Character balance for a Druid (Spore)

[Kaibis]

tl;dr
I want a human druid (spore circle) with a 'ritual caster (wizard)' feat, so that I can take 'find familiar'. Is this an okay choice?


Longer story:
The flavour/RP of the build perfect for my backstory (A herbalist with an aunt that runs a potions/poison shop, spends weeks at a time in the woods/caves gathering rare herbs etc). The familar would allow the character to have a hawk, rat, etc that worked for her a bit.

I completely love the flavour, but is it balanced enough?

Being newish to 5e (this is my 4th character), I typically head over to RPGBot and to the build guides on this forum to get advice about how to make a good character. I am going a bit off script for this one, and feeling a bit nervouse about whether I am making a character that is rubbish and will be more of a dead weight.

[Man_Over_Game]

Don't worry so much. You'll do fine. Find Familiar has enough value on its own that the other ritual spells become the icing on the cake for the feat.

Spore Druid is effectively a caster who doesn't have to worry too much about being downed in melee combat. Rely on your spells, focus on medium-close ranged combat, and work with your team, and you'll do fine.

[Digimike]

Spores druid is a strong choice. Not min/max strong but very good and adds some cool flavor.

Understand that druid excels in a support type of role. If you're happy playing that type of character then you'll have a lot of fun.

Do understand that a lot of your damage will come from forcing constitution saves and most of the baddies you face will probably do well at saving on those. Having someone in your party that can cast Bane will help you out a bit. (Veng Pally, Cleric, Bard). Work with other players to see how you can help each other out.

[intregus]

One of the best things about 5e is even if your unoptimized you'll still pull your own weight! Its really hard to make a useless character in 5e (unlike in 3.X) so just always play the character you want and don't worry!

[Mr.Spastic]

The one thing I will say that has less to do with balance and more thematic stuff, make sure you have a party who are okay with undead. Spore druids get animate dead and having a party where you can be like "guys chill, I'm in control of them." is very helpful.

[Kaibis]

Spores druid is a strong choice. Not min/max strong but very good and adds some cool flavor.

Understand that druid excels in a support type of role. If you're happy playing that type of character then you'll have a lot of fun.

Do understand that a lot of your damage will come from forcing constitution saves and most of the baddies you face will probably do well at saving on those. Having someone in your party that can cast Bane will help you out a bit. (Veng Pally, Cleric, Bard). Work with other players to see how you can help each other out.

Thanks for the guidance here. I was wanting a support role as I noticed in our last campaign that we lack trust with each other in combat. I feel like utility characters do a good job of unifying a party. Transforming them from individuals into a party, as a player I would like to provide this for our group.



The one thing I will say that has less to do with balance and more thematic stuff, make sure you have a party who are okay with undead. Spore druids get animate dead and having a party where you can be like "guys chill, I'm in control of them." is very helpful.

Good point, we have just finished another campaign (CoS) and I am confident that they will be fine.