Tanky Druid

[ChaseC311]

Im currently building a Level 4 Circle of Stars druid, and im trying to have him be a tank capable of absorbing hits effectively. Currently theres a healing focused Druid in our group so to avoid stepping on their toes and risking sapping their experience, I decided to make my druid more Tanky

Although, im not sure what spells to get which would compliment his circle. Im aware that moon druids exist and make excellent tanks but I wanted to switch things up. I have some ideas on what to pick (like Mold Earth for ally cover and Absorb Elements to tank hits, as tanks should strive to shield their allies while absorbing brunts of damage). Ill still pick up some healing spells to self heal (The Chalice Starry forms great for getting heals out, so I can quickly heal up if necessary, but as not to intrude on the other druids playstyle id mainly use my own healing spells as a last resort) but Im still trying to determine what wpuld be the best course of action for tank spells

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[MaxWilson]

You're level 4, so one thing you can do while you're concentrating on a spell is to Wildshape into a CR 1/2 Ape but keep your equipment on per Wildshape guidelines. Now you've got Con 14 and Dex 14, and presumably some kind of armor (Hide?) and a shield for AC 16 total, plus 19 "free" HP per wildshape. You can't cast spells in ape form but you're already concentrating on your spell anyway, and you might still be able to work a crossbow or something.

In any case, if you want to maximize your tankiness you're probably going to spend your actions on Dodge anyway, especially once you get Conjure Animals at 5th level, so not being able to cast spells on top of that is probably okay.

Cast Goodberry a bunch of times with your extra spell slots every night before you go to bed, and that way you can (slowly) heal during the day without losing wildshape or concentration.

[pr4wn]

Tortle Druid...

With a shield, start with an AC of 19.

I would fight with a spear (or a quarterstaff) and take Polearm Master at 4th level. You have some great 2nd level Druid spells that require concentration, that will make you a target as they try to break your concentration. For an armored big bad, use Heat Metal, otherwise you can lay down Spike growth between your back line and the attackers.

When the first bad guy runs up to attack you, stab him with a pointy stick (spear) or hit him with a magic stick (quarter staff + Shillelagh). If you aren't running a spell that requires your bonus action, you get 2 attacks per round. You can tank by making yourself a prime target (to break concentration on a spell) and make yourself hard to hit as well. You don't just have to absorb damage to tank, you just need to keep it from going to the other party members. If the opponents miss trying to attack you, so much the better.

-pr4wn

[iTreeby]

Using dragon constellation makes your concentration spells more likely to last in combat, wo I'd recommend warding wind for ranged combats and spike growth vrs melee enemies. Thorn whip is a good spell to use with spike growth.

[sambojin]

Tanking tends to come in two forms for druids. Moving fast and hitting hard (less attacks back if they're dead) or movement lockdown (can't move, so can't hit the squishies). With your spells and wildshape at lvl4, you can do a bit of both. Free HP is the definition of tanking, so all druids are pretty good at it at early levels.

For lockdown forms, you've got Constrictor Snake and Crocodile. They have pretty poor to-hit, but when they do, they restrain the target. No movement until they use an action to break the grapple, wastes their action when they do and possibly gives you an AoO when they move away (which might just restrain them again), and disadvantage on attacks and Dex saves (while your party, even shooters, get advantage against the enemy). Try and hit them from an angle if you don't have plenty of sharp shooters/ spell snipers in the party, it can be terrible when your DM works out that you should be providing half cover to the enemy. Druids are pretty sticky by default with these two forms at lvl4, and are even better with advantage givers or Sentinel.

For fast forms, you have Warhorse and Jaculi. Movement 60' (30' basic, 30' spring action with the Jaculi), large sized, and hit pretty hard and accurately at this level. A Warhorse can hit a little harder with their bonus action attack and their higher strength if you manage to 20' charge-prone them (auto-works if the enemy is already prone and you move 20' directly towards them to attack, possibly), but a Jaculi is a little more accurate if they get their spring off (+4 with advantage is a tiny bit better than +6 without) and only need 10' movement-towards to get it.

If you've been to Ixalan, there's also the fairly overpowered for CR1/2 Frilled Deathspitter form (look at the free Planeshift: Ixalan pdf for stats. Fully WotC 5e compliant, not home-brew). 3x +5to-hit d6+3 damage attacks, 40' movement, and a poison shooting attack that sometimes hits hard and blinds (rarely though). Small sized too (yep, you can ride lots of stuff as one). Really good anti-horde or general purpose form. Is amazing at this level with an archer shoulder cannon. Try and backstory dinos in with every druid ("The head of the Circle takes all the neophytes to Chuult and Ixalan with a Plane Shift spell. Mostly just to scare them. We really respected nature after that.")

You also have the wonderful Ape form, as mentioned. Medium size and "has hands" counts for a lot if you're dungeon crawling and on being able to use standard gear. It's probably not too hard to get some studded leather or hide armour that's compatible with a "you" form and an "ape" form. If a chainmail bikini works, so does this. Add a shield and they're not too bad AC-wise, even better once magic armour (that definitely resizes) starts popping up. Can shove something prone one turn, then start punching it accurately the next. Or grapple then climb/drag 15' upwards for some funny "please don't let me go" hilarity. Next turn, climb higher, double punch them, then drop them. Jaculi do it better sometimes because they can spring down afterwards, but they don't have hands to carry shields and can't wear armour and climb slower. Panthers actually climb faster than either, and are surprisingly good at stuff like this if you take the Athletics skill.


For spells, never underestimate Entangle against lowish strength targets (most things at this level). It does restrain, in a fairly big AoE for the spell level. Even if you just sit back and cantrip/archer cannon 1-2 targets to death that you hit with entangle, you're still doing "tanking". Kind of.

Flaming Sphere/Moonbeam can block off passages if you want. It takes bonus/actions to move them, not to have them damage things. Spike Growth can do larger areas. You can grapple drag people into/ through all three.

If you don't mind going through a few lvl1 spell slots, Ice Knife and an Archer cannon can give you surprisingly good DPR for a caster. 1d10+2d6+1d8+Wis damage in a round isn't that bad against a fairly low dex target if they all hit. I know this is about tanking, but you can do this with a lvl2 damage'y concentration spell up as well, just adding to the numbers (2d6'ish per round). Basically, dead=tanked, and your mini-AoE + direct damage is pretty good, considering you're at lvl4. So, yeah, you can nova, there's just some windup time and plenty of spell slots needed to do it. But with just one turn's prep time before the fighting starts (which accounts for many encounters), you can be right up there with the best of them in DPR terms.

You've also got 3-5 casts of Guiding Bolt per day. Between this and Ice Knife, you've got plenty of sustain for your DPR efforts. I know it really doesn't sound like tanking, but you'll be making sure you have a lot less damage incoming, so you're still helping. Again, Archer cannon is great with Guiding Bolt.

Sometimes you'll want to blow both wildshape charges on a form+ archer shoulder cannon. Then just use spells/ cantrips the next encounter. Then take a short rest. Sometimes you'll want to mix it up a bit, with a spell and a form and a dragon constellation, or just archer and cantrip, or a spell and a form. The joys of a Stars Druid is that you've got plenty of options of what to do in any encounter, even if they do have a bit of windup time to get there. Cheap out sometimes, or blow plenty of short/long rest resources if you want. Experiment and have fun.


You can go Sentinel and/or PAM, or Warcaster/ Resilient (Con), or Magic Initiate: Wizard (w/ Find Familiar) or Ritual Caster: Wizard (for Find Familiar), or Mobile, or Alert, or Lucky for feats. These all give you different flavours of tanking, vaguely in order of listing: better caster form melee and some extra lockdown, better concentration saves to keep spells up, help advantage from your owl familiar on attacks for restrain-on-hit or just hitting hard, more movement and can slap AoOs out of the way, better initiative so you lock things down earlier in the turn, rerolls to make things stick. All are perfectly viable, and very useful. So's +2 Wis for an ASI, for better spell DCs plus an extra prepped spell each day.
((vaguely honorable mention also goes to MI:Druid w/Goodberry and two more druid cantrips. It's almost like another spell prep slot and casting slot. It's not "great", but it gives more druid to your druid so you can druid more each day. +10HP for tanking at worst, or more yo-yo healing by the entire party and cantrip versatility for you at best. MI: Wizard is still better though. So's Ritual Caster: Wizard))


While plenty of your wildshape forms have set DCs to escape the grapple/restrained, or even the charge/prone effect, there is very little reason to not take the Athletics skill. You can get knocked out of wildshape and the grapple still stays. You may as well have +proficiency to keep them there while tanking stuff like that. By all means, cast something terrible on them, to teach them a lesson of why you don't hit Druids in wildshape, that still have you grappled, without problems occurring. Some forms also have very good strength, but no Athletics proficiency. Now they do, and they always have one grasping limb/mouth free, and move quickly (Warhorse for instance). Anti-grapple or restrain defense, and a damn good jumping distance, is sometimes just as important as your flat DCs in any form. Stealth is another thing you should have (makes PwT even better, and Panthers or Wolf Spiders don't actually cover all your hiding options, though they do quite a few). Why not have good dex + proficiency available to hide in many non-stealthy forms?

Everything gets better at lvl5 for druids. You'll have so many long-lasting spell slots that you don't really mind too much if you get one knocked out of you while in wildshape. Or if you have to use two-three per encounter while in caster form. You'll still have plenty for the day.

[sambojin]

And, umm, for background, I recommend *every* Druid takes the Pirate background. Take Perception and whatever you want from your Druid level. Pirate gives you Perception and Athletics. You sub-out the Perception double-up over to Stealth.

Choose whatever druidy skill you want, or add racial skills to the list if your race gives them, but you now have Perception and Athletics and Stealth. And fairly variable stats through wildshape. And high Wis. And Guidance or Enhance Ability. So you're good-to-go to do nearly anything.

The Pirate background feature is also very, very nice. If you can break down shop doors without being reported, or for not paying at a bar, you can also probably not be reported for climbing up walls as a spider in the middle of the night. Or for turning into a warhorse whenever you want. Or a giant leaping snake-Jaculi-thing (it has insane perception advantage and passive perception with your skills and stats). Or doing all the normal druidy "but wow that's screwy" stuff that you're definitely going to end up doing as an adventurer. In front of everyone.

Also lets you easily backstory-in seeing heaps of beast forms at lvl1. It doesn't really matter if you just rafted up and down a river, or have crossed half the world in a ship, you have plenty more wildshapes available to your character than someone who doesn't travel heaps would have. You've seen the world, and all the wonderful creatures within it. As a Stars Druid, if anyone can navigate, it's you :)


((also remember, there's circles within circles. While a cleric might be able to turn to a different god's brethren because they share a domain in common, all druids share the "nature thingy" domain. All of them. And even have a secret language to damn-well make sure druid PCs can get druidy help if required. From any circle. "Super-magic-nature-friends", instead of a "thieves guild". And rogues use this kind of stuff all the time. Literally no difference, character-wise. *And*, you can probably ask for assistance from any Nature domainy clerics, because that's a thing some gods do as well. You're "really-well-off" RP-wise or world-building-wise as a druid. Plus, you pseudo-do Healing and Sun and Light and Animal and Fire and Storms and Air by default too. You might not exactly be welcomed, being of the old beliefs, but if your cause is just and proper.... Never forget this sort of stuff, when you need to push a bit of RP muscle alongside your awesome stats. You'll probably get more respect at any "good or neutral" temple, than any rogue or bard would, no matter how high their charisma or expertise is. Half of it is one casting of Good Berry away.... ))

((Actual 5e Cleric Domains you kinda cover as a Druid by default are: Life, Light, Nature, Tempest (and possibly others). There's still a lot of gods and clerics that "do these things", and kinda like someone to help with that stuff. Especially off-books, "it wasn't one of MY clerics doing it", kinda stuff. And there's multiple druid circles that just go "yeah, our druids are gonna druid. Hard!". And the poor, that just like to eat sometimes. Etc. Druids make excellent friends, both inside and outside of cities))