Help with Spores Druid

[Someloser]

Hey lads I'm playing a reborn spores druid going for zombie reanimated by spores kinda vibes.

Stats are:
13, 18, 16, 14, 19, 4

We're level 4 and I have chosen polearm master and have the Shillelagh cantrip.

I'm trying to decide if I want to go down a melee focused route by multiclassing into something like a fighter or anything that gives an extra attack or if I'm better off sticking with spores druid.

So I was just looking for some build advice and opinions on weather I should stick with a melee focus and multiclass or shift over to a casting focus.

I have also been told that if I wish to swap out polearm master I may do so at level 8.

The reason why I have gone with melee focus is because most of the rest of my party are squishy spell caster with me and the paladin at the front lines.

Very excited to hear your feedback thank you so much for reading my post :D

[Talamare]

I've played a Spore Monk, that +d6 per attack adds up when you're swinging 4x per turn.

Becomes less fun if your DM starts immediately bonking you out of it.

[Rukelnikov]

Not exactly the same, but I played a Archfey Tomelock 5/Ancients Pally 1-3 with Shillelagh and PAM as the party's frontliner, and tbh I didn't feel like PAM was very impactful.

If there were many enemies they'd slip past me without much trouble (making Plant Growth mazes helped a lot to make it harder for enemies to go after the rest of my party though). I ended up going for EB whenever I could shoot without disadvantage, and the most I got from it were got somewhat frequent (every other turn or so) reaction attacks for chip damage.

I never got to Paladin 4 to get Sentinel, at which point PAM would probably have become very relevant. Loocking back on it, I d probably have got more control out of Sentinel than what I got from PAM, and I don't know if I'd had gotten that many less AoOs with Sentinel instead of PAM.

[elyktsorb]

I'm trying to decide if I want to go down a melee focused route by multiclassing into something like a fighter or anything that gives an extra attack or if I'm better off sticking with spores druid.

So I was just looking for some build advice and opinions on weather I should stick with a melee focus and multiclass or shift over to a casting focus.

I have also been told that if I wish to swap out polearm master I may do so at level 8.

The reason why I have gone with melee focus is because most of the rest of my party are squishy spell caster with me and the paladin at the front lines.

Very excited to hear your feedback thank you so much for reading my post :D

Unfortunately, there isn't really much you can do. You already have a bonus action attack in Polearm Master. Taking levels outside of Druid will reduce your temp hp, which in turn will reduce your ability to tank. The only real exception to this is taking a class that somehow bolsters your temp hp through resistances.

Normally a single monk dip on a spore druid is a decent way of making them more combat oriented as they get the bonus action attack which benefits from your 1d6 necrotic rider, as well as getting an armor that scales off wisdom and dex. Unfortunately, since you have Polearm Master, half of the point of going Monk is moot.

Any extra attack will take 5 levels, more importantly, that's 20 temp hp gone from your Druid. Barbarian slightly addresses this by giving you Rage and effectively making your temp hp double for the damage you resist. So if your purely looking for Extra Attack, I'd go that route, take 3 levels for Totem and then take Bear for basically doubling your temp hp for (almost) all damage types while raging.

Echo Knight Fighter is a possible option, as you can use your echo to attack, keeping yourself at a distance to save your temp hp from harm. (Though that's not really a tank)

I've attempted Spore Druid/Monk builds that are very effective if you can keep your character out of harms way. I'm currently attempting a Spore Druid/Barbarian to see how well it can hold up.

I find Spore Druid works best as a melee fighter when playing a skirmisher, or hit and run type attacker. I don't have enough frame of reference on how well it combos with Barbarian yet to know if it would make a good tank in that regard.


As for being a Caster, to me, Spore Druid is rather boring focusing caster, as you'll generally be doing a lot of the same stuff any other caster druid would be doing, except I think the other druid subclasses, aside from moon, give you more to work with in the casting department. I also don't think the Spore Druid spells spice that up all that much, even Animate Dead, since you don't really have any synergy with undead as opposed to other creatures you could summon.

[Someloser]

Unfortunately, there isn't really much you can do. You already have a bonus action attack in Polearm Master. Taking levels outside of Druid will reduce your temp hp, which in turn will reduce your ability to tank. The only real exception to this is taking a class that somehow bolsters your temp hp through resistances.

Normally a single monk dip on a spore druid is a decent way of making them more combat oriented as they get the bonus action attack which benefits from your 1d6 necrotic rider, as well as getting an armor that scales off wisdom and dex. Unfortunately, since you have Polearm Master, half of the point of going Monk is moot.

Any extra attack will take 5 levels, more importantly, that's 20 temp hp gone from your Druid. Barbarian slightly addresses this by giving you Rage and effectively making your temp hp double for the damage you resist. So if your purely looking for Extra Attack, I'd go that route, take 3 levels for Totem and then take Bear for basically doubling your temp hp for (almost) all damage types while raging.

Echo Knight Fighter is a possible option, as you can use your echo to attack, keeping yourself at a distance to save your temp hp from harm. (Though that's not really a tank)

I've attempted Spore Druid/Monk builds that are very effective if you can keep your character out of harms way. I'm currently attempting a Spore Druid/Barbarian to see how well it can hold up.

I find Spore Druid works best as a melee fighter when playing a skirmisher, or hit and run type attacker. I don't have enough frame of reference on how well it combos with Barbarian yet to know if it would make a good tank in that regard.


As for being a Caster, to me, Spore Druid is rather boring focusing caster, as you'll generally be doing a lot of the same stuff any other caster druid would be doing, except I think the other druid subclasses, aside from moon, give you more to work with in the casting department. I also don't think the Spore Druid spells spice that up all that much, even Animate Dead, since you don't really have any synergy with undead as opposed to other creatures you could summon.

Let's say I don't pick polearm master and get fey touched instead. Would a monk dip then be worth it? If I were to commit to 5 level of monk what subclass would be the best? I'm thinking drunken master for movement so I can be a skirmisher like you mentioned.

[elyktsorb]

Let's say I don't pick polearm master and get fey touched instead. Would a monk dip then be worth it? If I were to commit to 5 level of monk what subclass would be the best? I'm thinking drunken master for movement so I can be a skirmisher like you mentioned.

It would definitely be more worth it if you don't have Polearm Master.

Drunken Master is good, though you'd be relying on having Ki to be able to disengage more freely. Which would be a similar case for Open Hand as well. Astral Self is actually quite a good choice depending on how you want to do it, as it allows you to focus more on Wisdom, and you get a further range on those melee attacks, which could prevent you from even needing to disengage at all.

[animorte]

I have a Half-Orc Spores Druid (single class) that functions quite well in the front lines. The only issue I’ve discovered thus far is the AC.

I agree, Monk looks like a solid idea for extra attacks. That damage add-on is so good. And unarmored defense from the Monk is much better than from the Barbarian.

I have never been a fan of GWM or PAM, so I would recommend neither. Extra attacks are better than anything either of those could ever do for this build, IMHO.

[Psyren]

I would definitely ask your DM about using other temp HP (e.g. racial) to maintain spores form instead of the tiny amount a spores dip will give you. Show them the sidebar in Spores' Druid's original publication (GGtR) which indicates this might have been the intent.

Spores Druid 2/Mercy Monk X would be an awesome and thematic frontline build as you manipulate the life force of your enemies.

[elyktsorb]

Being a Goliath would also go a long way to keeping your temp hp with their Stone's Endurance ability. Being able to reduce 1d12+Con damage per PB per long rest is great.

[Talamare]

Let's say I don't pick polearm master and get fey touched instead. Would a monk dip then be worth it? If I were to commit to 5 level of monk what subclass would be the best? I'm thinking drunken master for movement so I can be a skirmisher like you mentioned.

Kensei, for +2 AC