How to play a druid in EFU?

[Lux Lucis]

I have to say that I tend to play Eamon as a druid who was taught and educated in the ways of the wild, as well as taught to respect the advance of civilization as there is no true way to stop it; save for bloodshed and conflict.

He was born and raised in the druid city of Cedarsproke. And from an early age, he was taught to blend in the more traditional oaths of the druids, and the ways of the civilized world with the values and morality of Nobanion and Wemic teachings. And although Eamon is by far, not a genius, I try to play him with a more practical view of things. An almost sagacious view of things. He is slow to take action if he does not take time and study what his choices would do to him and others in the near future.

Anyway! I agree that it is a little bit more difficult to play a druid here on EFU:A now that most of their abilities have been changed from the NWN default. But I have to say that the changes aren't too dramatic, and that it will simply take a bit of adaptation to overcome the new challenges that the druids have here on EFU:A. And don't forget that we get a whole slew of new goodies and powers to use on the server. :)

[Drakill Tannan]

You can stray from the path a bit too..EFU summons last longer if mixed with SF/GSF conjuration. Still not perfect, but better. Extend Spell is a good feat for any caster, but has a higher spell cost attached to it. Wands and potions are very hot commodities in EFU...brew barkskin potions and watch the good times roll. Wands can allow you to wand those useful spells and allow you to use your precious spell slots to better effect.

Want to get really odd? My last druid had expertise...expertise and improved expertise can allow you to survive tough encounters. I'd attack with expertise and allow my companion to do the damage. Not 100% solution, but it can and does work

Yes i did thought about wands, specially because that way i wounln't have to memorize call lighing and still use it when it rained, also i can use the wand to buff alies, while i use the rest of the slots for other spells.

However, i would like to know if wands/scrolls/potions have been modified in EFUC:A, because if they remain as implemented by bioware, seeing the high XP and GP costs for a fixed, never too good spell and considering how hard i is to get XP and GP in EFU:A i won't take them. Do wantds/scrolls/potions remain the same as implemented by bioware?

Another, random, but still related question.. has gresse been changed in any way in EFU:A?

[Letsplayforfun]

You can also encourage people to tend to animals and plants, and grow in wisdom, and.. oh, yes, that's boring.

What the others said then.

[Skrillix]

http://www.escapefromunderdark.com/index.php?pageid=mechanics

Wands, potions and scrolls have had their costs adjusted for EFU:A.

[Drakill Tannan]

http://www.escapefromunderdark.com/index.php?pageid=mechanics

Wands, potions and scrolls have had their costs adjusted for EFU:A.

I can't seem to find them sorry.

But i don't really care about costs.. if i craft a spell scroll/wand will the spell be cast at the usualy bioware-implemented level? or will the level be fixed to mine?

You can also encourage people to tend to animals and plants, and grow in wisdom, and.. oh, yes, that's boring.

What the others said then.

Depends on your kind of druid, Adeline is in no way intrested in teaching people anything, she also isn't your number one activist: she is happy with respecting nature and insulting people. Although she does hate undead.

[Jayde Moon]

the wands are made at Toolset values.

Generally this means your wands and potions cast the spell at the minimum level to cast it.

In a few cases it can be higher.

[Drakill Tannan]

IMO that's terrible. However i truly never used the standard bioware crafting, only when modified. Is there anythign worthwhile be cast into a wand considering the level will always be the lowest? (for druids of cource)

[Howlando]

As far as I'm aware it is essentially impossible (at least extremely complicated) to assign a caster level to an item that is different from those already implemented by Bioware.

Nor would it be desired, even if it was. Potion/wand crafting is very powerful on this server, and making the caster level equal to that of an actual PC would be significantly imbalancing.

[Drakill Tannan]

It is posible, it was implemented in another PW i play in.

[Equinox]

Personally, i believe druids to be the hardest class to play, however if you play them right, one of the most rewarding.

I have played a couple of what i like to think were pretty successful druid pcs on EFU:A and this is mostly down to thinking about -how- your druid would respond to situations, and even how your druid would deal with threats.

As howland said, Druid can get damn good stealth through their spells. But also druids and rangers get one ability that totally rocks. Animal empathy.

AE'ing a beast, then buffing it with bull strength, barkskin, stoneskin and if you get to 9 -AWAKEN- can turn even the most docile of creatures into a monster. Take that a cave bear has an AE check of like 26, which is easy to pass, then buff that thign to high heavens, the results are, well, phenominal.

Also, i played a druid who could easily frontline, while they arent the best ab class or the highest hp, they are still tough, and have acess to really nifty spells to increase their toughness, bark, stone etc. Also not forgetting that druids get a bonus to thier AB in the wilds which is where most of the fighting is done anyway.

I'm not saying druids are the best, or even hugely strong. But hells you play one effectively and think about what you want from it, and they can be -damn- scary.

[Egon the Monkey]

Yup.

Talon: Not want fight you.
Goon: Aw c'mon give me a spar
Talon: [Stoneskin, Entangle, Infestation of maggots, waits]
Talon: [Pokes goon and he falls over]

That was pretty much how one of his fights went :D

[Sedarine]

I'm not gonna lie to you Drakill, druids are tough.

Good points to remember: Like Howland said, druids can have good stealth. Items are all over to help with this. Camouflage and One with the land are also a key here. Also test out the "useless" rat form and see what it does for your stealth...you'll find it's a very useful form.

Wands..yep, that caster level thing stinks, but on spells like protection from elements it doesn't matter too much. EFU is conflict based, and he who is best ready in terms of consumables wins a great majority of the time. Cash is king, and the key to the consumables arms race too. Even if you shun PvP, there are many things that are made so much more survivable just by having the tools to deal with the conflict.

Worthy of note is you ability to heal yourself, create items to heal yourself and craft medicinal items. It may seem expensive, but think of the cost to buy the 25 cure serious wounds potions that wand replaced!

[Jayde Moon]

It may help to think of crafting in terms of bang for your literal buck and relative to EfUs soft level cap, not "My lvl 9 caster should be making wands at 9th level".  It would be rather imbalanced.

But if you instead think of a potion of Bulls Strength which sells for X at a merchant, then think of a potion of Bulls Strength which costs y to make, then think of a wand of Bulls Strength which costs z to make.

It may not last the 9 hours that the spell cast as a 9th level Druid might last, per charge, but to get the same duration out of your wand is only  little more than 100 gp (3 charges).  What's x above?

Your barkskin charges may only give +3 AC for the low caster level, but what the hell, it's +3 AC you can throw on in a jam, or on 8 people at the same time... it may not be the 5 AC that the 9th lvl druid gets when cast directly, but for the literal price it's nice.

Elemental protections aren't even affected by level afaik.

How long do you need one with the land and camouflage charges to last if your using your wand?  Long enough to boost your AE to emp that sabre tiger?  Long enough to quickly travel from point A to point B in rat form?

Do you really need spike growth charges to last more than than 5 'hours'?  They do the same amount of damage regardless of level cast, and the effect to slow your opponent isn't affected by level.

Call lightning STILL does 5d10 dmg at minimum caster level.

Poison is unaffected by caster level.

A 9th level druid is out 2 points of dmg on Quillfire, OH NOEZ!

Minimum duration on Freedom of movement is 7 minutes (turns).  Cast at 8th and 9th you are only losing 1 and 2 min respectively.  Hardly a dealbreaker.  That's if you save the extreme bucks to make a wand of it.

Stoneskin, in my experience, has had it's EfU duration nerfed to a point where the actual duration is irrelevant.  It gets used up before it expires.  The loss of 10/20 points of DR is a shame, but again, hardly a dealbreaker.

If you are in a situation where you NEED Hold Monster charges, the loss of two rounds (for a 9th level caster) to the duration shouldn't hurt you too badly, just spam the damn thing... again, being able to cast it up to 25x at caster lvl 7 when you can only cast it up to three times at caster lvl 9 is not something to cry about.

On some of the lower level direct damage spells, the loses can be notable, but it's simply made up for in spammability and versatility (you can literally, with enough money, have wands to be able to 'cast' every spell in your spellbook, multiple times, at the same speed you would actually cast them).

Of the spells in which duration is affected, you're simply not losing the amount of duration you might otherwise be worried about losing because of EfUs soft level cap.  A 20 th lvl mage loses 15 rounds on a minimal level hold wand, versus casting it.  The most you are going to lose in EfU is 7 rounds.  Yeah, only 2 or 3 rounds of hold sucks compared to 9 rounds... but you can spam the wand if you need, and not use up spellslots for your hold person spells.  2-3 rounds + an expeditious retreat potion is plenty of time to escape.  Or plenty of time to get a couple of castings off, unmolested, of other strong spells.  A touch attack spell that doesn't have to worry about your targets AC at all.

So consider all of this.

One last thing to consider... even if you STILL think Wands and Potins suck and aren't worth it... remember that the rest of us don't think that, and people WILL pay good coin for your potions and wands.  A good salesperson could be able to make enough coin to pay for their own potions and wands.  And 'free' 25 charges of barkskin at CL 3 or CSW at CL 5 or Ultravision at CL 1 is still a damn good deal.

[dragonfire9000]

First Thing:

*Grammar nazi strikes from above with terrible vengeance* Spell your words. Please. If you need to, read a dictionary. Use dictionary.com. Ask a friend. Pleace.

Ahhhhh... now that that's done.

Druids are hard to play, just like any other caster in this server. EfU:A is very delicately balanced. I've played a good dozen pure fighters, and only slightly less pure casters. The fighters are, of course, much better at lower levels. Casters get 'very' cool at later levels, but you always run the risk of getting AoE'd and dying like a rabid, three-legged dog.

I'm afraid that there really is no set way to play a druid, and especially not here in EfU:A. They have such an incredible mix of buffs, attack spells and de-buffs, not to mention wildshape, that you cannot make a perfect druid.

What you have to do is make a character with an interesting, role-playable background and let the build/strategy come second. Make your character fun and you will find people who either love or fear you and are willing to help keep you alive. Do that and you can hit level seven or so with a few weeks of solid play. Now, I don't care what you say, a level seven druid kicks serious can.

Summary for those who don't like my long-winded posts:

Role-play comes first. If you master that, power will come. Even if it doesn't, you'll have more fun.

Oh, and about the idiot dwarf who always runs ahead? Don't go on a quest with him!

[AKMatt]

*Grammar nazi strikes from above with terrible vengeance* Spell your words. Please. If you need to, read a dictionary. Use dictionary.com. Ask a friend. Pleace.

Lol, pleace.