Druid Starting Proficiencies

[hazard]

Which is the best melee weapon proficiency to take for a druid when starting, between spear, large sword ( for the scimitar ), or staves? Which will serve the character the longest? I would like to go with scimitars but I am not sure how many good scimitars are present in the game.

[JR Jansen]

I used scimitars for my fighter/druid. There are some good scimitars (cough cough, Frostbrand, cough cough). The bonus with this is that you can use a shield with it. For a straight druid, iirc, who can't use shields, staves is good because you'll get a nifty staff at one point which will be helpfull to take down trolls.

JR

Damned i lost cousin Jan's techno gloves

[Drawde1]

In IWD as well as BG2 and BG1 I always specialise fighter/druids in scimitars and clubs, and single-classed druids in spears and quarterstaves (you need a blunt weapon for skeletal undead, golems, jellies et al). You can get some really good scimitars in IWD especially with HoW installed (Lucky Scimitar, Frostbrand, Talon of the Gloomfrost, etc) but since the only decent magical shield single-classed druids can use is the Rhino Beetle one, they're better off with two-handed weapons. The only problem is that magical spears and staves are very hard to find until you can afford the Spear of White Ash, or get Arundel's staff.
I find fighter/druids are generally a better choice in IWD, despite the slower leveling up, as apart from the above points, decent leather armour is very hard to find in IWD and the only druid-usable non-leather armour is the Umberhulk plate, which you don't get until much later. Whereas in BG2 druids can wear ankheg or dragon scale armour, plus you can get some very good leather armour fairly quickly.