Druids Are AMAZING: A 5e D&D Druid Guide - Levels 1-5

druids are in my opinion the most broken overpowered and fun class in d d fifth edition this is controversial many would consider the classes like wizard or paladin to be the strongest but however take a look at this chart druid is the least played class many players have never taken the time to try out playing a druid well except me i guess i've played half a dozen druids and i have a better understanding than most according to the data about how they are actually played so in this video you're going to get a veteran druid player's experience about the class through the first five levels after this video you'll have a better understanding about why druids don't take any before we begin let's talk about a druid's role or rather the lack of one as a druid you are a supporter controller healer tank and damage dealer all in one your power lies in being whatever the party needs at that moment depending on your subclass you'll be better in certain roles obviously for instance a circle of dreams druid is a better healer while a circle of the moon druid is one of the best tanks in the game as a druid the two most important ability scores are your wisdom and your constitution wisdom of course affects your spell casting constitution your health and your concentration checks everyone knows the importance of wisdom but as i've played druid i can easily say that you do not need wisdom to be your highest ability score depending on how you play druid and what spells you want to take constitution can be your highest ability score and you'll actually feel more powerful on the screen and in the description i've put a list of over 20 good to great spells that do not require a high wisdom score to be effective that means no saving throws or attack roles where high wisdom is needed if you're playing a circle of the moon circle the shepherds spores etc then you can put everything into constitution and leave wisdom as your second highest ability score and be just fine of course if you want to be slinging spells really buff that wisdom score but otherwise you can be really flexible with your ability scores and speaking of spell casting druids get access to so many spells one of their strengths is that they know every single one of their spells and can prepare any one of them at any time but most druids fail to capitalize on this strength my biggest spellcasting tip is to create loadouts yeah just like call of duty or battlefield grab a google document and write down the spells you want for combat walking about town stealth etc then at the end of a long rest tell your dm that you are equipping x loadout or heck your dm might prompt you and ask which loadout you're taking it is a simple method to get more out of your spells i encourage the same method for clerics paladins and wizards too your wild shape is one of your biggest weapons as a druid it is one of the hardest things for new players to understand so i'll try to summarize the rules as an action you can turn into a beast so a creature that is actually in the beast category of monsters dragons purple worms beholders and the like do not count a good rule of thumb is that a beast is any creature you could find on the planet earth and in a d d world so deers wolves insects whales and all the light count as beasts you retain all your skill in saving throw proficiencies as well as gaining the creatures that you turn into so if you are proficient in stealth and your beast normally isn't it is instead proficient this is very useful don't forget this proficiency carries over your wild shape form next you gain the creatures hit points and put them into a separate hit point pool when you transform into that creature say you have 15 hit points in your beast is say a rat that has three hit points if you and your rat form take five points of damage your rat hit point pool takes three points of damage and you take the rest as long as your rat hit point pool has more than zero health you stay as a rat essentially a wild shape gives temporary hit points and when they run out you go back to your regular form another very important point is that you retain the benefit of any features from your class race or other source like a feat and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so so what's that mean you could essentially use a dragonborns breath weapon a rogue sneak attack or the sentinel feet all while in your wild shape most druids don't understand that they can boost their wild shape significantly with other features they have on their character sheets but honestly the biggest boost to your wild shape comes from your imagination some animals have the coolest abilities that aren't listed on any stat block for instance squirrels don't take fall damage they can fall from any height and be fine look it up a cheetah's top speed is 75 miles per hour or 660 feet in six seconds or a round of combat and axolotl can even regrow lost legs what i'm trying to say is that you can weaponize the cool abilities that other animals have as a druid use your wild shape creatively to solve problems if the wizard wants to scry on someone let's say become a mosquito and go drink your target's blood then come back and use the blood for the scrying ritual wild shape opens up a whole new world of problem-solving possibilities a quick note about choosing your race i think druid is the least race dependent class especially after tasha's and custom lineages being able to put your racial bonus anywhere really opens up the game especially for a druid who can use their racial features in their wild shape if they're physically able even if your dm won't let you use custom lineages and move around ability scores i still firmly believe that any race works with a druid simply put a 15 into wisdom and a 14 constitution with standard array or vice versa and you'll be fine no matter what bonuses you get however if you're looking for great druid races here are my top 3 non-human or elf races half orc relentless endurance is so useful as a druid and savage attacks are always nice adding to your constitution doesn't hurt at all and finally the theming just fits half orcs at least in faerun are in touch with nature there's a lot of role play potential here along with mechanical benefits i highly recommend playing a half-orc druid lizard folk constitution and wisdom fit perfectly for a druid plus you gain a litany of racial features like cunning artisan hungry jaws hunter's lore natural armor hold breath and more basically you have great ability score improvements and a lot of racial features with lore that fits a druid lizard folk i think are made to be druids finally the tabaxi the one weakness of a tabaxi is their ability scores don't really align with the druid at all if you move a two into wisdom and a one into constitution however you become dangerous you have a natural climbing speed proficiency and perception and stealth as well as the ability to double your movement speed on a turn doubling your movement speed can make all the difference in a wild shape form plus you get an obvious connection to nature being a cat person you might need to fend off your party calling you a furry however all your other benefits will probably be worth it as a druid you can wear medium armor and have a shield my advice is to do both a breastplate and a shield should give you at least an ac of 16 assuming you don't have a negative dexterity modifier over the course of a campaign you can then work on getting additional defenses and bump that number up to 18 relatively easily with all those defenses in a higher than average health pool you should be more than protected if you are wearing a breastplate and shield i also highly recommend adding an ape to your wild shaped list as you wild shape you can choose to keep your equipment on you if the beast can wear it an ape can absolutely wear a breastplate and shield while holding a weapon if you do this your ac will be 18 since the ape has a plus due to dexterity additionally the ape will have proficiency in your weaponry so it can use a weapon i personally recommend equipping your druid with a scimitar or short sword however if you're using the ape its fists and rock attacks actually do just as much damage as your regular weapons so it's a toss up it's up to you however melee ape druid is just more temporary hit points if you're trying to get up close in combat and have a higher ac now how do we make the most out of your druid in combat in truth 50 of playing a druid is critical thinking it is understanding the battlefield what is about to happen and how to manipulate the situation to your advantage druid benefits significantly from strategic and thoughtful play the mentality of rushing headfirst into a fight won't get you very far that being said here are three tips to instantly improve your druid in combat and make sure your druid never takes from anything or anyone what is the midline the midline is the space 15 to 20 feet back from the front line usually melee attacks happen between five to ten feet in that distance so the midline is about one five foot block away from the front line now the front line changes battle to battle it isn't always one straight line thus to stay in the midline we always need to be 15 feet away from the closest melee enemy as druids we stay in the middle line to provide support we have healing buffs tanking capabilities you name it in the midline you can rotate around the battlefield where you are most needed but don't be too far away i define the back line as 40 to 50 feet away from the front line essentially the back line is farther than a normal 30 foot movement speed away from combat most enemies will not be able to make it to the back line however as a druid you don't want to be back there you are a last line of defense with a higher ac and hit point total you have to be a final barricade for the weaker 1d6 of 1d8 hit die classes such as bards sorcerers and wizards as a druid your focus should be on the enemy's front line and midline whether that be dealing damage to them or shutting down their movement we will discuss shutting down movement in greater detail when we actually start diving into the druid spells however the most important thing is that you're not focusing on the back line you can attack backline enemies druids can do basically anything because they don't take from anybody but that's not your role you see in fifth edition you have two groups of player characters that are mechanically designed to attack the back line those are your own backline characters usually made up of magic blasters like wizards and sorcerers and then your strikers a striker is a character that has a high movement in high single target damage capability usually with lower health these are your rogues and your monks they are getting into the back line and wreaking havoc usually they are more suited to attacking those squishy mages and glass cannon archers in the back i'm not saying you have to stick to these roles in every combat by the way some combats will not have an enemy front mid and back line but what i am saying is that in my experience this is how you maximize the druid's efficiency and power you are the glue that holds the battlefield together speaking of being the glue as a druid you have great healing potential however in 5th edition it is very hard to out heal damage additionally a character is just as effective at one hit point as they are at maximum hit points therefore it is wise to only heal a character once they're unconscious or if you're absolutely sure you can save them from going down spells like healing spirit and healing word are your best friend as a druid i wouldn't even recommend taking cure wounds if it's after combat and many party members need healing it's just better to take a short rest or take healing potions don't waste your precious spell slots on inefficient healing it'll hurt you later look i could talk a lot more about this subject but this new taking 20 video here covers a lot of what i would already say check out the video if you don't get the logic behind non-preventative healing there are many more druid combat tips i could provide but this video is getting a little long and we still haven't gotten to the meat of the video now we're gonna run down the list of some of the best druid spells from spell levels can trip to third level i believe these are incredible spells that every druid should know how to use we'll talk about why they're so good how they combo in some strategies for each spell guidance up to a 20 buff on every roll this is how you have to kind of think about it if you're rolling a d20 each side is 5 if you're adding guidance which is 1d4 that's a potential extra 20 to any single ability check that you're making this is great it's unlimited it's incredible for everyone i highly recommend taking guidance for literally any class that can take it i would actually say that for some parties it's such a good can trip that taking magic initiate just for guidance is worthwhile next up mold earth this is great for battlefield preparation and puzzle solving you can bury things manipulate a dungeon with this spell creativity is king and you can make some awesome things with mold earth highly recommended as a druid kandra primal savagery this is great for a melee druid now it used to be that shellely was better than primal savagery however looking at it i think primal savagery scales better than chileli and makes the druid constantly dangerous at close range since you don't need to have a club or something of that nature in order to cast the spell with primal savagery you always just have your acid claws or fangs plus it's just great flavor and lots of people have so much fun using primal savagery next up we have produce flame it is the primary ranged attacking kanship i think for a druid frostbite and poison spray which druid also has access to require saves which limits damage you want to be making attack rolls since those are going to be more consistent in the long term and also if you're looking at poison spray sure a d12 damage is nice but poison is also a heavily countered damage type in 5th edition just take produce flame if you get into a situation where you just want to use kant trips at a distance this is a great kant trip to use i have never really had a player who hated taking produce flame it's just good solid highly recommend first level spells ah yes entangle this is one of the druids best spells in my opinion it locks down a lot of enemies with its 20-foot radius even if it fails difficult terrain cuts their movement speed in half a normal regular enemy with a 30-foot movement speed will not be able to escape their entangle even if they succeed on the strength safe good barry good barry is a great spell your dm might nerf this early on because it can provide lots of easy free healing you can use a focus to get around the mistletoe requirement all in all just a really good spell provides nice party healing highly recommend healing word controversy alert i think this is the best healing spell in the game after healing spirits nerf you can just wait until a party member is down at zero hit points pick them back up at a range it's a first level spell it does everything you want with healing healing word is just incredible it's an incredible spell i don't think any spell other than like healing spirit gets close just take healing word always have healing work prepared it's just that good i have never taken it off a druid spellis once i prepared it literally never ice knife this is the best damaging spell for a druid at first level well the best except if you're a circle of stars druid because they will get guiding bolt but is knife is great you chuck it at an enemy it's an attack roll so you can do damage there and has a secondary exploding effect so it also has aoe honestly ice knife is great pick it up if you want to do some damage it's great for crowd control in small doses awesome spell ah yes speak with animals animals you see a lot in d d campaigns i mean you can see rats in a dungeon flies whatever you can talk to animals get great recon it's great for role play speak with animals is slept on i think that if you're a druid pick it up i mean you are of the wild why not speak to nature second level spell enhanceability it's great for high-intensity situations where you really need to succeed on a check place it on a rogue or bard or anyone your party will love you for this spell heat metal it is literally unstoppable damage if someone is wearing armor or has a metal weapon it is great a great strategy is to cast heat metal on a target and then wild shape because you can still use the heat metal effect while you're in wild shape the spell does not go away it's great for a pretty much moon druids because you can heat metal bonus action wild shape and then you are just locked in on that one target especially if it's a boss flaming sphere it is great damage it's also usable in wild shape it is a spell that has lots of utility since it can set things on fire fairly easily such as buildings honestly another great spell to take for a druid moon beam great range damage and removes shape changers from the battle's field it's helpful and consistent damage and it's also useful in wild shape so that's a bonus ah yes spike growth an incredibly good spell it's slept on so much i don't know why every single druid and ranger does not take spike growth what you have to do cast it on where a creature is standing just cast it on where they're standing and they have to move they can't move without taking damage their movement speed is half because of difficult terrain casting spike growth on a target forces it to essentially take 8d4 piercing damage for it to escape and they cannot escape spike growth with only 30 feet of movement it can be used as a trap as well it's just an incredibly good spell that is slept on and you can essentially shut down an enemy or a group of enemies on the battlefield i can't say enough good things about spike growth and how it is under utilized by all druids and rangers pass without trace this is an incredible spell s tier ever druid should take it it makes everyone the party a rogue a plus 10 to stealth checks is incredible just always take this it is helpful for getting around combat encounters keeping your party safe infiltration missions this is a party favorite spell and really if a druid has this and has it prepared you give so much to classes like robes and mungs and things like that and also protect classes like uh paladins and fighters that might have heavy armor where they have disadvantage it really just keeps everyone safe healing spirit this is a tpk saver it will save your party so many times it's it is easily able to heal multiple people who are unconscious on the ground or allow a creature like a party member to heal itself it is very good value at a bonus action still allows you to have a can trip cast dang like even after it got nerfed it is still incredible and usable in wild shape if you're a druid and you have access to second level spells what the are you doing not taking healing spirit and having it prepared druids take no this is part of the reason why they take no because they have healing spirit take healing spirit it's so good third level spells alright now i gotta talk to you about the most slept on spell in yeah pretty much all of d d fifth edition in my opinion that spell is plant growth this spell is incredible just bar none you have to use 20 feet of movement to go five feet which is insane that's crazy it breaks combat and that would be great even if you could not mold the area around you because the spell says you can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spells area from being affected so essentially you can create pathways for your party so they can go through and attack enemies that are stuck bogged down in the overgrown plants i mean it's a hundred foot radius centered on a point that becomes thick and overgrown you just point and it's not concentration and you have the entire battlefield locked down this spell paired with druid's other options is part of the reason why i think this class is so broken past plant growth and then add in spike growth or entangle or flaming sphere to alight all the plants and vines that have overgrown you can essentially make it so no one is moving you can keep enemies locked in place and your party can just pick them off from there it trivializes so many encounters every druid should have this it is perhaps more powerful than a wizard's fireball i know that's super controversial but as i've played a druid i have broken encounter after encounter after encounter with plant growth spike growth and tangle things of that nature because locking down a battlefield is something that very few classes can do and i think that druid does it the most effectively out of anything it has the spell slots it has the health it has everything you need to be a force and plant growth as soon as you reach fifth level is the engine as soon as you reach fifth level druid is gone it takes off and look that's not to say that druid isn't even powerful before that i think with all these other spells you've seen that druid comes online pretty much level two respectfully everyone who says that druid takes a while to get going is absolutely wrong they're just not playing druid effectively they're not playing druid to its strengths and druid strength is battlefield manipulation support and being just a swiss army knife for whatever the party needs and if your druid is doing that maybe the players don't see the druid doing 80 points of damage but they are mitigating 200 points of damage with how they're manipulating this battlefield because no one can hit the party or no one can get the party down or no one can go around you as you're just a black bear tanking all this damage it's whatever you want alright rant over let's move on to the next spell tidal wave it's a great aoe spell basically you knock enemies prone you are manipulating the battlefield doing less damage than a fireball but if all those enemies are prone one they're not going to be moving as far because their speed is halved again moving big deal for a druid locks down the movement but also doing a lot of damage in a line able to hit a lot of enemies at once and depending on how you formulate the line where the wave is going you can pretty much protect other party members it is great and finally the last spell of the day speak with plants plants are the best scouts they can see everything you can ask a plant what's been going on around the area it's literally insane potential you can ask a blade of grass who's been walking here a tree outside of a castle if the enemies are inside talk to the moss on a dungeon wall maybe they've seen monsters come into the dungeon and the moss can tell you hey i saw a creature that looked like this moss is kind of dumb i mean it's moss but you can still get uh information from all these plants again your dungeon master has to be willing to go there and willing to role play that if you have a controversial and adversarial dungeon master obviously it's going to make any class a lot harder to play but i mean it affects the druid the same as any other class if you have an adversarial dm and you're a rogue trying to sneak everywhere and you keep being found it's the exact same thing as a druid casting speak with plants and getting no information you have to have a dungeon master that is willing to work with you i think that's just the baseline for any dnd game so yes while you i have seen people in the comments say speak with plants whatever like they never do anything for other dungeon masters that actually want to facilitate fun and play i mean you're going with kind of the intent of the spell and how to use it how it's written speak with plants is a great spell it's really really good and it provides role play opportunities with a flower that's great like there's no other game that allows you to do that and in the future if this video does well we'll begin to talk about the higher levels of druid and get more tips because i've ran druids to very high levels and there are amazing high-level druid tips that i do want to give but this video is long and if you want to support this channel go and look at this video if you're a dungeon master and this video if you're a player and thank you all for entering the dungeon [Music]

Channel: Enter the Dungeon

Views: 93,908

Keywords: dungeons and dragons, dnd5e, druid5e

Id: ov4i23-lpKE

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021