I just made a new party and one of those is a druid and another is a dwarven fighter. I was wondering since I'm new to druids (especially for use in TOEE and respected mods) for playing, what would be good weapons and spells for them to use..? My dwarf fighter I was thinking using dwarven war axe specialty and maybe war hammer as well. I remember couple years ago I tried this with a dwarf and it seemed my dwarf couldnt score damage on one of the undead types in the temple. Maybe I wasn't scoring enough damage to beat resistances or something. my human fighter I was thinking long sword and maybe bastard sword use later on specialized and take the fragnarch or get 13 in intelligence and work on getting whirlwind? any opinions?
Templar: I usually have at least one Dwarf in every party I roll, they get weapon pro dwarvin battle axe for free. I usually go one level fighter and then go to cleric eventually wielding a masterwork warhammer crafted to be +1 and Holy. I guess that's kinda like a Druid. btw...there is a really good two handed club in the 5.0.2 mod that could help a druid out. just my 2 cents...
Dwarf fighters with a dwarven waraxe are pretty good. You get to wield the war axe one-handed for free and heavy armor doesn't slow him down any further. Give him a shield and the best armor you can afford, and slap holy on his war axe as soon as you get a chance and you should be set. For druids, I like to go with an elf (free long bow proficiency) or human (bonus feat). Give them Spell Focus: Conjuration and Augment Summoning and then sit back and use your Summon Nature Ally spells. Or hit the baddies with an Entangle and then plunk at them with your bow or sling while throwing the occaisional Produce Flame, Flame Strike and Call Lightning for good measure.
Good druids are elves. With bonuses to spot and listen. This is also good for spellcraft to identify enemy spells. Also good for survival and healing. Except bows elves are profficient with longswords. So an elf druid may be equipped with a nice bow and sword. But druidic magic is not much impressive when compared to cleric and wizard. Imho. So I prefer to have elf ranger. With rapid shot or multishot with +3 Holy/Frost Composite 18str longbow she is very quick at killing enemies at range. As for dwarves I like my rogue/fighter dwarf who is levelup-ed in proportion of 1 rogue level per 2 fighter levels. It's better to start as rogue to gain more skills and specialize in Appraise, Disarm device, Pick Lock, Search... as well as many other skills. Dwarves have a little bonus to Appraise for metal equipment. Feats added: 1lvl rogue- Combat expertise, 1lvl rogue/1lvl fighter - Improved trip, 2lvl fighter/1lvl rogue - Skill focus Appraise, Weapon focus for dwarven waraxe, 2lvl fighter/2lvl rogue - +1 to Strength, 4lvl fighter/2lvl rogue - Nimble fingers, Weapon specialization for war axe, 5lvl fighter/3lvl rogue - +1 Strength, 6lvl fighter/3lvl rogue - Improved initiative, Improved critical for war axe. About whirliwind - imho it's too expensive and not much fun as Improved Trip. Especially with combination with Enlarge person spell. Great spell. With this spell you can effectively trip even giants. Trip him and surround. When he will try to get up, he will get all attacks of opportunity. About bastard sword - there is a very nice present from Filiken - Holy Longsword+1. It's very nice to use it. It is the best weapon until level 7. And it's best to give it to a good melee warrior. So you have 1 dwarf fighter with axe, 1 with holy longsword. Then, ... Are you planning to have a deadly sniper with Composite Longbow? Cleric? Mage? So if after this you still have vacancies you may think of having somebody with bastard sword. But imho it's not much worth. You also need to take exotic specialization feat to use bastard sword in one hand.
I wouldn't know what my party would do without the druid's entangle spell ! Especially in earlier levels ! That's my personal opinion - so I regard a druid as a very good companion in the party - apart from the healing ( I always use the druid for healing party members).
I like Druids. They're excellent item crafters, fair spell casters, fair healers, and fair combatants. They fill the same roll that the Fighter Mage or Fighter Cleric Mage filled in AD&D. The Long Spear is a fair reach weapon, and the Scimitar+Shield combo is pretty effective. Slings add your STR bonus to damage, making them a useful ranged weapon. Dwarves and Half Orcs both make good front line Druids for stat boosts; Humans make the best Druids if you want the bonus feat. Scribe Scroll, Craft Item, and Craft Weapon are all excellent feat choisces. Spell Focus: Conjuration and Augment Summoning are good. Natural Spell is only really useful if your Druid has lowish CON and STR, or if you want to save money on items; a fully equipped Druid with higher base stats is generally tougher than any wild shape available in ToEE.
the only good druid I've made was an elf who seemed to be such a good archer I forgot about her spells alot of the time.
Understood. Druids are not as good at combat as Fighter types, not as good at causing damage at range as Wizards, and not as good at healing as Clerics. They're very good at buffing one character at a time, but not at buffing the whole party at once. Only in crafting do they really stand out, and there Wizards are potentially as good or better. Where they do shine is at stepping in and filling up gaps that open in combats and party prep. With the Animal Companion, good stats and good armor and weapon choices, they can block or attack pretty well. When you need it, and if you plan for it, they can throw some solid area control spells and reasonable damaging spells. Their summoned animals are useful throughout the game. Scribe some scrolls and they'll always be able to throw a healing spell. Before combat, they have a good mix of buff spells. Some of the buffs they can cast and items they craft can't be provided by other character classes. You can get by without a Druid just fine, but they can contribute quite a bit if you work at it.
