What Druid Circle for Descent into Avernus

[Spo]

Just started Avernus tonight with my halfling Druid. The rest of the party is halforc barbarian, firbog knowledge cleric, tiefling warlock, half elf Druid (don’t know the circle their going for), halfelf paladin, variant human with leadership feat warlock/cleric.

Played moon Druid before but found wild shape limiting for RP purposes and boring - but did like the spells.

Looking at the melee heavy team and thinking maybe Shepard circle that will support them. Finding out that the good Druid control spells are hard to use bc of friendlies being in the mix with enemies.

Knowing my team and the adventure, what are your suggestions?

[elyktsorb]

Well until lvl 6 if you take shepard your basically going to be a land druid with less spells. I was just playing Shepard and honestly healing really is your best role until you get summons. At which point healing your summons is your best role. Mainly because it almost never feels worth it to use the bear spirit, unless you in a fight where your constantly being grappled, and the eagle is only really good against single enemy fights.

I can't say anything about Dreams since I've never tried it but I can tell you to not pick Spore.

Land isn't bad, but I personally don't know why you would be a Land Druid instead of a Wizard.

[Nhym]

Mainly because it almost never feels worth it to use the bear spirit, unless you in a fight where your constantly being grappled, and the eagle is only really good against single enemy fights.

Bear Spirit gives your party 7 extra HP at level 2 which lasts until a long rest or it is removed. That is a HUGE deal at lower levels and almost doubles the HP of squshier party members. Providing temp HP is almost always more efficient than straight up healing and the Shepherd Druid is one of the best at doing that. For a 5 person party that is the equivalent of 35 extra HP on top of their normal HP, and that's just at level 2. A Life Cleric at that level would have to blow all their spell slots to match that HP and you get it once per short rest. The best part is that temp HP is proactive rather than reactive so you can cast and forget and do nothing on subsequent turns and still provide an amazing level of support for your team. Completely disregarding the added effects of the spirit, bear spirit alone is worth picking Shepherd Druid.

Since the temp HP is per short rest, it's better than a dreams druid's Balm because that is per long rest. Only Moon can really compete with it for druid subclasses at lower levels.

[8wGremlin]

Bear Spirit gives your party 7 extra HP at level 2 which lasts until a long rest or it is removed. That is a HUGE deal at lower levels and almost doubles the HP of squshier party members. Providing temp HP is almost always more efficient than straight up healing and the Shepherd Druid is one of the best at doing that. For a 5 person party that is the equivalent of 35 extra HP on top of their normal HP, and that's just at level 2. A Life Cleric at that level would have to blow all their spell slots to match that HP and you get it once per short rest. The best part is that temp HP is proactive rather than reactive so you can cast and forget and do nothing on subsequent turns and still provide an amazing level of support for your team. Completely disregarding the added effects of the spirit, bear spirit alone is worth picking Shepherd Druid.

Since the temp HP is per short rest, it's better than a dreams druid's Balm because that is per long rest. Only Moon can really compete with it for druid subclasses at lower levels.

I second this...

Also using the Bear Spirit Totem just after you summon is very potent.
I play in AL and come from Chult, so I have seen Velociraptors, with mighty summons these get and extra 6hp (+2 per HD)
and with Bear totem an additional 11 tmp hit points as well as the rest of you party gaining the 11 tmp hp!

So those 8 little terrors (2 attacks with pack tactics) go from normal average 10 HP to a whopping 27hp equivalent!
(10 +6 = 16 hp +11 temp hp) oh and their attacks are magical attacks now to boot!