Couple of really basic druid questions...

[Istaria1]

HI all,

I've been playing around the last few days trying to find a new build. I've been looking at druid, and it seems to offer alot as a splash...however, I've never played one, and know NOTHING about them. Could someone answer the following basics for me?

1) Can I cast spells in wolf form?

2) Can I use any weapon I am proficient with in form? And do I get the full damage? Are there any hidden drawbacks?

3) If I use Wis as a dump stat on my build and use an item to cast that should be OK, right? Am I missing something basic?

I'm considering splashing together Bard and Druid (mostly bard, druid at most 3 levels). It looks as if it should work...

Ist.

[ixitlcoatl]

HI all,

I've been playing around the last few days trying to find a new build. I've been looking at druid, and it seems to offer alot as a splash...however, I've never played one, and know NOTHING about them. Could someone answer the following basics for me?

1) Can I cast spells in wolf form?

2) Can I use any weapon I am proficient with in form? And do I get the full damage? Are there any hidden drawbacks?

3) If I use Wis as a dump stat on my build and use an item to cast that should be OK, right? Am I missing something basic?

I'm considering splashing together Bard and Druid (mostly bard, druid at most 3 levels). It looks as if it should work...

Ist.

1. Yes, you can cast spells in wolf form. However, all spells are casted at a much slower rate in animal forms. Additionally, the recast timers for the spells are significantly prolonged when you're in animal form.

2. Druids as a class are restricted in the kind of weapons they are allowed to wield. You may wield a restricted weapon but it will suppress your druid abilities much in the same way a monk becomes uncentered. The highest DPS weapons for a druid are usually scimitars, sickles or quarterstaffs. As an animal, the main hand weapon DPS gets translated as if you are using a hand wrap and fighting with 2 hands (paws) . Material effects like admanatine, ethereal, or elemental/planar damage adds are included. But the damage type of the weapon (pierce/slash/blugeon/elemental) is converted. You can also wield sword and board with the shield's melee effects like +doublestrike or alacrity included.

3. Wis is a primary druid casting stat. If you dump this, your 3 levels of low druid spells may not land or not have much effect.

[Charononus]

1. Yes, you can cast spells in wolf form. However, all spells are casted at a much slower rate in animal forms. Additionally, the recast timers for the spells are significantly prolonged when you're in animal form.

2. Druids as a class are restricted in the kind of weapons they are allowed to wield. You may wield a restricted weapon but it will suppress your druid abilities much in the same way a monk becomes uncentered. The highest DPS weapons for a druid are usually scimitars, sickles or quarterstaffs. As an animal, the main hand weapon DPS gets translated as if you are using a hand wrap and fighting with 2 hands (paws) . Material effects like admanatine, ethereal, or elemental/planar damage adds are included. But the damage type of the weapon (pierce/slash/blugeon/elemental) is converted. You can also wield sword and board with the shield's melee effects like +doublestrike or alacrity included.

3. Wis is a primary druid casting stat. If you dump this, your 3 levels of low druid spells may not land or not have much effect.

So much bad info here.

Druids can wield any weapon they have proficiency in just like any toon. What they can not do is use metal armor or shields. If you want to swing an sos or a greataxe as a druid it will not break oath.

Also while wis is the casting stat for a druid, with a 3 splash I don't think they're planning on dc casting, it sounds more like a splash for buffs etc. In this case dumpstat wisdom and items to cast works just fine.

[ushram]

So much bad info here.

Druids can wield any weapon they have proficiency in just like any toon. What they can not do is use metal armor or shields. If you want to swing an sos or a greataxe as a druid it will not break oath.

Also while wis is the casting stat for a druid, with a 3 splash I don't think they're planning on dc casting, it sounds more like a splash for buffs etc. In this case dumpstat wisdom and items to cast works just fine.

Just about to finish my first druid life on my main,
I used weapons that I did not have proficiency in while in animal form and it seemed to make no difference.

Only real issue I had was not figuring out how to fast target the pet, none of the Fkeys did it and no one I asked knew how to do it.

[Charononus]

Just about to finish my first druid life on my main,
I used weapons that I did not have proficiency in while in animal form and it seemed to make no difference.

Only real issue I had was not figuring out how to fast target the pet, none of the Fkeys did it and no one I asked knew how to do it.

There should be an increase in glancing blows compared to proficient weapons but it's been debated on if that's happening, I haven't tested it since release and there was an effect then, some say there is not now, for animal forms that is.

Just found this which answers about prof, now is it wai right now.....

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ns#post4552596

[Istaria1]

Yep, I'll confirm that the druid is really only for buffs and the extra attack speed. The idea I am looking at is:

Bard 15 - Songs, arcane buffs, healing - Warchanter II
Druid 3 - Attack speed in form, some buffs (Ram's Might, Barkskin etc) and some basic HOTs
Rogue 2 - Evasion, Trapping

This would be a melee toon with a 2H weapon (I am trying to lever in Greatsword but it's tight with feats). Also, the reason that this toon is trying to do so much is because I have weird and irregular play hours - a very energetic 2 year old daughter makes sure of it :P

Also, dunno if it's worth mentioning, but I can have all important +3 tomes by level 11, and will use a +1 Int at 3 and a +2 at 7 (just for skill points). I am not planning to ever encounter +4 tomes on this toon but if it happens I won't whinge

Dump stat would be Wis, and Cha would not start higher than 12. Probably also looking at Int 12. This would be a Str toon.

Main feats would be (in no particular order):

Toughness
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Extend
Empower Healing
iCrit: Slashing
WF: Slashing
Proficiency: Greatsword

I am one feat short, and unsure which to pick at the moment.

I'm a little unclear on one thing - damage is treated as if I were wearing handwraps - what exactly does this mean? I have never played Monk or unarmed, and the only time I have ever used handwraps is to beat up Oozes before getting a Muckbane. There's also a phrase there that the damage is "converted" - what does this mean? The WF is a pre-req for Warchanter I/II - can this be matched better to the wolf "type" damage?

EDIT: Char - thank you for the link, that actually clears up quite a lot for me I'll still take any advice or critique anyone can give though!

Thanks,

Ist.

[GeoffWatson]

Are you planning on fighting in animal form?

If so, it doesn't matter what weapon type you use (except for proficiency); you get the wolf's damage (1d8) and critical (19-20/x2).

It's considered Unarmed so uses Improved Critical:Bludgeoning, even though it does slash/pierce damage. If you need Weapon Focus, take Unarmed.

There's no advantage to have a two-handed weapon in animal form, so you'd be better off using a Shield and a one-handed weapon. Better AC, more double strike, and can have separate enchantments on the shield.

As to your first question: You can cast spells in animal form, but they have a much longer cooldown. Also animal form reduces your Charisma by 2, which may affect your Bard spells.

Geoff.

[Charononus]

Are you planning on fighting in animal form?

If so, it doesn't matter what weapon type you use (except for proficiency); you get the wolf's damage (1d8) and critical (19-20/x2).

It's considered Unarmed so uses Improved Critical:Bludgeoning, even though it does slash/pierce damage. If you need Weapon Focus, take Unarmed.

There's no advantage to have a two-handed weapon in animal form, so you'd be better off using a Shield and a one-handed weapon. Better AC, more double strike, and can have separate enchantments on the shield.

As to your first question: You can cast spells in animal form, but they have a much longer cooldown. Also animal form reduces your Charisma by 2, which may affect your Bard spells.

Geoff.

It also lowers int by 2 but that's only an issue with the int runes in wiz king and if you use sf potions.

[Istaria1]

Hmmm....so sword and board then I guess - scimitars would be the assumption? Bludgeon for a scimitar....weird.

I'm not overly worried about the Cha penalty - with a +6 item, I'd be sitting at 18, and even taking away the 2, that's still 16, which is plenty for buffing and self-heals.

Also, not too worried about the Int - again, that can be buffed.

Anyone have any comments on the build as a concept? I know that I'm repeating myself, but again, this is primarily meant to be a solo build - party play is not something I get to enjoy very often.

Thanks

Ist.

[Paleus]

With the melee form of druid, you'd benefit from taking 9 full levels of druid to gain access to natural fighting. You would also have gained the winter wolf form by level 8. Both of these boost the melee damage output of your character, without them you would seriously lag. This is, however, contrary to your stated build design of 3 levels.

Another thing you may want to look at when making this decision is the legendary dreadnaught abilities. I'm not sure how invested you are in going past heroic and into epic, but if you're aligning with a melee and focusing a lot in cleaves you should be aware that momentum swing and some other LD abilities don't work with unarmed, which is how animal form is counted regardless of what weapon you are wielding.

I honestly think that a melee bard and druid animal form would be a bit too hard to pull off to much effect. You need too many druid levels for effective form melee and giving up too many bard levels will detract from the benefit of being a bard. You would be better doing a melee form druid splashing other classes (monk is popular) or a melee bard using non-form fighting. Both would be viable for soloing as well and play significantly differently, so you would just need to decide whether you're really attracted to playing a bard or playing a druid.

[Istaria1]

Yep, going to scrap this idea. It's just too watered down. I need about 30 levels to pull it off

I'm most likely going to go with 16/2/2 Bard/Ftr/Rogue.

Thanks for input, all

Ist.