HotU: has anyone tried Shifter with Druid and Cleric?

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I was wondering to try a shifter with druid and cleric... I'm not sure if the idea would work.

The idea would be to buff up with cleric spells that last 1 hour/ caster level and extended versions of cleric spells that last 1 turn/ caster level.....

Then shift into a humanoid such as Kobold Commando and kill things. Stat points would go mostly in wisdom.

Would this work? Does shifting erase buffs?

 

I tried a druidic shifter a long time ago and found it disappointingly underpowered. You can't use your spells while shifted and while shifted you usually aren't as good a warrior as a ranger, paladin, barbarian, monk, or fighter without a lot of short-term buffs that wear off too quickly making you need to rest.
It has a few situational benefits like immunities in certain forms and some area attacks or elemental attacks for foes weak to them, but against normal foes a ranger specializing in archery is just as good if not better at melee fighting. No, I did not mistype the previous sentence.

Maybe I just didn't know how to use it.

 

Did you test if hour/caster level buffs remain while shifted? Cleric with the right domain can get a spell with 50% concealment for 1 turn per level or 1 hour per level if extended meta magic. And many other good long duration buffs in the cleric spell book.

I would probably level to enough cleric to get the extended concealment and some other good buffs and then 5 druid levels and then hit a breakpoint (target shape) in shifter which might be epic kobold commando or maybe undead form and then put more in cleric or druid for more buffs.

But if (long) buffs disappear when you shift then the whole idea goes to pieces.

 

You keep certain buffs when shapeshifted but others may be over-ridden. Experimentation is probably necessary.

If you can, let me know how this goes and what kind of buffs and stats you are capable of getting.

 

I played a druid/shifter with some monk levels for extra bonuses on the sky high WIS a long time ago. While it was a lot of fun, I'll agree with Slick that it was a rather underpowered character. The biggest problem was the low BAB, and the fact that most, if not all, shapes are melee based, who'll suffer from your low BAB. Sometimes, the weapons of your shape just don't have enough enchantment to overcome a damage threshold, other times you just can't hit anything.

The shapeshifter was the thoughest time I've had with the Valsharess and the demi-lich. Really, I only won the Valsharess fight because she critically failed a save against petrification, and the demi-lich none of my forms could hit, neither reliably enough, nor hard enough to overcome his DT. In retrospect, the demi-lich would've been much, much easier by just giving Valen a good weapon and then sitting back.

Especially the dragon form was a bit disappointing, as its claws only count as a very low enchantment (+1 or +3 off the top of my head), which means that, despite its huge strength, it will not actually do that much damage to many enemies.

Long buffs do stay, as far as I can remember. Cat's grace, Bull's strength, and similar buffs last long and do carry over, though they are of limited use. Most shapes will ignore any buffs you get from most of your gear, which can be quite significant, especially in HotU. There are some shapes that will keep buffs from certain items, but never from your full gear (which makes sense in most cases).

Exchanging druid buffs for cleric buffs doesn't seem like it would be quite optimal, and a monk level would at least give you good benefits from your high WIS (which should carry over to your shapes as well, as typically the shapes don't change WIS, INT, or CHA). But hey, it should be fun to try it out, so if you want to do it, I'm interested to hear how it worked out for you. As I mentioned, I found the shifter a lot of fun to play, even though it was nowhere near as powerful as pretty much any other character I've made.

There's a good guide on shifters somewhere, which has a lot of detail on what works with what shape and what not, it's a great resource.

 

Indeed, if you like a challenge, it is fun with all the different forms to play with. However, you have to want a challenge as well since the character just isn't as powerful as most other builds.

 

For the most part, it's not that bad, at least, not that I can remember, but some of the boss characters are definitely a challenge, much more so than with pretty much any other character. Especially in HotU, anyway. Some of that you can make more or less optional by finding and holding on to a good heavy mace in the Undermountain, then upgrade it up the wazoo as soon as you can, and giving it to Valen. When it gets too tough, sit back and let him do the heavy hitting. Though, if I recall correctly, the Valsharess you have to fight alone anyway.

 

Hey guys or gals thanks for responding. It might be a little while before I try this out and get some gaming time for this game. And I might look into the enhanced version of NWN1 I think.

I've done only 1 full play through of HotU. And I have never bothered with Demi-lich. I don't even know what rewards you get for beating that Demi-lich. I think I got stuck getting to him on that part where there is traps shooting magic missiles (I think I misremember this) and you need a ranged weapon or something?

My previous build was a cleric and was powerful. I think a cleric/fighter/monk with the monk level to open items and monk AC, the fighter to open a larger critical hit range weapon, and cleric for buffs and divine feats.

 

I recall getting mauled by the blue dragon early on when I tried it.
Took several tries, but it was in part figuring out how to use the build.