D&D 5e Class Guide: Druids – The Nature Dudes

Intro – Welcome Guest Author Bruce

One of the most fun aspects of playing D&D is the process of finding the concept for, and then fleshing out a new character for an upcoming game. Our minds race with possibilities of epic heroic moments, quirky personalities, and meaningful contributions to our gaming table through a really cool character concept.  We’re kicking off a class guide series to help you find the right class for you and your game to take your experience to the next level. We’ve brought in some help from a guest author by the name of Bruce Guest, Author of D&D resource blog Bardic Inspiration. He’s passionate about the D&D hobby as well and we’re loving his writing already. Hope you enjoy.

Druid Class Guide – Druid’s Theme: The Balance of Nature

Let’s start off with a druid’s mindset. Druids are, perhaps more than any other class, incredibly in tune with nature.  Where other divine casters like clerics and paladins are in service of their god or goddess, druids serve nature, whether it be the forests, deserts, swamps, or any other aspect of nature.  This does not mean that druids must be atheists, due to many druids worshipping a deity of the wilds. 

Further doubling down on the commitment to the natural, druids have access to their magical abilities through their deep connection with the untamed world.  Those bonds are so deep that druids refuse to wear armor or carry shields that are made of metal.  Due to this rejection of modern armor, druids use the parts of different plants they hold sacred to craft weapons, armor or a druidic focus. 

As a part of their service to nature, druids tend to charge themselves with keeping the balance of the four elements: air, earth, fire, and water.  Druids sometimes find themselves in opposition with cults or other aggressors who push the advancement of a certain element over the others. 

Druid Class Guide – Role Play Tools: Secret Languages and Shapeshifting

Druids have two distinct features that make them unique from other characters that can lead to AWESOME role-play moments. 

The first feature is that Druids can speak and write in a secret language only known by other druids called Druidic.  Others can spot the message with a DC 15 perception check but are unable to read it without magic.  Since Druidic is the secret language of druids it is highly unlikely that a non-druid can find someone to teach him/her the language without some serious penalties crafted by your DM.  These could range from being ostracized by the local druid community to your druid losing his arcane abilities. 

Druid’s second unique feature is their ability to wild shape.  This magical ability learned at level two, grants a druid the ability to transform into different animals!  As your druid levels up, she can turn into more and more powerful creatures. 

Mindset: Think Like a Druid

Thinking of playing a druid? Part of really embracing the class is really getting to grasp what a druid’s mindset might be.

A druid has a connection to nature on nearly a religious level. Think of something that is in your life so much that you could shape the fabric of reality around as the flow of nature coursed through your being and flow out in the form of druidic magic.  Due to their love of nature, druids could vow themselves to protect it in different ways such as protecting the natural order of the world, keeping the forest they call home safe, saving every kitten that’s stuck in a tree. Druids are the “nature bros” of the Dungeons and Dragons world.  If you’re going for a more light-hearted style, they can be those “I only buy all-natural products” shoppers you find at the local market or the overly vocal vegan cornering patrons in the tavern shaming them for eating meat.

Druids have the opportunity to oppose (and maybe even hate) anything not natural.  If so. monsters in the aberration category like beholders or mind flayers or the undead category like zombies or liches are abominations to druids and might be categorized in the druid’s mind as “to  be destroyed at all costs.”

Druid Class Guide – How to Play Nice with Others?

Druids can play a  wide array of roles in the party. Here are some of the core ones.  Role-play Utility, Healer, Enemy De-Buffer, and Team Buffer.  I’ll go over the last three roles in the Bang Bang, Pew Pew combat section later. 

I personally play a human druid named Gar Rhane (A combination of Garfield “Gar” Logan aka Beast Boy of the Teen Titans and Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane of the X-Men) who has spent a little too much time in the woods and away from society and it shows in his interactions with others.  Gar makes off-color comments to characters of more exotic races such as Tabaxi and Kenku referring to them as the cat lady and bird person. 

Druids have access to spells granted to them by nature or a deity of nature that have wonderful possibilities for fun role-play scenarios.  The spells Speak with Animals or Speak with Plants can be a ton of fun.  I DM’d a game where a player used the Speak with Plants spell to talk to a group of trash-talking seaweed.  Druids can cast Transport via Plants to act as the party’s Uber to transport them from place to place which is super useful in a world traversing campaign. 

Another great roleplaying spell can be the 9th level druid spell True Resurrection.  With this spell, a druid can resurrect a creature that’s been dead for 200 years or less that has died in any way except for old age.  Your party’s druid being able to bring back your character’s long lost dog which was your whole reason for picking the up the sword again to avenge Fido’s death can be an amazing opportunity for closure in a character’s story arc. 

Nice Stats Bro

Assigning stats for your druid is a pretty simple process. I’d recommend that your highest stat should go to your druid’s spellcasting ability and main which is wisdom.  The skills associated with wisdom are animal handling, insight, medicine, perception, and survival.  It seems logical that druids who live in nature find it easier to handle wild animals and survive in a rough environment.

I recommend placing your second highest stat into your character’s constitution score.  Druids roll only 1d8 for their hit points when they level up so beefing up that con score can be beneficial if things get hairy in combat.  Thematically having a high constitution score makes sense since your character has to be a hardy individual to live in the wild for extended amounts of time and has possibly eaten a few bad mushrooms in their lifetime.  

Bang Bang, Pew Pew

As I stated in the How to Play Nice with Others section, there are three combat roles for druids that can be fun and effective. 

Healer

Have your druid take the Circle of Dreams archetype at level 2 where they will gain access to the feature Balm of the Summer Court.  This feature gives your character a pool of d6s for each druid level.  As a bonus action, your druid can heal a target within 120 feet using a number of d6s equal to or less than your druid level.  Your target also gains one temporary hit point for each spent d6.  This awesome feat paired with some great spells druids have access to like, Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Mass Cure Wounds, and Heal allows your druid to take care of your party members like he would take care of a withering plant. 

Enemy De-Buffer

Druids’ spells being nature-based give them the advantage of controlling the terrain in combat and de-buff enemies with ease. 

• Entangle causes vines and weeds to grow from the ground creating difficult terrain for a 20-foot square.  Creatures caught in the area make a strength save or be restrained.  The casting range is 9 feet which lets the druid caster be far away from the real danger.
• Fog Cloud creates a 20-foot-radius sphere of obscuring fog that can be used to give your teammates a chance to get out of a tough spot and flee.  The casting range for this spell is 120 feet, again letting your druid to not be in the range of melee combat. 
• Spike Growth is another Area of Effect spell that causes difficult terrain for a 20-foot radius and also forces creatures who move through this area to take 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet traveled.  The casting range for this spell is 150 feet again giving your nature bro much-needed space from danger. 
• Sleet Storm. This spell that has been a personal bane to my DMing in my campaign.  My players use this spell in nearly every single combat scenario and I can’t blame them because this spell is just that good.  This spell creates a 20-foot-tall cylinder shape with a 40-foot radius centered on a spot you choose in the 150-foot range.  This area becomes heavily obscured and the ground is covered in slick ice causing difficult terrain.  When a creature moves into the area or starts its turn int he area has to make a dexterity saving throw or falls prone.  Guess who always fails those throws?  Me.  My carefully crafted combat encounters are always disrupted by this spell.  Always.

Buffer

My final suggestion for a combat savvy druid build is the buffer.  These druids focus on strengthening his/her companions in a fight.  These druids can take the Circle of the Shepherd at level 2 and begin using the Spirit Totem feature immediately.  As a bonus action, your druid can call forth nature spirits to give your companions buffs such as: temporary hit points, advantage of strength checks and saving throws (bear spirit), advantage to attack rolls and Perception checks (hawk spirit), advantage on all ability checks and several companions regaining hit points when you cast a healing spell (unicorn spirit).  Druids also have access to buffing spells such as Enhance Ability, Pass without a Trace, Resistance, and Guidance. 

Is a Druid a Good Match for me?

Playing a druid can be a great experience for any player!  In my opinion, the type of people who would connect best with the druid class is people who love animals, nature, and the role-play aspect of D&D, and also anyone that finds one of the roles above interesting and fun to try out.

Druid Character Ideas

Here are a few druidic character concepts to get your creative mind going for creating your own druid.

1.         A Gar Rhane.  A druid who has been stuck in the woods for a while too long.  He’s disconnected from the world and has very awkward social encounters.

2.         Is it not natural?  Kill it with fire!  This character idea is a druid who cannot stand undead or aberration monsters and will charge headfirst (sometimes to the detriment of the party) to kill these foes. 

3.         I only eat all-natural.  This is the idea of the over-sharing vegan druid who HAS to tell you that what you’re eating is murder.  These characters may have a problem with the party killing wild animals that may be trying to kill them.