As noted by kmonster, if your Druid is dual classed or multiclassed with FTR, you can use all the weapons and armor in the game (except those that are alignment restricted).

I just bought them both off the site. I played through the first Icewind Dale years ago though.

I did play through it then with a party of only 2. I had one fighter and one cleric. No multiclassing. Went through the whole game with just those 2 characters. I don't fiddle with difficulties much, so it was left on it's "normal" difficulty setting. This was without any mods by the way(I dislike mods).

I always play through games like this with parties of only a few, I played through Temple of Elemental Evil with only a fighter and a cleric too. Not sure why, but apparently I liked playing with a fighter and cleric back in the day.

I've done a party of 2, a party of 3, party of 4 and several parties of 5 and 6 through IWD 1. Currently doing a party of 6 run on Insane difficulty. I started with a Paladin, a 1/2 Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief and 4 Human Fighters. Took the Fighters to level 9 to get 5 pips in a melee weapon and then dual classed them to a Cleric, Druid, Mage, and Thief.

It was a bit of a challenge through some of Dragon's Eye with the limited spell casting, and it was again a challenge once I dual classed them. But I admit I camped for Cold Wight spawns to get a few levels on the dual classed characters (they hit FTR level 9 on the third level of Dragon's Eye). Once I had them at level 4 or 5 in their second class (to get some spell power - which didn't take long at all), I just continued to roll. Now that I'm in Wyrm's Tooth, they've all activated their Fighter classes again. They're juggernauts of destruction in melee and not too shabby with ranged weapons either. In fact, I can pick off most of the minor mobs with ranged weapons before they even get to the party and only have to resort to melee for large groups or for boss types. It's been good fun so far.

I've been experimenting with spells that I rarely (or never) used and now I'm thinking of doing yet another insane run with a party of 1 tank (probably a Dwarf FTR), a Cleric or Druid, a Bard and two other casters (likely a FTR dualled to Mage at levle 3 and a FTR/Mage/Thief). I'll experiment with doing a bunch of spell combos with the mages, using the tank as a mage protector. So more of a spell reliant run as opposed to melee/ranged fighting. Biggest problem with be getting enough scrolls to scribe spells for all of them.

After that I'll probably take some of these parties through HoW and TotLM. Then maybe I'll tackle a Heart of Fury run...

To be pedantic, if you look back in the old modules for DL, Tanis was a pure fighter.

This is true. But he always felt more like a Ranger to me

Yep - Distractions can be a pain - makes me want to stop or start over and starting over always seems such a chore. I am currently running a duo through IWD1 - See this thread for those of us adventuring in the Spine of the World.

Yeah, I decided a few days ago to just check out building a couple characters for BG1 while I was doing my 'no reload' run for IWD1. Heh, still playing BG (although I've just started Chapter 7, so will be finished soon). I'll get back to IWD after... maybe.

(Yes, net nannies, this is indeed necroing.)

Just completed Icewind Dale Classic (no mods or expansion) with a power trio based on Sword&Sorcery legends Fafhrd, Gray Mouser and Cappen Varra. I used GateKeeper to edit the stats of the characters.
Deciding on their classes was more troublesome.

Fafhrd is a mix of the Fighter, Thief, Barbarian, Ranger and Bard AD&D classes. I decided on Ranger, since they are more fun than straight Fighters, and there's no Barbarian in IWD 1. Optimally he should probably have been a Thief/Fighter dual class, but that would mean no legitimate exceptional strength. In IWD2 it will be easier to "shop" for the right classes.

Gray Mouser is supposed to be like the world's best swordsman, so he should really be a Thief/Fighter dual class too, who eventually gets Grandmaster skill in Short and/or Large Swords, but I guess I chickened out a bit and made him a Half-Elf Fighter/Thief instead. Might have been better to make him a Halfling, though, to get the small sized avatar. Also he should have had a few levels of Mage; again IWD2 would have been more suitable to get the "real" character.

Cappen Varra was easy. He's a Bard and no question about it.
I thought he would eventually become the healer of the party with the overpowered War Chant of the Sith song, but in classic IWD there's only one song that offers a one point bonus to THAC0 and saving throws.

So I relied a lot on potions and healing services instead. I bet Oswald Fiddlesticks (?) rarely had better customers...
I always try to complete games in as short in-game time as possible, but still leaving time for beauty rest, so resting until healed is out of the question.
In the end my trio used 54 days and 3 Hours to complete their quests. Would have been shorter if I didn't have to replenish potions and missiles a couple of times. No containers for gems and scrolls in the base game meant inventory space was always cramped.

Worst difficulty spikes:
The entry to the second level of Kresselack's Tomb, when you face the first Skeleton Mage, was especially nasty.
The Yuan-Ti Elite hit very hard and often.
The entry of Lower Dorn's Deep with those very nasty Tarnished Sentries.
After finding the hidden Deep Gnome camp and getting healing services the game got much easier, and my party only rested once in Lower Dorn's Deep, after defeating The Idol and before facing Poquelin.

Most annoying enemies:
Bombardier Beetles. There's a crap load of them, their acid attacks stun and you face them at relatively low levels. Fortunately it's not too difficult to dodge their attacks.
Spell casters. For some reason their spell casting was more difficult to disrupt than I remember from AD&D games. Even standing in the middle of a Cloud Kill and getting hurt every round was no hindrance! Just about the only times I reloaded was when my two frontliners were victim of Hold Person. For some reason I had overlooked the Dispel Magic scroll for sale in Kuldahar; with that spell I could have cut down on the reloads. Annoying.

Best encounters:
The game is really rather a slog during the Vale of Shadows, Temple of the Forgotten God (most uninspired, but thankfully smallest dungeon in the game) and the upper levels of Dragon's Eye. But from Presio onwards things really picked up, with the highlights being:

Presio. I had no Fireballs left, and no Cleric with Turn Undead, so this became a fun fight, with one fighter holding the doorway, the other trying to disrupt Presio with missiles, and Cappen Varra casting Grease after he had provoked the Imbued Withs to waste their Magic Missiles on him.

The snake people pretending to be nice peaceful people. Haste was a key spell to rach the High Summoner as soon as possible, and getting help from Waterdeep made it more fun.

The High Archer. The snakes are much smarter than trolls and wouldn't come out of their room to play. The room is also too large for a Fireball to be really effective. First Haste, then Fafhrd rushed The High Archer, Gray Mouser went to one side opening the battle with a backstab, while Cappen Varra used the Horn of Valhalla to keep the elites on the other side busy.
The whole lower level of Dragon's Eye was a highlight with few easy encounters. Yxunomei herself was an anti climax when she was stunned by a Chromatic Orb, making the fight against the 6 or 8 Priests the most difficult one on this level.
I found the biggest problem with only three characters and none of them with divine magic was to prevent enemy spell casting, but thanks to scouting I usually knew what I was facing, so could quaff the right potions.

Most of the set battles against Shadowed Elves and the ambushes by Shadowed Orcs. Very nice use of terrain and formation, which we never saw in the Baldur's Gate games.
Overall The Severed Hand is a very good area, with only the regular undead being a bit of a chore.

The welcoming comittee of Drows and Orogs in Dorn's Deep. The Phase Spiders kind of ruined my battle plan when Fafhrd had to retreat to save Cappen Varra's ass. When the spiders had been taken care of Fafhrd used one of the Translocation Arrow on one of the two Drow Sorcerers and was actually able to prevent him from casting Mirror Image and he went down quickly. Gray Mouser tried to get behind the other one, while Cappen Varra again used the Horn of Valhalla to distract archers. The whole party was Hasted and managed to clear out most of the level before the spell expired. Those Drow Avengers were really nasty.

The undead, trolls, salamanders and giants following was again a bit of a slog, with no clever tactics. Used Haste to clear out the Frost Salamanders and Frost Giants.

Things picked up again in Lower Dorn's Deep, with the fights against Malavon, the Shriekers and The Idol being the highlights.

The fight against Pomab was the weirdest one and Behlifet was somewhat easier than I thought. Funny thing about the final fight is that once you enter the portal you have no time for buffing, but if you buff before entering your buffs are all dispelled.
I felt my characters became extra powerful during Lower Dorn's Deep, while they struggled more in the previous chapters.

Favourite spells:
Strength. To give Gray Mouser extra Strength for a whole day before finding the Girdle of Giant Strength. Not as effective as Enlarge in the Gold Box games, though.
Haste. A good spell when you want to clear out a whole level quickly and there's no clever way of doing it, like in the Frost Salamander area. Doubling APR is extremely effective, especially if you combine with potions of Giant Strength. Potions of Speed is even better, since they don't leave you exhausted.
Slow and Fireball are also good level 3 spells.
Chromatic Orb. Very nasty effects already on quite low levels.
A's Scorcher. I can't help it, but I think this spell is fun.

My characters:

https://imgur.com/a/q0Jaq3k#7SXn59x

Edit: didn't realize how old this thread was.