Our Level 4 party (including my Circle of Stars Druid + Swarmkeeper Ranger, Alchemist Artificer, and homebrew Paladin) barely managed to survive a battle with 5 90+ HP enemies (each with 3 attacks). In retrospect, it seems like we struggled to “divide and conquer.” That is, we didn’t take any of the enemies out of the fight, but rather attacked all the enemies simultaneously. The battle took 18 rounds. I think we could’ve much better if we had used a divide and conquer strategy! Which got me thinking about (future) divide and conquer spells for my Stars Druid …
What are the best 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-Level spells for Druids to consider to help with the need to divide and conquer? I’m interested in spells with similar effects to Hypnotic Pattern or Banishment, which I’ve enjoyed using with other full casters. I’m still getting to know the Druid spell list.
tl; dr: What are the best “divide and conquer” Druid spells to take an enemy temporarily out of a battle?
Entangle is a classic, though it won't work as well on enemies with good Strength.
I'm a fan of Snare personally because it doesn't require concentration and has a long duration (though an enemy will usually save out of it much sooner); you can put a few of these down if you know an enemy's path and take several out of the fight for the first few rounds.
Spike Growth is a favourite because it creates difficult terrain and deals more damage if an enemy forces its way through rather than stopping (depending upon how your DM rules it). This doesn't really divide and conquer as such, but if one enemy takes damage and the others go around I guess it does? Even if they all go around, that should be at least one extra round of ranged attacks you can make against them.
Plant Growth is 3rd level, doesn't require concentration, and can create a huge area of extra difficult terrain. What's more, it actually stacks, so if you also throw down an area of Spike Growth enemies will move at 1/8th 1/5th speed (and take damage) where they overlap. Again it's not really "divide and conquer" but it means more time to attack at range, so you can take down some enemies before they can get to you.
Sleet Storm is another 3rd level, creates difficult terrain with a large radius, and also has a chance to knock enemies prone which will slow down some of them. Alternatively you could drop the spell before your allies rush in, as they'll get advantage against prone enemies with melee attacks. The spell also obscures the area, which may be to your benefit if the enemy has ranged attacks of their own.
Tidal Wave is a really good option as it's easier to target if your goal is separation; aim for the most concentrated/lined up group and you should throw and knock prone at least some of them to spread them out a bit, as well as dealing damage.
Confusion is a neat 4th level spell, and is good for divide and conquer due to how random its effects are (including having enemies potentially attack each other).
And these are just a few from the earlier levels, basically you'll want to look through all the "control" spells available to Druids, as you may find something that fits your build that I might have missed.
I would also say, it sounds like your group suffers from the same "this one's mine" mentallity that mine usually do; I overcame that in my case by constantly stealing people's kills and bragging about it, so they started trying to steal mine in return, resulting in most of the party focusing on whichever target(s) I picked, making us a much more efficient party (for all the wrong reasons).
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.
Correction to the above: Plant Growth plus Spike Growth is not 1/8 movement, it's 1/5. Plant Growth requires victims to spend 4' movement to move 1', difficult terrain requires victims spend +1' movement per 1' moved, so the combination is (4+1)=5' movement per 1' moved. Also, Snare has a casting time of 1 minute, so not much use unless it's a prepared ambush.
Druids are not super into hard cc, mostly what they have is soft cc that you can bull through if you're willing to take (often quite high) damage, but some other options
Flaming Sphere isn't normally cc, but it does fill a 5' space, so you can use it to plug holes.
Moonbeam won't actually stop people, but it's pretty unhealthy to outright ignore it.
Conjure Animals is normally thought of as offensive, but it can actually provide a rather substantial wall of meat against melee opponents.
If the enemy has archers as well as melee characters, Wind Wall is your friend.
Stone Shape is another spell that can situationally block people.
Correction to the above: Plant Growth plus Spike Growth is not 1/8 movement, it's 1/5. Plant Growth requires victims to spend 4' movement to move 1', difficult terrain requires victims spend +1' movement per 1' moved, so the combination is (4+1)=5' movement per 1' moved. Also, Snare has a casting time of 1 minute, so not much use unless it's a prepared ambush.
To be fair this isn't entirely clear RAW and there's been no official clarification as to whether plant growth (or the other spells that create 1/4 movement) + difficult terrain is 1/8 or 1/5 movement.
The confusion comes from the 2 similar but arguably different definitions of difficult terrain given in the players handbook. In the rules on movement in the adventuring section the effect of difficult terrain is described as: "You move at half speed in difficult terrain--moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed--so you can cover only half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, or a day." If you go based on the "you move at half speed in difficult terrain" or the "you can cover only half the normal distance" language then plant growth plus difficult terrain should mean 1/8 normal speed. If you go based on the "moving 1 foot ... costs 2 feet" then it would be 1/5 speed.
However, in the section on combat difficult terrain is defined such that: "Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot. This rule is true even if multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain." Using this language it seems the 1/5th movement interpretation should be correct.
Personally I go with the 1/5 interpretation but it would be cool if WOTC would issue an errata or at least have JC clarify the situation in a tweet.
Yeah, looking at it more closely again 1/5th is probably what I'd go with as well; thanks for the clarifications both of you!
Either way, the combo still makes enemies extra slow; and even with "only" 1/5th speed that means to cross Spike Growth could cost up to 100 feet of movement, dealing damage for every five feet they eventually make it, which isn't half bad for slowing enemies enough to pick some off!
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.
Hallucinatory Terrain: Create the illusion of a small narrow bridge that the enemies have to cross to get to you, forcing them to engage one at a time and be vulnerable to your ranges attackers.
Wall of Fire: How has this not been suggested yet? 60ft wide means every enemy behind it will likely need to walk around it, and with the hot side extending it’s effective damaging width, it’ll require enemies a couple rounds to get to you at least.
Watery Sphere: Restrain at will for the duration? Yes please!
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Our Level 4 party (including my Circle of Stars Druid + Swarmkeeper Ranger, Alchemist Artificer, and homebrew Paladin) barely managed to survive a battle with 5 90+ HP enemies (each with 3 attacks). In retrospect, it seems like we struggled to “divide and conquer.” That is, we didn’t take any of the enemies out of the fight, but rather attacked all the enemies simultaneously. The battle took 18 rounds. I think we could’ve much better if we had used a divide and conquer strategy! Which got me thinking about (future) divide and conquer spells for my Stars Druid …
What are the best 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-Level spells for Druids to consider to help with the need to divide and conquer? I’m interested in spells with similar effects to Hypnotic Pattern or Banishment, which I’ve enjoyed using with other full casters. I’m still getting to know the Druid spell list.
tl; dr: What are the best “divide and conquer” Druid spells to take an enemy temporarily out of a battle?
You've got more than a few options as a Druid:
1/8th1/5th speed (and take damage) where they overlap. Again it's not really "divide and conquer" but it means more time to attack at range, so you can take down some enemies before they can get to you.And these are just a few from the earlier levels, basically you'll want to look through all the "control" spells available to Druids, as you may find something that fits your build that I might have missed.
I would also say, it sounds like your group suffers from the same "this one's mine" mentallity that mine usually do; I overcame that in my case by constantly stealing people's kills and bragging about it, so they started trying to steal mine in return, resulting in most of the party focusing on whichever target(s) I picked, making us a much more efficient party (for all the wrong reasons).
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.
Correction to the above: Plant Growth plus Spike Growth is not 1/8 movement, it's 1/5. Plant Growth requires victims to spend 4' movement to move 1', difficult terrain requires victims spend +1' movement per 1' moved, so the combination is (4+1)=5' movement per 1' moved. Also, Snare has a casting time of 1 minute, so not much use unless it's a prepared ambush.
Druids are not super into hard cc, mostly what they have is soft cc that you can bull through if you're willing to take (often quite high) damage, but some other options
To be fair this isn't entirely clear RAW and there's been no official clarification as to whether plant growth (or the other spells that create 1/4 movement) + difficult terrain is 1/8 or 1/5 movement.
The confusion comes from the 2 similar but arguably different definitions of difficult terrain given in the players handbook. In the rules on movement in the adventuring section the effect of difficult terrain is described as: "You move at half speed in difficult terrain--moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed--so you can cover only half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, or a day." If you go based on the "you move at half speed in difficult terrain" or the "you can cover only half the normal distance" language then plant growth plus difficult terrain should mean 1/8 normal speed. If you go based on the "moving 1 foot ... costs 2 feet" then it would be 1/5 speed.
However, in the section on combat difficult terrain is defined such that: "Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot. This rule is true even if multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain." Using this language it seems the 1/5th movement interpretation should be correct.
Personally I go with the 1/5 interpretation but it would be cool if WOTC would issue an errata or at least have JC clarify the situation in a tweet.
Yeah, looking at it more closely again 1/5th is probably what I'd go with as well; thanks for the clarifications both of you!
Either way, the combo still makes enemies extra slow; and even with "only" 1/5th speed that means to cross Spike Growth could cost up to 100 feet of movement, dealing damage for every five feet they eventually make it, which isn't half bad for slowing enemies enough to pick some off!
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.
Some other creative options:
Hallucinatory Terrain: Create the illusion of a small narrow bridge that the enemies have to cross to get to you, forcing them to engage one at a time and be vulnerable to your ranges attackers.
Wall of Fire: How has this not been suggested yet? 60ft wide means every enemy behind it will likely need to walk around it, and with the hot side extending it’s effective damaging width, it’ll require enemies a couple rounds to get to you at least.
Watery Sphere: Restrain at will for the duration? Yes please!