Buffing with Clerics/Druids...

Remove all ads!

I've heard a lot about the much vaunted ability of Clerics and to a slightly lesser extent, Druids to make themselves nigh unhittable, give themselves godly resistances and inhuman stats...but I've never been able to fully achieve that kind of god-ness with any cleric I've used (Anomen/Viconia/Jaheira) and I wanted to ask all you cleric-lovers out there...how do you do it!

Also, would it be possible to solo with a Cleric? Or maybe a Druid? What would I do about locks? I'm not too bothered about traps but locks is a big problem.

Also, what kind of weapon choices should I look at?

 

Millions of XP.
Shield of the Archons and Armor of Faith (at high levels) are very effective defensive spells. Druids have Elemental transformations. Clerics can also summon lot of Skeleton Warriors, and a Deva (celestial) or Fallen Deva (abyssal). Druids can summon Elemental Princes, very powerful creatures (only for a round though).

Soloing is probably possible and can work well, but I rarely solo so I cannot help too much. Yes traps are no problem. You can use Find Traps to find traps (<- this was a good sentence). Opening locks... hard, because only wizards have such a spell. You need very high strength, so you can blow locks into pieces

Proficiencies. There are many good weapons in ToB which are very powerful and can be used by Clerics too... choose Hammer I think.. and mace. Nothing special. Sling perhaps.

 

The druids also get Ironskin pretty early, which is just a clerical version of the much heralded Stoneskin. That's one of the main reasons Jaheira makes such a great tank.

 

And there's more: Protection from evil, Draw upon holy might, Righteous wrath of the faithful, Defensive Harmony, Champion's strength, which altogether may well net you a -6 AC, 1 bonus attack and about -4 to your saving throws - did I forget that with a bit of luck your strength is around 24 after all these spells?

 

When do you have all these spells casted? I mean, do you cast them as soon as you finish resting (have them on 24/7) or only when a tough battle is coming?

I find it hard to cast the spells at the right time. Sometimes I cast too early and it expires without doing much good. Other times I decide not to pump, and some monsters jump me. Then I don't have time to buff up and end up badly hurt if not dead.

 

Okay so here's my newest tactic: I write myself a script for my cleric. I put spells that last longer than one turn on key B and spells that last from 2-8 rounds on the N key.

Meaning: When I'm about to enter an infested area, I press B and wair for DUHM, haste, mirror image, ... to be cast (haste is NO cleric spell - need a mage for that). Then I storm in; if I happen to know the exact position of these foes then I'll wait until the last seconds before pressing N - which in turn makes my cleric cast Righteous wrath of the faithful and Defensive harmony. Off we go!

Take into consideration the spells' durations and their casting times! Having played the game at least once helps a lot with anticipating attacks!