That was my first guide, and I wasn't intending to pick these back up but someone in a discord group I'm in requested this so here we go.
I'd like to preface this guide to mention what my experience is with it and why I like it as a class, as well as what its good with.
So to start with, I've probably played a good half dozen druids, ranging mostly from 1-14, which tends to be the level range a lot of campaigns play in. This means I've never experienced the whole "Unkillable Druid" that happens at level 20. The reasons I enjoyed playing it was that druids are solid all around jack of all trades characters, regardless of setting. Wildshaping provides all sorts of utility for scouting and unique mobility, as well as some combat power assuming you went moon. They also have a fairly solid spell list, (which I'll at least highlight some of the good/bad spells on it) that focuses a lot on battlefield control and utility.
Getting to my rating system, same as last time, I have five Ratings
Light blue is really cool features or big reasons to go to this point Blue is the step bellow that, still good features but maybe not unique Grey is the decent features, things that have a place in use Purple is the meh stuff, things you don't need or maybe want, but you get anyway Red is the features you forget exist
The Six Stats:
Strength : STR is likely to be your dump stat as a druid, seeing as how wildshape replaces your strength with whatever you turn into
Dexterity : DEX is always nice to have high, it gives you stealth, initiative, and AC. You're probably not going to boost this past 14, since you have medium armor and wildshape does replace it.
Constitution : CON should likely be your priority after your WIS and getting your DEX up high enough, since who doesn't love hit points and Concentration checks. Plus if you eat some bad berries you might need a con save to keep from embarrassing yourself
Intelligence : INT gets the grey for the fact that Nature scales off of it, and its a bit embarrassing for the wizard to know more about this than you do.
Wisdom : WIS is your primary casting stat and has some of the most important skills tied to it (Perception and insight), WIS saves are also extremely common and this isn't a stat that gets replaced by wildshaping.
Charisma : CHA is a candidate for a dump stat, but its worth noting that if your the one talking to animals, you might be making persuasion checks with those if not animal handling. you might also need it to pose as an animal and not like, I dunno, fail at pretending to be a squirrel?
Class Features:
Ill colour these for the lols, but Druids are mostly defined by spell and archtype, which are their own sections.
Druidic : I've not once seen this used since, most druids are able to speak proper common, they aren't savages after all.
Wild Shaping : This feature is what makes you the best scout. You might be asking why this would be better than a rogue. The answer is that nobody will care about a random rat/spider/bird in a dungeon and therefor you can scout with impunity
ABI : Druids get the standard set of ABI, at every fourth level. There might be a few feats you pick up depending on your Archtype
Timeless Body : I guess this means your character can be an npc in the sequel campaign, since this certainly won't do much in an active one. TBF if you actually play up to this level legitimately your campaign is likely almost over. Bonus points for Elves for being able to now move up in scale from centuries to millennia, you are now thinking like a lich.
Beast Spells : Depending on your archtype, you should typically be wildshaped at all times at this level, this feature just reminds you of that.
ARCHDRUID : Congrats, you now have a significant healing factor. Moon druids can reset their wildshape as a bonus action, giving themselves a 100 health buffer into an elemental for the situation. This feature is basically the reason people say not to multiclass druid if your going up to level 20. Of course if you in the likely 90+% of campaigns this is dumb advice, but hey, if you make it you deserve it.
Druidic Circle:
This is essentially your actual list of features, and therefor where Colour rating can matter.
Circle of the Land : the "Spell focused" druid, it's main benefit is having the wizard's arcane recovery feature, along with being able to add to an already solid spell list, some are obviously better than others.
Bonus Cantrip : Druids have some of the better cantrips, with access to things like mending, and guidance. Id say just take some utility since hopefully you picked out an offensive one for level 1.
NaturalRecovery : How good this is is directly proportionate to how much your group short rests, I know some groups barely do it. Assuming your short resting a fair bit though this is a solid feature, since you have some decent utility and such for low level slots that you get back (Goodberry).
CircleSpells : The rating does depend on which one you take, but some of these are pretty solid, others are a bit redundant and just let you memorize more spells for your repertoire. when your picking your circle try to pick it for spells that aren't already on the druid list.
Shoutout to grassland for giving haste, Underdark for Stinking cloud and Greater invisibility
Land's Stride : The difficult terrain is kinda nice, except its only for non magical and you're likely more of a backline caster with this archtype. The stuff with plants and stuff is too situational to really factor in as much, since that's up to the dm and I've not had a lot of times where they came up.
Nature'sWard : Yet another Ability that is dependent on your DM, It gives some situational immunities that could either be great or never come up, but go ahead, flip that coin
Nature's Sanctuary : A passive Santuary spell? that sounds great! Oh wait, its once again extremely situational. Its likely worse than situational since your level 14 and you shouldn't be having any issue with beasts or plants ever reaching you or being a threat.
Circle of the Moon: Ho boy where do I start. This archtype is so absurdly better than land that its hard to ever pick it. This makes wildshape amazingly combat viable and makes you likely more durable than anything else the party has going for it. Bonus points for multiclassing into barbarian, but I'll get to that later. Of course the easiest nerf is to actually limit what sorts of animals the druid can turn into, since the higher CR monsters might not be common in the area your in. If this is the case your still amazing either way.
Combat Wild Shape : Being able to wildshape as a bonus action means you can cast a spell then wildshape on your first turn. This means you can throw up your flaming sphere and just go to town. The self healing is also a nice touch and likely to be what you spend most of your 2+ slots on.
Circle Forms : What if I told you that you could have 100 health at level 1, that's this feature. This is what makes these druids so good since your probably the biggest health pool of any class at most points of play, and then you can add in being a full caster with a decent spell list.
PrimalStrike : This is the point where your melee types likely have their +1 weapons, this lets you compete if your DM is throwing lycanthropes or gargoyles or whatever manner of monsters with resistance to nonmagic weapons. Of course if your DM isn't doing that your likely to forget this feature, honestly you might forget it either way but its still nice.
Elemental Wild Shape : Beasts are old at this point, so you may as well become an incarnation for the natural forces. Seriously though these give you immunities and resistances that can be fairly useful depending on your opponent.
Thousand Forms : I guess free spell casting is good, except your probably not casting this spell in most circumstances anyway. I guess it lets you do things you would have had to use wildshape for?
Circle of Dreams : Full Disclosure I haven't had much of a chance to playtest this so I'm running moreso from a conceptual basis than one developed from hours of gameplay. Overall though to me this seems like a decent alternative for land druid, trading off some spell utility for some fairly good features.
Balm of the Summer Court : Bonus action healing dice can make you a fairly viable combat healer if your into that. Healing mid combat can be useful but its also worth noting that this can be a bonus action to get the fighter back up if he went down.
Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow : Man I just really like the name of this. Anyway, If your dm enjoys ambushing your rests this can help curtail that.
Hidden Paths : a four or five time teleport that you can use on yourself as a bonus action or on someone else as a main action. Obv using it on yourself is likely to be the better option to get out of dodge if someone actually managed to approach you. I personally like the idea of teleporting someone up into the air to attack or grapple flying enemies.
Walker in Dreams : Scrying is ok, and so can dream. Its hard for me to judge this really without playtest.
Circle of the Shepherd : This one seems pretty solid to me depending on how much your table likes summons. I know some don't cause extra turns and whatnot slow the game, but personally I'm glad to see a druid built around animals, also as a side note the art for it in Xanithar's is adorable with the two puppies and I love it.
Speech of the Woods : A surprisingly good ability that while not new, does save you from casting spells. Be sure to bribe the animals with things like birdseed etc. this is especially good in a more social game, though there might be other things you can do with it that I've not thought of yet.
Spirit Totem : an AOE buff that is also a bonus action, personally to me looking at it each of the options are pretty good. If you have a grappler on your team, or you just summon one, Bear ends up as amazing, and Unicorn lets you AOE heal which seems fairly good.
Mighty Summoner : Functioning similarly to Primal Strike from Moon druid, this lets your summons be legitimate threat to the variety of monsters that might have resistance/immunity to nonmagic weapons, the bonus health is nice I guess.
Guardian Spirit : Giving your summons a 5 Regeneration seems like a really solid feature, of course its dependent on your Spirit totem but that still doesn't take away how nice this can be.
Faithful Summons : By RAW it doesn't actually give you an opportunity to really give them a command, at at level 14 a couple CR 2 animals likely aren't doing that much, I could be wrong though.
Feats:
I won't be going over every feat, since there are plenty that you won't even bother looking at to begin with, so keep that in mind if your wondering where some feats are, if your wanting it added just say so and I might get around to it. Overall druids aren't likely to need more than a few feats.
Alert : While not a bad feat, Personally I'm not a fan. then again if your the type that wants to always go first etc. this is likely a Blue.
Actor : I mention this if only for the idea of pretending to be some dude's dog and infiltrating a place.
Charger : I mention this mainly if your acting as a mount for your warrior type friend, also possible utility of shoving someone into a hazard.
Dungeon Delver : A good investment if you have a trap happy DM, otherwise this is likely Purple.
Lucky : Undeniably one of the strongest feats that universally everyone takes. I personally hate it for this and a variety of reasons, but its mechanical benefit is nothing to sneeze at.
Mage Slayer : Wildshaping boosts your speed, this means your very able to just charge into their group of casters and wreck everything if your a Moon druid.
Magic Initiate : There likely aren't a lot of spells your likely to want as a druid from other lists. Correct me if Im wrong, also anything you might want your likely to do better with Ritual Caster.
Mobile: Excellent for Moon druid since these all apply in wildshape.
Observant : Your already going to have high Wisdom, you can get keen senses from lot of your wild shapes, this essentially makes you an amazing passive perception character if your dm cares about that (Lots of my druids tend to push mid twenties for passive perception.
Polearm Master : If you want to be a more frontline caster while not being moon, Polearm Master combined with the Shillelagh cantrip lets you push some respectable damage numbers comparable to a martial class.
Resilient : Using this to round out CON and get a bonus for your concentration checks means this is a solid feat.
RitualCaster : There are an assortment of useful Ritual spells, one of the most common being find familiar. Depending on your archtype you may or may not care about cantrips, and that's the main trade off.
Sentinel : Another good feat for Moon druids, If they try to hit your rider you get to hit them back.
War Caster : Yet another important feat for Moon druids to keep their spells up, its less important for others since they should be getting hit less.
Races:
Not all Races are born equal for being a druid, that doesn't mean they don't work though. Druids like things that give them a WIS boost or just some interesting feature. Druids, or at least moon druids, tend to be a bit more forgiving given that your constantly shifting into an animal anyway.
Dwarf, Hill : Likely one of the best races for a druid, giving you some nice bonuses to your health and a small WIS bonus Dwarf, Mountain : Significantly worse than it's Hill variant, Mountain ends up boosting a stat your either dumping, or dumping and wildshaping out of Dwarf, Duergar (SCAG): You get some free solid magic spells, as well as some magic save stuff. Unfortunately it has the weakness of sunlight sensitivity, but maybe your DM ignores it while your wildshaped. Elf, High : Elves give some ok bonuses, but this type is easily the most worthless for you Elf, Wood : Man is this good, obviously your getting the elf bonuses which are fairly legit, but on top of that you can hide easily in natural cover, how thematic! Elf, Drow : While technically better than High elf for the spells, they aren't anything to write home about, plus you have that sunlight sensitivity, Ouch. Halfling, Lightfoot : Suffering to similar problems of the High Elf, halfling is good, the lightfoot variety is meh. Halfling, Stout : This is the better halfling from the PHB for druid, but if your using SCAG its second place. Halfling, Ghostwise (SCAG) :Up there with the Hill dwarf, this gives you all the goodies from Halfling while giving you an interesting feature and a nice boost to WIS Human : Ill just go ahead and assume your DM is allowing variant (I have yet to find one that didn't), being able to pick a feat at level one is really nice for the Moon druid (Look at all the blue feats for it). Other druids are a bit less feat heavy and therefor benefit less from this, but still being able to have +1 WIS makes this decent Dragonborn : Yet another class these dragon people are actually poor at. the only thing that you get that you care about is the damage resistance, and a barbarian multiclass covers it. Gnome, Forest : Gnomes as a race don't make a great druid, but if you had to pick one your likely using this or Svirfneblin Gnome, Rock : Legitimately nothing that helps with being a druid, unless you really wanted that +1 CON from a small race, oh wait... Gnome, Svirfneblin (SCAG) : Likely a better option than Forest honestly, though if you care about that talking to small animals for free you might want it instead. Half-Elf : Your like a human, except you traded your free feat for basic darkvision and two extra skills, next please. Half-Elf (SCAG) : If your DM is allowing this part, Grabbing Mask of the Wild from wood elf makes this race a Grey Half-Orc : I was tempted to make this Purple, but then I thought about Relentless endurance at low levels. Higher levels though this race doesn't give you much of anything. Tiefling : Better than Dragonborn or the various Gnomes, though that isn't that big a benchmark. Tiefling (SCAG) : This Tiefling is at least Blue for almost any class, and druid is no exception, being able to get +2 dex AND a natural flyspeed means that you can basically ignore ground enemies. Bonus points if you theme your character after bats or something similar. Aasimar, Protector (VOLO) : small bonus to Wisdom along with all the other Aasimar kit makes this a solid choice, though not the best one Aasimar, Scourge (VOLO) : The not as good protector, you trade a possible flyspeed for some friendly fire damage aura, which might actually be pretty good with your wildshape buffer. Aasimar, Fallen (VOLO) : You get the Aasimar stuff, but the actual subrace is garbage and worthless to you. Firbolg (VOLO) : Its legitimately the druid race, and as a result is fairly good at it, still not as good as the Hill Dwarf though. (Worth noting is this is one of the only races that give +2 WIS to my knowledge) Goliath (VOLO/EE) : This race is pretty whatever for most druids giving only a +1 con that you care about, but early on can provide some durability to low level druids. Worth noting is that if you want to be a grappler moon druid this race is ok for the athletics proficiency. Kenku (VOLO) : Kenku are a strange race, but if your already part animal you may as well go all the way right? it gives some nice bonuses to DEX and WIS, as well as +2 useful skills. Lizardfolk(VOLO) : Another solid VOLO race, Lizardfolk add some nice druidy flavour and give you some nice stats to boot. Tabaxi (VOLO) : Boost to dex and the ability to double your movement? AND you get perception and stealth? This is a solid race no matter what Circle you pick Triton (VOLO) : Tritons are kinda... Whatever, you likely won't see people play them since they are so niche, but I guess depending on the campaign they can be somewhat thematic? Bugbear (VOLO) : A bugbear is fairly unassuming as a race for druid, it doesn't really give you much of anything. oh except for surprise attack, which depending on your dm could be lethal. How? you might be asking, well if you wildshape into some tiny animal or whatever, you might be able to attack and scurry off. Of course since this is a team game you likely can't do this, but it can still be solid if your being a sneaky druid. Goblin (VOLO) : These make a pretty good Moon druid mount, if only due to nimble escape. Hobgoblin (VOLO) : Other than the CON bonus, these aren't giving you anything you care about, go be a lizardfolk or something. Kobold (VOLO) Assuming your DM lets you keep Pack Tactics regardless of what you turn into, this suddenly makes many wildshapes more viable, especially since you likely have someone on your back to trigger it. Orc (VOLO) : you basically get a shitty dash as a bonus action, other than that your really not getting anything, and with the RP negative implications for this race it earns its rating. Yuan-ti (VOLO) : The stat boosts are whatever, but that free magic resistance and poison immunity make this an amazing choice. Aarakocra (EE) : You get some very nice stat boosts, but then you get fly speed?! its even higher than normal walk speed at 50, making this better than a SCAG Tiefling. Air Genasi (EE) : Definitely up there for the Genasi types, levitate is good and the DEX bonus is nice. Earth Genasi (EE) : Yet another good Genasi, Pass without trace might already be on your spell list but saving you the spellslot is nice. Fire Genasi (EE) : Likely the weakest Genasi for druids, the only thing it gives for you is the fire resistance. Water Genasi (EE) : A boost to your WIS and the uncommon acid resistance makes this perhaps one of the best Genasi, though most have an arguement
That's where I'm ending this for now. You might be asking things like where is the spell section? the Wildshaping guide? Well truth be told I mostly just wanted to pump this part out for now and open up the floor for some of you. Both those sections are going to take forever to write and so you can expect them added eventually at some point i the near future, hopefully sometime before the end of January if I'm not procrastinating too hard.
Feel free to point out parts that you thought I got wrong, this guide is meant to not be quintessential but moreso provoke discussion.
Ghostwise Halfing are amazing for a Moon Druid. A Moon Druid who spends most of their time in Wildshape can't talk. Silent Speach makes communication possible within 30'.
Lizardfolk should be higher. Bite lets you have a shield and open hand for spells while still being "armed". Natural Armor gives you better then light armor for free, doesn't help in Wild Shape. Hunter's Lore gives you two of many possible nature skills. Hungry Jaws should be usable while in Wild Shape, which makes it very good in Wildshape as it gives you a Bonus bite attack every short rest as long as your Wild Shape form has a bite.
Feats:
IF you're a Wild Shape Druid I highly recommend either:
Mobile: this is makes you a striker. You can run in and out of combat without AoOs. This is great for turning into anything that benefits from a charge: deinoychus, lion, tiger, allosaurus, giant boar, rhino, saber-toothed tiger, etc......
Sentinel: IF the Fighter in your group takes Mounted Combat and rides you... Otherwise they will probably attack you as you have a lower AC. The Mounted Combatant can force attacks away from you, giving you a ReAction attack a turn.
Observant: Also remember many of your Wild Shapes have Advantage on Perception checks, so your passive has ANOTHER +5 from Keen Senses.
Warcaster: should be lower, if your a Moon Druid, you're not using 2/3rds of the feat... if you're going to be in Wildshape, don't use Concentration spells, unless you plan on going "Striker"
Few notes as someone who plays druids and obsessed with them :D.
Druidic: Extremely helpful for roleplaying purposes. leaving hints. Talking to NPCs and such. it's up to a creative player and to the DM. Anytime you go to a jungle you can just ask a DM what do I see with my druidic language and he might pull something interesting off.
Natural Recovery: only works once per long rest same as the wizard. or if you are using a mid-short homebrew rule. it would recharge then.
Thousand Forms: Basically Give you a +1 to your animal attacks. You can change your normal animal attack "Enhance it with magic". That depends on the DM if let you do this but should argue for it more if your DM doesn't let you use your Own proficiency for the Animal attacks "you should argue for that its allowed the default is that you change the proficiency and proficiency is a mental state". and you never know when you are going to be in water without wild shape and you need to cast a spell.
Savage feat: Extremely good for Moon druid sense many forms get to attack once but with a large dice pool, you can reroll them always and get the higher one.
Half-Orc: a pump to Con, Extra animal Die when crit, and a free skill when you want to scare the shit out of people as a lion. all of those are nothing to sneeze at.
Tortle: will offer you nothing as a moon druid other than stats and one skill. but great for other circles for they don't wear armor. who doesn't want to be a tank shell that controls a flame sphere or call lightings from your shell? if your dm let you take actions that already been activated.
Great article. I love my moon druid, my wife went crazy (and i'm going broke) with her painting all the beasts i can shift into..
on the Druidic: I use this constantly. anytime the adventure involves druids either friend or foe... i have a standing check with the DM on looking for secret druid messages. Most DM's will provide additional insight or cryptic messages which help out or provide advance warning of danger.
Nice article, but I suggest updating to MToF and to adding spell suggestions. I almost never see people try to dip into suggesting spells, but it is such a vital piece of information as to what I am going to cast. Also, the Capstone ability (as most people don't realize because it is on the next page of the PHB) also includes ignoring somatic, verbal, and material components to spells that don't consume the components and don't have a cost in both Beast and normal forms. Just wanted to put that last bit out there.
Edit: Also, Think that Alter Self is basically a better Disguise Self that requires Concentration, but once you need to concentrate on something you would not worry about the disguise in most cases as a druid anyway. Alter Self is a perfect disguise bar the clothing.
I disagree on War Caster. I’m playing a Cicle of the Moon Druid and there are plenty of useful concentration spells that he will cast before using his bonus action to wild shape. Entangle, Fog Cloud, Barkskin, Gust of Wind when inside, and Pass Without Trace are the ones I’ve used so far. Being able to maintain concentration easier and keep those spells up helps the entire party.
good stuff! I must admit, I am a big fan of land, please don't ask me to justify it lol. I do have a question regarding your feats guide section:
Ritual Caster : There are an assortment of useful Ritual spells, one of the most common being find familiar. Depending on your archtype you may or may not care about cantrips, and that's the main trade off.
I don't see the relevance of cantrips to ritual spells. could you clarify that?
I don’t see a connection between cantrips and ritual spells either. My take on those two feats is different that the OP’s.
Magic Initiate: If you’re not a Moon Druid this gives you access to one or two stronger cantrips that Druids normally don’t have access to such as Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, or Sacred Flame and a first level spell from the same class as the cantrips. If you pick this I’d suggest a first level spell that doesn’t scale at higher levels. Moon Druids use wild shape for combat most of the time anyway
Ritual Caster: This lets you pick 2 ritual spells from another class, probably Wizard, and as you adventure and you find more ritual spells you can add them to your spellbook. There are a large number of very useful ritual spells to pick from.
good stuff! I must admit, I am a big fan of land, please don't ask me to justify it lol. I do have a question regarding your feats guide section:
Ritual Caster : There are an assortment of useful Ritual spells, one of the most common being find familiar. Depending on your archtype you may or may not care about cantrips, and that's the main trade off.
I don't see the relevance of cantrips to ritual spells. could you clarify that?
thanks again
Its a matter of utility, since I saw it as a sort of opposite choice to Magic Initiate. Since the best list to grab stuff with magic initiate is wizard, but if you don't want to use the cantrips perhaps cause you are happy with the druid ones, then it loses the main reason to take it. Ritual caster lets you grab any ritual spells which would include find familiar AKA the best 1st level wizard spell for utility.
Ah yes I see. I will throw it out there and say; speak with animals, animal messenger, beast sense, and beast bond, accomplish much of the find familiar spell. And it is thematically druid, which can be fun to RP. You could even have an animal, that loves goodberries, follow the druid around always ready to be the recipient of one of the druids cool spells. Any way I do respect where and why you scored ritual caster the way you did, but it is not for me, I think.
Thanks for this guide! Very lovely. In my first campaign I had an Ranger who spoke once or twice with Mielikki [goddess of druids/rangers]. I went three sessions not hitting a single thing and the goddess [the dm] suggested I become a druid. I then went on to deal the most damage to the big bad by summoning elk.
Good times. I'm excited for more druid characters in the future. This is all good to know, because I totally didn't know how to build a druid, I just winged it.
I don’t see a connection between cantrips and ritual spells either. My take on those two feats is different that the OP’s.
Magic Initiate: If you’re not a Moon Druid this gives you access to one or two stronger cantrips that Druids normally don’t have access to such as Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, or Sacred Flame and a first level spell from the same class as the cantrips. If you pick this I’d suggest a first level spell that doesn’t scale at higher levels. Moon Druids use wild shape for combat most of the time anyway
Ritual Caster: This lets you pick 2 ritual spells from another class, probably Wizard, and as you adventure and you find more ritual spells you can add them to your spellbook. There are a large number of very useful ritual spells to pick from.
I’m kicking myself for not taking Magic Initiate at 4th level and I’m a Moon Druid. Mage Armor replaces the natural armor of every beast that you can wild shape into and gives at least a +1 to your AC and it usually gives a +2 or a +3. Plus unlike Barkskin it’s not a concentration spell so you don’t need to worry about losing it every time you take damage. Add in Mage Hand and any damaging cantrip that druids don’t have access to and you’ve made yourself much more rounded until 10th level when you’ll be changing into elementals.
Honestly, I think the ranking on Lizardfolk is fair. For other races I don't see anything stopping you from casting shillelagh on your wooden staff (druidic focus) and using that as a melee weapon, as it is essentially a fancy magical quarterstaff.
With this you would be very similar to a cleric/paladin with an emblem on their shield and could cast spells that had material or material and somatic components, since you can perform somatic components with the same hand that you provide material components with.
This of course still leaves spells with somatic components but not material ones, but War Caster gets around this and gives you some other nice benefits. Furthermore to make the bite attack effective, you would need a decent Str (or at least not dump it), which would make you more MAD.
Warcaster: should be lower, if your a Moon Druid, you're not using 2/3rds of the feat... if you're going to be in Wildshape, don't use Concentration spells, unless you plan on going "Striker"
wrong. almost all of druid's good spells are concentration based. Cast a concentration spell, then wild shape, now you have your animal's con (almost always higher than yours) plus your proficiency bonus, and advantage on the roll when you take damage. you WILL take damage. off tops, uses i have had on my half-orc moon druid:
-give Barbarian Owl's Wisdom, turn into a bear, now there's a raging dearven barbarian, and a cave bear comin at ya, oh have btw, barbarian has advantage on one of the most crippling magic saves (which barbs are weak against) -Give yourself Bear's Endurance, or Bull's Strength, get ready to take some hits, or grapple some fools with advantage, then wildshape. next turn, lock somebody down -use any environment-changing spell (web, entangle, spike growth etc) then shape, now there is difficult terrain or worse, forcing the enemy to get through you before getting to the squishies -need to get around stealthily and also have some teeth when you get to the enemy? pass without a trace, wilshape into a bear. boom, ninja bear -cast flaming sphere, turn into a bear -cast summon animals, summon elementals, or summon woodland beings, turn into a bear -barkskin -Stoneskin -environment spells (fog cloud, sleet storm etc) -the Charm and Dominate spells -wall spells -Investiture spells
-there's a spell that changes your form to be more tree-like with bonuses or animal-like with bonuses that is basically "here, Moon Druid, be viable in melee again until you hit 10th level", which requires that you concentrate to maintain it
in short: some of druid's best stuff is concentration based (on purpose). if you're a moon druid and not casting before you shape, you're doing it wrong.
I disagree on War Caster. I’m playing a Cicle of the Moon Druid and there are plenty of useful concentration spells that he will cast before using his bonus action to wild shape. Entangle, Fog Cloud, Barkskin, Gust of Wind when inside, and Pass Without Trace are the ones I’ve used so far. Being able to maintain concentration easier and keep those spells up helps the entire party.
Ghostwise Halfing are amazing for a Moon Druid. A Moon Druid who spends most of their time in Wildshape can't talk. Silent Speach makes communication possible within 30'.
Lizardfolk should be higher. Bite lets you have a shield and open hand for spells while still being "armed". Natural Armor gives you better then light armor for free, doesn't help in Wild Shape. Hunter's Lore gives you two of many possible nature skills. Hungry Jaws should be usable while in Wild Shape, which makes it very good in Wildshape as it gives you a Bonus bite attack every short rest as long as your Wild Shape form has a bite.
Feats:
IF you're a Wild Shape Druid I highly recommend either:
Mobile: this is makes you a striker. You can run in and out of combat without AoOs. This is great for turning into anything that benefits from a charge: deinoychus, lion, tiger, allosaurus, giant boar, rhino, saber-toothed tiger, etc......
Sentinel: IF the Fighter in your group takes Mounted Combat and rides you... Otherwise they will probably attack you as you have a lower AC. The Mounted Combatant can force attacks away from you, giving you a ReAction attack a turn.
Observant: Also remember many of your Wild Shapes have Advantage on Perception checks, so your passive has ANOTHER +5 from Keen Senses.
Warcaster: should be lower, if your a Moon Druid, you're not using 2/3rds of the feat... if you're going to be in Wildshape, don't use Concentration spells, unless you plan on going "Striker"
Warcaster is priceless for a moon druid. You've obviously never run one level 3 or higher.
Almost every druid spell worth the slot is concentration. And essentially ALL of the damage spells AND armor spells are concentrated on.
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Hey there everyone, it's ya boi back at it again from a long hiatus.
Some of you might remember me from http://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/monk/2382-a-monkeys-monk-guide-for-the-monk-monkeys
That was my first guide, and I wasn't intending to pick these back up but someone in a discord group I'm in requested this so here we go.
I'd like to preface this guide to mention what my experience is with it and why I like it as a class, as well as what its good with.
So to start with, I've probably played a good half dozen druids, ranging mostly from 1-14, which tends to be the level range a lot of campaigns play in. This means I've never experienced the whole "Unkillable Druid" that happens at level 20. The reasons I enjoyed playing it was that druids are solid all around jack of all trades characters, regardless of setting. Wildshaping provides all sorts of utility for scouting and unique mobility, as well as some combat power assuming you went moon. They also have a fairly solid spell list, (which I'll at least highlight some of the good/bad spells on it) that focuses a lot on battlefield control and utility.
Getting to my rating system, same as last time, I have five Ratings
Light blue is really cool features or big reasons to go to this point
Blue is the step bellow that, still good features but maybe not unique
Grey is the decent features, things that have a place in use
Purple is the meh stuff, things you don't need or maybe want, but you get anyway
Red is the features you forget exist
The Six Stats:
Strength : STR is likely to be your dump stat as a druid, seeing as how wildshape replaces your strength with whatever you turn into
Dexterity : DEX is always nice to have high, it gives you stealth, initiative, and AC. You're probably not going to boost this past 14, since you have medium armor and wildshape does replace it.
Constitution : CON should likely be your priority after your WIS and getting your DEX up high enough, since who doesn't love hit points and Concentration checks. Plus if you eat some bad berries you might need a con save to keep from embarrassing yourself
Intelligence : INT gets the grey for the fact that Nature scales off of it, and its a bit embarrassing for the wizard to know more about this than you do.
Wisdom : WIS is your primary casting stat and has some of the most important skills tied to it (Perception and insight), WIS saves are also extremely common and this isn't a stat that gets replaced by wildshaping.
Charisma : CHA is a candidate for a dump stat, but its worth noting that if your the one talking to animals, you might be making persuasion checks with those if not animal handling. you might also need it to pose as an animal and not like, I dunno, fail at pretending to be a squirrel?
Class Features:
Ill colour these for the lols, but Druids are mostly defined by spell and archtype, which are their own sections.
Druidic : I've not once seen this used since, most druids are able to speak proper common, they aren't savages after all.
Wild Shaping : This feature is what makes you the best scout. You might be asking why this would be better than a rogue. The answer is that nobody will care about a random rat/spider/bird in a dungeon and therefor you can scout with impunity
ABI : Druids get the standard set of ABI, at every fourth level. There might be a few feats you pick up depending on your Archtype
Timeless Body : I guess this means your character can be an npc in the sequel campaign, since this certainly won't do much in an active one. TBF if you actually play up to this level legitimately your campaign is likely almost over. Bonus points for Elves for being able to now move up in scale from centuries to millennia, you are now thinking like a lich.
Beast Spells : Depending on your archtype, you should typically be wildshaped at all times at this level, this feature just reminds you of that.
ARCHDRUID : Congrats, you now have a significant healing factor. Moon druids can reset their wildshape as a bonus action, giving themselves a 100 health buffer into an elemental for the situation. This feature is basically the reason people say not to multiclass druid if your going up to level 20. Of course if you in the likely 90+% of campaigns this is dumb advice, but hey, if you make it you deserve it.
Druidic Circle:
This is essentially your actual list of features, and therefor where Colour rating can matter.
Circle of the Land : the "Spell focused" druid, it's main benefit is having the wizard's arcane recovery feature, along with being able to add to an already solid spell list, some are obviously better than others.
Bonus Cantrip : Druids have some of the better cantrips, with access to things like mending, and guidance. Id say just take some utility since hopefully you picked out an offensive one for level 1.
Natural Recovery : How good this is is directly proportionate to how much your group short rests, I know some groups barely do it. Assuming your short resting a fair bit though this is a solid feature, since you have some decent utility and such for low level slots that you get back (Goodberry).
Circle Spells : The rating does depend on which one you take, but some of these are pretty solid, others are a bit redundant and just let you memorize more spells for your repertoire. when your picking your circle try to pick it for spells that aren't already on the druid list.
Shoutout to grassland for giving haste, Underdark for Stinking cloud and Greater invisibility
Land's Stride : The difficult terrain is kinda nice, except its only for non magical and you're likely more of a backline caster with this archtype. The stuff with plants and stuff is too situational to really factor in as much, since that's up to the dm and I've not had a lot of times where they came up.
Nature's Ward : Yet another Ability that is dependent on your DM, It gives some situational immunities that could either be great or never come up, but go ahead, flip that coin
Nature's Sanctuary : A passive Santuary spell? that sounds great! Oh wait, its once again extremely situational. Its likely worse than situational since your level 14 and you shouldn't be having any issue with beasts or plants ever reaching you or being a threat.
Circle of the Moon: Ho boy where do I start. This archtype is so absurdly better than land that its hard to ever pick it. This makes wildshape amazingly combat viable and makes you likely more durable than anything else the party has going for it. Bonus points for multiclassing into barbarian, but I'll get to that later. Of course the easiest nerf is to actually limit what sorts of animals the druid can turn into, since the higher CR monsters might not be common in the area your in. If this is the case your still amazing either way.
Combat Wild Shape : Being able to wildshape as a bonus action means you can cast a spell then wildshape on your first turn. This means you can throw up your flaming sphere and just go to town. The self healing is also a nice touch and likely to be what you spend most of your 2+ slots on.
Circle Forms : What if I told you that you could have 100 health at level 1, that's this feature. This is what makes these druids so good since your probably the biggest health pool of any class at most points of play, and then you can add in being a full caster with a decent spell list.
Primal Strike : This is the point where your melee types likely have their +1 weapons, this lets you compete if your DM is throwing lycanthropes or gargoyles or whatever manner of monsters with resistance to nonmagic weapons. Of course if your DM isn't doing that your likely to forget this feature, honestly you might forget it either way but its still nice.
Elemental Wild Shape : Beasts are old at this point, so you may as well become an incarnation for the natural forces. Seriously though these give you immunities and resistances that can be fairly useful depending on your opponent.
Thousand Forms : I guess free spell casting is good, except your probably not casting this spell in most circumstances anyway. I guess it lets you do things you would have had to use wildshape for?
Circle of Dreams : Full Disclosure I haven't had much of a chance to playtest this so I'm running moreso from a conceptual basis than one developed from hours of gameplay. Overall though to me this seems like a decent alternative for land druid, trading off some spell utility for some fairly good features.
Balm of the Summer Court : Bonus action healing dice can make you a fairly viable combat healer if your into that. Healing mid combat can be useful but its also worth noting that this can be a bonus action to get the fighter back up if he went down.
Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow : Man I just really like the name of this. Anyway, If your dm enjoys ambushing your rests this can help curtail that.
Hidden Paths : a four or five time teleport that you can use on yourself as a bonus action or on someone else as a main action. Obv using it on yourself is likely to be the better option to get out of dodge if someone actually managed to approach you. I personally like the idea of teleporting someone up into the air to attack or grapple flying enemies.
Walker in Dreams : Scrying is ok, and so can dream. Its hard for me to judge this really without playtest.
Circle of the Shepherd : This one seems pretty solid to me depending on how much your table likes summons. I know some don't cause extra turns and whatnot slow the game, but personally I'm glad to see a druid built around animals, also as a side note the art for it in Xanithar's is adorable with the two puppies and I love it.
Speech of the Woods : A surprisingly good ability that while not new, does save you from casting spells. Be sure to bribe the animals with things like birdseed etc. this is especially good in a more social game, though there might be other things you can do with it that I've not thought of yet.
Spirit Totem : an AOE buff that is also a bonus action, personally to me looking at it each of the options are pretty good. If you have a grappler on your team, or you just summon one, Bear ends up as amazing, and Unicorn lets you AOE heal which seems fairly good.
Mighty Summoner : Functioning similarly to Primal Strike from Moon druid, this lets your summons be legitimate threat to the variety of monsters that might have resistance/immunity to nonmagic weapons, the bonus health is nice I guess.
Guardian Spirit : Giving your summons a 5 Regeneration seems like a really solid feature, of course its dependent on your Spirit totem but that still doesn't take away how nice this can be.
Faithful Summons : By RAW it doesn't actually give you an opportunity to really give them a command, at at level 14 a couple CR 2 animals likely aren't doing that much, I could be wrong though.
Feats:
I won't be going over every feat, since there are plenty that you won't even bother looking at to begin with, so keep that in mind if your wondering where some feats are, if your wanting it added just say so and I might get around to it. Overall druids aren't likely to need more than a few feats.
Alert : While not a bad feat, Personally I'm not a fan. then again if your the type that wants to always go first etc. this is likely a Blue.
Actor : I mention this if only for the idea of pretending to be some dude's dog and infiltrating a place.
Charger : I mention this mainly if your acting as a mount for your warrior type friend, also possible utility of shoving someone into a hazard.
Dungeon Delver : A good investment if you have a trap happy DM, otherwise this is likely Purple.
Lucky : Undeniably one of the strongest feats that universally everyone takes. I personally hate it for this and a variety of reasons, but its mechanical benefit is nothing to sneeze at.
Mage Slayer : Wildshaping boosts your speed, this means your very able to just charge into their group of casters and wreck everything if your a Moon druid.
Magic Initiate : There likely aren't a lot of spells your likely to want as a druid from other lists. Correct me if Im wrong, also anything you might want your likely to do better with Ritual Caster.
Mobile: Excellent for Moon druid since these all apply in wildshape.
Observant : Your already going to have high Wisdom, you can get keen senses from lot of your wild shapes, this essentially makes you an amazing passive perception character if your dm cares about that (Lots of my druids tend to push mid twenties for passive perception.
Polearm Master : If you want to be a more frontline caster while not being moon, Polearm Master combined with the Shillelagh cantrip lets you push some respectable damage numbers comparable to a martial class.
Resilient : Using this to round out CON and get a bonus for your concentration checks means this is a solid feat.
Ritual Caster : There are an assortment of useful Ritual spells, one of the most common being find familiar. Depending on your archtype you may or may not care about cantrips, and that's the main trade off.
Sentinel : Another good feat for Moon druids, If they try to hit your rider you get to hit them back.
War Caster : Yet another important feat for Moon druids to keep their spells up, its less important for others since they should be getting hit less.
Races:
Not all Races are born equal for being a druid, that doesn't mean they don't work though. Druids like things that give them a WIS boost or just some interesting feature. Druids, or at least moon druids, tend to be a bit more forgiving given that your constantly shifting into an animal anyway.
Dwarf, Hill : Likely one of the best races for a druid, giving you some nice bonuses to your health and a small WIS bonus
Dwarf, Mountain : Significantly worse than it's Hill variant, Mountain ends up boosting a stat your either dumping, or dumping and wildshaping out of
Dwarf, Duergar (SCAG): You get some free solid magic spells, as well as some magic save stuff. Unfortunately it has the weakness of sunlight sensitivity, but maybe your DM ignores it while your wildshaped.
Elf, High : Elves give some ok bonuses, but this type is easily the most worthless for you
Elf, Wood : Man is this good, obviously your getting the elf bonuses which are fairly legit, but on top of that you can hide easily in natural cover, how thematic!
Elf, Drow : While technically better than High elf for the spells, they aren't anything to write home about, plus you have that sunlight sensitivity, Ouch.
Halfling, Lightfoot : Suffering to similar problems of the High Elf, halfling is good, the lightfoot variety is meh.
Halfling, Stout : This is the better halfling from the PHB for druid, but if your using SCAG its second place.
Halfling, Ghostwise (SCAG) :Up there with the Hill dwarf, this gives you all the goodies from Halfling while giving you an interesting feature and a nice boost to WIS
Human : Ill just go ahead and assume your DM is allowing variant (I have yet to find one that didn't), being able to pick a feat at level one is really nice for the Moon druid (Look at all the blue feats for it). Other druids are a bit less feat heavy and therefor benefit less from this, but still being able to have +1 WIS makes this decent
Dragonborn : Yet another class these dragon people are actually poor at. the only thing that you get that you care about is the damage resistance, and a barbarian multiclass covers it.
Gnome, Forest : Gnomes as a race don't make a great druid, but if you had to pick one your likely using this or Svirfneblin
Gnome, Rock : Legitimately nothing that helps with being a druid, unless you really wanted that +1 CON from a small race, oh wait...
Gnome, Svirfneblin (SCAG) : Likely a better option than Forest honestly, though if you care about that talking to small animals for free you might want it instead.
Half-Elf : Your like a human, except you traded your free feat for basic darkvision and two extra skills, next please.
Half-Elf (SCAG) : If your DM is allowing this part, Grabbing Mask of the Wild from wood elf makes this race a Grey
Half-Orc : I was tempted to make this Purple, but then I thought about Relentless endurance at low levels. Higher levels though this race doesn't give you much of anything.
Tiefling : Better than Dragonborn or the various Gnomes, though that isn't that big a benchmark.
Tiefling (SCAG) : This Tiefling is at least Blue for almost any class, and druid is no exception, being able to get +2 dex AND a natural flyspeed means that you can basically ignore ground enemies. Bonus points if you theme your character after bats or something similar.
Aasimar, Protector (VOLO) : small bonus to Wisdom along with all the other Aasimar kit makes this a solid choice, though not the best one
Aasimar, Scourge (VOLO) : The not as good protector, you trade a possible flyspeed for some friendly fire damage aura, which might actually be pretty good with your wildshape buffer.
Aasimar, Fallen (VOLO) : You get the Aasimar stuff, but the actual subrace is garbage and worthless to you.
Firbolg (VOLO) : Its legitimately the druid race, and as a result is fairly good at it, still not as good as the Hill Dwarf though. (Worth noting is this is one of the only races that give +2 WIS to my knowledge)
Goliath (VOLO/EE) : This race is pretty whatever for most druids giving only a +1 con that you care about, but early on can provide some durability to low level druids. Worth noting is that if you want to be a grappler moon druid this race is ok for the athletics proficiency.
Kenku (VOLO) : Kenku are a strange race, but if your already part animal you may as well go all the way right? it gives some nice bonuses to DEX and WIS, as well as +2 useful skills.
Lizardfolk (VOLO) : Another solid VOLO race, Lizardfolk add some nice druidy flavour and give you some nice stats to boot.
Tabaxi (VOLO) : Boost to dex and the ability to double your movement? AND you get perception and stealth? This is a solid race no matter what Circle you pick
Triton (VOLO) : Tritons are kinda... Whatever, you likely won't see people play them since they are so niche, but I guess depending on the campaign they can be somewhat thematic?
Bugbear (VOLO) : A bugbear is fairly unassuming as a race for druid, it doesn't really give you much of anything. oh except for surprise attack, which depending on your dm could be lethal. How? you might be asking, well if you wildshape into some tiny animal or whatever, you might be able to attack and scurry off. Of course since this is a team game you likely can't do this, but it can still be solid if your being a sneaky druid.
Goblin (VOLO) : These make a pretty good Moon druid mount, if only due to nimble escape.
Hobgoblin (VOLO) : Other than the CON bonus, these aren't giving you anything you care about, go be a lizardfolk or something.
Kobold (VOLO) Assuming your DM lets you keep Pack Tactics regardless of what you turn into, this suddenly makes many wildshapes more viable, especially since you likely have someone on your back to trigger it.
Orc (VOLO) : you basically get a shitty dash as a bonus action, other than that your really not getting anything, and with the RP negative implications for this race it earns its rating.
Yuan-ti (VOLO) : The stat boosts are whatever, but that free magic resistance and poison immunity make this an amazing choice.
Aarakocra (EE) : You get some very nice stat boosts, but then you get fly speed?! its even higher than normal walk speed at 50, making this better than a SCAG Tiefling.
Air Genasi (EE) : Definitely up there for the Genasi types, levitate is good and the DEX bonus is nice.
Earth Genasi (EE) : Yet another good Genasi, Pass without trace might already be on your spell list but saving you the spellslot is nice.
Fire Genasi (EE) : Likely the weakest Genasi for druids, the only thing it gives for you is the fire resistance.
Water Genasi (EE) : A boost to your WIS and the uncommon acid resistance makes this perhaps one of the best Genasi, though most have an arguement
That's where I'm ending this for now. You might be asking things like where is the spell section? the Wildshaping guide? Well truth be told I mostly just wanted to pump this part out for now and open up the floor for some of you. Both those sections are going to take forever to write and so you can expect them added eventually at some point i the near future, hopefully sometime before the end of January if I'm not procrastinating too hard.
Feel free to point out parts that you thought I got wrong, this guide is meant to not be quintessential but moreso provoke discussion.
Things to remember
Races:
Ghostwise Halfing are amazing for a Moon Druid. A Moon Druid who spends most of their time in Wildshape can't talk. Silent Speach makes communication possible within 30'.
Lizardfolk should be higher. Bite lets you have a shield and open hand for spells while still being "armed". Natural Armor gives you better then light armor for free, doesn't help in Wild Shape. Hunter's Lore gives you two of many possible nature skills. Hungry Jaws should be usable while in Wild Shape, which makes it very good in Wildshape as it gives you a Bonus bite attack every short rest as long as your Wild Shape form has a bite.
Feats:
IF you're a Wild Shape Druid I highly recommend either:
Mobile: this is makes you a striker. You can run in and out of combat without AoOs. This is great for turning into anything that benefits from a charge: deinoychus, lion, tiger, allosaurus, giant boar, rhino, saber-toothed tiger, etc......
Sentinel: IF the Fighter in your group takes Mounted Combat and rides you... Otherwise they will probably attack you as you have a lower AC. The Mounted Combatant can force attacks away from you, giving you a ReAction attack a turn.
Observant: Also remember many of your Wild Shapes have Advantage on Perception checks, so your passive has ANOTHER +5 from Keen Senses.
Warcaster: should be lower, if your a Moon Druid, you're not using 2/3rds of the feat... if you're going to be in Wildshape, don't use Concentration spells, unless you plan on going "Striker"
Few notes as someone who plays druids and obsessed with them :D.
Druidic: Extremely helpful for roleplaying purposes. leaving hints. Talking to NPCs and such. it's up to a creative player and to the DM. Anytime you go to a jungle you can just ask a DM what do I see with my druidic language and he might pull something interesting off.
Natural Recovery: only works once per long rest same as the wizard. or if you are using a mid-short homebrew rule. it would recharge then.
Thousand Forms: Basically Give you a +1 to your animal attacks. You can change your normal animal attack "Enhance it with magic". That depends on the DM if let you do this but should argue for it more if your DM doesn't let you use your Own proficiency for the Animal attacks "you should argue for that its allowed the default is that you change the proficiency and proficiency is a mental state". and you never know when you are going to be in water without wild shape and you need to cast a spell.
Savage feat: Extremely good for Moon druid sense many forms get to attack once but with a large dice pool, you can reroll them always and get the higher one.
Half-Orc: a pump to Con, Extra animal Die when crit, and a free skill when you want to scare the shit out of people as a lion. all of those are nothing to sneeze at.
Tortle: will offer you nothing as a moon druid other than stats and one skill. but great for other circles for they don't wear armor. who doesn't want to be a tank shell that controls a flame sphere or call lightings from your shell? if your dm let you take actions that already been activated.
Lead designer of: Druid Wild Shape Revised, Druid: Circle of Monstrosity (Homebrew class), Revised Classes : Focus on level 20.
Homebrewer of: Halwasa`s Mushrooms of fluid movement (Item), Giraffe (Beast), Displacer Panther (Beast) (heavily modified Displacer Beast that is owned by WoC), Lightning whip (2nd-level Spell), Lesser Shapechange (5th-level Spell), Investiture of Lightning (6th-level Spell), Touched by the magic (Feat).
This is great!
Great article. I love my moon druid, my wife went crazy (and i'm going broke) with her painting all the beasts i can shift into..
on the Druidic: I use this constantly. anytime the adventure involves druids either friend or foe... i have a standing check with the DM on looking for secret druid messages. Most DM's will provide additional insight or cryptic messages which help out or provide advance warning of danger.
Nice article, but I suggest updating to MToF and to adding spell suggestions. I almost never see people try to dip into suggesting spells, but it is such a vital piece of information as to what I am going to cast. Also, the Capstone ability (as most people don't realize because it is on the next page of the PHB) also includes ignoring somatic, verbal, and material components to spells that don't consume the components and don't have a cost in both Beast and normal forms. Just wanted to put that last bit out there.
Edit: Also, Think that Alter Self is basically a better Disguise Self that requires Concentration, but once you need to concentrate on something you would not worry about the disguise in most cases as a druid anyway. Alter Self is a perfect disguise bar the clothing.
I think Wood Elf is just as good as the Ghostwise Halfling, I think you should make it light blue.
I disagree on War Caster. I’m playing a Cicle of the Moon Druid and there are plenty of useful concentration spells that he will cast before using his bonus action to wild shape. Entangle, Fog Cloud, Barkskin, Gust of Wind when inside, and Pass Without Trace are the ones I’ve used so far. Being able to maintain concentration easier and keep those spells up helps the entire party.
Professional computer geek
good stuff! I must admit, I am a big fan of land, please don't ask me to justify it lol. I do have a question regarding your feats guide section:
Ritual Caster : There are an assortment of useful Ritual spells, one of the most common being find familiar. Depending on your archtype you may or may not care about cantrips, and that's the main trade off.
I don't see the relevance of cantrips to ritual spells. could you clarify that?
thanks again
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
I don’t see a connection between cantrips and ritual spells either. My take on those two feats is different that the OP’s.
Magic Initiate: If you’re not a Moon Druid this gives you access to one or two stronger cantrips that Druids normally don’t have access to such as Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, or Sacred Flame and a first level spell from the same class as the cantrips. If you pick this I’d suggest a first level spell that doesn’t scale at higher levels. Moon Druids use wild shape for combat most of the time anyway
Ritual Caster: This lets you pick 2 ritual spells from another class, probably Wizard, and as you adventure and you find more ritual spells you can add them to your spellbook. There are a large number of very useful ritual spells to pick from.
Professional computer geek
Its a matter of utility, since I saw it as a sort of opposite choice to Magic Initiate. Since the best list to grab stuff with magic initiate is wizard, but if you don't want to use the cantrips perhaps cause you are happy with the druid ones, then it loses the main reason to take it. Ritual caster lets you grab any ritual spells which would include find familiar AKA the best 1st level wizard spell for utility.
Ah yes I see. I will throw it out there and say; speak with animals, animal messenger, beast sense, and beast bond, accomplish much of the find familiar spell. And it is thematically druid, which can be fun to RP. You could even have an animal, that loves goodberries, follow the druid around always ready to be the recipient of one of the druids cool spells. Any way I do respect where and why you scored ritual caster the way you did, but it is not for me, I think.
Cheers, thanks again
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Thanks for this guide! Very lovely.
In my first campaign I had an Ranger who spoke once or twice with Mielikki [goddess of druids/rangers]. I went three sessions not hitting a single thing and the goddess [the dm] suggested I become a druid.
I then went on to deal the most damage to the big bad by summoning elk.
Good times.
I'm excited for more druid characters in the future. This is all good to know, because I totally didn't know how to build a druid, I just winged it.
Any plans to update to include Mordenkainen's/Eberron races?
I’m kicking myself for not taking Magic Initiate at 4th level and I’m a Moon Druid. Mage Armor replaces the natural armor of every beast that you can wild shape into and gives at least a +1 to your AC and it usually gives a +2 or a +3. Plus unlike Barkskin it’s not a concentration spell so you don’t need to worry about losing it every time you take damage. Add in Mage Hand and any damaging cantrip that druids don’t have access to and you’ve made yourself much more rounded until 10th level when you’ll be changing into elementals.
Professional computer geek
Anywhere near finishing the second part yet?
Honestly, I think the ranking on Lizardfolk is fair. For other races I don't see anything stopping you from casting shillelagh on your wooden staff (druidic focus) and using that as a melee weapon, as it is essentially a fancy magical quarterstaff.
With this you would be very similar to a cleric/paladin with an emblem on their shield and could cast spells that had material or material and somatic components, since you can perform somatic components with the same hand that you provide material components with.
This of course still leaves spells with somatic components but not material ones, but War Caster gets around this and gives you some other nice benefits. Furthermore to make the bite attack effective, you would need a decent Str (or at least not dump it), which would make you more MAD.
wrong. almost all of druid's good spells are concentration based. Cast a concentration spell, then wild shape, now you have your animal's con (almost always higher than yours) plus your proficiency bonus, and advantage on the roll when you take damage. you WILL take damage. off tops, uses i have had on my half-orc moon druid:
-give Barbarian Owl's Wisdom, turn into a bear, now there's a raging dearven barbarian, and a cave bear comin at ya, oh have btw, barbarian has advantage on one of the most crippling magic saves (which barbs are weak against)
-Give yourself Bear's Endurance, or Bull's Strength, get ready to take some hits, or grapple some fools with advantage, then wildshape. next turn, lock somebody down
-use any environment-changing spell (web, entangle, spike growth etc) then shape, now there is difficult terrain or worse, forcing the enemy to get through you before getting to the squishies
-need to get around stealthily and also have some teeth when you get to the enemy? pass without a trace, wilshape into a bear. boom, ninja bear
-cast flaming sphere, turn into a bear
-cast summon animals, summon elementals, or summon woodland beings, turn into a bear
-barkskin
-Stoneskin
-environment spells (fog cloud, sleet storm etc)
-the Charm and Dominate spells
-wall spells
-Investiture spells
-there's a spell that changes your form to be more tree-like with bonuses or animal-like with bonuses that is basically "here, Moon Druid, be viable in melee again until you hit 10th level", which requires that you concentrate to maintain it
in short: some of druid's best stuff is concentration based (on purpose). if you're a moon druid and not casting before you shape, you're doing it wrong.
literally this
Warcaster is priceless for a moon druid. You've obviously never run one level 3 or higher.
Almost every druid spell worth the slot is concentration. And essentially ALL of the damage spells AND armor spells are concentrated on.