Vanilla Druid in BG1:EE and BG2:EE?

Draekin

It has been a VERY long time since I played the original BG, but got nostalgic and wanted to play through this new enhanced edition. As a kid, I always played as a Ranger, but as an adult I much prefer druids in D&D and other RPGs.

I want to roll a druid (more spell-caster, don't care that much about shapeshifting), and have read that the Avenger or Totemic kits are the way to go. So I tried rolling all 3, just to see what came out.

For the Totemic the best I could muster was an 89.
For the Avenger, I rolled a 90.
But for the vanilla Druid, I rolled an eye-popping 96 on my 3rd roll. Now, I realize that the Avenger is probably the best choice for my playstyle, because the vanilla druid is just really unfortunately poorly implemented (read: underpowered) in BG1. But with this epic 96 roll, should I give the vanilla druid a chance... if only for the awesome roleplaying aspect of it?

I want to take this character all the way through BG2:EE eventually, so will my vanilla druid really suffer in power level compared to an avenger?

Thanks!!

elminster

The thing is that the vanilla druid really has very little advantage over an avenger. Basically it can wear ankheg mail and that is it. The strength and constitution penalty avengers get end up being pretty minor penalties. But the spells avengers get end up being very helpful. Druids have pretty mediocre spells from spell levels 1 to 3, so the addition of chromatic orb, web, lightning bolt, improved invisibility, chaos, and chain lightning helps quite a bit.

element

the power level of vanilla druid will be fine if that's what you want to play. However the totemic and avenger are both just better really. Totemic looses a pretty worthless power for an incredibly good one and as elimster points out there's really little loss for taking the avenger over vanilla either but in return you get some very relevant powers.

Draekin

Thank you both. I'll likely continue with my avenger. I don't love the role-playing concept of an avenger, as I feel druids should be more enlightened peacekeeping and loving individuals that only fight when necessary, but hey.... it's a video game, not a tabletop. Thanks, both of you.

DreadKhan

Vanilla Druid Motto: Prepare to be bored and irrelevant!

Entangle is likely your best spell until level 4... and entangle is nearly useless (try casting it twice on melee enemies and pelt them with ranged... they will make 1 save likely, possibly both).

Avenger is fun and powerful, especially great in BG1 and early SoA, but you're more like a normal druid at high levels, after your shapeshifts are obsolete. High level druid spells though are decent, so this is a good situation. Chain Lightning, Chaos, Web and Improved Invisibility are always good spells to have, but by late SoA, you might have to double up on webs (use a wizard to cast one) to get many guys locked down.

elminster

element said:

as elminster points out there's really little loss for taking the avenger over vanilla either but in return you get some very relevant powers.

Minor correction

DreadKhan said:

Entangle is likely your best spell until level 4... and entangle is nearly useless (try casting it twice on melee enemies and pelt them with ranged... they will make 1 save likely, possibly both).

If you want a version of entangle that doesn't totally suck, also known as how it functionally worked in the original game, then take the three files out of this rar file and put them into your override folder. The colouring is a bit off but otherwise the spell will work as it did in the original game (for the most part anyways).

DreadKhan

The vanilla version was more in line with Web... solidly not as good, but definately had uses. Note, your Avenger will have two solid lvl 1 spells, which is very nice. I'd use an archery heavy party until you have a meleer with Free Action, locking folks down with webs/entangle. Either a Swordspider Avenger or a Free Action meleer (or both) will make this even better, and it can be used for many fights in BG.

Draekin

Yeah right now I'm only level 3, running with Khalid and Jaheira, Imoen and Neera. Imoen and my darts are the only ranged I have.... which is unfortunate because it makes Entangle really hard to use to any great effect.

element

@elminster that elimster is always out to steal your credit

elminster

Dazzu

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Totemic animals are immune to non-magical weapons... in a game where +1 weapons are rare... d'ya get where I'm going with this?

Chack

@Dazzu‌, the ee-version has corrected this, making tomemic animals more balanced. Now the strenghts of the animal improve as you level up. There is a table somewhere to show the evolution of the animals.