Just had a bit of a thought while posting in another thread. You can have your cake and eat it too while using a Druid as main divine caster. A vanilla Paladin, Undead Hunter or Cavalier at BG2 levels gets a load of the useful Cleric spells at BG2 levels that Druids miss. Remove Fear, Chant, Holy Smite, Animate Dead, even Protection from Evil 10' radius.
Devas and Planetars also double as very useful arcane & divine casters, so that's an option for cleric-less parties.
But by the time your paladin can cover your cleric-only spells they lose a lot of their usefulness. They're still okay but Command, Remove Fear, Chant, Silence 15 etc. are game-changers at low levels while being only little bonuses for picking a paladin later on. Paladins probably want Armor of Faith and Draw Upon Holy Might anyways. Turn undead from a Cleric is very powerful too and often underrated (I think Undead Hunters ought to get a bonus to this).
Of course Druids are very competent casters in their own right and if all you use your Cleric for is healing and Chaotic Commands then Druids are a fine replacement and bring their own set of tricks. But if you want to make use of the advantages of a real Cleric, especially in BG1, there's really no substitute.
There's always Ranger/Cleric if you can't decide...
Well, I am really liking berserker/cleric as my PC. And by the time I get to Faldorn, he's already gotten enough cleric levels to get his berserker abilities back too. So by that point he's a decent cleric as well as a beast off tank. So I could pick her up in the good playthrough I am planning to do later. Since I won't be loosing out on cleric spells at that point.
Comments
i think druid vs cleric is really hard choice
Devas and Planetars also double as very useful arcane & divine casters, so that's an option for cleric-less parties.
Of course Druids are very competent casters in their own right and if all you use your Cleric for is healing and Chaotic Commands then Druids are a fine replacement and bring their own set of tricks. But if you want to make use of the advantages of a real Cleric, especially in BG1, there's really no substitute.
There's always Ranger/Cleric if you can't decide...