I'll start from scratch, so I'll make thorough explanations on how everything works, though some might sound a bit unnecesary. Man, this is the longest post I've ever made.
Druid is a powerful class that works as both caster or fighter, which makes it quite playable, BUT it's only really good when taken heavy, and by that I mean you either take a good amount of Druid levels or you better don't take it at all. The sole exception is as pre-requisite for the Shifter class, and now with version 1.69 even dragon builds need a decent amount of Druid.
At first it may sound unrealistic to say that the Druid matures as a fighter and caster, and it's reasonable to think that since Druids don't get high BAB and they don't get overpowered spells and buffs like Sorcerers or Clerics. What makes Druid really strong is a serie of sinergies.
In order to make all the sinergies work, you have to envision that a Druid only works as a fighter while shifted and only works as a caster unshifted, good thing it gets both at the same time. The act of shifting takes only one round but cannot be stopped and de-shifting doesn't even spend time so you can change really fast.
All Druid's shifts override Strength, Dexterity and Constitution, meaning you can dump them to hell without weakening your melee, but what that really means is that your combat ability is solely determined by your shift, which depends on your level, so your fighting power is always maxed no matter what stats you take. At the same time, you won't need those stats when you're casting, so you can start with 18 Wisdom and raise it to max. Here is where the multiclass enters the picture, and the absolutely best second class is Monk. You get all the benefits with just one level (so you're still a high Spell Penetration heavy Druid) and all of them apply when shifted. The shifts fight unarmed, so they get the improved Monk's APR schedule and the ability to use Flurry of Blows with the added benefit that your unarmed weapon won't depend on your Monk level but on your shift, so your weapon is even better than that of a pure Monk. Monk AC bonus works for both shifted and unshifted, and given your high Wisdom value, it will sure add a lot of AC, without even mentioning that Druids also get the best stat increasing spell in the game: Owl's Insight, which caps WIS alone by level 24. Starting to get the picture? by just raising WIS you're maximizing both melee and casting, only Druids can do that. Monk also adds Discipline and Tumble as class skills, both good for combat. Given that Druids get 4 skills per level and you can start with a lot of INT after dumping all the other stats, the skill setup is also pretty nice.
A good AC is self-explanatory given the high Wisdom. The rest of the melee power comes from analysing the shifts in-depth. You get Wildshape at level 5. The best shift is the Bear, it has 27 STR, surpassing the closest highest, a Half-orc with 21 STR, by a good advantage, so having less BAB is compensated and your damage is high, thanks to which a Druid/Monk is the strongest melee build at level 7, making it extremely easy to level up. At Druid level 12 you get Dire Bear, which is a bit better but the real power jump comes until Druid level 16 when you get Elemental Shapes which are really awesome for their ridiculous immunities, check the link if you require more info. I don't want to rant about the shapes, but simply put, the Earth Shape has a lot of Strength, Ab and damage, while the Air Shape gets neat AC. Short after that you get the Elder Shapes at level 20 and you need to survive with them before reaching Dragon Shape at 30 WIS (yet another reason to take a lot of Wisdom), a shift so powerful it has the highest STR score in the game, capped Dodge AC and lots of more stuff, so check the link if you don't know them.
Building a Druid
Race
My basic setup is a Druid(high level)/Monk(low level)/X(low level) so your best choice is going to be Human to avoid XP penalty, get an extra feat and an extra skill/level, that sums it up. Almost any race works, but avoiding XP penalty is very important to me.
Stats
One might think that starting with 8 Strength is not very playable since your carrying capacity will be too low, but that's far from true. At level 3 you will get level 2 spells and from there on you should be careful to buff with Bull's Strength all the time, raising your STR to an acceptable carrying capacity, and from level 5 onward you'll get shifts, boosting your carrying capacity beyond needed. Both the shift and Bull's get long durations, so that won't be a real obstacle.
The other thing you can do with your stats is to raise Charisma. While it is completely useless for the Druid, it can be worth it with a level of Paladin or Blackguard (for Divine Grace or Dark Blessing) a few more levels to take Divine Might, or Champion of Torm instead (for Divine Wrath's duration).
Other than that, it's plainly setting all your stats to WIS and the rest to INT, if anything could be a bit helpful instead of INT it's CON, since when you're unshifted you'll need some HP too, but be sure to start with 8 STR and DEX, and also 8 CHA if you won't take a third class that can use CHA. All stat increases obviously go to WIS, at least until you get 30.
Skills
Not much to say, you want Tumble, Spellcraft and Discipline, that's all I really use, but I don't claim to be a master at skill distribution. You can take about anything you want, since the basic setup is a Human Druid with high INT, you'll probably get enough skillpoints to fill about 7 skills.
Feats
This is pretty easy. Several combat feats don't work on shifts (Weapon Focus, Improved Two Weapon Focus, Devastating Critical) so you only need Blind-Fight, Knockdown and Improved Critical: Unarmed pre-epic, plus Epic Prowess and maybe Armor Skin in epics. All the rest goes for casting feats and Great Wisdom feats in epics. The best school for a Druid is Conjuration (I'll explain why when I refer to the spells, for now, believe me), so take the three focuses there. You've got some space for metamagics, the way to go is to take Empower Spell and Silent Spell, though Extend Spell is pretty neat too, that way you can use spells one and two levels higher, plus Empower Spell's +50% damage is useful on its own.
Class
The second class should be Monk, we all agree there right? It works best taken at level 6 to make the shifts strong from the start and then one or two more levels spread at will for skilldumps, the last preferably at level 40 to max Discipline.
The third class is actually the most versatile part of how to build a Druid, because several classes work as good third class, a Druid/Monk is strong enough to accept any third class. As I said, it's preferable to take Druid in high levels, but your Penetration is still neat if you lower Druid to about 30. This third class almost always is used to strengthen your shifted melee by weakening your casting penetration, Animal Companion's AB and HP and Druid bonus feats, so be careful, you do lose important stuff from lowering Druid.
Arcane Archer is awful, its prerequisites won't let you get Monk. Besides, why would you want to use a bow? shifting or casting always work better.
Assassin is regular, it will give you UMD and Uncanny Dodge without XP penalty, no matter the spread. The problem is you'll need an Alignment Shift. Uncanny Dodge is quite good to have since the dragon shape has 36 DEX.
Barbarian is nice, you'll get Rage, which can be use while shifted and Uncanny Dodge, so it's ok but watch out for XP penalty.
Bard is not really that good, you'll get Bardsong, and actually, you can reserve enough CHA by dropping INT so you'll have casting power, but Druid's offensive spells are better, taking Bard just for UMD is not good enough, take Rogue instead.
Blackguard is nice if you take some CHA, Dark Blessing is alright and it will open Divine Might, which can be used while shifted, as well as the stacking Bull's Strength which makes it easier to cap STR. The low amount of sneak attack is a slight extra. The problem is you'll need an Alignment Shift.
Champion of Torm is one of the best, since it has Great Wisdom as bonus feat and will raise your saves. The fastest way to get dragon shape is to take a few CoT levels. If you take a decent amount of CoT you should take enough CHA to activate Divine Wrath as well.
Cleric is great, it will add a good extra reserve of buffs and it can acces Divine Might. Taking Cleric will need a decent amount of levels, so your Penetration might run low. While Cleric boosts a lot the melee, it will deteriorate your casting considerably and your Animal Companion will become very weak as well.
Dwarven Defender is bad, it might give Defensive Awareness and DR, but it will lower too much your Druid level to make the DR worthwhile, ending weaker than just Druid/Monk.
Fighter is useless. Weapon Specialization and Epic Weapon Specialization don't work on shifts, so take Champion of Torm instead if you want feats, leaving no reason to take this class.
Harper Scout is horrible, it will make you waste 2 pre-epic feats in Alertness and Iron Will and you won't get anything worth it instead.
Paladin is ok, it works almost the same as Blackguard, taking CHA for Divine Might and having Alignment as your obstacle, though I prefer Blackguard since it won't yield XP penalty.
Pale Master is very bad, it won't let you take Monk. Immunity to critical is superflous, since you'll have a very high Fortitude to resist Devastating Critical. Elemental Shapes say to be immune to criticals if I'm correct. It's better to take Monk and get a high AC.
Ranger can be useful only if you take Bane of Enemies because the Animal Companion level doesn't stack like Familiars. The high level investment will weaken your spell penetration too much but obviously increase a lot your damage against favored enemies. I'd say it's an acceptable third class if you intend to go melee.
Red Dragon Disciple crap, it won't let you take Monk and the STR bonus is worthless.
Rogue is ok, it gives UMD, Uncanny Dodge and some sneak attack. Similar to Assassin.
Shadowdancer is nice, Uncanny Dodge and Hide in Plain Sight are good, the only bad thing is taking Dodge and Mobility since they're very useless.
Shifter... well, you can get Dragon Shape without shifter so you don't need shifter.
Sorcerer is decent, it will add a few buffs for a change.
Weapon Master is complete crap since unarmed can't be used as weapon of choice.
Wizard is better than Sorcerer since it will give you bonus feats to partially make up the loss of Druid epic bonus feats. Also, you won't lose skills by taking Wizard since they use INT.
Taking the third class to raise BAB will, of course, yield a higher final AB. However, the playability of such build will drop to hell because your unshifted stats are supposed to be too low for you to survive with weak spells or weak shifts in high levels, so I don't recommend it.
What I intend to say here is that there are many ways of building a Druid, but taking Monk as the second class will always beat those who don't have Monk. As I don't want to tell people how to build or advice "one super uber best Druid build", that much should suffice for anyone to make a strong Druid build.
How to Play a Druid
Your Animal Companion is a great asset and a terrible obstacle. Just by having your Companion summoned you will get 20% XP penalty (as if it were a henchman), which stacks with using a summoning spell, so if you want to level up you want your Companon unsummoned. It's still pretty useful for tough enemies, since you can buff him quite nicely. By the way, it's much better to use the Animal Companion than a high level summoning spell (even Elemental Swarm).
The list of Companions is long and boring. there are only two good Companions: Bear and Panther. The Bear has higher AB, deals higher base damage and has higher HP while the Panther makes sneak attack, which can be very powerful if you know how to handle it. I always use the bear for its high AB so I can't explain properly how to handle the Panther's sneak attack, anyway, the sneaks won't really work if you use my tactic:
The basic tactic for using an Animal Companion is Feeding. If you think "I can't feed my Companion when we're fighting because I can't open a dialogue while in combat" Well... true... but wrong. It has its trick, but it works. You just have to disengage (i.e. run like a girl) and let the next combat round end (meaning you have to wait between 6 and 12 seconds, depending on the point of the round you disengage), after that you're free to talk. Recieving damage won't make you enter combat mode if you're moving, so you don't need to leave the room, you just stop hitting until you can talk.
You need some practice to make this work smoothly. When you disengage combat take a close look at the game options (or whatever they're called) below your character's portait. When you're still unable to enter dialogue the "rest" button will be highlighted, that's your que. In order for this to work, order repeatedly your Animal Companion to follow you and run, this is the hard part because you have to control your Animal Companion and avoid him from resuming combat while escaping at the same time in order to recieve less damage. Speed is needed, so you have to know your keyboard, though it's not difficult. You press "V" to open the dialogue chart, "E" for exploration then "E" for follow, as long as your Companion keeps following you he won't enter combat mode. In order to use the feeding tactic effectively you need to memorize the route to make orders fast because you're already losing one full round making time to open dialogue. My standard orders are attack and follow, those are by far the most useful. If I'm correct, dialogue can be interrupted if you enter combat mode, which can be triggered automatically if someone starts hitting you when you're "idle" or talking. To avoid this from happening you just need to memorize which number makes the dialogue "Feed" and click it fast (it's number 2 btw), replenishing his HP to full instantly, infinite times per day. If done correctly, you'll never be interrupted. Your Animal Companion will resume combat very fast because he already ended the "follow" order when dialogue started, so it isn't even necessary to tell him to attack. Another way to do it is to order him to Hold (V + W + X) but if you do that he'll need the attack order (V + W + E) to resume combat but running away works better.
Healing forever is awesome, I've defeated several problematic bosses with this tactic as you can basically fight eternally. The toughest case is when you fight sneakers, since they will render this tactic useless given your Companion's AC is low and his HP won't stand strong sneaks while he's running. Also, this tactic will be very ineffective if you Animal Companion can't hit through your enemies' AC (that's why I pick the Bear). Casters can be troublesome in general with their damage shields and area spells. Archers are also annoying, given they don't need to chase you. It's very important to have your Animal Companion buffed with Death Ward and Freedom of Movement because paralysis and death spells will break through the feeding tactic.
Get used to feeding your Animal Companion and don't let his HP drop below 50%, that's about a reasonable amount of HP to survive the running round. Feed him after every encounter, you don't lose anything by doing so. Fighting together with him will assure you to win any PvM 1 on 1 melee battle and improve your chances in almost any situation. It won't assure PvP, they don't fall for it.
The last thing is to rest with your Animal Companion summoned (which should be done automatically, just don't unsummon him), that way if your Companion is killed you can resummon him instantly, so it's as if you could summon him twice per day, handy.
When it comes to healing yourself, it's pretty easy as well, just use the Heal Spell and target your character, there's just a minor thing to say about it: Given that de-shifting doesn't spend a round, make sure you've ended the current combat round, de-shift and Heal instantly, the casting will start on top of the deshifting animation (it's more like a light on top of you or whatever). If you're Hasted, you'll get 2 spells per round so you'll be able to cast Stonehold before re-shifting. Shifting starts at the next combat round, so it's unlikely you get killed in the process.
Buffing and fighting shifted is extremely simple, it's way too basic to cover. What maybe isn't so obvious is what spells to choose. I pick only long duration buffs being 1 turn/level or higher and given they last for considerable time I actually buff up with everythng right after resting. A turn is a minute in real time, and I think an hour is twice as much, so that's a lot of effective time.
Level 0: Ok, forget it.
Level 1: They're not all crap, Magical Fang is neat until you get Greater Magical Fang. Endure Elements is a decent buff for being level 1 too.
Level 2: Bull's Strength and Barkskin two times, one for you, one for your Animal Companion. The rest is crap, by the time you have spare slots for Resist Elements you'll be using a higher level one anyway. You could use Blood Frenzy, but really, the duration sucks, I don't use it.
Level 3: Greater Magical Fang, it's strong, you'll like it. Take one Protection From Elements for your Animal Companion, it's the best element resisting buff you can give him. All the rest goes for Called Lightning, it's a good spell at low levels since the area of effect is nice and you can't hit yourself by mistake.
Level 4: Stoneskin until you get Greater Stoneskin, one for you, one for your Animal Companion. Freedom of Movement for both. Here I prefer silenced Called Lightning over Flame Strike because its range is just too small. I usually also use Empowered Bull's Strength once you've freed the Stoneskin slots.
Level 5: Awaken, the highest duration spell in the game, it's ludicrous, even resting won't dipell this buff. Owl's Insight, Spell Resistance for both of you, Death Ward for both of you. I always lack spell slots in this level, too many buffs.
Level 6: Greater Stoneskin, Energy Buffer and all the rest to Stonehold.
Level 7: True Seeing for both of you until you get Dragon Shape. Heal, Firestorm or Silenced Stonehold (Extended Stonehold is better, in case you take that metamagic), pick what you prefer, the three of them are nice.
Level 8: Premonition is a must. Empowered Stonehold works nice here, but given you might have plenty of those already, you can also take sileneced Fire Storm, your choice. If you're high level character without much Penetration you'll want to take Nature's Balance just in case.
Level 9: Storm of Vengeance or Empowered Fire Storm, the rest is crap.
Now, why do I pick these spells? The grace of fighting buffed is notoriously obvious, both you and your Animal Companion will be incredibly more effective with all those buffs. I don't take Aura of Vitality because its duration is too short and because from level 6 onward you have the good offensive spells leaving no spare slots, I'd take Stonehold voer AoV any time. Also, it's good to know that when buffed with Stoneskin or better, both you shifted and your Animal Companion will hit as if you were wileding a +5 weapon for DR piercing purposes.
As for the combat spells, I don't like Finger of Death, even if it's an instant death spell, the reason is it only hits one target and if you're going to fight only one target then just feed your Animal Companion and you won't lose. If you're fighting many enemies you need spells with a big area. Storm of Vengeance and Stonehold are the reason why I said before you need to focus in Conjuration, they both hit a big area (Colossal and Huge respectively) and make a long standing paralysis, so you just cast one of those and all the enemies in sight get stunned unless they're immune, meleers always fall for this. DC is never a problem thanks to the building design of maxing WIS and buffing with Owl's Insight. While they're stunned, and if they're really many enemies, you'll deal excesively more damage with Fire Storm or Called Lightning than with your melee, and the stun lasts long enough for you to massacre everything. So the basic premise is to fight in melee when there are few enemies and use big area spells when there are many enemies. Of course, once your offensive spells are spent shift and fight as long as you can, feeding can make you last for hours without resting. Simple logic is so effective.
Well, that's all I know about Druids, so nobody should have any trouble using one now.
I don't add a PvP section because I use it exactly the same. Bet on Storm of Vengeance and shift into dragon, what else? you can beat almost anything if you can hit with SoV first. Buffed melee works the same as any other, there are no cheap tricks for PvP since feeding won't work, they usually don't fall for it and attack you instead of the Animal Companion. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Hey Sir, nice post, full of handy material. Thanks for sharing.
Question. You site experience penalties and buff effects for animal companion and summoned companions. I am wondering about Animal Empathy. How would you recommend using Animal Empathy? I have used it before and found it useful, on my server. I was able to command some serious beasts and gain huge advantages.
Sorry, I have no idea, that's why I said "I don't claim to be a master at skill distribution". Fact is, I don't use Animal Empathy. Never really experimented the limits and usefulness of it. I've only read it can be nice, but for some reason it never caught my interest. As far as I know, you can control beasts or even hostile enemies to a degree, don't know for how long or how many, but if I'm not saying mistakes and you're really into it then it could be useful to take a few buffs intended for Animal Empathy, but truth is, the strongest buffs IMO are Awaken and Greater Magical Fang, so perhaps Stoneskin and Protection from Elements are the most worthwhile, since that adds all around defense, and I assume using those animals as a shield is priority. Even though I said before that I hate Aura of Vitality, it's not a bad choice given it hits an area, buffing all your pack fast.
You can't buff an entire army either, my choice was to buff only the Animal Companion because he can be easily healed by feeding. My advice, if you want to buff a big band of animals, is to take more metamagics to ensure you can distribute buffs on all possible slots. I wouldn't exchange high level offensive spells for buffs though. Stonehold slots can compete with buffs, and carrying a good amount of those is always good. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 01/03/10 03:25
From Wiki: Animal Empathy lasts 1 turn per character level, DC being 15 + animal HD or 19 + magical beast HD.
From experience: If the designers of the module like forest types, you are in for a world of fun, if they don't, just leave AE alone. Changes are that module builders that make most of their higher level baddies Mind-immune just because are of the second type, making a Druid's life (which is the life of a Disabler, via Stonehold, SoV, Grease, Vine Mine, etc) not so fun. But then again with the very widespread lite-RP WoW type of mindset many seem to have these days, if module builders DO take Druids, Rangers and AE into consideration, most of the MMORPG PvP types will just have a single level of Ranger in their Wizards (or whatever) for a free Spell Focus and an AE dump.
Final consideration: Play with it in the oficial campaigns, or at the server/module you normally play. Druids have a decent number of skill points and are so easy to level in most environments. You will know very quickly if AE is your cup of tea. _________________ It's fear of god that brought us to that state. How fortunate the man with none.
Question. You site experience penalties and buff effects for animal companion and summoned companions. I am wondering about Animal Empathy. How would you recommend using Animal Empathy? I have used it before and found it useful, on my server. I was able to command some serious beasts and gain huge advantages.
Sorry, I have no idea, that's why I said "I don't claim to be a master at skill distribution". Fact is, I don't use Animal Empathy. Never really experimented the limits and usefulness of it. I've only read it can be nice, but for some reason it never caught my interest. As far as I know, you can control beasts or even hostile enemies to a degree, don't know for how long or how many, but if I'm not saying mistakes and you're really into it then it could be useful to take a few buffs intended for Animal Empathy, but truth is, the strongest buffs IMO are Awaken and Greater Magical Fang, so perhaps Stoneskin and Protection from Elements are the most worthwhile, since that adds all around defense, and I assume using those animals as a shield is priority. Even though I said before that I hate Aura of Vitality, it's not a bad choice given it hits an area, buffing all your pack fast.