playing a shapeshifter druid and the staff of thunder and lighting is the best weapon for druids till you get the staff of the woodlands or the staff of the Ram in ToB. With Ironskins on and por lighting.. you can mess alot of stuff up with the call lighting charges(which works indoors) then if you get swarmed in coridors or small rooms just pop a lighting bolt at a wall and watch them twich. then to top it all off there at two staves of thunder and lighting in the game so you can use the charges without having to worry.. Then it has the 10% chance to stun your foes for 2 rounds with each hit.. Its a must for any druid...

@Promise, Yeah, the shapeshifter kit is very nice. For most of the beginner quests the wolfwere is strong enough to go toe to toe with the baddies. As soon as I got my fire elemental I just went to town and now trolls are not a problem. I also got the girdle of giant strength and use the "Flame Blade" spell to backup my elemental in combat. I don't know when you get the greater wolfwere transform, but that beastie has -12AC and attacks as a +4 weapon so I await it eagerly.

Other spells I use a lot are the summon insect and insect plague variety. They are great against spellcasters.

Avengers rock too

Soloing a sorcerer is the best best thing I could ever do in BGII

What about the staff of striking? I thought it was a +9 weapon. You can recharge it at a store.

MM

@SpuD, Yeah sorcerers are great, but a lot of people have already soloed with them and we know it can be done. The idea here was to try to solo with one of the less popular classes. Since druids have been bashed so much on these forums, it was answering a challenge to try this. I expected it to be much harder, but I am finding the druid to be a very powerful and fun class to solo with. It's just a matter of adjusting your play style to take advantage of their strengths (and they have many) while using tactics and cunning to overcome their weakensses.