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Fighter/druid vs cleric/ranger

fish0331fish0331 Member Posts: 197
edited July 2014 in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
what are the pro's and cons of each?
Post edited by fish0331 on

Comments

  • TarotMasterTarotMaster Member Posts: 147
    F/C has nice Survivablity in terms of spell buffs and healing. Druid has some ok offensive spells and some minor healing. So one has more magical dmg the other has more magical def. I don't really know the major details between the 2 classes however.
  • fish0331fish0331 Member Posts: 197
    ty blackraven
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    edited July 2014
    [First part deleted ... realised I was talking crap!]

    I suppose one point on which F/D has an edge is that F/D weapon choices allow for slashing/piercing/blunt damage, whereas C/R can do only blunt damage (with the minor exception of slashing damage from summoned magical swords). However, there are very few enemies immune to blunt, so this is no big deal.
    Post edited by Gallowglass on
  • TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited July 2014
    Rangers can't go past specialization in weapons either.

    If you go into HLAs, Druids get the rather impressive guaranteed Elemental Prince summon. Not as good as the Deva, but you can have both at the same time.
  • Demonoid_LimewireDemonoid_Limewire Member Posts: 424
    Fighter druid is meh. Their only real pros are the transformations, and the summon of the elemental princes directly (not the lesser summon with chance). Ranger cleric is better. You get both divine spell pools, is also a fighter (ranger) on his/her own accord, can dual from kit (beastmaster) in which case you can get max spells slots for hitting 38 cleric level, and is essentially three characters in one; fighter, druid AND cleric. Stick with this, and you won't regret it...
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited July 2014
    BGEE

    Fighter/Druid vs Cleric/Ranger


    Levelling

    Fighter portion levels up faster. Druid half levels up faster at level 5 and later. Negligible difference either way.


    Spells

    Fighter/Druid technically get a slightly stronger dispel magic but basically the difference between levels is negligible. Cleric/Rangers get access to Draw Upon Holy Might (along with all other druid/cleric spells from levels 1-4). Just getting a version of Draw Upon Holy Might that is instant casting (compared to the innate ability) by itself clinches this category for them in my opinion. Getting Holy Smite as well is just icing on the cake.



    Weapons (what they can use)

    This is probably pretty debatable either way. Before BGEE I would have given this to fighter/druids, due to access to one of Drizzt's scimitars as well as the dagger of venom. Especially in BG1 where you can't dual wield. But with BGEE and the inclusion of dual wielding, the cleric/rangers bonus towards it, and the stupifier I think its probably a draw (or maybe slightly in the cleric/rangers favour). Still, Fighter/Druids can use the new wider variety of darts that are now in the game, so they win from a ranged standpoint here. Darts of wounding and stunning are also really good (though expensive). Plus fighter/druids can use daggers, which leaves them with an advantage compared to a Cleric/Ranger against Karoug (which is certainly one of the games more difficult fights) and wolfweres/werewolfs in general.


    Armor

    Cleric/Rangers win here. Fighter/Druid's can't use large shields. Otherwise both can use the same items.


    Abilities

    Cleric Rangers get stealth, turn undead and charm animal. Stealth is basically made irrelevant because of sanctuary (unless you are a stalker/cleric) and the charm animal isn't particularly good. Turn undead is alright but the undead you are going to be fighting are probably just easier to outright kill. Druids get shapeshifting forms but only the brown bear is ever really worth considering (and even then it doesn't provide any benefit over what a cleric/ranger can get frankly). Slight win for cleric/rangers.



    BG2EE

    Fighter/Druid vs Cleric/Ranger


    Levelling

    Fighter portion levels up faster. Druid half levels up fast at the beginning but then slows down to a crawl. Cleric/Ranger wins here without a doubt.


    Spells

    Until basically the end of ToB (aka 6 million xp) this isn't really much of a contest here. Cleric/Rangers get access to more spells and a lot sooner than fighter/druids. Though the elemental prince you can get is outstanding, you can only cast a single level 7 spell until you either get to level 15 as a druid or the heartwood ring.



    Weapons (what they can use)

    Probably a draw. Fighter/Druids get belm. That is basically their saving grace here (because with it they can easily get 5 APR very soon into the game). With throwing hammers (and the lack of the easy access to the really good darts that you can get in BGEE) the ranged advantage for fighter/druids largely disappears. Spectral Brand is a solid mainhand weapon but frankly the Flail of Ages is much easier to acquire and there really aren't any other good scimitars that you get before chapter 5. You can now get the dagger of venom if you follow Neera's questline, which certainly helps. You can use spears as well as a druid and use the staff of arundel, but I don't think either really sets them apart by much (though I do like me some impaler :D).


    Armor

    Cleric/Rangers win here. Fighter/Druid's can't use large shields. Otherwise both can use the same items.


    Abilities

    Cleric Rangers get stealth, turn undead and charm animal. Stealth is basically made irrelevant because of sanctuary (unless you are a stalker/cleric) and the charm animal isn't particularly good. Turn undead is alright but the undead you are going to be fighting are probably going to be immune to its kill effect (because you are too low level) and clerics have a ton of ways of killing undead at this point. Druids get shapeshifting forms. This is probably the best thing they have going for them, because using the Earth Elemental/Fire Elemental form with fighter HLA's is pretty sweet. Cleric/Rangers get 1 more HLA overall I think and since both your ranger and cleric levels are advancing a lot quicker you'll get them sooner. Eventually druids will start getting elemental resistances and immunity to poison (and at basically max level clerics get their symbol). Overall still I'd say the cleric/ranger wins.


    Stronghold

    Fighter vs Ranger

    Fighter stronghold is very interesting but the reward for the ranger stronghold (assuming it were not having bug issues which I think it is) far outweighs this. The Moon Dog Figurine is just fantastic in every sense. Ranger wins.

    Druid vs Cleric

    Golden Lion figurine and Root of the Problem are pretty meh. The cleric rewards are also pretty meh. Plus the only good reward as far as I'm concerned out of them is the ring of protection +2 that you get with the druid stronghold. Still, you can't get it until you are level 14 as a druid. In terms of quests I'd say the cleric one is more interesting.

    Overall for strongholds I'd say the cleric/ranger is better because of the Moon Dog FIgurine.
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    F/D has better HLAs. All else favors the R/C.
  • GoturalGotural Member Posts: 1,229
    edited July 2014
    Both are good. Don't dual a Ranger into a Cleric, the main advantage (even if not very important) of a dual compared to a multi is generally the fact that you can reach Grandmastery, but here this isn't the case, Ranger can't get Grandmastery. So R/C is definitely better than R=>C. Beastmaster is meh, pure cleric is meh, Ranger without HLA is meh.

    Overall Ranger/Cleric seems to be superior, but everyone here seems to forget that Druids get 10% resistance to elemental damages at level 18, 21, 24 which is a total 30%, combined with Armor of Faith (25%) you can reach 55% base elemental resistance damage which is very good.

    And something else, with F/D, you have two choices, you can either go multi, and combine the Fighter HLA with the Druid HLA transformation which is very very good. Or you can dualclass early in the game to get the Grandmastery and the 30% elemental damage reduction later in the game.

    Final bonus : With the BG1 xp cap, a Fighter max level is 8, which is equal to the Highmastery while the Druid max level is 10 (level 5 spells). If you play a Fighter (kitted or not), level up to 7, get the 1/2 APR and Highmastery you can then dual class and you will be able to reach level 9 as a Druid, which will get you your level 5 spells and the Grandmastery at level 8 Druid. Which means a Fighter 7 dual Druid 9 in BG1 is a Fighter with better specialization and level 5 druids spells (insects, skin, etc).
  • abacusabacus Member Posts: 1,307
    The biggest drawback of F/D is getting to level 15...
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