Druid Questions

[Ridley's Cohort]

Based on the core books only...

Unless you have most of your combats on open ground on in forests, I find the suggestion that the Druid has the best spell list absolutely preposterous. From my experience, Druid defensive spells are weaker than a Wizard's and a joke compared to the Cleric's. Offense punch is a bit stronger than a Cleric but not necessarily by much -- some Domain spells such as Holy Smite are very very good.

To my mind, the "wild card" in the balance equation is wildshaping. It is really not a big deal until the Druid can become Large at 8yh level -- a heavily armored Cleric could easily hold his own against a Druid in Black Bear form. The open question is how much equipment the Druid can used while wildshaped. If the answer is "most" then wildshaping makes the Druid very powerful -- probably too powerful once the PC acquires some nice magic item combos. If the answer is "a little" or "none" then the wildshaped Druid has a big fat glass jaw (low saves and low AC) that makes the character an accident waiting to happen unless wildshape is used very carefully.

 

[Dark Dragon]

...like being disintegrated by an enemy wizard. And by the rules, the druid's equipment melts into the new form...and is disintegrated as well happens.

 

[Bad Paper]

DMing a 7th-level group presently...

...that includes a druid, fighter, monk, ranger3/rogue4, and fighter2/wizard5.

This makes the druid the party's strongest caster. I thought that they would get clobbered regularly, but I gotta say: that druid has some surprises packed up her sleeve. She's tough: lotsa hit points, has a great AC (gnome, dragonhide armor, large darkwood shield). The hide armor doesn't slow her down, 'cause she can wildshape into anything faster. She does a lot of flying around as an eagle, running reconnaissance and dropping healing spells (natural casting) on people if necessary. Her animal companion is a shockingly tough wolf (something like 50hp; two 8s among its hp rolls) who occasionally gets a good trip on a baddie, then goes in for the kill.

I'm not so worried about them not having a cleric, except, ha ha, they don't have regular access to restoration spells, which *will* bother them down the road. I think the druid is great, and am considering playing as a barbarian/druid down the road.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

I think dragonhide armor would be only for the highest-level druids. You need a dragon four sizes larger to make fullplate or a breastplate, correct? So that's a Gargantuan dragon to make a single set of armor for a gnome or halfling druid, and a Colossal dragon for any other. Such creatures do not part lightly with their skins.

 

[Patlin]

I rarely play Druids, but they can be pretty fun on those rare occasions. I'd recomend taking two levels of Monk shortly after you learn wild shape. This is limiting, since you will need to take an alignment of LN and you'll probably want to play a human or half elf, but the armor class bonuses are very worthwhile, especially with a high Wisdom (which you want anyway.)

Also, if your DM will allow, consider Dragon wild shape from the Draconomicon. It's a lot of fun, even if the Dragon shapes are generally inferior to that of a large bear for combat.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Druid spell list. Wildshape is pretty cool, though...

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I'm not so worried about them not having a cleric, except, ha ha, they don't have regular access to restoration spells, which *will* bother them down the road. I think the druid is great, and am considering playing as a barbarian/druid down the road.

That is one of those details that people often miss because they are used to seeing a Druid in a party with a Cleric (or a Wizard). There are some significant holes in the Druid spell list. I am acutely aware of this issue because I am playing a Druid in a party with a lot of third rate spellcasters. I am not complaining but it is a pretty glaring reason to rate the Druid spells below the Wizard's and Cleric's.

The Druid was probably the most popular choice in a previous thread regarding which class would be best to adventure as a solo PC. The Druid is not the best at anything, but it squeaks into the Top 5 out of the 11 core classes at everything under the sun in my book. Skills, spells, melee, scouting