[Aerich]

I always look at my parties as a small tactical unit as opposed to a collection of individuals. I like the mc druid, especially in HoF from scratch, because you get druid spells and fighter power from the beginning and all the way through. You don't have any "lulls", or times when the character is relatively inferior to the party as a whole in either capacity.

On HoF, particularly from scratch, a F/D of whatever makeup isn't going to be a dominant tank unless it is shapechanged, in which case it's tanking abilities will be based on damage resistance and not weapon specialization. A F/D dual class can be a great offensive meleer (as can every other F/X dual class), but it's spell selection prevents it from being an elite defensive character. I prize defensive capability above all else when determining who will tank in HoF, so on that basis alone, a F/D of whatever persuasion will never be more than the 3rd melee option at best. In a HoF from scratch game, I will always take the mc F/D over a dc for the above reasons.

I believe that a druid's spells and shapechange ability are so good that it should spend no more than about 40% of its combat time using weapons, mostly during mop-ups and against highly magic-resistant enemies. My play style (strong defensive formations, battle management) also lends itself to using a F/D as a ranged option instead of melee. I recognize that the ability (an exploit, in my view) to get 5 PP in sling can create similar offensive disparities, but a F/D mc is still more than capable in melee and ranged combat. In a party optimized for weapons combat (e.g. 4+ warrior classes either sc, mc, or lvl 7+ dc), I find the dc F/D's fighting ability to be somewhat unnecessary.

I'm not just blowing smoke here either. I actually did a HoF from scratch game with a dc F[13]/D and a mc F/D to compare. I definitely found that the F/D dc was stronger (both in melee and in spells, since it hit lvl 30 druid faster), but the difference wasn't enough for me to justify taking a dc over a mc in future parties. The F/D mc operated at about 85-90% the capacity of the F/D dc in the end, which was more than enough for me. The F/D dc operated at about 30% or less of the capacity of the F/D mc in the early going, so it all evens out.

A really good F/D dc is hellish to roll, too.