1)Druids -- question

Q:What's the point? Not as tough in the front line as a fighter, not as curative as a cleric. Started a new IWD party with a druid. True, he can dual class to fighter, but pure druids are useful how? I found myself asking the same question in the Diablo2 expansion.

2)HoW -- commentary
Terrible game. Glitched monster drops, irrecoverable pause-during-movie, over-difficult first dungeon (objectively speaking, I wiped it out without too much trouble).

As you can probably tell, first impressions count for much with me. ;)

I have to disagree if you have HoW druids are the must powerful class in the game you just have to know how to use them. Do a search on druids on and you will see what I mean.

Besides having powerful offensive spells they can also shift into powerful elementals, fire (immune to fire damage), water & earth immune to slashing damage (this means you will be invincible to some creatures like drowned dead on burial island). Even though the other shape changes are not the greatest, it does allow them to heal damage and I have used them for other things for example The Wolf for speed is nice when you wish to get out of a tight situation.

Give one a try [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ 06-26-2003, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

I couldn't agree more, and i second that.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>I don't know if they are the most powerful straight class in the game; but in HoW, if they aren't the most powerful, then they are definitely a close second. The only real drawback I saw was in their melee role: inability to specialize to 4 points in a weapon (and inability to use missile weapons). So I started my druid wannabe as a fighter, and dualed over at level 10 (should have done it at lvl 9). Now he's made it back to druid 11, and regained fighter skills; so I expect him to rock! Be a nice addition to the party I'll take into HoW and TotLM areas.

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party on!!
</font>

Without playing IWDII I can't speak for the new druids and bards, but as far as IWD and the BG Series, druids and bards in this game are a must. Particularly if you have HoW installed.

In fact, most of my parties start with a bard, and druid or fighter/druid and a gnome cleric/illusionist. Everything else comes after those choices. (The fighter/druid and cleric/illusionist are outstanding class combos.)

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">
I have completed IWDII once so, I am no expert but as a single class Druids are only OK in camparision, and I didn't try a Bard but they don't seem as good as IWD.

One of the things that you can do with a druid is start it off as a ranger than at level 2 switch it to a Druid which will allow it to dual-wield without using any feats. Unfortunately it took me a while to figure out the best ways to use characters like this with the new rules. Maybe another time.</font>

[ 07-18-2003, 07:57 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Do you mean that you switch class entirely, rather like dual classing, or is this part of the new gain as many classes as you like and really suffer XP-wise syndrome?

Do you mean that you switch class entirely, rather like dual classing, or is this part of the new gain as many classes as you like and really suffer XP-wise syndrome? </font>[/QUOTE]<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Unfortunately it is part of the new gain as many classes as you like and really suffer XP-wise syndrome. I don't think switching just once is a major penalty in comparison to obtaining several free feats. But in my game I only used pure classes.</font>

[ 07-18-2003, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Hmm, that sort of tallies with what little I can remember from reading the IWDII manual. Don't they have to be balanced in some way, by keeping them within one or two levels of each other, or suffer the penalties?

Of course, it would be mighty difficult with a drow or gnome-derivative character, as the "additional levels" seem a real crippling point even for a single class character.

That's where 'favoured class' comes in. Essentially what favoured class does is cancel out the need to keep dual-class xp levels close. It does this by not 'counting' any levels you might have in your favoured class in regard to the level comparison. So if you are a lightfoot halfling, your favoured class is rogue, right? So, you could be a level 3 rogue and a level 15 fighter and you wouldn't suffer xp penalty as your favoured class means that your rogue levels don't count in terms of level comparison. The xp penalty counter would only consider you a level 15 fighter, as the 3 levels you have as a rogue get cancelled out as rogue is your favoured class. You get me? However, if you are a lightfoot halfling and have 3 levels in mage, and 15 in fighter, then you WOULD suffer xp penalty as you have two COUNTED (ie: non-favoured class) classes more than 2 levels apart. Get it? It's complicated, but easy once you know how it works.

But this should all be in the IWDII forum, not the IWD HoW one ;)