Druid milestone spells

[MOK]

I chose a druid for my first playthrough, which has led to a struggle to maintain comparative viability. Even with the extras you get as the main character, I've found that most other characters are more reliably and and constantly capable in a fight than mine.

This matches up with what I've read of peoples' outlook on the class generally:
It's a generalist class in a game that rewards specialization.
It's versatility in pen & paper does not come through in the video game.
Shapeshifting isn't very good.
It's feat starved.
And I could go on.

If you're an unfortunate person sticking with a druid, your two primary saving graces will be your animal companion, and your spells. For the former, there's not much to it. But for spells, there's a lot to sift through every spell level, and a lot of complexity. So spells is the topic in this thread.

I'm interested in people's outlook on what are the big pillar spells that do the most/best work, and affect their gameplay the most. Particularly the early spells, since you'll have more of them and will use them far more over the course of a playthrough.

Which druid spells do you use the most or appreciate the most?
Which do you lean on for trash fights?
Which do you reserve for boss fights?
Which ones do you feel are most reliable but effective?
Are there spells that you always always keep memorized that aren't for combat?
What do you feel are the major milestones in the druid spellbook?

And I want to stress that higher level spells(lvl 7-9) are less important here compared to low level spells, since you only have a smaller amount of gameplay time to cast the higher level spells, and have less ammo too. Low level spells are the real load-bearing pillars in a realistic playthrough.

And finally, what have you done to get the most from your druid throughout the playthrough? Where I've felt my low level spells have kept my druid largely irrelevant, have you felt like a powerhouse before getting high level spells?

[Happyscientist]

I dont really play druids but I will say they have some good spells. (greater/reg) Magic fang is great if you have mounts and thorn body is pretty nice too.

[Schlumpsha]

I'm lovin' Explosion of Rot. Hands down my favourite 4th level Druid spell~

[pete3great]

Sometimes I multiclass Lann into a druid, then, besides his pet, I use him to buff. That's about it. The whole "druids don't do translate well into CRPGs" is an old old problem with this kind of game.

[HydraLord]

Hi there.

Duird is an awesome class, as a personal perspective.
For the first level spells i recommend entangle, acid maw (for animal companion), longstrider, magic fang and cure light wounds. The first levels of druid, i build them as support, they can control vast amounts on enemies and even outrun them as your archers take them down.
The next levels spells you might find interesting are barkskin, animal aspect, delay poison, lesser restoration, sickening entaglement, and stone call (other players point at bear endurance, owl wisdom and of those that levels you stats).To make it short othere spells you may find usefull as you progress might be: Animal Greater aspect, delay poison communal, feather step mass, Greater longstrider, greater magic fang, resist energy communal, spike growth, dispel magic, freedom of movement, obsidian flow, protection from energy communal, spike stone, volcanic storm, animal growth, death ward, stoneskin, blessing of the salamander, all those mass boost stats (like bull´s strenght mass), plague storm, sirroco, stoneskin communal, creeping doom, legendary proportions, true seeing, polar midnight, seamantle, and other.
Personally i do not use summons until manticores level is reached.
Most suggestions i saw recommend sabertooth, and leopard as animal companions for the amount of attack per round they get, others go for wolf and dog, cause they can trip enemies with each attack they make, i do like monitor lizard and centipede as they drain stats with their poisonous attacks.
Also i like to multiclass with mad dog class, as i gain some attack bonuses with the wild shape (not more atacks), and they keep leveling my pets.
And for the last question, i think that druid may shine in 2 parts of the game....half-game, where you areas spells hinder the enemy progress toward you party and your companions may rain arrows or other spells (like cloudkill), and where you forms like wolfshape, can do the difference; and late game, where some spells are amazing like crreping doom (summon that have high resistence to most common damage but area ones), or polar midnight where mixed with movenemen imparing conditions could wipe even the hardest of the foes. Also i would keep in mind shambling mound and water elemental shapes, love bot of them (but i found the shambler much better).
As for the summons, just for meatwall, cause i did not build the duid to empower them, perhaps other players may give some insight about them.
Last, do know that i do not have the shapshifter DLC, so perhaps i a missing some combinations with the druid.

Hope this help
Have fun

[fox5s]

@HydraLord said most of it. I'm just gonna highlight a few things.

Snowball is surprisingly good. No SR and it has a chance to stagger. Solid against anything without cold resist.

Entangle is VERY shiny. I'd actually consider getting Selective Spell and the Mythic upgrade just for it. And the latest DLC added a bunch of higher level versions of it that do interesting things.

Barkskin is amazing. It stays FAR ahead of Amulets of Natural Armor for a long time. Plus you want that amulet slot for better things than Natural Armor. (Hello anti-swarm amulets.) And there is only one companion that really gets it. And most people eventually phase her out or just don't like her. You'll probably eventually be using all your second level slots on it.

For third level spells... only one person needs to memorize Communal Delay Poison. But a lot of companions have access to it. You could pick it up or give the job to someone else. Check out the Entagle version on this level. If you took Selective, Spike growth isn't bad. It might struggle against DR. Same story for Spike Stone at the next level.

Slowing Mud is actually a key spell. I have it on good authority that is shines at certain points VERY late game.

Animal growth is solid. If you are getting into melee, Aspect of the Wolf is great. Free trip attempt with a swift action that I wasn't using anyway? Yes please.

Cave Fangs is literally OP. Yes, to see its true potential, you might want to pick up the Enduring Spells mythic ability. That allows it to give you a HUGE number of uses. I think you only get one per round normally but in RTwP mode, its limit is as fast as you can click. And yes, you can just drop them directly on a mob. No need to drag them into it. Just spam them with reflex saves.

Sirocco is another 'must have' and is another point for getting Selective. You may not have the Feats and mythic abilities to spare to make it actually good though.

Special note for Changestaff. It requires Quarterstaves. Collect and buy every Quarterstaff in the game in preparation for this. (I'm pretty sure the magic ones don't work for it.) I have no idea if the Treants are actually good, but if you want to test them, must have Quarterstaff.

Heal. The only healing spell worth casting in combat.

Legendary Proportions is probably pretty good.

Frightful Aspect is amazing. It makes creatures in range of it shaken with no save assuming they aren't immune. This will allow a bunch of things to be set off. I don't remember the exact combos but it's in the Dazzling Display chain. It would be super easy to set up companions to take advantage of it.

Seamantle is nice. Who doesn't want +8 AC, +4 Reflex and Immunity to Fire?

Sunburst. So nice. If you end up specializing in Evocation, this is solid. Huge AoE. (make sure you get Selective on this one it's SO big.) But the real awesome part is the Blind. It Blinds everything. Even things that shouldn't be blindable. Like undead. Blind everything and watch them cry about their new 50% miss chance and inability to add Dex to their AC.

Foresight is so good to have on your MC. Especially if your initiative sucks. This will help you out after all those cutscenes when the monsters target your MC instead of the tank for the first round.

Polar midnight is super good as well. Better if you are specializing in evocation but it's still solid for the Dex damage.

Hope you found all this useful! :D

((A few things i said... >.>))

[MOK]

Thanks!

I do use most of those spells. But at the same time I don't feel like you've(@HydraLord) gotten at the notion of which spells are most defining, the pillars.
The exception being your explanation of why you favor entangle, for lockdown. Personally, I don't like it since it also locks down your party.

Similarly, a lot of druid spells have a massive and ungainly radius, to the frequent detriment of the party, with the tradeoff benefit often being relatively modest. Of course there's ways to preempt it, counter it, but those require further resources, whether it's additional casting slots, metamagic feats, or gear. By comparison, your party could've just employed a cleric or witch's spellcasting instead, offering similar gains, straightforward, at no tradeoff.

So, Entangle could be one great example of a druid spell that can make a large and unique impact - a pillar of unique druid casting. But do you(or others) find that the spell's challenges(excessive radius, indiscriminate effect) just haven't been a problem, and it still gets frequently cast?

I basically don't use it since I'm running a melee heavy party to cater to a drovier, so I don't do kiting. Maybe this is why other similar spells - like sickening entanglement, spike growth, stonecall, or spike stones - do far more harm than good. But even if I wasn't, I would figured that most players often cannot or did not control the encounter positioning to beneficially leverage these wide-area spells.

Barkskin is one I've thought about as a relatively unique pillar. It's just too bad it's made somewhat obsolete with the ready supply of amulets of natural armor, and doesn't last long either.

Greater Magic Fang is a good one. Thank goodness it has a long duration though, since the benefit is a bit mild: +4 by the time you're level 15. I suppose that's an example of good balance. But it poses a question for me: Is this mild, balanced, nice-to-have feature really a pillar? Is this a part of why one would want a druid in the party? Cuz it doesn't really change or direct how your party plays. It's part of observations that motivates this thread.

Animal Aspect could be group defining for some, maybe a contender for a milestone spell, due to Aspect of the Gorilla's benefit to trips and dirty trick melee groups, or Falcon's benefit for archer groups. My group is basically built around Gorilla, from the Drovier aura. Though this one is also pretty mild in it's contribution, even when built-around. It's not the kind of thing where anyone says "I've finally hit THAT LEVEL, and now my power spikes!"

Sirocco seems like the only uncommon spell I can identify that accomplishes this sentiment. Are there others I'm overlooking? I'm interested in other specific spells that are semi-unique to the Druid spellbook, and highly impactful.
Or alternately, do other spells also have challenges that you've found not to be a problem to overcome?

[fox5s]

Oh! If you do want to specialize in Evocation, grab a level of Crossblooded Sorc and take two Dragon bloodlines that specialize in Fire and a level of the Elementalist Wizard. The Wizard level lets you turn all the weird elements you have access to into Fire (and an extra Feat). The Bloodlines give you bonus damage to your Fire (and an extra Feat).

You might want a level of Loremaster to pick up Chain Lightning. If you took the two other levels I wouldn't go deeper into Loremaster. It is only good at the odd levels and you don't want your Animal Companion falling behind. You would want to pick up Boon Companion to catch it back up. But that only works for four missed Druid levels.

[alrik1119]

Can the Druid class in this game equip and use axes and swords in this game?

[fox5s]

Originally posted by alrik1119:

Can the Druid class in this game equip and use axes and swords in this game?

Short answer, yes. Scimitars.

Long answer, they don't have a lot of proficiencies by default. They do start with proficiency with Scimitars. If you want more, you will need to pick up the Martial Weapon Proficiency Feat. Possibly Simple Weapon Proficiency. I'm gonna test something and Edit this in a min with the answer.

EDIT: So yeah, you can get Martial Weapon Proficiency. Simple Weapon Proficiency is NOT a prerequisite.

[MOK]

@Fox5s
Agreed with you on the utility of Communal Delay Poison. When you need it, you gotta get it it, and it lasts. Although like you mentioned a lot of others can get it, and it doesn't cure afflictions.

I think you're right about Snowball, a spell I've been overlooking. The damage is reliable, if mild. But it's a lvl 1, so you can spam them.

Similarly, I think I've overlooked cave fangs. I'll try that.

As for the high level spells, they're all good of course, but it's power that just wasn't there when you needed it in the prior ~14 level slog. Per what I mentioned in the original post, it's tough to consider any high level spell a pillar for the class when you've spent like 30 hours to get there, and wont have many more hours to use them.

[MOK]

Originally posted by alrik1119:

Can the Druid class in this game equip and use axes and swords in this game?

like fox mentioned, they get scimitars, which are the probably the best weapon over all. But you can also choose from some backgrounds to gain access to specific weapons without burning a feat, so that's nice. Though, a druid who takes the background that gives a +1 bonus to scimitar is tough to say no to.

[fox5s]

Originally posted by MOK:

@Fox5s
Agreed with you on the utility of Communal Delay Poison. When you need it, you gotta get it it, and it lasts. Although like you mentioned a lot of others can get it, and it doesn't cure afflictions.

Yeah, it's preventative. But rather than 'delay' like it should, it just skips to making you completely immune to poison. Very solid. But so many companions get it that you may not want to waste the spell slot on your MC.

As for the high level spells, they're all good of course, but it's power that just wasn't there when you needed it in the prior ~14 level slog. Per what I mentioned in the original post, it's tough to consider any high level spell a pillar for the class when you've spent like 30 hours to get there, and wont have many more hours to use them.

I hear ya there. Though, if you decide to go Angel, you can merge spellbooks and that will give you a head start on your high level spell slots. Plus, the Angel spells can be pretty nice. And if you don't lose more than two levels to multiclassing, you can get 10th level spells eventually.

[alrik1119]

can i choose a fighter background for a druid class character in this game to acquire access to axes and swords in the game?

[MOK]

Multiclassing is something I've been thinking about with apprehension. Slowing down the ascent to The Good Spells, when you largely lack them(IMO), is unappetizing, along with losing companion levels. But at the same time, the flaws of the class are really stifling, but can be addressed with some multiclassing... Hard choice. I just wish it was a choice between different flavors of awesome, instead of choosing how not to suck.

[fox5s]

Originally posted by MOK:

Barkskin is one I've thought about as a relatively unique pillar. It's just too bad it's made somewhat obsolete with the ready supply of amulets of natural armor, and doesn't last long either.

My post already goes over it. But your caster level bonus outstrips Amulets of Natural Armor for a long time. Its +4 at level 9 and +5 by level 12. I'm about to finish Act 3 and am already level 14 and I've only seen one or two +3 amulets let alone a +4 amulet. And you have better things to put in that slot.

Originally posted by MOK:

Sirocco seems like the only uncommon spell I can identify that accomplishes this sentiment. Are there others I'm overlooking? I'm interested in other specific spells that are semi-unique to the Druid spellbook, and highly impactful.
Or alternately, do other spells also have challenges that you've found not to be a problem to overcome?

Quite a few classes get Sirocco. But I called it out because it's THAT good. There is a LOT of cheese you can do with it. Generally involving throwing it down preemptively when there's an enemy that will turn hostile shortly.