I have played BG before, but i was turned off by a number of factors.

First of all, i strongly dislike the "bikini-armor syndrome" which plagues nearly all of the US media products. Unnatural technologically enchanced and masked artificial people... This can be seen in the portraits of BGs. A much deeper and complicated subject, but i have no desire to speak of it now.

Second, the endless adventures in enemy filled huge dungeons. It was most annoying... All of the quests consisted of dungeon crawling and hacking thousands of enemies away. I much more like dialoging, as in PS:T.

But now i think i will try again. I have played a druid before, but it was a bit boring. Perhaps combining him with a fighter will make him more appealing. If i will do so, will i be able to gain the high level abilities on the same time? Or would you just suggest going as a pure druid? Secondly, are the shapechanges useful at all? Do the elemental changes give any significant positive changes?

If you haven't played other classes yet, I'd suggest expanding out in that direction first before attempting to re-adjust something you didn't like in the first place. But if you've got reason to play a druid character, an F/D might be just what you're looking for. You start gaining HLAs at 3 million XP (rather than a set level), so you'll start getting them at the same time no matter what class you choose.

Also, if you haven't tried the original BG yet, I highly recommend it. There's less hack-and-slash and more exploration. All the battles are difficult to some extent or another, and you will never find yourself simply wading through a bad-guy's army just to get to him, which you see all too often in the ToB portion of BG2.

well,about the "too-much-hack-n'-slash":
for my opinion, that statement need to go for Icewind Dale 1, not BG.the designers put a lot of thinknig about the plot,and i got the feeling that all the fighting came at proper times.
about the druid-the first time i finished BG (all the games) i did it with a D\F. the character did pretty good, but i don't advise it-you already have Jaheira.why not take character of another type?
I did,however, finished the game once again with a pure avenger.This one rocks.REALLY good choice if you want a druid.

My very own Jaheira is a one big tough tank, she absorbs blows, (ironskins) any kind of elemental damages (natural druid resistances and good dragon gear) and she can Greater Whirlwind as well! Not the mention her healing, summoning (elemental princes are fun!), buffing, and punishing spells! (mages really dislike Insect Plague or Creeping Doom! Works on Improved Jon Irenicus too!) Definitely try a F/D they rock at highest levels!

OR, try a ranger/cleric, tey have all the priest spells and a defintely a power-class!

OR, get Rebalanced Shapeshifter component from EoU mod and play as a Shapeshifter? (Warning: Too strong! Overkill! You must have some hard-mods like tactics or imp.battles if you are going to have it to balance the game somewhat or it will be too boring)

Avengers may seem lke a good choice if you want some arcane assistance too! Just beware of the penalties, they hurt!

EDIT: Have you ever played good old IWD? If you do you will learn the true meaning of hack&slash when armies of monsters swarm your party! Though this does not mean IWD is worse than BG2 though, it is still a very beautiful game, one of my all-time favourites! If I feel like killing lots of meannies in massive battles than my IWD gives me that chance to do so! :thumb:

Mercury Star, Fighter/Druids rock! But if you're taking Jahiera I suggest not taking Jahiera if you're being a Fighter/Druid. Druids can't wear better then studded leather (they can wear dragon armours and ankeg (spelt wrong probably) armours though :) ). Fighter/Druids can wear stuff like Full Plate Mail and F/D can take 2 stars in a weapon :D (sorry I alreays call those thingys stars). Plus the bonus of Greater Whirlwind and you also have druid spells so you can buff yourself up before using GWW for best results.

Or you can dual the druid which can be good results.

If you dual class a Druid (preferibly lvl 14 at least) into a fighter then raise the Fighter lvls you can take grand mastery in whatever druid weapons you want. And you also get GWW attack along with a Druids buffs but if you want you can take the druid lvl higher and take in some Druid HLA's before Dualling to a Fighter.

I'd suggest starting off as a Fighter and dual-classing into a druid. If you do this right at the beginning, it won't have any effect on you long term, and the bonuses are well worth it.

I like the dual class f/d over the multiclass version because druids take forever to go from level 14 to 15, and being single classed helps you get to level 15 (where you get some gnarly bonuses).

Thanks for the replies. I havent had the time to start yet, so can anybody help me with druid stats? What should i pick? I have little idea what to do.

Wisdom is definitely needed for extra spells, they help tremendously in low levels.

Dex and Con are vital to all classes, druid is no exception. You can skip Dex as you will have IronSkins but do not lower con from 16, 18 if you will be a fighter/druid.

Decent STR is good to have if you are going to fight a lot. get 18/x STR if you are a fighter/druid. You can skip it if you are a shapeshifter. Do not lower it than 10 or you will not be able to carry a lot.

For sone unknown reason, druids need high charisma. This is important if you will dual a fighter to druid, make it 15+!

From weapon proficiencies, you can get anything you wish. If you are strong, or a fighter, get scimitars, there are lots of good ones in ToB and in some modes. But good clubs are easier to find at the first quarter of the game. (if you do Trademeet) Quarterstaves are nice, there are good druid specials. Spears are a bit useless in SoA methinks. plus you should definitely use some gıood shields!

From ranged, sling do considerable damage, (bonus from sling AND bullet stack) plus one special sling can add your STR damage adjustment, which means it does massive damage for a ranged weapon if your str is 18/x. However, you can get only 1 attack/round, some more if you have fighter levels. But...

But darts have an astounding 3 attacks/round! Great for disrupting enemy mages! More attacks mean you will have greater chance to hit. Plus some darts have nifty specials, like stunning/poisoning the victim. Do never underestimate the dart weapon proficiency!

Among spells, pick doom (see my doom topic!), entangle, cure wounds, barkskin, resist fire/cold, remove paralysis, zone of sweet air, thunderstorm if you are outside, protection from fire (very powerful) Call woodland beings (good summon, not for cannon fodder though), negative plane protection, defensive harmony, neutralize poison (it heals 10 hp instantly and cures poison, disease, blindness, deafness, very handy), holy power, magic resistance (cast it on a heavy magic-resistant foe to actually lower it!) IRONSKINS, mass cure, cure critical wounds, chaotic commands, heal, harm, fire elemental, nature's beauty (blind everybody without save! then retreat quickly, they will just stand there!), creeping doom (mages love this), regeneration (stack it with improved haste and watch).

As HLAs, get GWW if you are fighter/druid, it helps you best to add extra attacks which you lack. For a pure druid get Mass Raise Dead (you need this spell), Implosion (massive damage), and Energy Blades (really powerful), summon elemental prince is very powerful but with a pitiful duration. Your call. Elemental forms are useless if you have fighter levels, can be taken if you are a pure druid and need some melee-power.

I'd suggest starting off as a Fighter and dual-classing into a druid. If you do this right at the beginning, it won't have any effect on you long term, and the bonuses are well worth it.
That works? I tried it last night by making a Fighter and Ctrl+8 his stats so all his stats are 18 and tried but it didn't work. It wouldn't let me dual to a druid.
How'd you get Fighter dual to a Druid to work?

It could be your alignment. Druids must be True Neutral, so if your fighter was any other alignment, then he would not be allowed to dual to Druid.

[edit]:spelling

Whoops I made the fighter lawful good by accident. How stupid of me to do that.

Try a Berserker/Druid they rock (http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/10/3400.html#000000)! ;)

Multiclass F/D don't have as much strain on ability scores - you can keep the Charisma at 15 and lower the Wisdom some. Once you get 3 million XP for HLAs, this class can rock majorly! For a dual-classed F/D you need:

1) Human
2) Have a 15 Strength, 17 Wisdom, 17 Charisma and be True Neutral in alignment

For a D/F:

1) Human
2) Have 15 Wisdom, 15 Charisma, True Neutral alignment and 17 Strength

It depends on how you want to play it. I go with the idea of having unlimited spellcasting, meaning I'd use the F/D multi or dual class options. The multiclass is hard to get up there, as Klorox said, but there are tricks to getting XP.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Now, another question! Does druid gain any more shape changes, other than the elementals, bears and the wolf. Or perhaps they improve...

i would go Ranger/druid for sure.. i soloed one and they are very very fun to play

Depends. The druid gets Elemental changes (earth and fire), brown and black bear and wolf. They can also summon Elementals and Greater Elementals (one of the four elemental princes fights for you) as HLAs. The Avenger kit allows for shapechanging to sword spider, baby wyvern and lesser basilisk in addition to the regular shapeshifting. The Shapeshifter kit gives you werewolf changing, but I don't know if you can change into the three standard animals.

the shapeshifter sacrifices all other shapechanges for lycanthropy


EDIT: Ohh... and Avenger is gay

EDIT2: Typo

Now, another question! Does druid gain any more shape changes, other than the elementals, bears and the wolf. Or perhaps they improve... Avengers are great druids. If you want 18 str or con you can just Ctrl+8 them to 18. Avengers can still wear that Red Dragon Plate Mail armour. You get more shapeshifts then the normal druid.

If you like summoning then you should use the Totemic Druid and give up shapeshifts for animal spirit summonings.

Shapeshifter's can shapeshift into Werewolves and Greater Werewolves. They give up armour and the normal druid shapeshift's.

I have gained the 6 level spells for my druid. They have 3 summoning spells. Im not an expert of BG, far from it, but as i understand conjuring a fire elemental is the best choise. The casting time is the smallest, it stays the longest, has a decent number of attack(how much, if you know), good damage, and most importantly it is immune to simple damage.

I cant seem to understand any benefits of summoning animals in the 6 level. What are they?

^It summons multiple monsters generally, so it is better to distract multiple enemies.

Re-balanced shapeshifting pumps summoned bears to the point of being immortal! It summons two, horribly strong, rapidly regenerating dire werebears, they are a terror to behold, and the only way to kill them is a good old Death Spell. This component also significantly upgrades Shapeshifters to the point of being ridiculously strong, so it is NOT reccomended for a healthy game-play OK?

Actually 1 bear(you get 2) can kill a fire elemental (without Re-balanced shapeshifting) , the elemental has 1 attack, maybe the 24HD variant has 2.
I suggest casting strength on the elements because they have less then 18 str , the immunity to weapons is the best advantage of the elements

EDIT: Ohh... and Avenger is gay
Ooooh boy, I can see you going far. :rolleyes:

BTW, IMHO an Avenger -> Fighter is one of the more powerful Dual-Classes out there, esp. for a solo run. But you need to import from BGI for it to work. :-/

I did not want to make a new topic, so i will ask here.

I want to restart my game with an Avenger. The forms were not quite impressive. Can anybody just please tell me about your expierience with Avengers? I dont want to end up not using these shapes at all. Are they of use through all of the game? Any hints on how to use different shapes in different situation will be welcomed as well.

I love Avengers :xx:

I like the different forms and spells, myself.

Str/Con can be improved with items or books, etc.
The three forms, well the spider is quite good for fast attacks I find, the wyvern is just fun (^_^) and the salamander does fire stuff. Can be quite useful. Eg, trolls.
The extra spells can be quite nice, Chromatic orb, improved invisibility and chain lightning are quite cool :)

No more than leather armour isn't bad either. You get quite good leathers later on anyway. Or just put some points in Dex instead!

Avengers are ever so decent. ;)

If you choose the Avenger for his shapechanging, however, I think you might be disappointed by it. What makes this druid so nifty is his spellbook - the combination of druidic magic with an assortment of arcane spells. Chromatic Orb, Lightning Bolt, Chaos and Chain Lightning you can never have enough of.

His extra shapechanges are not that great, except for the Swordspider perhaps.
The Baby Wyvern? It has.. two attacks, iirc, which are poisonous. But I never found it to be all too useful.
The Lesser Basilisk - a basilisk that is actually a Fire Salamander? - is even worse in meele than the Baby Wyvern, but is permanently hasted and resistant to fire. Could be of some advantage when facing a certain Red Dragon.

Both are OK for the early part of the game and take on random thugs and minor critters. Later on though the Avenger should rather cast hell on his enemies than trying to hop into the front line with these forms.

The Swordspider is the best of the three, permanently hasted, with its five!! poisonous attacks. It has a good AC and can rip through Jon's dungeon almost all by itself. It is of great help against mages, as it works through their Stoneskin/Mirror Image just like that. And even if the mage manages to get the spider off his back in time, his spellcasting is likely to be interrupted by the damage the poison deals him for a few rounds.

Another thing... Are the elemental shapes useful? I mean, are they powerful?