Dual class Fighter/Druid allowed weapons
milanm
Member Posts: 27
Hi guys,
Just starting my first IWD walkthrough and i want to add a druid to my party. I see no reason to add a few fighter levels on him, so why not just dual class a fighter into a druid. Was wondering what weapons would i be allowed to use? I'm assuming all, if everything is the same like in BG2?
Thanks.
Just starting my first IWD walkthrough and i want to add a druid to my party. I see no reason to add a few fighter levels on him, so why not just dual class a fighter into a druid. Was wondering what weapons would i be allowed to use? I'm assuming all, if everything is the same like in BG2?
Thanks.
0
Comments
Spear, Halberd, Scimitar, and Bastard Sword have some extremely powerful options that you find late game and in HoW but not much to write home about earlier in the game.
I've noticed few good short bows but many excellent long bows and crossbows, and so far I've only found 1 axe that can be thrown repeatedly. Standard throwing axes are great but are a huge encumbrance issue.
So far I'd say my biggest regret is investing 5 points into Two Handed Sword for my wizard slayer.
The real toss up would be whether or not you go dual wield or sword and shield style. There's loads of great shields (some with stat boosts), but I can also see great potential in dual wielding.
Oh and the game is loaded with undead so plan your party, spells, and items accordingly.
Druids do get the ability to conjure some decent weapons via their spells, particularly clubs. So if you are going to go for grandmastery, clubs make a pretty safe choice for them at every stage of the game. Really though you can make any of their weapon options work pretty well regardless.
Dualing to Druid btw requires 17 wis AND cha, with 15 str needed to allow fighters to dual out.
Level 2 spell Beast Claws sets strength to 18/72 and gives +1 APR which makes it a great early option to make up the strength gap, and later you'll have potions/gear/teammate buffs. Animal Rage is a possibility too, 19 str, though when I've toyed with it on a PC I haven't yet found it worth the opportunity cost.
For defense you'll end up using an Ironskins/Entropy Shield stack which makes you quite durable despite any con or dex you may have skimped on. Plus with your good summons, and possibly also using a reach weapon to keep your distance, you can actually avoid being the direct target of too many attacks. It wasn't Bioware that decided that, TSR made that call so long ago that it is D&D canon now.
Imho, a Fighter to Druid probably will want to just accept 17 wis, and definately 17 charisma, and at least you don't need to worry about Mind Flayers... and you can rely on the mage Strength spells part of the time to get by with 15 until you get a belt. Still, thats 49 points right there! 18 cons and dex would require a +90 roll. If you dual at 7th lvl, you could totally consider 16 cons instead, only lops off 14 HP, 18 dexterity is more useful imho. Even at 9th, thats 18 hp if you take 16, so pretty viable overall. Might be more sane to just Keeper your fighter to the stats you actually want, or use autorolling. Spending more than 10-15 minutes rolling is not my idea of fun, though I have done it before when looking for an 18/00 for a specific build.
Using Beast Claws early is probably a decent option, especially if you don't have a great weapon. And you definately might not have a good option!
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-53860.html
Worth the read, but the TLDR version is: Gary Gygax himself gave it to them for the 1e Players Handbook; "It is because the scimitar is as close a sword weapon I could come up with to match the druids' mistletoe-harvesting sickle."
Noticed in that thread that 1e druids could use hammers as well.
I think I'd probably characterize weapons for Druids as "serviceable" rather than "awesome" in IWDEE. I think there are decent options for Scimitars, Clubs, Staves, and Spears, but nothing that stands out quite as hard as some in the other categories (Longswords, Maces, Flails). Daggers are mostly Mage-oriented in this game so I'd avoid that route.
You might also want to give the Shapeshifter kit a gander if you're looking for a melee combatant type of Druid. It's a different flavor than a Fighter/Druid dual and doesn't get GM benefits, but the Werewolf Form is powerful enough in its own right, especially early on and then again when you get Greater Werewolf Form at level 13. You don't use any weapons, but you can get 19-20 crit range from Single Weapon Style (works with paws for some reason), get 2 attacks per round out of the box (and 4 when you get Greater Werewolf), and your paws hit as +2/+3 enchantment level weapons (IIRC) for determining enemies you can hit. Your Str and Dex scores are set when Shapeshifted, so you only really need 15-16 Con for bonus HP/level and a decent Wis score for bonus priest spells. Makes for very easy rolling. The only thing is that you can't cast while Shapeshifted, so you should plan your spell selection around that (either stock up on pre- and post-combat heals and buffs or just drop all your spells and then shapeshift as a backup melee frontliner).
"Armor and Weapons Permitted. Most druids wear natural armor (leather) and
use wooden shields. Other armors, especially metallic kinds, are forbidden to all
druids.
Most of the weapons permitted to druids of a particular branch resemble tools
used in herding, hunting, and farming, or hold symbolic meaning to the druid. For
instance, the curved scimitar and khopesh represent both the sickle used in the harvest
and the crescent moon, which stands for birth, death, and rebirth in the cycle of
Nature.
The standard druid can use the following weapons: club, sickle, dart, spear,
dagger, scimitar, sling, and staff (optional: scythe).
Use of metallic weapons and tools usually remains unrestricted, but local
availability can prove a problem, especially in areas like the arctic tundra.
Nonmetallic materials can make effective weapons, with the following modifiers
(compared to similar metallic items):
Bone: 30% cost; 50% weight; -1 damage; -1 to attack roll.
Stone: 50% cost; 75% weight; -1 damage; -2 to attack roll.
Wood: 10% cost; 50% weight; -2 damage; -3 to attack roll.
The damage modifier reduces the damage normally done by the weapon, with a
minimum of 1 point of damage. The attack roll modifier does not apply to missile
weapons, as the attack roll reflects the character's aim and is not a function of the
material used to make the weapon. Damage modifiers do apply to missile weapons,
however.
Enchanted nonmetallic weapons must overcome the negative modifiers, too; thus
a bone dagger +1 works just as well as a normal steel dagger.
Whenever a nonmetallic weapon inflicts maximum damage in combat, it has a 1
in 20 chance of breaking and becoming useless. (The DM rolls a d20.)"
Besides, in a lot of ways farming is one of the least natural things you can do from an ecological view, so depending on how you flavor your druids I could see them not necessarily embracing its trappings.
The scimitar is the crescent blade that symbolises the moon.
The Druid ethos to me has always been about natures cycles and marking the passage of time through natural phenomena like the seasons and the phases of the moon.
My big beef with Druids is naming them after a real world religious group we aren't entirely certain about. Heck, the words origins aren't even clear. The moon connection and scimitars is probably the best working explanation, but I don't think Celts were fond of strongly curved swords. They used lots of different straight ones though.
To me, "other armors, especially metallic kinds, are forbidden to all druids" sounds like a religious restriction, meaning a fighter/druid shouldn't be able to wear non-druid armors.
"The standard druid can use the following weapons: club, sickle, dart, spear, dagger, scimitar, sling, and staff (optional: scythe). Use of metallic weapons and tools usually remains unrestricted" sounds like the weapon restrictions are more a matter of training/familiarity, which fighter levels should take care of.
Any PnPers want to enlighten me on whether either of these was the case?
The extra half attack is really important due to the way haste and other +APR effects work when combined with grandmastery in a chosen weapon (scimitar for Druid, flail for cleric, whatever you like out of long sword, axe and flail or even something else for Mage depending on what your other characters use).