Urban Druid

I'm putting together a Forrest gnome, raised to be druid by parents, insert sad story, no parents, lost in city, raised in the streets of the city by the stray animals.

I was going with circle of the moon, shape-shifting will be a big deal for her.

I was also considering taking ritual caster for a familiar.

She'd be a druid but she's essentially a rogue. Using backgrounds, skills, and feats she'd have all the utilitarian functions of the Rogue, traps, locks, searching, etc. But instead of sneak attack she gets spells and wild shape.

She's a cat burglar, not a murderer.

What suggestions would you have for this type of build?

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Originally Posted by Chalkarts

I was also considering taking ritual caster for a familiar.

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Unless you plan to go with a more casting-focused career for her, you might be better served with Magic Initiate: Find Familiar + 2 wizard cantrips of your choice (Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights, Message, Light, Fire Bolt, …) for the burglar career.

"Roguish" Druid is a great concept, but I would suggest that you may find Land Druid more appealing. Moon Druid turns Wild Shape from a utility tool into a weapon, but as a burglar you don't really need that "big gun" that Circle of the Moon offers. Land Druid, on the other hand both enhances your spellcasting with an expanded spell list and offers more utility features that complement a roguish approach to scenarios (e.g. Lands Stride). The Underdark spells, in particular, are pretty good for a burglar sort.

I love "being a class without taking any levels in that class" builds, and this one is great!

Ritual caster gets you find familiar and detect magic, both of which are great utility for a thief, plus at higher levels phantom steed, Leomund's Tiny Hut, unseen servant, water breathing, commune, etc. All those are great party helper spells that will be great fun to throw in to solve various problems at mid-levels. Not to mention magic mouth to screw with the cops.

In addition, you can drop pass without trace, spike growth, darkvision (for human/dragonborn/halfling allies), and many more awesome druid spells! Plus, in combat, you've got wild shape. BOOM!

This is a build able to contribute at all levels and across all pillars. Nicely done!

I assume you're planning to take the Urchin background or a modified version of it to get the proficiencies associated with it. If not, I highly suggest it, as it will neatly give you the core stuff you probably want to make your burgler good at sneaking and stealing. With that background, I don't think you'll need to use up a feat to get any other skill proficiencies since you probably want an infiltrator-style burgler and won't need much for dealing with people in conversation or business dealings.

Moon is a good choice, but it changes the way you fight a lot so you'll need to keep that in mind. Since you can't cast spells in beast form until you're at 18th level, you're going to play a hybrid caster/melee character similar to a paladin. Rather than using spell slots for smites, however, you'll have the option of using them to regain 1d8 HP per level of the slot with Combat Wild Shape. It's almost the exact reverse of a smite, now that I think about it. In addition, your Wild Shape gives you an effective chunk of temporary HP since the damage you take in beast form is applied to your form's HP rather than your normal amount. Because of this, you can charge headlong into battle as a tiger or giant octopus, tank a bunch of damage while sustaining yourself with a few of those spell slots using your Combat Wild Shape feature, and then safely revert to your normal form where you're playing like a normal caster again.

I'm going to also suggest Magic Initiate over Ritual Caster if you really want Find Familiar. As a druid, you'd already have access to a few of the level 1 ritual spells (and the ability to ritual-cast them per your class feature) and those you can't access won't be very much help or don't really fit your shapeshifter burgler in my opinion. However, I recommend against taking Find Familiar for the most part. The benefit of a familiar is primarily going to be infiltration, taking the Help action in battle, or getting up in a target's face and taking the Dodge action to attempt a little tanking. They can't attack though, so their usefulness is pretty limited outside infiltration, especially at higher levels where enemies will easily hit them more often. Because your character is already geared toward infiltration/sneaking and can Wild Shape, I don't think you'd get a whole lot of utility out of having a familiar.

You could also try taking a single level of Rogue for learning Thieves' Cant, picking up Sneak Attack, and doubling two of your skill proficiency bonuses. I wouldn't recommend taking more levels beyond 2 though unless you want to just play a regular Rogue, as you'll fall behind on the CR of your Wild Shape and lose out on potential spell slots. As for starting class with this idea, Rogue is probably better for the Dex save proficiency instead of Wis. I don't really like multiclassing though, so I'd stick with plain Moon Druid or only take 1 level of Rogue if I really wanted the skill proficiency boost and Thieves' Cant for my character.

I had a similar concept with different implementation: Goblin Land Druid (Underdark) with the Urchin background. I wanted to emphasize his sneaky side in combat by having him emphasize his use of Bonus Action hide, concentration spells, and Thorn Whip to drag enemies back into hazards or towards/away from allies.

For your setup, I like the idea of playing up the arcane side of things with ritual casting in theory. In practice, rituals can be situational and hard to use, especially when burgling. I might talk to your DM also, just to make sure they’re good to make learning new rituals something that you’ll get chances to do. Some tend to forget unless you poke them, and others set an extremely high bar because they believe it’s unbalanced.

The Magic Initiate idea I like a lot. Rogues can get a whole lot of use out of Mage Hand in general, but as a Druid who spends a lot of time in animal management, you’ll probably want it even MORE. It’s tough not having hands when you need to open a door. Heck, why not activate Mage Hand, Wildshape into a squirrel, and have your own Mage hand pick you up and fly you over the obviously trapped floor?

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Originally Posted by Mercurias

For your setup, I like the idea of playing up the arcane side of things with ritual casting in theory. In practice, rituals can be situational and hard to use, especially when burgling. I might talk to your DM also, just to make sure they’re good to make learning new rituals something that you’ll get chances to do. Some tend to forget unless you poke them, and others set an extremely high bar because they believe it’s unbalanced.

The Magic Initiate idea I like a lot. Rogues can get a whole lot of use out of Mage Hand in general, but as a Druid who spends a lot of time in animal management, you’ll probably want it even MORE. It’s tough not having hands when you need to open a door. Heck, why not activate Mage Hand, Wildshape into a squirrel, and have your own Mage hand pick you up and fly you over the obviously trapped floor?

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I want them to have some outside druid magics.
I like ritual caster because it's expandable should one find more rituals, or buy them, and a lot of the utility rituals are spectacular for burglary and general utility.

Magic initiate is also good because it would give me mage hand and I really like gust. But if I were to take it, i'd forgo a familiar in exchange for either unseen servant of catapult.

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Originally Posted by firelistener

I assume you're planning to take the Urchin background

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Yes, I'd considered the skilled feat but the urchin background fit the concept better and gave me what I needed.

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Originally Posted by firelistener

Moon is a good choice, but it changes the way you fight a lot so you'll need to keep that in mind. Since you can't cast spells in beast form until you're at 18th level, you're going to play a hybrid caster/melee character similar to a paladin. Rather than using spell slots for smites, however, you'll have the option of using them to regain 1d8 HP per level of the slot with Combat Wild Shape. It's almost the exact reverse of a smite, now that I think about it. In addition, your Wild Shape gives you an effective chunk of temporary HP since the damage you take in beast form is applied to your form's HP rather than your normal amount. Because of this, you can charge headlong into battle as a tiger or giant octopus, tank a bunch of damage while sustaining yourself with a few of those spell slots using your Combat Wild Shape feature, and then safely revert to your normal form where you're playing like a normal caster again.

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Wild shape isn't going to be for the combat, it'll be for the utility and escape purposes so perhaps land is a better choice. Of the basic land options, swamp is most fitting because she lives in the sewers.

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Originally Posted by firelistener

I'm going to also suggest Magic Initiate over Ritual Caster if you really want Find Familiar. As a druid, you'd already have access to a few of the level 1 ritual spells (and the ability to ritual-cast them per your class feature) and those you can't access won't be very much help or don't really fit your shapeshifter burgler in my opinion. However, I recommend against taking Find Familiar for the most part. The benefit of a familiar is primarily going to be infiltration, taking the Help action in battle, or getting up in a target's face and taking the Dodge action to attempt a little tanking. They can't attack though, so their usefulness is pretty limited outside infiltration, especially at higher levels where enemies will easily hit them more often. Because your character is already geared toward infiltration/sneaking and can Wild Shape, I don't think you'd get a whole lot of utility out of having a familiar.

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You make a good point on the familiar. I just wanted it for use as a scout and utilitarian tool critter so it's not a necessity. But I did want one of the two magical feast. The background includes stealing an apprentices spell book and studying it intensely. I like ritual because it's expandable based on what you can find and buy from others, but after looking at the druid list, there are only a couple holes to fill and
If I started with Magic initiate instead it would grant me Mage Hand and Gust, as well as perhaps Identify or unseen servant.

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Originally Posted by firelistener

I don't really like multiclassing though, so I'd stick with plain Moon Druid or only take 1 level of Rogue if I really wanted the skill proficiency boost and Thieves' Cant for my character.

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I would like to avoid dipping. Sure, it's the easy way, but I rarely find the easy way to be much fun.

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Originally Posted by Chalkarts

You make a good point on the familiar. I just wanted it for use as a scout and utilitarian tool critter so it's not a necessity.

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When you play with the UA Class Feature Variants, then druids get the ability to use a wildshape to cast Find Familiar (for 1 hour per 2 levels).

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Originally Posted by Theaitetos

When you play with the UA Class Feature Variants, then druids get the ability to use a wildshape to cast Find Familiar (for 1 hour per 2 levels).

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Wild shape is more important than a familiar for this character.
I wish there were a way to get more uses of wild shape.

There's a 3rd party class called Morph that's a dedicated shapeshifter that I'd love for this concept, but
Unfortunately I think it's way OP and don't want to play a character so broken that its boring.

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Originally Posted by Chalkarts

Urban Druid

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Gnome giant. Two can play that game. We can also deal in Jumbo Shrimp, but that's gonna make me hungry. :smallbiggrin:

All kidding aside, I love your druid as cat burglar (nice pun!) concept.

Some ideas
Obviously, Criminal Background

Feat:
Magic Initiate for : Find Familiar and two cantrips of your choice.
1. Mage Hand. Goes with thieving.
2. Either a damaging cantrip like ray of frost, that you can't get from druid, or, something like Prestidigitation or Thaumaturgy; the former for useful tricks, the latter to create misdirection.
Or
2a. Dancing Lights; often an underappreciated cantrip.
Or
2b. Minor Illusion. Another source of misdirection.

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Originally Posted by KorvinStarmast

2. Either a damaging cantrip like ray of frost, that you can't get from druid, or, something like Prestidigitation or Thaumaturgy; the former for useful tricks, the latter to create misdirection.
Or
2a. Dancing Lights; often an underappreciated cantrip.
Or
2b. Minor Illusion. Another source of misdirection.

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Forest Gnomes already get Minor Illusion as racial feat.

i went with swamp druid to represent living in the sewers.

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Originally Posted by firelistener

I Because of this, you can charge headlong into battle as a tiger or giant octopus, tank a bunch of damage while sustaining yourself with a few of those spell slots using your Combat Wild Shape feature, and then safely revert to your normal form where you're playing like a normal caster again.

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This also allows an interesting role, where the character is a "thief's guild enforcer" who jealously defends his gang's territory. The other factions in the city are always wary to encroach due to the trained tiger of that faction. One faction claims they killed the tiger in the most recent skirmish, yet it is alive and well in the next...

Something happens, and the PC leaves the gang for a few months. He returns, but he finds that his gang is nearly destroyed by the other gangs. The gang was somewhat of a bully due to the character's abilities, and without the tiger to back them up, the other gangs nearly destroyed them. The guild is now hostile to him, because he "abandoned them." He wanders for a few days, purposeless, cut off from the closest thing he had to a family.
Then, <insert adventure hook> Hoping for life, hoping for a swift death, the character sets off. Along the road, he meets the other members of what will become the party. They decided to stick together, hoping for a higher chance of survival and success. After this, the PC finds that the party has become a new family for him, and as he once defended his gang's territory, he now defends the party's interest.
(side note on that: by doing it this way, if the party returns to his home city, he can become his old tiger form again, and word will spread that the spirit tiger fights for the party now.)

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Originally Posted by Theaitetos

Forest Gnomes already get Minor Illusion as racial feat.

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As a racial feature; :smallwink: and yes, that is correct, but any other person reading who want to try Urban Druid with a different race might want to consider that cantrip.

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Originally Posted by Chalkarts

I'm putting together a Forrest gnome, raised to be druid by parents, insert sad story, no parents, lost in city, raised in the streets of the city by the stray animals.

I was going with circle of the moon, shape-shifting will be a big deal for her.

I was also considering taking ritual caster for a familiar.

She'd be a druid but she's essentially a rogue. Using backgrounds, skills, and feats she'd have all the utilitarian functions of the Rogue, traps, locks, searching, etc. But instead of sneak attack she gets spells and wild shape.

She's a cat burglar, not a murderer.

What suggestions would you have for this type of build?

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I'd consider a Shepherd Druid instead. It is a minionmancy build that relies on regular/upcasted Conjure Animals to abuse the action economy. There is one class feature in particular that is very flavorful and fits thematically with what you want--Faithful Summons. It triggers and summons Conjured Animals at 9th-level without requiring concentration or a spell slot once you are reduced to 0 hit points or are incapacitated against your will.