The Druid's Guide Mark 1

The Druid Guide So Far

General Druidic Rules

First and foremost, Lanfear is the coder of the druids. Use the bug, commend, and idea commands at him for anything related to the druids.

The recommended races for druids should see in the dark and have good wisdom. The infravision will be useful if you cast star light at all (the spell does more damage in dark areas) and the high wisdom will affect most of your spells.

Use the druids channel when asking details about certain druid spells or skills, or for specific advice. Also use it if you see the pool going dry. Know who the guild leader and assistants are, and contact them if necessary.

The apprentice system is there for good reason. The lowering of spell and skill costs is much more noticable as the costs get high. The 'cast xxx' skills in particular get quite expensive and the experience 'discount' offered by the system is very profitable. If you plan to get any skill or spell above 60%, or even 50% for the expensive stuff, use the channel to ask for apprenticeship. The worst thing that could happen is nothing, which is no worse than not asking.

This is rule number one of druids: You will NEVER starve. The plant lore skill, even at low levels, will let you pick many fruits and vegetables as you wander outside in summer and fall. Just don't pick too many, for Gaea will punish you harshly for abusing her bounty. Further, you have access to the create food and satiate person spells.If water is a problem, the rain spell is a good solution, especially if you can cast water walking first (or do it naturally).

When you enter BatMud, take a peek at your staff charge.The better the charge, the stronger many of your spells will be (anything with type runes). If it is not bright red, take a little while to charge it up. A campfire, camping, and/or the enhanced sp-regen of the races unicorn and owl will make this downtime shorter (building a campfire in the old newbie square -- just outside the church -- is always a good idea, people will thank you). Swing by Damogran or the cheap weapon shop for a bludgeon or two, preferrably light weight, if you solo at all and don't have any eq of your own. You may also wish to stop by the guild for a bless from a fellow druid. While there, you can buy gems of burning lava for the gem fire spell, vine seeds for vine mantle, mistletoe for replenish energy, and/or crystalline plants for hoar frost (if you use them, and they are out of season, vine seeds are particularly easy to find for example), and dump extra exp into spells and/or skills if you plan something extra dangerous today. Don't forget the newsboards upstairs.

There are two important things in the druids guild, Mithrandir and the pool. Mithrandir will give you a poster if you type 'tell mithrandir poster'. Use the poster to donate sp, items, and exp (yeah right) to the guild. The sp you donate will be usable later by the spell 'drain pool', but more importantly affects all runic spells, to a lesser degree than your staff. The pool has colors indicating its charge, like the staff. If the pool ever goes dry, the whole guild will feel it. So start to donate like mad if you see the pool is eerie green. While at the pool you can type 'list+' and 'list-' which will show the donaters/drainers. Try to stay on list+; being on list- for too long is grounds for banishment.

Try to become as good as possible. Almost every druid can baptize, so this is a quick way. Some spells have their chance and/or cost improved if your alignment is very good (not runic spells) and there is the occasional 'touch of gods' blessing-like effect that happens to the very good.

Soloing, general rules

Druids are like mages in that they have no attack skills like push or bash. What this means is, if you sit there and heal yourself in combat, you are taking skill-hits unnecesarily. Instead, use hit-and-run tactics, getting out in two rounds before the skill goes off. Heal yourself outside of combat. If you use an animal form, of course you cannot do this, but getting hit by the monster's skills is still avoidable. Between cure XXX spells, campfires, runic heal, and the regeneration spell and/or the natural regen of an animal form, you should heal faster than the monsters. Earthquake is only good for groups of monsters, and druids, like most mages, aren't really made to do that without a tank to stand behind. Wither flesh is quite slow, though deadly, and requires practice to use correctly.

Word of Recall is your friend. It gets you out of ambushes that could otherwise be fatal.

Remember to use consider on every non-aggresive monster you have never killed before, and use detect alignment (since you want to stay good). Aggressive monsters you can generally guess at after a few hits and after it uses its first combat bonus attack (push, bash, thorn spray, disintegrate, etc.), and are as a general rule, not good. Be warned that consider lies because it does not take into account spells. The third time the monster heals itself up to excellent shape, or nails you with a fierce evocation spell, consider calling the fight off.

Soloing as a beginning druid (5th-6th levels)

Use the shapechange spells aggresively for clearing a newbie area out of small creatures. At this level, the experience needed for spells and skills is relatively low, and the exp drain of being in animal form is not as bad now as it will be later. However, reserve your true form for big kills, so you don't waste any experience from them. Dispose of all corpses, since you are to low level to be mucking around with undead.

The newbie areas just outside of town, Bob's apple orchard, Digga's newbie area, and Wane's mountain have extra incentive for solo druids: they are outside. You can make full use of any fire building and plant lore ability you have. Sadly none of these areas have extra bludgeons lying around.

Expect kills of 500 exp or so.

Soloing as a low-level druid (10th-11th levels)

The natural weapons and armor of the bear and shrike forms outclass the average enemy you will face at this level. You will lose some experience and all spell capabilities, but can still camp and make fires. Try using these forms for hostile creatures or large groups of medium to weaker ones, since the opening attacks of a hostile creature can stop spells and the weaker monsters are generally not worth a gem fire spell. The natural hp regen of these forms will make up for the loss of the cure XXX wounds spells. Use your own form, unicorn, or maybe owl against creatures you will need spells against, and remember that your damage- causing abilities are low.

Earth skin is nice, because you don't have a whole lot of skills which suck up ep, and multiple layers of earth skin will drop that ep fast. Fire building and fresh pants are big ep-drain skills but there are ways around fresh pants (shovels, tinning kits, and the bear form can eat corpses). Don't play with create mud, not yet, since a fumble could be fatal.

The orc treehouse and the rock-diggers in Wane's mountain have both a large amount of evil creatures you can handle, plus an abundance of bludgeons. Sadly plants don't grow there, although the treehouse is 'outside' for use of some skills. Tonze's mines are also good, for druids like everyone else, but some monsters down there are a little strong for a solo druid. Fortuneately only one monster (the beholders) is hostile unless people forget to bury corpses.

Expect 1k kills.

Soloing as a mid-level druid (14th and 15th levels)

At this level, druids make fair to good solo-ers, better than the average blaster due to the higher attack and bludgeons skills, the protection offered by earth skin, the generally higher hp, and the ability to recover after an assault. Your higher str (slightly) will let you use heavier armours -- the full body plate of goodness is good from this point on.

Remember that, even with maxed out attack and bludgeon, the monster will be hitting back harder than you unless you have good weapons. If you have the spell points and the charge in your staff to spare, and have even half-decent bludgeons, use earth power to pump yourself up, for this will start to even the odds in terms of purely physical damage.

Use the shapechange forms of bear and shrike cautiously. Once transformed, you will be stuck until you get a restore spell (or at least for a very long time), and you will be unable to use any weapons. However, the incredible natural armor and weapons of these forms, as well as the hit point regeneration, can be quite tempting. You can donate the (useless) spell points you accumulate in these forms to the druid pool. Unicorn is a better form in general, since your spells are more valuable than your skills, but the armor of this form is worse. The owl form has the worst weapons and armor of all and is probably a bad idea to use in combat, even though it can avoid death. You might just want to stay in your natural form.

If you cannot decide which attack spell to use, I recommend star light for any race which can see in the dark or anyone who can cast the infravision spell well. It is free (goldwise) and tends to do more damage. Gem fire does next to nothing with the run-of-the-mill gems found in corpses, and it is a rare day indeed where the 3000 gold spent on a Lava Gem (sold in the guild) will net you more experience than if the money were MIP'ed instead.

If you need the alignment, you can wait around for corpses to animate, but I recommend the fresh pants skill since you can sell the results to merchants. (This is the first aspect of the druids-merchant alliance). Tinning kits are heavy and you don't need the food that way. If you have a castle, though, you can try this trick: make your starting room have no exits. Then, cast call pigeon on about a dozen small corpses (like, bunnies). When you get home there should be one or two undead waiting for you, weak ones easily killed by a single spell. It won't get you much exp but a good alignment boost. Just make sure you take care of them before you Word of Recall.

As a general rule, up to this level solo druids are poor money makers. Fresh pants and torch creation get at most 90 and 10 gold respectively. If you truly need the money, the bat city sewers' monsters will have random stuff on them that could end up worth a good bit, and at this level you should be ok with a couple of iron maces and star light spells.

When you get kicked out of Tonze's mines, start to expand your area search a little. The newbie cornfields, Sarku's temple, and giantkillers have monsters you can smack, many (but not all) evil, most (again, but not all) not hostile.

Expect kills up to 2k.

Soloing as a high level druid (20-21st level)

You have hoar frost now, so use it to start fights with non-aggressive monsters, then switch to gem fire or (preferred) star light for speed. If you feel lucky and /or have good quick chant, you can specialize in hoar frost, but that means carrying around a bunch of the plants -- buy them or (maybe) find them before setting out. You can also start using flex shield effectively, if you happen to like that spell -- its basically anticrit. As always, don't forget the earth skin, earth power, and regeneration spells. With your mastery, they will start to get good.

Look for the whirlpool, the ninjas, and/or creatures in town/Raven/Shadowkeep. The ninja area is particularly cool because the ninjas are all evil and carry bludgeons a lot -- just use consider. BatCity monsters, on the other hand, will chase you down, plus you could wander into a fight with some other player, typically a tank. So excercise caution there.

At this level you have replenish energy, earth power, and regeneration, three popular spells for merchants. They can be sold for upwards of 2k if you are any good at them.

Expect 3k kills.

Soloing as a very high level druid (25-26th level)

You can make half-decent money at this level. Use the hit-and-run attacks you have perfected so you don't get crushed by killer spells and skills. Hoar frost and star light will work fine, and with your mastery you will start doing brutal damage. Crystaline plants are hard to find and identify, but can be bought at the druid shop relatively cheaply if you need them. You can also explore the castle valley for them if you have plant lore 80+ and it is winter. At this point gem fire will fall by the wayside as an attack spell due to its cost and lack of effective damage. Earthquake, the area effect spell, will not be used much, since druids, like all blasters, have problems with multiple targets at once.

Druids at this level can cast reincarnation, but at a low percent. Be warned that, if you fumble, your target will suffer and get mad. At the least, you will get a reputation as a poor reincer and not get future business.

Many of the areas mentioned before have stronger monsters you have been waiting to kill. Check them out. However your blasting power has not greatly improved over 20-21st level druids, although hoar frost and better qc will make some difference.

Expect 4k kills.

Soloing as a maxed-out druid (29th-30th level)

You are a reincer first and foremost. A typical reinc will get you from 7 to 16k in experience, not bad at all. At this level, you can also cast wither flesh more accurately. This spell has devastating effects, including the ability to STUN the target. If the target is stunned, try to get a fast spell in before it recovers, say, star light. If it is not stunned, or if your quick chant is not super, you will want to sit there and heal yourself, since Wither Flesh will continue to hit the target every four rounds or so until it drops or you leave. Flex Shield and Vine Mantle/Earth Skin greatly increase the time you can stay in the same room. Should you try this tactic, you might want to turn word of recall off.

At this level you will rarely solo. Casting reinc will get you more exp than a good solo kill, with much less chance of death or losing eq. But good kills for you will be around 6k.

Partying as a beginning druid (5th-6th levels)

You will have a hard time. Fire building and first aid are about the only party skills you have. Your cure XXX spells are inferior to those of a pure healer at the same level, and your gem fire spell will do more harm to your pocketbook than to the monsters. Your bless and/or baptize will fail more often than not. If desperate, you can change to animal form and tank for a mage or healer friend. Do not dispair, better times are coming.

Expect kills at 4k or so for 3-member parties.

Partying as a low-level druid (10th-11th levels)

Compared to pure healers of Tarmalen, druids at this level are limited. Earth skin and detect poison are handy but the lack of strong attack and healing spells will make getting parties difficult. Gem fire is about as good as you are going to get, but the high cost of useful gems may restrict a low-level druid to only party for money. Use campfires to assist party regeneration, and make use of the cure XXX spells you learned in the good_religious background. In any case, you will probably be the best torchmaker and/or tinner in the party. Remember also that if you party with trolls, orcs, or vampires that you can darken your staff to block light, but the more you darken it the more sps you lose, so keep it bit dark or so. Since your strength will generally be higher than that of any mages in the party, you will be the 'mule' so grab the coins and equipment after the battle is over.

Get a good amount of the first aid skill. At this level, the monsters you face will not be super-dangerous (read: do not poison, banish, or disintegrate much) and you will probably have the few rounds it takes to revive an unconcious tank. Also, cast generic is good, not just to help cast the spells but to reduce the chance of fumbling a healing spell onto a tough monster and ruining hard work.

Your plant lore and rain spells are at the point where your parties will never run short of food and water. Use create food only in desperate times, such as winter, where plants are not usually ripe.

Use the shapechange spell as little as possible. In bear and shrike forms you cannot use your healing spells, while in unicorn and shrike you cannot use fire building or camping. Also the lessened exp rate of these forms will just about cancel out the benefit you get from partying.

Expect kills of 12 to 15k (again, for 3-person parties).

Partying as a mid-level druid (14th and 15th levels)

Druids make great party members. You won't need to keep your staff dark, since you won't be casting star light as much, but if you have vampiric or orcish friends you can certainly help out with darkness. You can lug about a tinning kit, since the occasional refreshing can will spare you many a spell point, and since you will not be in the front rank. Know which monsters poison. Against these creatures, always save enough spell points to cast detect poison with enough power to remove it. I find 150 usually suffices, you might be able to do it with less. If your plant lore is strong enough to find healing plants, keep an eye out for them. Like refreshing cans, they can save you some spell points for later. Good berries work the same way, but these disintegrate after a while, so use just before a fight only.

Against the more dangerous monsters, use the 'command' ability to set up a first aid shortcut. As a druid you will have the hps to survive one or maybe two rounds of being hit should the tank in front of you get killed, so try to hang in there until the first aid goes through. However, keep an eye on the exits when doing so.

Pick plants to feed your party (particularly if the party has no tinning kit) and use rain spells as a kind of party-thirst avoider. This is much more mana-efficient than casting satiate person at each member, doubly so in large parties. Keep your tanks happy with earth power, one (more, at your and their option) layer of earth skin, and any infravision, water walking, see invisible, and regeneration spells you can. Earth power is particularly useful and welcome, but water walking is good for seasick races/players too. If your tanks agree, you could also baptize them to good and give them a bless. Stay clear of the flex shield spell, since its high cost and low chance of success combine to quickly strip your spell points for a spell which will have low effect if it does go off.

One very important note: mid-level druids are NOT combat healers! Even with the quick chant available at 15th level and/or a small quick lips boon, runic heal is far too slow to use in combat. Worse, since your percent will be relatively low (40, tops) and you have no mastery, there is always the risk of fumble, which will drain about 100 hp from the tank. In the middle of combat, this can be fatal, but outside by a campfire it is easier to recover from this mistake. Also, your percents of the cure XXX wounds spells is low as well, and fumbling the spell onto a monster is also bad, but much less dangerous. Since these spells are faster you might want to use the cure XXX wounds, if anything, in combat and runic heal outside. If your tanks are doing especially well, and you have spell points to spare, try blasting a little. If your tanks are getting chewed up badly, and your spell points are low, consider draining the pool to resupply and returning the sp later, that's what its there for.

Expect kills of 20 to 25k.

Partying as a high level druid (20-21st level)

By using various protective, healing, and blasting spells, a druid of this level can have two tanks all to himself/herself, if you have good sp regen and/or a good stash of sp in the pool you can drain from. While hoar frost is unreliable, the extra layer of protection offered by two tanks gives you the time for multiple tries. If you use the more accurate star light instead, make sure your tanks are enchanted with infravision. Earth skin, earth power, and regeneration spells are of course a must for your tanks, and flex shield, while quite expensive, makes a nice finishing touch -- although its protection is relatively small by prot spell standards. With your quick chant level, you might be able to use runic heal in combat, too. Use the strategies learned at the earlier levels, they still hold true.

Expect kills of 30k or so.

Partying as a very high level druid (25-26th level)

At this point, you will start to get party offers as a blaster. Hoar frost and star light will be your weapons. Note that hoar frost has a casting time of 5, longer than star light, but your quick chant will make up for this. Also note that vine mantle and flex shield will replace earth skin for defensive spells. Avoid using wither flesh at this time, it is unreliable. Earthquake is ok, for it is area effect and you have good mastery. Be warned that the spell is slow. Replenish energy is good, too, for helping tanks with their devastating skills.

One note about components: replenish energy, hoar frost and vine mantle require plant items to use. They are available at the druid shop, of course, but vine plants and mistletoe are easy to find and need little plant lore % to recognize when in season. As mentioned before, crystaline plants are much harder to find and recognize, so stock up at the druid shop.

Expect kills of 40k and higher.

Partying as a maxed out druid (29-30th level)

Your spells are truly dangerous now. At this point, you can start using wither flesh on big party kills, and the tanks in front of you will allow the spell to do great damage (you can stay in the room much longer). Flex Shield and Vine Mantle should now be very efficient. For the average monster, continue to use hoar frost, star light, and earthquake (multiple monsies), to save on sps.

Expect kills at 60 to 100k, depending on tune.

What to do when you max out the druid guild:

(1) Navigators have a lot of really cool spells, and since you already have wilderness location, teleportation and location memory, you have some important requirements for the guild. Getting summon and heavy weight are also nice for parties, relocate and go are good for exploring, and so on.

(2) Tarmalen is another good guild to join. At level 1 you get Unstun, a very potent addition to the solo druid, plus other healers can holy way to you. Above level 1, of course, other useful spells and skills are added for party druids.

(3) Monks have better hp regen, plus a few nice skills that will make you dangerous as an animal. The discipline skill that lets you resist bash is a nice addition for a solo druid. In general, though, the advantages of monks come later in the guild.

(4) Nuns are blasters. By this time, you should have enough firepower. There are some other spells that will help but mostly at higher levels.

Dealing with Annoying Players

There will always be times when someone will tick you off -- stealing a kill, leaving corpses to animate, badmouthing you or whatever, and sometimes these nuisances do not respond well to verbal warnings. Druids are perhaps the worst guild for hunting other players at low to mid levels, having none of the pkiller spells or skills (summon, banish, curse, grapple, etc). But they do have a few tricks if necessary. Just be very careful before starting a war -- sometimes the best way to strike at an annoying player is to let everyone know what he or she is doing. In any event, use 'help player killing' before trying these at home.

Pick a few poisonous roots or flowers and keep them on you. Should a player killer whack you, he or she might be tempted to eat them -- after all, why would you carry something harmful? :) This works equally well (i.e.rarely at best) with sticky-fingered thieves. If you are a particularly convincing liar, you could give the poisonous herbs to someone and persuade them to eat...this works best if they don't know you are mad, of course. When they beg on the wanted channel for a poison remove, make sure you let the potential rp-ers know the deal. If you want to be truly sneaky, use barberries or blood moss instead -- while they help ( hopefully removing any suspicions your enemy has, prompting them to eat more) they can be addictive, and cure player spells are much more expensive than remove poisons.

If you fumble the detect poison spell and use enough power, you poison the target. While this could be disatrous on party members, it works much better on newbie-sign thieves or murderers. As an additional note, this use of the spell is not considered an attack and will not cause the player to automatically attack you, nor will guardsmen recognize it as an assault. Should the poisoned player attack you back, in front of a guard, they will be arrested, which when poisoned means death. Due to the time and multiple tries needed to make this work, this is not suitable in combat, only as a surprise spell. Again, use the channels and/or tells to prevent the target from being summoned and cured.

The create mud spell is perhaps the best way to defend yourself or annoy another player. Anyone stuck in a mudpit cannot be teleported out or move. You can walk away or move in and out casting spells. If you can summon, or have a friend who can, you can prepare the mudpit early by casting it at an object, then when the player arrives 'push into mudpit' Be warned this does not always work.

If the person who bugs you is a troll, thrikhren, vampire, tinman, or low level, you might be able to bottleneck the entrance of the area they are in with a rain spell or six. Swim or water walk your way out and let the flowing waters burn and/or drown them. This spell, like create mud, does not work in the city, and it will also flush out anyone else in the area, so think twice before doing this.

Finally, it should be noted that wither flesh has no effect on players.

Individual skill/spell review:

Attack/Bludgeons: get these skills as high as you can if you plan to solo at all, maxed out if possible. Attack is of course more valuable, since it will apply to the natural weapons of animal forms as well.

Level 12: Attack and Bludgeons required to 50%

Cast Generic: the most expensive skill you will get, especially at low- to mid- level, since you need it at a high level. This skill affects every spell you cast. Get it to 50 to 60% of guild max for your level, and if at all possible more.

Level 3: Cast Generic required to 50%

Cast Runes: the druid spells which rely on your staff's power all use cast runes. The spells star light, detect poison, runic heal, drain pool, charge staff, gem fire, earth power, earthquake, earth skin, transfer mana, replenish energy, and earth skin are runic spells. Keep this skill high as well for the sake of these spells, at least 40% of your possible total, with 60% being optimal.

Level 4: Cast Runes required to 50%

Cast Help: as far as I can tell, this only affects the casting of regeneration. You can skip this for now.

Cast Information: Affects see invisible, detect alignment, aura detection and infravision. Despite the name it does NOT affect detect poison. All of these spells are cheap and repeated attempts probably won't hurt you much. Not necessary, but a good place to put extra exp before a risky party run.

Cast Control: affects water walking, rain, and drying wind. All of these spells are useful but not often emergencies, so don't put too much into this.

Cast Special: this affects create food and good berry and reincarnation. It is for later levels.

Consider: more for solo druids than party-going druids, obviously. If you plan to solo, get this skill about 30 to 40% at least and use some known monsters as practice, like the various critters in Digga's or Wanes.

Fire Building: very cool skill, especially for parties. The higher the percent, the better the fire, so at least consider maxing out this skill.

Plant Lore: with the removal of the ripen spell, plant lore is much less useful. A good amount will still be fun at the appropriate season (winter is probably the best), but it is no longer as vital. The good berry spell uses plant lore, but this, too, is not much incentive.

Level 4: Plant Lore required to 50%

Torch Creation: if you can cast infravision you won't need this much, but sometimes its nice for a tank friend not in your party. It is also good for lower-level druids without racial infravision. Remember, if your party friends use torches to see, your star light won't do much. This isn't a big problem, since druids are not really blasters, but worth the mention. Put a few percent in this, so you can make one if you really have to, but don't bother more than 20%.

Detect Alignment: as a good_religious guild, being purely good will help your spells. Use this spell when soloing on unfamiliar monsters before blasting away. You can also see the effects of your baptizes, and see who is ready for blessing. A useful spell, get at least 30%.

Charge Staff: a very important spell indeed. The long casting time can make misfires very frustrating, as waiting around to return to max sp is boring enough. Plus, a high percent may (not sure) affect how efficiently you power the staff up. You have it at least 45%, but five or ten more percent will only help in the long run, and due to the casting time you will notice the difference.

Level 9: Charge Staff required to 50%

Essence Eye: Lets you know how close to complete your long spells, charge staff and ripen, are. With low to none in the quick chant department you can probably just as well guess. Don't bother more than 20%.

Ceremony: If you solo, get this to 40% minimum, as it is a very important skill. Runic heal is a slow spell and use of ceremony beforehand doesn't slow it much further. Besides it helps you blast. Less important to partying druids who tend to have little time to work with.

Skill that Saves Sp: you are gonna fail, but you always have the pool to back you up. And, the spells which require extra sp when they work -- charge staff and detect poison -- do not drain those sp when they fail. Also the staff's flooding power does not work when you miss a spell. This skill is useful but don't go nuts over it. 20 to 30% is fine, more if you like casting spells with small percents, and let the natural learning process (you feel like you got better at saving sp) do the rest.

First Aid: slower than death's door, but as good as you are gonna get. If you party, get this high, like 40 to 50%. Solo druids won't have the chance to use it, of course, but even a beginning druid can save the life of someone collapsed on the city streets. Bandages can be purchased in the tinker's in BC, if you want to use this skill on a live target.

Stargazing: if you have the batmap.gif, or any location memory/wilderness location at all, this skill is next to useless. Put nothing into it you don't have to.

Detect Poison: remember this also functions as a remove poison. Essential for partying druids, very cool for soloers, but many midlevel solo druids couldn't handle a poisoning monster well anyway. You have it at least 45%, I recommend ten to fifteen more percent for heavy partiers.

Level 10: Detect Poison required to 50%

Rain and Drying Wind: rain is good for parties where everybody forgot a canteen. Drying wind is good for cleaning up after your rain spell, or when someone gets nasty and floods Digga's/the Mines/any other newbie area. But you can't use rain in town. Each also is a force field, and as such stop other force fields from springing up, which is nice for monsters who cast those damn anti-magic fields. Put no more than 20% in each, maybe 25% to 30% in rain if you party a lot with non-allergic people.

Gem Fire: You will need this spell to about half. Remember that it uses up expensive equipment to have any visible effect. At low levels, you won't have much choice, but at higher levels consider using infravision and star light instead.

Level 11: Gem Fire required to 50%

Shapechange: the bear and shrike forms are combat monsters, the bear having great strength and the shrike great dexterity and eyesight. Neither can cast spells, so use sparingly and carefully. The owl and unicorn forms are much better overall, since you can restore yourself. The unicorn can fight well, and the owl is better than human unarmed but not by much. Neither can use skills besides essence eye, plant lore, quick chant, and the cast XXX skills. The 45% you are required to have is probably enough for most, but some party-druids will want the extra sp given by the unicorn or owl form more than the ceremony or fire building skills, and some solo druids will like the bear or shrike's armor bonus. For those, get 5 to 10% more, less if your skill that saves sp is strong as this is an expensive spell to cast.

Level 11: Shapechange required to 50%

Cast Transformation: only good for shapechange and restore so get as much as you feel reflects your needs, but it can be expensive at higher levels...not necessarily worth it for two spells. Also remember shapechange and restore are rarely emergency spells, so failure won't kill you. Get no more than 50%, 30% being fine for many.

Level 11: Cast Transformation required to 50%

Bless: since the effect is permanent per reboot, screw up or not, only use this skill frequently if you have a good percent, which happens about level nine if you max the skill out. Used more by party druids, who will want 40% in this skill at least.

Fresh Pants: since even a failure will dest the corpse, get this skill at least to 1%. Pantsing the corpse is preferrable to tinning to soloers but not partygoers. Again, if you like stomping undead don't bother with this skill. The cash return is mediocre, so don't put too much exp into this skill, 10% being enough for most partiers and 20-30% for soloers.

Ripen: the ripen spell has been removed.

Baptize: help Tarmalen and druids out by getting them more good, if you are an angel in disguise. Or, use on tanks who couldn't care less about alignment so you can bless them. A useful skill, consider getting at least 30% if you party. Since failure or fumble have no serious effect, and since the person must accept, don't worry about using this skill at low percentages.

Scouting: for when you know you're close to a given area, since only at high levels will this skill give you much more than 'map' would. It uses a lot of ep, though, so use sparingly. Get to 40, 50% or so if you do not have the batmap.gif and avoid otherwise.

Runic Heal: an incredibly useful spell. Get to 50%, minimum. Just remember it is slow for a healing spell, so use in combat is restricted.

Level 21: Runic Heal required to 50%

Earth Skin: remember that multiple coats can slow the target down. This won't worry the spellcasters much, and one coat will help the thick-skinned tank races enough anyhow. A good spell, get to 50% *a guild requirement* to start and see how you like it from there...party druids might add 5 to 10 percent more.

Level 14: Earth Skin required to 50%

Moon Sense: the moon affects spell costs but you can read them in the help files. Not a super useful spell and cheap so failure doesn't hurt much. Don't put much into it.

Camping: solo users need this much more than partiers, since a sleeping healer is a useless healer. If a partier needs sp that badly they can drain the pool. Soloers should max this out of course, and anyone who gives their ep to merchants (by replenish energy) will want to use this too.

Swim: if you can water walk by spell or by race, this skill is next to worthless. At lower levels, though, put a little in to give you a fighting chance, like 20-30%.

Restore: essential for shapechangers, or for those who have shapechanging friends (this will return a bear, shrike, draconian or frog to their normal self). You need 45% to get to level 15 anyway, and that will do fine.

Level 15: Restore required to 50%

Hear Noises: good for solo druids, since being ambushed will hurt them much more than the druid behind a tank. Still, it's cheap, so maxing it out won't hurt too bad, but party-going druids need this much less and can put it off. If you are a clairvoyant race, don't bother.

Location Memory: next to useless with the batmap.gif, very useful without it. Also useful if you get banished, which will tend to happen more in parties since banish is a potent spell. Since even a small amount gives you relatively many locations, you can get away with just 5 to 10%. All this changes if you become a nav, of course.

Aura Detection: since tanks will get a message when a spell wears off, this spell isn't that useful. Occasionally, though, they will miss it in the heat of battle. Get some if you party, 20% being fine. Solo druids won't need it as much, but you too can lose messages in battlespam. Get it if you have a small text window to 20%.

Call Pigeon: the low weight limit is a problem. Use to return valuable plants, gems, keys, and perhaps corpses to your castle room before you quit and re-enter. If your starting room is in town, don't even bother since someone will grab your stuff. The bags you make with fresh pants sometimes can be carried when not completely full. A special note: for people with castle starting locations, call pigeon is currently worthless, since castles have a tendency to purge items.

Word of Recall: Get this for sure, you can always turn it off. Get at least 40% when you can, more if you solo. If you don't mind a little punishment this can be a free but painful ride into the city. At higher levels, when you could solo creatures with nasty stun effects, this will save your life.

Camouflage: You can never tell if you got it right...unless of course you get slightly better at it. Monsters never seem to be fooled anyway. This skill is good only for druids who like casting rain in newbie areas.

Tinning: like those refreshing cans? Higher skill doesn't seem to help you get those, but it keeps the kit from breaking. More of use for party druids who can lug around a big heavy kit without losing combat points. Solo druids should get no more than 10%, partiers more like 30% (its a cheap skill).

Create Mud: can stop a monster or player from running away -- or chasing you. This is hostile, though, so be careful. Since so few monsters run into dangerous areas (the chessboard pawns will) keep this spell for those ever-increasing chasing monsters and/or wandering undeads you cannot handle. If you cast this at one of many monsters, who do not all go aggresive, you can try to trip or push them in. If you see any of these situations a lot, get 30% or maybe more, but otherwise put extra exp into this when risking death and save it for a rainy day. At this time you cannot cast this spell in town. It should be noted that this spell does not always stop a monster from tracking, retreating, or returning from after tracking.

Level 17: Create Mud required to 50%

Drain Pool: party stuff almost exclusively. Still, a boost never hurts, as long as you stay in list+. Max out party-goers, keep down at 10-15%, soloers. Use this spell sparingly!

Level 24: Drain Pool required to 50%

Wilderness Location: not only can you use this to find the places you memorized, but track players as well. If you have batmap.gif and do not get banished you will almost never use this, but without batmap.gif this is a very cool spell. Learn accordingly.

Track: Good for wandering monsters and/or sewers expeditions.However, you can live without it.

Earth Power: very useful for partiers, quite useful for soloers who need the extra ep and/or carry heavy stuff and/or like to force boxes. Get a lot, 50-60%, and you won't regret it. Also merchants like this spell.

Level 25: Earth Power required to 50%

Star Light: put a lot of exp into this if you can see in the dark by natural or magical infravision. Otherwise, consider sticking with gem fire and sucking up the costs. In a dark place, this spell does plenty of damage. Since this spell will never go out of use, get 50-60% when you can.

Level 19: Star Light required to 50%

Create Food: this is for emergencies only, when you have no fruit and cannot cast satiate person. The spell is somewhat expensive to learn and cast, so you can skip it if you really want.

Good Berry: just before a party or a solo goes into battle, if your sp are maxed out give this spell a shot. Remember they rot away fast so use just before battle or not at all. Percent affects yield so get a lot, so does plant lore.

Infravision: if you are gonna hang out in the dark, casting star light, you will need this spell on yourself and/or your friends. Unlike other information spells, this one could be an emergency, so get a lot -- its cheap.

Water Walking: an incredibly useful spell, max it out. You will have allergic friends and/or need to cross deep water at least once.

Quick Chant: you might jump at the chance to grab this skill, but hear me out: you only get so many free skill improves before they stop. Wouldn't you rather have quick chant jump from 25 to 26 than from 5 to 6? You should be used to being a little slow by now, anyway. Get this skill if you party a lot, otherwise at least consider saving it for later.

Flex Shield: at low levels, the high cost and minimal effect makes this spell a bad idea. If you get it, don't cast it unless you have a decent percent, 30% being usable, 40% being recommended. In any case, this spell is best at deflecting two things: crits and spells. If you are facing an area-effect casting monster, this spell on yourself could save you from panicking and word of recalling, or dying. A good spell overall.

Level 29: Flex Shield required to 50%

Regeneration: a super spell indeed, both for solo druids and partiers, as the hp return for the sp cost are one of the best you will ever get if you don't mind a little waiting. Get a lot of this spell, in the 40% area at least (note that percent of this spell does not affect the bonus). Merchants like this spell, although blessing of Tarmalen is of course far better.

Satiate Person: fills the target with food and water. If you run out of fruit, cast it. Max it out if you don't hit the outdoors much, or party a lot, otherwise you can afford to put it off.

See Invisible: Low level druids shouldn't be playing with invisible monsters. Invisible players, though, can be a pain. It's cheap to learn and to cast, but rarely an emergency. 40% will be enough for most.

Mastery of Runic Sigla: Max out this skill, if possible. It is very important.

Level 30: Mastery of Runic Sigla required to 50%

Vine Mantle: a superior version of earth skin, complete with side effects of stacking. Worth getting for party druids and solo druids alike. The vine seeds for the component are found by the tens in the forest. If you or your friends are unprotected (have no armor) this is worthwile, but it is expensive sp-wise.

Level 26: Vine Mantle required to 50%

Hoar Frost: a dangerous spell that does cold damage, so useless against undead (but that's what star light is for). The crystalline plants needed to cast it are found in the druid shop. Get a good amount of this. There is a relatively cheap item called a G'kaden that is +3 hoar frost, neck slot.

Level 27: Hoar Frost required to 50%

Hoar frost can make you catch cold. This has a little but not terribly dangerous side effect.

Earthquake: an area effect spell. Much more for party druids, but a fun spell to have. Does mana damage so affects undeads. Get some for fun, more for parties.

Level 30: Earthquake flesh required to 50%

Reincarnation: the famous spell that lets someone change race and/or class for a portion of their total exp worth. Be careful with this, fumbles could be very bad for your health if you mess up the wrong player. Do not advertise this spell at guild levels 23 and 24, its not worth it.

Wither Flesh: being hit with this spell does a big chunk of damage, which has severe combat effects. It can also stun, which is nice, but don't count on it. In any case, every few rounds the victim will double up in pain from the spell's continuing effect (think of it as a poison- like effect) as long as the two of you are in the same room. This makes it a poor pkilling spell these days, dispite the stunning power. You will want a huge amount of this spell but don't bother to cast at 25% or less, where the risk of fumble is very serious.

Level 30: Wither Flesh required to 50%

Things that will get you banished from druids guild:
-- overdraining the pool (this is very serious)
-- badmouthing other druids to steal reincs or parties
-- giving anther druid a newbie orb
-- killing Mithrandir well before boot (this has not been done since Mith lost his eq)


To give any feedback, criticisms, flames, or additions/corrections at all, please send mail to Shinarae.