So far my 5th lvl Wildfire Druid has filled the roles of DPS, Tank, and Healer of the party during each encounter depending on how imitative is rolled and how everyone else's HP is doing. Most of my other player don't have books online so they are using basic rules sub classes with a Draconic bloodline sorcerer, Berserker Barbarian, and Thief Rouge. So depending on how the party rolls into combat i tend to shift my roll around, going closer to last tends to put me in the buff and healing spot. Mid order i tend to tank and buff people for their turn, and going first i go straight damage. But like many people have said Druids are meant to be super flexible and your character should reflect this by learning from each encounter and preparing spells that are both useful in and out of battle (don't forget we are ritual casters and can use some very strong spells for free in exchange for 10 minutes)
the reputation for Bards is an old one and it hasn't held true as they have evolved. Once upon a time they could do most things but they've mostly been narrowed down to skill monkey/caster types. A kind of mostly spell caster with some rogue sprinkled in version of a gish class if you will. Subclasses can get away from this a little bit but many of them fall in line with this as well. Either helping their skill monkey side or helping their caster side. With very little adding physical combat abilities to them.
Druids on the other hand can handle a lot of roles depending on how you focus them and can do other roles to some extent even if they aren't focused into them to a certain extent. It's why people have trouble playing them sometimes and using them because there is so much they can do they have trouble finding the right way to focus them down a bit that works for them.
the reputation for Bards is an old one and it hasn't held true as they have evolved. Once upon a time they could do most things but they've mostly been narrowed down to skill monkey/caster types. A kind of mostly spell caster with some rogue sprinkled in version of a gish class if you will. Subclasses can get away from this a little bit but many of them fall in line with this as well. Either helping their skill monkey side or helping their caster side. With very little adding physical combat abilities to them.
Druids on the other hand can handle a lot of roles depending on how you focus them and can do other roles to some extent even if they aren't focused into them to a certain extent. It's why people have trouble playing them sometimes and using them because there is so much they can do they have trouble finding the right way to focus them down a bit that works for them.
Literally 40% of the current bard subclasses are all about physical combat. It's probably the most versatile class in the game. I don't disagree with your comments on the druid here, but contrasting it with the bard is weird and out of place. I think bard has a very similar barrier to entry because bards can do pretty much anything.
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?
Now. I don't know what archetype each of your party members is. But I'm not seeing a heavy need for an off tank in your party and to force the druid into that kind of role. particularly considering your circle and class dip. healer and support looks to me just in general like it would help the group a lot more. With maybe occasionally fitting into something like tank or dps. But your potentially set up to do a lot for the party without really wild shaping and jumping onto the front lines. You can choose to buff the party. You can choose to do a fair bit of elemental damage. You can decide to control or restrict the battlefield in various ways. You can heal just like you've set yourself up for doing. it depends a little bit on what the other party members do but you have a lot of options to build around them.
In general your barbarian should be raging and tanking quite a bit to keep his rage up just to make sure that his class keeps functioning properly.
Rogues are potential off tanks if played smartly, particularly with the right archetypes and the correct kind of backup from somebody like your druid or the sorcerer. And are often going to be strong damage dealers regardless.
And the sorcerer it depends on their focus just to how you can best work with the party but somehow I doubt they are the healer in your party or you wouldn't have focused on it. if they are damaged focused that leaves you more open to cast spells that can restrict the enemy or redirect the fight when necessary or do damage to help out. if they are support focused that let's you add a fair bit of outright damage.
I personally don't see a reason why you should be spending a majority of your time off tanking when there is so much more you can do and are equipped for. your also getting into levels where your wild shape is going to start not keeping up with the enemies well enough to be combat effective.
the reputation for Bards is an old one and it hasn't held true as they have evolved. Once upon a time they could do most things but they've mostly been narrowed down to skill monkey/caster types. A kind of mostly spell caster with some rogue sprinkled in version of a gish class if you will. Subclasses can get away from this a little bit but many of them fall in line with this as well. Either helping their skill monkey side or helping their caster side. With very little adding physical combat abilities to them.
Druids on the other hand can handle a lot of roles depending on how you focus them and can do other roles to some extent even if they aren't focused into them to a certain extent. It's why people have trouble playing them sometimes and using them because there is so much they can do they have trouble finding the right way to focus them down a bit that works for them.
Literally 40% of the current bard subclasses are all about physical combat. It's probably the most versatile class in the game. I don't disagree with your comments on the druid here, but contrasting it with the bard is weird and out of place. I think bard has a very similar barrier to entry because bards can do pretty much anything.
Bards are vastly over shadowed by most other martial classes and archetypes. Even when your using a combat based one. And even those combat based ones tend to rely heavily on magic to make them viable.
Swords is the only one that is outright martial centered on it's own. Relies heavily on it's inspiration die so it's not sustainable long term. And doesn't vastly gain prowess in weapons or armor over the basic bard. But it is definitely benefited by casting to self buff or back it up at ranged when things become to dangerous to be in close.
And Valor. The other "combat focused" archetype for them is actually better used using magic and support as well. Since it's inspiration dice are often best used beefing up other peoples damage or AC over it's own though they can be used to self boost if you want to. Which still makes it more of a caster archetype than a martial combat archetype. Extra attack is nothing fancy for it and it's 14th ability still relies heavily on your spell casting. It just allows you to get an extra physical jab in with a weapon if you want to use your bonus action for that. While it becomes a bit more jack of all trades with Valor by giving it a few more physical options. I've often felt this Archetype is a bit of a trap because it just spreads the Bard's focus out even more. Not helps to reign it in.
pretty much all the others are social or caster archetypes with the occasional single or inadvertent combat ability thrown in as it can be thematically tacked on to something else.
As for comparing it to Druid. I wasn't the first to do that but apparently I didn't get it caught in the post that I made when I replied.
Even the martial subclasses are part of a full caster base class though. If Bard was able to keep up physically with the physical focused classes AND be a full caster something would be wrong there. The flexibility of druid and bard should mean that specialists out perform them in a given role, their strength is being able to fill multiple roles as needed.
Druids may hang in physical combat a bit better (assuming moon here) but until very high level they are giving up access to their full caster status to do so. Additionally in my (admittedly limited) experience, while the druid can soak hits very well with their temp HP, martial classes are more accurate, hit harder, and are generally harder to hit. Honestly that’s probably true for a combat bard too, moon druid is pretty all in on it’s HP pool.
My moon druid kind of handles the role of a melee ranger (we don't have one). She's the one that does the tracking and hunting. She also has great combat shapes, which let her tank. It's actually really fun to play a sensitive, nature-focused person that also can totally tank.
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So far my 5th lvl Wildfire Druid has filled the roles of DPS, Tank, and Healer of the party during each encounter depending on how imitative is rolled and how everyone else's HP is doing. Most of my other player don't have books online so they are using basic rules sub classes with a Draconic bloodline sorcerer, Berserker Barbarian, and Thief Rouge. So depending on how the party rolls into combat i tend to shift my roll around, going closer to last tends to put me in the buff and healing spot. Mid order i tend to tank and buff people for their turn, and going first i go straight damage. But like many people have said Druids are meant to be super flexible and your character should reflect this by learning from each encounter and preparing spells that are both useful in and out of battle (don't forget we are ritual casters and can use some very strong spells for free in exchange for 10 minutes)
the reputation for Bards is an old one and it hasn't held true as they have evolved. Once upon a time they could do most things but they've mostly been narrowed down to skill monkey/caster types. A kind of mostly spell caster with some rogue sprinkled in version of a gish class if you will. Subclasses can get away from this a little bit but many of them fall in line with this as well. Either helping their skill monkey side or helping their caster side. With very little adding physical combat abilities to them.
Druids on the other hand can handle a lot of roles depending on how you focus them and can do other roles to some extent even if they aren't focused into them to a certain extent. It's why people have trouble playing them sometimes and using them because there is so much they can do they have trouble finding the right way to focus them down a bit that works for them.
Literally 40% of the current bard subclasses are all about physical combat. It's probably the most versatile class in the game. I don't disagree with your comments on the druid here, but contrasting it with the bard is weird and out of place. I think bard has a very similar barrier to entry because bards can do pretty much anything.
Now. I don't know what archetype each of your party members is. But I'm not seeing a heavy need for an off tank in your party and to force the druid into that kind of role. particularly considering your circle and class dip. healer and support looks to me just in general like it would help the group a lot more. With maybe occasionally fitting into something like tank or dps. But your potentially set up to do a lot for the party without really wild shaping and jumping onto the front lines. You can choose to buff the party. You can choose to do a fair bit of elemental damage. You can decide to control or restrict the battlefield in various ways. You can heal just like you've set yourself up for doing. it depends a little bit on what the other party members do but you have a lot of options to build around them.
In general your barbarian should be raging and tanking quite a bit to keep his rage up just to make sure that his class keeps functioning properly.
Rogues are potential off tanks if played smartly, particularly with the right archetypes and the correct kind of backup from somebody like your druid or the sorcerer. And are often going to be strong damage dealers regardless.
And the sorcerer it depends on their focus just to how you can best work with the party but somehow I doubt they are the healer in your party or you wouldn't have focused on it. if they are damaged focused that leaves you more open to cast spells that can restrict the enemy or redirect the fight when necessary or do damage to help out. if they are support focused that let's you add a fair bit of outright damage.
I personally don't see a reason why you should be spending a majority of your time off tanking when there is so much more you can do and are equipped for. your also getting into levels where your wild shape is going to start not keeping up with the enemies well enough to be combat effective.
Bards are vastly over shadowed by most other martial classes and archetypes. Even when your using a combat based one. And even those combat based ones tend to rely heavily on magic to make them viable.
Swords is the only one that is outright martial centered on it's own. Relies heavily on it's inspiration die so it's not sustainable long term. And doesn't vastly gain prowess in weapons or armor over the basic bard. But it is definitely benefited by casting to self buff or back it up at ranged when things become to dangerous to be in close.
And Valor. The other "combat focused" archetype for them is actually better used using magic and support as well. Since it's inspiration dice are often best used beefing up other peoples damage or AC over it's own though they can be used to self boost if you want to. Which still makes it more of a caster archetype than a martial combat archetype. Extra attack is nothing fancy for it and it's 14th ability still relies heavily on your spell casting. It just allows you to get an extra physical jab in with a weapon if you want to use your bonus action for that. While it becomes a bit more jack of all trades with Valor by giving it a few more physical options. I've often felt this Archetype is a bit of a trap because it just spreads the Bard's focus out even more. Not helps to reign it in.
pretty much all the others are social or caster archetypes with the occasional single or inadvertent combat ability thrown in as it can be thematically tacked on to something else.
As for comparing it to Druid. I wasn't the first to do that but apparently I didn't get it caught in the post that I made when I replied.
Even the martial subclasses are part of a full caster base class though. If Bard was able to keep up physically with the physical focused classes AND be a full caster something would be wrong there. The flexibility of druid and bard should mean that specialists out perform them in a given role, their strength is being able to fill multiple roles as needed.
My moon druid kind of handles the role of a melee ranger (we don't have one). She's the one that does the tracking and hunting. She also has great combat shapes, which let her tank. It's actually really fun to play a sensitive, nature-focused person that also can totally tank.
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
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Circle of wildfire or stars are easily my favourite, but I enjoy dreams as well.