Best Druid Tank

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I plan on playing a druid, this will be in a party of first time players, and I want to essentially have a character that can resist any TPK that the DM plans on throwing at us (He's Pretty Demented). I believe that the best way for a druid to not only play as the unkillable tank, but also have enough attack power to keep going, even after half of the party is wiped out, would be Barbarian 1/Druid 19.

The way I originally planned on playing him was, once he gains access to level 2 spells, he will use "Locate animals or plants" or "Speak with animals" to locate the nearest bear/large beast, and use "Animal Friendship" on it, to essentially gain a temporary animal companion, which at higher levels, I can have more than one of them.

That was my initial plan, playing a BarBEARian, with a group of fellow bears, that accompany him, and follow him into combat. But, after listening to other options, I realized that the typical Bear isn't too strong when it comes to HP and AC, so I started looking into other possible wild shapes. I currently thought that a fun idea would be to play a Lizardfolk Druid that turns into a Giant Snapping turtle (His Name would obviously be Bowser).

I don't have too many resources to be able to research all of the other possible wild shapes, but I would like to know what the best build would be for a druid to be the most efficient Tank.

Keep in mind that I have no clue what the composition of the rest of the party is, considering we still don't know how many players we will have, as well as the fact that not everyone has made a character yet, as well as the fact that there are a lot of new players. Therefore I'd prefer to play a damage sponge, making it easier for me to help guide the party through, and help them learn, while playing the game at the same time.

A group of students started a D&D group based through our school's Video Game club (We are beginning to think that the best way to do this is to break off and form our own club). As of yesterday, we have confirmed at least 15 members (Not counting DM), and there is a high chance that more will join, as well as a few dropping off because of scheduling issues, but we can estimate a number of around 10 "solid" players. Around 75% of all current members are "1st time players" with the remaining 25% being the 2 rotational DMs, me, and one of the DM's close friends.

Because of scheduling conflicts between multiple members, there has been talk of splitting the group into two separate groups, each meeting on different days of the week, with the two rotational DMs each running the exact same campaign, with two different parties, technically occurring at the same time (Make it easier to explain whenever someone switches groups). As it stands, we will have around 2 experienced players in each group, the DM & either me or his close friend, with the rest of the party being filled with "1st time players."

[stoutstien]

do you want to just be a damage sponge or do you want ways to lock down or impede the enemy? hoe does you DM rules that lizardfolk natural armor works with wild shapes? what the rest of the party look like?

[hymer]

I don't have too many resources to be able to research all of the other possible wild shapes, but I would like to know what the best build would be for a druid to be the most efficient Tank.
There are a few druid handbooks available. See in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491-Guides-Tables-and-other-useful-tools-for-5E-D-amp-D), e.g., under Class Guides.

And yes, if you just want to be a damage sponge, barbarian1/moon druid rest is a perfectly legitimate build. If your DM is letting you use wild sahpe. Don't forget that you have to see an animal in order to be able to turn into it as a druid.
I'm afraid snapping turtle stats are in short supply, btw. Dire wolves and giant hyenas are pretty tanky, though.

[sambojin]

Just grab the "Companions for D&D 5e" app on your phone. It's free, and other than a few typos and omissions, is pretty thorough.

Worthwhile using at the gaming table, as well as for research to familiarize yourself with wildshape, summons, polymorph options, etc. Just hand your phone to your DM when wildshaping or summoning stuff, all the stats are there.


As for your question, it depends on what level you'll probably be going to. You mentioned a 20th lvl build, and at that level, there's almost nothing more durable than a straight Moon 20. Unlimited big wildshape that can use plenty of spells.

At around lvl3-8, there's quite a lot to be said for Moon x/Barb 1, or Moon x/Monk 1. The extra bit of Rage sponging and damage or Monk AC does add a noticeable bit of difference to your longevity for the one level dip.

I'm still a fan of a Cleric dip, especially at around lvl 8-13, because it's the best all-around. Choose your poison. Life for more sustainable HP for you and your party, Arcana for more magic gubbins, War for a bit of extra damage output.

War Cleric (assuming your DM lets you use your channel divinity in wildshape) can even be worth a 2lvl dip sometimes. Having things like 95% certain restrain-on-hit, charge-proning, or just pounce-enabling is actually quite good at once/short rest. I mean, it's not great, but it feels great. You'll almost always have the opportunity to use all your class features in a proactive fighty way every single day. It's kind of like the Druid version of a Fighter's Action Surge for the same 2lvl dip. 3-5 extra bonus action attacks a day (gets better as attacks get bigger) and a free +10 to-hit per short rest really isn't much, but since you have some quite big attacks and have condition-enabling attacks, it's a lot better for you than it would be for most. Plus, you still get your magic levels as well (which you lose with Barb/Monk/Fighter dips), and those casting levels are just as important to a Druid as any extra damage sponging. You'll be upcasting spells constantly anyway, so they are a large part of your survivability. Even just for the extra wildshape HP it's good, but that's usually the worst use of your slots.
(it also lets you "up-slot-level" your prepared spells. Get a character creator, make a lvl3-9 Moon Druid. Add a lvl of War Cleric. Now prepare your spells for the day, never preparing one twice. See how much flexibility you just got? You now have all the good Druid spells prepared, while that Cleric level does the "must have" engine-room work).


Killing things quicker (or giving things conditions like prone or restrained) with 95% certainty is like damage sponging, but they are the sponge. This makes you survive longer. So War is a good dip.


It's so hard to walk off the pure Moon Druid path if you're playing from lvl1->20, because there's almost always something cool at the next Moon lvl, even if it's just upcasting a damage or summoning spell (damage spells scale wonderfully when they're 2-10 rounds of duration, and more summons just pushes you to bigger summons, because they're fun, it speeds up the game, and you now get enough to be viable). But as a pre-made lvl3+ character, Barb/Monk/War is easy to swallow, because it's just what you do from the get-go. I like War because it gives you a better caster form, a bit of nova'ing, and always has the option of a second level that adds some reasonable extra power (which Barb or Monk doesn't) without screwing up your casting, but YMMV.

War is also a bit easier to do from lvl2+ as a dip to lvl3+, because you can console yourself that your obligatory +2Wis ASI somewhere down the track gets you an extra Cleric spell prepared and an extra War attack alongside what it does for your Druid half, without losing slots for casting/HP. Is that better than +1AC from Monk? Ummmm, maybe? I like to think it is :)

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

do you want to just be a damage sponge or do you want ways to lock down or impede the enemy? hoe does you DM rules that lizardfolk natural armor works with wild shapes? what the rest of the party look like?

1. Preferable a damage sponge that is hard to ignore
2. My DM is extremely lenient about everything, he allowing one of his friends to play a homebrew class that's, "Not too OP."
3. I have no clue what the composition of the rest of the party is, considering we still don't know how many players we will have, as well as the fact that not everyone has made a character yet

A group of students started a D&D group based through our school's Video Game club (We are beginning to think that the best way to do this is to break off and form our own club). As of yesterday, we have confirmed at least 15 members (Not counting DM), and there is a high chance that more will join, as well as a few dropping off because of scheduling issues, but we can estimate a number of around 10 "solid" players. Around 75% of all current members are "1st time players" with the remaining 25% being the 2 rotational DMs, me, and one of the DM's close friends.

Because of scheduling conflicts between multiple members, there has been talk of splitting the group into two separate groups, each meeting on different days of the week, with the two rotational DMs each running the exact same campaign, with two different parties, technically occurring at the same time (Make it easier to explain whenever someone switches groups). As it stands, we will have around 2 experienced players in each group, the DM & either me or his close friend, with the rest of the party being filled with "1st time players."

[sambojin]

You should be fine. If there's one character that can fit into any party, it's a Moon Druid. Change your flavour with every day, your form with every encounter. Doesn't really matter what campaign, you'll always have something to do.

Are you starting at level 1?

[Naanomi]

We had a Tortle Spore Druid who was very durable, and had as much ‘stickiness’ as any Druid (is: not much inherently, but the spell list of Druids has some tools)

[sambojin]

There is nothing more "sticky" than restrain-on-hit. Moon Druid has quite a lot of that.

You would have to do a lot to convince me otherwise (I tend to always play Druids, and mostly Moon, but of many flavours). Anything that makes condition generating more likely, makes you a better tank as a Druid. Moon x/ War 1 or 2 makes it more likely that restrain-on-hit sticks. Lockdown + attack_advantage_for_party + dex_save_disadvantage_for_enemy + enemy_attack_disadvantage is amazing. It's auto if you hit them, no extra rolls required, so they have to waste an action on their turn, just to try remove the horrible debuff you just placed on them, and they might not even be able do that.

It's essentially spell-slot worthy (Entangle?), but you do it vs AC, every turn. You also have the free wildshape HP to simply smirk if they try and hit you. Sometimes you also have two goes of it with War if the first doesn't stick (think of it like melee metamagic if you'd like). Or a Bless spell up for more to-hit, or a +10 to-hit "yep, that's gonna happen, *now*" thing with War 2.

They're stuck, with a range of debuffs. As you attack them and body block/AoO generate. That's tanking....
(it's not like you don't have Entangle and Hold Person on your spell list anyway :) )

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

Are you starting at level 1?

Level 3, but I innitially planned to play this character starting at level 1

[sambojin]

I know you were keen on Dwarf in the other thread. That'd be fine. Go for Moon 2/War Cleric 1, just so the build is "locked in without explanation", then plenty more Moon lvls. Grab an extra lvl of War sometime after Moon 6, and probably not before Moon 8-10. You start to feel like you're not f'ing over the enemy enough, but are liking wildshape more than the awesome casting you're starting to get? Then it's time for War 2.
(note all the BS "big forms" you can get out of the Polymorph spell. Yours have magic attacks because they are a "beast form" as a Moon. Sometimes 95% chance to-hit and a lvl4 spell to do it, for that one attack, is exactly what you want in some encounters. BBEGs beware!)

Sailor background advice still stands. You're backstorying in plenty of wildshape forms due to your travels, you can take the Druidcraft cantrip if you want to, to explain why you were on a ship in the first place (because you can tell them the daily weather forecast. Don't worry, War gets you Guidance anyway, so flavour the background with a cantrip and you're set), and you will always choose Perception as a Druid, so you can sub-out the double-up skill into Stealth or something. Having Athletics is always worthwhile for Moons for funny stuff like Giant Eagle air-splatting with grapples, etc anyway.

I like other races better, but that'd do.
You also might have an easy "worldbuilding" thing that whichever War God you're a part of the temple of, damn-well can make you breastplates/heavy plate armour out of anything, especially not metal things. Because having AC and a shield in caster form is nice. But having proficiency in Stealth is good too. Even with Pass without Trace.

[sambojin]

Honestly, it gets a bit weird with War Cleric bonus action "attacks" as a Moon Druid. You can't use any "multiattack" (not all the things, just one individual thing in it), you can't use anything that doesn't have the words "weapon" + "attack" in its description, but there are plenty of good attacks you can do with War bonus action attacks that have exactly those things.

Remember, it uses your bonus action as well, so if anything says "if you hit, you may make an extra attack of such-and-such with your bonus action", well, you're not going to be able to do two bonus actions, ever.

This doesn't make the War Wis-mod attacks bad. If anything, it makes every form good to nova, rather than relying on having "all-your-little-ducks-in-a-row" that some forms rely on.

Hit them with the biggest attack, or the bit of the multi that triggers a prone, condition, or gets bonus-damage-from-20'-movement-right-at-them attack (you will often be doing this the first round of combat encounters anyway). If you miss, hit them with it again as a War attack. At least you didn't whiff completely, like is horribly prevalent with CC spells. Think of it as a reroll, except that on a lot of them, it's just a "wanted to do more damage as well" roll. Especially if you hit first time. (It gets pretty scary early-on, but your nova does cap out a bit, unlike some other class combo's).

Each of those "actions" listed tends to be considered an "attack", even if any 2x multiattack shenanigans aren't accessible. They just need the words "weapon" and "attack" in their individual description. So it's not as good as you'd imagine, certainly not 11th lvl "Fighter using AS" good.

But it can give you things like 2x tentacle attacks from a Giant Octopus at Druid lvl4 (if the first hits, you have advantage on the second! Restrained!), double spit from a Dilophosaurus, a bite and two(!) claw attacks from a Brown Bear(!), a web and a bite in one turn from a Giant Spider (or two bites!), four attacks from a Deinonychus even without pouncing, 2x rocks a turn from an Ape, and a whole slew of other weird and wonderful stuff to do. Honestly, once you've constricted and bitten a target in one turn as a Giant Constrictor Snake, and had another melee or (magic?) shooter smash them apart as well (with advantage), you'll know how good this feels. A Giant Elk ram/stomp(!) connecting in one turn feels pretty amazing at CR2 (Moon 6, so lvl7 for you), but it's really not all that much compared to a pure martial's abilities or a caster's instant damage/AoE by then, for the use of the very limited resources you have for stuff like that.

This is just a quick and dirty list for your starting or early-on War Moon shenanigans. By lvl6-7 you'll really have the hang of it. You'll also have plenty of other magic too.

Not everything that beasts do is a "weapon attack". But there's a heap that is. And it keeps getting better to be able to do another one as a bonus action, regardless, when you feel it necessary. Especially when it might be a 2d6+ damage attack, with a condition or damage rider. Move that 20', and hit 'em hard. Or lock them down with reasonable certainty. It makes you very good at what you do. Remember, you have free wildshape HP, twice per short rest. You really don't care. You are nature. Of the bitey, clawy kind.

[Citan]

I plan on playing a druid, this will be in a party of first time players, and I want to essentially have a character that can resist any TPK that the DM plans on throwing at us (He's Pretty Demented). I believe that the best way for a druid to not only play as the unkillable tank, but also have enough attack power to keep going, even after half of the party is wiped out, would be Barbarian 1/Druid 19.

The way I originally planned on playing him was, once he gains access to level 2 spells, he will use "Locate animals or plants" or "Speak with animals" to locate the nearest bear/large beast, and use "Animal Friendship" on it, to essentially gain a temporary animal companion, which at higher levels, I can have more than one of them.

That was my initial plan, playing a BarBEARian, with a group of fellow bears, that accompany him, and follow him into combat. But, after listening to other options, I realized that the typical Bear isn't too strong when it comes to HP and AC, so I started looking into other possible wild shapes. I currently thought that a fun idea would be to play a Lizardfolk Druid that turns into a Giant Snapping turtle (His Name would obviously be Bowser).

I don't have too many resources to be able to research all of the other possible wild shapes, but I would like to know what the best build would be for a druid to be the most efficient Tank.

Keep in mind that I have no clue what the composition of the rest of the party is, considering we still don't know how many players we will have, as well as the fact that not everyone has made a character yet, as well as the fact that there are a lot of new players. Therefore I'd prefer to play a damage sponge, making it easier for me to help guide the party through, and help them learn, while playing the game at the same time.

A group of students started a D&D group based through our school's Video Game club (We are beginning to think that the best way to do this is to break off and form our own club). As of yesterday, we have confirmed at least 15 members (Not counting DM), and there is a high chance that more will join, as well as a few dropping off because of scheduling issues, but we can estimate a number of around 10 "solid" players. Around 75% of all current members are "1st time players" with the remaining 25% being the 2 rotational DMs, me, and one of the DM's close friends.

Because of scheduling conflicts between multiple members, there has been talk of splitting the group into two separate groups, each meeting on different days of the week, with the two rotational DMs each running the exact same campaign, with two different parties, technically occurring at the same time (Make it easier to explain whenever someone switches groups). As it stands, we will have around 2 experienced players in each group, the DM & either me or his close friend, with the rest of the party being filled with "1st time players."


1. Preferable a damage sponge that is hard to ignore
2. My DM is extremely lenient about everything, he allowing one of his friends to play a homebrew class that's, "Not too OP."
3. I have no clue what the composition of the rest of the party is, considering we still don't know how many players we will have, as well as the fact that not everyone has made a character yet

A group of students started a D&D group based through our school's Video Game club (We are beginning to think that the best way to do this is to break off and form our own club). As of yesterday, we have confirmed at least 15 members (Not counting DM), and there is a high chance that more will join, as well as a few dropping off because of scheduling issues, but we can estimate a number of around 10 "solid" players. Around 75% of all current members are "1st time players" with the remaining 25% being the 2 rotational DMs, me, and one of the DM's close friends.

Because of scheduling conflicts between multiple members, there has been talk of splitting the group into two separate groups, each meeting on different days of the week, with the two rotational DMs each running the exact same campaign, with two different parties, technically occurring at the same time (Make it easier to explain whenever someone switches groups). As it stands, we will have around 2 experienced players in each group, the DM & either me or his close friend, with the rest of the party being filled with "1st time players."
Hi! :)

If you want to be a damage sponge on a Druid basis, then either do...
- A balanced multiclass Barbarian: advantages everything exposed in other thread, including Bear resistance (all damage) 3 times per rest, Danger Sense (better saves), Extra Attack when you pick creatures without Multiattack or want to make several Shoves/Grapple. Big downside: no spells, not even concentration.
- A balanced multiclass Monk, specifically Long Death; THP amount will be small but still helpful, and Dodge as a bonus action is great unless you plan on using Heat Metal or other spells revolving around bonus action. Which you can do this time. :)
- Or bet on living up to level 10 and go straight Moon Druid for Earth Elemental which is damn tanky. But I admit that's pretty far away.

If your actual goal is to prevent TPK though, Moon Druid is simply one dimension behind Shepherd.
Moon Druid makes *you* resilient.
Healing Spirit makes everyone more resilient but hard to use in battle (and won't help with such a large group). Plus you often want to use offensive concentration spells.

Enter Shepherd Druid, specifically its Spirit Totem. It's really all you need.
- Bear gives a steady amount of THP and those don't end when spirit end, they stick around. So it's like Inspiring Leader, a buff you can provide whenever you can spare a short rest before leaving a safe place. Or before taking your long rest otherwise.
AND it affects every creature of your choice in a 30 feet radius aura: meaning 10 people can easily fit.
If your party is melee-heavy, it's also useful in fight to provide advantage on STR saves and checks.

- Hawk seems not very useful at first unless you have a ranged Rogue or Blade Warlock, using reaction to provide advantage on an attack. It's situationnally great though when facing invisible creatures or creatures with high Stealth ability, or to detect traps.

- Last and best, Unicorn: "In addition, if you cast a spell using a spell slot that restores hit points to any creature inside or outside the aura, each creature of your choice in the aura also regains hit points equal to your druid level."
Meaning, everytime you cast a Healing Words or Cure Wounds, every creature in your aura will regain flat HP.
Of course, it would be a bad idea to make all allies stand into area in combat, it's asking to be Fireballed.
But it means you can at least, very easily, sustain two or three allies in the area in addition to another which is outside.
If you have time to use it outside combat, it can be a good alternative or palliative when Healing Spirit is out (no slot left, or want to keep slot for something) or overkill (amount of damage evenly shared among party members).

And, in addition to that, all that also affects your Conjurations since there is no limit to the number of creatures affected. :)

Tack a single level dip into Life Cleric in addition to that, and the healing you can pump out, in and out of combat alike, is absolutely fabulous in terms of cost/benefit ratio.

In other words, I think that for a party that large, Moon Druid is not optimal, and Moon Druid with Barbarian (that blocks spellcasting) may be actually counterproductive.

[sambojin]

But if they're just a bunch of first timers, and some with some DnD experience.... Oh, yeah. You might be right there.

Actually, I'm not retracting my build, it's just that "high level" Moon Druid play requires a fair bit of knowledge about the mechanics of the game. I was kind of wondering why the OP would want to play with a TPK heavy DM anyway in that sort of group, but *stuff* happens. It's more fun to be able to play than not.

You can still tank & spank to keep all the new guys and girls out of danger with a Moon build, often better than any other, so..... Yep. Should be fine. Hand out good-berries, while slaughtering their foes.

Not saying you couldn't be a better shepherd for the flock. But killing all the badguys really well does make everyone feel safe. And a Moon Druid kills the F out of things at lvl3 better than most things. Especially a War Moon :)

For long-term "keeping yourself and others alive", it's probably just pure Moon at lvl3. Way better than an actual Shepherd Druid. Honestly, no-one likes HP book-keeping, as a group. Heal away, but seriously? And this is coming from one of the most "yep, now it's *this*" classes in the game.

Bite-Claw-(War)Claw, bear, Rarrrrrggghhhh. That is your shepherd, plus, he's got heal'y magic! Keep it simple.

[Amdy_vill]

I plan on playing a druid, this will be in a party of first time players, and I want to essentially have a character that can resist any TPK that the DM plans on throwing at us (He's Pretty Demented). I believe that the best way for a druid to not only play as the unkillable tank, but also have enough attack power to keep going, even after half of the party is wiped out, would be Barbarian 1/Druid 19.

The way I originally planned on playing him was, once he gains access to level 2 spells, he will use "Locate animals or plants" or "Speak with animals" to locate the nearest bear/large beast, and use "Animal Friendship" on it, to essentially gain a temporary animal companion, which at higher levels, I can have more than one of them.

That was my initial plan, playing a BarBEARian, with a group of fellow bears, that accompany him, and follow him into combat. But, after listening to other options, I realized that the typical Bear isn't too strong when it comes to HP and AC, so I started looking into other possible wild shapes. I currently thought that a fun idea would be to play a Lizardfolk Druid that turns into a Giant Snapping turtle (His Name would obviously be Bowser).

I don't have too many resources to be able to research all of the other possible wild shapes, but I would like to know what the best build would be for a druid to be the most efficient Tank.

Keep in mind that I have no clue what the composition of the rest of the party is, considering we still don't know how many players we will have, as well as the fact that not everyone has made a character yet, as well as the fact that there are a lot of new players. Therefore I'd prefer to play a damage sponge, making it easier for me to help guide the party through, and help them learn, while playing the game at the same time.

A group of students started a D&D group based through our school's Video Game club (We are beginning to think that the best way to do this is to break off and form our own club). As of yesterday, we have confirmed at least 15 members (Not counting DM), and there is a high chance that more will join, as well as a few dropping off because of scheduling issues, but we can estimate a number of around 10 "solid" players. Around 75% of all current members are "1st time players" with the remaining 25% being the 2 rotational DMs, me, and one of the DM's close friends.

Because of scheduling conflicts between multiple members, there has been talk of splitting the group into two separate groups, each meeting on different days of the week, with the two rotational DMs each running the exact same campaign, with two different parties, technically occurring at the same time (Make it easier to explain whenever someone switches groups). As it stands, we will have around 2 experienced players in each group, the DM & either me or his close friend, with the rest of the party being filled with "1st time players."

Moon Druids. call lightning.

[OverLordOcelot]

I plan on playing a druid, this will be in a party of first time players, and I want to essentially have a character that can resist any TPK that the DM plans on throwing at us (He's Pretty Demented). I believe that the best way for a druid to not only play as the unkillable tank, but also have enough attack power to keep going, even after half of the party is wiped out, would be Barbarian 1/Druid 19.

If you're even thinking you might hit 20 with a moon druid, don't mix it with anything. Getting a couple of rages per day for resistance is weak compared to getting a new set of hit points every single round with your bonus action.

[sambojin]

If you plan on shepherding a bunch of new players through the hoops of a potentially TPK happy DM, that may not even realize that it was an absolute cluster-F they set up for you, then go Moon Druid. Never even think you'll survive until lvl20. Yes, you can tank. But you can do heaps of other stuff too.

But if you choose a dip along the way, or at the very beginning, choose one with legs. Like War 1 or 2 :)

[Floogal]

Surprised no one has mentioned the Sentinel feat yet, a fine way to make a Moon Druid a stickier target.