what are some of your favorite fun druid builds?

[MagneticKitty]

Tell me about druids you have played, combos that are fun, builds you have theory crafted that are unique.

I'm pretty set on being a druid next, so I want to hear all about neat ideas the community has! Can be mechanical ideas or thematic builds, can involve reflavoring if need be.

Prefer no ua or homebrew material.

Stats will be rolled probably.. for now if you need to demonstrate with stats you can use 27 point buy to illustrate examples
probably level 1 all the way to tier 4, so any level example is fine. Druid dip builds are ok too.

Please no arguing or build shaming. Is all for fun. :p



I thought about barBEARian (totem bear 3 / moon x)
And the literal cat burglar (Tabaxi rogue druid or Tabaxi shadow monk druid)
And some others that are just single classed

[Pefgis]

I've played a shepherd druid that I played as a perky Disney princess type that loved bugs and making honey, summoned a lot of insects. It was pretty fun.

[MagneticKitty]

I've played a shepherd druid that I played as a perky Disney princess type that loved bugs and making honey, summoned a lot of insects. It was pretty fun.

That's definitely different than my other idea of a spores druid who was like Shino from naruto... XD I like it tho

[Fable Wright]

Let's see...

My current character's not doing anything new, but it's fun.

(Mark of Handling Human from Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron).
Str 8/Dex 13+1/Con 15/Int 12/Wis 14+2/Cha 10

Level 4: Ritual Caster: Wizard
Level 8: Resilient: Constitution
Level 12: Ritual Caster: Cleric
Level 16: +2 Wis
Level 19: +2 Wis

The character I'm using with this build's current arc is creating a port city from nothing through the use of Plant Growth and Speak With Plants to weave trees into homes and buildings, willows into docks, and Wall of Stone to create what wood cannot do. Thanks to the Mark of Handling, he's able to domesticate and Awaken a wide variety of magical creatures to act as, well, people in the town. This is aided by a Staff of the Woodlands he fought tooth and nail for, allowing Awakened tree homes and a K-9 police force.

Not unit, the entire force is made of wolf packs.

Ritual Caster Wizard is great for Floating Disk (which is amazing when you can turn into a horse), Find Familiar (deliver Contagion at range, and infinite Beast Senses, etc), Tiny Hut, Telepathic Bond, basically everything you're used to. Contact Other Plane is fun with your Int save proficiency.

Ritual Caster Cleric is great for saving preparation slots on Water Walk (which is a necessity with Transmute Rock), the usual divination trinity of Augury/Divination/Commune, and access to Ceremony... but it's mostly in the build for access to Forbiddance.

You can keep people from teleporting out of your battlefield control, at the very least, in addition to absolutely vaporising the large number of undead and fiends that turn up at high levels. The ability to turn them to ash while keeping your fey friends immune? Amazing. Get some giant snakes or Annis Hags to grapple people and drag them in, it's amazing.

But the real utility of this build is that you always have a spell for everything. Transport, combat, securing an area, securing a bed, stealthing, divining, coordinating, decorating, scouting... you don't quite have social skills, but you do have Telepathic Bond, to feed whoever's speaking for you the entire table's knowledge.

One of my favorite old characters, though was a Moon Druid taught by a hag. There are many rare and unique creatures in the swamp, and the hag made many things from them. But she could never get the same thing twice. Do you know how rare the liver of a five-legged skunk was?

So she found a child and taught him her ways... at least, enough to the point where he could take the shape of animals. From there, she claimed the cost of her tutelage, and snip snip snipped away bits and pieces as he shapechanged into the rare animals she showed him. When he was eventually set on an adventure, he was given two of her laziest servants as a parting gift (Knight background feature), a cowardly boggle and a dour Darkling. The Darkling mostly agreed to this on the condition that the druid only summon Darklings from his tribe. (In this campaign setting, the DM decided that if a summoned Darkling's light burst out when they 'died' as a summon then they'd wake up back home with all the light removed from them—effectively giving them their entire adult life back.)

For interesting multiclass options...

Ghostwise Halfling Paladin 2/Moon Druid 18.

If you can meet the multiclass requirements, this is perhaps the least stat dependent build in the entire game.

If you take this build, you are playing as Nature's Champion: An animal who fights for Truth, Justice, and the Natural Way. I'll phrase it best like this: After Druid Level 8, you're most likely never in your human form. You can always be an animal—start taking your short rests while in a wild shape! You can still talk to your party through Silent Speech, and Lucky boosts every roll you make.

Your spell slots, incidentally, can always be used even if you never cast a single spell. They can be used to heal yourself with a bonus action or smite as a non-action, using your stats for neither. Your damage will always be decent from your Smites, getting around the usual Moon Druid issues with damage at higher levels, and...

Well, at level 12, you are always in Air Elemental Form. You can fly 90ft, and can't be knocked out of the sky. You take half damage from most attacks, and therefore can heal with double the efficiency. When you're not healing, you can double-fist your smites and fly to safety.

Or if you want to be really spicy? Take the Squat Nimbleness feat and Sailor Background for Expertise in Athletics to really mess with enemies. Earth Glide just below enemies. Grapple them. Pull them below the earth with you. Laugh in primordial.

I don't know how it plays at the table, but it could be a fun time with the right group.

[Mikaleus]

My current character is a Water Genasi Coastal Druid (formerly shepherd but our group grew and the coastal option suits him better, though I do miss the totems).

The setting is a sort of Venice, and the Tidal enclave protects the waters and city (the sect he belongs to).

His name is Wave (taken straight from the suggestions section) and has become quite a support character. He’s a bit like Tekehu from pillars of eternity 2, proud of his abilities but a lot less flirty. (My last character, an ancients paladin, was a massive flirt).

Build wise our DM has been very generous with starting equipment items etc.
Currently have spiked Armor (shell materials) and have gotten great use out of Primal savagery (to the point where it inspired my dm to make a wereshark merfolk npc who applies it via bite- like Wave did 😂)
Currently level 5-6.
I currently have a staff of healing, spiked armor, cloak of displacement, pearl of power, +1 shield and goggles of night vision.
I heal, buff and control the battlefield. With great AC, (for stealth I use wild shape) and War caster, I’m in a solid spot.
The shield, cloak and pearl were rewards rolled for after the last session i attended where the stakes were high and the battle was rough ! And so so fun :)
He’s also a faction agent which I find is really good for druids to get insight and languages.
To give you an idea of what Wave looks like,
http://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/anticipate-4/ only with a shield too.


Also if Wave is taken out, I plan to bring out the Gardener. A Druid who looks after nobles gardens but also has assisted both law and criminals alike in getting rid of bodies.
There’s a reason why he’s known as the Gardener ;)
An Ghostwise halfling, urchin and shepherd, and he can use rats, cats, pigeons and gills as his eyes in the city.
I tend to not multi class so my builds are simple.


@Fable wright Awesome ideas !
I didn’t think to multiclass a paladin and a Druid !!!

[ff7hero]

Stonebeard only has one level in Druid (the rest are in Light Cleric) but he gets plenty of mileage out of it. He's a Hill Dwarf and he just crafted himself a snazzy +3 Bronze Dragon Hide Half-Plate, plus a mundane (for now) wooden shield and a Ring of Protection, so he's super tanky.

With the exception of domain spells and Bless, all his first level spells are Druid spells, with Goodberry and Create or Destroy Water being of particular note. You see, Good Berries stick around in a non-magical capacity after 24 hours, so he has a still set up in a Portable Hole and he's putting his Dwarven proficiency in Brewer's Tools to excellent use. Burn all remaining spell slots on Good Berry at the end of the day, Creating Water occasionally. Then you just need a little sugar and you've got yourself a batch of Circle of the Moonshine.

The cherry on this beautiful sundae is his Staff of the Woodlands. An awaken a day, as an action with no costly components, is straight up amazing.

All this on the fantastic Cleric chassis and the only real downside is getting Cleric spells a level late, and, at level 14, I don't have a lot of exciting options to look forward to.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Moon druid Kobold is a really nice build, every saw a giant spider cry?

Try to get some way of trap building, take Wis, Con and Int after that all to Dex for armor when you are not a beast.

The Youn-Ti Ancient Paladin 7 Moon Druid 13 or Druid 10 Barbarian 3(bear) for the I say no to magic build(A really stronk tank).


A Shepherd Druid with his healing spirit unicorn is a super healer, even stronger with a level of life cleric.

The Loxodon gives you great armor in beast form if your beast have hide or natural armor. Great for moon.

[Zuras]

I played a bog-standard Wood Elf Moon Druid all the way to 18th level, and it was great. The basic Moon Druid provides so many tools you don’t need any special tricks to provide lots of options.

My only bit of build advice is if you’re going Moon Druid for your subclass, make sure you take athletics as a skill, because it will be useful all the way through, from knocking down Bugbears to grappling Elder Things from beyond the stars.

[Fable Wright]

I played a bog-standard Wood Elf Moon Druid all the way to 18th level, and it was great. The basic Moon Druid provides so many tools you don’t need any special tricks to provide lots of options.

My only bit of build advice is if you’re going Moon Druid for your subclass, make sure you take athletics as a skill, because it will be useful all the way through, from knocking down Bugbears to grappling Elder Things from beyond the stars.

Addendum to this:

If you can take Aereni Elf (currently on D&D Beyond), Prodigy, Squat Nimbleness, Brawny, or some other feat/race-based means of getting Athletics expertise, it is very much worth it. Athletics is the hammer in a world of nails.

[MagneticKitty]

Addendum to this:

If you can take Aereni Elf (currently on D&D Beyond), Prodigy, Squat Nimbleness, Brawny, or some other feat/race-based means of getting Athletics expertise, it is very much worth it. Athletics is the hammer in a world of nails.

I never thought about grappling in wild shape (outside of things that normally do that like giant scorpion), but that's a good idea.

Think it's worth to dip bard or rogue for that? Guess a feat would be better if my dm allows those feats/races.. since I think they're ua or placeshift I may not have access to them. Rogue cunning action is great for movement and disengage (its like getting Mobile too)