Druids?

Remove all ads!

I was just wondering, does anyone use druids as a main focus in their party? As in, do druids always take up one or MORE (hehe yeah ok ) in their parties? Seriously I think they are waaaaay overrated and quite pointless. Weak, boring, pathetic spells, animal empathy skills ( ) AND shapeshifing is just annoying because it doesn't DO ANYTHING IN A FIGHT So anyone use them?

 

In IWD druids aren't overrated! All party-building faqs avoid thyem unless they want high-AC (needs 12 lvls of druid for maximum barkskin effect).
They can't take the place of neither the arcane casters nor the cleric.
The reason why even non-RP-people play with druids are that you can have up to 6 party members.
1 cleric, 1 tank (can be combined with the cleric), and 1 arcane caster is enough to cover all areas and easily play through the game. Then you have the possibility to add 3-4 chars of your choice. That's where the druid comes in with unique spell lists (of which some are quite powerful) and good backup capabilities in all areas (gets all healing spells but a bit later, and will get some attack spells too). Adding another cleric makes it harder to find useful spells that the primary healer don't have)
This way you can have good party member with a not always optimal class, but in the right party no one could do it better in that role.

 

I once went through with a solo druid. Fun reload fun reload fun...

 

Druids have Finger of Death as lvl 8 spell. Which makes them scary and powerful, as its DC is too high even for HoF, plus you can have insane WIS (ever god ring, a joke item with +5 WIS bonus, start with a race with WIS bonus, get potion of holy transference, dump extra points to WIS, and you can have 32 at the end), and with necromancy focus, druids kill anything with ease. ZAP! Gone for good!

But I think at least one cleric lvl is needed, as they need Protection from Evil badly! They summon the toughest elementals, but can not protect themselves from their wrath! Sucks.

 

A druid can be a very useful party member.
Sorcerer/mage and cleric are the traditionally essential classes in D&D, but a 6 person party without a druid is missing something.

How to use a druid properly in a party has already been pointed out in at least one prior thread.

 

Yep and I still didn't agree

 

I think the druids thread was over, but it´s still about 50/50 people who love/hate them.
That way, we will never agreed or come to a common sense or conclussion.Period.

 

Maybe because they're pathetic? Yes? Hehe

 

Maybe for pathetic players

 

Or people with no patience

 

Shapeshifting rules if you have the Ease of Use. Go the Red Half Dragon!

 

IMHO, druids are quite useful in IWD2. Especially in the first chapters, a druid with spell focus transmutation and entagle makes thing so much easier when you fight all those goblins. (Of course, one could use a wizard's web, but that's a level 2 spell, so you have fewer of those, and who takes spell focus in conjuration anyhow).

Also, druids have those flame weapons spells, very useful at low levels when you are fighting trolls and don't have equipment with fire damage.

In midlevels, thorn spray is probably one of the more devastating area of effect spells, if you can pull it off properly. That relies on transmutation focus, too. Also, by now the AC bonus from barkskin becomes quite useful. At higher levels you have the summons (which I still have to try, but they look good on paper, at least).

So, you can play without a druid, but you'd miss a lot.

 

At higher lvls a druid's summons are second to none, and have made done much to help me win a fight. I certainly think that a druid more than pulls his/her weight in IWD2--at least they do when I use them--but if you just don't enjoy playing them or aren't finding useful tactics for them, then there are plenty of other character options available to you.

To the OP's original question, yeah, I will generally always include a druid in the party. They make a great secondary healer (cleric obviously being the primary), but have a variety of options/abilities available to them that a cleric doesn't. And certainly, I enjoy having someone wise in the ways of nature in the party from RP purposes.

 

Ohhh I havn't heard about the Half Red Dragon ...

Hehe btw are you talking about the Elemental Legion spell? Meh overated

 

The Half Red Dragon is great, except for its AC of 12. The Remhorazz is the best form for boosting your hit points though.

 

Hehe I'd imagine the Remhorazz would be one of the best forms for dealing damage also!

 

The half dragons have more attacks per round, I think.

 

Meh Druids still aren't that great

 

Compared to any fighter-class character the druid is incredibly powerful, especially as a fighterclass 1/druid X or with halbeards. With 18 scon they have about 15% less HP (25% compared to barbarian) and a slightly lower BAB than a fighterclass. They gain less feats than pure fighters but that's hardly any disadvantage since I usually run out of useful feats quite soon. Instead of no spells (fighter, barb) or a few spells (ranger,Pal) they get loads of useful spells. A single heal-spell effectivly almost doubles the amount of HP and all those area attack spells deals tons of damage. Static charge and call lightning are wonderful since you can precast them and don't use any rounds in combat.
Surely the partys first cleric is a bit better, but druids are anything but weak!

 

Well here it is again, the famous "Druid sucks" topic ! I'm too tired right now to explain why but take that :

I LOVE DRUIDS.

That's all folks !