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How neccesary is a Druid? and party stuff

Well i just remade my party for a damned third time due to altitis...and now ive some new party questions. Im aware I made a thread earlier...but now that ive learned some stuff.....looking for more specific advice.

Heres what I have so far

1. Sorcerer

2. Undead hunter (call him richter >>

3. Fighter/thief: I intend to dual class at 7, good ol classic Bg1

4. Bard: Im going melee heavy...so that first song alone, jeez!

five and six are the toughies, and is were I want your help guys, from more experianced players.

5 I want a cleric..and ive two choices that interest me.

A cleric of tempus just looks/sounds awesome, but i wanted SOME kinda melee power.

Would a beserker be a good dual for a cleric? So far a guy said dual at 3 for hp+pip and I just did that, is it worth it really? Is there a better route for all this?

6. Im torn between two ideas. Pure barbarian, or Barb/Druid dual. Any ideas here?

Once again, thanks in advance for answering my dumb questions.

Comments

  • ArchaosArchaos Member Posts: 1,421
    edited November 2014
    Richter? As in Richter Belmont from Castlevania? ;)

    The parties I like to do, are like this:

    Paladin
    Fighter/Thief
    Cleric
    Sorcerer or Mage
    Druid
    Bard

    Personally, I would choose a Druid in IWD. Druids are awesome there. Though, not sure which kit but even vanilla Druids are great.

    For some early melee power, you might want a Shapeshifter. And the Greater Werewolf in the future comes at the right levels.
    Icewind Dale doesn't go into epic levels (over 20) unless you play it with Heart of Winter.
    You will most likely finish at levels 17-19, I think.

    Berserker/Cleric sounds good. The Cleric of Tempus is also good and fits with the setting, you will know why. Both choices are good.
    If you want more power, go with Berserker/Cleric, if you want a more thematically fitting Cleric, go with Cleric of Tempus.
    It's power vs flavor.

    I would also choose a Dragon Disciple instead of pure Sorcerer. There are various winter/ice/snow enemies that might be weak to fire and there are some fire locations which will make it come in handy.

    For the Thief, I think a Fighter/Thief multi would be better than a dual. Not heaving someone to disable traps or open locks for 7 levels is not a good idea I think.

    Also you cannot dual a Barbarian with a Druid, I believe. You can with a Fighter but not a Barbarian unless that is changed. Pure Druid is better.

    For Bard, anything works. The Skald is very fitting with IWD. A Blade is always great and a vanilla Bard is better than the BG version.

    So, if I made a party, it would be like this:

    Human Undead Hunter or Cavalier.
    Halfling Fighter/Thief multi (bonuses are great)
    Dwarven Cleric of Tempus
    Elven Dragon Disciple
    Half-Elf Shapeshifter Druid
    Half-Elf Bard (Skald or Blade)

    But that's just me. It's not the most powerful or most powergaming party ever. But it's very balanced and very useful as well as very versatile and varied.
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403

    3. Fighter/thief: I intend to dual class at 7, good ol classic Bg1

    4. Bard: Im going melee heavy...so that first song alone, jeez!

    five and six are the toughies, and is were I want your help guys, from more experianced players.

    5 I want a cleric..and ive two choices that interest me.

    A cleric of tempus just looks/sounds awesome, but i wanted SOME kinda melee power.

    Would a beserker be a good dual for a cleric? So far a guy said dual at 3 for hp+pip and I just did that, is it worth it really? Is there a better route for all this?

    6. Im torn between two ideas. Pure barbarian, or Barb/Druid dual. Any ideas here?

    Once again, thanks in advance for answering my dumb questions.

    3 - easy enough to get away with the Ftr9 dual if you want a bit more oomph

    4 - Skald you mean? Skald rocks with a melee group

    5 - yes; I prefer later duals; yes: dual Ftr7/9/13 (or Berserker) to Cleric and then kEEper the kit to Tempus OR go F/C multi and kEEper the kit to Tempus - best of both!

    6 - Barb/Druid is a devastating combo and one of my favourites. I would go multi myself, but a Barb7/9/11 dualed to Druid is very nice indeed.
  • darkcrab34darkcrab34 Member Posts: 19
    edited November 2014
    hmm if I start with all those pre dual classed melee classes, wouldn't I have issues with no cleric/druid for healing, till said level 7 stuff is reached i mean.

    Also arent the bard songs like sith FAR to good to pass up on...ever? or is the damage/ac/CC immunities just to good to ever think of passing up on? Furthermore, if I wanted to be a cheap butthole(not saying im gonna do it!) could I roll bard, and add skald kit?

    Edit: I tested...i can use Skald AND bloody bard, again not saying im gonna do it, was just genuinely curious xD
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Well we did suggest multis were our preference ;-)

    Not sure what you mean by roll a Bard & add Skald kit? What did you test and how was it successful?
  • darkcrab34darkcrab34 Member Posts: 19
    edited November 2014
    What I meant was I rolled a bard up...than used EE to add the skald kit, and i could use any songs and ge tthe skald bonus :P. Now I get that such a move is horribly grubby, so naturally I just rerolled into a plain old skald.

    So yea, I get that multi's are cool, but ive never dual classed since Bg1, so im doing it in excess style now :P. Can always swig potions and I got my skald/sorc for arcane buff/control for the heal issue. I should be able to hold out till level 7. Final part is.

    Undead hunter: Because GOD the undead love icewind dale, i mean god damn its like thier retirement home.

    Half elf Skald: Im going melee heavy, so I may as wel try it.

    Human Sorcerer: Because paper for scrolls seems rarer than NOT finding snow on the ground.

    Now for the duals.

    Beserker/cleric: Like you said, ill likely just use EE to grab the Tempus kit once I dual

    Barbarian/druid: I may go back and actually multiclass this just so I have SOME kinda healing power early game...may go grubby and grab the avenger kit for more web spamming etc.

    Fighter/thief: hasnt changed, but I may take it to lvl 9 now

    Do you think i can really take druid/beserker to 7 or so before dualing and not get gibbed? I mean I got 2x arcane and the skald song for Early AC issues, PLUS all my melee guys will have beefy HP

  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    edited November 2014

    What I meant was I rolled a bard up...than used EE to add the skald kit, and i could use any songs and ge tthe skald bonus :P. Now I get that such a move is horribly grubby, so naturally I just rerolled into a plain old skald.

    So yea, I get that multi's are cool, but ive never dual classed since Bg1, so im doing it in excess style now :P. Can always swig potions and I got my skald/sorc for arcane buff/control for the heal issue. I should be able to hold out till level 7. Final part is.


    Do you think i can really take druid/beserker to 7 or so before dualing and not get gibbed? I mean I got 2x arcane and the skald song for Early AC issues, PLUS all my melee guys will have beefy HP

    Rgr, that was what I figured you meant - interesting to hear that it works!

    Yes, no issue. In fact if you are dualing the Berserker/Cleric at lvl7, then we would suggest waiting until Barb9 before dualing to Druid.
  • darkcrab34darkcrab34 Member Posts: 19
    So I named my Barbarian Minsc, may make a halfing named Boo now >.>
  • CoryNewbCoryNewb Member Posts: 1,330
    I just started a new party that shouldn't have much trouble:

    Fighter
    Thief
    Mage
    Bard
    Paladin

    I'm skipping the druid this time around.
  • darkcrab34darkcrab34 Member Posts: 19
    CoryNewb said:

    I just started a new party that shouldn't have much trouble:

    Fighter
    Thief
    Mage
    Bard
    Paladin

    I'm skipping the druid this time around.

    I never rolled drood for bg1/2 or thier enhanced versions, So I gotta make one eventually.

    Also, Mind you im not a super pro at this, but id really consider sorc over mage. ive heard that scrolls are very few and far between.
  • CoryNewbCoryNewb Member Posts: 1,330
    @darkcrab34‌ I played a sorc as PC through bg1&2, so I wanted to go mage this time around. I think I'll find myself playing a druid with my next party.
  • old_jolly2old_jolly2 Member Posts: 453
    I didn't buy EE . If you really want to roleplay , select Heart of Fury from the beginning as it will harden the combat , making you look after RP options more , and could help you merge with the atmosphere and the toughness of the situation.

    Why ? Because if you go for HoF , druid is a good class enabling you some good summons , and enjoy some tactical variety early. Clerics are a must in a HoF game , for a certain tactic : Fighter heavy party. Though I figured that out late.

    For me , I posted somewhere around my party layout , it was like this :

    Fighter
    Fighter
    Fighter
    Druid ( I dualled it to a fighter , but very late , because I didn't like the high level druid )
    Enchanter
    Illusionist ( dualled to cleric )
  • Ancalagon44Ancalagon44 Member Posts: 252
    Just bear in mind that you cannot have two kits in a class, even with Keeper. So, you cannot have a Berserker / Cleric of Tempus.
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403

    Just bear in mind that you cannot have two kits in a class, even with Keeper. So, you cannot have a Berserker / Cleric of Tempus.

    Two ACTIVE kits - correct (although there is a mod that enables it)

    However, once a kit has assigned a benefit to your character, the character does not lose it when the kit is removed. This is especially useful for duals where the previous class will no longer be increasing and thus will not gain any further class or kit abilities. Thus his Berserker can gain a couple of rages for example, then when he duals to Cleric he can change to the Tempus kit and start collecting those abilities while retaining his Berserker rages.
  • ReadingRamboReadingRambo Member Posts: 598
    Berserker/Cleric of Tempus sounds cooler than sliced bread, wow.
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited November 2014
    Yeah it's almost the Zeckul build (Berserker/Cleric). Not sure you can actually select a specialized Cleric as a dual-class, IIRC I wanted to do Berserker/Cleric of Talos but couldn't.
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Zeckul said:

    Not sure you can actually select a specialized Cleric as a dual-class, IIRC I wanted to do Berserker/Cleric of Talos but couldn't.

    Again you cannot SELECT a kit when dual classing; you need to use an editor to manually complete the change. As the guy was already prepared to use kEEper for a Barb/Druid, a Berserker/Tempus is minimally more effort.
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    Yeah it's a silly limitation of the user interface IMO, the engine allows for it. Would be a nice feature request actually.
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Agreed - especially since this functionality was in BG1 originally :(
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    RAM021 said:

    Agreed - especially since this functionality was in BG1 originally :(

    BG1 didn't have kits...

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited November 2014
    Zeckul said:

    RAM021 said:

    Agreed - especially since this functionality was in BG1 originally :(

    BG1 didn't have kits...

    It had specialist mages (which you could dual class into). I'm not certain if they are treated at all differently in the original BG1 engine (mechanically I mean) compared to how they are treated in BG2, but that might be what RAM021 was referring to.
  • BelanosBelanos Member Posts: 968
    elminster said:


    It had specialist mages (which you could dual class into).

    Those aren't kits, those are standard options that all Mages have, regardless of whether you dual class or not.

  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Zeckul said:

    RAM021 said:

    Agreed - especially since this functionality was in BG1 originally :(

    BG1 didn't have kits...
    Not by that name perhaps...
    Belanos said:

    elminster said:


    It had specialist mages (which you could dual class into).

    Those aren't kits, those are standard options that all Mages have, regardless of whether you dual class or not.
    Sounds fairly kittish to us...

    Fact of the matter is that in BG1 you could dual into a specialty mage; now you cannot. Both the Engine & the rules support it, so as mentioned it seems to be a UI issue more than anything - just like multiclass kits :(

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