I like the Guardian of Nature spell on the Druid list, but when looking for recommendations on how best to use it, the most common by far seems to be to boost Circle of the Moon's already stronger wild shapes; while this is nice, it got me thinking about whether there are any other fun combos that can be done using either form, and for other types of druids as well?
Unfortunately I've not come up with many myself! Part of the trouble is that it requires concentration, which limits what you can combine it with.
I was originally thinking there must be some way to take more advantage of the Tree Form's 15 feet of difficult terrain, but so far all I've come up with is knocking enemies prone; since movement costs double this means they'll need to use their full movement to get back up, so need to Dash to escape you. Earth Tremor every round could do it, though it doesn't deal amazing damage, but potentially locking down a 15 foot area of enemies and give your allies advantage against them still seems useful!
Of course the spell itself is good on its own; the Great Tree's advantage bonuses are pretty nifty, and Primal Beast's speed, darkvision and damage are good as well. But I'm curious to find out what others' favourite uses of Guardian of Nature might be; any fun spell combos or neat tricks that I'm missing?
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Land Druid at level 6 is immune to the movement penalty from Plant Growth (the default 1-action cast version of the spell), and it really puts a hamper on enemy movement.. it also stack ontop Guardian of Nature (Tree)'s 15-foot radius for difficult terrain, and this can pretty much stop the movement of a large group of monsters if you are smart with your movement. You'll need to realize youll be the center of attacks, especially if you are 15-feet or less from an enemy, but land based creatures arent going very far in a single turn. Good controlling option, and provides benefits for your dex and wisdom based attacks...
Earth tremor is very situation and not worth it to cast multiple times in one encounter in my opinion... but use it for the difficult terran aspect, not damage.
Honestly, at higher levels when your cantrips do 3 dice of damage, ThunderClap can be a very resource efficent means of hitting multiple targets of you want to get close with Tree aspect. And ice knife (level 1), thorn whip and produce flame all get advantage on their attack rolls with tree aspect.
The Beast version of Guardian of nature is really only useful if you are playing a hybrid multi class Druid, that relies on strength based attacks.. or obviously moon druids (Giant Scorpion with its crappy +5 to attack comes to mind, and three attacks rach gaining 1d6 damage). But otherwise unless can make multiple melee attacks or use strength as a base for attacks it has limited use.
It’s pretty good with Ranger, but with Druid your options are limited. The moon Druid in my party didn’t take it, and while I am planning on taking it, I’m using a homebrew subclass with a bonus to weapon attacks, so that isn’t very helpful.
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I like the Guardian of Nature spell on the Druid list, but when looking for recommendations on how best to use it, the most common by far seems to be to boost Circle of the Moon's already stronger wild shapes; while this is nice, it got me thinking about whether there are any other fun combos that can be done using either form, and for other types of druids as well?
Unfortunately I've not come up with many myself! Part of the trouble is that it requires concentration, which limits what you can combine it with.
I was originally thinking there must be some way to take more advantage of the Tree Form's 15 feet of difficult terrain, but so far all I've come up with is knocking enemies prone; since movement costs double this means they'll need to use their full movement to get back up, so need to Dash to escape you. Earth Tremor every round could do it, though it doesn't deal amazing damage, but potentially locking down a 15 foot area of enemies and give your allies advantage against them still seems useful!
Of course the spell itself is good on its own; the Great Tree's advantage bonuses are pretty nifty, and Primal Beast's speed, darkvision and damage are good as well. But I'm curious to find out what others' favourite uses of Guardian of Nature might be; any fun spell combos or neat tricks that I'm missing?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Land Druid at level 6 is immune to the movement penalty from Plant Growth (the default 1-action cast version of the spell), and it really puts a hamper on enemy movement.. it also stack ontop Guardian of Nature (Tree)'s 15-foot radius for difficult terrain, and this can pretty much stop the movement of a large group of monsters if you are smart with your movement. You'll need to realize youll be the center of attacks, especially if you are 15-feet or less from an enemy, but land based creatures arent going very far in a single turn. Good controlling option, and provides benefits for your dex and wisdom based attacks...
Earth tremor is very situation and not worth it to cast multiple times in one encounter in my opinion... but use it for the difficult terran aspect, not damage.
Honestly, at higher levels when your cantrips do 3 dice of damage, ThunderClap can be a very resource efficent means of hitting multiple targets of you want to get close with Tree aspect. And ice knife (level 1), thorn whip and produce flame all get advantage on their attack rolls with tree aspect.
The Beast version of Guardian of nature is really only useful if you are playing a hybrid multi class Druid, that relies on strength based attacks.. or obviously moon druids (Giant Scorpion with its crappy +5 to attack comes to mind, and three attacks rach gaining 1d6 damage). But otherwise unless can make multiple melee attacks or use strength as a base for attacks it has limited use.
It’s pretty good with Ranger, but with Druid your options are limited. The moon Druid in my party didn’t take it, and while I am planning on taking it, I’m using a homebrew subclass with a bonus to weapon attacks, so that isn’t very helpful.