If everything goes well I will be joining a campaign in progress soon and I'll be starting as a lvl 8 Druid circle of Land. It will be my first time playing a druid and from the looks of the party, I will also be the primary healer. Does anyone have any beginner's advice for learning how to play a Druid?
Experiment with your spells. You can change your prepared spells every long rest, take advantage of that to figure out which spells you like the most.
Druids have a ton of spells that require Concentration. Sometimes the most effective thing that you can do is cast a Concentration spell, then Wild Shape into something tiny, and then Hide so that you don’t risk taking damage and losing that spell. It sounds like it’s not very exciting, but it’s very effective if the Concentration spell is affecting most of your opponents.
Experiment with your spells. You can change your prepared spells every long rest, take advantage of that to figure out which spells you like the most.
Druids have a ton of spells that require Concentration. Sometimes the most effective thing that you can do is cast a Concentration spell, then Wild Shape into something tiny, and then Hide so that you don’t risk taking damage and losing that spell. It sounds like it’s not very exciting, but it’s very effective if the Concentration spell is affecting most of your opponents.
I did almost literally that in my last session and it turned the tide of the fight. Polymorphed the party's almost-dead and out of spell slots Warlock into the almighty Giant Ape, wild shaped into a Sabre-toothed Tiger, then ran and hid because we were fighting Frost Giants and I didn't want to risk the polymorph getting popped by me getting squished.
The concentration spell + wild shape and hide tactic is legit.
Before a safe long rest (one you are quite sure isn't going to be interrupted) and you plan to go adventuring the next day, cast goodberry with every slot you have. Normally spending a 4th level slot on the spell would be terrible, but the spell lasts for 24 hours, not 8.
Check with the DM beforehand and be prepared, but spells like Giant Insect or Conjure Animals can be amazing battlefield control if you use them to grapple friends/foes. I've saved party members from going down many a time at high levels by just having a flying bee/owl grab them and fly up a bit to relative safety.
Use the spells proactively to block opponents from doing damage. Melee enemies can't hurt you if they aren't in melee, ranged attacks can't work in high wind, and spellcasters can be blocked via smoke. The best healing is not letting people get hurt.
Take ritual caster (wizard) and comprehend languages.
Wild Shape is a way to gain access to movement types and senses that your base lineage doesn't have.
Use divination, but don't rely on it, because doing so renders stories boring.
Heat metal is amazing.
Construct a con whereby you can give yourself the 1 minute of chanting necessary to cast geas. Mine was, "Oh, I've just remembered that I forgot to chant my orisons this morning, do you mind?"
Speaking of which... the Charlatan background dovetails surprisingly well with Druid.
Do your own thing and have fun with it. These suggestions worked for me; use them or ignore them at your leisure!
Not druid-specific, but you mentioned being the primary healer of the party, so learn when to heal and when not to. Combat healing is generally only worth it to pick up a downed ally or if you know (or at least have a pretty good guess) that it will be the difference between an ally going down from an attack or staying up until their turn. If they're going down with the next hit regardless of whether you heal them, wait until they're down and pick them back up. A solid control spell that prevents allies from taking damage will almost always turn the tide of the encounter more than a cure wounds on the nearly-down fighter who's about to take massive damage or who's only taken a little bit of damage so far anyway.
Carrying around a bunch of goodberries from the previous day's leftover spell slots, as MinokeTheWise mentioned, is basically the most effective out-of-combat healing you can get as a druid. Don't worry about burning spell slots keeping people topped off in combat; instead, finish the combat first and then heal back up with goodberries that don't cost any more spell slots because you've already recovered them.
Also not druid-specific, but never underestimate information-gathering spells. You can swap out your prepared spells daily, so there's often no reason why you couldn't just find out as much as you can about the situation and then go in the next day with different spells that will benefit you the most based on that information. Most casting classes have at least some way to gather information, but druids often have a very unique sort of information they can gather. The more you know about the situation you're about to walk into, the better you can prepare and the more likely you are to be successful.
I strongly endorse the Druid as off-Wizard with variant information gathering techniques.
Some of the information gathering druid stuff can lead to just avoiding an additional combat completely. Heck, just last night in LMoP I used speak with animals to get a basic idea of how many enemies we were dealing with in Cragmaw Cave, then freed them to go run wild. No need to fight the guard animals when you can figure out what they want and accommodate them.
Additionally, spells that can be controlled with bonus actions, such as flaming sphere or heat metal work really well in wild shape, as you can control them and then still have your action left for other things. If all you're doing in wild shape is hiding or staying out of the way, spells that can be controlled as an action such as moonbeam or call lightning are also very good for that purpose.
Experiment with your spells. You can change your prepared spells every long rest, take advantage of that to figure out which spells you like the most.
Druids have a ton of spells that require Concentration. Sometimes the most effective thing that you can do is cast a Concentration spell, then Wild Shape into something tiny, and then Hide so that you don’t risk taking damage and losing that spell. It sounds like it’s not very exciting, but it’s very effective if the Concentration spell is affecting most of your opponents.
Nice Idea, but I think of Druids as if they can only turn into an animal and speak Druidic
If everything goes well I will be joining a campaign in progress soon and I'll be starting as a lvl 8 Druid circle of Land. It will be my first time playing a druid and from the looks of the party, I will also be the primary healer. Does anyone have any beginner's advice for learning how to play a Druid?
Experiment with your spells. You can change your prepared spells every long rest, take advantage of that to figure out which spells you like the most.
Druids have a ton of spells that require Concentration. Sometimes the most effective thing that you can do is cast a Concentration spell, then Wild Shape into something tiny, and then Hide so that you don’t risk taking damage and losing that spell. It sounds like it’s not very exciting, but it’s very effective if the Concentration spell is affecting most of your opponents.
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I did almost literally that in my last session and it turned the tide of the fight. Polymorphed the party's almost-dead and out of spell slots Warlock into the almighty Giant Ape, wild shaped into a Sabre-toothed Tiger, then ran and hid because we were fighting Frost Giants and I didn't want to risk the polymorph getting popped by me getting squished.
The concentration spell + wild shape and hide tactic is legit.
Oh that is a great idea, thank you!
Before a safe long rest (one you are quite sure isn't going to be interrupted) and you plan to go adventuring the next day, cast goodberry with every slot you have. Normally spending a 4th level slot on the spell would be terrible, but the spell lasts for 24 hours, not 8.
Check with the DM beforehand and be prepared, but spells like Giant Insect or Conjure Animals can be amazing battlefield control if you use them to grapple friends/foes. I've saved party members from going down many a time at high levels by just having a flying bee/owl grab them and fly up a bit to relative safety.
Use the spells proactively to block opponents from doing damage. Melee enemies can't hurt you if they aren't in melee, ranged attacks can't work in high wind, and spellcasters can be blocked via smoke. The best healing is not letting people get hurt.
Take ritual caster (wizard) and comprehend languages.
Wild Shape is a way to gain access to movement types and senses that your base lineage doesn't have.
Use divination, but don't rely on it, because doing so renders stories boring.
Heat metal is amazing.
Construct a con whereby you can give yourself the 1 minute of chanting necessary to cast geas. Mine was, "Oh, I've just remembered that I forgot to chant my orisons this morning, do you mind?"
Speaking of which... the Charlatan background dovetails surprisingly well with Druid.
Do your own thing and have fun with it. These suggestions worked for me; use them or ignore them at your leisure!
Not druid-specific, but you mentioned being the primary healer of the party, so learn when to heal and when not to. Combat healing is generally only worth it to pick up a downed ally or if you know (or at least have a pretty good guess) that it will be the difference between an ally going down from an attack or staying up until their turn. If they're going down with the next hit regardless of whether you heal them, wait until they're down and pick them back up. A solid control spell that prevents allies from taking damage will almost always turn the tide of the encounter more than a cure wounds on the nearly-down fighter who's about to take massive damage or who's only taken a little bit of damage so far anyway.
Carrying around a bunch of goodberries from the previous day's leftover spell slots, as MinokeTheWise mentioned, is basically the most effective out-of-combat healing you can get as a druid. Don't worry about burning spell slots keeping people topped off in combat; instead, finish the combat first and then heal back up with goodberries that don't cost any more spell slots because you've already recovered them.
Also not druid-specific, but never underestimate information-gathering spells. You can swap out your prepared spells daily, so there's often no reason why you couldn't just find out as much as you can about the situation and then go in the next day with different spells that will benefit you the most based on that information. Most casting classes have at least some way to gather information, but druids often have a very unique sort of information they can gather. The more you know about the situation you're about to walk into, the better you can prepare and the more likely you are to be successful.
I strongly endorse the Druid as off-Wizard with variant information gathering techniques.
Some of the information gathering druid stuff can lead to just avoiding an additional combat completely. Heck, just last night in LMoP I used speak with animals to get a basic idea of how many enemies we were dealing with in Cragmaw Cave, then freed them to go run wild. No need to fight the guard animals when you can figure out what they want and accommodate them.
Additionally, spells that can be controlled with bonus actions, such as flaming sphere or heat metal work really well in wild shape, as you can control them and then still have your action left for other things. If all you're doing in wild shape is hiding or staying out of the way, spells that can be controlled as an action such as moonbeam or call lightning are also very good for that purpose.
Yes, I admit this is my first time
......................... and also being a druid .... bro.
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Merlin was a Druid.
Depending on what you're reading, he also aged backwards.
Nice Idea, but I think of Druids as if they can only turn into an animal and speak Druidic
It pronounced Den Sake. It is not Japanese.
Website character sheet not working fix (Hopefully)
Semi-Expert at homebrew, just ask for my help.