Build for a lvl 20 moon druid, with pvp in mind

[Glarnog]

Going to do a one shot. There is a high chance of some PVP. Like a dream, or illusion, or possession or something. So I'd like to play a 20 moon druid. Pretty much RAW, using anything from DND beyond, but with a hard focus on PVP. Any hints or advice for Race, Spells, Feats, and Items would be appreciated. I think there will be a round or 2 of buffing. I don't think there will be chance for longer lasting buffs.

Besides Moon druid, and the Feats: Lucky, and Resilient Con, I'm pretty inexperience at this level or with this type of combat. I'm hoping some Feeble minds will take some out of the combat. I expect there to be a mix of casters and non casters to deal with. I suspect a free for all. There may be monsters and NPCs too. Hoping to count on Elemental form to deal with energy damage, mobility, and unlimited hps. Also maybe using the Conjure spells to help flood, and or tie up foes, Maybe even try being a flying, invisible Trex from conjure.

Thanks.

[sithlordnergal]

So, you're gonna want to go first in combat. I assume you're doing a 27 Point Buy, with Variant Human as an option? I'd do the following:


Race: Variant Human

Variant Human Feat: Resilient Constitution

---Starting Scores---

Str: 8

Dex: 13+1

Con: 15

Int: 12

Wis: 15+1

Cha: 8


---ASIs---

- Wis +2
- Wis +2
- Alert
- Mobile
- Lucky

---Couple of Strategies---

Now, this is wholly dependent on the terrain, but the Earth Elemental's Earth Glide ability is basically a get out of jail free card. If you're standing on unworked stone/earth, your foes really can't touch you. You'll have a 40ft burrow speed, so you can move around under them to avoid attacks, popping out to fire off Concentration spells like Sunbeam. Even better, you have Tremmorsense, so you'll know where people are and can pop in and out of the ground accordingly. Use it with Call Lightning, Sunbeam, or Storm of Vengeance. Storm of Vengeance is particularly interesting since its a 360ft radius that lasts for 1 minute and deals a decent amount of damage.

Fire Elementals are also a fun option, especially against anyone with multiple attacks. Whoever hits you takes 1d10 fire damage per hit, and are set on fire for an additional 1d10 fire damage. As long as you don't take over 102 damage in a round, you can keep on refreshing that HP. Mix that in with something like Nature's Wrath, which lets you deal even more damage in melee, and you're a hard hitting frontliner.

Obviously you have Conjure X, but if you go that route, only cast it with a 5th level spell. Having 16 CR 1/4th beasts is plenty, and is the best bang for your buck.

[follacchioso]

This sounds fun. I have experience playing a Moon Druid in PvP, but never at these levels.


Be aware of your weaknesses:
- Ranged attacks[]. Druids are mostly focused on melee or short range, and they have few effective options for ranged attacks. There are a few good high level spells, but spell slots are limited. You won't be able to compete with Eldritch Blasts and Sharpshooter longbows
- [b]Flying. While some wildshape forms are able to fly, they have low HP and AC, and they will not last long at those levels, even the Air Elemental. A few potions of flying or a magic item (Ring of Air Elemental Control?) could help you.
- [b]Everybody will focus on you because you have infinite HP. Your infinite wildshape ability will make you a top priority target for everybody, and your low AC will deplete it quickly. Familiarize yourself with ways to disappear, such as wildshaping into a form with a burrowing speed
- No teleports, nor Misty Steps A common tactics at high levels is to block the opponents, by means of forcecage, feeblemind, or these sorts of spells. You don't have great defences against these, and your spell list does not contain any teleportation spell to get away from a forcecage.

[sithlordnergal]

Ohhh, good point about Misty Step! Might be a good idea to change Lucky out for that feat that gives Misty Step

[qube]

Ohhh, good point about Misty Step! Might be a good idea to change Lucky out for that feat that gives Misty StepI was going to suggest a MtG background, but most don't have anything teleporty.

The closest I got was Quandrix Student with Vortex Warp (which is save-or-teleport "another creature you can see within range [90ft]" ) from strixhaven.


(note: air/water elementals can squeeze to 1 inch - but bars of a force cage are 1/2 an inch distance)

[Eldariel]

Just trade Mobile and cast Longstrider if you really want the speed.

[sithlordnergal]

Just trade Mobile and cast Longstrider if you really want the speed.

Oh no, I'd say keep Mobile. Its one of the few feats that apply its change to your Wildshape, and it doesn't cost you a spell slot. Mobile also has the benefit of making it so a creature can't target you with an Attack of Opportunity if you've made at least one melee attack against that creature. Given the Elemental forms are all melee attackers, this can net you a lot of added mobility.

It basically denies a few Sentinel shenanigans.

[Eldariel]

Oh no, I'd say keep Mobile. Its one of the few feats that apply its change to your Wildshape, and it doesn't cost you a spell slot. Mobile also has the benefit of making it so a creature can't target you with an Attack of Opportunity if you've made at least one melee attack against that creature. Given the Elemental forms are all melee attackers, this can net you a lot of added mobility.

It basically denies a few Sentinel shenanigans.

What do you care about Sentinel shenanigans, doubly so if you have Misty Step though? I don't see what the feat really does that's worth a feat here. Like yeah, it improves your movement speed in Wildshape forms but...what does it do that's actually worth a feat? You're already immortal vs. damage dealers so in a PvP vs. a Sentinel type you...basically just kill them while assuming new ~130 HP each round and against anyone else, Mobile doesn't seem like it really does a whole lot. Not as much as another feat like Fey-Touched (get out of Walls of Force and such, pick up Silvery Barbs while at it), Lucky (reroll saves, Initiative, etc.), Alert (Go first! And use Fog-type effects to give enemies disadvantage on attacks) or Res: Con (ensure your Concentration sticks). So...if it's the least useful of the 4 feats, I think it's the clear choice unless you wanna roll with lower Wis (which is also reasonable).

Switch to CLineage actually and you can start at 17 Wis going up to 20 with only one ASI and Fey-Touched freeing up one more feat for e.g. Metamagic Adept: Extend Spell to abuse with Foresight (and Quicken Spell to abuse in general) or like War Caster if you wanna maximize your Concentration or Fighting Initiate for Blindfighting or whatever the heck you want.

[Hael]

You could also consider taking one of the mark races to get counterspell. Wisdom isnt that important actually if you are feat starved..

I would definitely get fey touched and pick up either gift of alacrity or silvery barbs (prolly silvery barbs). Alert is absolutely mandatory.

A well played moon druid is going to beat basically everything in PvP, except a high lvl wizard/sorceror/bard.. You absolutely need to have an answer for wall of force/forcecage and you need to be able to prevent getting maze’d.

[sithlordnergal]

What do you care about Sentinel shenanigans, doubly so if you have Misty Step though? I don't see what the feat really does that's worth a feat here. Like yeah, it improves your movement speed in Wildshape forms but...what does it do that's actually worth a feat? You're already immortal vs. damage dealers so in a PvP vs. a Sentinel type you...basically just kill them while assuming new ~130 HP each round and against anyone else, Mobile doesn't seem like it really does a whole lot. Not as much as another feat like Fey-Touched (get out of Walls of Force and such, pick up Silvery Barbs while at it), Lucky (reroll saves, Initiative, etc.), Alert (Go first! And use Fog-type effects to give enemies disadvantage on attacks) or Res: Con (ensure your Concentration sticks). So...if it's the least useful of the 4 feats, I think it's the clear choice unless you wanna roll with lower Wis (which is also reasonable).

Switch to CLineage actually and you can start at 17 Wis going up to 20 with only one ASI and Fey-Touched freeing up one more feat for e.g. Metamagic Adept: Extend Spell to abuse with Foresight (and Quicken Spell to abuse in general) or like War Caster if you wanna maximize your Concentration or Fighting Initiate for Blindfighting or whatever the heck you want.

Because unless you are doing 1v1 fights, which this doesn't sound like 1v1 battlez, you should assume that everyone is going to team up specifically to kill you, because as the Moon Druid you are THE most obvious threats. To put it simply, if I were in a big PvP level 20 battle, and I saw someone had a Moon Druid, I'd work my hardest to ally myself with everyone else to take down the Moon Druid.

Hell, in level 20 PvP things, the first thing you do is build a character that can specifically shut down and kill a Moon Druid in 1 round. Cause they may have a lot of HP, but auto-death things like Power Word Kill, Disintegrate, and the like will still automatically kill you last I checked.

As such, you should assume there's someone with PAM/Sentinel to keep you in one spot for one round, a Wizard to Counterspell any teleportation you might try to use working together just to kill you. Never rely only on spells to escape, or you'll find your Moon Druid dead.

[Eldariel]

Because unless you are doing 1v1 fights, which this doesn't sound like 1v1 battlez, you should assume that everyone is going to team up specifically to kill you, because as the Moon Druid you are THE most obvious threats. To put it simply, if I were in a big PvP level 20 battle, and I saw someone had a Moon Druid, I'd work my hardest to ally myself with everyone else to take down the Moon Druid.

Hell, in level 20 PvP things, the first thing you do is build a character that can specifically shut down and kill a Moon Druid in 1 round. Cause they may have a lot of HP, but auto-death things like Power Word Kill, Disintegrate, and the like will still automatically kill you last I checked.

As such, you should assume there's someone with PAM/Sentinel to keep you in one spot for one round, a Wizard to Counterspell any teleportation you might try to use working together just to kill you. Never rely only on spells to escape, or you'll find your Moon Druid dead.

You have automatic Subtle Spell from beast shapes. You literally can't be stopped with anything short of AMF. And in AMF you lose Wildshape and are dead to grapple + shove anyways; Mobile doesn't help there.

[sithlordnergal]

You have automatic Subtle Spell from beast shapes. You literally can't be stopped with anything short of AMF. And in AMF you lose Wildshape and are dead to grapple + shove anyways; Mobile doesn't help there.

Slight issue with that: Beast Spells and Archdruid both state they only work with Druid spells, and Misty Step isn't a Druid spell. Even if you take it as a feat, have it as a racial spell, or multiclass to get it, it still isn't a Druid spell.

As such, you can't actually benefit from the permanent Subtle Spell effect that Beast Spells and Archdruid give you when casting Misty Step.

[Wraith]

As such, you should assume there's someone with PAM/Sentinel to keep you in one spot for one round, a Wizard to Counterspell any teleportation you might try to use working together just to kill you. Never rely only on spells to escape, or you'll find your Moon Druid dead.

Perhaps consider taking Shadar-Kai or Eladrin as their race? You drop a feat compared to V.Human but I think it could be worth it - focus on self-buffs so 18WIS instead of 20WIS isn't a significant penalty, and then Fey Step and Blessing of the Raven Queen (probably the better choice, for the damage reduction it grants) are abilities, not spells, so they can't be counterspelled. Given that they're also magical abilities, you don't lose them when wildshaped, which is a nice little ace-in-the-hole.