Can't Dual Class my Beserker to Druid

davidthegnome

I just started a new game with a Fighter (Beserker kit), with plans to eventually Dual Class him into Druid. He has a True Neutral alignment, 18/37 Strength and 18 Wisdom. After reaching level 2 I clicked the Dual Class just to make sure I'd done everything correctly. I was able to dual class to a cleric or thief, but the druid class was grayed out.

It says my character needs to have 17 or higher in the prime requisite of the class. I assumed that the prime requisite for Druids is Wisdom since that affects their bonus spells... However, during character creation I did notice that Charisma's description says it is important to Druids, though I can't imagine why. Is a Druid's prime attribute actually considered to be Charisma for some reason? (My PC only has 8 Charisma).

The only other possibility I can think of is for some reason being a Beserker prevents me from DCing to Druid though I can't imagine why that would be the case. Is this a bug / oversight or am I missing something?

revaar

Yes, I believe charisma is a requisite for Druid. You'll need at least a 17 to dual into it.

Elzarath

Yeah Druids have high stat requirements (in the sense that charisma can't be used as dump stat to boost the others). I think you need at least 17 charisma and maybe 15 wisdom. Except for bonus spell slots I don't think wisdom really impacts a Druids casting ability.

davidthegnome

Elzarath said:

Yeah Druids have high stat requirements (in the sense that charisma can't be used as dump stat to boost the others). I think you need at least 17 charisma and maybe 15 wisdom. Except for bonus spell slots I don't think wisdom really impacts a Druids casting ability.

Does Charisma actually affect a Druid's spells in any way?

lDanielHolm

Confirmed. You need Str 15, Wis 17, and Cha 17 to dual-class from a fighter into a druid.

Elzarath

Nah, it's like the Sorcerer. It's their 'prime stat' (or one of) but doesn't do anything apart from NPC reactions and store prices.

Thanks @lDanielHolm, I remember it had steep requirements but couldn't confirm at the moment.

davidthegnome

Thanks everyone for the responses... I guess I'll restart this character.

I assume the 17 Charisma has to be "naked", meaning I cannot have 15 Cha and wear Algernon's Cloak?
But I guess I can get away with 16 Cha since I'll find the tome.

Intelligence only affects Lore for non-mages, correct?

elminster

davidthegnome said:

Thanks everyone for the responses... I guess I'll restart this character.

I assume the 17 Charisma has to be "naked", meaning I cannot have 15 Cha and wear Algernon's Cloak?
But I guess I can get away with 16 Cha since I'll find the tome.

Intelligence only affects Lore for non-mages, correct?

Yes you have to have a base stat of 17 charisma before you can dual class to a druid. Kind of sucks too.

Intelligence of less than 9 will mean you won't be able to cast from scrolls (in this case priest scrolls like healing scrolls, etc). I believe intelligence also has an impact on your ability to use wands, but obviously as a druid you are limited in that anyways.

lDanielHolm

Off the top of my head, yes... until you meet Illithids in BG2.

hzf

You need 17 charisma after the tome, so you can start with 16 if you want but you would need to pickup the tome early.

Funnily enough I rolled a human fighter/druid yesterday, took me about an hour of rolling to get 18/80, 18, 18, 3, 18, 17.

Madhax

Fighter->Druid is a notoriously difficult dual class to roll stats for, just fyi. Be prepared to either compromise heavily in your melee stats or spend a long time rolling.

Corvino

Depending on when you want to dual class, you can use tomes to make up 1 charisma and up to 3 wisdom. However 2 of the wisdom tomes are only available late in the game, and you may want to dual before this.

Southpaw

is the fighter/druid multi or dualclass a good choice for PC?
From my experience, druids are pretty underpowered in the BG trilogy...

elminster

Southpaw said:

is the fighter/druid multi or dualclass a good choice for PC?
From my experience, druids are pretty underpowered in the BG trilogy...

In the case of multi-class you are probably better off in BG1 (and frankly in BG2) being a cleric/ranger because they get all the spells of druids and clerics (with the exception of druid Hla's in bg2) and they still still at least get some decent weapons. You will get 1 3rd level spell and 1 4th level spell less than a fighter/druid however (in BGEE I mean), so it really all depends on what your play style is. For instance fighter druids can use scimitars which obviously thanks to a certain drow elf are easily obtainable if you've got someone who is willing to risk pick pocketing them (well your druid can at least use one of them)

In the case of dual class personally I'd argue that specifically in BG1 a fighter/druid dual class can be good. So long as you ensure you can (ideally) reach max level for the druid. Depending upon how soon you want that to happen that means you can get to level 6 (or less) as a fighter before dual classing over. I can't really say how well a druid to fighter dual class would work, though I suppose for some kits (shapeshifter) it might be beneficial (for lowering your base thac0 and more hp). For the moment a ranger to cleric dual is also a good choice if you want to cast druid spells, because so long as you dual at or before level 8 (perhaps later as well I can't remember) in Baldur's Gate 2 you can actually get access to level 7 druid spells before solo druids can get them (you can also dual them at or before level 6 to a cleric to get at least levels 1-4 for cleric/druid spells).

Druids, at least in BG1, do get a number of unique spells themselves (even if their overall selection has its issues). Call woodland beings (I really like it), pixie dust, call lightning, summon insects, insect plague, iron skins, etc. They make great healers and summoners in the first game, and with weapon proficiencies and any armour available (the things fighters give them when dual classing) they are obviously good up close. I'm sure you know that part of the problem is that they get hit in BG2 with (really three) big experience cap jumps. The first is from level 12 to 13, where they go from having 300,000 total experience at level 12 to 750,000 total experience at level 13 (so they need to gain 450,000 experience to gain a single level). Likewise to get to level 14 they need to gain another 750,000 experience, and then need to gain 1,500,000 experience to get to level 15. Now granted when they get to level 15 they get a whole slew of extra spells, but especially for multiclass characters splitting up the experience means it takes a fair amount of time for them to gain their level 6 and level 7 spells in the second game.