Mobile on a Land Druid

[KOLE]

Hey Playground,

I've started playing a character that I've become incredibly fond of very quickly. I'll spare you the backstory- relevant information is he is a Hill Dwarf Land Druid, just hit level 2. This is actually currently a solo campaign, though the DM has let a Fighter NPC tag along. I built this character inspired by Irhtos' Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?518832-Irhtos-Sauriv-s-guide-to-front-line-druidism), the idea is to be a Skirmisher type caster that leans on cantrips to deal consistent damage rather than hanging out on the backlines. As I'm one of two in the party, this has become particularly relevant.

Druid get more survivability than other casters thanks to armor and shields; as well as being able to lean on Wildshape as a panic button if needed. Dwarf Toughness keeps me hardier than most. I've enjoyed skirting the front lines with my limited range cantrips; Produce Flame has been used on considerably. But my question is, would Mobile be a worthwhile investment? Thorn Whip technically qualifies as a melee attack. The extra movement would be awesome on my stumpy dwarf and the ability to still cast a good damage cantrip and get out without AoO seems excellent.

Does this work by RAW and would it be a worthwhile investment? It would be a nice bump to my wildshape forms as well.

[Dalebert]

I don't really think of Mobile as a feat for someone who's primarily a spellcaster using a lot of ranged attacks. Which land are you? Coastal gets Misty Step which should bail you out in a pinch but that shouldn't be too often. I feel like you'd get a lot more synergy for your build with Resilient (con) or Warcaster, maybe even Spell Sniper if you're going to be using cantrips a lot. I gotta say though, it's hard to picture doing most of your dmg with cantrips for long past tier 1. At tier 2 and beyond, summoning things is big and you can use animals or fey to keep enemies away from you while you dish dmg with spells.

[OverLordOcelot]

Not a big fan of it, I think it will work at low levels and then you'll regret it later on. Since you only get one attack, you can only use the 'no AOO' portion against one enemy a round, which really weakens it. The 'ignore difficult terrain when dashing' feature is not that great for you, since at 6th level you ignore nonmagical difficult terrain in general. While 10' of movement is nice, longstrider is a 1st level, one hour, non-concentration spell that will probably do a better job. If you do get it, note that it will also work with Primal Savagery, which is a much stronger melee attack than thorn whip (d10 vs d6).

I disagree with the comment about druids being a backline caster, druids have decent armor and hit dice, and are often more suited to being 'mid line' characters than trying to stay entirely back and use their weaker ranged damage spells. Especially if the 'front line' is the single guy who is the rest of the party! Because of this, I would take warcaster long before I took mobile, getting to use a spell or cantrip on your AOOs is very nice (especially as they gain more dice) and maintaining concentration is a huge deal too.

[pragma]

I'd take the opportunity of a solo druid campaign to lean as hard as possible into summoning spells: you won't annoy anyone else when you make eight new combatants! To that end: I think warcaster is a much better choice.

[djreynolds]

IMO, mobile works best with extra attacks, or melee rogues who use their BA from cunning consistently for something other than disengage, or non-open hand monks.

For you, mobile would only be useful versus the one opponent you are attacking.

If I were to suggest an idea, 2 levels of rogue for cunning action might fit, and bonus action disengage or levels of monk for step of the wind

Its sounds like an awesome build, I'd like to see it flesh out. I'm getting a cheetah vibe from it

[Azgeroth]

nope, not at all.

at level 4, you really want to bump your wisdom.. actually what are your stats?

if you really really want a feat, yes WarCaster is great, especially when your concentrating on CC spells, but their are others that have some nice flavour, observant being one of my favourites, Ritual Caster (Wizard) is also a very good choice.

[Keravath]

Mobile can work quite well for a moon Druid since the benefits carry over to wild shapes. It is probably less useful for a Land Druid but that doesn’t mean it would not be fun to play.

Finally, mobile requires making a melee attack to trigger the ability to move away without taking an op attack. This would work with melee weapon attacks, melee cantrips like booming blade which use a weapon and probably melee spell attacks but not with spells or ranged attacks in general.