I am playing a level 3 Stars Druid in a Curse or Strahd campaign. We recently randomly encountered 6 werewolves. I had lowest initiative. When it was my turn, I cast moonbeam and took my starry archer form. I then proceeded to move the moonbeam around and pick off werewolves with my arrows. (Until they started swarming me and I fell unconscious)
Originally, when we encountered them, they were all bunched up and my first thought was to cast faerie fire. When it was my turn though, I would only have been able to get 4 out of the 6 (still none of my party would have been hit, though). I could have then used guiding bolt and my starry arrows to attack.
I now feeling giving my party advantage would have been more beneficial but the wolves also could have made their saves.
What else do you have in your party? Moonbeam is greatly improved if your team plays into its strengths. If someone can grapple enemies and hold them in the beam, you don't need to use your action to move it. After level 5, that's potentially a trade of 1/2 attacks for multiple full actions.
But if you don't have a strong front line, perhaps using moonbeam for damage isn't generally the best strategy (although you'd think werewolves would be the perfect situation. I'm not familiar with the stat blocks, and I don't want to check to see how much of an impact it will make because i'm playing CoS). Consider using conjure animals. They do damage, don't require subsequent actions , and control the battlefield. Of course it's level 3 spell, so you might not have it yet. If you can work out the spell component, Summon Beast is a viable 2nd level spell alternative.
To follow up on Zoltar... yes, Werewolves are indeed Shapechangers and should have been rolling at disadvantage on those saving throws and on a failed save they have to revert back to their original form (which is probably Human, depending on the story lore), so it DOES seem like a great idea.... but most importantly, your party composition and how the battlefield was laid out makes a big difference. If you're all spread out and none of them will tank for you, then those werewolves will make a straight b-line towards you.
If you can't keep enemies in place or you can't use Moonbeam as a chokepoint, then Conjure Beasts and Summon Beast are both great use of control. Otherwise, something like Spike Growth can be a great deterent from making them rush directly at you.
Our party consist of a paladin, eldritch knight, and two artificers. The paladin and knight had a front line and I was further back, but nobody thought to hold the werewolves in place. They would take the damage and revert to human form. Then they would disengage, back up, and on their next action transform again. So it slowed them down. My action was taken up by moving the moonbeam when I could have been using guiding bolt. And I wonder if we could have done more damage with advantage on the hits. Overall my party was rolling pretty poorly.
I might have to suggest grappling them next time we encounter werewolves...
No, in my opinion i think you were doing the right thing on your turn if the Werewolves were spending their actions every other turn Polymorphing/shapeshifting or disengage and not attacking on that round. Really falls on your team mates to do damage if youre eating up your opponents Action every other turn.
Perhaps wildshaping into a squirrel and climbing up a tree or getting out of reach may have been a useful thing to do... but something was going awry if they were able to rush you with two front lines and 2 midline casters. The intelligent monsters thought you were a bigger threat and went after you
Hello,
I am playing a level 3 Stars Druid in a Curse or Strahd campaign. We recently randomly encountered 6 werewolves. I had lowest initiative. When it was my turn, I cast moonbeam and took my starry archer form. I then proceeded to move the moonbeam around and pick off werewolves with my arrows. (Until they started swarming me and I fell unconscious)
Originally, when we encountered them, they were all bunched up and my first thought was to cast faerie fire. When it was my turn though, I would only have been able to get 4 out of the 6 (still none of my party would have been hit, though). I could have then used guiding bolt and my starry arrows to attack.
I now feeling giving my party advantage would have been more beneficial but the wolves also could have made their saves.
Thoughts?
What else do you have in your party? Moonbeam is greatly improved if your team plays into its strengths. If someone can grapple enemies and hold them in the beam, you don't need to use your action to move it. After level 5, that's potentially a trade of 1/2 attacks for multiple full actions.
But if you don't have a strong front line, perhaps using moonbeam for damage isn't generally the best strategy (although you'd think werewolves would be the perfect situation. I'm not familiar with the stat blocks, and I don't want to check to see how much of an impact it will make because i'm playing CoS). Consider using conjure animals. They do damage, don't require subsequent actions , and control the battlefield. Of course it's level 3 spell, so you might not have it yet. If you can work out the spell component, Summon Beast is a viable 2nd level spell alternative.
To follow up on Zoltar... yes, Werewolves are indeed Shapechangers and should have been rolling at disadvantage on those saving throws and on a failed save they have to revert back to their original form (which is probably Human, depending on the story lore), so it DOES seem like a great idea.... but most importantly, your party composition and how the battlefield was laid out makes a big difference. If you're all spread out and none of them will tank for you, then those werewolves will make a straight b-line towards you.
If you can't keep enemies in place or you can't use Moonbeam as a chokepoint, then Conjure Beasts and Summon Beast are both great use of control. Otherwise, something like Spike Growth can be a great deterent from making them rush directly at you.
Our party consist of a paladin, eldritch knight, and two artificers. The paladin and knight had a front line and I was further back, but nobody thought to hold the werewolves in place. They would take the damage and revert to human form. Then they would disengage, back up, and on their next action transform again. So it slowed them down. My action was taken up by moving the moonbeam when I could have been using guiding bolt. And I wonder if we could have done more damage with advantage on the hits. Overall my party was rolling pretty poorly.
I might have to suggest grappling them next time we encounter werewolves...
No, in my opinion i think you were doing the right thing on your turn if the Werewolves were spending their actions every other turn Polymorphing/shapeshifting or disengage and not attacking on that round. Really falls on your team mates to do damage if youre eating up your opponents Action every other turn.
Perhaps wildshaping into a squirrel and climbing up a tree or getting out of reach may have been a useful thing to do... but something was going awry if they were able to rush you with two front lines and 2 midline casters. The intelligent monsters thought you were a bigger threat and went after you