Best spells for a level 1 druid

[GoldenDwarf]

I'm playing 5e for the second time, and what are some nice.
spells for a level 1 druid with 18 wisdom?

[PoeticDwarf]

Entangle is a very nice spell for every druid, healing word is a better heal spell than cure wounds in most situations. Go for Thunderwave if you want damage and don't have a good weapon, earth tremor instead of thunderwave could be smart but that's campaign depending. animal friendship, speak with animals and charm person are other spells you can use with some builds.

Create and destroy water can also be a cool spells for many situations.

[hymer]

My suggestion (knowing nothing about the game you're playing) would be: Animal Friendship, Detect Magic, Entangle, Goodberry, Speak with Animals. That's assuming your party has damage covered. The idea is to Animal Friendship and Speak with Animals to get the equivalent of an animal companion. May not fly with your DM.
Ender didn't mention Goodberry. Cast it before you take your long rests (as the berries last up to 24 hours), and then as needed between fights. It's the most healing for a first level slot you get, and it never overheals. If you keep it down to one casting per rest, the DM is less likely to throw a fit. :smallwink:

[TopCheese]

Ice Knife and Earth Tremor.

Ice Knife has good scaling damage that comes in both [Piercing] and [Cold]. You can crit with it and even if you miss the first part of the spell it still explodes for a Dex save or damage.

Earth Tremor is absolutely fantastic as a battlefield control. You can have a pretty decent AC as a druid (hide + shield + 2dex) so being up front isn't that scary (plus you can heal yourself). However when your allies are on their way to help you, you can drop some enemies, so that your allies have an easier time to hit.

Damage + trip + difficult terrain zone? Yes yes.

I've used this spell as we were running away from enemies. I stayed in the back and popped this off every so often lol.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Ice Knife is where it's at.

Obviously the usefulness of the animal spells will vary depending on your campaign, though a cunning DM might find ways to reward you for preparing them anyway.

At the end of the day, you're a druid. You don't need to worry to much. If you're not happy, you can just choose different spells tomorrow.

[PoeticDwarf]

My suggestion (knowing nothing about the game you're playing) would be: Animal Friendship, Detect Magic, Entangle, Goodberry, Speak with Animals. That's assuming your party has damage covered. The idea is to Animal Friendship and Speak with Animals to get the equivalent of an animal companion. May not fly with your DM.
Ender didn't mention Goodberry. Cast it before you take your long rests (as the berries last up to 24 hours), and then as needed between fights. It's the most healing for a first level slot you get, and it never overheals. If you keep it down to one casting per rest, the DM is less likely to throw a fit. :smallwink:
I really like goodberry instead, if you have a spell slot left at the end of the day it is an easy cast. I still prefer healing word because goodberry has 0% in combat use, D&D isn't only about combat, of course, but I still think healing word is in most situations the better one.

[hymer]

I really like goodberry instead, if you have a spell slot left at the end of the day it is an easy cast. I still prefer healing word because goodberry has 0% in combat use, D&D isn't only about combat, of course, but I still think healing word is in most situations the better one.

From the first session I played a wood elf druid: The barbarian moved ahead, got unlucky, and went down. The first real combat round I took, I moved into sight of the enemy, shot one dead with my (borrowed) longbow (dex 16), healed the barbarian back to consciousness with Healing Word, and then moved out of the room again behind our other melee. Excellent start of a campaign. :smallbiggrin: Yes, Healing Word is pretty damn good, especially if you're the only healer. Hopefully, you aren't.

[Vogonjeltz]

I really like goodberry instead, if you have a spell slot left at the end of the day it is an easy cast. I still prefer healing word because goodberry has 0% in combat use, D&D isn't only about combat, of course, but I still think healing word is in most situations the better one.

The real flaw in choosing Goodberry is that it doesn't take advantage of your casting stat. With an 18 wisdom anything that employs that +4 modifier is, relatively speaking, a better choice than if the Druid only had a 16 or 15 wisdom.

Shillelagh for example benefits more than Thorn Whip, Poison Spray, or Produce Flame by granting wisdom to damage as well as attack modifier (thus dealing more damage on average).

I'd pick Shillelagh, Druidcraft/Guidance for cantrips.

Spells are easy because you'll be able to prepare five 1st level spells (leaving 11 unprepared) and can swap them with relatively little downtime.

I'd prepare:
Thunderwave (aoe option)
Animal Friendship
Faerie Fire
Cure Wounds (Healing word does less and you should almost never be more than 30 feet from an ally).

For any of the non-combat spells you can almost always take the minute or so to swap in for those situations and then swap it back out again.


You can have a pretty decent AC as a druid (hide + shield + 2dex) so being up front isn't that scary (plus you can heal yourself).

Druids who take the starter kit begin with leather, not hide. I suppose they could try their luck at rolling, but they are more likely to get more value out of the starter kit (average by rolling is 50gp, starter kit is worth 65gp).

[TopCheese]

The real flaw in choosing Goodberry is that it doesn't take advantage of your casting stat. With an 18 wisdom anything that employs that +4 modifier is, relatively speaking, a better choice than if the Druid only had a 16 or 15 wisdom.

Shillelagh for example benefits more than Thorn Whip, Poison Spray, or Produce Flame by granting wisdom to damage as well as attack modifier (thus dealing more damage on average).

I'd pick Shillelagh, Druidcraft/Guidance for cantrips.

Spells are easy because you'll be able to prepare five 1st level spells (leaving 11 unprepared) and can swap them with relatively little downtime.

I'd prepare:
Thunderwave (aoe option)
Animal Friendship
Faerie Fire
Cure Wounds (Healing word does less and you should almost never be more than 30 feet from an ally).

For any of the non-combat spells you can almost always take the minute or so to swap in for those situations and then swap it back out again.



Druids who take the starter kit begin with leather, not hide. I suppose they could try their luck at rolling, but they are more likely to get more value out of the starter kit (average by rolling is 50gp, starter kit is worth 65gp).

It takes like, one or two sessions to afford hide armor.

Or make it yourself...

11 + 2 dex + 2 shield is still 15 which isn't bad for low level.

[PoeticDwarf]

The real flaw in choosing Goodberry is that it doesn't take advantage of your casting stat. With an 18 wisdom anything that employs that +4 modifier is, relatively speaking, a better choice than if the Druid only had a 16 or 15 wisdom.

Shillelagh for example benefits more than Thorn Whip, Poison Spray, or Produce Flame by granting wisdom to damage as well as attack modifier (thus dealing more damage on average).

I'd pick Shillelagh, Druidcraft/Guidance for cantrips.

Spells are easy because you'll be able to prepare five 1st level spells (leaving 11 unprepared) and can swap them with relatively little downtime.

I'd prepare:
Thunderwave (aoe option)
Animal Friendship
Faerie Fire
Cure Wounds (Healing word does less and you should almost never be more than 30 feet from an ally).

For any of the non-combat spells you can almost always take the minute or so to swap in for those situations and then swap it back out again.



Druids who take the starter kit begin with leather, not hide. I suppose they could try their luck at rolling, but they are more likely to get more value out of the starter kit (average by rolling is 50gp, starter kit is worth 65gp).

There is nobody who prefers healing word over cure wounds because of the range, but healing word is a bonus action so you can deal damage in your turn with a cantrip/weapon, and you can heal your friend with 1d4+4, higher levels it is still good for someone who is on 0hp.

[Ninja_Prawn]

There is nobody who prefers healing word over cure wounds because of the range

Not that this is really relevant, but I would have bitten your hand off for ranged healing at level 1 in Baldur's Gate. Having to send my flimsy cleric/mage into melee range to keep the fighters alive was always hairy.

[MaxWilson]

The real flaw in choosing Goodberry is that it doesn't take advantage of your casting stat. With an 18 wisdom anything that employs that +4 modifier is, relatively speaking, a better choice than if the Druid only had a 16 or 15 wisdom.

Speaking for myself--if I'm a druid, I probably don't have an 18 in anything at level one. I usually play a druid if I roll poorly on stats (e.g. 10, 11, 13, 11, 12, 10 looks like an awesome Moon Druid) because they have almost zero dependencies on stats. So the fact that goodberry doesn't scale with Wisdom is a non-issue for my druids and is, in fact, yet another reason to play a Druid under those circumstances.

[hymer]

Speaking for myself--if I'm a druid, I probably don't have an 18 in anything at level one. I usually play a druid if I roll poorly on stats (e.g. 10, 11, 13, 11, 12, 10 looks like an awesome Moon Druid) because they have almost zero dependencies on stats. So the fact that goodberry doesn't scale with Wisdom is a non-issue for my druids and is, in fact, yet another reason to play a Druid under those circumstances.

To add to this, even at Wis20, the level 1 Cure Wounds heals an average of 9.5 for a druid. Goodberry heals 10 - with yesterday's spell slot. :smallbiggrin:

[TopCheese]

To add to this, even at Wis20, the level 1 Cure Wounds heals an average of 9.5 for a druid. Goodberry heals 10 - with yesterday's spell slot. :smallbiggrin:


Spell gem cure wounds uses last month's spells slot...

[hymer]

Spell gem cure wounds uses last month's spells slot...

Do you think OP has spell gems we need to take into account? Even if s/he does (at 18 wis):
Last months' Goodberry + yesterday's Goodberry + today's Goodberry = 30 hp average healing
Last month's Cure Wounds + today's Cure Wounds = 17 average hp healing

[TopCheese]

Do you think OP has spell gems we need to take into account? Even if s/he does (at 18 wis):
Last months' Goodberry + yesterday's Goodberry + today's Goodberry = 30 hp average healing
Last month's Cure Wounds + today's Cure Wounds = 17 average hp healing

I was thinking more along the lines of...

Yo dawg, I heard you like yesterday's spell slots so I put yesterday's spell slots on your yesterday's spell slots.

[hymer]

I was thinking more along the lines of...

Yo dawg, I heard you like yesterday's spell slots so I put yesterday's spell slots on your yesterday's spell slots.

Ah, my sense of humor may be slightly out of alignment. :smallwink:

[TopCheese]

Ah, my sense of humor may be slightly out of alignment. :smallwink:

Mostly my fault, my presentation should have included a smiley.

I'll do better next time.

[Inevitability]

At low levels, prepare Purify Food and Drink from time to time. Being able to eat those monsters you just slew can eliminate the need for food and drink altogether.

Also, it might function as Remove Disease depending on what your character considers 'food'. :smallwink:

[TopCheese]

At low levels, prepare Purify Food and Drink from time to time. Being able to eat those monsters you just slew can eliminate the need for food and drink altogether.

Also, it might function as Remove Disease depending on what your character considers 'food'. :smallwink:

Wait, you don't just play warforged druids? What's wrong with you? :p

[hymer]

At low levels, prepare Purify Food and Drink from time to time. Being able to eat those monsters you just slew can eliminate the need for food and drink altogether.

Also, it might function as Remove Disease depending on what your character considers 'food'. :smallwink:

Lesser Restoration is a second level spell and it cures disease. But let's again extol the virtue of Goodberries: Eat one, and you're nourished for the day. :smallsmile:

[NNescio]

At low levels, prepare Purify Food and Drink from time to time. Being able to eat those monsters you just slew can eliminate the need for food and drink altogether.

Also, it might function as Remove Disease depending on what your character considers 'food'. :smallwink:


Wait, you don't just play warforged druids? What's wrong with you? :p

Or, I dunno, just use Goodberries instead. Also doubles as healing.

Plus, Warforged are susceptible to Heat Metal. Not much of an issue for people who are going to wear metal armor anyway, but as a druid (who won't wear metal armor) you're ceding one of your (admittedly corner-case) advantages.


How did you start with an 18? You shouldn't prep any spell that DOESN'T make use of your wisdom modifier.

Presumably he rolled stats.

Also, Fog Cloud is a good control effect despite not relying on Wisdom, and Goodberry remains a very efficient out-of-combat healing spell even if it doesn't scale with Wisdom. It gets even better if you DM allows goodberries to be force-fed to dying (and unconscious) characters to stabilize them (so anyone can do it, and not just the druid).

Plus screw rations.

Rituals like Detect Magic and Speak with Animals offer tremendous utility even if they're not dependent on Wisdom.

So, yeah, just because you have a high Wisdom doesn't mean ALL the spells you prepare must depend on it.

[TopCheese]

Or, I dunno, just use Goodberries instead. Also doubles as healing.

Plus, Warforged are susceptible to Heat Metal. Not much of an issue for people who are going to wear metal armor anyway, but as a druid (who won't wear metal armor) you're ceding one of your (admittedly corner-case) advantages.


Darkwood plating for the warforged, of course :D.

[MaxWilson]

Lesser Restoration is a second level spell and it cures disease. But let's again extol the virtue of Goodberries: Eat one, and you're nourished for the day. :smallsmile:

Eat forty, and suddenly you're diabetic!


Also, Fog Cloud is a good control effect despite not relying on Wisdom

The utility of Fog Cloud depends very much on house rulings. By RAW it does almost nothing except allow you to hide and cancel disadvantage; however, some DMs will treat creatures within a fog cloud as auto-hidden and require attackers to guess their locations.

[TopCheese]

Eat forty, and suddenly you're diabetic!



The utility of Fog Cloud depends very much on house rulings. By RAW it does almost nothing except allow you to hide and cancel disadvantage; however, some DMs will treat creatures within a fog cloud as auto-hidden and require attackers to guess their locations.

Heavily Obscured:
"A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition (see appendix A) when trying to see something in that area. "

Seems like auto-hidden (sight) is the way to go.

[MaxWilson]

Heavily Obscured:
"A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition (see appendix A) when trying to see something in that area. "

Seems like auto-hidden (sight) is the way to go.

Thanks. Is that from the new printing of the PHB? It's a surprisingly sensible ruling, much better than the original PHB, although it makes the Darkness spell kind of odd in that you can see out of it, and it makes Fog Cloud/Stinking Cloud/etc. one-way as well. Works well with nonmagical darkness though.

That makes Darkness a better buff than Faerie Fire for a ranged attacker against anything without truesight. Which is okay, I guess, since it's 2nd level.


Every single person on this forum looking for build help who rolls for stats has at least one 18. No one ever starts a thread with "hey giantitp, I need some help with my build. My DM had me roll for stats, and I got 14, 13, 12, 9, 9, and 8".

Actually, that turns out not to be the case. See http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-381747.html


So I rolled the following array on 4d6 drop lowest:

10, 9, 9, 7, 5, 12

Any suggestions what I should make this guy? I'm kind of thinking "Rogue", since thieves are about the least attribute-dependent character I can think of. (Everything they do comes from Expertise and Sneak Attack dice.) I could put the 12 in DX and the 10 in Int and make him an Arcane Trickster.

Any other ideas?

Winning suggestion was Moon Druid. A human (Mobile) Moon Druid with those stats is surprisingly playable starting at 2nd level. Yay for Moon Druids!

[TopCheese]

Thanks. Is that from the new printing of the PHB? It's a surprisingly sensible ruling, much better than the original PHB, although it makes the Darkness spell kind of odd in that you can see out of it, and it makes Fog Cloud/Stinking Cloud/etc. one-way as well. Works well with nonmagical darkness though.

It came from the free basic rules. I believe the original printing of the phb has the same rules.

I don't think you can see out of the darkness spell. I think while in there you are blind and it is blocking light. Same with fog cloud.

If you can see the square right in front of you then you can't see anything on the other side.

So it would be two way. I don't think it is directly stated but it would be weird if fog floyd and darkness were one way.

[Vogonjeltz]

It takes like, one or two sessions to afford hide armor.

Or make it yourself...

11 + 2 dex + 2 shield is still 15 which isn't bad for low level.

True enough, but they still have to survive the 6-8 encounters in a day before they get the opportunity to purchase hide armor.


There is nobody who prefers healing word over cure wounds because of the range, but healing word is a bonus action so you can deal damage in your turn with a cantrip/weapon, and you can heal your friend with 1d4+4, higher levels it is still good for someone who is on 0hp.

I'd still pick cure wounds as it's better at preventing the character from dropping in the first place and it has the higher maximum. (5-12 vs 5-8)
This comes into play more if you're playing durable characters (d12, d10 hit die who prioritize Con) rather than the more fragile ones (d6, d8 hit die), so party make-up might influence your choice.


Speaking for myself--if I'm a druid, I probably don't have an 18 in anything at level one. I usually play a druid if I roll poorly on stats (e.g. 10, 11, 13, 11, 12, 10 looks like an awesome Moon Druid) because they have almost zero dependencies on stats. So the fact that goodberry doesn't scale with Wisdom is a non-issue for my druids and is, in fact, yet another reason to play a Druid under those circumstances.

Yes, but the OP does have the 18 in Wisdom, hence my keying a response specifically for that point.


To add to this, even at Wis20, the level 1 Cure Wounds heals an average of 9.5 for a druid. Goodberry heals 10 - with yesterday's spell slot.

Yes, the total hit point value from Goodberry is 10 (so, 1.5 hp more than the average of cure wounds with 18 wis, but 2 hp below the maximum), but each one hit point costs an action so that's 10 turns. If you have that long to heal 10 hit points, you're probably just going to go ahead and do a short rest and heal using hit dice instead, or you can do a long rest and fully heal.

Goodberry is worthless in the exact situation where healing is most important, when a beastie is busy trying to bury its fangs into your party member's guts.

[TopCheese]

True enough, but they still have to survive the 6-8 encounters in a day before they get the opportunity to purchase hide armor.

That would be a problem even if they had hide, low level 5e is not friendly.

I've seen fighters and paladins get one shot.

[MaxWilson]

It came from the free basic rules. I believe the original printing of the phb has the same rules.

No, the original PHB has totally bonkers rules which say that heavy obscurement blinds the creatures inside of it. I.e. if you're holding a torch, you can see the monsters clearly but they are obscured from you. I don't know anyone who used that rule, and it was errata'ed in the new PHB, but I haven't seen how it is worded in the new PHB.


I don't think you can see out of the darkness spell. I think while in there you are blind and it is blocking light. Same with fog cloud.

If you rule that way then we are back to Fog Clouding providing zero tactical benefit. You can't see them, they can't see you, no advantage or disadvantage for anybody.

[Darkzekkai]

Ice Knife is my go to damage spell for a druid. It's awesome. I also like faerie fire. Advantage for everyone! And if you want to be more support then damage I would switch ice knife for healing word. Much better than cure wounds cuz it's a bonus action. As for cantrips I like druidcraft for rp, produce flame for damage, and either mending or guidance for support. Shillalegh is good if you plan to do some melee but I usually skip it.

[busterswd]

No, the original PHB has totally bonkers rules which say that heavy obscurement blinds the creatures inside of it. I.e. if you're holding a torch, you can see the monsters clearly but they are obscured from you. I don't know anyone who used that rule, and it was errata'ed in the new PHB, but I haven't seen how it is worded in the new PHB.



If you rule that way then we are back to Fog Clouding providing zero tactical benefit. You can't see them, they can't see you, no advantage or disadvantage for anybody.

Not true; some creatures and familiars have blindsight. Additionally, you can use split movement to walk out, shoot arrows, and walk back in. Also, if you need to cover an advance as a melee character, fog cloud can make it more likely that you won't get hit while doing so. Some DMs will also rule that blindness blocks gaze attacks.

[JoeJ]

Not true; some creatures and familiars have blindsight. Additionally, you can use split movement to walk out, shoot arrows, and walk back in. Also, if you need to cover an advance as a melee character, fog cloud can make it more likely that you won't get hit while doing so. Some DMs will also rule that blindness blocks gaze attacks.

If you do that repeatedly in the same fight, smart enemies will start taking a Ready action to shoot you the next time you come out.

[busterswd]

If you do that repeatedly in the same fight, smart enemies will start taking a Ready action to shoot you the next time you come out.

That's true, but that's also assuming that your other party members aren't also acting. An enemy that's readying an action to hit you isn't shooting at your hopefully advancing frontline. Also, people capable of casting Fog Cloud tend to have non-attack roll dependent spells, so if it's archers vs. casters, casters have the advantage.

Enemies can adjust to your tactics, but saying that Fog Cloud has zero tactical use is an exaggeration.

[JoeJ]

Enemies can adjust to your tactics, but saying that Fog Cloud has zero tactical use is an exaggeration.

I agree fully.

[hymer]

Goodberry is worthless in the exact situation where healing is most important, when a beastie is busy trying to bury its fangs into your party member's guts.

But: With Goodberry you can have your cake and eat it too. You don't have to have the spell prepared the day it heals, so you can have both spells for one slot. :smallsmile:

And to match your rhetoric, Goodberry helps keep the bad situation away. Healing Word helps recover the bad situation. Or put more neutrally, each have their place.

[Vogonjeltz]

With Goodberry you can have your cake and eat it too. You don't have to have the spell prepared the day it heals, so you can have both spells for one slot.

And to match your rhetoric, Goodberry helps keep the bad situation away. Healing Word helps recover the bad situation. Or put more neutrally, each have their place.

True enough if you can manage to choose to make them before you take a long rest (so that the spell slot isn't wasted), but I'd avoid using a slot on it before the day is done.

[MaxWilson]

Not true; some creatures and familiars have blindsight. Additionally, you can use split movement to walk out, shoot arrows, and walk back in. Also, if you need to cover an advance as a melee character, fog cloud can make it more likely that you won't get hit while doing so. Some DMs will also rule that blindness blocks gaze attacks.

Under the interpretation he's using, where you can't see through Fog Cloud at all, there is no advantage gained from Fog Cloud. Obviously that doesn't apply to creatures with blindsight/tremorsense, but most PCs do not have blindsight or tremorsense so that isn't much help. Split movement won't help you gain advantage because your enemies can see you when you're shooting at them, so no advantage.

Covering an advance as a melee character, well, maybe. At minimum it lets you attempt to hide/sneak.

There are genuine uses for being unseen, don't get me wrong. Inside of a Fog Cloud, you cannot be Counterspelled (except by creatures with blindsight, as stipulated above) and you cannot be opportunity attacked, and you cannot be disintegrated by a beholder. That's not nothing. But the Darkness spell does all that, and it's mobile, and it lasts longer to boot. Generally a better choice than Fog Cloud. However, neither of them will grant you a defensive advantage unless you have something like devil's sight or the Alert feat (under a sane interpretation of that feat).

[busterswd]

Under the interpretation he's using, where you can't see through Fog Cloud at all, there is no advantage gained from Fog Cloud. Obviously that doesn't apply to creatures with blindsight/tremorsense, but most PCs do not have blindsight or tremorsense so that isn't much help. Split movement won't help you gain advantage because your enemies can see you when you're shooting at them, so no advantage.

Covering an advance as a melee character, well, maybe. At minimum it lets you attempt to hide/sneak.

There are genuine uses for being unseen, don't get me wrong. Inside of a Fog Cloud, you cannot be Counterspelled (except by creatures with blindsight, as stipulated above) and you cannot be opportunity attacked, and you cannot be disintegrated by a beholder. That's not nothing. But the Darkness spell does all that, and it's mobile, and it lasts longer to boot. Generally a better choice than Fog Cloud. However, neither of them will grant you a defensive advantage unless you have something like devil's sight or the Alert feat (under a sane interpretation of that feat).

You are the one picking when attacks happen, though, and on who, unless the enemy decides to blindfire. It's not a matter of gaining (mechanical) advantage, it's a matter of controlling when people are attacking with disadvantage. Also, you only get extra attacks on your own turn. (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/557812617369378816) So letting them plink you with readied actions (assuming they are intelligent enough to do so) is preferable to them using full attacks after a certain level. It also gives your defensive actions some breathing room, as well; you have more time to cast buffs and heal with one up.

The biggest flaw in your argument is that you're not accounting that the game is turn based, with a specific order for actions. Fog Cloud lets you exploit that a bit.

And Darkness is a level 2 spell slot. Saying that's it's inherently better than a level 1 spell isn't saying a whole lot.

Fog Cloud's biggest drawback is opportunity cost for preparing and casting one. I'd rather use Entangle, Fairy Fire or Sleep in just about every situation where I'd be eyeing Fog Cloud. But you can work with someone who's chosen to prepare it.

[Kajorma]

So I noticed Hymer already posted here, but I'm gonna go ahead and link his guide anyway, because it is awesome.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?397940-5e-Druid-Handbook-Land-amp-Moon

In addition to that, I'd like to add that I'm also a huge fan of the Goodberries.