MAY HAVE SOME MINOR SPOILERS, INCLUDING ToB (just covering my a**!)
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Having never tried a fighter/druid before (except for having Jaheria in the party) I decided to try and solo one. While it seemed easy enough to create a multiclassed one (due to having the minimums for both a fighter and a druid as well as the minimums for a half-elf etc), I decided that a more powerful character could be created by using a human fighter and dual classing at level 13. Firstly, a dual classed F/D will have more HP than a M/C one (if dualled at the correct stage! - I worked out that a M/C one with 18 CON and 8 million XP would have a total of 153HP, while a dual classed one at fighter level 13 and 18 CON would have a total of 178HP with 8 million XP), as well as having the potential for one extra attack per round through grandmastery. A max XP multiclassed F/D IIRC provides the druid with only 20% elemental resistance instead of the 30% max, so dual classing allows this to be max. The only downside I can see is that the THAC0 for the dual classed character will be approx 5 higher, and there will be no HLA's from the warrior pool.

However, creating one requires that first I create a decent fighter (i.e. 18DEX and 18CON) with true neutral alignment, with a score of 15 in the primary attribute (so STR needs to be at least 15) and scores of 17 in the second classes primary attribute (so WIS and CHA for a druid need to be at least 17). Also, if you want to be able to use protection scrolls and to generally not be treated as a person with "challenged" intelligence, you want at least 10 INT, so what does that leave:

ideally:

15 STR (at least! 18 would be nice)
18 DEX (to maximise AC)
18 CON (to ensure that the first 9D10+CON HP bonus is max)
10 INT (for conversation and protection scrolls)
17 WIS (at least - the minimum this can be)
17 CHA (as above)

so the minimum total ability points for an effective character would be 95 which is surprisingly difficult to roll for a human fighter, and the best would be as above, but with 18/xx STR and 18 WIS, increasing this to 98. Rolling this for a paladin or ranger would be much easier since the minimums for each stat are higher, increasing the overall average for the roll, but with a human fighter, a minimum STR of 9 is all that you get, with the 3 mins for each other attribute causing all the problems.

That's my ranting done then, what are your opinions? Any dual classed fighters/druids out there want to share their thoughts? Or do you think a M/C one is more beneficial?

[ADD] by the way, since druids rely on balance, would taking the evil path through hell have any major side effects, like losing special abilities etc? I know that if paladins or rangers do this, they instantly fall losing their special class abilities....It would make sense for the druid to take half the challenges using the good path, and the other half using the evil path, but the game seems to favour good over evil, so I bet that just taking one evil path in hell would move the alignment of the druid to neutral evil. This is almost forcing the druid to be good which is a tad crap.....[/ADD]

<font color="lightblue">The paths you take won`t affect the Allignment of your druid at all- only Paladins and Rangers [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

Minor correction, it will affect the alignment, but not the abilities.

As for the Dualclass option, it is good, but good luck rolling. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I have enough trouble rolling for an ideal Paladin already. :eek:

I just rolled for a new sorceress and her base stats pleased me...
Str-16
Dex-18
Con-18
Int-15
Wis-16
Char-11
I thought that was bloody good seeing as my average fightewr has stats of
Str-18/00
Dex-18
Con-18
Int-8
Wis-3
Char-3
[img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="gold">A 94? That's one of the highest ones I've ever heard of. My 'personal best' is 92... :( :D </font>

I forgot to mention i was rolling for about 5 hours (maybe an exageration, but that's what it felt like [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

Hmm. I wonder if anyone's ever rolled over 100...my personal highest is a 97 for a f/m/c...f/m/cs and f/ds seem to have the highest rolls cuz o' their reqs.

For my dc berserker/druid I rolled a 96,
18 st
18 dex
18 con
8 int
17 wis
17 cha

[ 09-22-2002, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

16 STR?!
18 CON!? (useless for a non-fighter, BTW)

Are you rolling for a Sorceress or for a Fighter/Mage?!

5 hours of rolling! You must be mad! :D I did it for 2 hours this morning and got bored and decided I couldn't beat my:

STR 15
DEX 17
CON 18
INT 9
WIS 17
CHA 17

roll.

The highest roll I ever got was when I played a chaotic neutral dwarven fighter right from the very first BG until the end of ToB. His stats were awesome. He started with:

STR 18/68
DEX 17
CON 19
INT 18
WIS 10
CHA 15

Which is 97 ability points. After tomes they were:

STR 19
DEX 18
CON 20
INT 19
WIS 13
CHA 16

and after finishing hell (taking the evil path) and using the DoMT and TMoLTM in ToB he ended with:

STR 24
DEX 19
CON 23
INT 20
WIS 13
CHA 17

The word "tank" springs to mind having a total of 116 ability points, without any magical equipment boosting them. These are all natural baby! It just goes to show that if you're patient and are prepared to take the same character through BG1+ToTSC+SoA+ToB you will end up with killer stats.

BTW well done on your moderatorship Dundee and also, what's your local time? You're not usually on the boards at this time! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 09-22-2002, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: Jim ]

If you have BG1 then you might actually manage it, I have just finished soloing a druid (single class) from BG1 to TOB, and had some great stats. The great thing with BG1 is that it is so much easier to get good stat roll's here are the stats I had for my Druid at the start of BG1

STR 10
DEX 18
CON 18
WIS 18
INT 10
CHR 18

A total score of 92 (not that bad), Now don't forget the Tome's that raise stats.

Thats another +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CON, +3 WIS (with totsc), +1 INT and +1 CHR bringing my stats upto

STR 11
DEX 19
CON 19
WIS 21 (I had an Unbelievable amount of spell slots by the end [img]smile.gif[/img] )
INT 11
CHR 18

making a grand total of 100!!

This shows that it isn't impossible to get high enough stats to make your dual, but you will need to play through BG1 first.

Hmm, I seem to find that out of every 10 rolls, in BG1 about 1 is 80+, as opposed to 4 or 5 in BG2...are you maybe using a differently patched version, or are you just a leprechaun. :D

If you feel bad about having to hack yourself an uber character, check this out. Let these be your base stats for Bg1:

STR 16
DEX 17
CON 18
INT 10
WIS 15
CHA 16

This is a very nice, but not gross total of 92, now after you finish adding all the tomes and manuals in bg1 you will have:

STR 17
DEX 18
CON 19
INT 11
WIS 17
CHA 17

And what you have now is a character that is a fighter ready to be dual classed to a druid! Some more tips:
You mentioned you had ToB installed, there are some intereting choices to make. Depending on how many hig level abilities you want in the fighter class you should dual to a druid on either level 22(which will make you a 23 level druid. Or you can dual on level 21 which would make you a 24th level druid.

Actually, if you have ToTSC, you only need a 91 cuz
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There is a tome of Wisdom in Durlag's tower. You can also kill the priestess of Umberlee with no penalty for another. So, with that same 92, you could end up with 19 wis, good for spells & saving throws.

You don't need a high charisma, because
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You can use the Ring of Human Influence when dual-classing to confer 18 Charisma, and it does work, too.

Actually, in order to dual class, you must have the appropriate base stats, i.e. stats that haven't been modified by magical means. Are you using all the latest patches because that shouldn't work? I've just tried it just to be sure, and I'm absolutely positive that the character needs at least base stats of 15STR, 17WIS and 15CHA.

I think he's taken the tome from the priestess into considerstion, with only the additional tome from Durlags tower needed. There are a total of 3 WIS increasing tomes in BG1 + ToTSC, so a starting WIS of 15 would therefore provide an 18 WIS by the time you reach SoA.

Hmm, the druid can get the final +10% elemental resistance at level 24 and an extra 7th level spell slot from level 25. Anything above level 25 for a druid seems to be a waste though, since they have already reached the magic damage cap of level 20, and gained all the HLA spells as well as maxing out their spell slots. I'll have to think on Ozzmans suggestion of dualling at level 21 fighter (2 warrior HLA's are better than none) [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Thanks for your input.

I once, playing a Thief/Mage, managed to roll....

STR: 15
DEX: 19
CON: 15
INT: 18
WIS: 15
CHA: 18

A total of 100! Natural! Howsat?