Anything Specific I Should Get For My Shapeshifter?
SilentDirector
Member Posts: 4
I'm having a blast with this class. I never really played as a druid much in general in past plays (years ago) and was partly too ignorant at the time to leverage them properly.
However after getting back in with BG2EE I'm loving that class. He is both an effective fighter and spell caster. The only challenges I've had is with the no armor and shitt AC in human form when we get ambushed by range. I'll have issues changing into form due to hits.
So far all is good especially with buff spells there haven't been a lot of issues on this play through. (I'm also running with the standard evil bunch and finding out they are pretty solid support)
My question to you more experienced players is are there any specific items or spells I should acquire or use when using the form to make it even more tanky in ability.
I use ironskins for sure along with some of the basic buffs in the 1-3 spellslots. He has the very first helmet you find with bonus hit points and armor class. I have ring of protection and a charisma bonus as well (not sure what charisma really does for me). I have a belt but cant recall its ability at the moment. I bought the cloak that makes me a blurry and increases saves (I bought the belt at the same spot I think) and a +3 staff that rarely gets used.
Wisdom and const are 18s. If you need any other relevant information just ask. Only issues I've noticed is he doesnt actually connect a hit as often as I'd like.
However after getting back in with BG2EE I'm loving that class. He is both an effective fighter and spell caster. The only challenges I've had is with the no armor and shitt AC in human form when we get ambushed by range. I'll have issues changing into form due to hits.
So far all is good especially with buff spells there haven't been a lot of issues on this play through. (I'm also running with the standard evil bunch and finding out they are pretty solid support)
My question to you more experienced players is are there any specific items or spells I should acquire or use when using the form to make it even more tanky in ability.
I use ironskins for sure along with some of the basic buffs in the 1-3 spellslots. He has the very first helmet you find with bonus hit points and armor class. I have ring of protection and a charisma bonus as well (not sure what charisma really does for me). I have a belt but cant recall its ability at the moment. I bought the cloak that makes me a blurry and increases saves (I bought the belt at the same spot I think) and a +3 staff that rarely gets used.
Wisdom and const are 18s. If you need any other relevant information just ask. Only issues I've noticed is he doesnt actually connect a hit as often as I'd like.
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just note that while in shapeshift they won't get AC bonuses from armor or shields and im pretty sure you don't get their special abilities either if the have some ( which you have no doubt noticed )
although one thing i did notice is that while in shapeshift is that you seem to be attacking with a single weapon, so if you don't have single weapon style, that could be a good proficiency to get, increases critical hit range, with a nifty +1 AC bonus
I think he has two handed right now because with ironskins I'll actually have him fight without armor sometimes if I anticipate a quick battle.
Really was just looking to see if anyone knows of any items that have benefits that would carry over into werewolf form. I recently connected the dots on another play through where I got minsc the boots of speed and am headed there now with wolfman.
but realistically there is really no specific item that works better in werewolf form than any other class would benefit from
now if you were playing vanilla bg2, the staff of the woodlands was uncontested the best weapon for shapeshifters because you could "dispel" the garbage werewolf attack and use that staff instead, and then for the extra kick in the pants you could dual class over to fighter, while still being in your werewolf form and put extra proficiencies into two handed weapon style and quarterstaff and really mop the floor with enemies
but the EEs fixed all these awesome exploits, so whatever items you give your werewolf chap will benefit no more or less than giving it to someone else
although belt wise, there is no point in giving your werewolf the STR belts since their STR is already set, so you could give it the belt of interior barrier ( which personally i would do ) or perhaps the girdle of bluntness ( since lots of strong enemies use crushing attacks )
are you sure regeneration still exists for the werewolf form? last time i used it in the EEs they got rid of the CON stat, so now you don't get the CON boost ( unless in a recent patch they gave it back ) or unless it has regeneration outside of having a higher CON stat, because as far as i know the werewolf form does not regenerate on its on in the EEs ( kind of defeating the purpose of becoming a werewolf )
I guess that you still get 6 attacks per round with Improved Haste so items with it should still be good. Good reason to use the Ring of Gaxx then.
As for items: Bracers AC3 are good for when he’s spellcasting, and the various defensive items (boots of avoidance, golden girdle) are always useful. Offensively, wand of the heavens or ring of the ram give a shapeshifter uses for his aura when shifted.
So anyways. Yeah, you’ll start connecting less in SoA without buffs due to priest thac0, which leads to a rather interesting playstyle: the shapeshifter switches between a squishy, dangerous spellcasting terror, or a melee tank nearly impervious to damage (iron skins GWW form) but unable to really hurt his opponents consistently. Saying there’s no reason to play a shapeshifter is kinda silly, IMO.
Sorry, all types of characters can be fun to play. I love Druids though my favorite is Kensai>Druid. Still struggling through ToB with a Shaman, lacking elemental princes and Devas is kicking my butt. The two characters I have played the most are barbarians that only ever use axes and short swords, and Cleric-Thief. I never get tired of those two. I don’t understand taking away regeneration for GWW, it was not overpowered or part of a class that was overused. That is all that I am saying. I do like bracers AC3 for the class but end up switching them out a lot, and I am a huge fan of RotR. I have no idea how many times I sent Kangaxx to sleep permanently with that thing plus all manner of trap fun.
After that it were a better class and useful troughout the game.
are you playing ToB with mods? because i play on insane difficulty with no mods, and the only time i ever use summons is during the last battle in watcher's keep, and i use mordenkainen's sword
ah, you are playing a solo run, I wasn't aware, i virtually never play solo runs, so my bad
Actually I love the interactions of a party but the pathing drives me bananas.
for the ring of protection +3, that is a yes, you find it in ToB
equipping a str belt after the druid is shapeshifted overrides the str, the werewolf form has natural str of 19, with a good belt he can have more. also the reverse is true, the greater werewolf has natural str of 21, but if after shapeshifting the belt sold by ribald is equipped the str gets reduced to 19.
having a cleric in the party that casts champion's strength on the shapeshifted druid sets his str to 18/00, so less than the hoe he has, and this is not overridden by the trick to unequip and equip again the belt, but gives the druid a good thac0 bonus that can be really useful against enemies with good ac, better hit for little less damage than miss for more damage...
as the cleric looses the ability to cast is better to have him buff himself for physical combat then cast champion's str on the werewolf, after the protections like chaotic command, protection from fear and elemental protection are cast.
Anything that improves THAC0 (Helm of Balduran, etc) so you can keep pace with your fighters, who don't really have THAC0 problems even without items.
Items with stackable AC bonus (your default AC is great, but like THAC0 eventually needs help scaling at higher levels). Aforementioned Cloak of the Sewers for example.
Weapons with activatable abilities (Staff of Thunder and Lightning for example, nothing like chucking lighting bolts while you're in barely assailable tank mode.)
A weapon pip in single weapon style is a big buff to Werewolf/GWW, as mentioned. Eventual honorary mention to two weapon style with Belm off-hand (changed in EE?).
Eventually you'll want the Earth Elemental HLA, basically serves as an upgrade to GWW, if only because its "weapon" is better.
Bhaalapawn power DUHM gives you some ridiculous stats if you have it (25, 24, 25 str dex con on GWW in vanilla, before EE nerfed Shapeshifter con).
Most important thing though is to remember that your real strength is caster form. WW/GWW is mostly a method of keeping yourself useful while you're trying to conserve your resources.
Nothing broken just something that doesnt miss all the time. I am a demi-god werewolf that cant hit shit..commmonn commmoonn
What we do know is that you can’t reason with an insane troll :-)
So have a look at some of the mods instead. There is a mod for pretty much everything, including fixing werewolves
https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-cdtweaks.html
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63341/shapeshifter-dualled-to-fighter-at-level-18-thoughts
About items:
Vhailor's Helm to have a werewolf and a druid in solo is huge.
Gauntlet of crushing maybe for the more dmg.
Ac 3 bracers if you not use barkskin in druid form.
Just toss on two Scimitars and you'll get an additional attack in WW shape and another with Belm.
Clearly it's not meant to work like this, but it does.
Instead of dual at 18, i'd dual at 13.. or not at all. 18 is much too late unless it's a solo run.
Are you sure that's the case in BG2EE? It's a while since I played a shapeshifter, but I seem to remember you get an extra attack for dual wielding in BG1EE, but not BG2EE.
Less of a nonsense bug than using Dispel is, even if the result is the same.