Hi all, I’m planning on going on a solo adventure (me and a dm) through ravenloft. I want to play a shapeshifting/swordfighting character. I was thinking about 2 levels of druid and for the test ranger. Points focussed on Dex, wiz, con. I will use a rapier, since I don’t want to also have to put points in str. I was wondering if anybody has some good advice on this build and how I should level up. Everything is up for discussion, as the main idea remains :-)
I'll avoid any controversial advice about Wild Shape physical ability score improvements.
At Moon Druid 2, you have access to CR 1 Beasts, and won't go up to CR 2 Beasts until Druid 6. So stopping at Druid 2 is a pretty good option, unless:
you care about access to flying beasts (the Giant Eagle or Giant Vulture at CR 1, or even the lower-CR 1/4 Giant Owl) which needs Druid 4.
you care about access to Heat Metal, a spell which is very good , but on very few classes' spell lists (Bard, Druid, Forge Cleric, Artificer). You can also unlock Heat Metal for a Ranger by having the Izzet Engineer background, so keep that in mind too.
As a Monster Slayer/Druid, remember that you have some competing Bonus Actions to juggle:
Wild Shape is a Bonus Action
Hunter's Mark is a Bonus Action, and can't be cast after you're already Wild Shaped (though you can continue to concentrate on it)
Slayer's Prey is a Bonus Action, but can be used after you're already a Beast.
That means its round 3 before you have all of those up, during which time you can't be using any other Bonus Actions that your Beast form might give you (like an extra Pounce attack as a Clawfoot or Deinonychus), or a Rampage as a Giant Hyena). One thing that can help is to use the Favored Foe optional feature replacement from Tasha's instead of Hunter's Mark sometimes. This lets you put up an effect (which requires Concentration) that starts out a little lower than Hunter's Mark, but eventually gets as strong at Ranger 6 and stronger at Ranger 14. You'll be able to use it a decent number of times (equal to your proficiency bonus/long rest), and it isn't a spell (so can be used after you're already Wild Shaped). The drawbacks are, in a fight against many enemies, you can't move it from a defeated enemy to a new target, you'd have to use it a second time), and it only triggers once per turn (not on every hit like Hunter's Mark), and it only works on your turns (not on Opportunity Attacks taken on enemy turns). Definitely some compromises... but the freedom to throw up a Favored Foe after you're already a Beast (either because you Wild Shaped in the first round of combat, or because you lost Concentration on Hunter's Mark due to taking damage) is very nice as a multiclassed Moon Druid.
I would suggest that you not boost Dexterity, and instead leave it at 14 while wearing Medium Armor. Instead, boost Wisdom primarily and use Shillelagh with a one-handed quarterstaff or club, while holding a Shield, for much better AC and damage that's just as good. Of course, that's one more Bonus Action to add to the pile... but it's one you'll usually only need to make when you know that Wild Shape isn't an option you want to take in that fight, so it isn't really adding to the pile, just belongs in a different pile. You might consider taking a +1 Wisdom feat at Ranger 4 (like Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Telekinetic, or Telepathic!) if that's your 17 score, or a +1 Constitution feat at Ranger 4 (Resilient- CON) if that's at 15. Those two are my recommendations for Ranger 4 and Ranger 8, because maxing Wisdom or boosting Dex at all is not a priority for you whenever you're a Beast. Future feats might include Tough (better beast HP), Warcaster (if you're really having trouble keeping Concentration up while Wild Shaped), Skill Expert, or Slasher or Piercer (most Beasts will be doing slashing claws or piercing bites).
Like I mentioned, Heat Metal is a very good spell to cast for you before you turn into a Beast. It does a ton of damage to enemies that are wearing metal armor or holding metal weapons (and not willing to drop them), and doesn't allow a save against the damage, meaning its good even if you do decide that Dex or Con are more important to you than Wis. Very worth considering Izzet Engineer background or taking an additional 1 or 2 levels in Druid to have on your spell list. Other good spells to think about are anything that you might cast outside of combat (Goodberry, Snare, Animal Friendship, Charm Person, Locate Object, Pass without Trace) or anything that you can cast before Wild Shape and keep up (Entangle, Spike Growth, Barkskin, Conjure Animals, Hunter's Mark, Fog Cloud, Protection from Energy, Silence). Grab a Cure Wounds or Healing Word as well, just in case. Remember that your spell slots are mostly for healing yourself while being a Beast, not for casting in combat, and think about "what one spell will I usually cast at the start of combat?" instead of thinking that you'll have Barkskinand Hunter's Mark up or something.
Remember that you can use Extra Attack to attack twice per round, so monsters with Multiattack don't really do any more damage than ones without. Brown Bear isn't actually a very hardy form (34 HP but only 11 AC), and actually does less damage (average 19) with Multiattack than you will as a Dire Wolf, which is tougher (37 HP and AC 14), Bites twice (average 20, often with advantage, may inflict Prone even!). Giant Hyena is a little better than the Wolf against large groups of weak enemies, while the Wolf is better for boss battles against a single foe the group will focus on. Giant Toad is very good against medium or smaller enemies.
Thanks!!! This is a awesome answer which is very complete from the looks of it!!! Any ravenloft specific things that will help in encounters or am I good to go? :-)
I missed that you're a solo character. I guess my main advice knowing that is, spells like Conjure Animals, Animal Friendship, and Summon Beast are more important for you, because the reason that players usually beat enemies is because they have more action economy (more actions per round of combat) than the bad guys. If that gets flipped on your, you're going to have problems. You might even consider being a Beast Master with the Primal Companion variant from Tasha's, instead of a Monster Slayer, because the more allies you can put on the board every fight the better.
I don't know anything about the published Ravenloft adventure, or even that much about the setting, so I'm not sure what spells are most likely to be useful for that or resistances you may encounter. Your beast attacks aren't magical though, until Druid 6, and a lot of undead and lycanthrope stuff has resistance or even immunity to nonmagical attacks. So it might be worth taking a few more Druid levels to get all the way up to Druid 6 after all. If so, make sure that your DM understands that you actually came from somewhere with Dinosaurs, so that you can turn into an Allosaurus if you want :) Otherwise, Saber-Toothed Tiger or Giant Elk are a slight upgrade to the Dire Wolf, unless you have allies on the board that the wolf could be getting advantage from..
Flying beasts requires druid 8, you get swim speed at druid 4.
As for the ranger levels, I'd ask if you plan on tracking certain creature types, or just reacting to their presence to hit them. If you need to track, then you want the OG favored enemy, for the ADV on survival and history checks related to them. OG favored terrain also gives you ADV on tracking anything while in that terrain, so you could pick one or the other, as a tracker, but I wouldn't recommend trading out both unless you don't anticipate needing to do much following or hunting or tracking of creatures. Which I feel like you'd do a fair amount of in Ravenloft.
Monster Slayer subclass gives you a handful of useful spells (especially protection from evil and good at level 3) and Hunter's Sense, which lets you figure out "damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities" which is useful not only for knowing not to use poison against a bearded devil, but for spotting a fire genasi disguised as a human. 7th level Supernatural Defense lets you buff your saving throws if you use your 3rd-level feature instead of or before Hunter's Mark. But as it's a class feature, you might still be able to use the 3rd-level ability as a bonus action after wild shaping. The 11th-level feature works best if you do put points into WIS, which you should be doing with those Druid levels anyway, so this shouldn't be an issue, and if you only do 2 levels of Druid and your campaign does go all the way to 20, the level 15 feature is great.
Gloomstalker is pretty good, and goes well thematically. None of the features are bonus-action driven, so that helps with your action economy, however the extra attack part of Dread Ambusher specifially says weapon attack, so you won't benefit from that last bit while wild shaped unless your DM OKs it (since natural weapon vs weapon weapon is a bit of a debate). But otherwise you get some nice saves and additional opportunities to hit, plus more darkvision if you need it.
Horizon Walker might be good for similar reasons -- you probably won't need the Detect Portal feature, but it also gives you protection from evil and good, and its 3rd-level Hunter's Mark replacement feature converts all damage from the attack into force damage, which nearly no one is immune or resistant to. But a lot of the other features are pretty situational, so Monster Slayer's still better.
Hi all, I’m planning on going on a solo adventure (me and a dm) through ravenloft. I want to play a shapeshifting/swordfighting character. I was thinking about 2 levels of druid and for the test ranger. Points focussed on Dex, wiz, con. I will use a rapier, since I don’t want to also have to put points in str.
I was wondering if anybody has some good advice on this build and how I should level up. Everything is up for discussion, as the main idea remains :-)
I'll avoid any controversial advice about Wild Shape physical ability score improvements.
At Moon Druid 2, you have access to CR 1 Beasts, and won't go up to CR 2 Beasts until Druid 6. So stopping at Druid 2 is a pretty good option, unless:
As a Monster Slayer/Druid, remember that you have some competing Bonus Actions to juggle:
That means its round 3 before you have all of those up, during which time you can't be using any other Bonus Actions that your Beast form might give you (like an extra Pounce attack as a Clawfoot or Deinonychus), or a Rampage as a Giant Hyena). One thing that can help is to use the Favored Foe optional feature replacement from Tasha's instead of Hunter's Mark sometimes. This lets you put up an effect (which requires Concentration) that starts out a little lower than Hunter's Mark, but eventually gets as strong at Ranger 6 and stronger at Ranger 14. You'll be able to use it a decent number of times (equal to your proficiency bonus/long rest), and it isn't a spell (so can be used after you're already Wild Shaped). The drawbacks are, in a fight against many enemies, you can't move it from a defeated enemy to a new target, you'd have to use it a second time), and it only triggers once per turn (not on every hit like Hunter's Mark), and it only works on your turns (not on Opportunity Attacks taken on enemy turns). Definitely some compromises... but the freedom to throw up a Favored Foe after you're already a Beast (either because you Wild Shaped in the first round of combat, or because you lost Concentration on Hunter's Mark due to taking damage) is very nice as a multiclassed Moon Druid.
I would suggest that you not boost Dexterity, and instead leave it at 14 while wearing Medium Armor. Instead, boost Wisdom primarily and use Shillelagh with a one-handed quarterstaff or club, while holding a Shield, for much better AC and damage that's just as good. Of course, that's one more Bonus Action to add to the pile... but it's one you'll usually only need to make when you know that Wild Shape isn't an option you want to take in that fight, so it isn't really adding to the pile, just belongs in a different pile. You might consider taking a +1 Wisdom feat at Ranger 4 (like Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Telekinetic, or Telepathic!) if that's your 17 score, or a +1 Constitution feat at Ranger 4 (Resilient- CON) if that's at 15. Those two are my recommendations for Ranger 4 and Ranger 8, because maxing Wisdom or boosting Dex at all is not a priority for you whenever you're a Beast. Future feats might include Tough (better beast HP), Warcaster (if you're really having trouble keeping Concentration up while Wild Shaped), Skill Expert, or Slasher or Piercer (most Beasts will be doing slashing claws or piercing bites).
Like I mentioned, Heat Metal is a very good spell to cast for you before you turn into a Beast. It does a ton of damage to enemies that are wearing metal armor or holding metal weapons (and not willing to drop them), and doesn't allow a save against the damage, meaning its good even if you do decide that Dex or Con are more important to you than Wis. Very worth considering Izzet Engineer background or taking an additional 1 or 2 levels in Druid to have on your spell list. Other good spells to think about are anything that you might cast outside of combat (Goodberry, Snare, Animal Friendship, Charm Person, Locate Object, Pass without Trace) or anything that you can cast before Wild Shape and keep up (Entangle, Spike Growth, Barkskin, Conjure Animals, Hunter's Mark, Fog Cloud, Protection from Energy, Silence). Grab a Cure Wounds or Healing Word as well, just in case. Remember that your spell slots are mostly for healing yourself while being a Beast, not for casting in combat, and think about "what one spell will I usually cast at the start of combat?" instead of thinking that you'll have Barkskin and Hunter's Mark up or something.
Remember that you can use Extra Attack to attack twice per round, so monsters with Multiattack don't really do any more damage than ones without. Brown Bear isn't actually a very hardy form (34 HP but only 11 AC), and actually does less damage (average 19) with Multiattack than you will as a Dire Wolf, which is tougher (37 HP and AC 14), Bites twice (average 20, often with advantage, may inflict Prone even!). Giant Hyena is a little better than the Wolf against large groups of weak enemies, while the Wolf is better for boss battles against a single foe the group will focus on. Giant Toad is very good against medium or smaller enemies.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Thanks!!! This is a awesome answer which is very complete from the looks of it!!! Any ravenloft specific things that will help in encounters or am I good to go? :-)
I missed that you're a solo character. I guess my main advice knowing that is, spells like Conjure Animals, Animal Friendship, and Summon Beast are more important for you, because the reason that players usually beat enemies is because they have more action economy (more actions per round of combat) than the bad guys. If that gets flipped on your, you're going to have problems. You might even consider being a Beast Master with the Primal Companion variant from Tasha's, instead of a Monster Slayer, because the more allies you can put on the board every fight the better.
I don't know anything about the published Ravenloft adventure, or even that much about the setting, so I'm not sure what spells are most likely to be useful for that or resistances you may encounter. Your beast attacks aren't magical though, until Druid 6, and a lot of undead and lycanthrope stuff has resistance or even immunity to nonmagical attacks. So it might be worth taking a few more Druid levels to get all the way up to Druid 6 after all. If so, make sure that your DM understands that you actually came from somewhere with Dinosaurs, so that you can turn into an Allosaurus if you want :) Otherwise, Saber-Toothed Tiger or Giant Elk are a slight upgrade to the Dire Wolf, unless you have allies on the board that the wolf could be getting advantage from..
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Flying beasts requires druid 8, you get swim speed at druid 4.
As for the ranger levels, I'd ask if you plan on tracking certain creature types, or just reacting to their presence to hit them. If you need to track, then you want the OG favored enemy, for the ADV on survival and history checks related to them. OG favored terrain also gives you ADV on tracking anything while in that terrain, so you could pick one or the other, as a tracker, but I wouldn't recommend trading out both unless you don't anticipate needing to do much following or hunting or tracking of creatures. Which I feel like you'd do a fair amount of in Ravenloft.
Monster Slayer subclass gives you a handful of useful spells (especially protection from evil and good at level 3) and Hunter's Sense, which lets you figure out "damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities" which is useful not only for knowing not to use poison against a bearded devil, but for spotting a fire genasi disguised as a human. 7th level Supernatural Defense lets you buff your saving throws if you use your 3rd-level feature instead of or before Hunter's Mark. But as it's a class feature, you might still be able to use the 3rd-level ability as a bonus action after wild shaping. The 11th-level feature works best if you do put points into WIS, which you should be doing with those Druid levels anyway, so this shouldn't be an issue, and if you only do 2 levels of Druid and your campaign does go all the way to 20, the level 15 feature is great.
Gloomstalker is pretty good, and goes well thematically. None of the features are bonus-action driven, so that helps with your action economy, however the extra attack part of Dread Ambusher specifially says weapon attack, so you won't benefit from that last bit while wild shaped unless your DM OKs it (since natural weapon vs weapon weapon is a bit of a debate). But otherwise you get some nice saves and additional opportunities to hit, plus more darkvision if you need it.
Horizon Walker might be good for similar reasons -- you probably won't need the Detect Portal feature, but it also gives you protection from evil and good, and its 3rd-level Hunter's Mark replacement feature converts all damage from the attack into force damage, which nearly no one is immune or resistant to. But a lot of the other features are pretty situational, so Monster Slayer's still better.
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