A mediocre fighter? Maybe at lvl 5 when fighters gain extra attack. Until then a Bear druid with Barkskin is not much worse than Lae'zel with her starting armor and a greatsword.
Hard disagree. Bear claws are 2d4+4. 6-12 damage. That's it. No weapon attacks, no dipping in fire, no coating with poison or anything. There's no way to enhance it. Any level 2 martial class can out damage a polar bear druid if they just use their stuff. And that's just with using regular 2h weapons with no special enhancements.
Grab the flaming sword from the nautiloid and you'll have much more damage than a polar bear before the druid even learns polar bear (for like literally 2 minutes, but still!)
