I selected Thief, but the arguments for Druid seem legitimate. They're probably right: I have a dreadful mechanical mind!
For Thief, however, if you are not a fan of spam resting (as I am not), you would surely struggle a great deal, wouldn't you? Being limited to one attack per round without spells or access to wands (at least not until a level at which they aren't very useful) would make the great majority of the game incredibly difficult. I daresay traps are not such a lifesaver in Baldur's Gate 1 at all when you only have 1 per day and not the skill points to reliably make it work for you. Kiting with a shortbow isn't much of an elegant solution either. Furthermore, Baldur's Gate 1 lacks dialogue-based quests, so it would be difficult to progress by this method initially, whereas Baldur's Gate 2 offers a few such quests that you can take advantage of before you are forced into the fray.
Yeah. Perhaps the Druid would be harder, but I'd say the challenge would be a bit less grueling than trying to go at it as a Thief. The Shadowdancer kit might help out, but being one of the additions brought to the game with EE, I still have a somewhat nostalgiac mind which discounts this when I consider the core mechanics of the game (though this isn't to discount you when it comes to how much I enjoy the game, Beamdog!).
I was tempted to vote for Cleric, but Druid is probably even a bit harder. Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins and Rangers eventually get good enough gear and potions to just hack everything to pieces. Thieves are all-in-all badasses, especially with traps. Mages will get to use Universe-bending magics and the Bards are somewhere in there with them too. Cleric can self-buff a lot and somehow make up for his not-really-stellar fighting skills, but with the lack of direct damage spells, it's much harder than for a mage. Druids got the shaft, it seems.
Although Druids would be difficult to solo with in the Baldur's Gate games, I think they would be one of the easiest single-classes to solo with in Icewind Dale 1, particularly Avengers, which are among the best characters for beating hordes of enemies early on in the game (put down a bunch of Webs and then put down a bunch of Spike Growths). The only hitch in the road would be Belhifet.
People underestimate Druids, the fast leveling in particular helps. There are a few specific fights that are tough for them solo, but that's generally true of everybody.
In SoA in particular, there are entire maps one fire elemental summon can clear by itself. Do that a couple of times and you quickly start to out level content.
People underestimate Druids, the fast leveling in particular helps. There are a few specific fights that are tough for them solo, but that's generally true of everybody.
In SoA in particular, there are entire maps one fire elemental summon can clear by itself. Do that a couple of times and you quickly start to out level content.
Early on they level up VERY quickly, yes. Druids actually require less experience to get 6th level spells than clerics require to get 5th level spells (Reaching level 11 as a druid requires a total of 200000 experience; reaching level 9 as a cleric requires a total of 225000 experience). But then it slows down dramatically (in the Baldur's Gate games, anyway).
If I were to have a plan for beating late-game Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal as a solo single-class druid, it would probably involve spamming elemental princes: send one into a room alone, wait around until it dies, then send another one in, until all the enemies in the room are dead. This strategy is surprisingly effective (it's how I used to get through Throne of Bhaal, though I usually use planetars instead), but I don't know if it would get me past all of the bosses in Throne of Bhaal.
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For Thief, however, if you are not a fan of spam resting (as I am not), you would surely struggle a great deal, wouldn't you? Being limited to one attack per round without spells or access to wands (at least not until a level at which they aren't very useful) would make the great majority of the game incredibly difficult. I daresay traps are not such a lifesaver in Baldur's Gate 1 at all when you only have 1 per day and not the skill points to reliably make it work for you. Kiting with a shortbow isn't much of an elegant solution either. Furthermore, Baldur's Gate 1 lacks dialogue-based quests, so it would be difficult to progress by this method initially, whereas Baldur's Gate 2 offers a few such quests that you can take advantage of before you are forced into the fray.
Yeah. Perhaps the Druid would be harder, but I'd say the challenge would be a bit less grueling than trying to go at it as a Thief. The Shadowdancer kit might help out, but being one of the additions brought to the game with EE, I still have a somewhat nostalgiac mind which discounts this when I consider the core mechanics of the game (though this isn't to discount you when it comes to how much I enjoy the game, Beamdog!).
Thieves are all-in-all badasses, especially with traps. Mages will get to use Universe-bending magics and the Bards are somewhere in there with them too.
Cleric can self-buff a lot and somehow make up for his not-really-stellar fighting skills, but with the lack of direct damage spells, it's much harder than for a mage.
Druids got the shaft, it seems.
In SoA in particular, there are entire maps one fire elemental summon can clear by itself. Do that a couple of times and you quickly start to out level content.
If I were to have a plan for beating late-game Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal as a solo single-class druid, it would probably involve spamming elemental princes: send one into a room alone, wait around until it dies, then send another one in, until all the enemies in the room are dead. This strategy is surprisingly effective (it's how I used to get through Throne of Bhaal, though I usually use planetars instead), but I don't know if it would get me past all of the bosses in Throne of Bhaal.