Druid

The Druid
The druid in the character selection screen.
Level	1
Strength	5—7
Dexterity	7—15
Constitution	10—12
Intelligence	14—16
Wisdom	13—15
Charisma	15—17
Armour	?
Hit Points	?
Equipment	Sickle; White Hood; White Robe; Blue Mushrooms; Red Mushrooms; Scroll of Taming.

"The Druid starts with a sickle that is particularly effective against molds and plants." He has a supply of mushrooms." - In-game description.

The druid is a spellcaster class, who is best at dealing with plant-like creatures, all of which are easily succumbed to the sickle. Against other non-plant creatures, in his possession are a significant amount of scrolls of taming of random blessed/(un)cursed status. Also, a large supply of mushrooms in combination with the mycology talent, they may be used to make potions.

Druids are the male counterpart to the Druidess.

Stats

Alignments and Belief

Belief System: Inner Power.

• Chaotic Good. "The druid believes a spark of light is embedded inside him and that it may, with experience, be called upon for help;"
• Lawful Good. "The druid believes a spark of light is embedded inside him and that it may, with experience, be called upon for help;"
• Neutral. "The druid believes a spark of light is embedded inside him and that it may, with experience, be called upon for help."

The list of talents available to the Druid.

Talents

The following are talents accessible to the druid:

• Animal Forms;
• Beast Mastery;
• Dual Wielding;
• Dweomery;
• First Aid;
• Gastronomy;
• Mycology;
• Nightmare Mode;
• Weapon Precision.

Starting Skills

• Life Spell: 1 point.

Starting Equipment

• Uncursed +1 sickle (wielded in right hand);
• Uncursed +0 white hood (being worn);
• Uncursed +0 white robe (being worn);
• Seven random identified blue mushrooms;
• Seven random identified red mushroom;
• Eight identified scrolls of taming.

Starting Pet

• Tabby Kitten.

Strategy

First off, the druid gets some interesting tools to start with; his scrolls of taming can get you out of a bad situation, or be used with beast mastery to give you long term friendly monsters that will escort you through the dungeon, though the scrolls are generally somewhat rare and thus best saved for emergencies or for taming something worthwhile, as opposed to the first goblin you find. Even the cursed ones (never use them) can be sold for a fair amount (~230 gold) to a merchant. Also your starting mushrooms can be used to make potions with the Mycology talent, but upon finding a few more can also can be used to summon pixies (blue mushrooms) and The Leprechaun King (red mushrooms). For both those reasons, and their low calorie payout, that it is very disadvantageous to end up simply eating them.

When the druid adopts an animal form he drops (most) everything he has equipped - depending on the form, even cursed items. This enables utilizing decent cursed equipment and identifying whether items are cursed or blessed (as long as he can equip them). The ability to cast spells is not as necessary if you go immediately for the animal forms talent, since the giant ant transformation will enable you to kill most creatures easily early on, and non-combat spells can be cast outside of combat, in his undies if need be.

Early talent selection:

• Level 2 pick Animal forms. The Giant Ant form should then help you get to level 4 quite easily;
• Level 3 pick a optional but Beast Mastery I is a good pick;
• Level 4 Get Animal form II. The Cobra form should then help you get to level 7 quite easily. It is very fast and very effective in early combat.
• Level 5 pick is optional depending on your personal style;
• Level 6 select Beast Mastery II is a good pick if you did not take it at level 5;
• Level 7 get Beast Mastery III as this will help you build an army of followers. This talent synergizes extremely well with spell/wand/scroll of create monster as each monster summoned will be guaranteed to be mesmerized and will help you fight.

You may wish to consider the third tier of Animal Forms later on. Although it will only get you so far into the dungeon and does not unlock new forms as you level up, the passive effect , similiar to a ring of polymorph control, it provides means that if you are polymorphed by other means such as a wand, trap, or spell - that you will have access to a unique list of monsters depending on your level, in the long run these are far more effective than any animal form, but make the talent still worth having later on.

On Polymorphing

Keep some things in mind when transforming in regards to your health and mana:

• Essentially, their current human levels will determine your animal form's current levels; polymorphing at 50% health and mana will mean your animal form will start with around ~50% of its health and mana as well, meaning it is recommended you polymorph right away in a tough fight as every HP you lose as a human will affect your performance as an animal, and that you don't waste too much mana casting other spells while in human form, since you may need that mana both while polymorphed, or to re-transform if your animal form is "killed". The trick here is that it is one way; when you return to human form, your health and mana will be reset to their prior amount (minus the mana cost to polymorph), regardless of how much of each you lost as an animal. When in animal form, many of your spells may still be available, meaning you shouldn't be afraid to completely expend your mana by casting spells while in animal form! It also means you are best off saving health and mana potions for human form.

It is also very important to note that any experience points (EXP) you earn while polymorphed will transfer over to your human form when you revert. However, other boons such as gaining stat bonuses from certain potions, foods, and/or randomly from a fountain will apply to the polymorph form only and be permanently lost when you transform back into a human. Always save these methods of raising your stats for when you are a human.

As well, some of the different forms have a much higher (or lower!) carrying capacity, allowing the druid to grab more loot and sell it if that's your persuasion. However, they may often have a lower charisma, which will affect the prices merchants will pay for your goods, meaning it may be best to change back into human form before selling. They also have a separate hunger timer, meaning if you are finding yourself starving to death, it is worth shifting into a new form to buy yourself time for finding food, but be sure to change back before eating what you find.

Additionally, caution needs to be exercised around unknown amulets. Most players might rely on turning back into a human on death while polymorphed and will encounter instant permadeath if an amulet of unchanging is worn. Since you otherwise do not die when reaching 0 hp while polymorphed, you should also be sure to remove your amulet of life saving - if one is equipped - just to make sure it isn't wasted.

Trivia

• The druid class was introduced in WazHack v1.2.