How do the druid and the cleric compare?

[Rfkannen]

So the druid and the cleric are both full casters, are wisdom based, and have a spell list with a lot of healing and support spells.

I was wondering, how do the two compare ingame? Especially land druid and the caster domains, as you would think their would be a fair bit of overlap.

What is each class better at? Why would you pick either one? How does each play?

[Cespenar]

-Druid is big for summons (which are quite powerful), exploration spells, and crowd control.
-Cleric is better at blasting, healing, and buffs (some of which are quite powerful).

-Cleric domains allow for many different builds.
-Druids play more similarly, but can be very versatile within itself.

-Cleric can be good at front-lining due to some domains allowing heavy armor.
-Druid wild shape is even better at front-lining, among other things.

-Cleric has Bless.
-Druid has wild shape.

[Foxhound438]

-Druid is big for summons (which are quite powerful), exploration spells, and crowd control.
-Cleric is better at blasting, healing, and buffs (some of which are quite powerful).

-Cleric domains allow for many different builds.
-Druids play more similarly, but can be very versatile within itself.

-Cleric can be good at front-lining due to some domains allowing heavy armor.
-Druid wild shape is even better at front-lining, among other things.

-Cleric has Bless.
-Druid has wild shape.

pretty accurate, with a 2 exceptions...

druid gets some blasting type spells, though not a lot and not as good

wild shape really isn't that good for standing in front, especially for land druid.

[Biggstick]

-Druid is big for summons (which are quite powerful), exploration spells, and crowd control.
-Cleric is better at blasting, healing, and buffs (some of which are quite powerful).

-Cleric domains allow for many different builds.
-Druids play more similarly, but can be very versatile within itself.

-Cleric can be good at front-lining due to some domains allowing heavy armor.
-Druid wild shape is even better at front-lining, among other things.

-Cleric has Bless.
-Druid has wild shape.

You used Wild Shape twice as a boon for the Druid class. Also maybe it's just my experience, but I've never seen a Druid do well on the front line. Well, check that, I've never seen them do well in the front lines past level 2. My experience here might be limited, as I've only ever seen a Land Druid up to level 12 and a Moon Druid up to level 9 in actual play.

I would also include crowd control in the Cleric box as well as the Druid one. Command, Blindness/Deafness, Silence, Bestow Curse, Spirit Guardians, Banishment, etc. are all on the Cleric spell list but not on the Druid one.

As for the OP's actual question, I would make this argument for one or the other.

The Druid class makes for a fantastic addition to any exploration focused campaign. They're usually lightly armored and have the ability to turn into stealthy animals, making for ideal scouts. Their spell list includes a ton of spells that are contribute to the idea of stealth and exploration. Their ability to turn into animals also has combat implications, which as a smart player, you can take advantage of.

The Cleric class makes a great addition to any party that deals with your standard dungeon crawl. They're usually in medium to heavy armor, and are slinging tons of combat and combat-utility based spells. The archetypes play a pretty large part in determining what exactly you're doing in most combats, but the Cleric base spell list ensures you have a play style that you can fall back on no matter the archetype.

If you have an exploration based campaign in which you're going to be using your spells outside of combat more often, Druid will be a fun choice. If you expect your DM to have you crawling through dungeons more then anything else, Cleric will probably fit the bill.

[Quoxis]

Druid is a tree hugging fashion-over-usefulness hippie that talks to the daffodils on his way and turns into a cat occasionally, mostly to sneak up on people the barbarian would stomp into the ground about as hard as the formerly mentioned daffodils.

The cleric is a versatile badass with all kinds of utility, be it in or out of combat, and THE buff class.

[JellyPooga]

On Druids and Blasting, they get Moonbeam and Clerics don't (IIRC). That makes them better blasters in my book; that spell can deal insane single target damage.

[Biggstick]

On Druids and Blasting, they get Moonbeam and Clerics don't (IIRC). That makes them better blasters in my book; that spell can deal insane single target damage.

A Light Cleric with Scorching Ray/Fireball and a Tempest Cleric with Shatter/Call Lightning + Channel Divinity for max damage disagree. I'd also like to throw Spirit Guardians out there, but it's definitely not a blast spell but more of a control spell that does pretty consistent damage. But that's specific Cleric archetypes that compete, not the standard Cleric spell list.

I would agree that the standard Druid list is better at blasting then the standard Cleric list until level 7 spells and Fire Storm (aoe spell on both spell lists).

[Socratov]

On Druids and Blasting, they get Moonbeam and Clerics don't (IIRC). That makes them better blasters in my book; that spell can deal insane single target damage.

don't forget the rest. While the druid recieves few balsting spells, the ones he does get are toch notch.

more on topic in a general sense:

Clerics and druids are both great in are denial, while the cleric does it by himself and around him (Spirit Guardians), the druid delivers dire consequences for those that defy his are denial. Now this may at first seem not so strong, but imagine Spike Growth: sure, go on ahead and move, ut as you run across you get a guaranteed 2d4 per 5' moved. And while the cleric has generally more immediate ways of BFC, the Druid has a more passive, but ultimately effective and flexible are denial... (now you BFC can be used by a grappling lion as a damage booster as well).

When it comes to blasting and direct damage the cleric gets some absolute goodies. Some domains might grant fireball and Lightning Bolt, and if that don't work Spiritual weapon is an absolute beaut, but the druid does not need them: he casts 1 spell (out of 3 to 4 blasting spells) and gets to play with it for about 10 turns. Call Lightning, Fiery bead, Moonbam, Sunbeam, they all mess really hard with a set of enemies. And who needs more then 5 blasting spells anyway. If you have 1 for each element you're set to go. You can be sure that a cleric in the right party will lay waste to his enemies, but beware the druid who has had the chance to prepare.

But when it coms to teamwork they both work about equally well: they both get healing word (which is amazing when used in the right way) and they both get ways to boost the effectiveness through the roof. The cleric, again, focuses on the personal boosts like Haste, Bless etc. Very strong, very effective when used well. The druid, well, they can lead a clamouring party of full plate wearers past any stealth mission. One spell (which lasts an hour) is all he needs: Pass without Trace is THAT good.

fun fact, both classes can take guidance as a cantrip. another fun fact, both classes have (out of the box) only one ranged cantrip and few melee ones.

To say that both classes are similar is about as valid as saying that the sorcerer and wizard are similar. Because while they achieve the same effect (of buffing, blasting and buffoon busting), they do so form opposite ends and philosophies.

Now to be fair, my favourite of the two is the Druid (which is odd as I hated the class before 5e) as it has a playstyle that very much agrees with me, while clerics haven't caught my fancy (yet, I mean, who knows?).

Tl;dr - if you want powah and want to show it now, in all of its flashyness, be sure to flip to page 56 of your trusty PHB and go to town to convert those suckas who haven't been introduced to his holiness the patron saint of Asskicking. If, however, you mind biding yoru time, conserve spellslots, make the elements turn to your (and the party's) favour and show your enemies why it's for centuries been considered a BAD idea to cross a druid and make them regret it, well, leaf through to page 64 and leave the cleric behind you as you get introduced into the Þe Old Faith (of kicking supreme behind and forgetting their names). (and yes, that is a Middle English Thorn)

[Cespenar]

You used Wild Shape twice as a boon for the Druid class. Also maybe it's just my experience, but I've never seen a Druid do well on the front line. Well, check that, I've never seen them do well in the front lines past level 2. My experience here might be limited, as I've only ever seen a Land Druid up to level 12 and a Moon Druid up to level 9 in actual play.

I would also include crowd control in the Cleric box as well as the Druid one. Command, Blindness/Deafness, Silence, Bestow Curse, Spirit Guardians, Banishment, etc. are all on the Cleric spell list but not on the Druid one.

Moon Druids are very sticky on the front line. Barkskin + Bear forms, especially considering the fact that it's bonus HP, gives it a pretty good advantage. And after level 5 you don't even need to stay there yourself, just send your 8 Giant Badgers to do the front-lining.

Also, I was listing who was better at what. Cleric may have some crowd control spells, but Druid does them better.

[Socratov]

Moon Druids are very sticky on the front line. Barkskin + Bear forms, especially considering the fact that it's bonus HP, gives it a pretty good advantage. And after level 5 you don't even need to stay there yourself, just send your 8 Giant Badgers to do the front-lining.

Also, I was listing who was better at what. Cleric may have some crowd control spells, but Druid does them better.

Barkskin is a bad spella and it should feel bad: it does not increase your AC, but it sets it to a floor. Anything you do to increase it either does jack all (as it works on your base AC not your barkskin AC), or makes the barkskin useless (as your AC is higher then 16 regardless).

Second it's a concentration spell: so if you are on the front line and getting attacked it's only a matter of time before your fail that DC10 concentration check and lose it.

[Citan]

So the druid and the cleric are both full casters, are wisdom based, and have a spell list with a lot of healing and support spells.

I was wondering, how do the two compare ingame? Especially land druid and the caster domains, as you would think their would be a fair bit of overlap.

What is each class better at? Why would you pick either one? How does each play?


-Druid is big for summons (which are quite powerful), exploration spells, and crowd control.
-Cleric is better at blasting, healing, and buffs (some of which are quite powerful).

-Cleric domains allow for many different builds.
-Druids play more similarly, but can be very versatile within itself.

-Cleric can be good at front-lining due to some domains allowing heavy armor.
-Druid wild shape is even better at front-lining, among other things.

That is one good way to look at the question.

Another way to look at it would be that...
Druid is generally far better than Cleric when you don't have a specific goal because he gets a great multiusage ability (Wild Shape) and a large array of spells to cover any role, thanks to the multifacet shape of many spells (Heat Metal, Enhance Ability, MoonBeam, Spike Growth, Conjure X).
Land Druid wise, the archetype features are not enough really to make them distinguishable from one another.

On the other hand, each Cleric has, in addition to his dedicated spells, a set of fluff-rich features that really influences the way the player feels and play his character by strenghening (Life) or adding (Light, Tempest) "roles". And what he lacks in versatility is compensated by stronger healing, buff and "divination".

As a consequence, I feel Druid more "bland" when comparing one another from a theorical point of view, which is a logical drawback to being extremely versatile, compared to a Cleric.

In practice though, you could have two Druid, even Land of the same Circle, "feel" very different provided players each choose a "specialization" (blaster, controller, buffer) and stick to it.



The Druid class makes for a fantastic addition to any exploration focused campaign. They're usually lightly armored and have the ability to turn into stealthy animals, making for ideal scouts. Their spell list includes a ton of spells that are contribute to the idea of stealth and exploration. Their ability to turn into animals also has combat implications, which as a smart player, you can take advantage of.

The Cleric class makes a great addition to any party that deals with your standard dungeon crawl. They're usually in medium to heavy armor, and are slinging tons of combat and combat-utility based spells. The archetypes play a pretty large part in determining what exactly you're doing in most combats, but the Cleric base spell list ensures you have a play style that you can fall back on no matter the archetype.

If you have an exploration based campaign in which you're going to be using your spells outside of combat more often, Druid will be a fun choice. If you expect your DM to have you crawling through dungeons more then anything else, Cleric will probably fit the bill.
Honestly I don't think even this distinction is really viable.

When imagining "outside traveling", we immediately think Druid because he gets nearly all "nature-themed" spells and, truthfully, some spells that indeed have more chance to be useful outside than underground (Water Breathing, Plant Growth, Call Lightning etc) and the usual Animals-related ones.

But Cleric can provide nutrition as well (Create Food and Water), scouting (Clairvoyance, Scrying, Divination etc), movement (Water Walk, Freedom of Movement) etc.

When imagining underground, we immediately think Cleric because we associate this with undead, lack of sustainable resources, greater risk.
But Druid's Pass Without Trace makes any exploration much safer, his talent with animals will usually find some rats/spiders to play with (or he could Conjure Animals to scout/take a trap), usual smaller sized "encounter arenas" makes it much easier to use "walls" or "ground" spells efficiently and he can sustain a party even easier than a Cleric thanks to Goodberries.

So, really, both can fit in any party and (mostly) any role. The difference is that with Land Druid, 90% of his "features" lies in his spell selection, so he can be good in anything as long as he prepared for it, but comes nearly as low as an NPC once out of juice (for Moon Druid Wild Shape mainly means "melee attacking" until at least lvl 10 when you get Elemental Shape, so I don't stress it since majority of adventures go up to 10).
So it will be "good all around" whatever happens.

Whereas Cleric has more defining features that don't always rely on his spells, and has a much clearer bias towards certain roles.
So when you want to fill another role than "healer buffer", you will have to rely on your Domain features (like how Knowledge can make you the Face, Beast Tamer or Heavy Lifter, or how the Light makes you a decent crowd clearer, or how Life allows you to face-tank) or a clever use of your "Divine-fluffed" features (spells, Divine Intervention) which arguably require more finesse on both player and DM accounts. ;)

TL;DR: Druid is great all-around as long as you prepare the right spells beforehand. Cleric is more biaised towards certain roles between class and Domain features, but will end better than a Druid in those roles as a consequence.
Both are equally great to have in a party generally: both will achieve the same goal, but in very different ways.

[Cespenar]

Barkskin is a bad spella and it should feel bad: it does not increase your AC, but it sets it to a floor. Anything you do to increase it either does jack all (as it works on your base AC not your barkskin AC), or makes the barkskin useless (as your AC is higher then 16 regardless).

Second it's a concentration spell: so if you are on the front line and getting attacked it's only a matter of time before your fail that DC10 concentration check and lose it.

If you really want to tank, Barkskin is okay. 12-13 animal AC to 16 AC is a good increase. If you want balance, a damaging spell like Moonbeam is better.

Also, as a Moon Druid you'll probably get Warcaster anyway so that you won't fail those concentration checks. Like clerics.

[Biggstick]

Honestly I don't think even this distinction is really viable..

Elaborate.


When imagining "outside traveling", we immediately think Druid because he gets nearly all "nature-themed" spells and, truthfully, some spells that indeed have more chance to be useful outside than underground (Water Breathing, Plant Growth, Call Lightning etc) and the usual Animals-related ones.

But Cleric can provide nutrition as well (Create Food and Water), scouting (Clairvoyance, Scrying, Divination etc), movement (Water Walk, Freedom of Movement) etc.

When imagining underground, we immediately think Cleric because we associate this with undead, lack of sustainable resources, greater risk.
But Druid's Pass Without Trace makes any exploration much safer, his talent with animals will usually find some rats/spiders to play with (or he could Conjure Animals to scout/take a trap), usual smaller sized "encounter arenas" makes it much easier to use "walls" or "ground" spells efficiently and he can sustain a party even easier than a Cleric thanks to Goodberries..

So my word choice of "exploration and stealth" (for the Druid) and "good for a standard dungeon crawl" (for the Cleric) don't fit? You've described pretty much the same thing I did!

A Druid can utilize Goodberry to feed an entire party. A Druid can utilize a single shapeshift and Pass w/o Trace to effectively scout out most places one would need information on. The costs for this are a first level spell, a second level spell, and a single use of the wild shape feature.

A Cleric can utilize Create Food and Water to feed and water an entire party. A Cleric can utilize Scrying to "scout" a single location or person; the same is true of Clairvoyance. The costs for this are a third level spell for party sustainment, and 3rd-5th level spell for "scouting."

A Druid is definitely able to cover Exploration and Stealth parts of a campaign with a much lower cost then a Cleric does. They don't have to expend anything more then a 2nd level spell slot, where as a Cleric has to use 3rd or higher level spell slots to do what the Druid does.


TL;DR: Druid is great all-around as long as you prepare the right spells beforehand. Cleric is more biaised towards certain roles between class and Domain features, but will end better than a Druid in those roles as a consequence. Both are equally great to have in a party generally: both will achieve the same goal, but in very different ways.

I'm pretty sure every Druid I've ever played with has Goodberry and Pass w/o Trace prepared. There are plenty of other spells they have available that contribute to assisting on the exploration front, and they'll choose the flavor they'd like in that regard (Waterbreathing/Waterwalking/Plant Growth etc.). Clerics, on the other hand, tend to fill a standard role in a standard dungeon crawl (that of a blaster, that of a scout, that of a "tank," or that of a party support (standard Cleric)). This domain of the Cleric is usually what determines the "role" the Cleric is trying to fill, thus making it easy to identify what your party's Cleric will be better at then the normal Cleric.

I agree with you Citan, in that both classes are able to fill multiple roles within a party pretty well. Both will be appreciated in a party as they do pretty similar things.

As for the OP, either choice will be welcome in pretty much any party. I don't think I've ever heard a party or DM tell a Player that they already have too many Clerics/Druids lol.

[Citan]

Clerics, on the other hand, tend to fill a standard role in a standard dungeon crawl (that of a blaster, that of a scout, that of a "tank," or that of a party support (standard Cleric)). This domain of the Cleric is usually what determines the "role" the Cleric is trying to fill, thus making it easy to identify what your party's Cleric will be better at then the normal Cleric.

I agree with you Citan, in that both classes are able to fill multiple roles within a party pretty well. Both will be appreciated in a party as they do pretty similar things.

That is basically the one big distinction between Cleric and Druid I was trying to put into words, you did it much more clearly than me. XD
Thanks ;)