I am a simple dungeon master looking for reasons to play each class. (My players often ask why they should play “x” class and I was wondering what you guys think)
Druids are quite complex. However they have crazy versatility with wild shape. Their spells are very nature themed and stuff so it's good for flavor. They can play a moon druid to rampage as a big animal if they want to do that, or they can play another subclass to expansions on their magical capabilities.
Druids can fill almost any role in the part in the early to mid game with the right subclass. And are quite beginner friendly as far as caster classes go.
Divine casting (Druid and Cleric) are a lot more beginner friendly for spell casting, as you have full access to all of their spells and can swap out during a long rest. Arcane casters, excluding the wizard who can expand their spell book, have to be more familiar with the spells they choose each level. Arcane spells can arguably be more powerful in a fight… but it’s difficult and/or time consuming to swap spells once you’ve picked them… ie: if you chose all fire damaging spells as an arcane caster because they tend to have higher dps on paper, and you soon realize that everything you fight is resistant to fire… you’ll have to wait to level up to get spells that are better suited for the campaign. You can’t experiment as easily with your spell choices on each encounter, which means you have to be very familiar with as many spells available to your class prior to selecting it as a learned spell. Druids also have a decent variation of DC Save vs Attack Roll for combat cantrips, unlike the cleric which is typically stuck with Save or Miss cantrips in the combat roll… they also have 3 melee range cantrips which can give you some variety to how you want to play your druid.
finally, most of your core Druid spells are concentration spells, can become frustrating for new players who learn that they can only concentrate on a single spell at a time… but they will also learn that this reduces the overall number of spells they need to cast throughout an encounter, allowing them to learn that they can save their highest level spell slots for the big fight later on. This is a huge step to learn when playing a Druid beyond middle class, that makes them feel somewhat relevant in the early to mid tiers.
Wildshape, whether as a Moon Druid or regular Druid, allows you to shapeshifter into different beasts that can be useful in different situations. A Moon Druid at higher levels may still find themselves turning to a CR 0 or 1/4 beast like a cat, rat or owl, just to blend into an environment or scout. Add in the Moon Druid’s ability to facetank with some of the Beasts, and you can do pretty much anything short of being the Damage Dealer of the party, and even then the Brown Bear does plenty of damage between level 2 to 6
also big baddy encounters, Wisdom saves are some of the most important saves against END IT ALL effects or spells. Sure, it’s not going to mitigate damage, but when you fail a wisdom save in combat, it can sometimes end up killing the entire party.. not just you! Int saves are sometimes meh, as they are generally less common, but spells that require an Int save are pretty dangerous as well.
the big downside is that you can be kind of squishy in as a Druid (not including your Wildshape). HP is acceptable, especially because you will putting points into CON for ~90% of your spells that are concentration.
Druids are all about versatility, they aren't necessarily the best at any one thing, but they are great at a lot of things.
They have a great spell list with a little bit of everything, be it damage spells like Call Lightning and Erupting Earth, control spells like Hold Person, area denial spells like Spike Growth, healing/resurrection spells like Cure Wounds, Healing Spirit, and Revivify, as well as general utility spells that give them lots of things to do out of combat. Tasha's has given them additional spells including the new Summon spells, and they're pretty much going to have a spell available to do what you need.
Wildshape will generally be more useful out of combat unless you're playing Circle of the Moon, but give you great options for scouting and stealthing around. Tasha's also lets you use a charge of Wildshape to cast Find Familiar, which is even more useful for scouting (and lets you summon Owl familiars before you can turn into one at Lvl8) as well as some utility in combat. If you are playing Circle of the Moon, Wildshape will be a lot of your combat potential, as well as be a pool of extra HP to keep you alive.
The different Circles will change how the Druids play. Circle of Land and Circle of Stars focus primarily on spellcasting, Circle of Shepherd is all about the Totems and conjured beasts, Circle of Moon is all about turning into a bear and biting people's faces off, and Circle of Spores leans into the circle of life and death/decay, and gains some extra close range/melee survivability.
They're also not terribly squishy for a spellcaster, thanks to Medium Armour and Shield proficiencies, and the extra HP from Wildshapes. Depending on how strict your DM is, actually finding decent armour may be a mission, but it's definitely a possibility.
Druids are one of the most powerful classes, even using a vanilla subclass like the Land Druid. However, I would caution against the idea that they are beginner friendly unless the expectations of the players and those of the DM are similar in terms of the deadliness of the campaign.
Between wild-shaping, spell-casting, and the use of sub-class features, Druids are more difficult to play well than an Evocation Wizard or similarly-built Sorcerer. Almost all their good spells are concentration and rather than doing a lot of damage all at once, many require the player to preserve their concentration through most of the combat for them to shine. The lack of immediate, obvious "bang for their buck" spells puts some people off. Wild-shape on its own is a powerful feature due to its versatility, but requires research, comparison of stats, and imagination to use well. IOW, a player who wants to feel like they are contributing to the party needs to do work outside of the game session to make their Druid effective in the long term.
For people who like a "nature" theme, who have the inclination to do a bit of "homework", and who like to stretch their mind in terms of solving non-linear puzzles, Druids are a wonderfully fun class. At the same time, they can be disappointing to those who are just want to sit down at the table and play.
Sorry for the slow response Song_of_blues. I may have been poorly describing what i meant by "good for beginners" and used the term beginner friendly. Its a good class to teach people additional mechanics for of DnD and spark creativity with all the abilities and spells they have at hand, but by no means is it a good for a First Time Player.
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I am a simple dungeon master looking for reasons to play each class. (My players often ask why they should play “x” class and I was wondering what you guys think)
Druids are quite complex. However they have crazy versatility with wild shape. Their spells are very nature themed and stuff so it's good for flavor. They can play a moon druid to rampage as a big animal if they want to do that, or they can play another subclass to expansions on their magical capabilities.
Druids can fill almost any role in the part in the early to mid game with the right subclass. And are quite beginner friendly as far as caster classes go.
Divine casting (Druid and Cleric) are a lot more beginner friendly for spell casting, as you have full access to all of their spells and can swap out during a long rest. Arcane casters, excluding the wizard who can expand their spell book, have to be more familiar with the spells they choose each level. Arcane spells can arguably be more powerful in a fight… but it’s difficult and/or time consuming to swap spells once you’ve picked them… ie: if you chose all fire damaging spells as an arcane caster because they tend to have higher dps on paper, and you soon realize that everything you fight is resistant to fire… you’ll have to wait to level up to get spells that are better suited for the campaign. You can’t experiment as easily with your spell choices on each encounter, which means you have to be very familiar with as many spells available to your class prior to selecting it as a learned spell.
Druids also have a decent variation of DC Save vs Attack Roll for combat cantrips, unlike the cleric which is typically stuck with Save or Miss cantrips in the combat roll… they also have 3 melee range cantrips which can give you some variety to how you want to play your druid.
finally, most of your core Druid spells are concentration spells, can become frustrating for new players who learn that they can only concentrate on a single spell at a time… but they will also learn that this reduces the overall number of spells they need to cast throughout an encounter, allowing them to learn that they can save their highest level spell slots for the big fight later on. This is a huge step to learn when playing a Druid beyond middle class, that makes them feel somewhat relevant in the early to mid tiers.
Wildshape, whether as a Moon Druid or regular Druid, allows you to shapeshifter into different beasts that can be useful in different situations. A Moon Druid at higher levels may still find themselves turning to a CR 0 or 1/4 beast like a cat, rat or owl, just to blend into an environment or scout. Add in the Moon Druid’s ability to facetank with some of the Beasts, and you can do pretty much anything short of being the Damage Dealer of the party, and even then the Brown Bear does plenty of damage between level 2 to 6
also big baddy encounters, Wisdom saves are some of the most important saves against END IT ALL effects or spells. Sure, it’s not going to mitigate damage, but when you fail a wisdom save in combat, it can sometimes end up killing the entire party.. not just you! Int saves are sometimes meh, as they are generally less common, but spells that require an Int save are pretty dangerous as well.
the big downside is that you can be kind of squishy in as a Druid (not including your Wildshape). HP is acceptable, especially because you will putting points into CON for ~90% of your spells that are concentration.
Druids are all about versatility, they aren't necessarily the best at any one thing, but they are great at a lot of things.
They have a great spell list with a little bit of everything, be it damage spells like Call Lightning and Erupting Earth, control spells like Hold Person, area denial spells like Spike Growth, healing/resurrection spells like Cure Wounds, Healing Spirit, and Revivify, as well as general utility spells that give them lots of things to do out of combat. Tasha's has given them additional spells including the new Summon spells, and they're pretty much going to have a spell available to do what you need.
Wildshape will generally be more useful out of combat unless you're playing Circle of the Moon, but give you great options for scouting and stealthing around. Tasha's also lets you use a charge of Wildshape to cast Find Familiar, which is even more useful for scouting (and lets you summon Owl familiars before you can turn into one at Lvl8) as well as some utility in combat. If you are playing Circle of the Moon, Wildshape will be a lot of your combat potential, as well as be a pool of extra HP to keep you alive.
The different Circles will change how the Druids play. Circle of Land and Circle of Stars focus primarily on spellcasting, Circle of Shepherd is all about the Totems and conjured beasts, Circle of Moon is all about turning into a bear and biting people's faces off, and Circle of Spores leans into the circle of life and death/decay, and gains some extra close range/melee survivability.
They're also not terribly squishy for a spellcaster, thanks to Medium Armour and Shield proficiencies, and the extra HP from Wildshapes. Depending on how strict your DM is, actually finding decent armour may be a mission, but it's definitely a possibility.
Also, just to add.. I don't think the Druid is the best class, just very appealing for some players.. especially newbies
Druids are one of the most powerful classes, even using a vanilla subclass like the Land Druid. However, I would caution against the idea that they are beginner friendly unless the expectations of the players and those of the DM are similar in terms of the deadliness of the campaign.
Between wild-shaping, spell-casting, and the use of sub-class features, Druids are more difficult to play well than an Evocation Wizard or similarly-built Sorcerer. Almost all their good spells are concentration and rather than doing a lot of damage all at once, many require the player to preserve their concentration through most of the combat for them to shine. The lack of immediate, obvious "bang for their buck" spells puts some people off. Wild-shape on its own is a powerful feature due to its versatility, but requires research, comparison of stats, and imagination to use well. IOW, a player who wants to feel like they are contributing to the party needs to do work outside of the game session to make their Druid effective in the long term.
For people who like a "nature" theme, who have the inclination to do a bit of "homework", and who like to stretch their mind in terms of solving non-linear puzzles, Druids are a wonderfully fun class. At the same time, they can be disappointing to those who are just want to sit down at the table and play.
Sorry for the slow response Song_of_blues. I may have been poorly describing what i meant by "good for beginners" and used the term beginner friendly. Its a good class to teach people additional mechanics for of DnD and spark creativity with all the abilities and spells they have at hand, but by no means is it a good for a First Time Player.