Druid

Description
Druids cast divine spells much the same way clerics do, though most get their spells from the power of nature rather than from deities. Their spells are oriented toward nature and animals. They strive to live in harmony with the natural world, and hate anything that is not part of the natural cycle, especially aberrations and undead creatures. In addition to spells, druids gain an increasing array of magical powers, including the ability to take the shapes of animals, as they advance in level.

Alignment restrictions: Any partially neutral - druids, in keeping with nature's ultimate indifference, must maintain at least some measure of dispassion.
 * Ex-Druids = a druid who changes to a prohibited alignment keeps all of their abilities but is prevented from gaining levels as a druid until she regains an alignment with a neutral component.

In 3.5, a druid who changes to a prohibited alignment loses all spells and druid abilities (including her animal companion, but not including weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She cannot thereafter gain levels as a druid until she regains a neutral alignment.

Animal Companion
A druid begins the game with an Animal companion. Animal companions are loyal allies in any battle. As your character gains experience, his or her animal companion will also grow in power.

Animal companions cannot be directly controlled by their master. They are essentially aggressive tanks. They become more powerful as the master advances. The only penalty the master suffers from the animal companion's death is that they cannot summon the companion again until they have rested. Animal companions can be named, but cannot be tinted.

Highest level pet comparison

 * Epic pets are level 23(25 Deinonychus), non-epics are level 13(lvl 15 for the Deinonychus, max for a level 20 druid/cleric) in the comparisons.
 * Epic Animal Companion was taken at level 29 druid.
 * Saving throws are in order of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will.
 * Only pets added in expansions can become higher than level 23.
 * Epic animals have all the feats of their pre-epic form they just don't show up on the character sheet for some animals.
 * All vanilla pets only have Hide, and Move Silently skill progression with the exception of the Panther, who dumps points into parry/spot/listen crippling it's own stealth abilities.
 * Badgers/Spiders(both the same), Bears, Wolves and Boars(in that order) are the stealthiest pets at any level tested thus far, outperforming the Epic Panther even at non-epic levels.
 * Alertness is a useless pet feat, it should've been given to the Deinonychus which has Spot/Listen progression.
 * Only Badgers, Bears, Deinonychus, and Panthers can be buffed using Flame Weapon.
 * Spiders are considered Vermin, but druid pet spells still seem to effect them unlike Dragons.

Pet Tips

 * Solid buff chain, cast in the following order at levels 18-30: Owl's Insight, Awaken, Superior Resistance, Jagged Tooth, Freedom of Movement(Extend Spell), Tortoise Shell(Empower Spell), Greater Magic Fang(Extend Spell), Cat's Grace(Extend Spell), Flame Weapon(Empower Spell, where applicable), Nature's Avatar.


 * The Epic Gate(Balor) feat, or an Orglash summoned from the appropriate charm are both great additions alongside an epic pet. Be sure to protect your pet from cold(Orglash), and fire(Balor) damage depending on which one you use. If you use the Orglash, be sure to cast Energy Immunity(Fire) on it due to it's 50% fire vulnerability.

Nature Sense
A druid gains a +2 bonus to Survival and a +2 bonus to Search and Spot while in wilderness areas.

Woodland Stride
Starting at 2nd level, a druid gains a +10% movement increase when in outdoor, natural environments.

Trackless Step
At 3rd level, a druid gains a +4 competence bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks when in wilderness areas.

Resist Nature's Lure
Starting at 4th level, a druid gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against all Fear spells and effects.

Wild Shape

 * At 5th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into an animal and back again once per day. A druid can use this ability more times per day at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. The forms available to him are bear, boar, wolf, or badger.
 * At 12th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into a dire animal. The dire form replaces the current animals with dire bear, dire boar, dire wolf, or dire badger.

More details about this ability can be found on the Wild Shape description page.

Plant Shape (MOTB)
At 12th level, a druid is able to wild shape into a plant creature - a shambling mound or a treant. Using this ability counts against his normal uses of wild shape.

More details about this ability can be found on the Plant Shape description page.

Elemental Shape

 * At 16th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a huge elemental (air, earth, fire, or water) once per day. These elemental forms are in addition to his normal wild shape usage. In addition to the normal effects of wild shape, the druid gains all the elemental's immunities, extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities. At 18th level, a druid becomes able to assume elemental form twice per day, and at 20th level he can do so three times per day.
 * At 20th level, a druid gains the ability to turn himself into an elder elemental. The elder form replaces the current elementals with elder air elemental, elder earth elemental, elder fire elemental and elder water elemental.

More details about this ability can be found on the Elemental Wild Shape description page.

Venom immunity
At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons.

Spellcasting

 * Druid spell list
 * Druid spell progression: Druids have the same spell progression as clerics.

A druid casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list.

To prepare or cast a spell, the druid must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid's spell is 10 + the spell level + the druid's Wisdom modifier.

A druid can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.

A druid may prepare and cast any spell on the druid spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare before resting.

Spontaneous Conversion
Druids can spontaneously cast any summon creature spell (eg. summon creature I).

Druid specific feats
There are a number of feats specifically designed to be used with the Druid class. The following list covers these feats for convenience.
 * Extra Wild Shape: +2 Wild Shape uses/day. Up to +1 Elemental Shape use/day.
 * Not very useful if you have Natural spell which lets you cast spells in when shifted.
 * It can however prove useful to players who want to take advantage of Elephant's hide or Oaken resilience multiple times.
 * Does not count towards minimum Wild Shape requirements for feats like Magical Beast Wild Shape and Dragon Shape.
 * Elephant's Hide: You can spend one of your wild shapes for the day to give yourself a natural armor bonus of +7 for 10 minutes
 * It only provides +2 AC higher than Barkskin or Spiderskin at their highest levels and they do not stack together.
 * Useful if someone needs to free up the spell slots for Barkskin or Spiderskin.
 * Also has these advantages over Barkskin and Spiderskin: it is "cast" instantaneously and is not dispellable.
 * Natural Spell: Can cast divine spells (even from other classes) when in Wild Shape.
 * A must-have ability for any druid who wants to take full advantage of Wild Shapes.
 * Allows a shifted Druid to cast Magic fang and Greater magic fang on himself.
 * As of v1.12, the Druid does not benefit from casting Nature's avatar on himself in Wild Shape, severely limiting the usefulness of Wild Shapes.
 * However, as of v1.12, it does NOT permit a Druid to cast Epic spells while in Wild Shape
 * Oaken Resilience: Can spend Wild Shape use to be immune to poison, sleep, and critical hits.
 * Fantastic ability for the critical hit immunity alone.
 * Magical Beast Wild Shape (Epic)
 * Use one wild shape use to transform into a celestial leopard, phase spider, or winter wolf.
 * Dragon Shape (Epic)
 * The character may use wild shape to change into a dragon.
 * In Dragon Shape, the Druid is not considered an Animal but does benefit from Magic Fang or Greater Magic Fang
 * Dragon Companion (Epic)
 * The Druid can summon a small blue dragon or bronze dragon as a companion.
 * The Dragon Companion is not an Animal and does not benefit from Magic Fang, Greater Magic Fang, Jagged Tooth, or Nature's Avatar
 * Epic Animal Companion (Epic)
 * Your animal companion's abilities are determined as if you had three additional levels.

Feats from other classes
All class feats should carry over to the Druid whether he is shifted into an animal or elemental form or not. There should be no restrictions unless where specifically noted otherwise and this should open up many more combat possibilities and build styles for the player. The following list are some examples of how to use them to your greatest advantage.
 * Weapon specialization - Unarmed Strike: This Fighter feat works in animal form providing an additional +2 damage. (Note as of patch 1.12 any weapon focus or weapon specializations in Unarmed Strike do NOT apply at all to Wild Shape. This is because Wild Shapes' weapons are considered Creature Weapons, not unarmed weapons.)
 * The same holds true for Greater weapon specialization - Unarmed Strike which will provide a +4 damage bonus to your natural attacks.
 * Flurry of blows: This first level Monk feat can be used in conjunction with your Wild shape attacks providing +1 attack per round with the penalties listed.
 * Greater flurry: This eleventh level Monk feat is an upgrade to Flurry of blows providing two additional attacks per round instead one.
 * AC bonus: This first level Monk ability allows the player to add his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC when unarmored or using his Wild shape ability.
 * The player also gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level Monk which increases by another +1 every 5 Monk levels.
 * He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, or when he carries a shield.
 * Sneak attack: All sneak attack bonus damage works normally when a Druid is shifted.
 * Barbarian Rage does work in creature form if activated before Wild Shape.
 * Frenzied Berserker Frenzy does work in creature form if activated before Wild Shape.

Other combat feats
Some other Combat Feats should function normally whether the Druid is using his Wild shape ability or not. Passive feats that you don't have to pick from your quickbar etc are best. For example, a player with Great cleave, Circle kick or Improved parry will get full benefits from this feat while attacking in Bear form. However, the same does NOT hold true for feats such as Knockdown, Stunning Fist, Whirlwind attack, Expose Weakness and so on...

As a general rule, active-use feats (like knockdown) are best avoided if you intend to spend your time in wild shape, because changing form prevents you from using most activated abilities (with the exception of spells if you have the Natural Spell feat).

On the other hand, modes like Greater Flurry, Track and Power Attack should work normally.

This is a major departure from NWN1, where knockdown and stunning fist were exceptionally valuable for a shapeshifted druid.

Important Wild Shape and Character Creation Notes
Druids intending to spend most of their time in a Wild Shape form (be it animal, plant, elemental, etc) should take note of a few important features of this feat when crafting and leveling their character. Even players who will spend only limited time shapeshifted would do well to become familiar with some of the less obvious caveats and benefits of creature forms.

Ability Score

 * The druid's mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) transfer to the creature form. Wisdom will be especially important for spellcasting whether in or out of creature form.  Players who intend to learn the Natural Spell feat for casting spells in creature form should also make sure their wisdom score is high enough (19 for 9th level spells), as their animal forms will not increase their wisdom.
 * Be careful about relying on items to increase wisdom. If you are using a Periapt of Wisdom, for example, your wisdom score will drop when you are shapeshifted.  This can also remove prepared spells from your spellbook (requiring you to put them back and rest to use them again).  The reason for this is explained further in the Equipment section below.
 * As mentioned in the Feats from other classes section above, the Monk wisdom AC Bonus also applies while shapeshifted, further increasing the significance of this stat for players who choose to take any monk levels (especially for creatures with low dexterity and base AC, like the Treant).
 * The druid's physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution) are completely ignored, and replaced by the new form's physical abilities. See the entries for Wild Shape, Plant Shape, Elemental Wild Shape, Magical Beast Wild Shape, and Dragon Shape for the specific amounts.
 * A race's ability bonuses and penalties do not apply to shapeshifted forms.
 * Thus, choosing Gnome as the Druid's race will not reduce the combat effectiveness of her bear form, because the -2 strength does not apply.
 * Likewise, a half-orc's +2 strength bonus will not improve his creature forms, but his -2 intelligence and charisma will transfer (for example, a low intelligence can matter during conversations or skill checks). Correction: This appears to have changed - the racial bonus and penalties for all abilities are ignored while shape changed. The strength and charisma penalty as well as the wisdom and dexterity bonus for Deep Gnomes are ignored while shape-changed.
 * NOTE: need to determine if other race features transfer, such as Drow spell resistance and other elvish, dwarven, etc bonuses.
 * The Deep Gnome's Slippery Defense racial feat applies while shape-changed.
 * Because mental ability scores transfer and physical ones are replaced, the physical abilities can be lower for a wild shape-focused druid, or could even be used as dump stats. However, it should be noted that Strength may be important for any druid intending to carry items without being encumbered outside of her creature forms, and Dexterity and Constitution are important defense stats if she gets attacked before she can change forms.
 * Every time a conversation or part of the plot comes up (tested in MOTB and the original campaign) the player is taken out of wild shape and may have very little time to shapeshift again before being attacked. Players should take into consideration how often they will be in druid form when they choose these stats, as they could be killed or inconvenienced by placing too few points into them.
 * On the other hand, neglecting these stats makes reaching high wisdom levels easy for the purpose of obtaining epic feats with high requirements, milking the monk AC bonus for all it's worth, etc.
 * In MOTB, resting is more challenging when in dungeons and other dangerous areas, since you can get attacked during the rest. This is especially bad for a druid since she must exit wildshape to start resting, and so will be vulnerable when the enemies attack.  Wildshape-focused druids should be wary of giving themselves low Dexterity and Constitution in this case, or should equip items that will boost their HP/Con and AC in druid form to offer better protection.

Equipment

 * Equipped items have only limited influence in a wild shape form. A druid's armor, shield, and helmet will contribute their AC and other bonuses (if any) to the new form; however, only the highest bonus is used.
 * In other words, when shapeshifted the different forms of AC such as deflection and armor do not stack. Thus a helmet that gave +2 armor (deflection bonus) and chainmail +3 (armor bonus) will result in only 8 AC in creature form (5 from chainmail plus highest AC bonus of 3), even though they give +10 AC in druid form.
 * Nor do multiple instances of ability enhancements stack (which is normal in NWN2 -- two items that both give Strength +3 will result in Strength +3, not Strength +6). Presumably, skill bonuses (such as Parry +5, Tumble +10) and saving throw bonuses follow these same stacking rules in wildshape (not tested yet).
 * Druids who use wildshape will frequently feel the impact of these special restrictions and would do well to buy/craft equipment with this in mind.
 * Other equipment items, such as amulets, bracers, belts, boots, weapons, and capes are ignored completely by NWN2's wild shape. For players who intend to spend all their time in wildshape form, there is probably little or no need to craft or buy these items for themselves.
 * However, given that the game will frequently force a player to change to human form during the storyline, it may be a good idea to buy items to boost stats like AC and Constitution just in case the player is pulled into combat in druid form.
 * Spells and effects which increase AC and ability scores (such as Bull's Strength) should function normally, and should remain on a druid even as she changes to or from creature forms. The wild shape stacking limitations applied to equipment do not appear to affect spells.
 * The "Creature Weapon" that wild shape forms use rather than unarmed strike cause special problems for the Sacred Fist class, because having creature weapon isn't the same as not equipping a weapon. Thus druids with levels in this class that wildshape will take a -8 attack penalty for using a "weapon".  As if creature weapon wasn't buggy enough...
 * If a merchant allows you to buy from him/her while in creature form, you will be able to see and access your inventory for the purposes of buying, but you cannot sell anything. You will also not be able to use any items in your inventory in any way (everything is colored red as though you were a class that cannot use the item, because technically as a creature you are a different class).  You cannot change your equipment either.  Right-clicking on an item like a Ring of Invisibility will give you all its options, including the option to cast invisibility, but choosing any of these options besides examine will be fruitless (game says "You cannot use this item").

Spell and Feat Limitations

 * Your quickbar is disabled when shapeshifted. Even actions in the quick bar that can normally be used (such as Hide and spells) cannot be chosen from the quickbar, so make sure you know how to use the Modes and Quickcast features.
 * Druids cannot naturally cast spells in creature form, and they need to learn the Natural Spell feat to overcome this. For a character who has a wisdom score of at least 13, this becomes available as soon as she gains wild shape.  This is an important feat, as it allows the wild shaped druid to use attack spells on enemies, support spells on allies, and even creature boosting spells on herself (including Magic Fang, Greater Magic Fang, and Nature's Avatar).
 * Correction on previous info: Natural Spell allows any form of spellcasting, including spells from other divine classes (Cleric, Spirit shaman) and even arcane spells (Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer).
 * However, you still must have enough Charisma to cast the arcane spells, and characters relying on items to boost their charisma may not have enough after they change form (if the item is not one that takes effect in creature form, such as a helmet). Note that spells like Eagle's Splendor should stay in place while you change form, so if an item's bonus disappears but a spell's bonus keeps your charisma high enough, you will still be able to cast.  Thus a combination of item and spell boosts can overcome this limitation (though you may lose some prepared spells due to the drop in your main casting stat, which wreaks havoc on a wizard's spell book.  You'll have to re-prepare your spells all over again frequently).
 * These same problems apply to using items to boost a low wisdom.
 * Unfortunately, spells like those from the Assassin class (invisibility etc) will not work because they are treated by NWN2 as spell-like abilities, not genuine spells. Only spells that appear in your spellbook/quick-cast menu can be cast in wildshape form.


 * Natural Spell and some other druid abilities usually only affect forms obtained through wild shape and other druid abilities. If a druid casts Shapechange (9th-level druid spell), it is not the same as using wild shape and she will not be able to cast spells in this form, even with Natural Spell.
 * Unfortunately, Dragon Shape is not considered an animal and cannot receive benefits from spells like Nature's Avatar. Elemental shapes do not receive bonuses from some of these spells either.  Curiously, plant shapes are considered animals. - As of patch 1.12 Nature's Avatar doesn't affect the druid in wild shapes per the Nature's Avatar spell description page.
 * While Natural Spell will allow spellcasting in the druid's wild shape forms, it does not affect non-spell actions like Knockdown. A druid who learns knockdown and changes into a Treant will not be able to use it to knock enemies to the ground.  (NOTE: need to find out if the druid's special spell-like abilities such as Elephant's Hide and Oaken Resilience can be used while shapeshifted).  Because of this, many active-use feats are fairly undesirable.
 * Other feats to avoid are those that affect Unarmed Strike, including Weapon Focus and the like. As mentioned above, these feats do not affect creatures because they use Creature Weapons, not Unarmed Strike.
 * Sadly, even active-use feats that are part of the new creature form are not usable (such as Pulse Whirlwind in Elder Air Elemental form). Apparently Obsidian did not anticipate players wanting to use active feats while shapeshifted...?
 * (NOTE: Bard songs and inspirations are untested in wild shape. Have not tested if using rage/frenzy then wildshaping will keep the rage bonuses.  Need info on these.)

Skills
As with feats, Wild Shape disables or limits the usefulness of some skills. Here is a list of tested skills:


 * Works Properly
 * The skills Concentration, Disable device, Hide and Move Silently, Listen, Open lock, Parry, Search, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, and Tumble all appear to function as expected.
 * Works Partially
 * Appraise -- In situations where you can speak to shop keepers and buy from them, appraise works fine.
 * Use magic device -- While you cannot access your inventory or quickbar to use magical items (such as wands), you can still equip helmets, armor and shields as a druid to gain part of their benefits once you use wild shape.
 * Does Not Work
 * Craft alchemy, Craft armor, Craft trap, Craft weapon -- No access to your inventory or quickbar, even to use the Smith Hammer or Mortar and Pestle.
 * Heal
 * Set trap
 * Sleight of hand
 * Taunt - You're taken out of wild shape for conversations, and the option to taunt enemies is not available through the quickbar when shapeshifted.
 * Perform - Bard's songs inspirations are not available in animal form.
 * Other
 * Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff - Often you are taken out of wild shape for conversations. In cases that you are not, these should still work normally.
 * Untested
 * Lore - You cannot access your inventory, but lore checks do happen automatically as you pick up items.

Size and Movement

 * Wild Shape can change a character's size as well. For example, a Dire Bear is considered large, while a badger is considered small or tiny (exact size isn't mentioned in documentation).  This makes it especially unfortunate that Knockdown is not available in creature form, as some large creatures would receive very nice size bonuses against most enemies.
 * Besides affecting AC and defense against Knockdown (among other effects), size can also affect a creature's ability to move. A Treant, for example, takes up a huge amount of space and is unable to move through some areas of the game.  Shapeshifting into a treant can sometimes get the character stuck in small areas, if part of the druid's newly sized form is now overlapping with something, forcing her to change back to druid and move to a more wide-open area.  These caveats are very important to consider before changing form, especially during combat.

NWN comparison

 * The animal empathy class skill has been dropped in NWN2.
 * Active abilities from your character such as Knockdown do not work while shapeshifted (possibly because you do not keep the feat when you change forms, in the same way that you do not keep your strength attribute, because they are replaced by the animal form's physical attributes and feats). In NWN1 these feats were fully usable while in animal form.
 * Plant Shape was not available in NWN1 and was added in MOTB.
 * As of patch 1.12, feats which affect Unarmed Strike (most notably including Weapon Specialization, Weapon Focus, and Improved Critical) no longer have any effect at all on wildshape forms. This is because creatures now use Creature Weapons instead of normal unarmed attacks, and feats affecting one do not appear to affect the other.  There is no option to choose Creature Weapons as the weapon of choice for these feats.  This severely reduces the effectiveness of some Monk-Druid and Fighter-Druid builds.  In NWN1 and early NWN2 versions, creatures used unarmed strike and benefited from these feats.

3.5 Rules Comparison

 * The wild empathy and thousand faces feats are not implemented in NWN2, although wild empathy may be implemented in future patches.
 * Nature sense, trackless step and resist nature's lure are altered slightly to suit game mechanics better.
 * The parry skill was created by NWN and is not a feature of DnD 3.5. It has returned in NWN2 for the same reasons it was in NWN.
 * The swim, handle animal, profession and ride skills are not implemented in NWN2, while NWN's lore is used instead of knowledge skills.
 * NWN2 does not use languages or aging. The timeless body and bonus languages class features are not implemented.
 * DnD 3.5 places restrictions on divine spellcasting with regard to spells of certain alignments that may oppose a druid's deity's alignment. In addition, druids in 3.5 lose their divine capabilities if they wear metal armours/shields or use weapons outside of their spiritual oaths. NWN2 doesn't officially implement either of these restrictions, although they are not hard for a player to roleplay if desired.

External resources

 * NWNWiki:Druid