Druids are powerful. I know that. They get some snazzy spells, yes. They're a viable class, and can be very handy in a party. I am not here to invite a listing of all the things that make a druid 'neat'. I'm here to point out a few easily rectifiable issues in need of a good rectifying.
Druids, for some reason, don't get all the animal attribute spells. And they're DRUIDS. Clerics with the animal domain get 'Cat's Grace' to round out all the animal attribute buffs, because 'animal domain'. Druids? Bull's strength and... nothing else. Good luck buffing any pet besides a bear, or maybe a dire wolf. You don't just have a dex-based pet, but are yourself dex-based? Then good luck buffing yourself, even. Oh, an elven druid using a bow with zen archery - good idea! Pity you can't owl's wisdom yourself. Oh, but you can 'awaken' your pet, and give HIM a wisdom buff, I guess. That's... useful? Popping into the .2da I'm imagining could easily grant druids access to these spells, which they should really have anyway.
Companions. Who here has a bear? I'm not the Sesame Street Count, but I'm going to go ahead and estimate 'lots'. Why? Well, these days using companions in a fight doesn't come up much, but when they DID (and if they ever do again in the future) people will often take the bear because it is simply the best. It has strength, and it has con. That makes sense - it's a bear. Sure, some folks take the hawk, or the cat, or even the badger. But what, aside from roleplay value, does the badger bring to the table which the bear couldn't bring in much larger, gruntier ways? Nothing. Nothing at all. But that could change! Each animal could have their own equally useful abilities! I'm not talking 'howl', here. Howl's useless. I'm talking things like what you currently see in wizard's familiars. Damage reduction for the boars, because go out and TRY to hurt a boar. I'll wait. I'm talking greater barbarian rage and regen for badgers, because Honey Badger was bitten on the face by an ASP after stealing its food, and after a brief nap woke up to EAT THE ASP. I'm talking a natural ability concealment for panthers to go with a sneak attack because there's a black panther behind your monitor right now - he's been there all along, and you've just never noticed him because he's that good. I'm talking about a hawk having permanent freedom of movement because it's ~flying~ and dealing 'wound' because there's bloodhawks in the game already and those things are scary as hell for a low-level and I want one.
And if, by some crazy miracle of scriipting or magical science, pets could be possessed to be used as scouts like the familiars of wizards today? Awesome. Awesome to the max. That cat has a decent hide score - and NEVER USES IT.
Magicky weapony thing. Druids don't get it. Now, this makes sense in PnP or in NWN 2, where they get magic fang, and natural spell, and (I'm assuming) they can magic their teeth or claws or something with that. But here, they can't do that. Actually, the way this spell works is a bit wonky, as you cast it - not on your animal - but on yourself, when your animal is out and about. Then it affects your animal. What if it was cast on target, so you ~could~ use it to buff your animal, or another ranger's/druid's animal, ~or~ cast it on yourself, so that upon going all Grizzly Adams your bearish fangs are now 'magicked'. Or have it that if your pet has magic fang, it also counts your shifted form as having magic fang. Or at least you can eat through DR ala the bizarro 'stoneskin-then-polymorph' thing. Only, you know, in a way that actually makes sense. Natural spell may be out of the question unless we have a script wizard. Still, having some way for a druid to damage a Maddened Corpse - by using magical abilities granted by gods who hate the undead and really should give them the means to in some fashion - seems like a step in the right direction.
Forms. Who shifts into anything but bear - show of hands? Yes, yes. Lucadia, you can put your paw down. Well the rest of us know that the same rationale to having a bear as a pet applies to shifting as well. You shift into a bear for the strength. You shift to break down a door after bull's strengthing yourself. You shift into a bear to haul corpses of compions after bull's strengthing yourself. You shift into a bear to mate with that ancient dire she-bear in the Balinoks - you sick, demented furry. You NEVER turn into anything else, because nothing else gives you any reason to. Other than roleplay, sure. Same thing that could be done with animal companions could be done with the different forms. Cat-form could give you a bonus to hide/ms and/or sneak attack. Wolf could give you a permanent expeditious retreat-type effect - wolves are fast after all! Badger could give you near-mystical powers of not-caring about ANYTHING because ~seriously~, have you seen that video? Glorious.
Of course, having access to other companion templates would be amazing - as goes without saying. While I don't fully understand why this is off the table... I think it's off the table. Regardless, most (or at least some) of these suggestions should be relatively easy to implement. They'd make druids ever so fun. More fun, I mean. And by fun, I mean kick-ass. And by kick-ass, I mean rending undead asunder with fiendish badger-claws.
