The Sword of Shanara by Terry Brooks and other early books in the Shanara series are very Tolkien/D&D with a group of well armed D&D demihuman types journeying around dangerous places and includes a high level magical druid adventuring patron without shapeshifting but a whole secret society thing.
The Belgariad series of novels by David Eddings was a young protagonist with huge magical potential joins a high level D&D group including a master thief, a werebear fighter, a cavalier/knight, ridiculously high level mages, etc.