What is the niche of the druid spell list?

[Rfkannen]

I have never played a druid, and every druid I have played with has been a moon druid, so I don't have any experience with the more caster leaning druids. When playing a druid spellclass other than moon, what is the main role of the druid spell list? What does it excel at or do worse at than other classes? In what type of party would you pick a spellcasting druid?

[Evaar]

1) Summons. Druids have the most powerful mass summoning spells. These are a pain to manage, but they are super powerful.

2) Control. Druids have many effective Control spells, second only to the Wizard imo. Their spells tend to be big, Concentration-required spells that will alter a fight substantially. This includes both status effects and rearranging the battlefield and terrain.

3) Support. They have buffs and heals and can fill this role in the absence of someone who’s fully focused on it.

[Gudrae]

Evaar -
1) Summons. Druids have the most powerful mass summoning spells. These are a pain to manage, but they are super powerful.

2) Control. Druids have many effective Control spells, second only to the Wizard imo. Their spells tend to be big, Concentration-required spells that will alter a fight substantially. This includes both status effects and rearranging the battlefield and terrain.

3) Support. They have buffs and heals and can fill this role in the absence of someone who’s fully focused on it.


Pretty much it.

I ended up playing a moon druid in a campaign awhile back in spite of the fact that I wanted to/and much prefer the casting elements to the druid class and found that when I was casting (control spells specifically) that I was, by like level seven, messing up entire armies. Druids seem to be well suited to that task. A lot of quick "yes you can, but you need to not unless the DM accidently puts you against something too strong" happened.

Further, when I cast summons (with a lenient DM especially) it can quickly make it so not only are you the strongest melee combatant but also you are numerous enough that other dedicated melee characters can't even get into battle. which was followed by more of "Yes you can, but don't."



Rfkannen-

What does it excel at or do worse at than other classes?


As far as worse than other classes, admittedly its been awhile since I played that character but I seem to recall It doesn't do blasty damage as well. Honestly though, not really a problem with how stupid good it was at the other stuff.



Rfkannen-

In what type of party would you pick a spellcasting druid?


Personally, I end up playing support casters a lot. after I've played cleric two to three times a druid is a welcome relief and well designed to giving the feel of "I am in touch with nature. This gives me insight and powers long abandoned and forgotten by the rest of the world. I know that grove by its true name. I speak to it, and it answers back."

As far as the party makeup itself, my parties tend to be no magic heavy, for whatever reason, and find that druids have done a fair job of handling what I need from both the arcane and divine spell casters.

[Psyren]

Druid is quite bad at mobility, i.e. teleportation. I think your first ability in that regard is Tree Stride, which is highly limited and comes on very late. Flight is bad too beyond things like polymorph and wind walk, both of which are late and a bit unwieldy. And their defensive options largely come from battlefield control preventing enemies from reaching them - direct defensive buffs like AC, temp HP and saves tend to be thin for druids.

The druid class also suffers early on from a lack of cantrips. Certain subclasses like Land and Stars alleviate this, but the rest have to make do, and druids get some pretty nice cantrips which makes the choice even more painful.

[Evaar]

Druid is quite bad at mobility, i.e. teleportation.

Overall true, although I think it's worth mentioning the Wildfire Druid as a notable exception to this (because of the Wildfire Spirit's at-will teleport).

[Psyren]

Overall true, although I think it's worth mentioning the Wildfire Druid as a notable exception to this (because of the Wildfire Spirit's at-will teleport).

Right, but that's due to a subclass feature rather than its spells. Having said that - yes, that's one reason Wildfire is so strong, it shores up a key Druid weakness.

[sambojin]

It's probably easier to say what they're not good at. Illusions, instant damage and teleportation mostly. They've got a bit of it, but they're not "good" at it.

They're good at utility, damage over time, summoning, support, battlefield control, giving advantage on anything, multiple target lockdown, and versatility (you can really change up a druid's spells prepared each day if you want, throughout different parts of a campaign, and still be effective. A lot of their spells have multiple uses as well, both in and out of combat).

Note: they're incredible at summoning. Wildshape familiars, Summon Beast, Summon Fey, Conjure Animals (even if you pick CR1 beasts), Conjure Woodland Beings (not just pixies, there's tonnes of other power there too), Polymorph and Summon Draconic Spirit. And being able to wildshape themselves on top of it. Lvl3-9 is a gravy-train of summoning goodness for a druid, and they all scale reasonably well with slot lvl, so lvl10-15 ain't bad either. It doesn't really matter where your DM puts the summoning bar, you are really good at it, for very low or high level spell slots, so that you can prep 1-3 of them on any given day and still be good at it.
--------

It's also hard to not look at wildshape as a very versatile spell. It does stealth, scouting, movement, familiars, light combat, plus any other subclass options as well. 2/Sr "can do a thing" spell, with only an action used to "cast" it. If you know your beasts, and you put even the slightest bit of downtime, effort, character building or backstory into it, you have a wonderful toolkit available twice per short rest. Not just for moon druids, for any druid.
--------

Saying they're not good at flight by lvl3-8 is kinda hard to back up too. It's later than racial flight, but there's a lot of it between their summons and spells and wildshape. Giant Owls, Giant Eagles, Summoned Dragons, polymorph, etc. It might not be the Fly spell, but in many ways it's better because it works for the whole party, for an hour+, is good in combat, and they do get other spells for flying as well. They're kinda better than a Wizard for flight, just because there's so many ways of doing it that you'll always have a few slots or wildshape charges on hand to make flight simply happen. It's hard to not have a fly option prepared as a druid, where-as for wizards it's a spell-prep tax.

Just having a small 18Str flying air Summon Beast at lvl3 on your spell list can give plenty of options. This mofo can grapple medium creatures, and you are probably one of them. You can't ride it, but it *can* pick you up and half-move with you grappled by it. Wizards can't 30' fly for an hour at lvl3.
It might "look" like a small Giant Eagle, even as a spirit of one, but it still has 18Str, and can use it appropriately for an hour. That's still pretty good flying at lvl3.