I love druids

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hi everybody. this is my first post here, please excuse the long post. i have a lot to cover.

anyways i recently started playing baldurs gate (a coupla months), and i was pretty frustrated with 6 party play (i hate reloading cause one of those idiots decideds they are 10 feet tall and bulletproof). but i did some expermenting and decided to try to solo with a totemic druid.

its been really fun. i've gotten maybe halfway though ch 3 and he is only slowed down when i decide to take on a partner.

but i would to have some more NPC interaction in the future. I was thinking about taking another totemic druid and doing a duette with jaheira cause i really enjoy druid spells and it would let my totemic focus on just summoning.

anyways the whole point of this was asking for pointers on my current player and my future party.

also this character is my farthest along in the game so some tips on future baddies would be nice. like dragons? i tried that shadow dragon at lvl 13 and his insta summon kill left me defenseless. i dont mind a few spoilers.

oh and if you say "ditch the druid and get a [insert other class here]" chances are i'll ignore you.

[edit]: some comments about my plans for my future party. i was thinking that jaheira would cover most of the healing/buffing spells while my tomteic summons stuff. my totemic for sure will be a slinger once he gets everything summoned, but should i have jaheira hang back too since i'll have all those summons?

 

You are going to be really unhappy when you run into mages that cast death and death fog. All those summoning spells won't last long. Take Jaheira by all means, she can do a fine job in melee with good gear. One really strong class in SoA is a fighter taken to lvl 13 then dual classed to a druid. You can still reach lvl 14 in the druid class.

I suggest augmenting your game with some of the mods that improve the AI, increase the difficulty and take a full party of npc's along. Mix em up without regard for alignments and have some fun with their interactions.

 

ah yes i have had some encounters with enemies that like to instantly slay all my summons, but they werent characters that had to be killed to complete a quest. like the shadow dragon. and i recently took a try at firekraag, boy did he whoop me fast.

are there that many mages that will wipe out my summons? could i just hope that i can insect plague them before they nail my summons?

and i have played some with full parties, but i have found them to be frustrating at times. i'm looking for a good 2 person party with the other person being an NPC. maybe i should take on a different NPC if mages are gonna be so hard on my summons? i would like to use a another spellcaster, but would that be practical in my duet?

[edit] oh and i have already downloaded files to fix the spirit animals. are there any other mods/files that you would suggest?

 

Umm, lets just say that nearly every mage you face in later levels would be able to dispell your summoned creatures.
If I were you I would play through with just Jahiera like you suggested before, it would be interesting to play through the whole game with just two druids.

 

Your summmons become obsolete past chapter 3 where most encounters have level 14 + mages. Underdark will kill you. Can your druid fight? Because otherwise your screwed. Sorry. Insect plauge may help, and you prolly have fire elemental now as well so that might be useful. But a lot of mages will be to well protected for that insect plauge to get through. Or they will remove it easily. Basically mages will destory later on if you dont have decent fighting skills to boot. My suggestion is to learn how to hit and run with sling of everard and boots of speed.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of druids, I prefer fighters and mages (although lately I've seen how cool clerics are), however, one time, just for kicks, I made a shapeshifter. I didn't even play him, just killed a mephit or 2 in the first quest, and that ogre mage, but my point is, he raped them good. (I kicked everyone else from my party, as this was just an experiment). So, my point is, you might want to consider grabbing Cernd in your party, as when he's a werewolf his STR, DEX, and CON shoot up!

 

Yes, well if you wish some fighting prowess in your party get Cernd and shapeshifter rebalanced mod (its in easy-of-use).

That will certainly take care of the fighting part.


And eventhough i'm not a summoning freak i do summon them from time to time... And when i do against enemy mages they didnt de-summon them all that often. And when they do it starts to get interesting


My advice: Do whatever you like. If you lack fighters get Cernd. Ifmages pose a problem i'm sure you'll find a solution, if you dont just post up here.

And dont waste your time reading and checking new posts up here every five minutes... Just go and play!

 

Personally, I wouldn't want to do this. The best part of the NPC’s is the interactions they have with each other; the interactions with the main character are nominal aside from possible romances. Otherwise, NPC’s always seem to be somewhat lacking, either in stats or prof point allocations (although they do sometimes have some neat special abilities not normally available to their class). If you are only going with a 2-person party, you might be better off creating both of them yourself. (Of course, this is from a powergaming perspective, which I tend to lean towards.)

Have you considered dualling a ranger to a cleric? This way you get all cleric and druid spells rolled into 1 character. (Could go multi as well, but IMO dual is better in SoA.)

 

Just a reminder, without XP removers and the like, a druid can only reach level 14!
Druids are classes that become supremely, enormously powerful around level 15 or so, they recieve spells that (at least in Ad&d) do 5 km fireballs casteble from 10 km away, and stuff of the like.
I'm a druid lover too (all spellcasters actually, I've almost played them all), but in the face of these facts, I don't opt for the druid.

 

my druid is an ok fighter when he has too. he is lvl 14 now with an AC of -5 i think and a thaco around 4. which is good enough for him to hit most of the baddies i face, but mostly i have him sit back and sling away after my summons are up. i guess once i get my current solo a little farther i will be able to tell if he will be able to handle those mages.

oh and yes i use the fire elementals and my spirit animals with a lot of success so far. "tactical postioning" (summon and run like hell) has been my most successfull strat for real hard baddies. but i think i would be in trouble if i ever get confined in a small space with tough mages.

the only monsters so far i have attempted that i couldnt beat yet are firekraag's near immortal wolfwere, the shadow dragon, firekraag, and kangaxx (he is that one in the bridge district basement right?).

 

If you druid is male, then you should probably grab Jaheira for the romance.

 

Kangaxx is in the docks district. The Twisted Rune is in the bridge district.

 

Yeah I agree. Druids Rock!!!!!!!
Personally I like the avenger better but anyway I don't think that you'll be able to get far in the game solo. I advise u geta party(even if its just a small 1) and try to get a wide range of abillities in it.
I like the druid spells as well but sometimes u need mage spells to win a fight so try to get a party. I suggest edwin yoshimo or jan and minsc.

Hope u make your game a good 1!!!!

 

If you want to better your chances of getting your insect spells to take affect, do not target the spell at mages. Depending on the mage, you run the risk of the spell rebounding onto your party or not taking affect at all. Target the fighters instead. Normally they will fail their save and the insects will spread out to the others, including the mage who would have saved or reflected the spell back to you.

As someone mentioned if your hand-to-hand skills are lacking, grab that sling. Sling of Everard is good, but Sling of Seeking is also good. If you have better than average strength (12+), your strength bonus applies to every attack. That'll help take down, or at least slow down, those spell casters.