Warden Build for 5e:

[TheRedTemplar]

I really liked the Warden and want to make a similar character who feels like a 'Champion of Nature' kinda guy with the survivability, meat and battlefield control of the class. Are there any suggestions to making a MC that works with this?

I feel some combination of Barbarian, Druid and/or OotA Paladin would be interesting. The character's stat rolls are high, so being MAD thankfully won't be a problem. Can anyone help me create a character who effectively emulates the Warden?

[Mandragola]

I'd recommend first level as barbarian, for unarmoured defence and rage, then oath of the ancients paladin afterwards. Druid levels won't really be helpful.

Honestly, a straight barbarian or paladin would work equally well for the "nature warrior" thing. That's kind of a fluff/RP thing more than anything. But if you want to retain the way wardens used to go around tanking with no armour and some magic, then some kind of barbarian/paladin mix is probably the way to go. Not sure how you'd fluff smites... something to do with sunlight maybe?

For actual tankiness I'd take the sentinel feat. Don't bother with bear totem as an ancients paladin gets his aura of resistance to magic anyway. So I'd stay paladin at least to level 11, then potentially switch back to barbarian if you wanted.

[Biggstick]

What defines a Warden type in your mind? OotA Paladin, Totem Spirit Barbarian, Nature Cleric, and Fey Pact Warlock all have elements you might be looking for. What is it that really stands out to emulate a Warden.

Edit: Is there a particular race you were looking at for this character? And if you don't mind, what were your stat rolls?

[TheRedTemplar]

I should probably mention he's currently sitting at Level 1 Druid/Level 2 Paladin. I want him to have Druid Levels because a lot of their spells remind me of the Warden's powers, such as Thorn Whip (pulling), Thunderwave (pushing), and Earth Tremor (Prone-ing, though T-Wave also does that). All those are at level 1, as well.

I would rather not have to take too many levels of Barbarian, because a big part of what I want this character to be is a magical controller with the melee power of a Paladin. I'm well aware there's more optimal ways to do this, but I want to feel like this isn't just a meld of classes, but something that the character would reasonably do. It also gives him more smite slots and versatility, Raging when needed, using spells to debuff/buff allies, (He has a really big Oceanic theme, and he has a magic trident), and I even make use of his weapon's versatile property, switching between S&B when I'm trying to lessen damage and two-hands when I want a damage boost. It also lets me just swap the shield out for the Druid Focuses when I want to, since the Trident can easily be used in one or two hands. I also can flip it around and go Mordhauing people (and my DM allows me to Shilleigah it when I do so, since I'm using it as a Quarterstaff).

tl;dr: I really would rather Druid have some part of this.

[TheRedTemplar]

What defines a Warden type in your mind? OotA Paladin, Totem Spirit Barbarian, Nature Cleric, and Fey Pact Warlock all have elements you might be looking for. What is it that really stands out to emulate a Warden.

Edit: Is there a particular race you were looking at for this character? And if you don't mind, what were your stat rolls?

I suppose the Warden is three things to me:

-Sheer durability: Shrugging off tons of damage, variety of utility powers to keep them alive, bonuses to their saving throws, and high resistances/hp with good healing economy. An HP Turret.

-Stickiness: Be more inescapable than Quicksand and meet lots of new friends. Attacks that force enemies closer to you, immobilize, paralyze, knock prone, create difficult terrain, restrain or grapple, anything that makes you harder to get away from. You can also interrupt escape attempts or attacks on your friends. One of the best at Battlefield Control.

-Nature Forms: Basically Wild Shapes and Polymorphs, or buffs that emulate such a feeling, like Haste or Stoneskin. This is honestly the least important part to me, but I think it's part of the class no less.

The Character is a Water Genasi, and their stats are currently 16/12/16/10/18/14: I don't intend on making his Charisma much higher and would rather focus on Wisdom and/or Constitution, especially since the former I can use as my attack stat with Shilleiglah. I definitely intend to get the Sentinel Feat, and Absorb Elements has been doing wonders for me so far as well.

[MaxBoguely]

I suppose the Warden is three things to me:

-Sheer durability: Shrugging off tons of damage, variety of utility powers to keep them alive, bonuses to their saving throws, and high resistances/hp with good healing economy. An HP Turret.

-Stickiness: Be more inescapable than Quicksand and meet lots of new friends. Attacks that force enemies closer to you, immobilize, paralyze, knock prone, create difficult terrain, restrain or grapple, anything that makes you harder to get away from. You can also interrupt escape attempts or attacks on your friends. One of the best at Battlefield Control.

-Nature Forms: Basically Wild Shapes and Polymorphs, or buffs that emulate such a feeling, like Haste or Stoneskin. This is honestly the least important part to me, but I think it's part of the class no less.

The Character is a Water Genasi, and their stats are currently 16/12/16/10/18/14: I don't intend on making his Charisma much higher and would rather focus on Wisdom and/or Constitution, especially since the former I can use as my attack stat with Shilleiglah. I definitely intend to get the Sentinel Feat, and Absorb Elements has been doing wonders for me so far as well.

I don't have any experience outside of 5e, so I may be completely off. That caveat aside, I wanted a "Champion of Nature" (didn't know to call it a Warden!) and played a strength-based Nature Domain Cleric, and it felt a lot like this.

You get a single druid cantrip, which most people use for a ranged attack or Shilleigahsdal. I took Thorn Whip. Your domain spells are heavy on battlefield control - I would cast Spike Growth, Plant Growth, and Grasping Vine as often as anything else. You get proficiency in heavy armor and Wisdom saving throws, and you get a Divine Strike to make attacking with a weapon the optimal go-to action.

You don't get any wild shapes (unless you MC), and Barkskin is not real helpful if you're going for a strength/heavy armor build. That said, there are lots of Cleric spells that are easily fluffable for effect...I always had Enhance Ability memorized, and whenever I used it I always described it as if it was imparting some visible part of the relevant animal to the target. "My arms grow hefty and covered with fur as Rillifane imparts Enhanced Strength on me," etc. My Hold Person was vines that came out of the ground and held the target, and my Shield of Faith was that similarly, vines would occasionally come out of the ground to block/deflect/whatever attacks targeting my ally.

Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I read "Champion of Nature" and was immediately reminded of this character, so I thought would share.
Best of luck in figuring yours out!

[TheRedTemplar]

I don't have any experience outside of 5e, so I may be completely off. That caveat aside, I wanted a "Champion of Nature" (didn't know to call it a Warden!) and played a strength-based Nature Domain Cleric, and it felt a lot like this.

You get a single druid cantrip, which most people use for a ranged attack or Shilleigahsdal. I took Thorn Whip. Your domain spells are heavy on battlefield control - I would cast Spike Growth, Plant Growth, and Grasping Vine as often as anything else. You get proficiency in heavy armor and Wisdom saving throws, and you get a Divine Strike to make attacking with a weapon the optimal go-to action.

You don't get any wild shapes (unless you MC), and Barkskin is not real helpful if you're going for a strength/heavy armor build. That said, there are lots of Cleric spells that are easily fluffable for effect...I always had Enhance Ability memorized, and whenever I used it I always described it as if it was imparting some visible part of the relevant animal to the target. "My arms grow hefty and covered with fur as Rillifane imparts Enhanced Strength on me," etc. My Hold Person was vines that came out of the ground and held the target, and my Shield of Faith was that similarly, vines would occasionally come out of the ground to block/deflect/whatever attacks targeting my ally.

Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I read "Champion of Nature" and was immediately reminded of this character, so I thought would share.
Best of luck in figuring yours out!

Well, the "Champion of Nature"/"Primal Defender" classes weren't restricted to the Warden: It was just a newer twist that felt like the Druid's answer to a Paladin to me, and focused more in filling a Wizard's role as the Battlefield Controller (Buffing, Debuffing, Forced Movement, Heals, and some good damage thrown in).

While I do like the Nature Cleric (and won't deny it's a damn good subclass), I don't think it quite fills the role I'm looking for. This isn't a fault of the subclass itself, but rather the devs who didn't give the clerics any new spells but gave Druids a whole sack of toys that fit my ideas nicely (hence why I want them to be at least partially Druidic), especially with spells like Dust Devil (It's basically Flaming Sphere + Fog Cloud and a push rider with better scaling), Erupting Earth (A decent damage spell that scales extremely well and leaves behind Difficult Terrain that doesn't need concentration to be maintained), Warding Wind (Difficult Terrain + Ranged Attack Denial and deafening), Watery Sphere (Forced Movement AND Restraint), Maelstrom (Insect Swarm with Pull toward a central point you choose), Primordial Ward (a big **** you to elemental damage), the Investitures (Mostly Ice for massive movement lockdown and Wind for fly speed 60 + a push effect and more arrow denial), and the grandaddy of all control spells in my opinion, Whirlwind (GIGANTIC damage potential with 10d6 on the drop and the potential to do far more than that, along with area and movement lockdown, restraint, and completely trashing whatever place you summoned it in).

I love the Nature Cleric, but I'm going to look elsewhere. I sincerely appreciate your help though, and thanks for the good will! :D

[Belac93]

If I were building one from the ground up, I would be a variant human with 5 levels of ranger.

Variant human gets me magic initiate (druid). Here, I take shillelagh, thorn whip, and entangle as my cantrips/spells, giving me very good stickiness.

Ranger 5 gets me ranger spells, where I take Ensnaring Strike, Barkskin, and (if you go ranger 6) Spike Growth. It can eventually get you Plant Growth and Grasping Vine.

For my first ASI, I take Sentinel, followed by Warcaster. I put scores in this order: Wisdom>Constitution>Dexterity>Intelligence/Charisma/Strength. I use a quarterstaff and a shield.

Assuming point buy, I would have the scores 10 14 16 8 16 8 at level one (in order of strength, dexterity, and so on) with magic initiate. I get sentinel at level 4, and warcaster at level 12 or 8 (depending on how I'm feeling on my stats).

[MBControl]

I agree with the ranger build. It seems to address a lot of the flavour you like. You could MC with OotA for a tougher, more magical build.

If you were to use the Beast Master archetype you wouldn't have the polymorph ability but an animal companion. That being for a more aggressive build, I would go high DEX hunter, which can give you a solid AC, and still a solid two weapon style for a DPR.

If the polymorph plan was the key, perhaps your DM can work it in for you. The beautiful part of D&D. Nothing is set in stone.

[Biggstick]

I should probably mention he's currently sitting at Level 1 Druid/Level 2 Paladin. I want him to have Druid Levels because a lot of their spells remind me of the Warden's powers, such as Thorn Whip (pulling), Thunderwave (pushing), and Earth Tremor (Prone-ing, though T-Wave also does that). All those are at level 1, as well.

I would rather not have to take too many levels of Barbarian, because a big part of what I want this character to be is a magical controller with the melee power of a Paladin. I'm well aware there's more optimal ways to do this, but I want to feel like this isn't just a meld of classes, but something that the character would reasonably do. It also gives him more smite slots and versatility, Raging when needed, using spells to debuff/buff allies, (He has a really big Oceanic theme, and he has a magic trident), and I even make use of his weapon's versatile property, switching between S&B when I'm trying to lessen damage and two-hands when I want a damage boost. It also lets me just swap the shield out for the Druid Focuses when I want to, since the Trident can easily be used in one or two hands. I also can flip it around and go Mordhauing people (and my DM allows me to Shilleigah it when I do so, since I'm using it as a Quarterstaff).

tl;dr: I really would rather Druid have some part of this.

Are you stuck with the build you've suggested? Is the DM willing to let you rebuild the character? Would be good to know before we get much deeper. How many levels of Druid are we looking at here?


I suppose the Warden is three things to me:

-Sheer durability: Shrugging off tons of damage, variety of utility powers to keep them alive, bonuses to their saving throws, and high resistances/hp with good healing economy. An HP Turret.

-Stickiness: Be more inescapable than Quicksand and meet lots of new friends. Attacks that force enemies closer to you, immobilize, paralyze, knock prone, create difficult terrain, restrain or grapple, anything that makes you harder to get away from. You can also interrupt escape attempts or attacks on your friends. One of the best at Battlefield Control.

-Nature Forms: Basically Wild Shapes and Polymorphs, or buffs that emulate such a feeling, like Haste or Stoneskin. This is honestly the least important part to me, but I think it's part of the class no less.

The Character is a Water Genasi, and their stats are currently 16/12/16/10/18/14: I don't intend on making his Charisma much higher and would rather focus on Wisdom and/or Constitution, especially since the former I can use as my attack stat with Shilleiglah. I definitely intend to get the Sentinel Feat, and Absorb Elements has been doing wonders for me so far as well.

A straight level 20 OotA Paladin hits your first two points fantastically, even gaining a pretty awesome capstone that does everything really that you've asked for. The only thing it doesn't cover is the shapeshifting.


Well, the "Champion of Nature"/"Primal Defender" classes weren't restricted to the Warden: It was just a newer twist that felt like the Druid's answer to a Paladin to me, and focused more in filling a Wizard's role as the Battlefield Controller (Buffing, Debuffing, Forced Movement, Heals, and some good damage thrown in).

While I do like the Nature Cleric (and won't deny it's a damn good subclass), I don't think it quite fills the role I'm looking for. This isn't a fault of the subclass itself, but rather the devs who didn't give the clerics any new spells but gave Druids a whole sack of toys that fit my ideas nicely (hence why I want them to be at least partially Druidic), especially with spells like Dust Devil (It's basically Flaming Sphere + Fog Cloud and a push rider with better scaling), Erupting Earth (A decent damage spell that scales extremely well and leaves behind Difficult Terrain that doesn't need concentration to be maintained), Warding Wind (Difficult Terrain + Ranged Attack Denial and deafening), Watery Sphere (Forced Movement AND Restraint), Maelstrom (Insect Swarm with Pull toward a central point you choose), Primordial Ward (a big **** you to elemental damage), the Investitures (Mostly Ice for massive movement lockdown and Wind for fly speed 60 + a push effect and more arrow denial), and the grandaddy of all control spells in my opinion, Whirlwind (GIGANTIC damage potential with 10d6 on the drop and the potential to do far more than that, along with area and movement lockdown, restraint, and completely trashing whatever place you summoned it in).

I love the Nature Cleric, but I'm going to look elsewhere. I sincerely appreciate your help though, and thanks for the good will! :D

Again I'll ask how many levels of Druid you're realistically looking at. Druid isn't really a great class to pick up a few levels in. Most people dip it for two levels, eighteen levels, or the full twenty. It's a class that really likes it's capstone, or it's base Shapeshifting capability. Depending on what's important to you, this is what I'd consider for your build.

20 levels of OotA Paladin. Use Magic Initiate to grab the Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and whatever level 1 spell fits. Grab Warcaster prior to level 20, but after Magic Initiate. After that, do what you will. This is a great archetype that really is able to accomplish what you described in your first two sets of requirements.

18 levels of OotA Paladin, 2 levels of Land Druid. Going this route nets you the basic level 1 spells and cantrips you're enjoying, basic shape shifting, 30' aura range, level 5 Paladin spells (which are pretty sweet), and still a ton of Paladin goodness. You're also able to grab another Druid cantrip plus a tiny bit of spell recovery.

12-15 levels OotA Paladin, 5-8 levels of Land Druid. This one has a few choices you're going to have to make.

Paladin 12 - ASI
Paladin 13 - level 4 spells (this includes Death Ward, Ice Storm, and Banishment)
Paladin 14 - Cleansing Touch (not a great level cut off imo)
Paladin 15 - Undying Sentinel (this plus Death Ward makes you a pretty tough bugger to kill)

Druid 5 - Land based spells (I'm specifically looking at Arctic and Grassland as those have access to the Slow and Haste spell respectively)
Druid 6 - Land's Stride (not very good. If you've instead decided to go Moon, Primal Strike is a much stronger ability).
Druid 7 - Level 4 spells
Druid 8 - ASI + Flying forms for your Druid Shapeshift.

Whatever is of most value to you, go that route. My choices here would be:

Paladin 1-2 (PC 2)
Druid 1 (PC 3)
Paladin 3-7 (PC 8)
Druid 2-8 (PC 15, you can take Paladin 8 any time in here if you need the ASI)
Paladin 8-12 (PC 20)

This build gets you up to Druid level 4 spells while having all the primary goodness of Paladin 12. You're lacking some of the big Paladin level 4 and 5 spells, but you have a ton of spell slots, plenty of healing and plenty of tanking capability.

Or

Paladin 1-2 (PC 2)
Druid 1 (PC 3)
Paladin 3-7 (PC 8)
Druid 2-5 (PC 12)
Paladin 8-15 (PC 20)

This build gets you access to some big Paladin features with level 4 spells and the Undying Sentinel. You're also picking up some very useful full caster slots + either Slow or Haste from your land choice. Your Shape shifting forms are a bit more limited, but it's more for utility then anything else.


We also need to know how open your DM is to you as a Druid wearing metal armor. If he's fine with it, you could also just run Moon Druid 18 / Paladin 2. Work with the DM to figure out a way that your armor shifts with you when you shift.

Knowing what is locked in already for the character will help us as well if you're wanting build paths or ideas (this includes race, class choice, stat allocation, etc etc).

[TheRedTemplar]

Are you stuck with the build you've suggested? Is the DM willing to let you rebuild the character? Would be good to know before we get much deeper. How many levels of Druid are we looking at here?


A straight level 20 OotA Paladin hits your first two points fantastically, even gaining a pretty awesome capstone that does everything really that you've asked for. The only thing it doesn't cover is the shapeshifting.


Again I'll ask how many levels of Druid you're realistically looking at. Druid isn't really a great class to pick up a few levels in. Most people dip it for two levels, eighteen levels, or the full twenty. It's a class that really likes it's capstone, or it's base Shapeshifting capability. Depending on what's important to you, this is what I'd consider for your build.

20 levels of OotA Paladin. Use Magic Initiate to grab the Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and whatever level 1 spell fits. Grab Warcaster prior to level 20, but after Magic Initiate. After that, do what you will. This is a great archetype that really is able to accomplish what you described in your first two sets of requirements.

18 levels of OotA Paladin, 2 levels of Land Druid. Going this route nets you the basic level 1 spells and cantrips you're enjoying, basic shape shifting, 30' aura range, level 5 Paladin spells (which are pretty sweet), and still a ton of Paladin goodness. You're also able to grab another Druid cantrip plus a tiny bit of spell recovery.

12-15 levels OotA Paladin, 5-8 levels of Land Druid. This one has a few choices you're going to have to make.

Paladin 12 - ASI
Paladin 13 - level 4 spells (this includes Death Ward, Ice Storm, and Banishment)
Paladin 14 - Cleansing Touch (not a great level cut off imo)
Paladin 15 - Undying Sentinel (this plus Death Ward makes you a pretty tough bugger to kill)

Druid 5 - Land based spells (I'm specifically looking at Arctic and Grassland as those have access to the Slow and Haste spell respectively)
Druid 6 - Land's Stride (not very good. If you've instead decided to go Moon, Primal Strike is a much stronger ability).
Druid 7 - Level 4 spells
Druid 8 - ASI + Flying forms for your Druid Shapeshift.

Whatever is of most value to you, go that route. My choices here would be:

Paladin 1-2 (PC 2)
Druid 1 (PC 3)
Paladin 3-7 (PC 8)
Druid 2-8 (PC 15, you can take Paladin 8 any time in here if you need the ASI)
Paladin 8-12 (PC 20)

This build gets you up to Druid level 4 spells while having all the primary goodness of Paladin 12. You're lacking some of the big Paladin level 4 and 5 spells, but you have a ton of spell slots, plenty of healing and plenty of tanking capability.

Or

Paladin 1-2 (PC 2)
Druid 1 (PC 3)
Paladin 3-7 (PC 8)
Druid 2-5 (PC 12)
Paladin 8-15 (PC 20)

This build gets you access to some big Paladin features with level 4 spells and the Undying Sentinel. You're also picking up some very useful full caster slots + either Slow or Haste from your land choice. Your Shape shifting forms are a bit more limited, but it's more for utility then anything else.


We also need to know how open your DM is to you as a Druid wearing metal armor. If he's fine with it, you could also just run Moon Druid 18 / Paladin 2. Work with the DM to figure out a way that your armor shifts with you when you shift.

Knowing what is locked in already for the character will help us as well if you're wanting build paths or ideas (this includes race, class choice, stat allocation, etc etc).

I thank you for your assistance with this, I really do. I'll give you what information you need to work with.

My DM doesn't let me wear Metal Armor, but he does allow me to purchase or find non-metal armor on occasion, generally if I manage to impress him (currently I have a set of Half Plate made from sea creature shells). I'm going to be a Water Genasi for flavor purposes, but the stats and levels can be rebuilt at the moment.

My starting point for this idea was Land Druid 13/OoA 7. That gave me spells such as Regenerate and Hurricane, immunity to poison and being poisoned, and being able to ignore some of the Difficult Terrain effects I create such as from Erupting Earth, while also keeping Divine Smites and more importantly, the Spell Resistance ward. I'd also get more spell slots and more recovery on a short rest.

The Druidic Circle has been something I've been thinking about for a while, but due to my character's heavy Oceanic/Forest theme I personally would go with Arctic or Grasslands (the former for Slow and the latter for Haste, among the other spells they offer), since the Coastal/Forest circles are underwhelming for me.

While I think Druid 13/OoA 7 would be a good combination, I'm just not sure which way to go first. I'm thinking of doing 2 Pal/3 Druid for the first 5 levels, finishing out Pally and then go the rest in Druid. I think good feats would be Warcaster, Sentinel and Tough, and Wisdom is my primary focus stat.

Any thoughts or improvements? Thanks for your help so far, I super appreciate it n-n.