Here is my Moon druid levels 1-4 guide. This is not an optimization guide. It's just bits of wisdom based on my own experiences of 8 months playing a moon druid. First tips on wild shape and then spellcasting. Higher level guides to come.
Wildshape Tips:
First off: create a back story which justifies which animal forms you would like to change into if you want any unusual beast forms. I wanted access to dinosaurs so I created a backstory where my character was kidnapped as a young kid and taken to the jungles of chult. Use your imagination. There are no game breaking beasts so your dm should be ok with this. This also helps with role playing and character development.
Second : The most important thing to remember if you're primarily interested in animal forms for combat: you are there to take damage, not to do damage. Although damage is good at low levels it drops off the cliff pretty quickly. If you can accept this, you will have much more fun in beast mode. If you want to do damage in beast form and be mostly melee you will need to multiclass and take sentinel feat. If you are straight druid, no matter what, your damage will always lag starting about level 4 or 5. Around this time, start to embrace the role of party tank and forget about doing lots of damage in wild shape or you will be disappointed with wild shape CR2 forms.
Third: Do expect to have to undo your wild shape so you can cast a spell to help your party. It sucks to turn into a bear on the first round of combat and two rounds later you have to drop it cast a spell. But this will happen many times throughout your druids career and will make you sometimes wonder why you are even wildshaping to begin with. It is frustrating and a bit of a bugger but be prepared for that. It just comes with the territory. A good rule of thumb: The more creatures you are fighting, the better off you are spellcasting. I wish I had known that guideline earlier.
Animal forms
Brown bear - is it overpowered? At level 2 and 3 yes. For certain. But by level 5 it BEARLY kept up so it balances out quickly. Casting barkskin before you wild shape helps but is only good for you, whereas entangle and faerie fire help your entire party. A sword and shield fighter with high ac will last just as long or longer in melee than a brown bear with 11ac so i don't think bear is that OP.
Dire wolf is very useful. Knocking creatures prone is great to give your fighters advantage on attack rolls. Your great weapons master fighter will love you for that. Stay beside your fighter to play into this combo. Also you can be a mount and move party members around the battlefield. Very tactical.
Most fun animal form
Giant toad at level 4. By far. Swallowing creatures is hilarious and makes for great role playing moments. Hopping around with a pair of feet still sticking out of your mouth: priceless! Poison damage at low levels is quite reliable. Honourable mention to giant octopus at level 4. You can still use it on land. Hold your breath for an hour and surprise creatures with your 15 foot reach that auto restrains. Good times. Even better if you actually get to use it in water.
Spellcasting
Although wildshape can be fun, remember you are a primary caster not primary melee.
Positives - Druid spell list is excellent. But…..Think battlefield control, buffing and healing rather than damage.
Negatives - I found the lack of any additional spells known to be quite restricting. By the time you hit level 4 you likely have 7 or 8 spells to prepare. That's not much. There are alot of great utility spells (like enhance ability, pass without trace) that you will just never use because you don't have room to prepare them. There should have been additional spells known for this subclass to help play into the whole beast theme. I never once used beast sense, speak with animals, animal messenger, beast bond or animal friendship because there were always more important spells to prepare. Very sad for a druid who turns into beasts.
Spells - most used
Entangle, goodberry, healing word, faerie fire, produce flame, guidance. Casting a bunch of goodberries before taking a long rest so the party could have out of combat healing the next day was invaluable. Our party became addicted to goodberries. (For extra healing take the chef feat and make goodberry pie!) Seriously though…don't do that. Chef is a wasted feat. If you find yourself in combat with no wild shapes left, shilelagh is ok in a pinch up to level 4 but is pretty weak beyond that.
Spells - most overrated
Flaming sphere - I get that if you're a bear this spell gives you a bonus action that you would not otherwise have. However this spell can really hinder the maneuverability of your other party members if you are not careful. The fact that the sphere stops moving after you ram it into a creature nerfs this spell significantly. It gives you a bit of extra damage but if you cast faerie fire with a first or second level spell slot your party will do even more damage then the flaming sphere will give you. It can still be worth a spell preparation, just temper your expectations.
Spike growth - i know a lot of people like this spell but i found there was always something better to do then cast this spell so eventually i stopped preparing it and i never missed it.
Thorn whip - it seems like a neat idea to cast moonbeam or spike growth and drag creatures into it with thorn whip but in practicality it does not work. Almost ever. If you are so focused on proper positioning to make this combo work for you, then you are probably not focused on what the party really needs from you at that moment.
Pass without trace - only ever used it once in 8 months of playing a druid. I wanted to use it, but again, with no extra domain spells to lean on I could never justify taking this. In the end it was just another spell that I always seem to pass on… without a trace... Sad.
Spells - most underrated
Summon beast - Anytime a monster is attacking your beast and not a member of your party it's a win. Give the beast an instruction like "attack whoever i am attacking" and then wildshape. Keep it near you for pack tactics and it will be a consistent source of extra damage. Where this spell really excels is for scouting (beast of air) and moving the beast into dungeon rooms ahead of the party to trigger traps and ambushes (beast of land). This tactic saved our party from taking damage or being surprised many times. Excellent meat shield for low levels. Also using the beast to grapple or take the help action came in very handy. I prepared and used this spell all the time.
Most complicated spell
Moonbeam - this spell does not make much sense. You cast it on someone and they dont take damage right away, but if someone moves into the spell they do. Wtf? Whatever.......From levels 1- 4 you won't likely use this spell as it's an action competing with brown bear multiattack and you will always do more damage with brown bear at these levels, especially if you have faerie fire up. This spell does upcast very well but I think the design mechanics here make this spell difficult to use at lower levels. If moonbeam was a bonus action to move I might have actually used it.
Spells i most over prepared
Heat metal and hold person - i really wanted to use heat metal and hold person so kept preparing them, but never got to use them. Our Battles were mostly monsters and not humanoids or creatures in armour. So although these spells seem good they are extremely situational to the point that they were pretty useless. Don't prepare these unless you are certain they will be of use.
Absorb elements. Great spell but start preparing this at level 6 or 7. Not before.
Lesser Restoration - At lower levels blinded, deafened paralyzed or poisoned typically only last until the end of a creatures next turn so you can get away with waiting. If there is real trouble then protect your team member and kill the monster that is causing problems. If the condition lasts longer, the character will get another saving throw and typically make it in another round or two. I prepared this spell all the time but never used it. It was unfortunately a wasted spell preparation.
Best background -
Outlander. Free Atheltics skill is always handy.
Best Feats - warcaster and resilient constitution for spell concentration because you will get hit ALOT when in your wild shape forms. Sentinel if you want a damage boost to your beast forms. Skill expert for expertise in athletics is useful for grappling or shoving creatures into active spell effects. It's not essential though because at level 6 your cr2 giant constrictor autograpples on a hit. Telepathic is great for communication to your party in beast form. Especially if you are scouting or spying. You won't have to break your wild shape just to talk. It's also great for some hilarious role playing. It's your inside voice. You know, the unfiltered voice of your inner beast that says your darkest and deepest desires that no one else should ever hear….. but now they do.
Most useless skill
Medicine - you will never use this. Its Just terrible. Dont waste a skill slot on this.
Overall i have been very happy with the moon druid. Its the best combo of versatility, utility, damage dealing and fun factor. Never did i feel like it was a struggle to stay alive (ahem… monk) or was lagging behind the power curve (also monk…). As well there will be plenty of hilarious role playing options in beast form. All around I give it an A ranking but some extra domain spells could easily be added to this subclass without breaking game balance.
Third: Do expect to have to undo your wild shape so you can cast a spell to help your party. It sucks to turn into a bear on the first round of combat and two rounds later you have to drop it cast a spell. But this will happen many times throughout your druids career and will make you sometimes wonder why you are even wildshaping to begin with. It is frustrating and a bit of a bugger but be prepared for that. It just comes with the territory. A good rule of thumb: The more creatures you are fighting, the better off you are spellcasting. I wish I had known that guideline earlier.
^^ This is great advice.
Athletics is a good skill to have because of grappling whilst wild shaped. Stealth is also handy in wild shape. Other skills, not so much.
A lot of good points. Some things I'd comment on though.
Wildshape:
Giant Octopus is a huge pool of HP and it works in water and on land. Great versatility if you're not needing to go far on land! Attack has auto-grapple and 15ft range, which is fantastic for opportunity attacks.
I've used smaller shapes extensively, including giant centipede (blindsight, climbing), giant wolf spider (climbing, paralytic poison), and many others.
Giant spider (paralytic poison, climbing, web) is fantastic for may reasons.
I agree that the summoning spells in mid-levels are amazing for druids and a nightmare for carefully constructed and balanced conflicts created by the DM. Especially when the range is 60ft, keeping the Druid well back and forcing a chaos of situationally relevant creatures onto the battlefield.
Oh, there are suddenly eight AC15 giant crabs on the battlefield with blindsight, and although they only get a +3 attack, they auto-grapple, so any hit immobilizes an enemy for the rest of the party.
Eight of just about any of the CR1/8 or CR1/4 animals are tough to suddenly deal with for most enemies of a party at level 4-5. Some of the higher HP animals, like Giant Lizard at 19HP and Giant Bat at 22HP are ridiculously hard for an enemy to deal with. The party doesn't even have to get their hands dirty in some cases. The enemy is trying to kill off 176HP of Giant Bats flying around them with 60ft speed and 60ft blindsight!! (Druid hides and wildshapes into a stealthy form for the duration).
Moonbeam: I've used this to very good effect against low HP enemies with a wildshaped and hiding Druid. It's like a ranger sitting back and just picking off a baddie per turn while never really being seen or attacked. The 2d10 radiant is pretty devastating for undead especially, if they fail a save.
Heat Metal: We were attacked by Drow. Two party members instantly debilitated by poisoned bolts from hand crossbows, and I cast Heat Metal on the leader, hid and wildshaped into a Dire Wolf. The Drow leader was out of the battle, the rest were overwhelmed. Got to attack after the drow had to drop his shortsword and bit him to death as the wolf.
Pass without Trace: Affects your whole party if they're in range, and this is a huge buff. I prepare it always and use it virtually every session. The +10 turns clanky Clerics into normal Rogues and Rogues virtually invisible.
Burning Sphere: Decent at low levels, and get to move it with a bonus action. So once cast, if the Druid doesn't lose concentration, you get an extra 2d6 plus ay normal or wildshape attack per turn. Sounds decent to me at level 3! Also gives 20ft of light which at this level can be useful.
Spike Growth: Certainly situational, but if there is a constricted area it's golden as area control. Enemies keep taking damage with every step if they want to close on the party. Especially good if they don't notice it. It's also difficult terrain so keeps them from closing more quickly, giving extra attacks while they're already taking damage at 2d4 per 5ft.
Healing Spirit: Also fantastic as a concentration spell to use while entering Wildshape. You get 10 rounds of 1d6 healing that you can reposition with a bonus action, for the party and yourself.
Feats: I'd second Telepathic but add it might be the best feat for a Druid. This allows the Druid to communicate with the party while in Wildshape (with above role playing possibilities), and also then cast Detect Thoughts, which allows them to spy incredibly well in animal form, as well as helping detect unseen enemies.
Just want to tout the power of moonbeam. It is somewhat campaign dependent though. If you're playing something like curse of strahd or just fighting undead radiant damage is incredible. If not then it's still very good since it's resisted by very few creatures. It is a bummer to have to use an action to move the beam but even if you do have to move it 2d10 +1d10 per upcast level hitting one or more creatures is great and I can't say how many times my druid player took out creatures that were running away or hidden (no need to see baddies; just guess on a general area within 60ft) using his darned moonbeam. But it really comes into its own when you start using combos with other party members to force creatures into the space to double (or more if several players can force creatures out and in) the damage every round. It also works well as battlefield control to discourage creatures from entering particular areas. Even though it doesn't hit creatures immediately (unless creatures are forced in) it hits at the start of the creature's turn so unless they have legendary actions or friends who will pull them out of danger they will take damage if you place the moonbeam on top of them.
Flaming sphere looks good in comparison since it only uses a bonus action to move but it only hits with AOE if the creature ends it's turn in the area so the AOE is pretty easy to avoid, it has a much smaller initial casting range, it only moves 30ft per round so it can't catch up with most fleeing things, it doesn't effect most flying creatures, it's obstructed by walls and pits, it's resisted by more creatures, it doesn't stop regeneration/block undead fortitude for more creatures, it does significantly less damage, doesn't scale nearly as well, and doesn't benefit from combos involving forced movement from other party members. Flaming sphere isn't a bad spell but don't sleep on moonbeam. In my experience the only 2nd lvl concentration spell that competes with moonbeam in terms of utility in most situations is summon beast.
Just want to tout the power of moonbeam. It is somewhat campaign dependent though. If you're playing something like curse of strahd or just fighting undead radiant damage is incredible. If not then it's still very good since it's resisted by very few creatures. It is a bummer to have to use an action to move the beam but even if you do have to move it 2d10 +1d10 per upcast level hitting one or more creatures is great and I can't say how many times my druid player took out creatures that were running away or hidden (no need to see baddies; just guess on a general area within 60ft) using his darned moonbeam. But it really comes into its own when you start using combos with other party members to force creatures into the space to double (or more if several players can force creatures out and in) the damage every round. It also works well as battlefield control to discourage creatures from entering particular areas. Even though it doesn't hit creatures immediately (unless creatures are forced in) it hits at the start of the creature's turn so unless they have legendary actions or friends who will pull them out of danger they will take damage if you place the moonbeam on top of them.
Flaming sphere looks good in comparison since it only uses a bonus action to move but it only hits with AOE if the creature ends it's turn in the area so the AOE is pretty easy to avoid, it has a much smaller initial casting range, it only moves 30ft per round so it can't catch up with most fleeing things, it doesn't effect most flying creatures, it's obstructed by walls and pits, it's resisted by more creatures, it doesn't stop regeneration/block undead fortitude for more creatures, it does significantly less damage, doesn't scale nearly as well, and doesn't benefit from combos involving forced movement from other party members. Flaming sphere isn't a bad spell but don't sleep on moonbeam. In my experience the only 2nd lvl concentration spell that competes with moonbeam in terms of utility in most situations is summon beast.
Moonbeam gets even better when you can start to upcast it. I found it was ok from levels 1-4, but after that it really started to shine! Pun intended......
Healing Spirit: Also fantastic as a concentration spell to use while entering Wildshape. You get 10 rounds of 1d6 healing that you can reposition with a bonus action, for the party and yourself.
Good point - saves having to drop wildshape in order to clutch-cast Healing Word.
Honestly, instead of Barksin, it's probably advisable to have someone with Arcane magic cast Mage Armor on you. Mage Armor is non-concentration, lasts for 8 whole hours. While it's a base 13 AC, you can add the beast form's DEX bonus on top. So Giant Spider goes from 14 AC to 16 AC. Lion goes from 12 AC to 15 AC. Giant Eagle? 13 to 16 AC.
I'm used to being a greedy mage, and never even thought to share spells(besides haste). I'll have to RP some spell sharing with the group. "I'll give you a healing word if you give me armor".
Summon beast - Anytime a monster is attacking your beast and not a member of your party it's a win. Give the beast an instruction like "attack whoever i am attacking" and then wildshape. Keep it near you for pack tactics and it will be a consistent source of extra damage. Where this spell really excels is for scouting (beast of air) and moving the beast into dungeon rooms ahead of the party to trigger traps and ambushes (beast of land). This tactic saved our party from taking damage or being surprised many times. Excellent meat shield for low levels. Also using the beast to grapple or take the help action came in very handy. I prepared and used this spell all the time.
THIS! with summon beast you can choose the the beast form... I have it be a small ape and I have it jump on my back when in dire wolf form and all attacks benefit from pack tactics
Feats: I'd second Telepathic but add it might be the best feat for a Druid. This allows the Druid to communicate with the party while in Wildshape (with above role playing possibilities), and also then cast Detect Thoughts, which allows them to spy incredibly well in animal form, as well as helping detect unseen enemies.
On my last moon druid I made my race a ghostwise hobbit (F#$% copyright :P) for their 30 ft telepathy... But next time I think I would choose Kalashtar for race as they get telepathy AND advantage on wisdom saving throws
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Here is my Moon druid levels 1-4 guide. This is not an optimization guide. It's just bits of wisdom based on my own experiences of 8 months playing a moon druid. First tips on wild shape and then spellcasting. Higher level guides to come.
Wildshape Tips:
First off: create a back story which justifies which animal forms you would like to change into if you want any unusual beast forms. I wanted access to dinosaurs so I created a backstory where my character was kidnapped as a young kid and taken to the jungles of chult. Use your imagination. There are no game breaking beasts so your dm should be ok with this. This also helps with role playing and character development.
Second : The most important thing to remember if you're primarily interested in animal forms for combat: you are there to take damage, not to do damage. Although damage is good at low levels it drops off the cliff pretty quickly. If you can accept this, you will have much more fun in beast mode. If you want to do damage in beast form and be mostly melee you will need to multiclass and take sentinel feat. If you are straight druid, no matter what, your damage will always lag starting about level 4 or 5. Around this time, start to embrace the role of party tank and forget about doing lots of damage in wild shape or you will be disappointed with wild shape CR2 forms.
Third: Do expect to have to undo your wild shape so you can cast a spell to help your party. It sucks to turn into a bear on the first round of combat and two rounds later you have to drop it cast a spell. But this will happen many times throughout your druids career and will make you sometimes wonder why you are even wildshaping to begin with. It is frustrating and a bit of a bugger but be prepared for that. It just comes with the territory. A good rule of thumb: The more creatures you are fighting, the better off you are spellcasting. I wish I had known that guideline earlier.
Animal forms
Brown bear - is it overpowered? At level 2 and 3 yes. For certain. But by level 5 it BEARLY kept up so it balances out quickly. Casting barkskin before you wild shape helps but is only good for you, whereas entangle and faerie fire help your entire party. A sword and shield fighter with high ac will last just as long or longer in melee than a brown bear with 11ac so i don't think bear is that OP.
Dire wolf is very useful. Knocking creatures prone is great to give your fighters advantage on attack rolls. Your great weapons master fighter will love you for that. Stay beside your fighter to play into this combo. Also you can be a mount and move party members around the battlefield. Very tactical.
Most fun animal form
Giant toad at level 4. By far. Swallowing creatures is hilarious and makes for great role playing moments. Hopping around with a pair of feet still sticking out of your mouth: priceless! Poison damage at low levels is quite reliable. Honourable mention to giant octopus at level 4. You can still use it on land. Hold your breath for an hour and surprise creatures with your 15 foot reach that auto restrains. Good times. Even better if you actually get to use it in water.
Spellcasting
Although wildshape can be fun, remember you are a primary caster not primary melee.
Positives - Druid spell list is excellent. But…..Think battlefield control, buffing and healing rather than damage.
Negatives - I found the lack of any additional spells known to be quite restricting. By the time you hit level 4 you likely have 7 or 8 spells to prepare. That's not much. There are alot of great utility spells (like enhance ability, pass without trace) that you will just never use because you don't have room to prepare them. There should have been additional spells known for this subclass to help play into the whole beast theme. I never once used beast sense, speak with animals, animal messenger, beast bond or animal friendship because there were always more important spells to prepare. Very sad for a druid who turns into beasts.
Spells - most used
Entangle, goodberry, healing word, faerie fire, produce flame, guidance. Casting a bunch of goodberries before taking a long rest so the party could have out of combat healing the next day was invaluable. Our party became addicted to goodberries. (For extra healing take the chef feat and make goodberry pie!) Seriously though…don't do that. Chef is a wasted feat. If you find yourself in combat with no wild shapes left, shilelagh is ok in a pinch up to level 4 but is pretty weak beyond that.
Spells - most overrated
Flaming sphere - I get that if you're a bear this spell gives you a bonus action that you would not otherwise have. However this spell can really hinder the maneuverability of your other party members if you are not careful. The fact that the sphere stops moving after you ram it into a creature nerfs this spell significantly. It gives you a bit of extra damage but if you cast faerie fire with a first or second level spell slot your party will do even more damage then the flaming sphere will give you. It can still be worth a spell preparation, just temper your expectations.
Spike growth - i know a lot of people like this spell but i found there was always something better to do then cast this spell so eventually i stopped preparing it and i never missed it.
Thorn whip - it seems like a neat idea to cast moonbeam or spike growth and drag creatures into it with thorn whip but in practicality it does not work. Almost ever. If you are so focused on proper positioning to make this combo work for you, then you are probably not focused on what the party really needs from you at that moment.
Pass without trace - only ever used it once in 8 months of playing a druid. I wanted to use it, but again, with no extra domain spells to lean on I could never justify taking this. In the end it was just another spell that I always seem to pass on… without a trace... Sad.
Spells - most underrated
Summon beast - Anytime a monster is attacking your beast and not a member of your party it's a win. Give the beast an instruction like "attack whoever i am attacking" and then wildshape. Keep it near you for pack tactics and it will be a consistent source of extra damage. Where this spell really excels is for scouting (beast of air) and moving the beast into dungeon rooms ahead of the party to trigger traps and ambushes (beast of land). This tactic saved our party from taking damage or being surprised many times. Excellent meat shield for low levels. Also using the beast to grapple or take the help action came in very handy. I prepared and used this spell all the time.
Most complicated spell
Moonbeam - this spell does not make much sense. You cast it on someone and they dont take damage right away, but if someone moves into the spell they do. Wtf? Whatever.......From levels 1- 4 you won't likely use this spell as it's an action competing with brown bear multiattack and you will always do more damage with brown bear at these levels, especially if you have faerie fire up. This spell does upcast very well but I think the design mechanics here make this spell difficult to use at lower levels. If moonbeam was a bonus action to move I might have actually used it.
Spells i most over prepared
Heat metal and hold person - i really wanted to use heat metal and hold person so kept preparing them, but never got to use them. Our Battles were mostly monsters and not humanoids or creatures in armour. So although these spells seem good they are extremely situational to the point that they were pretty useless. Don't prepare these unless you are certain they will be of use.
Absorb elements. Great spell but start preparing this at level 6 or 7. Not before.
Lesser Restoration - At lower levels blinded, deafened paralyzed or poisoned typically only last until the end of a creatures next turn so you can get away with waiting. If there is real trouble then protect your team member and kill the monster that is causing problems. If the condition lasts longer, the character will get another saving throw and typically make it in another round or two. I prepared this spell all the time but never used it. It was unfortunately a wasted spell preparation.
Best background -
Outlander. Free Atheltics skill is always handy.
Best Feats - warcaster and resilient constitution for spell concentration because you will get hit ALOT when in your wild shape forms. Sentinel if you want a damage boost to your beast forms. Skill expert for expertise in athletics is useful for grappling or shoving creatures into active spell effects. It's not essential though because at level 6 your cr2 giant constrictor autograpples on a hit. Telepathic is great for communication to your party in beast form. Especially if you are scouting or spying. You won't have to break your wild shape just to talk. It's also great for some hilarious role playing. It's your inside voice. You know, the unfiltered voice of your inner beast that says your darkest and deepest desires that no one else should ever hear….. but now they do.
Most useless skill
Medicine - you will never use this. Its Just terrible. Dont waste a skill slot on this.
Overall i have been very happy with the moon druid. Its the best combo of versatility, utility, damage dealing and fun factor. Never did i feel like it was a struggle to stay alive (ahem… monk) or was lagging behind the power curve (also monk…). As well there will be plenty of hilarious role playing options in beast form. All around I give it an A ranking but some extra domain spells could easily be added to this subclass without breaking game balance.
Stay tuned for level 5-8 guide coming soon.
^^ This is great advice.
Athletics is a good skill to have because of grappling whilst wild shaped. Stealth is also handy in wild shape. Other skills, not so much.
A lot of good points. Some things I'd comment on though.
Wildshape:
Giant Octopus is a huge pool of HP and it works in water and on land. Great versatility if you're not needing to go far on land! Attack has auto-grapple and 15ft range, which is fantastic for opportunity attacks.
I've used smaller shapes extensively, including giant centipede (blindsight, climbing), giant wolf spider (climbing, paralytic poison), and many others.
Giant spider (paralytic poison, climbing, web) is fantastic for may reasons.
I agree that the summoning spells in mid-levels are amazing for druids and a nightmare for carefully constructed and balanced conflicts created by the DM. Especially when the range is 60ft, keeping the Druid well back and forcing a chaos of situationally relevant creatures onto the battlefield.
Oh, there are suddenly eight AC15 giant crabs on the battlefield with blindsight, and although they only get a +3 attack, they auto-grapple, so any hit immobilizes an enemy for the rest of the party.
Eight of just about any of the CR1/8 or CR1/4 animals are tough to suddenly deal with for most enemies of a party at level 4-5. Some of the higher HP animals, like Giant Lizard at 19HP and Giant Bat at 22HP are ridiculously hard for an enemy to deal with. The party doesn't even have to get their hands dirty in some cases. The enemy is trying to kill off 176HP of Giant Bats flying around them with 60ft speed and 60ft blindsight!! (Druid hides and wildshapes into a stealthy form for the duration).
Moonbeam: I've used this to very good effect against low HP enemies with a wildshaped and hiding Druid. It's like a ranger sitting back and just picking off a baddie per turn while never really being seen or attacked. The 2d10 radiant is pretty devastating for undead especially, if they fail a save.
Heat Metal: We were attacked by Drow. Two party members instantly debilitated by poisoned bolts from hand crossbows, and I cast Heat Metal on the leader, hid and wildshaped into a Dire Wolf. The Drow leader was out of the battle, the rest were overwhelmed. Got to attack after the drow had to drop his shortsword and bit him to death as the wolf.
Pass without Trace: Affects your whole party if they're in range, and this is a huge buff. I prepare it always and use it virtually every session. The +10 turns clanky Clerics into normal Rogues and Rogues virtually invisible.
Burning Sphere: Decent at low levels, and get to move it with a bonus action. So once cast, if the Druid doesn't lose concentration, you get an extra 2d6 plus ay normal or wildshape attack per turn. Sounds decent to me at level 3! Also gives 20ft of light which at this level can be useful.
Spike Growth: Certainly situational, but if there is a constricted area it's golden as area control. Enemies keep taking damage with every step if they want to close on the party. Especially good if they don't notice it. It's also difficult terrain so keeps them from closing more quickly, giving extra attacks while they're already taking damage at 2d4 per 5ft.
Healing Spirit: Also fantastic as a concentration spell to use while entering Wildshape. You get 10 rounds of 1d6 healing that you can reposition with a bonus action, for the party and yourself.
Feats: I'd second Telepathic but add it might be the best feat for a Druid. This allows the Druid to communicate with the party while in Wildshape (with above role playing possibilities), and also then cast Detect Thoughts, which allows them to spy incredibly well in animal form, as well as helping detect unseen enemies.
Just want to tout the power of moonbeam. It is somewhat campaign dependent though. If you're playing something like curse of strahd or just fighting undead radiant damage is incredible. If not then it's still very good since it's resisted by very few creatures. It is a bummer to have to use an action to move the beam but even if you do have to move it 2d10 +1d10 per upcast level hitting one or more creatures is great and I can't say how many times my druid player took out creatures that were running away or hidden (no need to see baddies; just guess on a general area within 60ft) using his darned moonbeam. But it really comes into its own when you start using combos with other party members to force creatures into the space to double (or more if several players can force creatures out and in) the damage every round. It also works well as battlefield control to discourage creatures from entering particular areas. Even though it doesn't hit creatures immediately (unless creatures are forced in) it hits at the start of the creature's turn so unless they have legendary actions or friends who will pull them out of danger they will take damage if you place the moonbeam on top of them.
Flaming sphere looks good in comparison since it only uses a bonus action to move but it only hits with AOE if the creature ends it's turn in the area so the AOE is pretty easy to avoid, it has a much smaller initial casting range, it only moves 30ft per round so it can't catch up with most fleeing things, it doesn't effect most flying creatures, it's obstructed by walls and pits, it's resisted by more creatures, it doesn't stop regeneration/block undead fortitude for more creatures, it does significantly less damage, doesn't scale nearly as well, and doesn't benefit from combos involving forced movement from other party members. Flaming sphere isn't a bad spell but don't sleep on moonbeam. In my experience the only 2nd lvl concentration spell that competes with moonbeam in terms of utility in most situations is summon beast.
Moonbeam gets even better when you can start to upcast it. I found it was ok from levels 1-4, but after that it really started to shine! Pun intended......
Good point - saves having to drop wildshape in order to clutch-cast Healing Word.
Honestly, instead of Barksin, it's probably advisable to have someone with Arcane magic cast Mage Armor on you. Mage Armor is non-concentration, lasts for 8 whole hours. While it's a base 13 AC, you can add the beast form's DEX bonus on top. So Giant Spider goes from 14 AC to 16 AC. Lion goes from 12 AC to 15 AC. Giant Eagle? 13 to 16 AC.
I'm used to being a greedy mage, and never even thought to share spells(besides haste). I'll have to RP some spell sharing with the group. "I'll give you a healing word if you give me armor".
THIS! with summon beast you can choose the the beast form... I have it be a small ape and I have it jump on my back when in dire wolf form and all attacks benefit from pack tactics
On my last moon druid I made my race a ghostwise hobbit (F#$% copyright :P) for their 30 ft telepathy... But next time I think I would choose Kalashtar for race as they get telepathy AND advantage on wisdom saving throws