So in the current campaign I'm in I and a Wood Elf Druid, circle of the land. Can anyone explain to me the perks of being Circle of the land. In the same party we have a Gnome Druid circle of the moon and I'm feeling a little sad and envious of the Moon Circles perks.
Circle of the Moon druids only really have the whole wild shape thing as their "gimmick" and their other abilities improve that, by consuming spell slots to heal for example.
Circle of the Land emphasizes spellcasting. It gives you access to additional spells which are always prepared, some of which druids don't normally get access to. You can also recover some spell slots during short rest.
Wild Shape is mainly an exploration and utility tool for non-Moon druids. The Polymorph spell is an option at 7th level or higher if you really want to turn into a beast for combat.
You picked a good subclass then and you always have the wildshape for utility purposes too. :)
Something worth noting is that after about 6th level, moon druids start to have trouble finding sufficiently powerful (CR) creatures to transform into, to make use of the increased CR they are allowed.
Often, just transforming into a stealthy spider, or a bird, can be exactly what you need when you're not planning to fight in animal form.
10th lvl get Moon-Moon Druids Elemental shapes which ups their power, but you have a lull from 7-9th. That caps you at a Single CR:5 elemental and Elemental Form uses up both of your Wild Shapes. Too bad it doesn't let you turn into any kind of Elemental.
well i'm more excited now, I am now a Level 4 Wood Elf Druid, Circle of the Land (forest) and i now have spider climb which is pretty freaking cool.
Land Druids do work in their own way. You should just be wildshaping to escape/sneak/recon. You can also turn into a horse to carry party members/treasure.
Wait til you get level 5, and then you can cast Call Lightning. You get to regen spell slots, and you have a LOT of spells you can chose from, and you get some of the best battlefield control spells in the game. You just need to stand in the back, surround yourself with Spike Growth and make sure nobody can get to you while you summon spirits to fight for you or blast people with lightning/fire/whatever.
circle of the land gives you a range of cool spells and abilities. I find circle of the moon gives you one trick and very little flavour or range... your dire wolf form cannot make crops grow or convince the baron his vizier is corrupt. it does put up good numbers if that's what yer into. an extra cantrip is a huge boost too.
Have a careful look through the many, many, battlefield control spells on the Druid list, things like Faerie Fire, Entangle, Spike Growth and Plant Growth. You can cast more of these spells than a Moon Druid because you have Natural Recovery and Moon Druids don't get that. You also know a wider range of spells because Land Druids have a built in set of spells that always count as prepared, including some non-Druid spells that a moon-Druid cannot get access to. Moon Druids fight in beast form and they're good at that, but they can't cast spells in beast form before level 18, so their ability to cast spells during battle (as opposed to at the start of battle, before shapeshifting) is quite limited. As a Land Druid, spell casting is your strong suit, just like fighting in Wild Shape forms is a Moon Druid's strong suit. He'll never be as good as you are at spells, but in variety and quantity. That's the price he pays for all those Wild Shape options.
okay if you feel like that i have an idea for you. Druid circle of land gives you a lot more spell casting. but why don't you use your first wild shape in combat and the second to turn into a mouse/rat or whatever and take a short rest in someones backpack. you get a lot of your spells back and refresh the uses of wild shape plus use hit die to heal up the excess damage you may have taken in combat. that's your level 2 stuffs
level 6 is fun if your in the kind of game that has hazards. if not you have stuff you can do with traps, swan dive into thorn bushes, gourse ect and anger the enemy, ambushes easy for you. Plant monsters are not common but they hit hard in ambushes, but you can sit there and deal with this entire class of enemies with ease. but its nothing flashy.
level 10, make sure you got poisoners kit :3. you have spells like detect poison free by now so go and find yourself some natural poisons, make them fit for weaponary. And poison your blades without bothering to roll to see if you accidentally poison yourself, additionaly if your extracting it from a beast like a giant snake a fail doesn't harm you either. Almost insta success every time. flat out immunity to poison and disease Yet another entire class of beasts you can utterly destroy the fey. they're not often powerful but they mess with your mind, but that won't work on you.
level 14 is just fun as hell (you may realise here your a long term subclass, better later on than moon druid is) beasts and plants may just refuse to harm you. so by the end of it beasts, fey and plants have a hard time hurting you. personal suggestion by this point send an animal scout or use some other spell to scout out all nature adventures, and just walk 40+ ft ahead of your team. a beast will either attack you or chase down your allies wasting their turn and giving your allies a free round of pop shots on your opponent.
my favourite play with this sub class was a kid selki, (circle of artic) with amnesia, she was a v.human with charger trying to grasp a hold of her powers that she had forgotten. i hid with the week members like wizards ect, and just kept casting frostbite, when she was still acid in the game, we set camp in a forrest i found a stream and used shape water to create a small fortress, yelling i will never die. when we got attacked in the night it provided great cover and the dm learnt not to mess with my snow fort powers
circle of the land gives you a range of cool spells and abilities. I find circle of the moon gives you one trick and very little flavour or range... your dire wolf form cannot make crops grow or convince the baron his vizier is corrupt. it does put up good numbers if that's what yer into. an extra cantrip is a huge boost too.
I’m playing a 7th level Moon Druid right now and I mostly agree. Moon Druids are still full casters when they’re not using their wild shape abilities, but Land Druids are much better casters than they are!
I’ve wanted to play a lyncanthrope for a couple of years and a Moon Druid is as close as I can get with the core rules so I’m having fun with him. But as a pure spellcaster Land Druids are much more effective than he is and I’m mixing up what he does from time to time. I cast spells and mix it up in melee depending on the situation. Sometimes I do both with a concentration spell.
I'm currently playing a Lvl 4 Wood Elf Land Druid (Coast) and I love it <3 I love the uility the class gives me, be it using Shape Water to make a key to open a locked box, over casting Resistance on our Barbarian, to throwing an Ice Knife at a Hag.
As for my wild shapes, I know they're limited to max CR1 beasts, but as my chara's fav animal is a raven I'm fully happy with that. ^__^ whild shapes used so far: dog(x2), cat(x2), poisonous snake, every time with the purpose of either scouting ahead, or trying to find something
for the first few levels. Sadly Land Druids do feel slightly lackluster. Specially with a moon druid in your party. Moon Druids are fairly front loaded where as land druids really start shining the longer things go and the higher the level gets. Once you start getting into the realm of 7-10th level. You'll see where the Land druid in some ways starts outshining the Moon Druid because as a beast he might last longer. But he's not necessarily quite as effective as your spells. And even at casting spells. You often have options he doesn't. What those options are will depend partly on what environment your Land druid is dedicated to.
At about 10th level you'll see the Moon Druid jump up a little again as most people's new favorite toy of having an elemental form comes into play but over time you'll start seeing limits to that and you'll see the Moon Druid struggling to keep up or resorting to being more of a caster to make up for the fact that the forms just don't really keep up with high level play. Even most "builds" that are meant to maximize Moon Druids in their beast forms falter at the higher levels while giving the Druid seemingly OP capability at low levels.
Assuming neither of you dual class and you get high enough, You will see things balance back out a bit at the 18-20 levels where Druids finally blend to some extent the ability to shape change and the ability to cast spells and ultimately the unlimited shape change ability which is abused heavily by most because of a grey area in the way that things are worded. At this level, particularly level 20 there is no real one better Circle over the other. They both will bring their flavors to the equation and it will be purely the one that can adapt to the mix of the two and be able to work with the restrictions that still exist to that blending that will appear to be the best. That appearance will be a deception of it's own.
Moon allows you to suck up an awful lot of incoming damage, which is fortunate because your usual fuzzy animals will take an awful lot of damage due to fur not being as effective as metal. This doesnt stop a moon druid deciding to hike in animal form and cast spells.
Land is easy to overlook, and slightly annoying because its multiple subclass options in one, you only get to pick one region. Thats frustrating, but if you choose wisely based on how you hope to play those extra spells no other druid will have access to will allow you to shine. Land also has two other abilities that whilst they arent immediately awe inspiring, can be great. The first is the ability to refresh some spell slots on a short rest, and unlike a wizard, you could be resting as mouse in someones pocket / waist sling / hole in the wall to do it as E1027 suggested. The second is gaining immunity to poison, that combined with the early spells allowing you to speak and charm animals should allow you to harvest some poisons. You will probably need someone with a poisoners kit to make them suitable for bladework but you wont ever accidentally poison yourself and it makes hiding in cloudkill and stinking cloud or even fighting in them an option.
~ You are also immune to disease at 10th- Immediately gain samples of Russet mold and yellow mold. Become the Bio weapon terrorist you hopefully never dreamed of being. (beware though - providing you dont lose them to sunlight this type of play will derail campaigns when you sneak into places as a spider in wildshape and 'spore' the area resulting in up to 100% fatalities in organic life)
circle of the moon is the exception as their main thing is the wildshape feature so they get a boost.
As for what forms are specifically available to an arctic druid; the DM decides. I would think brown bear and young Griffon would fit but again DM makes the call
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So in the current campaign I'm in I and a Wood Elf Druid, circle of the land. Can anyone explain to me the perks of being Circle of the land. In the same party we have a Gnome Druid circle of the moon and I'm feeling a little sad and envious of the Moon Circles perks.
Circle of the Moon is often considered one of the most powerful subclasses of any class around levels 2-6.
Land druids are pretty cool in their own right, but they have greater flexibility, whereas the circle of the moon has more power.
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i also heard somewhere that as a druid in the circle of the land i can only transform to beast CR 1 and below. Is that true????
Depending on your level, it's less.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/classes/druid#WildShape
Circle of the Moon druids only really have the whole wild shape thing as their "gimmick" and their other abilities improve that, by consuming spell slots to heal for example.
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If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Circle of the Land emphasizes spellcasting. It gives you access to additional spells which are always prepared, some of which druids don't normally get access to. You can also recover some spell slots during short rest.
Wild Shape is mainly an exploration and utility tool for non-Moon druids. The Polymorph spell is an option at 7th level or higher if you really want to turn into a beast for combat.
spell casting is one of my favorite things so i guess that is more then fair she can have her wild shape Imma be a casting bad ass.
You picked a good subclass then and you always have the wildshape for utility purposes too. :)
Something worth noting is that after about 6th level, moon druids start to have trouble finding sufficiently powerful (CR) creatures to transform into, to make use of the increased CR they are allowed.
Often, just transforming into a stealthy spider, or a bird, can be exactly what you need when you're not planning to fight in animal form.
Pun-loving nerd | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
10th lvl get Moon-Moon Druids Elemental shapes which ups their power, but you have a lull from 7-9th.
That caps you at a Single CR:5 elemental and Elemental Form uses up both of your Wild Shapes.
Too bad it doesn't let you turn into any kind of Elemental.
well i'm more excited now, I am now a Level 4 Wood Elf Druid, Circle of the Land (forest) and i now have spider climb which is pretty freaking cool.
Land Druids do work in their own way. You should just be wildshaping to escape/sneak/recon. You can also turn into a horse to carry party members/treasure.
Wait til you get level 5, and then you can cast Call Lightning. You get to regen spell slots, and you have a LOT of spells you can chose from, and you get some of the best battlefield control spells in the game. You just need to stand in the back, surround yourself with Spike Growth and make sure nobody can get to you while you summon spirits to fight for you or blast people with lightning/fire/whatever.
circle of the land gives you a range of cool spells and abilities. I find circle of the moon gives you one trick and very little flavour or range... your dire wolf form cannot make crops grow or convince the baron his vizier is corrupt. it does put up good numbers if that's what yer into. an extra cantrip is a huge boost too.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Have a careful look through the many, many, battlefield control spells on the Druid list, things like Faerie Fire, Entangle, Spike Growth and Plant Growth. You can cast more of these spells than a Moon Druid because you have Natural Recovery and Moon Druids don't get that. You also know a wider range of spells because Land Druids have a built in set of spells that always count as prepared, including some non-Druid spells that a moon-Druid cannot get access to. Moon Druids fight in beast form and they're good at that, but they can't cast spells in beast form before level 18, so their ability to cast spells during battle (as opposed to at the start of battle, before shapeshifting) is quite limited. As a Land Druid, spell casting is your strong suit, just like fighting in Wild Shape forms is a Moon Druid's strong suit. He'll never be as good as you are at spells, but in variety and quantity. That's the price he pays for all those Wild Shape options.
okay if you feel like that i have an idea for you. Druid circle of land gives you a lot more spell casting. but why don't you use your first wild shape in combat and the second to turn into a mouse/rat or whatever and take a short rest in someones backpack. you get a lot of your spells back and refresh the uses of wild shape plus use hit die to heal up the excess damage you may have taken in combat.
that's your level 2 stuffs
level 6 is fun if your in the kind of game that has hazards. if not you have stuff you can do with traps, swan dive into thorn bushes, gourse ect and anger the enemy, ambushes easy for you.
Plant monsters are not common but they hit hard in ambushes, but you can sit there and deal with this entire class of enemies with ease. but its nothing flashy.
level 10, make sure you got poisoners kit :3. you have spells like detect poison free by now so go and find yourself some natural poisons, make them fit for weaponary. And poison your blades without bothering to roll to see if you accidentally poison yourself, additionaly if your extracting it from a beast like a giant snake a fail doesn't harm you either. Almost insta success every time. flat out immunity to poison and disease
Yet another entire class of beasts you can utterly destroy the fey. they're not often powerful but they mess with your mind, but that won't work on you.
level 14 is just fun as hell (you may realise here your a long term subclass, better later on than moon druid is)
beasts and plants may just refuse to harm you. so by the end of it beasts, fey and plants have a hard time hurting you. personal suggestion by this point send an animal scout or use some other spell to scout out all nature adventures, and just walk 40+ ft ahead of your team. a beast will either attack you or chase down your allies wasting their turn and giving your allies a free round of pop shots on your opponent.
my favourite play with this sub class was a kid selki, (circle of artic) with amnesia, she was a v.human with charger trying to grasp a hold of her powers that she had forgotten. i hid with the week members like wizards ect, and just kept casting frostbite, when she was still acid in the game, we set camp in a forrest i found a stream and used shape water to create a small fortress, yelling i will never die. when we got attacked in the night it provided great cover and the dm learnt not to mess with my snow fort powers
I’m playing a 7th level Moon Druid right now and I mostly agree. Moon Druids are still full casters when they’re not using their wild shape abilities, but Land Druids are much better casters than they are!
I’ve wanted to play a lyncanthrope for a couple of years and a Moon Druid is as close as I can get with the core rules so I’m having fun with him. But as a pure spellcaster Land Druids are much more effective than he is and I’m mixing up what he does from time to time. I cast spells and mix it up in melee depending on the situation. Sometimes I do both with a concentration spell.
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I'm currently playing a Lvl 4 Wood Elf Land Druid (Coast) and I love it <3 I love the uility the class gives me, be it using Shape Water to make a key to open a locked box, over casting Resistance on our Barbarian, to throwing an Ice Knife at a Hag.
As for my wild shapes, I know they're limited to max CR1 beasts, but as my chara's fav animal is a raven I'm fully happy with that. ^__^
whild shapes used so far: dog(x2), cat(x2), poisonous snake, every time with the purpose of either scouting ahead, or trying to find something
for the first few levels. Sadly Land Druids do feel slightly lackluster. Specially with a moon druid in your party. Moon Druids are fairly front loaded where as land druids really start shining the longer things go and the higher the level gets. Once you start getting into the realm of 7-10th level. You'll see where the Land druid in some ways starts outshining the Moon Druid because as a beast he might last longer. But he's not necessarily quite as effective as your spells. And even at casting spells. You often have options he doesn't. What those options are will depend partly on what environment your Land druid is dedicated to.
At about 10th level you'll see the Moon Druid jump up a little again as most people's new favorite toy of having an elemental form comes into play but over time you'll start seeing limits to that and you'll see the Moon Druid struggling to keep up or resorting to being more of a caster to make up for the fact that the forms just don't really keep up with high level play. Even most "builds" that are meant to maximize Moon Druids in their beast forms falter at the higher levels while giving the Druid seemingly OP capability at low levels.
Assuming neither of you dual class and you get high enough, You will see things balance back out a bit at the 18-20 levels where Druids finally blend to some extent the ability to shape change and the ability to cast spells and ultimately the unlimited shape change ability which is abused heavily by most because of a grey area in the way that things are worded. At this level, particularly level 20 there is no real one better Circle over the other. They both will bring their flavors to the equation and it will be purely the one that can adapt to the mix of the two and be able to work with the restrictions that still exist to that blending that will appear to be the best. That appearance will be a deception of it's own.
Moon allows you to suck up an awful lot of incoming damage, which is fortunate because your usual fuzzy animals will take an awful lot of damage due to fur not being as effective as metal. This doesnt stop a moon druid deciding to hike in animal form and cast spells.
Land is easy to overlook, and slightly annoying because its multiple subclass options in one, you only get to pick one region. Thats frustrating, but if you choose wisely based on how you hope to play those extra spells no other druid will have access to will allow you to shine. Land also has two other abilities that whilst they arent immediately awe inspiring, can be great. The first is the ability to refresh some spell slots on a short rest, and unlike a wizard, you could be resting as mouse in someones pocket / waist sling / hole in the wall to do it as E1027 suggested. The second is gaining immunity to poison, that combined with the early spells allowing you to speak and charm animals should allow you to harvest some poisons. You will probably need someone with a poisoners kit to make them suitable for bladework but you wont ever accidentally poison yourself and it makes hiding in cloudkill and stinking cloud or even fighting in them an option.
~ You are also immune to disease at 10th- Immediately gain samples of Russet mold and yellow mold. Become the Bio weapon terrorist you hopefully never dreamed of being. (beware though - providing you dont lose them to sunlight this type of play will derail campaigns when you sneak into places as a spider in wildshape and 'spore' the area resulting in up to 100% fatalities in organic life)
As a Level 10 Land(Arctic) Druid, what is the maximum CR I can Wild Shape into...?
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CR 1 is the max for a druids wildshape feature.
circle of the moon is the exception as their main thing is the wildshape feature so they get a boost.
As for what forms are specifically available to an arctic druid; the DM decides. I would think brown bear and young Griffon would fit but again DM makes the call
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.