Playing as a level 8 Circle of Dreams Druid, with 1 level in life Cleric. I have taken upon myself to be the healer of the party, with most of my spell slots being used on things like Healing spirit, utility spells and the occasional guiding bolt for fun.
It was recently brought up to me by my DM that my true role in the party should be Offtank. (party consists of: Myself, Barbarian, Rogue, Bard and Sorcerer.)
I was frankly a bit shocked that he thought that was my role in the party. I get that I can toss a healing spirit, go brown bear and still offer up some healing. But is it really worth it to be wasting an action to turn into a bear that does 2d6+4 dmg, when I could be using my cantrips to offer up side dmg from Toll the Dead, as well as casting utility spells for the group?
Just curious what other people are doing with their Druids. What role does the Druid truly play in a party?
My 7th level Moon Druid’s role keeps changing. It changes from encounter to encounter within one day even! Druids are incredibly flexible and they can do such a wide variety of different things that their role shouldn’t be static. It should be fluid based on the party’s needs.
I would definitely agree. I have taken focus on healing for the party. But I always felt like I was there to fill in what was needed. Which is partly why it really surprised me when my DM told me that my role was to be an Offtank for the party.
We have a Circle of Dreams Druid in our party, we are lvl 11 now. Party consists of Bear Totem Barbarian, Life Cleric, Celestial Warlock, Circle of Dreams Druid and Arcane Archer.
He mostly fulfills the roles of the supportive healer / control caster and tbh, I think that is where Circle of Dreams shines the most. Your multiclass into Life Cleric only adds to that in my opinion. If you happen to cast Bless on your party, it just doesn`t make alot of sense for you to then go melee and take hits.
That being said, there were some situations where he Wildshaped to soak damage. The Druid is a true Jack of all Trades.
I would talk to the other players how they feel about the situation. Alot of what is needed for the party is a result of how the other members play a combat. Sure, a Bear might prevent a few melees from hitting your sorcerer. A well placed Entanglement can do that aswell.
The druid by itself can play a variety of roles, based on the subclass. And it all really depends on your build and play style for the given druid. I'm going to use the 4 basic party roles: Support, Tank, Buff, or Non-Combat.
Support
I believe that druids can most definitely be a great support class with their capabilities to deter enemies with barrages of curses, diseases, and ranged attacks. Support classes will stay in the back lines of combat, and support the party in combat. Support subclasses include:
Circle of the Land
Circle of Dreams
Circle of the Shepard
Circle of the Moon
Tank
Druids can also be great tanks with their wildshape abilities. They can be in the front lines of combat dealing impressive amounts of damage, and taking hits for the weaker party members. The best druid tanks are typically circle of the moon for their enhanced wildshape. But the following classes make good tanks:
Circle of the Moon
Circle of Spores
Buff
The party role of buff typically includes healers or support spells to increase the party's effectiveness in combat. Or even outside of combat. Such examples include boosting your party's damage output, or healing while in the back lines of combat. A non-combat encounter is casting invisibility on your party to sneak by the guards. The following subclasses make great buffs:
Circle of the Land
Circle of the Shepard
Circle of Dreams
Non-Combat
Non combat encounters make up a majority of your game, and can be critical to the survival of your PCs. As a druid, you have access to great non combat spells, such as Plant Growth. The term non-combat is very broad, and unspecific. So to specify it more, I'm going to call them social interactions. Some druids are terrible in social situations, which is acceptable and fun to roleplay. But many subclasses offer a variety of abilities that can be so usefull in social situations. The best Non-Combat subclasses are:
Circle of the Shepard
Circle of Dreams
To close this all out, these are just my opinions that I've developed over the years. Another thing, every druid subclass can play any role in the party. I'm simply identifying the best subclasses for the given role.
With that said, I hope this information finds you all in good health, and your adventures only get more chaotic.
The only thing I'd modify about this list is I'd absolutely put Shepherds in the "Support" category also. The temp HP buffs and advantage they can give out per short rest are very useful to a party. They also have the advantage over a lot of other support focused classes in that it scales perfectly with larger groups (Bear totem and Unicorn totem just give blanket HP buff no matter how many bodies you cram in their radius).
I would say your the offtank until you run out of wild shapes then you could cast offensive spells until party members need healing then you heal them. You could also work with the rouge to provide spying. Who would think that the little fly in the corner of the room would be spying on them.
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The only thing I'd modify about this list is I'd absolutely put Shepherds in the "Support" category also. The temp HP buffs and advantage they can give out per short rest are very useful to a party. They also have the advantage over a lot of other support focused classes in that it scales perfectly with larger groups (Bear totem and Unicorn totem just give blanket HP buff no matter how many bodies you cram in their radius).
Thank you for the reminder. It totally slipped from my mind.
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I would say your the offtank until you run out of wild shapes then you could cast offensive spells until party members need healing then you heal them. You could also work with the rouge to provide spying. Who would think that the little fly in the corner of the room would be spying on them.
Not sure I would really want to run myself out of wildshapes before I am popping out to heal/cast. I know that I would have a separate health pool in wildshape, but so often I end up using a wildshape for the movement than the actual shapes attacks. I think I dislike staying in wildshape because the forms I can take at this point don't feel that useful, none offer great dmg for the party, and the ones I can turn into offer more in maneuverability than anything. Perhaps that is just my point of view though, I can see useful value in say the dire wolf knocking something prone. But our Barbarian is at advantage to 90% of his attacks anyways, and I would be hindering the caster if everything was prone.
I usually am spying with the rogue of our party. I have a staff of the woodlands and we have pass without a trace up fairly often now. There isnt much need for me to burn a wildshape so that I can scout up ahead. Our rogue recently took points into warlock, so we use their Imp to scout now as well.
I just personally like the idea of being a defensive caster that can have the ability to turn into animals for support reasons. Maybe that support should be more offtanking, but every time I have attempted to do so. I need to pop out to cast a spell, and it ends up feeling like a waste because I only spent 1-3 rounds as a shape.
On a different note, when I play druid, I like to find utility animals. I rarely ever use my wildshape for combat until I have unlimited of them or I need to be an elemental for some reason. My party has found out that wildshape into a horse has been life saving for many party members. For example, one encounter left Will the Ranger dying (With a homebrew creature). He had about 10 minutes to find medical attention or he was going to die, and all our horses were killed in the encounter. As one of the last people alive in our party of 6 (We were around level 4), I wildshaped into a horse and took him to town. He ended up being the last character to die out of all of us. Anyways, for combat.
I usually stay behind in combat, and use some form of ranged spell, such as Call Lightning or Lightning Bolt. This type of druid I like playing the most is mainly Circle of the Moon, and uses the enhanced wildshape to not only be the tank, but also support and non-combat.
When I think of druids tanking or offtanking, I mostly assume those are moon druids.
MarvelMan, I have had very similar issues in our game where my Druids wildshape came in super handy to stop someone from dying. Actually, the other day our rogue was knocked unconscious and dragged under water and down a waterfall. I hopped into a shark form and swam after her and was thankfully able to keep pace with the creature so we didn't lose the rogue to the belly of some nasty beasty.
In the current campaign we are playing I have Level 8 Circle of the Mountain druid - pretty much started off being the main tank as our group was made up of a bard, cleric, rogue and sorceror. Now that a friend as joined our group and is the warrior i am now pretty much the group's scout, i then buff the tank with bear's endurance and the rogue with spider climb and i am pretty much spamming moonbeam and flaming sphere depending. Last night for fun i summoned x10 giant centipedes and watched them rip through and kill everything in the final room with some very "lucky" attack roles and some very "unlucky" DC saving throws from the GM. The druid is very very versatile in support if you take one of Land Circles.
The druid I’m playing is a lv 12 moon druid, and party wise I’m flexing between tank, healing, and utility caster. In combat I pretty much turn in to something big and try to soak damage while everyone else nukes things. Out of combat we are a bit more diversified and I mostly do healing/utility magic and hidden emergency insurance in case something turns in to a combat. (ie: Party face goes to talk to someone “alone,” I turn in to a lizard and hide in her pocket.)
Playing as a level 8 Circle of Dreams Druid, with 1 level in life Cleric. I have taken upon myself to be the healer of the party, with most of my spell slots being used on things like Healing spirit, utility spells and the occasional guiding bolt for fun.
It was recently brought up to me by my DM that my true role in the party should be Offtank. (party consists of: Myself, Barbarian, Rogue, Bard and Sorcerer.)
I was frankly a bit shocked that he thought that was my role in the party. I get that I can toss a healing spirit, go brown bear and still offer up some healing. But is it really worth it to be wasting an action to turn into a bear that does 2d6+4 dmg, when I could be using my cantrips to offer up side dmg from Toll the Dead, as well as casting utility spells for the group?
Just curious what other people are doing with their Druids. What role does the Druid truly play in a party?
I play druids as a sort of “attritionist”.
buff allies
debuff enemies
heal allies
hurt enemies
tank when the tanks hurt
stealth when the rogues not stealthed
magic when the wizards not magicing.
essentially Druid is a different style of the “I can do everything” like a bard/rogue. but I am also weird, I rarely ever play moon Druid, as the wild shapes and such don’t really add anything for Druid for me for what I try and do vs the other circles. The elementals and cr 6 sure, *can* be useful, in the right situations. But As an example, a spore Druid. Level 6. You can make zombies which is a lot more OP than you’d think.
for 1 hour. They obey your commands. That’s a nice way to infiltrate into places as you are a small mouse or something In their pocket
star Druid... etc etc. moon Druid to me just... doesn’t do it unless it’s a known low level campaign. Where you can get extra oomf earlier.
Playing as a level 8 Circle of Dreams Druid, with 1 level in life Cleric. I have taken upon myself to be the healer of the party, with most of my spell slots being used on things like Healing spirit, utility spells and the occasional guiding bolt for fun.
It was recently brought up to me by my DM that my true role in the party should be Offtank. (party consists of: Myself, Barbarian, Rogue, Bard and Sorcerer.)
I was frankly a bit shocked that he thought that was my role in the party. I get that I can toss a healing spirit, go brown bear and still offer up some healing. But is it really worth it to be wasting an action to turn into a bear that does 2d6+4 dmg, when I could be using my cantrips to offer up side dmg from Toll the Dead, as well as casting utility spells for the group?
Just curious what other people are doing with their Druids. What role does the Druid truly play in a party?
My 7th level Moon Druid’s role keeps changing. It changes from encounter to encounter within one day even! Druids are incredibly flexible and they can do such a wide variety of different things that their role shouldn’t be static. It should be fluid based on the party’s needs.
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I would definitely agree. I have taken focus on healing for the party. But I always felt like I was there to fill in what was needed. Which is partly why it really surprised me when my DM told me that my role was to be an Offtank for the party.
Kind of a mix. Off-tank. Support. Damage. I can do a bit of a lot of different things.
The druid in my game is the healer. Don’t tell my other players, but he’s my favorite.
We have a Circle of Dreams Druid in our party, we are lvl 11 now. Party consists of Bear Totem Barbarian, Life Cleric, Celestial Warlock, Circle of Dreams Druid and Arcane Archer.
He mostly fulfills the roles of the supportive healer / control caster and tbh, I think that is where Circle of Dreams shines the most. Your multiclass into Life Cleric only adds to that in my opinion. If you happen to cast Bless on your party, it just doesn`t make alot of sense for you to then go melee and take hits.
That being said, there were some situations where he Wildshaped to soak damage. The Druid is a true Jack of all Trades.
I would talk to the other players how they feel about the situation. Alot of what is needed for the party is a result of how the other members play a combat. Sure, a Bear might prevent a few melees from hitting your sorcerer. A well placed Entanglement can do that aswell.
Have fun in your game and stay safe!
Cheers!
Stars druid, and they are an incredibly offensive subclass. Love using their wild shape.
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I play a Land (Coast) Druid. Hmm, I think I see myself as offensive support? xD
The druid by itself can play a variety of roles, based on the subclass. And it all really depends on your build and play style for the given druid. I'm going to use the 4 basic party roles: Support, Tank, Buff, or Non-Combat.
Support
I believe that druids can most definitely be a great support class with their capabilities to deter enemies with barrages of curses, diseases, and ranged attacks. Support classes will stay in the back lines of combat, and support the party in combat. Support subclasses include:
Tank
Druids can also be great tanks with their wildshape abilities. They can be in the front lines of combat dealing impressive amounts of damage, and taking hits for the weaker party members. The best druid tanks are typically circle of the moon for their enhanced wildshape. But the following classes make good tanks:
Buff
The party role of buff typically includes healers or support spells to increase the party's effectiveness in combat. Or even outside of combat. Such examples include boosting your party's damage output, or healing while in the back lines of combat. A non-combat encounter is casting invisibility on your party to sneak by the guards. The following subclasses make great buffs:
Non-Combat
Non combat encounters make up a majority of your game, and can be critical to the survival of your PCs. As a druid, you have access to great non combat spells, such as Plant Growth. The term non-combat is very broad, and unspecific. So to specify it more, I'm going to call them social interactions. Some druids are terrible in social situations, which is acceptable and fun to roleplay. But many subclasses offer a variety of abilities that can be so usefull in social situations. The best Non-Combat subclasses are:
To close this all out, these are just my opinions that I've developed over the years. Another thing, every druid subclass can play any role in the party. I'm simply identifying the best subclasses for the given role.
With that said, I hope this information finds you all in good health, and your adventures only get more chaotic.
I love roleplaying, message me so we can set something up.
I talk everything D&D, message me for questions, chat, arguements, or roleplay!
The only thing I'd modify about this list is I'd absolutely put Shepherds in the "Support" category also. The temp HP buffs and advantage they can give out per short rest are very useful to a party. They also have the advantage over a lot of other support focused classes in that it scales perfectly with larger groups (Bear totem and Unicorn totem just give blanket HP buff no matter how many bodies you cram in their radius).
I would say your the offtank until you run out of wild shapes then you could cast offensive spells until party members need healing then you heal them. You could also work with the rouge to provide spying. Who would think that the little fly in the corner of the room would be spying on them.
Murder Hobo Help (a great place for new dm's to get help with murderhobos and a great place to share how you've delt with murderhobos)
Thank you for the reminder. It totally slipped from my mind.
I love roleplaying, message me so we can set something up.
I talk everything D&D, message me for questions, chat, arguements, or roleplay!
Not sure I would really want to run myself out of wildshapes before I am popping out to heal/cast. I know that I would have a separate health pool in wildshape, but so often I end up using a wildshape for the movement than the actual shapes attacks. I think I dislike staying in wildshape because the forms I can take at this point don't feel that useful, none offer great dmg for the party, and the ones I can turn into offer more in maneuverability than anything. Perhaps that is just my point of view though, I can see useful value in say the dire wolf knocking something prone. But our Barbarian is at advantage to 90% of his attacks anyways, and I would be hindering the caster if everything was prone.
I usually am spying with the rogue of our party. I have a staff of the woodlands and we have pass without a trace up fairly often now. There isnt much need for me to burn a wildshape so that I can scout up ahead. Our rogue recently took points into warlock, so we use their Imp to scout now as well.
I just personally like the idea of being a defensive caster that can have the ability to turn into animals for support reasons. Maybe that support should be more offtanking, but every time I have attempted to do so. I need to pop out to cast a spell, and it ends up feeling like a waste because I only spent 1-3 rounds as a shape.
On a different note, when I play druid, I like to find utility animals. I rarely ever use my wildshape for combat until I have unlimited of them or I need to be an elemental for some reason. My party has found out that wildshape into a horse has been life saving for many party members. For example, one encounter left Will the Ranger dying (With a homebrew creature). He had about 10 minutes to find medical attention or he was going to die, and all our horses were killed in the encounter. As one of the last people alive in our party of 6 (We were around level 4), I wildshaped into a horse and took him to town. He ended up being the last character to die out of all of us. Anyways, for combat.
I usually stay behind in combat, and use some form of ranged spell, such as Call Lightning or Lightning Bolt. This type of druid I like playing the most is mainly Circle of the Moon, and uses the enhanced wildshape to not only be the tank, but also support and non-combat.
I love roleplaying, message me so we can set something up.
I talk everything D&D, message me for questions, chat, arguements, or roleplay!
When I think of druids tanking or offtanking, I mostly assume those are moon druids.
MarvelMan, I have had very similar issues in our game where my Druids wildshape came in super handy to stop someone from dying. Actually, the other day our rogue was knocked unconscious and dragged under water and down a waterfall. I hopped into a shark form and swam after her and was thankfully able to keep pace with the creature so we didn't lose the rogue to the belly of some nasty beasty.
In the current campaign we are playing I have Level 8 Circle of the Mountain druid - pretty much started off being the main tank as our group was made up of a bard, cleric, rogue and sorceror. Now that a friend as joined our group and is the warrior i am now pretty much the group's scout, i then buff the tank with bear's endurance and the rogue with spider climb and i am pretty much spamming moonbeam and flaming sphere depending. Last night for fun i summoned x10 giant centipedes and watched them rip through and kill everything in the final room with some very "lucky" attack roles and some very "unlucky" DC saving throws from the GM. The druid is very very versatile in support if you take one of Land Circles.
The druid I’m playing is a lv 12 moon druid, and party wise I’m flexing between tank, healing, and utility caster. In combat I pretty much turn in to something big and try to soak damage while everyone else nukes things. Out of combat we are a bit more diversified and I mostly do healing/utility magic and hidden emergency insurance in case something turns in to a combat. (ie: Party face goes to talk to someone “alone,” I turn in to a lizard and hide in her pocket.)
I play druids as a sort of “attritionist”.
buff allies
debuff enemies
heal allies
hurt enemies
tank when the tanks hurt
stealth when the rogues not stealthed
magic when the wizards not magicing.
essentially Druid is a different style of the “I can do everything” like a bard/rogue.
but I am also weird, I rarely ever play moon Druid, as the wild shapes and such don’t really add anything for Druid for me for what I try and do vs the other circles. The elementals and cr 6 sure, *can* be useful, in the right situations.
But As an example, a spore Druid. Level 6. You can make zombies which is a lot more OP than you’d think.
for 1 hour. They obey your commands. That’s a nice way to infiltrate into places as you are a small mouse or something In their pocket
star Druid... etc etc. moon Druid to me just... doesn’t do it unless it’s a known low level campaign. Where you can get extra oomf earlier.
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Everyone says that the Bard is the Jack of All Trades.
Nope.
Maybe skills, but not everything else.
Need a frontline damage dealer? Play a druid.
Need a healer? Play a druid.
Need a support character? Play a druid.
Need a blasting spellcaster? Play a druid.
Want to literally all of these at once? Play a druid.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
My circle of the moon druid is the only healer in my party but i try to be Call Lightning a lot and be on the front lines
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"A Jack Of All Trades is a master of none"
'That's why I hate Bards' AldrekStormcloak said this & i agree