Help with lvl 1 druid spells

[Arparrabiosa]

Hi there folks,

My new character is a lvl 1 druid in a cleric-less party. I know my summons are useless until lvl 3 or so. So what should I be doing during combat? Should I go with entangle and produce flame or just 2 clw spells?

We play core only. Thanks in advance!

[Gwendol]

Don't CLW unless you absolutely have to. Entangle and produce flame is a nice combo.

[eggynack]

Sounds about right. Produce flame isn't the best, especially at level one where it's single use, but it's passable. Entangle is great though, and there's a good possibility that you should just be preparing two of those, depending on how your DM rules on the initial conditions necessary for an entangle to work. If you can shoot it into a plantless area, it's the best thing ever, and two is a solid choice. If you can only use it on a really plant filled area, then it's only situationally the best thing ever, and you should probably go with one unless you know that you'll be able to use two. If you just need plants of any kind within the area of the spell, I'd advise attaching some to your animal companion, and just letting him get entangled in a location where he can hit enemies. In that case, two is probably also good, though less good than in the any terrain option.

As for other spells, obscuring mist makes for a reasonable low level defensive option, and shillelagh makes for a decent low level offensive option, if you want to get your hands dirty. You expressed an interest in healing, so I would advise just packing one or two instances of cure minor wounds. It's great for stabilizing allies in the heat of battle. The last zeroth or two should usually be detect magic, though create water is also good. As for what you should be doing in combat, you should ideally have a riding dog consuming people in combat, and when you're not casting spells, perhaps you should just back him up with a sling. It doesn't really matter how competent you are at that, as long as you're taking actions when you wouldn't otherwise do so.

[Darrin]

After starting off with entangle, I'd probably follow up with magic stone: three ranged attacks for 1d6+1 damage instead of just one attack with produce flame. Also much more useful against low-level undead.

As far as healing goes, get the party to pool their GP so they can buy a wand of CLW ASAP. Then you won't have to worry so much about dedicating your spell slots to CLW.

[ericgrau]

At level 1 core only CLW can be useful even mid-fight. Magic stone is good if you expect 30 minutes notice of a fight to cast it ahead of time or expect undead. Shillelagh is good on a scroll if you get a buff round. In general in core level 1 you don't have many options besides entangle, CLW and sling. It's not the greatest, but your alternatives are limited. Ya in a couple levels you might not use CLW, but right now I would. Also don't forget at level 1 your touch attacks and attacks in general do miss. Frequently. A reliable 1d8+1 Is better than an unlikely 1d6+1.

[Chronos]

At level 1, Magic Stone is better than Produce Flame, but honestly, I'd skip both of them and just go with another Entangle and a mundane sling. Also remember that you can still spontaneously summon-- They won't be worth much lasting only one round, but that's still occasionally just what you need.

[Gwendol]

Ah yes, I forgot to clarify the flames good when setting reeds and eventually enemies on fire. The damage should be enough to end the encounter.

[Rebel7284]

There is always Shillelagh + Hit stuff if your strength is above 10. Entangle and a sling is pretty damn good though.

[Gwendol]

At least if your pet is strong enough. Level 1 characters should avoid getting hit.

[Kraklen88]

I would prepare them in this order: Entangle, Shillelagh, Obscuring Mist, Produce Flame.

If you have a physical group, I would trade out Shillelagh for Obscuring Mist. Between them and your animal companion, you don't need to do damage.

[Segev]

I forget if druids are proficient with them, but if they are, a longspear is a good, cheap, reach weapon. Why a reach weapon? Because you're going to either make attacks over your riding dog's space, or you're going to use Aid Another to give your riding dog an additional +2 to hit or +2 to AC (your choice). You go ahead and attack, personally, if the enemy is easy enough to hit and isn't hitting so hard he'll one-hit KO your dog. You aid another if your dog's having trouble hitting him, or he's close to KOing your dog.

If you want to be doing healing, look at Goodberry. 2d4 hp (max 8 per person per day) cast ahead of time and distributable as you need them. I don't think there's anything preventing handfuls from being taken as a standard action.

[eggynack]

I forget if druids are proficient with them, but if they are, a longspear is a good, cheap, reach weapon.
Nah, just spears and shortspears. I don't think there's a reach weapon on the list. You're pretty much stuck with a sling, if you want to do the thing where you hit enemies from behind your friendly riding dog.

[Gwendol]

Goodberries are really good to pass around. A staff or club is enough at level 1. With shillelagh you get to do massive damage when needed.

[Felvion]

In my opinion your lvl1 choices should be entagle and goodberry.
Since your party has no cleric, they may consider you a healer. I've been there and its not nice. I prefer goodberries over clw because a)you can split the healing b) anyone can "use" a berry on his own c) in case you fall unconsious the fighter may heal you by feeding you the berry you gave him the morning "just in case" d) berries last for day/level.
Don't go for offensive spells in lvl1. It's not that they are poor choices. It's that your party doesnt need them. Many others can match and outshine your offensive spells in levels 1-2. Your entagle on the other hand is amazing. Same goes for the berries in my opinion. The fact that they last for day/lvl makes them important beyond lvl1 too.
As for the clw wand, i don't like it in a druid but its just personal. I don't hing that any of my druids would use wands. Of course in terms of power its the best option for you if you need to heal the whole party.
Finally don't care much for your damage because your op riding dog will do it. The stats are better than any lvl1 character, he has the awesome trip and when you hit lvl 3-4 give him a magic fang. In game I recently played we were on a 25 point buy and when i hit lvl3 my haskey had double physical stat modifiers than the barbarian in rage!
If you stick to the riding dog through the levels your companion will be a decent frontliner for long and in case you can connvince your DM to wartrain (template from MM2) it yourself it will be better than any melee PC.

[Ivanhoe]

Best core druid spell at level 1?

Obscuring mist, hands down. It is a great "reset" button when combat goes wrong. You can use it for stealth, as a decoy, to protect vs ranged attacks. It is one of the most powerful 1st level spells in general.

Prepare two of them - or one and entangle in an area with plants (or eggynack's idea: get a olant attached to an animal companion).
On the day before adventuring, you can also prepare and cast goodberry, because they'll last a day.

[Segev]

At level 1, I'd plan to cast Goodberry the night before going adventuring, then keeping it prepped and casting it before bed each night. That way, in an emergency, you have the ones from last night and can cast it on demand for another set in the same day, if needs be. If you're mid-adventure, the NEXT day will need two preparations to get you back up to par, but at least this saves you from having to keep two prepped until you need two in any given day.

[Defiled Cross]

Not a bad combination.

As it stands, the group I'm currently DMing for has a level two Druid who utilizes the same strategy.

:smallwink:

[Arparrabiosa]

I think I'll go with good berries, entagle, 2x cure minor wounds and detect magic for the first session.

Thank you guys! You are awesome!

[ericgrau]

I can see casting goodberry ahead of time, but during an adventuring day why would you want 5 points of difficult to administer healing when you could have 5.5 points of easy to administer healing mid-fight? What else are you going to do that's better after you've cast your entangle, or if there are no plants? Sling and miss?

Once you hit level 2 you can get even more healing out of precast goodberries between fights, but you still need something for during the fight.

[eggynack]

I can see casting goodberry ahead of time, but during an adventuring day why would you want 5 points of difficult to administer healing when you could have 5.5 points of easy to administer healing mid-fight? What else are you going to do that's better after you've cast your entangle, or if there are no plants? Sling and miss?

Once you hit level 2 you can get even more healing out of precast goodberries between fights, but you still need something for during the fight.
I agree on the not goodberry point. It's a great spell when you have some free time (though perhaps not as great at first level, when the duration is only one day instead of two or more), but it's not really the sort of thing to prepare for an adventuring day. I'd probably swap it for an obscuring mist, a second entangle, or perhaps magic stone or produce flame. Cure light wounds is passable, but I'd probably just stick with minor. Cure light wounds just seems like it puts you on the wrong end of the action economy, even at first level.

[Gwendol]

Agreed, don't prep goodberries for your adventuring day. Go with magic stone or obscuring mist. The latter is especially good against enemy chargers, ranged enemies, and spellcasters using targeted spells (all typically the bane of level 1 characters).

[ericgrau]

I agree on the not goodberry point. It's a great spell when you have some free time (though perhaps not as great at first level, when the duration is only one day instead of two or more), but it's not really the sort of thing to prepare for an adventuring day. I'd probably swap it for an obscuring mist, a second entangle, or perhaps magic stone or produce flame. Cure light wounds is passable, but I'd probably just stick with minor. Cure light wounds just seems like it puts you on the wrong end of the action economy, even at first level.

Nah a CR 1 foe does around 1d8+1 when he hits, but he doesn't hit half the time. And 4 of those are a possible TPK. Against more routine fights you come out even farther ahead with CLW. Particularly in core-only. Obscuring mist is great when you use it and useless when you don't. I'd pay the 25 gp and scroll it for that one time. Or wait for advanced notice of a big risk. Likewise magic stone is nice but only when you have advanced notice. Not during round 1 of a fight just so you can do nothing at first and then pitiful damage late in the fight. Produce flame is downright laughable at level 1, and bad even at level 2. Less than CLW and 60-70% of the time you'll miss.

The thing is at level 1 you'd be lucky to get even halfway to a fighter or barbarian's power with your casting, so you take what you can get. It's not that CLW is all that great, it's that it's much better than most everything else except entangle. And sometimes you can't even use entangle.