Druid BarBEARian

[sambojin]

Anyway, for the OP'ers question, I recommend this:

M.Dwarf Moon Druid 9/ War Cleric 1
(honestly not too far off barb stuff, but better. Just use those spell slots on actual spells. That's what they're for. You already have enough HP).

8Str/14Dex/14+2Con/8Int/15+1Wis/12Cha
(27pt buy, +'s for racials, can switch Cha and Str if you want, or Int, but it's a nice spell save option and it's good to be a little talky).

1st ASI: +2 Wis (now 18Wis/+4 modifier)
(it's hard to not go for +2 prepared spells and better DC for them, and an extra War attack per day as well).
2nd ASI: Sentinel
(opportunity attacks if someone tries to move away, bargain! Stacks great with spells or War attacks, because they actually do want to get away, rather than just getting tickled by a HP sponge).

You can sub out the Sentinel feat for Resilient: Con if you want more reliable magic, but you seem to want a melee combat focus, so that's what you get. Fairly reasonable lockdown melee. That can hit fairly hard on occasion.

Pros: Good at everything. Except shooting.
Cons: Uses limited resources to be so, and concentration prevents you from being good at everything at any particular time. You're just good at a thing, but it can be anything you want.

Background: Sailor (it explains why you've seen so many weird beasts/dinos no matter where you were from, and Athletics/Perception is never bad for a Moon).

See if you can backstory in an Awakened beast to begin with. Even if you start with less money. Because it's one of the first things you'll do anyway if you don't start with one. Try to keep it as just one though. It makes it far more likely to be DM approved.

Growth Potential: next level is a doozy with elemental forms coming online. Can ASI in more Wis or Res:Con at 13. Just all around handy to have in a party. Hits just hard enough (or stacks DC save condition-inducing attacks enough) to stay relevant in combat, while also being a magical powerhouse. Gets stuff like Giant Snapping Turtle (plus Shield of Faith) for when you do want to go armoured (19AC isn't terrible, only large sized too, and a 4d6+4 damage attack for War bonus'ing) from the get-go, but has so many more complicated options too. Yes, you only get 4 War attacks per day. But you can easily cast a Flame Sphere and have a minute of bonus action "attacks" instead, that they will want to move away from by the end of their turn, thus triggering your Sentinel reaction. Or send in the Conjures. Or Pass without Trace around the entire problem. Or fly around it, whenever you want. Or Enhance Ability for you or your party as required. Or just Bless and cantrip spam. You have Druid resources. They are incredibly different to every other classes' resources. You'll get used to it.

If you really, really want to, you could take a level of Monk at some time. Or of Barb. Might want to move some stats around, might not. But I think it'd be best to Druid from here on in. But if you really want a slightly better armoured or slightly hittier-but-can't-use-awesome-minute/hour-long-hitty-magic, you could take a lvl of Barb or Monk. There is that growth potential. But by about lvl9-11, Druids are all about scalable magic that just became amazing, and really "Imma just gonna do this for funsies" resource usage. They're awesome. Having War Cleric mini-action-surge attacks just makes it more fun to do wildshape stuff after this point. It won't be amazing, but it's the best you've got (for a 1lvl dip, and it's a way better dip than Fighter 2 or 3 for a Moon anyway).


(also, see if your DM, considering you're a Dwarf without armour problems, and have the blessing of a War God saying "Yep, any weapon, any armour, all good, you know that stuff, use it", will let you wear metal armour. It'd be against everything holy if you couldn't. It's not a big thing for the character's power, but I mean, c'mon.......)


Soooooo many things to do with a non-magic-limited Druid that's barbaric or even super-clericy. Refluff the effect as you want. Jaculi spirit swarm from Conjure Animals? That's a lot of decent rage-whirlwind/spirit-guardians doing pretty decent leaping damage. Damn perceptive/stealthy ones at that, that can meaningfully interact with the world in ways other than "Raarrrgh! Kill!!! Me spell/class-feature!"

Repaint some stuff, or use as-is. You'll be fine. Bam. Ba-Bam! BAM! They are essentially your Dr Octopus arms. Kinda crappy, but kinda hitty too.