Hey!

I'll be starting Tomb of Annihilation as a Tortle Druid (Level 1) and would like some advice on which subclass I should take. I've never played a Druid before, but I've managed to narrow down my options to either the Circle of the Moon or the Circle of Wildfire. My party consists of a:

• Rune Knight Bugbear

• Bladesinger Shifter

• Ancestral Guardians Orc

• Swashbuckler Tabaxi

• Me, Tortle Druid

We will also be using the "Gritty Realism" rules. Basically, the Pros and Cons for each choice are:

MOON

• PROS

  • Mechanics are pretty powerful, and this adventure is known to be brutal

  • The duration of Wildshape is even better with Gritty Realism

• CONS

  • Might be unbalanced and too powerful in the beginning

  • The party needs more support casters and less tanks

  • I've played an entire campaign as a "Frontliner" already

WILDFIRE

• PROS

  • Extra spells, focused on healing, control and support

  • Thematically more interesting for my specific backstory

  • Extra mobility with Fiery Teleportation

  • More focused on being a "Caster" than a "Frontliner"

• CONS

  • Wildfire Spirit only lasts one hour

  • I might not have the chance of playing as a dinosaur in other campaigns

I haven't yet made my mind and would like to hear more about your opinions

The problem with being a Moon Druid is that you’ll be the only healer in the party.  You will likely have to drop out of Wild Shape to heal fallen comrades in battle.  Plus, your party really needs a second active caster.  Normally, Druids are better at control spells, but in this case you might want to see if your Bladesinger will do more of that so that you can burn the enemies with FIRE!

It sounds to me like they've got tanking pretty well covered.  You could go Moon Druid to join the up-close fighting, but I think you'd find your niche in the battlefield-control / support role (ranged blasting is also an option, of course).  You can do that with the Wildfire Druid, the extra spells being available are really nice.

An important thing to note is that no-one else in your party has any healing abilities, so if you're going to have any magical healing, it's going to be you, and you can't cast spells while you're wildshaped or Polymorphed. 

If I can overstep the question to make a suggestion, check out the Circle of Land Druids.  They also get extra spells always prepared, an extra cantrip, and the ability to regain spell slots on a short rest 1/day like a wizard (which really helps if you are providing healing to the party).  I'm personally a fan of the Coast variety, because that grants Misty Step, which Druids otherwise don't have access to.  And you can still wildshape for utility (ex: horse to pull or carry, spider for blindsight/mobility, etc).

At the end of the day, it's what you'd have the most fun playing.  Keep in mind, Tomb of Annihilation runs from L1 to L11, so it's a good idea to focus on features the classes get early that you'll be able to use, rather than ones that only unlock when the campaign is wrapping up.

Thanks! Regarding Misty Step, I'll probably get it through the Fey Touched Feat at level 4, since I have a Wisdom of 17, it's a great spell! 

If you go Wildfire, consider Elemental Adept for your second ASI.  You are not exactly dependent on exclusively fire damage, but after you get Enhanced Bond you’ll want to use fire most of the time.  Even if you aren’t overcoming resistance you can reroll 1s on damage dice for fire damage, which should bump up your average a fair amount.

Just play what you find more interesting for role-play. Moon a Wild Shape tank but still a full caster if needed. Wildfire is a support caster that gets bonuses to fire and healing and can make land mines out of fallen enemies.

Your party has a lot of front line melee characters. Rune Knight Fighter, Bladesinger Wizard, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian and Swashbuckler rogue. Wildfire will let you fill a different role than everyone else and help declutter melee areas. 

But just play what is more fun for you and don't worry so much about party composition. Do you want to Shapechanger and rock melee combat or get a flaming pet and support your other party members.

If you want to play Moon because you want to wild shape into dinosaurs and you might not get a chance to play another Druid in the future, that’s fine. But it seems wildfire fits your backstory better so I think that might be the better pick. 

That said, just because you go Moon doesn’t meant you always have to wildshape round one and wade into melee. You are still a full caster. You can cast control spells, buffs, attack spells and wildshape if the combat is going badly, it’s a tough fight and the extra melee will help, etc… Yeah, I know Moon is designed around wildshape melee but that doesn’t mean you can’t stand back flinging spells until the beast within is needed. The other frontliners need their time to shine as well.