Tasha's beastmaster ranger/shepherd druid vs twilight domain/shepherd druid

[samuraijaques]

So I'm playing a shepherd druid in my current campaign that doesn't really use wildshape because it doesn't suit the character and the new find familiar option for druids works a lot better thematically. The campaign is the dungeon of the mad mage which does go to level 20 so I have been looking at the last couple features that druids get. So given that I'm not really using wildshape 2 of the features, although ridiculously overpowered, don't really suit my character.

So here's my thinking...

3 levels of ranger gets me a fighting style, a couple cool situation spells always prepared, expertise in a skill, and the beast master ranger's companion.

Notably the new beast master ranger's companion is a summoned creature so it works with the shepherd druid's abilities, gaining extra hp and magical attacks. Not only is it a flavor win it also gives me a good use of my action and bonus action in combat since I'm concentrating on conjure animals 90% of the time. Notably it never really gets more than like 20hp but it only costs a 1st level spell to get it back if it dies and I'd be able to give it a bunch of temp hp with bear totem.

it puts off my 9th level spell slot till level 19 but otherwise all I'm really missing out on is an ASI since I'm not using wild shape except for random specific occasions.

Is it worth it to mess around with this multiclass?

My other thought was twilight domain cleric for the channel divinity for, frankly idiotic amounts of, temp hp which has the benefit of taking less levels, not losing me any spell slots and getting me the other neat goodies that twilight gives you.

The ranger seems more thematically appropriate but honestly not that great now that I've spelled it out. Twilight seems insanely powerful and also thematically pretty cool since so much of the campaign is set in the underdark.

What's everyone's thoughts?

[Hael]

So twilight cleric and summons are obviously strong together. However just dipping a few lvls of cleric isn’t great, as the temp hp scales with cleric lvls. For that reason, something like mark of handling + full twilight progression is stronger, although going to 6 in shepherd druid solves the tier3-4 nonmagical weapon resist problem.

3-5 lvls in gloomstalker synergizes really well with the twilight cleric of course, although action economy is a little clashy.

[Valmark]

Which druid features are you talking about exactly? Because keep in mind that the druid capstone (the part about ignoring components) works regardless of wildshape.

[samuraijaques]

So twilight cleric and summons are obviously strong together. However just dipping a few lvls of cleric isn’t great, as the temp hp scales with cleric lvls. For that reason, something like mark of handling + full twilight progression is stronger, although going to 6 in shepherd druid solves the tier3-4 nonmagical weapon resist problem.

3-5 lvls in gloomstalker synergizes really well with the twilight cleric of course, although action economy is a little clashy.

My thinking was that even 1d6+2 temp hp every turn for 8 creatures really adds up over the course of a battle.


Which druid features are you talking about exactly? Because keep in mind that the druid capstone (the part about ignoring components) works regardless of wildshape.

The two that allow you to ignore components do work when out of wildshape but don't really help all that much in moist scenarios. Like sure, I could get captured and not have my spell component pouch or focus but at that point I can just wildshape out as a spider or summon my familiar to go get them. They're neat but by no means optimal for a build that doesn't use wildshape often.