Class is in session, and today we turn to the mystical druidic Circle of the Land. Druids are mystics dedicated to upholding the balance of nature, and indeed the balance of the world itself. A druid’s innate connection with the natural world grants them the power to transform into animals, speak with flora and fauna, and even command the weather itself to strike down nature’s foes. As a druid of the land, you are particularly attuned to the magic of the world.
Story of the Circle of the Land
“Fear not,” the druid said, stroking his long, gray beard. “The wolves will heed my words, and harry you no longer.”
The group of astonished adventurers instinctively parted to let the druid pass. The party rogue turned to his companions and hissed, “How can you let that crazy old man walk to his death like that? Look at that staff he’s using; he can hardly walk, let alone fight off a pack of wolves!”
The ranger affixed her ally with a stern look, and replied simply. “Trust him. My grandfather is the master of this wood—all those in this domain will heed his words.” The rogue sneered, but said nothing. Instead, he took a step forward to get a better look as the wizened old man descended the rocky cliff towards the pack of snarling, silver-furred wolves below.
The druid planted his feet in the dirt and clacked the base of his gnarled yew staff against a stole. The wolves turned their golden eyes to him, and he met their eyes in turn. He opened his mouth and spoke in an even tone. His voice was smooth and placid like the surface of a pond, and the rogue strained to catch his words. “Children of the forest. Children of the land,” he said, staring unblinkingly into the eyes of the wolf pack’s leader. “Heed me. Those you hunt this day are under my protection. Their flesh is my flesh. To sink your fangs into them is to wound me, and to wound me is to wound yourselves. Go. Hunt elsewhere.”
The wolves snorted and barked, and the rogue smirked. This crazy old man, he thought. But as the rogue looked closer, the wolves began to turn, one by one, and vanish into the woods. The druid watched until all were gone, and then turned and looked over one shoulder, meeting the rogue’s gaze with his own golden, lupine eyes.
Druids who learn the ways of the Circle of the Land are deeply in touch with the magic of the land itself, and can feel magic flow like blood through the ley lines of the world, binding and uniting all living things. By studying this circle of druidic power, you expand the breadth of your magical knowledge and develop an unbreakable bond with the beasts and plants of the world, as well as spirits of nature, such as elementals and fey.
If this sort of story appeals to you, read on. From here, you will learn to create a druid that can harness the power of the land itself.
Circle of the Land Features
Druids of the Circle of the Land invest their power in spells, making them most similar to wizards, sorcerers, and other classes that put spellcasting first and foremost. One of their first subclass features, Natural Recovery, is even similar to the wizard’s own Arcane Recovery feature, allowing you to regain a certain amount of expended magical energy by taking a short rest.
Druids gain their Druid Circle at 2nd level, and gain subclass features at 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th level, in addition to additional spells every other level, up to 9th. You can read all of the Circle of the Land features for free in the D&D Basic Rules. In summary, your subclass features allow you to:
- Recover expended spell slots by completing a short rest, once per day
- Gain additional spells unique to the landscape in which you first became a druid
- Move through difficult terrain unimpeded, and resist magical effects that cause the land to rise against you
- Resist the charms and tricks of fey and elementals, and gain immunity to poison and disease
- Befriend the beasts and living plants of the world
Benefits of the Circle of the Land
Playing a Circle of the Land druid puts your spellcasting abilities first and foremost. While other druid circles focus on melee combat in Wild Shape, this subclass allows you to cast spells as well as a cleric or a wizard while not sacrificing any of your class’s inherent flexibility. By focusing on spells, you allow yourself to play a well-balanced jack-of-all-trades—a suitable aspiration for a druid that seeks to maintain the balance of the natural world.
Your Circle Spells grant you some flexibility by granting you situational spells without them counting against your total prepared spells—though some circles grant you vital spells like lightning bolt, giving you the freedom to choose more situation spells yourself.
Finally, though your Wild Shape isn’t quite as powerful as the mighty Circle of the Moon druid’s, you can still use your Wild Shape for stealth, reconnaissance, and travel, further adding to your versatility.
Drawbacks of the Circle of the Land
The Circle of the Land’s greatest strength—its spells—are also its greatest weakness. If you don’t like playing characters that have to juggle a lot of spells or spellcasting options, this subclass is not for you. While all druids have spells, the Circle of the Land grants you greater control over your spells and is more demanding that you know how your manifold spells work in order to be an effective druid.
Likewise, by playing a more wizard-like spellcaster, you will find that you aren’t a particularly effective melee combatant. If you use your spells wisely and stay in the back rank of your party, this won’t be a problem—but you may be vulnerable to stealthy assassins and other foes that can slip through your party’s defenses and sink their blades into your squishy, lightly armored form.
Suggested Build
If you’re playing a Circle of the Land druid, you should choose a race that grants you a bonus to Wisdom, like a wood elf or hill dwarf. Both of these races already have a natural connection to the land itself, and thematically match the class, making them a perfect fit! Likewise, races with bonuses you can assign to any trait, such as a variant human or a half-elf, also allow you to allocate your ability score bonuses as you see fit, while also letting you get some other useful traits, too, like extra skill proficiencies. After Wisdom, consider what your second- and third-highest ability scores will be. Dexterity will improve your middling Armor Class, but Constitution will make you a more durable caster and more likely to avoid losing concentration of your valuable support spells.
As usual, your character’s background is up to you. Many druids come from a hermit or outlander background, and live in relative isolation in the wild places of the world. But not all druids are the same. Perhaps you were a street urchin who fled from the streets of Waterdeep and were saved by a druidic master and taken to the heart of the High Forest where you were trained in the druidic arts—or so on.
Selecting EQUIPMENT when building a 1st-level druid will make your life easier, as most druids don’t have to worry too much about what equipment they carry. Fortunately, your spell selection is more important to your continued survival than your equipment selection, so just choose whatever tools you think would be useful.
Spells
Speaking of spells, let’s choose a spell selection for you at 1st level. You don’t choose your subclass until 2nd level, but you can still carve out your role in the party through your spell selection before you officially join the Circle of the Land. Like a cleric, you have your entire class spell list available to you whenever you prepare spells at the start of the day. Nevertheless, when playing a druid, I like to have a typical spell list that my druid always has prepared—unless I specifically choose otherwise. This saves me the trouble of having to re-select all my spells at the start of each day. Since you’ll be doing a little bit of everything as a spellcasting druid, having spells that run the gamut from offense to defense to support is vital. Fortunately, starting at 3rd level, you will have several spells automatically prepared thanks to your Circle Spells feature.
As a 1st-level druid, you know two cantrips and can prepare a number of 1st-level spells equal to 1 + your Wisdom modifier. Odds are, your Wisdom modifier will be either +2 or +3 right now, so you’ll be able to choose either three or four 1st-level spells whenever you complete a long rest. Even as a support character, you’ll want to have at least one offensive cantrip; produce flame is a good choice, since it can serve as both offense and utility. Beyond this, your cantrips are simply a matter of preference, and almost any will serve you well. Druidcraft is another good first choice, since it lets you perform all manner of minor, “druid-y” tricks.
You can prepare any 1st-level spells from the druid spell list, but you can use this list of suggested spells to prepare an all-purpose spell loadout that will serve you in most circumstances. As you go on adventures and learn what dangers your character tends to face, you can personalize your spell loadout. Try to choose one spell labeled SUPPORT, one labeled DEFENSE, and one labeled OFFENSE or UTILITY. If you have a high Wisdom score and can prepare additional spells, choose others of your choice. Note that this list only includes some spells from the Player's Handbook, so if you want to choose more unusual spells, or have other sources like Xanathar's Guide to Everything, you'll have to do a little self-directed research. This list is just here to get you started if this is your first time playing a Circle of the Land druid.
Be warned that many druid spells require concentration, and you can only concentrate on one spell at once. Try to limit the number of concentration spells you prepare to no more than 1/3 of your spell loadout on any given adventuring day. To aid in this, all concentration spells on this list are listed as such.
- Animal Friendship (DEFENSE/UTILITY)
- Cure Wounds (SUPPORT)
- Entangle (DEFENSE; CONCENTRATION)
- Faerie Fire (SUPPORT; CONCENTRATION)
- Healing Word (SUPPORT)
- Speak with Animals (UTILITY)
- Thunderwave (OFFENSE)
At Higher Levels
As you gain druid levels, the Circle of the Land grants you greater and greater power, and further access to spells. You’ll want to continue balancing your spells between offense, defense, support, and utility, but also keep an eye on the composition of your party. If you don’t have a cleric in your party, consider adding more healing spells to your selection; healing spirit recently drummed up some controversy, but it’s an excellent healing spell for a druid to take once they reach 3rd level. Consider sending this article to your DM, if they protest your using this spell.
On the other hand, if you’re lacking offensive spellcasting, think about what you can do to fill that role. Druids don’t have a ton of offensive options, but spells like call lightning can be devastating if you’re outdoors, and lightning bolt is second only to fireball in terms of raw devastation. If you and your DM are willing to handle the challenge of summoning creatures, spells like conjure animals or conjure minor elementals will help your party out in combat in a major way. Just take a look at this article for advice on handling summoned creatures, and this article for advice on making the most of conjuring elementals.
If you want more advice for building a druid, check out Druid 101. Have you ever played a Circle of the Land druid? What advice would you give to players that want to make a character like this?
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
I love Circle of the Land Druids. My Druid recently went to the Feywild with her party and it was nice to be immune to being charmed by Fey and immune to poison. Also (as a Coast Druid) always having Water Walk and Freedom of Movement prepped is great. And she was able to keep their Ranger alive against the big baddie that was targeting her by casting a 4th Level Healing Spirit at the beginning of the fight..
I love these 101s - they are perfect for sharing to my local comic shops D&D page.
My current campaign I'm playing a giant, green dragonborn Totem Barbar from High Forest that was saved, after my clan was wiped out, by a nymph and a druid. So at about level 5 or 6 I'm gonna start taking levels in Land Druid. Going more protector of the forest, with Entangle, Thunderwave and such. Should be interesting.
People don't talk much about druid spellcasting. It's normally wizard that is talked about. Druids are more complicated as they have less raw damage options and more concentration spells (or at least it feels like it). I'd love to see am advanced druid spellcasting guide.
Ohh I'd love to see that!
I'm playing a Land Druid for the first time, and the fact that almost every spell requires concentration is really kicking my butt. In battle, a land druid will play some kind of support role, right? Ok, so I start the battle with 1 concentration spell. Now what? All of my other support spells (aside from healing) also require concentration. So much for support! Now I'm attacking, and I'm not good at attacking. It's kind of frustrating.
Circle of the land circle druids are awesome. My first character was a copper dragonborn mountain land druid that decimated encounters at early levels. Then our DM, seeing how we all optimized our characters, TPKed us with a Dracolich at level 5. Or more accurately, tried to. Do to lots of crits and outsmarting the DM, we won. Then we all retired those characters. Nevertheless, Circle of the Land druids are crazy strong when played optimally and crazy fun when played not optimized.
I am 6 months into a campaign with a plains druid. I was worried about the HP and still am but I funneled a lot of points into DEX so it is now maxed. I barely ever get hit, I can escape almost anything, and I may deal the most damage in the party. We have a Cleric, Warlock, Barbarian, and a Ranger. I envisioned a rogue-ish build maxing out speed and stealth to deal with combat and it has developed into using wild shape to turn into a mouse or fly to case a home and rob the occupants blind then escape using invisibility or pass without trace (currently grants +18 to stealth checks). Moonbeam, Spike Growth, and Ice Knife are somewhere between nuts and possibly broken. The Cure Wounds ability is also great because I can heal the ranged row (myself, Warlock, Ranger) and the Cleric can take the melee row (Barbarian, Cleric, Ranger). The other day I cast Haste on the Barbarian and used Plant Growth to create an entire 100 ft radius of difficult terrain with only a sigle "hallway" to the center (think pacman) and the baddies were basically trapped in a tunnel with the Barbarian who had 3 attacks, advantage on his attacks, and 70 movement. The Druid is supremely versatile as a support and spellcasting PC, and I haven't really gotten into a situation where I have had to heal more than half of my miniscule health.
If your DM lets you concentrate on two spells at once, maybe? Both Barkskin and Flame Blade are concentration, so the DM should have stopped you from doing that.
Once you get to level 5, the Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard are doing more damage with their cantrips than Flame Blade does. 2D10 is slightly better damage than 3D6. Because Flame Blade is weaker than a cantrip once you reach level 5, requires concentration, requires being in melee range, and deals the 2nd most commonly resisted magical damage type (after poison), it's one of the weakest spells in the game.
A Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard can cast Shadow Blade which is also a level 2 spell, but it lets you add your strength or dexterity to the damage roll, so the 2D8 + dex or 2D8 + strength is going to be higher than Flame Blade's 3D6 even if you've got just 14 dex or 14 strength. It also deals a better damage type (psychic is much less commonly resisted than fire), and it gives advantage in dim light or darkness. It also scales up better, adding another D8 of damage in a level 3 spell slot, whereas Flame Blade doesn't add a D6 until a level 4 spell slot. And because it is a weapon attack, it can be used with spells like Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade and it can be used with extra attack.
When you compare Flame Blade and Shadow Blade, you see how Flame Blade is a very underpowered spell.
To be fair, it also uses the casting modifier to hit (virtually guaranteed to be their best attribute), and 14 or higher DEX can be a big ask for a low level spellcaster.
14 or higher Dex isn't a big ask for a low level spellcaster. If you're using Mage Armor, Light Armor, or Medium Armor, you'll want Dexterity for your AC. If you're using Heavy Armor, you'll want at least 13 strength. As a spellcaster, normally Constitution and either Dexterity or Strength (usually Dexterity) will be your second and third highest stats.
An interesting perspective.
I usually go far another Mental Stat after Constitution, but I suppose you really only need a good stat, which a Druid. (Perhaps I am too used to the importance of INT and Charisma in old editions.)
So many quotes in one. I’ve only seen this type of power once before…