5e Druid Handbook - Dreams, Land, Moon, and Shepherd

[sambojin]

There's also the warforged "sleep while awake" thing. By druid level 12 you can stay wildshaped for 6hrs per use. So take a night's watch, WS into a killer whale, go to sleep, have 120' blindsight all night long anyway.

Or you could do it with something less ridiculous, but with useful senses, if you wanted to. But yeah, Eberron actually has some cool druid stuff.

[offbeatbloom]

Life is for those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves as healers. As such, it does admirably, putting healing spells on your prepared list and letting your Goodberries heal 40hp for a spell slot, if the DM goes along with it anyway. The Sage says it works. Healing Spirit more than doubles its effectiveness. The dip can be defended, but it’s still a loss felt more and more keenly as you advance.

Love the guide, had a few thoughts about the life domain dip.

First, you could cast goodberries with a higher spell slot at the end of a day to bump up the value. Obviously, depends on what you have left at the end of a day, but if you have a 3rd level spell you suddenly have ten 6hp good berries. that's only 1pt shy of your average healing potion and easier on the wallet.

Second, you can potentially pair Disciple of Life with the Circle of Dreams level feat Balm of the Summer Court (pending your DMs approval, of course).

In the case with my character the DM ruled that BotSC was a 'level 0' spell for the purposes of DoL. So it gets a +2 per use on top of the rolls. So when I roll 2 die my average would be 9 [2(3.5) + 2] instead of 7 [2(3.5)].

There are options you can discuss with your DM of course:
Does calling it a spell for DoL mean it is a spell in other senses (wild shape, actions/bonus actions, etc)? My DM generally treats it as a feat in all other respects. He allows me to use it in wild shape and treats it as a bonus action feat. That means I can (and have) used it in combination with a cure wounds before. A DM may also try to nerf the DoL buff through ruling that it when used under feat rules it doesn't get the buff.

How do you assign a level to BotSC? My DM opted to leave it at a level 0 all the time, but a DM might choose to say the level is based on the use of die (since th[/I]e number per use is constrained to half your class level). if they want to reign it in a bit more they could say half the die used or less for the level. Keep in mind if you've gotten your DM to buy in at all, no matter the choice here, even just getting the base +2 is better than nothing.

You can even ask if the bonus is applied per die or per use. Though honestly getting per die would mean you have a VERY generous DM. (3 die would be a 6 bonus just on the base DoL buff).

That's all we've found to talk through so far, but I just wanted to share a cool fun thing I thought of and my DM was good enough to oblige (never hurts to ask right?)

[hymer]

@ offbeatbloom: I'm glad you've found the guide of use, and thanks for your thoughts! Sounds like you have a very permissive DM, I hope you're enjoying it.

[offbeatbloom]

@ offbeatbloom: I'm glad you've found the guide of use, and thanks for your thoughts! Sounds like you have a very permissive DM, I hope you're enjoying it.

Ha, he generally allows us to be creative in what we do. He reigns us in pretty well if we venture toward being game breaking. Like with goodberries, he's mostly going with the sage advice, and early on I would spend all my spells each night, but since it was basically the equivalent of lembas bread

For BotSC he's basically letting me do it because I asked and it isn't game breaking, but it's a plus 2 per use, so I won't complain. (Plus I'm the party healer so he wants to help me get a little bit ;) )

There had also been a hook in my back story about a deity so he used that to justify the dip.

[bilsmith]

THANK you for your dedication, old man. The Handbook is extremely helpful; exhaustive without being ponderous.
Any thoughts on the newer druid circles? I've joined a long-running game mid-stream and inherited a 5th lvl lizard-folk Circle of Twilight Druid. Never played a druid of any stripe before (am partial to rogues). After some initial foundering, I got my legs under me, thanks in great part to your Handbook. You've covered most all of it, but it did occur me with regard to the new Circles.... I wonder what Hymer thinks....?

[hymer]

@ bilsmith: You are very welcome, and I'm glad you've found it useful.
The Twilight circle is pretty average for circles, I should think. Perhaps a tad low, unless you're into blasting. I don't think I've actually done any tests on it, as it's Unearthed Arcana material, and so not official. But the extra damage can be pretty good when coupled with AoE damage spells. As druid, you can throw some of those around, and some have pretty large areas, letting those dice get multiplied many times. I don't think it makes the druid into a blaster on par with sorcerers or evocation wizards (though it does give you the option of one heck of a whack once per day if you so choose - probably too much so, which could explain why it hasn't been published officially), but it doesn't have to. It is especially interesting in that it can come into play outside of your own turn by the ways it is worded. If someone moves through your Spike Growth AoE, you can hit them with extra necrotic damage, a pretty good damage type, and not one you'll be doing a lot of with spells alone.
The wording is also ambiguous in terms of whether the damage gets halved with the spell damage on a successful save for half damage. But if it does, you can choose not to expend your dice in those cases.

Speaking with the dead is pretty situational. Could be quite nice, but I guess that in most campaigns it won't make a big difference.

Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic damage is not a very powerful level 10 ability, and you'd hope that the advantage on death saves doesn't come up very often. But then again, resistance to necrotic damage isn't so easy to find, and there are some nasties out there that deal it. So it depends on the campaign, again.

Getting etherealness is pretty cool. It's a feature that has various uses, in getting past and through things. But it also allows you to get to safety. Very few opponents are able to disrupt your concentration (or harm you at all) while you're on a different plane of existence.

[Edgerunner]

I don't know much about Druids.

Do they have many Reaction spells to use or other uses for their Reaction?

if Not.... why gloss over Absorb Elements?

[sambojin]

Not for addition to the guide, but just for basic player information, in "X Marks the Spot - an Ixalan Planeshift Adventure" there's a beast called a Frilled Deathspitter. It's an absolute beast, and is accessible to all druids by lvl4, or moons straight away. High strength (is that a typo? Nope? Lol), 3xattacks, ranged blinding attack (Until the end of your next turn! That's nearly spell slot worthy, and you can try it every turn). And it's in an official WotC adventure, making it semi-legal if your DM questions the fact. Anyway, here it is:

Frilled Deathspitter
CR1/2
Small beast, unaligned
AC13
HP18
Speed 40'.

20Str(!)/16Dex/13Con/4Int/12Wis/6Cha
+3 Perception/13 passive perception

Multiattack: 1x bite, 2x claw(!)

Bite: +4 tohit, 1d6+3 piercing, 5' range
Claw: +4 tohit, 1d6+3 slashing, 5' range

Spit poison: 15'/30' range, +4 tohit, one creature. Target takes DC13 Con save or suffers 18(4d8) poison damage, half on save. If save is failed, target is blinded until the end of the deathspitter's next turn(!).
---------

So, yeah. It doesn't do much, but what it does, it does well. Attacks are keying off dex and not its stupidly high strength, but at least you won't have counter-grapple problems as often. 3x 1d6+3 attacks is nice for other druids than moon. And that spit.... Yes, it's keyed off Con, yes it's poison so it sucks, but that blind is amazing if it sticks. And there's no recharge, so you can keep hocking loogies all day long. Blind is pretty powerful, and this is for two turns of it. Stack it, or just rip in with advantage the turn after. It's nice. Can be easily argued that most Dex saves get autofailed by a blind target as well for caster support.

Anyway, for any druid but moon, this is a rather nice little combat form. Simple, but useful, and with enough versatility with its ranged attack that it's worth a look for sure.

Strangely enough, it's only included in the adventure as a random encounter (2d4 of them), with no flavour text, but I'm assuming it's another Jurassic Park knockoff. So, if you've ever been to Ixalan (hasn't every druid, ever, been there? It's where we learn about dinos at dino college, after all. Just make a note that the head druid took you all on a field trip there in your backstory), you just got a pretty handy form, for every subclass of druid. Yay!

Not bad for Conjure Animals either. 4 of them from a lvl3 slot, so 12 attacks or 4 DC13 Con blinds a round could be up there with wolves/raptors, but with less of them to move around. Be prepared to never be able to summon these things again :)

[Clistenes]

Reincarnate: Inferior to the cleric's Raise Dead, with two possible exceptions. The recently deceased will be fit to go adventuring without penalties right away with Reincarnation, and it sidesteps any curses or magical diseases on the target, unlike Raise Dead. Most people will want to retain their original species, but some players love randomness. Anyway, this is the only way druids can bring people back from the dead before they get True Resurrection (a 9th level spell).

Until recently I always have assumed 5 edition's Reincarnate would reset your body to young adult age, like the 3.5 version, but the text says just "a new adult body" ... so... Has WotC said if you still can use Reincarnate to get eternal youth?

It has always sorta bothered me that there is a path for very powerful people to live forever (using Reincarnate or replicating its effects with Wish), but it is rarely acknowledged by the lore...

[MaxWilson]

Until recently I always have assumed 5 edition's Reincarnate would reset your body to young adult age, like the 3.5 version, but the text says just "a new adult body" ... so... Has WotC said if you still can use Reincarnate to get eternal youth?

It has always sorta bothered me that there is a path for very powerful people to live forever (using Reincarnate or replicating its effects with Wish), but it is rarely acknowledged by the lore...

Clone is better.

[Clistenes]

Clone is better.

Yeah, but taking into account that there have been some instances of clones awakening and turning against the caster and against each other, you are left with the doubt: Are clones just good copies? Are cloned mages just dead, replaced by replicas?

[Garokson]

Are you going to color-code your spelllist? It's not that easy to evaluate the spells solely on the text.

Also about the moondruid, AL season 7 has some new dinosaurs that can be used in official play like the zealoraptor, giant snapping turtle, Therizinosaurus and brachiosaurus that make the druid stronger.

[MaxWilson]

Yeah, but taking into account that there have been some instances of clones awakening and turning against the caster and against each other, you are left with the doubt: Are clones just good copies? Are cloned mages just dead, replaced by replicas?

Yes, but you have that same existential issue with Reincarnate. In both cases, there's a body left behind and a new person who shows up claiming to be the old person. At least with Clone they still look like a younger version of the old person and are the right species.

If you're going to Wish for something to make you younger, Wish for Clone, not Reincarnate.

[Clistenes]

Yes, but you have that same existential issue with Reincarnate. In both cases, there's a body left behind and a new person who shows up claiming to be the old person. At least with Clone they still look like a younger version of the old person and are the right species.

If you're going to Wish for something to make you younger, Wish for Clone, not Reincarnate.

Anyways, my point is, can rich nobles and kings become virtually immortal by throwing bags of gold at a smart 10th level Bard? Because you know, even a single mid-level Bard is enough to make a kingdom's ruling class into immortal tyrants...

[hymer]

@ Edgerunner: As I write about Absorb Elements, it gets better with higher levels. There are fewer energy attacks directed at you at low level, and they deal less damage. When compared to the damage prevention of Entangle or the healing of Goodberry, it takes a while for Absorb Elements to get the numbers up where it makes sense.
So it actually has very little to do with reactions.

@ sambojin: Thanks for the writeup! And, that’s a boatload of damage for CR ½. It’s close to what you’d expect for CR 3! Pretty crazy.

@ Clistenes: I haven’t seen any rulings on the age of the reincarnated form, sorry. You could make a thread about the subject and see if anyone else has.

@ MaxWilson: Thanks for minding the desk while I was away!

@ Garokson: Rating the spells for druids as a whole doesn’t make much sense to me. For the classes where you have to pick a limited number of spells, I can definitely see how you would get into that. But for which ones to prepare as druid (or cleric)? It all depends on a whole lot of context I don’t have. What abilities are already in the party? You don’t need to worry about poison if the yuan-ti is going to handle all that. What are you going off to do? Combat spells are often useful, but if you are going to try to solve a murder, you may want to focus on something else. Which role do you prefer to play? As druid, you can fill in quite a lot of roles, but not all of them at once.
You need to know the spells at your druid’s disposal, every single one of them. Maybe a handful are ones I'd expect never to have reason to cast if I had it prepared (and two of them are Find Traps). So read them all. You don’t have to know their ranges or components by heart. But you need to know them in a general way – that
Lesser Restoration cures conditions and diseases, Speak with Plants has concentration free battlefield control, and Ice Storm deals cold and bludgeoning damage in an area. That way you can make the best decisions for you situation.

[MaxWilson]

Anyways, my point is, can rich nobles and kings become virtually immortal by throwing bags of gold at a smart 10th level Bard? Because you know, even a single mid-level Bard is enough to make a kingdom's ruling class into immortal tyrants...

Sure, why not?

Extrapolating: why shouldn't a smart 10th level bard just learn Detect Thoughts instead, tell the people he's the reincarnated king, and take over the kingdom?

Now you've got yourself internal consistency and a plot hook.

[sambojin]

A few quick thoughts on Guilds of Ravnica:

Spoiler

Show

Yeah, the guilds are very nice to druids. Especially moon druids.

Azorius gives Counterspell, the one thing we really couldn't do easily. High level moons doing the transfer into caster form will love it. Ensnaring strike just adds to your "restrain on hit" arsenal, which can be nice depending on some strange stat builds. You'll probably never use compulsion, but it's there for weird and weak fear.

Boros gives plenty of single target/multi-target instant damage (another thing you're not renowned for), a reasonable cantrip, and some healing/buffing. It's like being a Light Cleric, but also a druid, and it's free! And firebolt and sacred flame, so possibly useful cantrip-wise.

Golgari giving animate dead isn't bad, but it's not that great. Semi-permanent summons is nice, and it depends on just how nice it is compared to how your DM plays conjure animals/woodland beings. But hey, skellies with bows *and* hands are probably better than apes/dinos/lizards for ranged utility.

Gruul having compelled duel and shatter and even conjure barrage is pretty good. More lockdown for damage sponging, item damage and instant AoE, all stuff you often don't do (or not like this). Firebolt is nice'ish too.

Orzhov gives you spirit guardians. The one thing that keeps clerics competitive in combat later on just got given to you for free. Almost worth it for that one spell. Also gets bestow curse. This can be fun with some DMs.

Rakdos gives you haste. That's quite a handy spell for someone in your party, and maybe even you if your DM allows a beast attack (not muti-attack) off the action in some forms. Still, 2x movement and +2AC on some already very fast forms is great. Or for machine gun Giant Spitting Lizards, etc. Or a 4x attack Frilled Deathspitter from "X Marks the Spot - A Planeshift Ixalan Adventure", which is a brutal 1/2CR beast form for non-moons at lvl4 (lvl5 to haste it). Backstory it in :)
Also, firebolt or viscious mockery. Better than your normal stuff in some ways.

Simic having expeditious retreat and enlarge/reduce is pretty good for moons. Become Huge, Medium, Gargantuan or Tiny, in a massive array of forms, even earlier than before. Pretty good with multi-attack forms, or for slipping down tight passages, not to mention the rest of the utility these spells can give to some forms or in some non-wildshaped situations. But that whole "why aren't Centaurs large?" thing, that you often deal with every day, just got a lot easier. As well as the fact that bonus action movement/or +d4 damage on multi-attack forms is good to have. And the utility. Better than it looks, from spell slots you use for stuff just like this.

Yeah, sure, have haste or spirit guardians, as a moon druid. Even enlarge/reduce is pretty ace (big'ish medium-sized Frilled Deathspitter anyone? That's 3x +4 tohit, 1d6+1d4+3 damage attacks for any druid. Not bad as far as backup combat forms go :)
Note: this also lets you do stupid druid stuff, like ride familiars as a small beast, or become a Golden-Axe-sized Quetzalcoatlus or Great Wyrm/Giant Constrictor Snake. Are you a Pokemon? Can they ride you? All of them....)

[hymer]

I've ordered my GGtR, but I ordered some other stuff along with it (some maps, IIRC). Turns out some of it isn't released for another few weeks, so they won't send my stuff until then. But once I get it, I intend to do something with it. Though I should probably have it be a separate thread with a link to it from the general guide. But we'll see.

[Garokson]

@ Garokson: Rating the spells for druids as a whole doesn’t make much sense to me. For the classes where you have to pick a limited number of spells, I can definitely see how you would get into that. But for which ones to prepare as druid (or cleric)? It all depends on a whole lot of context I don’t have. What abilities are already in the party? You don’t need to worry about poison if the yuan-ti is going to handle all that. What are you going off to do? Combat spells are often useful, but if you are going to try to solve a murder, you may want to focus on something else. Which role do you prefer to play? As druid, you can fill in quite a lot of roles, but not all of them at once.
You need to know the spells at your druid’s disposal, every single one of them. Maybe a handful are ones I'd expect never to have reason to cast if I had it prepared (and two of them are Find Traps). So read them all. You don’t have to know their ranges or components by heart. But you need to know them in a general way – that
Lesser Restoration cures conditions and diseases, Speak with Plants has concentration free battlefield control, and Ice Storm deals cold and bludgeoning damage in an area. That way you can make the best decisions for you situation.

Well spell selection isn't that on a druid, but it's nontheless nice to have some kind of color coding to compare the different spells with on another.

A few quick thoughts on Guilds of Ravnica:

Spoiler

Show

Yeah, the guilds are very nice to druids. Especially moon druids.

Azorius gives Counterspell, the one thing we really couldn't do easily. High level moons doing the transfer into caster form will love it. Ensnaring strike just adds to your "restrain on hit" arsenal, which can be nice depending on some strange stat builds. You'll probably never use compulsion, but it's there for weird and weak fear.

Boros gives plenty of single target/multi-target instant damage (another thing you're not renowned for), a reasonable cantrip, and some healing/buffing. It's like being a Light Cleric, but also a druid, and it's free! And firebolt and sacred flame, so possibly useful cantrip-wise.

Golgari giving animate dead isn't bad, but it's not that great. Semi-permanent summons is nice, and it depends on just how nice it is compared to how your DM plays conjure animals/woodland beings. But hey, skellies with bows *and* hands are probably better than apes/dinos/lizards for ranged utility.

Gruul having compelled duel and shatter and even conjure barrage is pretty good. More lockdown for damage sponging, item damage and instant AoE, all stuff you often don't do (or not like this). Firebolt is nice'ish too.

Orzhov gives you spirit guardians. The one thing that keeps clerics competitive in combat later on just got given to you for free. Almost worth it for that one spell. Also gets bestow curse. This can be fun with some DMs.

Rakdos gives you haste. That's quite a handy spell for someone in your party, and maybe even you if your DM allows a beast attack (not muti-attack) off the action in some forms. Still, 2x movement and +2AC on some already very fast forms is great. Or for machine gun Giant Spitting Lizards, etc. Or a 4x attack Frilled Deathspitter from "X Marks the Spot - A Planeshift Ixalan Adventure", which is a brutal 1/2CR beast form for non-moons at lvl4 (lvl5 to haste it). Backstory it in :)
Also, firebolt or viscious mockery. Better than your normal stuff in some ways.

Simic having expeditious retreat and enlarge/reduce is pretty good for moons. Become Huge, Medium, Gargantuan or Tiny, in a massive array of forms, even earlier than before. Pretty good with multi-attack forms, or for slipping down tight passages, not to mention the rest of the utility these spells can give to some forms or in some non-wildshaped situations. But that whole "why aren't Centaurs large?" thing, that you often deal with every day, just got a lot easier. As well as the fact that bonus action movement/or +d4 damage on multi-attack forms is good to have. And the utility. Better than it looks, from spell slots you use for stuff just like this.

Yeah, sure, have haste or spirit guardians, as a moon druid. Even enlarge/reduce is pretty ace (big'ish medium-sized Frilled Deathspitter anyone? That's 3x +4 tohit, 1d6+1d4+3 damage attacks for any druid. Not bad as far as backup combat forms go :)
Note: this also lets you do stupid druid stuff, like ride familiars as a small beast, or become a Golden-Axe-sized Quetzalcoatlus or Great Wyrm/Giant Constrictor Snake. Are you a Pokemon? Can they ride you? All of them....)

Yeah, boros fills so many damage holes in the druids spell list and gives some nice utility to boot. The cantrips alone make it a worthwhile background since both are better than what the druid has to offer. Which druid doesn't want to start with something like sacred flame? It's a bit hard to find some kind of RP justification though. Maybe a mountain land druid that worships an volcano and thus get's the bonus spells?

[sambojin]

I'm not actually too familiar with mtg lore. But you could probably go for being a druid of nature's wrath, destruction, vengeance, life/death/renewal, light and fire, plains/planes protector, or just say "yes, I'm REALLY elemental, that's what Boros druids are".

Isn't Boros essentially red/white aggro weeny in many respects in deck type? It's not exactly hard to flavour yourself as a bit more celestially/holy warriory as a druid. I mean, god do you go wide with conjures and DoT spells, so having a bit of a plains/mountain background to a druid isn't unreasonable. With zappy/lifey stuff alongside it. They're not all hippies from the forest. Druids come from everywhere, and culturally everyone tends to have the outlook of the people they live with. It's sort of like saying "Do you need to be a nature or life cleric if you're in Selesnya and want to be a cleric?". Nope. Not really. It makes it easy to theme it, but there's other types of clerics in the guild somewhere no doubt.

[Master O'Laughs]

I just started creating a Hill Dwarf Shepard Druid for a campaign the other night. Rolled stats.

S - 13
D - 14
Co - 19
I - 12
W - 18
Ch - 11

I am trying to decide what to do for my lvl 4 ASI/feat. I am thinking Resilient CON to max it and get ST proficiency. Would I be better served by any others? I am planning on +2 WIS come level 8

[dejarnjc]

I just started creating a Hill Dwarf Shepard Druid for a campaign the other night. Rolled stats.

S - 13
D - 14
Co - 19
I - 12
W - 18
Ch - 11

I am trying to decide what to do for my lvl 4 ASI/feat. I am thinking Resilient CON to max it and get ST proficiency. Would I be better served by any others? I am planning on +2 WIS come level 8

Depending on how long your game lasts, you'll likely see a ton of usage from Resilient(CON). I think it's a pretty vital feat for druids in general as almost all the spells worth casting are concentration. Not to mention that CON saves are incredibly important as well. With your high CON and Resilient, you'll likely almost never lose concentration. (My 19th level druid w/ resilient CON and only 14 constitution rarely loses concentration)

Your stats are pretty beastly, so you could potentially delay picking up Resilient(CON) and bumping WIS if you wanted to pick up a more roleplay focused feat and not really feel the hurt. I'd still probably go Resilient(CON) if I were you though.

[Master O'Laughs]

Depending on how long your game lasts, you'll likely see a ton of usage from Resilient(CON). I think it's a pretty vital feat for druids in general as almost all the spells worth casting are concentration. Not to mention that CON saves are incredibly important as well. With your high CON and Resilient, you'll likely almost never lose concentration. (My 19th level druid w/ resilient CON and only 14 constitution rarely loses concentration)

Your stats are pretty beastly, so you could potentially delay picking up Resilient(CON) and bumping WIS if you wanted to pick up a more roleplay focused feat and not really feel the hurt. I'd still probably go Resilient(CON) if I were you though.

Cool, thanks. Another reason in favor for bumping CON is the DM has us roll health (i know that is a sore spot to a lot on these boards) and my rolls were not great. So 5 extra health will be appreciated as well.

[hymer]

@ Master O'Laughs: Dejarnjc said exactly what I would have said. Resilient (con) seems perfect for your character, and it's a strong option. And your scores are so good you can comfortably aim for something more fun than strictly optimized if you want. But that doesn't mean that maxing your wisdom is at all a bad idea, quite the contrary. So, on to new things:
As a shepherd druid, your hp isn't the major concern, and with the hill dwarf bonus and soon a 20 con, well... I wouldn' worry about poor hp rolls unless they are outright rotten. Don't forget you get extra hp from bear totems.

@ dejarjnc: Thanks for minding the desk!

[dejarnjc]

@ dejarjnc: Thanks for minding the desk!

Hah! No worries. I've been playing the same druid for 3 years now and your guide helped me so much for the first half of that time. Hell, I still refer to it from time to time.

[sambojin]

While I agree with the answer, with those stats you could try a little luxury if you want.

Alertness is also an amazing feat for druids, so you can get your BFC down or summons out before anyone else. While your dex may be average, going from +2 init to +7 is incredible, and may save you as many concentration rolls as Resilient would.

I mean, Resilient (Con) is SO good, I'm not arguing against it. But you could potentially go Alertness, then Resilient (Con), then +2 Wis. Or do it in any order you please. Maybe Resilient (Con)/Alertness/+2 Wis. Depends on how much you plan on summoning on how good +2 Wis is. Sure, you might want to max it eventually, but if your concentration is mostly used on summons, you don't need it that badly. Cantrip pinging or shillelagh clobbering is going to be the lesser part of your damage compared to what your summons do, and they don't need Wis at all.

And Alertness is very nice for BFC or summons, which is what you essentially do as a shepherd for most of your career (laying out a minefield of AoOs and HP is pretty nice to do early on in the turn, no matter how your DM plays Conjure Animals/Woodland Beings. No surprise is good too).

[Master O'Laughs]

While I agree with the answer, with those stats you could try a little luxury if you want.

Alertness is also an amazing feat for druids, so you can get your BFC down or summons out before anyone else. While your dex may be average, going from +2 init to +7 is incredible, and may save you as many concentration rolls as Resilient would.

I mean, Resilient (Con) is SO good, I'm not arguing against it. But you could potentially go Alertness, then Resilient (Con), then +2 Wis. Or do it in any order you please. Maybe Resilient (Con)/Alertness/+2 Wis. Depends on how much you plan on summoning on how good +2 Wis is. Sure, you might want to max it eventually, but if your concentration is mostly used on summons, you don't need it that badly. Cantrip pinging or shillelagh clobbering is going to be the lesser part of your damage compared to what your summons do, and they don't need Wis at all.

And Alertness is very nice for BFC or summons, which is what you essentially do as a shepherd for most of your career (laying out a minefield of AoOs and HP is pretty nice to do early on in the turn, no matter how your DM plays Conjure Animals/Woodland Beings. No surprise is good too).

Thanks for the input. After the other posts as well I was toying with the idea of Alertness. I think I may just take that instead.

As far as prepared spells, even though the Animal spirit uses a bonus action to create/move (same for directing summons), am I better off making cure wounds or healing word my heal of choice?

Also, is it 9/10 more useful to summon the bear spirit? When may the Unicorn spirit be the better choice (swarms or big bad)?

[emelynilsson]

I've ordered my GGtR, but I ordered some other stuff along with it (some maps, IIRC). Turns out some of it isn't released for another few weeks, so they won't send my stuff until then. But once I get it, I intend to do something with it. Though I should probably have it be a separate thread with a link to it from the general guide. But we'll see.

Loving the guide, Hymer! It is all a beginner druid needs and more. There's a but to this though: I just started playing A Circle of Spores druid and I was hoping you'd add it to this guide. Druids do ALL THE THINGS, and I had to start her at lvl 4, which is why thoughts on my chosen circle from someone with experience would help a lot!

In regards to your post that I quoted above, I hope that your copy of GGtR arrived safely by now :)

Thanks again for putting your time into this!

[hymer]

@ emelynilsson: Thank you! I'm glad the handbook is useful to you. And thank you, yes, my GGtR has indeed arrived. In fact, I got two copies of everything. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I'm not shopping at that e-store again. It will make a good present, though. 'tis the season and all that.
As for the but, I'll first say that I have not in fact played a Spore druid at this point. But that won't stop me from adding it to the guide. Though, since Ravnica is somewhat apart from 5e in general, I'm going to put the GGtR stuff in its own thread and link to it.
I started yesterday, and I have not yet gotten to the spore druid. But that's next, and I'll speed it up a little for you. I'll try and get it up some time later today. It will be rough, as it's early days, but it should give a decent idea of what I think about spore druids and their abilities.

Edit: A rough version of the spore druid rundown is now up; follow the link above.

[emelynilsson]

Edit: A rough version of the spore druid rundown is now up; follow the link above.

That was FAST! Wow! Thank you so much <3