Druid

Druids are one of the playable classes in and.

Druids are the guardians of nature and the stewards of the wilderness, which they protect with a combination of magic spells and melee combat. Their animistic powers allow them to create a variety of powerful supernatural phenomena. All druids also choose a spiritshift form that allows them to take on aspects of a powerful beast.

Druids are animists, drawing power through the webs they believe connect all living souls in the world. When not casting spells and transforming into mythical beasts, druids spend a great deal of time in nature, giving them skill foci in Athletics and Survival. Much like priests, druids draw ambient fragments of soul energy toward them and shape their effects through practiced concentration. While druids do not have the diverse spell repertoire of wizards, they have more than enough to handle most problems that come their way. Druids' spells often take the form of natural phenomena—storms, coiling plants, rapid decay—to reflect their primal connection to the world. Despite their heavily offensive nature, they do have a few defensive and healing spells to aid their allies.

Background
Druids believe that spirit essence is strongest and most harmonious when connected to the natural world. As most beings have souls (or parts of souls) that have lived dozens or hundreds of lifetimes before, this link is expressed through their past lives spent in beast form. Learning and practicing spiritshift forms involves tapping into previous lives and experiencing the strengths and skills (if not the actual memories) of soul ancestors in the animal kingdom. Druids also believe that spiritshifting allows an individual to find greater balance and strengthen their essence by "aligning" with past lives. This practice avoids the trauma of a full Awakening, which druids see as unnatural and forced.

Accomplished druids may learn multiple spiritshift forms, believing that each form imparts a unique set of experiences to the practitioner, and more fully balances his or her essence. This practice is not without its pitfalls. Even druids of significant experience have faced the challenge of grappling with an imbalance of animal essences within themselves. Adopting additional spiritshift forms is a deeply personal choice that many embrace. It is not uncommon for elders to cast judgment on a druid's state of preparation before determining if the shift form is approved.

List of abilities

 * Druid spells (in )
 * Druid spells and passives (in )

Spiritshift
Allows the druid to shapeshift into animal forms, granting them natural (and some supernatural) abilities associated with those creatures. Druids in their special forms cannot hold weapons, but they can always cast spells. Spiritshifts deal damage of a different type depending on the form, and are granted unique abilities.

Druids select a spiritshift form at character creation, alongside their first spell.

Spells
Druids have powerful area of effect spells, with affliction based effects, Heal over time spells, support spells and their animal forms give them good single-target strikes and various special powers.

Druids gain access to all spells of a given level as soon as he/she is able to cast from that level. The spell list of druids is smaller than those of wizards.

Talents

 * Wildstrike Shock – adds a small secondary amount of damage of a chosen damage type to all damage-dealing attacks that the druid makes.
 * Wildstrike Burn – adds a small secondary amount of damage of a chosen damage type to all damage-dealing attacks that the druid makes.
 * Wildstrike Freeze – adds a small secondary amount of damage of a chosen damage type to all damage-dealing attacks that the druid makes.
 * Wildstrike Corrode – adds a small secondary amount of damage of a chosen damage type to all damage-dealing attacks that the druid makes.
 * Greater Wildstrike Burn – Intensifies the druid's Wildstrike, granting increased Damage.
 * Greater Wildstrike Freeze – Intensifies the druid's Wildstrike, granting increased Damage.
 * Greater Wildstrike Corrode – Intensifies the druid's Wildstrike, granting increased Damage.
 * Greater Wildstrike Shock – Intensifies the druid's Wildstrike, granting increased Damage.
 * Bonus 1st Level Spell – Gain an extra spell cast of level 1 spells.
 * Bonus 2nd Level Spell – Gain an extra spell cast of level 2 spells.
 * Bonus 3rd Level Spell – Gain an extra spell cast of level 3 spells.
 * Bonus 4th Level Spell – Gain an extra spell cast of level 4 spells.

In

 * At character creation, druids select one of five different Spiritshifts.
 * As spellcasters, druids learn all spells at each new tier, but are limited to the amount of casts that can be made per rest at each tier (see the table below).
 * At every odd level (1, 3, 5, etc.), the next tier of spells are unlocked.
 * Spell Mastery allows the spellcaster to pick a single spell to switch to "per encounter" restoration. This occurs at level 9, 11, 13, and 15, for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th level (or lower) and spells respectively.
 * As with other classes, druids learn one talent at every even level (2, 4, 6, etc.).

In

 * At character creation, druids must select a subclass, one 1st level spell, and one of five Spiritshifts. This does not change for multiclass characters.
 * The druid's subclass automatically grants them a spell at each power level.
 * As with other classes, druids pick 2 spells/abilities at every level where a new power level is unlocked excluding the first (3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 19), and one spell/ability at all other levels (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20). Ability points may be spent on active or passive abilities, and on any currently-unlocked power levels.
 * Multiclass characters pick 1 spell/ability from either the druid ability tree or the other class tree at all levels where a new power level isn't unlocked, and 1 spell/ability for both classes at all levels where a new power level is unlocked (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19).
 * As spellcasters, druids are limited to the amount of spell casts that can be made per encounter at each tier, though this scales with their level (see the table below).
 * As with other classes, new ability power levels are learned every second level from level 1 (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13), then every third level from level 13 (16, 19). Multiclass characters may only learn up to (and including) power level 7 spells, and unlock a new power level every third level from level 1 (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19).

Subclasses
Druids in must select one of five subclasses: Animist, Fury, Lifegiver, Shifter, and Ancient. A sixth subclass Watershaper is exclusive to the companion Tekēhu.

Suggestions
Druids make for the best mix of healing and offensive spells in a caster specialist with a splash of melee mixed in with their animal forms. In comparison to a lone priest, a druid takes more of a precautious approach with their healing. While a priest tends to linger more in the moment, throwing out defensive spells and necessary healing in the next half of a minute, a druid instead will toss out a couple of considerably powerful healing spells and then focus more on offensive damage. Basically, a druid's healing is every thing defensive they need for supporting your five character group. However, you should really take into consideration an extra source of front line support for your group, like either a paladin or chanter, because you typically need a secondary back up plan with a druid. You can stack both a druid and priest together in your group as different characters, but you may find the priest topping off allies with their healing alone. Druids provide superior front line spell support, while priests provide better back line healing. Priests may have superior "rescue" spells (like Withdraw and Revive the Fallen), but many of these spells can be provided via crafting.

The only reason to multiclass would involve raising your Accuracy for offensive spells. Monk in this case provides the best accuracy boost for your animal forms, quick abilities for if you want to instantly fire off a spell, relatively huge health, and naturally good weapons with unarmed combat. How ver, it will cut off your Tier 8 and 9 spell choices, relegating you to fewer choices as well in that particular regard. While monk offers good options, you might consider alternate paths to boost your character's Accuracy if you want to explore spell choices. For instance again, Arcana makes for the best skill option if you want to buy or make Scrolls of Blessing, which comes from the priest line. Making Potions of Deftness with the Alchemy skill may cost you valuable Pyrite you need later, so give caution.

Notable characters
Category:Pillars of Eternity s, 3 Category:Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire s, 3