What spells to pick? Hunter ranger 5/ druid1(to be moon)

[Spacehamster]

So my 3 lvl 1 ranger spells I thought hunters mark, cure wounds and faerie fire as lvl 1 spells, level 2 spells I'm certain I want pass without trace as it would greatly help out the party when stealth is needed. But as for my Druid cantrips and lvl 1 spells I'm not sure at all what to pick. Any suggestions are welcome. :)

[tieren]

So my 3 lvl 1 ranger spells I thought hunters mark, cure wounds and faerie fire as lvl 1 spells, level 2 spells I'm certain I want pass without trace as it would greatly help out the party when stealth is needed. But as for my Druid cantrips and lvl 1 spells I'm not sure at all what to pick. Any suggestions are welcome. :)

Can you tell us more about your character concept and what role you want to play? I have a ranger hunter who is MC'ing land druid to get better summons and invisibility and haste (grasslands circle) to be a more magical ranged attacker/controller.

What are you going to do as a hunter/bear? Also what race are you? If you don't have darkvision its available at 2nd level ranger spells.

[Spacehamster]

Can you tell us more about your character concept and what role you want to play? I have a ranger hunter who is MC'ing land druid to get better summons and invisibility and haste (grasslands circle) to be a more magical ranged attacker/controller.

What are you going to do as a hunter/bear? Also what race are you? If you don't have darkvision its available at 2nd level ranger spells.

Wood elf is my race, skills: athletics, survival, perception, stealth, investigation and nature. He is in humanoid form using a rapier + shield with studded leather with dueling style.

He will be a spotter/investigator and scout in his humanoid form. In beast forms I will go for non multi-attack beasts to take advantage of extra attack feature and horde breaker and be a damage dealer. He is not a very social character so his spells should be practical for survival + some combat spells if he feels like throwing some lightning or fire around.

[tieren]

Wood elf is my race, skills: athletics, survival, perception, stealth, investigation and nature. He is in humanoid form using a rapier + shield with studded leather with dueling style.

He will be a spotter/investigator and scout in his humanoid form. In beast forms I will go for non multi-attack beasts to take advantage of extra attack feature and horde breaker and be a damage dealer. He is not a very social character so his spells should be practical for survival + some combat spells if he feels like throwing some lightning or fire around.

gotcha

If you are going to be fighting in beast form you want a good long duration concentration spell, and the rest of your slots will be going to self heals for the most part. its not really practical to shift back and forth to get in a round casting a spell in the middle of combat.

Your concentration spell should probably be Hunters mark for now, you can move it around to keep up higher dmg on more targets or a good while.

That means your other spells should be utility and out of combat stuff, maybe goodberry. Really the druid spell doesn't matter that much because you can prepare a different one everyday if you don't like the way it played (unlike the ranger spells).

The only choices you are really stuck with are your cantrips, I think I would do guidance for sure, lots of OOC utility there. the other one is mostly flavor, maybe druidcraft or mending.

[Spacehamster]

gotcha

If you are going to be fighting in beast form you want a good long duration concentration spell, and the rest of your slots will be going to self heals for the most part. its not really practical to shift back and forth to get in a round casting a spell in the middle of combat.

Your concentration spell should probably be Hunters mark for now, you can move it around to keep up higher dmg on more targets or a good while.

That means your other spells should be utility and out of combat stuff, maybe goodberry. Really the druid spell doesn't matter that much because you can prepare a different one everyday if you don't like the way it played (unlike the ranger spells).

The only choices you are really stuck with are your cantrips, I think I would do guidance for sure, lots of OOC utility there. the other one is mostly flavor, maybe druidcraft or mending.

Yeah did not mean he would one round maul somebody then in the next throw a lightning storm, meant more from day to day basis I would switch it up a bit.

Oh and cool for some reason I thought Druids worked like rangers that they had a certain amount of spells known, well then it's easier. :)

[tieren]

Yeah did not mean he would one round maul somebody then in the next throw a lightning storm, meant more from day to day basis I would switch it up a bit.

Oh and cool for some reason I thought Druids worked like rangers that they had a certain amount of spells known, well then it's easier. :)

You don't have to decide until druid level 2 of course, but going moon druid is a pretty specialized path focusing on the wild shape form. If you have a desire to spend meaningful amounts of time in humanoid form using your weapons and casting spells, you should give careful consideration to the land druid.

Moon druid is so popular there isn't a lot of material out there guide-wise on it [land druids], but it can be a fun choice with extra options, like recovering spell slots on short rests and getting access to more different spells.

You could still use wild shape for scouting and escaping. Just a thought.

edit: also, because the ranger spells are limited and because there is a lot of overlap with the druid spell list, you want to be very careful and use the ranger spells known for unique ranger spells. Its kind of wasteful to use a ranger spell known on something you could prepare or not from the druid list on any given day.

[Spacehamster]

You don't have to decide until druid level 2 of course, but going moon druid is a pretty specialized path focusing on the wild shape form. If you have a desire to spend meaningful amounts of time in humanoid form using your weapons and casting spells, you should give careful consideration to the land druid.

Moon druid is so popular there isn't a lot of material out there guide-wise on it [land druids], but it can be a fun choice with extra options, like recovering spell slots on short rests and getting access to more different spells.

You could still use wild shape for scouting and escaping. Just a thought.

edit: also, because the ranger spells are limited and because there is a lot of overlap with the druid spell list, you want to be very careful and use the ranger spells known for unique ranger spells. Its kind of wasteful to use a ranger spell known on something you could prepare or not from the druid list on any given day.

Well the main idea of the character is to get power out of Ranger features(hunters mark, extra attack and horde breaker) for strong 1 attack beasts, the cast a few spells in humanoid form is just his personality + the fact that the druid spell list is pretty good so nice to have the option now and then when beeing a Rhino is not an option. :)

[tieren]

My goal is go get ranger 5 (hunter)/druid 8 (land-grasslands)/rogue 7 (AT).

I'll have all the animal forms for wildshaping, the key features from ranger (I went colossus slayer, extra attack, hunters mark, etc...) really cool summons from the druid (and invisibility and haste) and sneak attack dice from rogue (plus higher level ranger abilities like uncanny dodge and evasion). I'll also have plenty of slots from the MC table, etc...

Just something to consider.

[Spacehamster]

My goal is go get ranger 5 (hunter)/druid 8 (land-grasslands)/rogue 7 (AT).

I'll have all the animal forms for wildshaping, the key features from ranger (I went colossus slayer, extra attack, hunters mark, etc...) really cool summons from the druid (and invisibility and haste) and sneak attack dice from rogue (plus higher level ranger abilities like uncanny dodge and evasion). I'll also have plenty of slots from the MC table, etc...

Just something to consider.

thats cool too. :)
going to try and convince one of our melee chars to take mounted combatant and ride on my back and kick ass together now and then. :D

[Spacehamster]

Another quickie: has there been any clarification as if dueling style applies to beast attacks? Could swear I read somewhere that it did in some post but can't find it.

[Saggo]

Another quickie: has there been any clarification as if dueling style applies to beast attacks? Could swear I read somewhere that it did in some post but can't find it.

In 5e terminology, making a melee weapon attack (most beast form attacks) is not the same as wielding a melee weapon (style); beast attacks don't immediately fulfill the requirements, although some beasts could wield a weapon like apes. An example of weapon attacks arent always weapons which I was recently corrected on would be unarmed attacks, like Monks, as per errata. Houserules aside, as always.