Twilight druid help

[zylodrizzt]

Ive never really played a druid before. Weare playing in innistrad so i thought twilight was thematically appropriate. We are 3rd level. I like all the twilights abilities however past that it seems like only wildshape abilities are gained. I dont see this as a character that will utilise wildshape for more then occasional utility unless someone can suggest how i can put it to great effect without being a moon druid. My stats are str 8 dex 18 con 16 int 12 wis 18 cha 8. I can possibly shuffle around stats but I doubt I can shuffle circles or class levels just yet. Yes I know its a bit early for planning bevels. He is a variant human with the healer feat. I figured we would need a bit of a more focused healer based on party comp. I believe every one chose human (may have a tiefling). We have a vengence pally an undying light bladelock a fighter fiendlock and a fighter rogue barbarian. I chose thornwhip and bonfire for the ranged and melee versatility of both. Ive considered getting ritual caster or magic initiate for wizard for familiar at the least seeing as how he is all about animal friendship and protecting the circle of life.

Basically any advice is welcome

[Herobizkit]

Being able to change into tougher animals is pretty much the whole reason to be a Moon Druid. Don't think of it as "this is my only trick", think of it as "I can bust this out when crap hits the fan".

Moon Druid forms are good for scouting as well as combat. I've been playing a Moon Druid and have gotten SO MUCH MILEAGE out of the Panther form alone. Fast movement, tackling for a bonus bite, decent climb...

Innistrad may have vampires but it also has other shape-shiftin' beasties. You know the ones.

Druids are a figurative survival knife. They have all the tools you need; you just need to know when to use said tools.

[zylodrizzt]

Yeah I love moon druids. Just since I'm not robe I thought I'd seek advice for non moon druids since I've not really played one.

[stuffnsuch]

So if at level 3 a non-moon druid can go up to 1/4 CR no fly/swim then here are some options:
Scouting : Cat (+3 perception & +4 stealth, even if you are spotted then hey, you're just a puddy-tat wandering around) ,
Spider (+4 stealth and you can go up walls/across the ceiling,
Weasel (+5 stealth and adv to perception)
and then you have the slightly hardier-but-will-spark-concern-if seen such as
Giant Wolf Spider (Spider Climb +7 to stealth),
Panther (+6 to stealth and pounce/bite if necessary) ;
Attack: Elk (charge + ram attack is great) ;
Access/Escape: Giant Badger can burrow a tunnel for your party in/out of most areas

Worth noting that there's no lower limit and sometimes a flea (with or without Barkskin) sat on an enemy's shoulder to overhear their plans, or on an ally's shoulder to sneak in somewhere is very handy

You have a solid melee team so feel free to hang back and find ways to give them adv with spells such as Faerie Fire, Entangle, Hold Person

Pass Without a Trace can save everyone's bacon

Healing Word is generally more useful than Cure Wounds

Thorn Whip has a nice range, can free an ally from attacks of opportunity, force and enemy into one of your AoE spells, and the pull effect is optional/adjustable

Thunderwave is handy if you get caught in melee/a mob

Animal Messenger is a handy ritual for communicating and seems to fit your character design

Flaming Sphere/Moonbeam can drastically rearrange the battlefield and are ongoing

Heat Metal can disarm or be near incapacitating

Entirely up to you but often Druids are the kind of class where you want to max your Wis asap. If you want to have more melee options then this may not be the case but that's what Shillelagh is for

[zylodrizzt]

Ok good I've been playing him right then. I got to rearrange stats and choose a different circle which I chose dreams. After I seen the first combat and seen how effective the others were at damage is what made me reconsider everything and becoming more support especially since my first action disabled 3/4 of a horde of devils. So what are some effective multiclassing? I've been considering 1 level of healing cleric and since my character makes some good use of animals and such I've been considering picking up ua beast ranger and magic initiate or ritual caster for wizard to pick up find familiar.

[stuffnsuch]

Yeah with a front line that strong you could really shine in support/utility

obviously, go wherever your back story takes you and you can't go wrong.

there is some general great multiclassing advice on here if you look for Ultimate-Optimizer-s-Multiclassing-Guide

Healing Cleric: currently your crowd control and ability to give allies combat advantage is excellent and generally it's better to help take down the bad guys and only heal on rests/revive unconscious allies so you are already fine with Healing Word and Balm of the Summer Court. Also, depending on your DM, you may not gain any armour advantages as RAW Druids using metal armour is taboo. You'll also miss out on the incredible lvl20 feature if you think the game will go that far. Having said that both classes use WIS and Cleric has some great spells.

You'd need to go 3 levels into UA Beast Master for a companion but they also use WIS which is nice and you get oodles of thematic extras

Find Familiar is great, particularly if there are some touch spells you have your heart set on

Wildshaping into something like a wolf with pack tactics goes great with a companion animal but without going Moon Druid for the stronger shapes this won't be great for long

You can already go a long way with Locate Animals, Speak with Animals, Animal Friendship, Beast Bond, and your various conjuring spells and at level 9 you can cast Awaken for a permanent buddy (or you can find someone to cast it for you earlier)