How to effectively use battlefield control spells?

[Halphinian]

I have been playing DnD for a couple years now, and after neglecting them for most of that time, I have finally decided to build a character around the concept of battlefield control spells. I really like the idea behind them, a character who can change the tide of battle with a couple of simple spells, and help their allies by making combat much harder for my opponents. However, I will admit, I am not very good with tactics. So, which spells (specifically druid spells) would be best for this kind of strategy, and how can I use them effectively without accidentally hurting my allies' ability to fight or having a spell become useless from bad placement? Also, after looking through some of the spells, I have noticed some synergies with other spells (i.e. Blood Snow + Obscuring Snow/Drifts of the Shalm), are there any more synergies like this?

For context, my character is a 4th level anthropomorphic toad druid with the Greenbound Summoning, Spell Focus (conj), and Animal Affinity feats. The other people in my party are a lurk, a crusader, a shaper, a warblade, and a sorcerer that focuses on fire spells. All help is appreciated!:smallsmile:

[Venger]

eggynack's druid handbook (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?439991-Being-Everything-Eggynack-s-Comprehensive-Druid-Handbook) will tell you everything you could ever want to know about being a druid, including bfc spells.

As far as 1st and 2nd lvl bfc specifically, she recommends:
1:
blockade
darsson's cooling breeze
entangle
impeding stones
spore field
wall of smoke

2:
blood snow
briar web
drifts of the shalm
fog cloud
obscuring snow
soften earth and stone
trip vine

and there are plenty more besides, like fog cloud, obscuring mist, and wind wall.

Synergies will suggest themselves a lot of the time, like the one between blood snow and obscuring snow/drifts of the shalm. If you're in a tundra-based campaign, another popular one is snowsight combined with things that cause icy/snowy conditions later on like ice storm, control weather, and the like. It combines well with ivory flesh if you're an ambush predator as well and crunchy snow if you're hunting invisible enemies, or by scent or similar.

When you're looking at synergies, you want to double check that everything will stack, or that multiple kinds of penalties will continue to meaningfully impede enemies when applied at once.

As far as using bfc effectively goes without jamming up your allies, planning things out beforehand taking their abilities into account and setting up specific combos with one or more PCs is definitely the way to go. That way you haven't thrown down an entangle on a bunch of enemies and effectively kept your own melee fighters out of the battle.

If you're looking at being support, which makes sense given your very large party with lower tier characters, you may also look at buff spells to help out your melee brutes once you've prepared the battlefield for them.

[rel]

Never drop BFC spells on your allies.
consider what each member of the party like to do. make sure your spell isn't going to get in the way of that.
consider what enemies like to do. Make sure your spell will get in the way of that.
tell your party what your common spells will do upfront and remind them as you cast.
Check how your GM will rule your spells upfront.
Drop your spells as early as possible.
Remember that you don't always have to cast a spell. If the situation is under control or you don't have a good option just watch and wait.