Best strategy for a Tier 2 Moon Druid?!

[Merudo]

I gave it some thought and in my opinion the best strategy for Moon Druid at Tier 2 (level 5-9) is the following:

1. Before or at the start of a fight, cast Conjure Animals / Conjure Woodland Beings

2. Wildshape into a Beast with good support potential, such as Giant Constrictor Snake / Giant Spitting Lizard / Giant Subterranean Lizard.

3. Restraint an enemy and use your summons to do tons of damage

I believe this strategy to be the optimal. Plain Wildshape without concentrating on a spell is mediocre at these levels, and if you plan on ignoring Wildshape, you are better off playing a Land/Shepard Druid.

However, to work well, a build dramatically different from what the current Druid guides recommend is needed.

In particular, it is extremely important for the Druid to keep concentration. This makes the Warcaster feat mandatory, and Resilience (Con) the next best feat. I believe the best approach is to get Warcaster at level 1 through the Variant Human race, and Resilience (Con) at level 4. You want both feats, as either is not sufficient - a Constrictor Snake with Warcaster has a 16%+ chance to break concentration each time it receives damage, which is unacceptably high.

Wisdom can be kept at 16 until both the Warcaster and Resilience (Con) are learnt, and perhaps longer. The main purpose of high Wisdom is to help while not in Wildshape, which if you play it right will not be very frequent. A +1 to spell DC is far less important than avoiding breaking concentration on your summon spells, which can mean losing on 40+ damage every round.

Having reliable access to Mage Armor is also extremely important, as it increases the AC of many beasts by 3. You really want a Wizard in the team to buff you up. If no one in the party has Mage Armor, I would actually consider taking it up through Magic Initiate once Warcaster & Resilience are taken. Other good feats to pick up are Lucky & Mobile. Sentinel is not encouraged as you do not want to attract more attention.

Ideally, you'll want to be in a party that can improve your constitution saving throws. Good party members are a Cleric (bless), a Paladin (aura + bless), or a Bard (bardic inspiration).

Another good combo is to be in a party with a Warlock with Devil's Sight & Darkness or a Shadow Sorcerer. The Constrictor Snake, Giant Scorpion & Earth Elemental all can see in the darkness, give you advantage and granting disadvantage to your enemies.

[Galactkaktus]

I gave it some thought and in my opinion the best strategy for Moon Druid at Tier 2 (level 5-9) is the following:

1. Before or at the start of a fight, cast Conjure Animals / Conjure Woodland Beings

2. Wildshape into a Beast with good support potential, such as Giant Constrictor Snake / Giant Spitting Lizard / Giant Subterranean Lizard.

3. Restraint an enemy and use your summons to do tons of damage

I believe this strategy to be the optimal. Plain Wildshape without concentrating on a spell is mediocre at these levels, and if you plan on ignoring Wildshape, you are better off playing a Land/Shepard Druid.

However, to work well, a build dramatically different from what the current Druid guides recommend is needed.

In particular, it is extremely important for the Druid to keep concentration. This makes the Warcaster feat mandatory, and Resilience (Con) the next best feat. I believe the best approach is to get Warcaster at level 1 through the Variant Human race, and Resilience (Con) at level 4. You want both feats, as either is not sufficient - a Constrictor Snake with Warcaster has a 16%+ chance to break concentration each time it receives damage, which is unacceptably high.

Wisdom can be kept at 16 until both the Warcaster and Resilience (Con) are learnt, and perhaps longer. The main purpose of high Wisdom is to help while not in Wildshape, which if you play it right will not be very frequent. A +1 to spell DC is far less important than avoiding breaking concentration on your summon spells, which can mean losing on 40+ damage every round.

Having reliable access to Mage Armor is also extremely important, as it increases the AC of many beasts by 3. You really want a Wizard in the team to buff you up. If no one in the party has Mage Armor, I would actually consider taking it up through Magic Initiate once Warcaster & Resilience are taken. Other good feats to pick up are Lucky & Mobile. Sentinel is not encouraged as you do not want to attract more attention.

Ideally, you'll want to be in a party that can improve your constitution saving throws. Good party members are a Cleric (bless), a Paladin (aura + bless), or a Bard (bardic inspiration).

Another good combo is to be in a party with a Warlock with Devil's Sight & Darkness or a Shadow Sorcerer. The Constrictor Snake, Giant Scorpion & Earth Elemental all can see in the darkness, give you advantage and granting disadvantage to your enemies.

I whould say that is probably the best way to deal damage as a moon druid in tier 2 against the big bad. But i whould also say that other concentration spells are also very good for the moon druid the key point being concentrate on a good spell for the situation while using your wild shapes. Faerie fire can help against invisible foes, Entangle is a control spell with a strength save, heat metal is brutal when used against people in metal armor and so on. I think you should fill your spell list with lots of different concentration spells for as many different situations as possible if you play a moon druid in tier 2.

[MaxWilson]

I gave it some thought and in my opinion the best strategy for Moon Druid at Tier 2 (level 5-9) is the following:

1. Before or at the start of a fight, cast Conjure Animals / Conjure Woodland Beings

2. Wildshape into a Beast with good support potential, such as Giant Constrictor Snake / Giant Spitting Lizard / Giant Subterranean Lizard.

3. Restraint an enemy and use your summons to do tons of damage

I believe this strategy to be the optimal.

Optimal against what? Against a Medusa this tactic is a loser--entering petrification range of a Medusa is a fool's game.

Sometimes you want to stand off and Call Lightning, possibly in human form. Sometimes you want to win cheaply by just using Spike Growth and letting other PCs do the work. Sometimes you want to nova with Conjure Animals, and either support the animals in Giant Constrictor Snake form to make them hit harder or stay out of the fray so as not to endanger your concentration. When you stay out of the fray you can still choose to either stay relatively close throwing Produce Flame in human form or doing hit-and-run attacks in wildshaped form (e.g. w/ Mobile feat). If you think you'll spend a lot of time in melee you can instead choose to take Sentinel and spend your turns Dodging, while still more than likely getting reaction attacks from Sentinel.

Talking about "optimal" in some kind of global sense is pointless.

Personally I would favor taking Mobile, Resilient (Con), and Lucky feats by level 8, because they provide a good range of versatility that is useful in a wide variety of situations. I'd probably go ahead and frequently use the Dodge strategy anyway despite not having Sentinel, and just counting on the fact that most enemies won't want to "waste" an action on Disengage. Use Lucky to stay alive in the face of save-or-die effects, to negate critical hits (especially in human form), and to keep concentration in critical situations, as well as using it for some kinds of skill checks.

It would be hard to prove that this strategy is "optimal" in a meaningful sense but it's one that I'd have fun with and that seems reasonably strong.

[Merudo]

Optimal against what? Against a Medusa this tactic is a loser--entering petrification range of a Medusa is a fool's game.


Good point!

I would say it's no good against creatures with AoE attacks or creatures that can fly.



Personally I would favor taking Mobile, Resilient (Con), and Lucky feats by level 8,

I'm not sure if I fully understand the value of Mobile, here?

Most Wildshape forms have excellent mobility already.

Lucky is great though, it's definitely a good pick.

[Master O'Laughs]

Good point!

I would say it's no good against creatures with AoE attacks or creatures that can fly.



I'm not sure if I fully understand the value of Mobile, here?

Most Wildshape forms have excellent mobility already.

Lucky is great though, it's definitely a good pick.

The value of Mobile would be you do not provoke attacks of opportunity against creatures you hit with an attack. You can move up to a target, hit him with your claws, and move away. Without mobile or other class/racial feature, you would be provoking a hit on yourself when you tried to move away.

This tactic would be used to prevent hits against yourself and keep your concentration spell running.

[MaxWilson]

I'm not sure if I fully understand the value of Mobile, here?

It's because I like the hit-and-run option. It's great when you hit level 10 and can e.g. burrow up beneath something in Earth Elemental form, hit them a few times, and retreat back underneath the soil--or do the same from the air as an Air Elemental. Even before you hit level 10 it's nice to be confident that you always have a good escape option. It's especially valuable at low levels--you hear occasional stories about killer DMs who throw four trolls at a level 3 party (!) resulting in TPK... well, since I enjoy being one of those killer DMs, and I enjoy playing at tables with things like that can happen, I like having a PC who is equipped to not die when something like that happens. Mobile (possibly with Longstride) plus Primal Savagery is my answer to the hypothetical troll problem.

In short, it's not about charging into combat more quickly. It's about extracting one's self from combat where applicable.

It also has a number of fringe benefits such as allowing you to more easily exploit difficult terrain, making wildshape forms like the Giant Octopus twice as mobile (20' speed vs. 10'), making it a little easier to do making repeated charges as a rhinoceros, etc.