So my friends and I are in the very early stages of planning our next campaign and I'm kinda losing interest in my character idea. I was planning on being a gem dragonborn druid with the circle of stars, but I'm not sure about it anymore. I'm just kinda iffy on a druid overall, I've never played one before so I thought it'd be fun to be something new. I don't want to through our group dynamic off if I were to change my mind though. We've got a paladin (devotion), ranger(drake), rogue(arcane), and warlock(genie), so I'm not really sure what would mesh well into that group if I decide to go with something else.
It seems like as a star druid you are essentially flex. You can support, heal, blast a bit, ranged attack, tank a few hits with wildshape, and you have decent social stats. The only other things that I can think of that fit all those roles is a cleric, or a wizard multiclass (for armor proficiency but not really health).
You have most bases covered there tbh. The only thing your light on is healing but that’s manageable with a good dm, and primary casting. A wizard, sorcerer, Druid or cleric would work. Even a warlock wouldn’t be terrible.
So my friends and I are in the very early stages of planning our next campaign and I'm kinda losing interest in my character idea. I was planning on being a gem dragonborn druid with the circle of stars, but I'm not sure about it anymore. I'm just kinda iffy on a druid overall, I've never played one before so I thought it'd be fun to be something new. I don't want to through our group dynamic off if I were to change my mind though. We've got a paladin (devotion), ranger(drake), rogue(arcane), and warlock(genie), so I'm not really sure what would mesh well into that group if I decide to go with something else.
Circle of Stars druid is a very adaptable subclass, and in some ways is the least "druidy" option of the bunch. I'm playing one right now that I didn't even bother to give Nature proficiency to, and so far I've used her Wild Shapes exclusively for the Starry Forms and not for turning into animals. (Whenever nature questions come up she can't answer, she tends to burst into tears and shout "I'm not that kind of druid!")
What she is good at is ranged attacks (extra guiding bolts plus Archer form), healing (Chalice form) and utility spells like Faerie Fire, Pass Without Trace etc.
Thematically it's also a subclass that pairs well with gem dragonborn, having a more science-like flavor (in addition to the power gamer move of picking crystal ancestry for the radiant damage boost)
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Cleric or Artificer might be other good options, you could be a moon Druid and ask the DM if you could reflavor all your wildshapes to be variations of dragon.
I don't know how many Dragonborn you have on your team, but they don't have dark vision, a twilight Cleric outdistances every dark vision choice in the game I think.
I played a Druid who was raised solely in a city, daughter to an ambassador she had never seen a forest, or even a proper grass plain. The closest she had come was the trees and lawn in the formal gardens.
She knew all about urban foxes, rats, ivy (lots of it grew on the sides of important or old houses), she had read about things in the library but most of her information was wrong, She had a high wisdom stat so she wasn’t useless but I played her as being completely out of her depth anywhere but in an urban setting. She had no proficiency in nature and, for RP until she was about level 7 I generally rolled disadvantage for nature or history checks if we where in an area that she was not used to. It was great roleplaying her trying to avoid getting muddy or wet, or getting icky when she had to cut open a creature.
I am DMing a twighlight cleric, didn’t properly read there abilities when the player picked it (was a character swap at level 3 as he was not enjoying being a bard). The party didn’t know at that point that the tier 1 BBEG was an Aboleth enslaving people, they have recently found that out and the cleric then re read and realized he can remove the charm condition from anyone with his channel divinity. Suddenly the dwarf town they are heading to with 75% of the dwarves enslaved seems less of a challenge, he can litterly just walk through the crowds and free loads of them quickly to help them.
I feel like a Bard, Cleric, or Druid would work just fine to fill that 5th spot. Artificer might be fine too. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the class to be certain if it'd be good for that 5th spot.
The most obvious thing that your party seems to be missing is the big mojo of a full caster. There are lots of different varieties of mojo that full casters can bring, and a Stars Druid is pretty versatile at filling that gap in a number of ways, as has been mentioned.
That being said, Clerics are the best class and you can never go wrong with a Cleric. They have a wide variety of great spells for support, utility, and combat. They're at least decent in straight combat regardless of domain choice, and different domains let you be extra awesome at specific things. If you want to back up the Paladin (and possibly the Ranger, if they go a route that focuses on melee) on the front line then War, Forge, Tempest, Nature,and Life domains all give you heavy armor proficiency (War and Tempest also grant martial weapons) and get spells and abilities to amplify your direct ass-whooping abilities. Yes, Life does that too because you get all the healing spells automatically prepared as domain spells so you can use your regular prepared ones for combat spells and you also get Divine Strike to augment melee damage; I've been playing a Life cleric for the better part of a year now and that character is extremely effective as a combatant. Grave domain is great for less physical involvement while mixing healing and protection for your allies and weakening foes for your martial allies to bang on them harder (such as a Path to the Grave right before your Rogue sneak attacks or the Paladin rolls in with a smite). Light Clerics are blasters and Death is good for impairing and weakening foes in a more subtle but no less effective manner. Twilight is frequently held up as one of the most overpowered subclasses in official WotC material, which (like many things on the internet) is often exaggerated but it is very effective in a lot of ways. Peace domain focuses mainly on protection and healing but you still have all of the regular Cleric spells available to fight with as when you aren't tanking up your allies. Order gives you heavy armor, more battlefield control options (including granting an ally an extra attack whenever you cast a healing or buff spell on them), and some of their abilities are also potentially of major use in social situations. Trickery might sound like it's Rogue-ish focused but it's really more about mobility to let you affect things from an advantageous position, both in and out of battle.
Clerics can fill out just about any role depending on how you build them, and they can usually do at least one thing great while still doing a few others well, and pretty much everything else except for sneaking around at least decent (you already have a Rogue for the sneaky stuff and Clerics can buff or otherwise aid them in many situations just like they can everybody else).
Alternatively, Bards can be almost as awesome as Clerics in a lot of ways, again with the various subclass options granting many different specialized skillsets.
Your party is a bit light on healing, as folk have mentioned, so if you can pick up a bonus-action heal (Healing Word or 2nd level Healing Spirit on an appropriate user of that concentration spell) that'd be great, but anything would fit in there.
Play what you want. Talk to your crew, but really, anything slots in there just fine.
I'd put in a good word for Druid, because I am playing my first one and the sheer number of great options you have are awesome, but seriously, play what you think you'd like.
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So my friends and I are in the very early stages of planning our next campaign and I'm kinda losing interest in my character idea. I was planning on being a gem dragonborn druid with the circle of stars, but I'm not sure about it anymore. I'm just kinda iffy on a druid overall, I've never played one before so I thought it'd be fun to be something new. I don't want to through our group dynamic off if I were to change my mind though. We've got a paladin (devotion), ranger(drake), rogue(arcane), and warlock(genie), so I'm not really sure what would mesh well into that group if I decide to go with something else.
It seems like as a star druid you are essentially flex. You can support, heal, blast a bit, ranged attack, tank a few hits with wildshape, and you have decent social stats. The only other things that I can think of that fit all those roles is a cleric, or a wizard multiclass (for armor proficiency but not really health).
You have most bases covered there tbh. The only thing your light on is healing but that’s manageable with a good dm, and primary casting. A wizard, sorcerer, Druid or cleric would work. Even a warlock wouldn’t be terrible.
have you got a story you want to tell
If you want to play the "flex" sort of character: Bards and Clerics of their various flavours work just as well as druids.
If you want tos tick with druid but lean harder into the draconic theme; could always swap to wildfire druid.
Circle of Stars druid is a very adaptable subclass, and in some ways is the least "druidy" option of the bunch. I'm playing one right now that I didn't even bother to give Nature proficiency to, and so far I've used her Wild Shapes exclusively for the Starry Forms and not for turning into animals. (Whenever nature questions come up she can't answer, she tends to burst into tears and shout "I'm not that kind of druid!")
What she is good at is ranged attacks (extra guiding bolts plus Archer form), healing (Chalice form) and utility spells like Faerie Fire, Pass Without Trace etc.
Thematically it's also a subclass that pairs well with gem dragonborn, having a more science-like flavor (in addition to the power gamer move of picking crystal ancestry for the radiant damage boost)
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Cleric or Artificer might be other good options, you could be a moon Druid and ask the DM if you could reflavor all your wildshapes to be variations of dragon.
I don't know how many Dragonborn you have on your team, but they don't have dark vision, a twilight Cleric outdistances every dark vision choice in the game I think.
I played a Druid who was raised solely in a city, daughter to an ambassador she had never seen a forest, or even a proper grass plain. The closest she had come was the trees and lawn in the formal gardens.
She knew all about urban foxes, rats, ivy (lots of it grew on the sides of important or old houses), she had read about things in the library but most of her information was wrong, She had a high wisdom stat so she wasn’t useless but I played her as being completely out of her depth anywhere but in an urban setting. She had no proficiency in nature and, for RP until she was about level 7 I generally rolled disadvantage for nature or history checks if we where in an area that she was not used to. It was great roleplaying her trying to avoid getting muddy or wet, or getting icky when she had to cut open a creature.
I am DMing a twighlight cleric, didn’t properly read there abilities when the player picked it (was a character swap at level 3 as he was not enjoying being a bard). The party didn’t know at that point that the tier 1 BBEG was an Aboleth enslaving people, they have recently found that out and the cleric then re read and realized he can remove the charm condition from anyone with his channel divinity. Suddenly the dwarf town they are heading to with 75% of the dwarves enslaved seems less of a challenge, he can litterly just walk through the crowds and free loads of them quickly to help them.
I feel like a Bard, Cleric, or Druid would work just fine to fill that 5th spot. Artificer might be fine too. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the class to be certain if it'd be good for that 5th spot.
The most obvious thing that your party seems to be missing is the big mojo of a full caster. There are lots of different varieties of mojo that full casters can bring, and a Stars Druid is pretty versatile at filling that gap in a number of ways, as has been mentioned.
That being said, Clerics are the best class and you can never go wrong with a Cleric. They have a wide variety of great spells for support, utility, and combat. They're at least decent in straight combat regardless of domain choice, and different domains let you be extra awesome at specific things. If you want to back up the Paladin (and possibly the Ranger, if they go a route that focuses on melee) on the front line then War, Forge, Tempest, Nature,and Life domains all give you heavy armor proficiency (War and Tempest also grant martial weapons) and get spells and abilities to amplify your direct ass-whooping abilities. Yes, Life does that too because you get all the healing spells automatically prepared as domain spells so you can use your regular prepared ones for combat spells and you also get Divine Strike to augment melee damage; I've been playing a Life cleric for the better part of a year now and that character is extremely effective as a combatant. Grave domain is great for less physical involvement while mixing healing and protection for your allies and weakening foes for your martial allies to bang on them harder (such as a Path to the Grave right before your Rogue sneak attacks or the Paladin rolls in with a smite). Light Clerics are blasters and Death is good for impairing and weakening foes in a more subtle but no less effective manner. Twilight is frequently held up as one of the most overpowered subclasses in official WotC material, which (like many things on the internet) is often exaggerated but it is very effective in a lot of ways. Peace domain focuses mainly on protection and healing but you still have all of the regular Cleric spells available to fight with as when you aren't tanking up your allies. Order gives you heavy armor, more battlefield control options (including granting an ally an extra attack whenever you cast a healing or buff spell on them), and some of their abilities are also potentially of major use in social situations. Trickery might sound like it's Rogue-ish focused but it's really more about mobility to let you affect things from an advantageous position, both in and out of battle.
Clerics can fill out just about any role depending on how you build them, and they can usually do at least one thing great while still doing a few others well, and pretty much everything else except for sneaking around at least decent (you already have a Rogue for the sneaky stuff and Clerics can buff or otherwise aid them in many situations just like they can everybody else).
Alternatively, Bards can be almost as awesome as Clerics in a lot of ways, again with the various subclass options granting many different specialized skillsets.
What's fun?
Your party is a bit light on healing, as folk have mentioned, so if you can pick up a bonus-action heal (Healing Word or 2nd level Healing Spirit on an appropriate user of that concentration spell) that'd be great, but anything would fit in there.
Play what you want. Talk to your crew, but really, anything slots in there just fine.
I'd put in a good word for Druid, because I am playing my first one and the sheer number of great options you have are awesome, but seriously, play what you think you'd like.