A Beginner's Guide for Druids (especially Moon).

[Xenken]

Hello!

This is a guide aimed at new or prospective Druid players, focused on Moon but including tips relevant for all Druids, such as how to make the most of Wildshape and how to run conjure spells without casting Time Stop on your table.

There is honestly so much Druid wisdom on the boards, and I'd be really proud to be someone's gateway into it. If you've read my guide and want to go deeper, it won't take long to find a whole lot of stuff.

I hope it serves you well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QUmwh1XqUQ7FF9ydfN8hKPYfPQQxx60q4C3SN95LYQY/edit?usp=sharing

[sambojin]

Great guide for the aspiring Moon. It's a bit fiddly on the Wildshape section, since you're trying to cover regular druids a bit too (Moons get Warhorse at lvl2, not 4, for example), but otherwise it's very good.

I also liked the big recommendation on just using average damages for summons. This will save a tonne of time, and not needing many types and multiple colours of dice is handy too. Not rolling to-hit might not fly at some tables (reactions for defense, tripping, restraining, etc), but is still a good idea. But yeah, average damage makes it WAY quicker and easier when using summons.

[Xenken]

Great guide for the aspiring Moon. It's a bit fiddly on the Wildshape section, since you're trying to cover regular druids a bit too (Moons get Warhorse at lvl2, not 4, for example), but otherwise it's very good.

I also liked the big recommendation on just using average damages for summons. This will save a tonne of time, and not needing many types and multiple colours of dice is handy too. Not rolling to-hit might not fly at some tables (reactions for defense, tripping, restraining, etc), but is still a good idea. But yeah, average damage makes it WAY quicker and easier when using summons.

Good point on single effect reactions. Will have to think on that.

Moon Druids do get Warhorse early, true, but the Dire Wolf covers most of what the Warhorse does (also Large and Fast with a high STR, while having an even better attack) so I decided to not mention Warhorse in the scope of what Moon can turn into. Do you have any suggestions on ways to make the split between Moon and not-Moon a bit clearer?

[sambojin]

Maybe just put a little M2 in brackets for the moon levels if you want to add a few more creatures with differing levels? Or M2/E4 for Moon 2, every other druid 4? Depends on how many animals you want to add. If it's just warhorses, maybe just add a quick comment (available at Moon 2, lvl4 is for other druids). It also gives people an idea of why Moon's extra forms are handy, even early on. Warhorses are actually pretty good as a combat form, though they are better as summons. Remember those "if the enemy is prone" parts don't require you to prone them through the DC14 charge. Depending on your reading of it, it doesn't even require the 20' movement towards them, just that they are prone for the bonus action attack when you make a hooves attack. And 2x +6 2d6+4 attacks with advantage are a nice bit of synergy in a party if there's another melee'r/caster to help out proning stuff depending on initiative order. It's a special ability, not an attack action, and there's two very distinct sentences in that special ability, one not necessarily relying on the other, although the first one helps the second become true.

Could be read as "of course you have to 20' charge them, that's the point. It's a trampling charge! You probably would get the bonus action attack if they were already on the ground after you moved 20' right at them though. Kinda pointless rolling that".


It is actually probably worthwhile covering the Grappled + Restrained condition though, just because that's often what druids do in wildshape. It's not only advantage on attacks for you. It's disadvantage to their's, and on dex saves. And no movement. It's nice, and it's what Moons do when they're not doing other stuff.


Spell-wise, it's really hard to not mention:

Hold Person (paralyzed is amazing to put on a humanoid enemy. Auto-crits on hits for everyone, with advantage to-hit? Auto-fail Str/Dex saving throws? No actions/reactions? No spells fired back? Yes please!).

Enhance Ability (make you or someone else great at an entire stat-worth of skill-somethings, not for free, but it's like Guidance+. Can also just give someone(s?) advantage on initiative checks plus Dex skills. This is never a bad thing to do, lvl3-20).

Flaming Sphere (you're a Druid. You will be using this at some point. This requires an explanation of how to use it properly. It gets pretty nice at higher levels when summons aren't the thing that will work in a situation lvl3-9. It then gets bad when fire isn't the thing that will work against lots of things. Or when setting fire to everything is considered a "bad" thing, like in areas outside dungeons).

Sleet Storm: want stuff prone? Or just want to prone flying stuff out of the air? Or want stuff fog clouded? Or to lose concentration on a spell? SS does all the above, with funky cylinder targeting (it doesn't have to touch the ground, so difficult terrain or not is your choice in ground battles) at your decent'ish Wis DC. You can also drop your concentration when you want, at the most opportune moment (such as when stuff is proned and couldn't see diddly-squat on their turn, couldn't move out of it if they did due to difficult terrain and being proned, but it's now your turn, and you want to trample/charge/pounce/stomp them).


It might be worthwhile mentioning concentration problems + funsie stuff properly. Or stuff like concentration cascading. Casting Enhance Ability on yourself (for Dex + init advantage) 30min ago, dropping that on the first turn of combat after going fairly early to cast Sleet Storm on the enemy and bonus action'ing into a pouncey/stompy form, then dropping that concentration after you've proned some of the enemies and the rest of your party/you would like to see them on your next/their turn (heavily obscured is harder than what darkvision can deal with), is a fine use of cascading concentration spell use. It might seem like a large use of slots, but it's only a lvl2+lvl3 spell, to alter an entire encounter. And you get 1-2 encounters a day for "free" spell-slot-wise just with wildshape usage, let alone shutting down big ones like this with a couple of spells you can use for heaps of other stuff too....

Oh, yeah. Mention that Moons *can* go absolutely bonkers with spell slots if they want. 1-2 encounters a day are free'ish for you. So when you want to go slot-happy, just go and do that. At worst, there'll be a direwolf or bear or squid or snake or dino or something waiting out on the other side of that "surprise bonus encounter" for you to be. You mentioned long rest + short rest resources, but at about level 5-7 you get *tonnes* of flexibility in this. Might be worthwhile mentioning it again, possibly alongside the above paragraph's gist.


I also really like the part on the "counts as different beasts" stuff from the MM/DMG. I never really thought about it, but it's not like those dilophosauri (or frilled deathspitters) can't just be dire skunks or something instead. Dinos not existing in your world doesn't mean those statlines aren't available. Deinonychus? Dire Honey Badger. Or just a Very Irritated Cassowary. Zealoraptor? Dire Cassowary. Krenshar? Dire Mutton Bird. Pteranodon? Giant Pelican or Goose. Quetzalcoatlus? Dire Pelican or Goose. Jaculi? Drop Bear :)

[Xenken]

Snip

I want to keep the guide on the compact side, so I'll try to add as little forms as I think I can get away with. I'll make a note on Moon getting Warhorse, though.

Speaking of, I did not actually think of that charge thing. You can get the extra attack off of someone else's prone, and I will note that. (Ditto for what grapple+restrained actually does.) Although JC confirms that the sentences aren't meant to be read as separate (https://mobile.twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/674056709795549184) so I don't think I can advise around treating them as such. Maybe it could get a line or two of gray text though.

IMO Enhance Ability isn't that great, mostly because the majority of it's out of combat utility is superceded by the Help action, and PWT does Stealth way better. You still have initiative, but a 2nd level slot for around +3 to one initiative roll is just super steep.

Similarly, Hold Person's free resave at end of turn does a lot to kill its upside relitive to Heat Metal at 2nd level (almost all humanoids wear metal armor), and while it has a niche at higher levels against targets that are bunched together, it isn't great *overall* IMO, so I wouldn't want to mention it. (Though I hope that people who read the guide would scroll down and see your comment to note what the spell's upsides might be.)

Flaming Sphere: Noted, will add your advice.

I should probably add Sleet Storm, it's probably the best representative for what Druid will be doing with spells when summons are off the table.

I wouldn't generally advise for druids to burn through their slots super fast, because obviously it depends on the campaign (some are more gritty and want you to pace things out more, while others are one minute adventuring day affairs where you can go hog wild).

The ability to only have one conc spell at a time is one I consider basic enough to not mention, and the ability to drop conc at anytime basically only matters for Sleet Storm and its kin so I'll put it there.

Glad you found the reflavoring rule to be interesting. Should get the edits up in a few days.

[Xenken]

Alright, so I got great news!

Levels 9-20 are fully finished so the work's finally officially complete (though I'll definitely go through and edit it from time to time still.) Also made sure to reference Xan's instead of EE for a few spells, since the former is more common.

[KorvinStarmast]

I just opened it.

I have learned 3 main pain points that kept coming up with Druids in general and Moon Druid in particular, and a fourth that bothers me specifically:
-People not playing Druid because it felt like there was too much upkeep
-Druid players not liking Wild Shape because it doesn’t feel useful
-Druid players slowing the table down immensely after they use Conjure Animals
-Me watching Moon Druids only learn the stats for a single form (or turning into a single form and not having the stats for it at all!), even though they would try other ones if they were able or willing to dig up the info.

I am going through it so it will be a while before a more comprehensive comment/feedback)

Comments so far:
0. for your level 3, 5, 7, 9 etc introduction ("You gain xd level spells" or "you gain xth level spells" - the way you use "spell level" is confusing and not consistent with game terminology_
1. Prose style: far too wordy for a beginner's guide. (But I love the detail that you go into!)
2. At level 1, get rid of all of the words about wild shape in that section. Save it for Level 2, when wild shape shows up.

Suggested change in the level 1 discussion.


This is also the level when you begin casting actual spells with spell slots. You can prepare a number of spells equal to Wis+your druid level. This is why your should have a high Wisdom Score: more options in spell preparation.

As a personal experiential note: Moon Druid is still a full Caster. Keeping spell casting stat high has numerous benefits; you want the enemy's save to be as difficult as possible and you want to have as many options open for casting as possible. My Monk 1 / Moon Druid 10 was fun to play, and I am so glad that I pumped Wisdom on that character.

Suggestion, and a major one, for dealing with mobs (which is a good suggestion)
I turned the raw d20 side into a target Number to Hit AC,
and then in the table, label the top of the column this way:
target Number to Hit AC

the way you have it written will confuse new players.

OK, I just went through it again. Nice job overall. (And I particularly like your treatment of planar binding)

[Xenken]

snip


0: Noted, and edited
1: Currently trying to read through and cut things down, especially for levels 1 and 2. It's started having results but it'll probably have to keep at it for a while.
2: Done, and inspired by that changes I also removed the feat talk from level 1 and moved it to 4. (Vhumans get a reference to level 4 instead.)

Wisdom: Yeah you're right about that. Edited.

Summon suggestion: This one I didn't understand. The chart is supposed to be DM facing (since I wouldn't want to put them in a situation where they have to tell the AC of monsters to players) so not just listing the target's AC on the chart would just give them more work to do, right? Minor edits to the tune of making my intent more clear but I think I need to know more specifically what you meant there.

Thank you for the compliment and thank you even more for the constructive feedback.

[KorvinStarmast]

Summon suggestion: This one I didn't understand.
The chart is supposed to be DM facing (since I wouldn't want to put them in a situation where they have to tell the AC of monsters to players) so not just listing the target's AC on the chart would just give them more work to do, right?
Ah, I see your point. OK, nvm.

Thank you for the compliment and thank you even more for the constructive feedback.
Glad to be of some small assistance; you put a lot of work into that, and I think it's a good resource. It's saved (with a few edits) in my 5e file. It's a keeper! :smallbiggrin:

[sambojin]

Still reading through all the additions, but it's looking good!

Quick mention on the lvl10 ability of Elemental Wildshape. If it's a "put a condition on the players" type scenario, elementals are amazing. No paralyzed, stunned, prone, restrained, poisoned or anything. It takes a lot of control magic away from the DM, you're literally immune to the condition afflicting effects of it. That actually is as good as the internet says it is. You can even tromp through your own AoE lockdown spells if you'd like.

Also, Air Elemental is the other go-to. It flies, fast. It can't be made to stop flying (by any of the conditions listed above, proning or grapple-shove being the way to take down flyers commonly available). And, it has a "pure" AC, and can be whatever large form that it can take, so can get some pretty good ACs with magic items or multiclassing. It also has a +5 Dex modifier, which does all the things high Dex does. Initiative, ranged weapons, stealth, dodging fireballs, malarkey, shenanigans, etc. It's worth a mention.

Maybe just a "You know all those conditions your magic and your beast wildshapes put on the enemy? You are now immune to all of them in Elemental form! :DM cries:" comment would do it.

I'll read more in a bit, but condition immunities and "may as well have un-dispellable/unconditional flying then, with a proper AC and moving through 1" gaps" is worth mentioning. It sorta *is* worth two wildshape charges. By lvl10, Druids know all about putting conditions on enemies. Not having them put on you is very, very nice.

[Xenken]

snip

Huh. You know I didn't actually think about that.

I intentionally don't talk about magic items or multiclassing, but despite that the level 10 entry is now about 2 and a half times longer. Nice new info!

[Xenken]

It's saved (with a few edits) in my 5e file. It's a keeper! :smallbiggrin:

Out of curiosity, what were the edits about? (Still looking for ways to clear the text up so potentially any new ideas son how to write it could be useful.)

[KorvinStarmast]

Out of curiosity, what were the edits about? (Still looking for ways to clear the text up so potentially any new ideas son how to write it could be useful.)
Hmm, I'd need to just ship you the file.
Not where I can do that at the moment.
Will PM you with details.
KS