Druids vs Bards

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I'm getting ready to play IWD for the first time. I've pretty much decided to go with the full 6 characters for a party.

Here are the first five that I want to have:

Male Human Paladin
Male Dwarf Fighter
Female Halfling Fighter/Thief
Female Elf Enchanter
Male Human Cleric

For the sixth character, I have a choice between two different characters and I can't really make up my mind. I'd like to use either a Druid or a Bard.

In PnP D&D, I've never liked Bards. But his pickpocketing skills mean that the Halfling can ignore that. And he provides a second magicuser. And the Bard songs can't hurt.

With the new offensive spells that a Druid has, I'm very interested in having a Druid along for the ride.

So I really want to have seven characters along. But I can't do that so I have to decide between the two.

In most walkthroughs that I've seen, they'll say take a Druid or a Bard and not give a preference.

Does anyone have any good reason for choosing one over the other??

Thanks in advance.

 

Pickpocketing is really useless in IWD. You can only steal from ONE(1) store in the whole game. That sucks hard.

Also, the druid spells aren't that useful so I would choose a bard for the secondary mage spellcasting. Too bad there aren't any armors for bards that enables spellcasting.

 

I would take bard - because of your enchanter. Enchanters miss all evocation spells (like magic missile and fireball). As Rutkowski said, there's only one shop where you can use pickpocket, but if you pickpocket straight from NPCs, you can get some nice items early.

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That depends. Do you have HOW installed yet? If yes, the I'd say take a Bard for the War Chant of the Ssith. Otherwise, I'd go for a Druid. Druids can act as respectable offensive spellcasters, good healers, and passable fighters, especially if you take a Fighter/Druid. Plus, Druids are just so much cooler...

edit: Incidentally, I'd dump the Dwarven fighter for a Bard. Best of both worlds, take the Bard and the Druid. The Fighter/Thief, the Paladin, and the Cleric, or Fighter/Druid can all handle front line duties until your mage comes into his powers and can summon cannon fodder.

 

Rutkowski there is a armor that bards can wear and still be able to cast spells, Elven Chainmail +3 IIRC. It can be found in The Sewered Hand but it is a random found item so you won't get it all the time BUT if you have gatekeeper you can easily get it. The armor is also great for Fighter/Thiefs to, since it also enables them to use their thieving abilities while wearing it.

 

I very much disagree. I overlooked the IWD druid the first few times through, but my last time through I took a druid over a cleric as my primary healer and let me tell you - I was VERY pleasantly surprised. I found the druid in both BG and BG2 to be kinda weak and boring, but in IWD they have access to a truckload of great offensive spells that really made the game for me. Bard schmard.

With the druid in my party, the battle with Yxonomei (sp?) was over in less than 8 rounds. Plus else, she's now level 10 when everyone else is at around 8. I know this will slow down later but worth mentioning how quickly she's grown in power. Try one and I promise you won't be disappointed.

 

Come on....just forget the Bard...Druids are much more powerful and very very much cooler!!! Although I haven't finished the game yet with a Bard in my party, I once tried to start with one. At the 9° level I just deleted him!!!! He's boring, ugly, very little useful and simply pathetic in IwD!! Get the Druid...and good luck!!!

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