so Really, how does the Druid stack up (@v3.0)?

[paulewaug]

The Druid seems to be a hot topic right now (well ok maybe "pretty warm" anyhow )

I had only given them a passing glance in the PHB most of the time and never really thought much about them...
Until I started reading Sepulchrave II's story hour, (wow!)
most notably The Heretic of Wyre

So I have become curious about the Druid, it is actually an interesting class with a lot of potential for "coolness" esp. in a heavily storied or RolePlayed game.

But mechanically I am not convinced they are all that sound compared to so of the other,
dare I say it,
"Core Classes" (Cleric, Fighter, Wizard)
They are a little bit of Cleric with a dash of Wizard and a smidge of Fighter
(i.e. some odd weapon profs, some simple ,some martial, etc.)

So people had stated they thought that a Druid could be absolutely Brutal, b ut after reviewing the COre book 1's spell list I don't see much going for them that you can't access as a Cleric
(granted that there are plenty of people that feel the cleric is overpowered, but that is Not what I am tying to discuss here )

Call Lightning seems to be the stand out spell for them in terms of "I have Power!" But 10 minutes to cast and only 1 bolt per 10 minutes? and it requires the right weather conditions..yeah it has some power potential there but is very Circumstantial.

It looks like a very Fun class to play with interesting Class Features and I do think that a Druid is a very strong candidate for that "5th Man Position"!
'He' makes a great potential "Super Spy" character,
(heh heh "Can't catch me!")
BUt Wizards can cast Polymorph Self and Invisiblity;
and if you cast "Fly/Dimension Door/(and of course)Teleport" you can "Pass Without Trace" pretty well.

But as it is, how can the Druid be cool and stand out as a "Core Character"?

So any opinions out there? Is it up to the job?

Or am I just looking at it all wrong in that it's not so much about "Well that class can do this, and that other class can do this",
But that The Druid has a diverse ability to mimic many other classes abilities, sort of a built in SingleClassed-MultiClass?! (kinda like the Bard but better?)


I also Liked that April Fools day post about the Revised Ranger being the Druid class, that got me thinking too!
Better Ranger than the Ranger? (So is the Barbarian in 3.0 IMHO
But that is another topic and one I don't dount is around here somewhere already! )

 

[LGodamus]

the druid becomes a brutally tough hombre when you let him get his hands on some of the stuff from magic of faerun, and the relics and rituals stuff, along with masters of the wild....he can almost put out spell damage on par with a wizard and can almost heal as well as a cleric, and he can fight pretty good in the right wildshape... Kinda like a bard on steroids...............

 

[Black Omega]

I wouldn't call the druid a combination of cleric/fighter/wizard. There is no fighter in there at all. BAB of a cleric. fewer hitpoints. Less offense than a wizard, less healing than a cleric. Druids get wild shape, but that's nothing a wizard can't do even better with Polymorph in 3.0.

It's a cool class and well worth playing, but it's not that powerful.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. The Druid class is fantastic. it's a merger of cleric and mage. has some great weapons and the wildshape power is just wonderful. Remember that a polymorphed creature does not get the extraordinary abilities of the form but Wildshape does.
Like with all classes you have to look beyond the statistics and look at the possibilities. My druid has an elephant form and rhino armor that has the wild advantage. when he charges someone he does truely massive amounts of damage. give a druid a longspear and they are effective "back party" fighters plus thier spells don't suck as bad as some would have you believe. Firestorm is a bad ass spell, as is Kiss of Death.
I play Bolo as a back up to the cleric (Dravot) and wizard (Scorch) in the party. I am the one who typicaly "de-buffs" monsters and my ability to take on a flying form and cast from a great distance away is just cool.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've played a druid in a FR campaign from 1st level all the way to 17th level, and I must say that it was lots and lots of fun.

Sure, my druid wasn't quite as good as a healer as the cleric, but he was still seen as a welcome and useful addition. Wild Shape is an extremely useful ability that was used a lot - apes (and later, dire bears) can do quite a lot of damage. The many skill points that druids get were put to good use.

A druid can certainly replace a cleric in a party (and for many adventures, he did just that), and can do things and get places that just aren't possible for many other classes without serious work...

 

[DonAdam]

Our party has a druid and only recently got a cleric (as a cohort of the druid, actually). There is no way he is behind the other characters.

With the exception of Entangle, until higher levels he is definitely a support character, but so is the cleric.

If someone had asked me which class needs the least changing in 3.5, I would have most likely responded with the druid. You can't play them as fighters or clerics and expect them to flourish, though. You have to play them more closely to transmuters, becasue they're really utility characters.

 

[paulewaug]

well Firestorm is nice although, the Cleric has access to that with the Fire domain...

There Are some really great wildshapes available,
I think Leopard is a very good Medium choice but I don't see anything that indicates that Wildshape offers anything fifferent than Polymorph does...
It does say that when you hit level 16 and gain the ability to Wildshape into an Elemental form you get all of That form's special abilities.
Although since wild shape is all Animals I don't know that there Are any abilities you in any of those forms that you wouldn't be able to use in polymorphed form anyhow.

So far it looks like Druids are great for atmosphere-
It'll be interesting to see what they are like in 3.5
espcially how they handle Wildshape due to the short duration of Polymorph...that seems to be the best thing they have going right now. Although an increased spell list would be Very useful.

hhmmm..I am tempted to play a Druid in our current game, but we "only" have 4 PCs..
.A Fighter (what a monster!),
A Cleric (Sun and Healing)
and a Wizard...
We just made 2nd level and I am playing a Ranger (and No he doesn't fight with 2 weapons! ),
as I said above the Barbarian and Druid seem to make better Rangers than a Ranger does (in 3.0)
I was going to level up as a Fighter or Barbarian but am very tempted to play a Druid...
There are not a lot of useful Rp chances in this game though, it is mostly hack-and-slash...
Turning into a bird just sounds like a lot of fun though!!

At this point I am thinking I will put it to the groupd and see what they would like to have in the party.
The DM has made it painfully clear that if the 4 pcs don't work together in all things they will be screwed--
(We almost had a TPK twice in 2 sessions so far, evidently due to "bad teamwork") But hey they are only 2nd level they are working on it!! heheh