Help with giving Druid Animal Companion

[eyeofthetiger]

Hi all!

I am new to these boards and glad to finally start playing Dungeons and Dragons! I wanted to get opinions on how to give a Druid an animal companion. I read the previous posts on here as well, but didn't quite find what I was looking for.

I am looking at doing the same thing: giving up Wild Shape abilities to be a Circle of the Land Druid with an animal companion. Most of the Druid's spellcasting isn't that great damage wise and is more a utility spells. Basically as a Circle of the Land druid, I follow the party around and wait for the couple or handful of times I can actually use a spell. Other than that, I use a bow from range and make one 1d8 attack. Quite boring. As a Circle of the Land druid, my shape shifting isn't as powerful as the Circle of the Moon.

Guess my basic question is: Is it balanced for a Circle of the Land druid to gain an animal companion? I guess I should give a backstory of why I want the animal companion. I want it for role play AND combat purposes. But I want it to be balanced so other party members are happy with a fair compromise.

What I would give up:
Any and all abilities related to Wild Shape

What I would gain in return:
An animal companion who is similar to the Ranger's

What I would retain:
Circle of the Land benefits

Preferably, I would like the animal companion to be able to take an action ALONG with my own action - ex, I attack with bow and then use a bonus action for my animal to attack.

[Tetrasodium]

Hi all!

I am new to these boards and glad to finally start playing Dungeons and Dragons! I wanted to get opinions on how to give a Druid an animal companion. I read the previous posts on here as well, but didn't quite find what I was looking for.

I am looking at doing the same thing: giving up Wild Shape abilities to be a Circle of the Land Druid with an animal companion. Most of the Druid's spellcasting isn't that great damage wise and is more a utility spells. Basically as a Circle of the Land druid, I follow the party around and wait for the couple or handful of times I can actually use a spell. Other than that, I use a bow from range and make one 1d8 attack. Quite boring. As a Circle of the Land druid, my shape shifting isn't as powerful as the Circle of the Moon.

Guess my basic question is: Is it balanced for a Circle of the Land druid to gain an animal companion? I guess I should give a backstory of why I want the animal companion. I want it for role play AND combat purposes. But I want it to be balanced so other party members are happy with a fair compromise.

What I would give up:
Any and all abilities related to Wild Shape

What I would gain in return:
An animal companion who is similar to the Ranger's

What I would retain:
Circle of the Land benefits

Preferably, I would like the animal companion to be able to take an action ALONG with my own action - ex, I attack with bow and then use a bonus action for my animal to attack.

Since it sounds like your GM is willing to give you some leeway, you might want to consider talking to them about goig with circle of the shepherd instead http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/June5UA_RevisedClassOptv1.pdf

[Desteplo]

It looks like you want to just multiclass
-5-7 lvls in ranger and the rest in druid
-there's no need to homebrew when you have the option to do what you want already

[Honest Tiefling]

Personally, I'd say no. Druid wildshape is useful, even for a land druid, but not as a combat form. However, the Ranger animal companion is an entire subclass.

Before you try homebrewing, maybe try to make your character more appealing? You really shouldn't be plunking away with a bow to begin with. As a druid, you gain Poison Spray and Thorn Whip. Thornwhip also pulls the creature, so if you stick to your melee buddies you can make sure enemies don't escape. If neither of those two options appeals to you, a lot of builds make use of the Magic Initiate Feat to get other cantrips.

If that further doesn't appeal, I'd consider some multiclassing. Heck, talk to your DM about the Elemental Evil spells, which gives you far better cantrips. The player companion is free on the website even.

[eyeofthetiger]

The circle of the Shepherd doesn't really allow for a controllable animal companion. They are stationary totems it seems.

[Drackolus]

I'd say, if you want another class' subclass, you at least have to give up yours.

[Flashy]

So you want:

1. Some buffing and support magic but from the sound of it usually not more than one spell per encounter.
2. No wildshape.
3. An animal companion.
4. Round to round default action is attacking with a bow.

Are you sure you don't just want to play a Ranger?

[Tetrasodium]

The circle of the Shepherd doesn't really allow for a controllable animal companion. They are stationary totems it seems.

it allows for boosting the strength of animals conjured with the conjure X spells. Others are right though. Wildshape is useful for more than just combat & you really should never be bothering with something like a bow instead of the generally much superior cantrips

[Hypersmith]

Imo your best bet is to multiclass ranger. Especially new players, it's a good general rule to shy away from homebrew till you're real familiar with the base rules and how to get to your concepts using them.

[eyeofthetiger]

Imo your best bet is to multiclass ranger. Especially new players, it's a good general rule to shy away from homebrew till you're real familiar with the base rules and how to get to your concepts using them.

What would I give up if I multiclass ranger? And how many levels would I need to multiclass that?

I have read that the spell "Awaken" can be used at the DM's discretion for a druid to have an animal companion.

Basically, I want to play like a spell casting druid who has an animal companion. I don't want the martial capabilities of a ranger and don't need to wear more types of armor/weapons. Honestly, if it comes down to giving up my subclass of Circle of the Land to get the animal companion of a ranger, that works for me. Would that be a balanced class - a druid who uses the subclass abilities of a beast master?

[Honest Tiefling]

Basically, I want to play like a spell casting druid who has an animal companion. I don't want the martial capabilities of a ranger and don't need to wear more types of armor/weapons. Honestly, if it comes down to giving up my subclass of Circle of the Land to get the animal companion of a ranger, that works for me. Would that be a balanced class - a druid who uses the subclass abilities of a beast master?

Not if the animal companion can take an action alongside you. That isn't allowed by the ranger subclass. Why do you want the animal companion to have additional actions if you aren't fond of your cantrips?

Perhaps if you also gave up Wildshape, but I don't know if that is equivalent. Has your DM expressed any opinion on home brew or this concept?

[Khrysaes]

If you do take the Beastmaster subclass of a ranger and put it onto the druid, consider the Revised Ranger's beastmaster. it is usually considered better than the PHB one.

[Hypersmith]

What would I give up if I multiclass ranger? And how many levels would I need to multiclass that?

I have read that the spell "Awaken" can be used at the DM's discretion for a druid to have an animal companion.

Basically, I want to play like a spell casting druid who has an animal companion. I don't want the martial capabilities of a ranger and don't need to wear more types of armor/weapons. Honestly, if it comes down to giving up my subclass of Circle of the Land to get the animal companion of a ranger, that works for me. Would that be a balanced class - a druid who uses the subclass abilities of a beast master?

Maybe you could take the Ritual caster feat and tame a small animal as your familiar. Then when you can cast awaken at the right level, you can awaken your companion. You'll retain full druid capabilities and gain a companion you can communicate with, but for the sake of balance, it would be something small, like an owl or snake.

[imneuromancer]

This is extremely home-brew-y, but I wonder if you couldn't take a druid and graft the Beast Conclave as their Circle and have it work. That way you don't have to multiclass in order to get a companion.

From Revised Ranger:
Druid Level
2- Animal Companion (normally Ranger 3)
6- Coordinated Attack (Normally Ranger 5)
10 - Beast's Defense (Normally Ranger 7)
14 - Storm of Claws and Fangs (normally Ranger 11)
17 (?) - Superior Beast Defense (Normally Ranger 15, but ranger conclaves have one extra ability than druid circles, so 17 would be just a guess as to where it should go....

So yeah, druids get the companion 1 level before rangers, but then after that rangers get the companions' special abilties faster.

[DivisibleByZero]

This (http://www.dmsguild.com/product/173275/Druid-Circle--Circle-of-the-Beast) is what you're looking for.

It was highlighted and brought to my attention via an article (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/may-dungeon-masters-guild-review) on Wizards' website along with two more Druid subclasses that they thought were good enough to actually mention on the official site.

I have personally played the pre-RevisedRanger version, and can attest to it's balance and fun. I cannot comment on the alternate version which uses the RevisedRanger companion rules.

[Khrysaes]

This is extremely home-brew-y, but I wonder if you couldn't take a druid and graft the Beast Conclave as their Circle and have it work. That way you don't have to multiclass in order to get a companion.

From Revised Ranger:
Druid Level
2- Animal Companion (normally Ranger 3)
6- Coordinated Attack (Normally Ranger 5)
10 - Beast's Defense (Normally Ranger 7)
14 - Storm of Claws and Fangs (normally Ranger 11)
17 (?) - Superior Beast Defense (Normally Ranger 15, but ranger conclaves have one extra ability than druid circles, so 17 would be just a guess as to where it should go....

So yeah, druids get the companion 1 level before rangers, but then after that rangers get the companions' special abilties faster.

Maybe give both Coordinated attack AND Beast's defense at 6, then bring everything down. So storm of Claw's and Fangs goes to 10, Superior Defense to 14?