Utilizing the power of a druid

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I love druid, but i found that there are way too many indoor fightings in BG2 that it's very hard to truely utilize his power.

Anyone can propose some strategy to use a druid as powerful as he should be?

 

Only spell that doesn't work indoors is, IIRC, Call Lightning. Other than that, everything you use outdoors you can use indoors. Against mages, Insect-spells really hurt.
Also, there are plenty of buffs. And all Druids have shapechange, which can power them up.

 

Don't forget Ironskin. Is one of the best defensive spells in the game and it can be cast by a druid or a ranger.

 

Rangers don't get Ironskins. C/R otoh....

Call Lightning is useless unless you know you will be outside. Prepare those summon (Call Woodland Beings, Summon Fire Elemental) and disabler spells (Insect Plague. Creeping Doom, Nature's Beauty). I felt the Totemic druid I played was quite good, especially with her snake spirit that poisons.

 

Yeah, the power in the druid is in nuking and summons, as well as anti-caster spells. Yes, Iron Skins is a very powerful spell, but it's best used to protect yourself going into melee, and if you're playing a vanilla druid, melee is the last thing you should be doing (although if you're shapeshifted, that's a different matter). Druids don't have a contest of wills with their summoned elementals, for instance. They also have some miscellaneous utility spells, like Entangle (which can be used with area-effect spells like Cloudkill) even though Web is at least as good if not better, and Barkskin as an AC enhancer.

Unfortunately, druids eventually get overtaken in pretty much all their strengths (other than shapeshifting) by clerics and mages in a fairly full party. The real power of a druid, if any, is in having a well-rounded, jack-of-all-trades spell arsenal that's somewhat flexible, but trades away a lot of sheer power in exchange for that flexibility.

 

This is a major advantage. The 6th level spell Summon Fire Elemental is massively useful as it last for ages, does good damage, takes a fair beating and does fire damage as a bonus (handy versus trolls). This spell is a must have.

Other than emphasising that point, I think Killjoy hit the nail on the head here.

 

Utlizing the power of a druid??

Cast Doom, get a mage to cast Greater Malison and pump your enemy with Dolorous Decay! 50 dmg, no save! Cast 3 of these babies and 150 dmg no save!

 

Man! To this day, the most fun I had on run through was with an Avenger Druid. Her CO + Doom wiped tons of foes, Web hindered more, she Iron-skinned and kicked @ss with a quarter-staff, and insected most mages (and groups of lower enemies). Her fire elementals were superb summons, and saved a fight many a time. I had her in Ankheg Plate, Helm of Defense, Boots of Speed, and Ring of Fire Resistance. With another mage pumping fireballs out, the two them cleaned up.

That group was the Avenger, an Evocation-mage, and a berseker-thief. With just three, some of the battles were a lot tougher, but the group sure leveled up fast.


Aaahhh, good times....

 

i'm dumb but, what is CO?

 

Chromatic Orb, a bonus level 1 spell the avenger kit gets.

 

It has the potential to kill the enemy instantly at higher lvls of experience, but the save is made at +6 bonus which means most enemies will succeed.

Though, if you first cast a Doom and Greater Malison, it is as good as Disintegrate:save vs spells or die. Use it on enemies with crappy saving throws:Umber Hulks are good canditates.

You may want to try Natural Selection mod for druids. It adds a few interesting kits, and allows druids to use bows. A good change, and really adds power to druids, the mod also gives free two handed weapon proficiency to all druid kits as well. (to use staves and spears more effectively) It makes sense to me and I enjoy the mod, it opened up new builds and strategies for good old Jaheira. (such as slaying a room full of Improved Mindflayers and Ulitharids with a single detonation arrow and Greater Deathblow HLA:that was way tooo sweet! )

I like the other modificatiosn too. Druid remix from Divine Remix is reccomended as well.

 

Interesting. Since Jaheira is always in my party, that bow proficiencies would come really handy And to use Impaler better... I think I got myself new mod to test on next play throught I'm looking forward to Jaheira becoming even more powerful.

 

Ah, do you also have Item Upgrade mod? Throwing Impaler spear is the best ranged weapon you can dream of...well, short of Bloodbane throwing spear, but that comes with a very hard challenge. (poison avatars ambush in tactics mod, that battle is scary!)

My MP created party member, Shapeshifter15/Fighter x True GM in spears, improved hasted, he does massive damage with throwing spear Impaler after paralysing all with Bloodbane first. That is evil. Impaler also adds +10 bonus piercing damage per hit, so when GWWing, it is impressive indeed. When surrounded or in trouble, he can shapechange in to a Greater WW with -21 or better AC and regeneration, good resistances and saving throws, plus he has 6 7th lvl spell slots...Truly a powerful and versatile build, able to survive and do massive damage when the situation calls for it.

 

Already had a taste of throwing impaler, it's wicked Haven't tried tactics yet, as I told you yesterday, that's for one of the next times Considering I only managed to finished the game three times until now, there still a lot of chances for that.

I was considering something along the lines of your character, except I would go other way around, I was thinking Berserker 12/ Druid X. I think it would still be very powerful. Sure, Shapeshifter 15 is great, but 3 million exp is a lot, and since I always play with six person party, it would take some time to ge there.

 

Berserker druid would be nice! Go for it! Get true GM fix too, it really helps. Also use Nature's Beauty spell:it is devastating for melee-oriented builds. Get Natural Selection ASAP, it adds lots of fun and diversity.

I agree it was hard to reach 3M xp for the Shapeshifter class, but druids get a massive boost at that level, they suddenly gain so many spell slots, it is well worth it! I chose Summon Deva HLA, and dualled my druid freshly out of Underdark, and he regained his druid abilities right in the Hell trials, after Improved Sarevok battle:which was very welcome as there was Improved Jon Irenicus (gasp!) battle ahead! Excellent timing, isn't it? As a note, druids are great to dual from as the fighter class required less XP to reach lvl 16, really, which was sooo nice!

 

Oh, I'm definetly going for it After I finish my current game with archer that is. You know, this will actually be my first dual classed character. Up until now I always played classes that can't be dual classed, or kits that I didn't(or couldn't) want to dual class. It will be refreshing, me thinks

Like I said, I always play with six person party. Level 12 berserker needs one million exp, that can be obtained pretty quickly, so I can regain it fast. And I think three rages will suffice. And I know how powerful druids become at level 15. I almost drop my eyes out when I saw six level 7 spells in Jaheira's priest scroll

 

But now that I realise it you will miss good fighter HLAs. This was the cause of my build:to enjoy fighter HLAs, while still having high spell slots. I find druid HLAs rather weak. Elemental lords are nice but their duration is low. Storm of Vengeance and Aura of Flaming Death I never bother to use:they seem weak. Same for elemental shapeshiftings. I see no real use for them, but maybe that is just me.

Fighter HLAs, on the other hand, are truly powerful:GWW is very useful in every situation, but I personally worship Greater Death Blow. This skill is very powerful. It kills annoying critters such as Gauths, Beholders, Mind Flayers, Ulitharids and even their mod-improved super tough and deadly versions instantly:a detonation arrow works wonders, as it has an area effect, it kills everything with one shot, so cool! This can be applied to Fire Seeds, but it would be less effective as it has small area effect.

Consider those at least. But if you really really want to have the fighter kit, that is your only option, and pretty doable in unmodded game. Since modded games like mine reward a lot more XP in the end, excessive dual-class builds are more doable.

 

Hmmm, that's true, forgot all about HLA's Still, I think I'll keep with that combo. Many of my previous games depended on fighter HLA's, it will be challange to see what I can do without them. Hopefully, engraga will do the trick. And with little help from druidic magic, everything will work out fine.

 

Bear in mind, Mordokai, that if you go for the Fighter > Druid and dual at 12th level then you miss out the bonus to your attacks that occurs at 13th level. The difference between 12 and 13 isn't that large in terms of experience, so I'd advise waiting until level 13.

 

Point taken. Thanks for an advice.