Druid strategies

This Wiki page is designed to outline a number of primary Druid gameplay strategies to assist players new to the Druid class.

Contents
 * Designing a Druid
 * Early levels (character level 1-6)
 * Mid levels (character level 7-16)
 * Epic levels (character level 20+)
 * Sample builds

Designing a Druid
Attributes: 

A Druid's primary spell casting attribute is wisdom. High levels of wisdom increase the number of spells spells / day, and the spell difficulty class (DC) for saving throws. It is entirely reasonable to start a Druid build with a wisdom score of 18.

Other attributes are also useful depending on the overall playstyle intended, and the additional classes one wishes to take. For example:

- Druids who spend a lot of time polymorphed (ie in bear form, elemental form , dragon shape or others) will not want to overly invest in physical statistics such as strength , dexterity  and constitution , as those three statistics are overridden by the stats of all Druid polymorphs. Shifters polymorphs (in Druid/Shifter builds) are unique as certain statistics will carry over (for example, the Kobold Commando only overrides the caster's dexterity, and will retain the casters original strength and constitution statistics).

- Druids who wish to cast a lot of spells will want to invest some points into constitution (for health, fortitude saves and bonuses to concentration) and dexterity (for armor class and reflex saves) to help successfully casting spells.

- Druids who wish to have a lot of skill points, multi-class with Wizard or wish to access to feats such as expertise /improved expertise, improved knockdown or disarm , will wish to invest in the intelligence  statistic.

- Druids who multiclass with Bard, Sorcerer , Blackguard or Cleric  and wish to use arcane spells, or the Divine Might /Divine Shield feats may benefit from investment in charisma.

Skill points:

Druids gain a lot of skill points (4+int modifier /level, [4+int modifier]*4 at level 1). Only the concentration skill to assist with spell casting and resist taunting is essential. This leaves a large number of skill points which can be invested in a number of ways, and this is not comprehensive:

- Heal to assist with keeping summons / party members alive during combat, and remove the effect of poisons/diseases from others

- Spellcraft to assist with identifying spells, accessing Epic spells at higher levels, and increasing saves vs spells

- Persuade to reach peaceful solutions or to increase quest rewards

- Animal empathy to strengthen the early game of the character, and to potentially control animal companions of hostile NPCs or player characters.

Additional skills could be invested into cross classed skills such as Tumble.

A potentially better option is to save skill points and multiclass at higher levels to spend these skill points (this is known as 'skill dumping'). For example, a human Druid with intelligence 14 may choose to save a number of skill points and only invest in Concentration and Spellcraft. This Druid can then take a level of Monk at level 7. This Druid would have saved up around 40-50 skill points which then could be spent into skills such as Tumble, Discipline, Listen , Hide or Move Silently.

Equipment:

Many Druids will not have high strength. As such melee weapon and shield combination is attractive. For medium sized Druids (such as humans), scimitars are attractive for their critical threat range of 18-20. Elven druids also have access to rapiers  and longswords. Smaller characters (such as halflings and gnomes ) will find daggers and sickles useful if they wish to use shields.

Druids with high strength may potentially use two handed weapons. Staves and spears  are reasonable choices. Smaller characters can use scimitars in two hands.

A sling and shield set up is useful for ranged weapon attacks. Darts are also useful but are heavier. Elves will find the longbow attractive for ranged attacks.

Using medium armor and a shield is attractive for most Druids, unless they are multiclassed with Monk and benefit more from the Monk's Wisdom AC modifier, or they wish to access arcane spellcasting from another class such as Sorcerer  or Bard. Taking the heavy armor proficiency feat (either through feat choice, or multiclassing with a class such as Fighter or Blackguard ) can increase a Druid's AC further in human form and provide access to more choices of equipment.

Druids who wish to polymorph should be aware the magical properties of the armor, shield and helm slots are transferred to the polymorphed form, but only the highest AC modifier is transferred.

Multi-classing:

The only class that a Druid cannot multiclass with, without alignment change, is Paladin. This leaves a number of useful classes a Druid may choose. There are certain synergies that are notable: Choice of animal companion : Choice of feats:
 * Only Druids can take the Shifter class which provides a large number of additional polymorph forms.
 * Polymorphs and the Monk class - with a single level of Monk, polymorphs using creature weapons can access to the Monk's unarmed attack bonus, and polymorphs not using armor can access the Monk's Wisdom AC
 * A high wisdom statistic encourages multiclassing with the Monk class (for Monk Wisdom AC) or possibly Cleric  class.
 * The large number of skill points Druids obtain encourages multiclassing with classes with large numbers of class skills, such as Rogue or Bard  for skill dumps
 * Druids get bonuses to stealth through camouflage /mass camouflage and one with the land spells, and the trackless step feat, and classes which provide Hide and Move Silently as class skills (such as Rogue, Monk , Bard , Shadowdancer and Assassin) may find this attractive.
 * There are a number of good choices. The bear has the highest attack bonus and health. The panther outputs a large amount of damage from sneak attacks. The wolf/dire wolf or badger have good AC values.
 * Pre-epic spell casting feats of interest include extend spell, empower spell , spell focus: conjuration/necromancy/transmutation, greater spell focus: conjuration/necromancy/transmutation
 * Pre-epic combat feats of interest include blind fight, improved critical (unarmed) for polymorph form, knockdown/improved knockdown, expertise/improved expertise, toughness
 * Epic feats of interest include dragon shape, great wisdom (particularly to meet dragon shape requirements and further improve spell DC), epic spell focus: conjuration/necromancy/transmutation, epic prowess (which works with polymorph form), armor skin, epic reflexes (to help strengthen the Druid's weak reflex save)

Early levels (character level 1-6)
The early levels of any class are tough, however Druid has a few notable advantages:

- an animal companion from level 1

- access to the Summon Creature spell

Both can be used at the same time. In addition, one can hire a henchman in the Original Campaign, allowing a low level Druid to have four characters under one's control.

The druid can use the combat options of scimitar and shield or sling and shield, or other options discussed previously.

Low level spells such as Grease and Entangle, particularly when boosted with spell focus/greater spell focus conjuration, are powerful to disable low reflex save enemies. They are excellent on lower difficulty settings. On Hardcore DnD settings these spells will also affect your animal companion, summons and henchmen, and could do more harm than good.

The barkskin spell is useful to increase the armor class of your companions and yourself. The Bull's Strength spell can increase the damage dealt by yourself and companions.

Call lightning, which is accessible at level 5, is party friendly, and will only target enemies.

Once a Druid has access to wildshape, he or she can turn into a number of various forms. The Bear form has the highest strength, attack bonus and health but the lowest AC.

Mid to late levels (character level 7-20)
Level 7 druid provides access to the stoneskin spell, which is valuable in reducing physical damage dealt to you or your companions.

Level 7 onwards is also a common time for Druid players to take their first level of Monk, if this is incorporated into the build. This leads to a huge power boost to polymorphed forms, from increased attacks from the Monk UBAB + flurry of blows, and additional AC from Monk Wisdom AC and Tumble skill dumps.

At level 9, Druids become immune to poison and get access to the very powerful owl's insight spell, which provides further buffs to spell casting (and Monk Wisdom AC, if multiclassed with Monk). Ice storm is also powerful and attractive on lower difficulty settings, but will damage party members on hardcore DnD settings. Slay living is powerful with spell focus/greater spell focus: necromancy

At level 11, Druids can access the powerful stonehold spell which targets will saves and is useful against fighter and rogue types, the main constituent of many enemy mobs. When combined with freedom of movement cast on one's self (or obtained through items) and on the animal companion, this can cause large mobs of monsters to become disabled. Other useful spells obtained include the greater stoneskin spell, powerful drown and crumble spells.

Level 13 provides access to the heal, harm , creeping doom and true seeing spells. Level 15 provides access to the powerful finger of death spell (particularly when boosted with SF/GSF: necromancy) and premonition which scales very well with high caster levels.

Level 16 Druid provides access to elemental forms. Water elemental form provides a nice balance between strength, dexterity/AC and provides excellent immunities to critical hits, sneak attacks and fire damage, and is a popular elemental form for most Druids. Druids with rogue abilities (ie open lock) may also consider the air elemental form, as it has the highest dexterity statistic. Level 17 provides access to level 9 spells particularly Storm of Vengeance and Summon Creature IX /Elemental Swarm.

Strategy wise it depends on the difficulty settings and whether a Monk level is taken to boost polymorph forms. A bear form druid with monk abilities and buffed with stoneskin (and other spells) is quite powerful. If Monk is not taken then the Druid will want to rely more heavily on spell casting. Call lightning and Icestorm are particularly attractive. Against high reflex save enemies, instant death spells such as slay living, finger of death, and near death spells such as harm or drown are very attractive.

Crowd control spell combinations include Storm of Vengenance/Stonehold/Grease/Entangle. Combined with high wisdom scores, the owl's insight spell to reach the attribute cap, and spell focus/greater spell focus: conjuration feats, this combo of 3-4 spells this allows sizable mobs to be controlled (requiring 3-4 saves per round against reflex or will), and ready to be finished off by a series of call lightning spells, icestorm spells, instant death abilities such as Finger of Death, or physical damage dealt by a polymorphed Druid / animal companion / summon.

It is important for Druids and their animal companions to have Freedom of Movement to avoid the effects of their own Stonehold. Druids are naturally immune to grease however animal companions and summons can be knocked down by it on higher difficulty settings. Elemental summons may be immune to paralysis and knockdown (grease) and may not need to worry. Storm of Vengeance will only target, damage and stun enemies.

Epic levels
A major decision will be whether to try to obtain the dragon shape feat or not. It requires substantial investment including multiple great wisdom feats, and at least Druid 18 or Shifter 10. It is however very powerful particularly if a level of Monk is present in the build.

Other useful epic feats to consider are epic spell focus : conjuration/necromancy, epic prowess (which will work on polymorphed forms), epic spells (hellball /greater ruin ), epic summons (mummy dust /dragon knight ), armor skin, and spell penetration feats for multiclass druids (ie Druid/Cleric or Druid/Wizard builds).

Sample builds
From the NWN Wiki:

Druid 8/Monk 4/Shifter 28

Druid 9/Monk 20/Shifter 11

External sites:

Order of Jorumgandr (Cleric 25/Druid 14/Monk 1) a very popular cleric/dragon/monk build, until dragon shape feat requirements were changed to require Druid 18 for dragon shape

Champion of the Wilderness (Druid 28/Monk 2/Champion of Torm 10)