I generally dislike getting bears for my druid summons (at spell lvls 4 and 5). They're big, fat, and nearly immobile. Worse, they literally cannot move if summoned in a narrow passage. Sometimes I have to kill them or leave the map (thus losing them) because I can't get past. They're only good in open areas or right in front of doors where you know most of them are going to get killed. Maybe it's something in the graphics or their code, but they don't even seem to move as well as elementals. They get stuck way more often.

I generally prefer to summon insects at lvl 4, although you have to be careful to summon them before a fight starts and keep tanks well clear - bombardier beetles force you to be cautious.

I also found taht the bears tend to stick together - if you try to move one away from eth others, it just walks back to them again.

Yes.. which could be a blessing more than a curse, use them as a wall of fodder... ;)

<font color = lightgreen>Bears were really useful to my HoF druid because they are really tough and can beat the snot out of lizardmen in Dragon's Eye. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

On the downside, they freak out if hit by fire....</font>

I view bear summons as such.

Fat lumps of meatwall.

Same, but if they survive their meatwall function in any given fight, often you can't move them on to be a meatwall anywhere else. Further, if they get stuck in a passage ahead of you, you can't get past to draw any more enemies. :(

Good thing there's more where they came from. [img]smile.gif[/img] I do sometimes question the roleplay of a druid that uses nature's children as cannon fodder, but stopping to ask philosophical questions is no way to win a fight. :D

That's a good point...

Druid-"Come my lovely brothers and sisters of the forest! Be my meatshield!"

Me-"You've got to be the worst druid ever"

[ 11-24-2005, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: Kyrvias ]

<font color = lightgreen>No, no. You're looking at it backwards. The druid, being an agent of Nature empowered with magic, is in a much better position to defend and forward the protection and balance of nature than a mere bear. Thus, if the life of a bear needs to be sacrificed in order to protect the life of one of Nature's champions, then that is an acceptable sacrifice.</font>

Although not very often, I sometimes use them and they are quite good (I still remeber bears from Baldur's Gate from the first chapter 1 map and how difficult it was to kill them ;) ). They can withstand plenty of damage and enemy attacks them anyway so simply dont cast them in a narrow passage where they can block you (ok ok... 90% of IWD is narrow passages).

90% of IW isn't narrow! What about Drons dee-... er... Dragons Eye!... nope... umm... yeah you're right.

Whoa... that made alot of sense. thanks.