Circle of Shepherd thoughts

[ElementalAaron]

Hello all I have some questions on this druid circle. I was running a Spore Druid in my strahd campaign and I realized alot of things just resist or are flat out immune to my spores(this is my own fault of course) and my guy began to use summoning magic alot more and I see this circle focuses on support and summons. Anyone have personal thoughts on how this circle is and tips if I do make a shepherd druid?

[Grod_The_Giant]

The published Circle of Spores is pretty painful. If you want to stick with it, I'd suggest going back to the UA version and/or letting your abilities deal acid damage instead of poison.

As for the Circle of the Shepherd... it's strong. It's very strong. Bear Spirit and Unicorn Spirit are both really efficient buffs that only get better as you get more allies on the field. Bear Spirit in particular takes the already-dangerous "swarm of wolves" tactic to a whole new level of pain. It doesn't do anything new, in the sense that, say, Spores does, but it makes you so much better at what was already arguably the Druid's best strategy.

[Shuruke]

The published Circle of Spores is pretty painful. If you want to stick with it, I'd suggest going back to the UA version and/or letting your abilities deal acid damage instead of poison.

As for the Circle of the Shepherd... it's strong. It's very strong. Bear Spirit and Unicorn Spirit are both really efficient buffs that only get better as you get more allies on the field. Bear Spirit in particular takes the already-dangerous "swarm of wolves" tactic to a whole new level of pain. It doesn't do anything new, in the sense that, say, Spores does, but it makes you so much better at what was already arguably the Druid's best strategy.

I thought it was necrotic damage lol

[Aergentum]

I'm playing a Lizardfolk Shepherd's Druid and I'm having plenty of fun with it. Healing is good (although not as good as a Life Cleric), but you can totally swam things with your summons.

A quick tip: I plan ahead the summons with the DM. We decided on which animal/fey I can summon with Conjure Animal/Fey for every CR. So we have the monster sheets ready at hand and the game isn't slowed down. With groups of 5+ animals we agreed that they move with the same initiative.

[strangebloke]

A shepherds druid is a contender for the best class in the game, particularly if healing spirit is in play.

Summon wolves.
Bear spirit.
Kill/prone everything.

It doesn't do wonders against flying enemies, but everything else it will deal with very efficiently.

[TyGuy]

Never encountered this, but it's brought up a lot; familiar management. Your DM has to do a ton of tracking and management behind the scenes. And it's bad enough with typical player slow-downs. If your going to play a summoner, do everyone a favor and
1- know your ****
2- resolve your turns as concisely as possible

Biggest gripe I see constantly is how summoners bog down the game. Be nice and don't do that :)

[ElementalAaron]

Alright thanks for the tips,when I do make my shepherd druid, and for my spore druid I can have the sheets for all the things I want to summon for the campaign!

[Vogie]

I thought it was necrotic damage lol

It was in the UA, which is what he was referring to.