I understand why people sleep on fungal infestation. Some dm's are boring or don't incorporate "good" chances for a PC to use their unique abilities and it discourages the player. I've played several Spore Druids by this point. 1 of them took 6 levels in necromancer wizard, the other was 5 levels in beast barbarian. Both of those druids had unimaginative dm's. My favorite spores druid so far was a pure druid with a brilliant DM. There was a scenario where our ranger died, like outright. I, as the go to support/healer, was not expected to revive them in any capacity as my druid preached the acceptance of death and the beauty of decay, something the party didn't agree with but still accepted. Well, I had a split second idea and asked my DM if I could use fungal infestation to raise our ranger. Our DM got a glint in her eye and RAN with that. It was such a clutch moment as our ranger was raised as a zombie, stats and abilities still intact; the twist being they weren't all there mentally (expertly played out by the player btw) and they could only have 1 HP, no death saves, and a new 1 hour lease on life. Well, that one hour was all we needed for the ranger to help finish out the battle (4 v Beholder) and say goodbye to their animal companion. I cried, the player cried, the DM damn near died from the feels. It all led to a genuinely incredible session. It just goes to show that DND and all its shenanigans is only as good as those you play it with.
That is the greatest spore Druid story I ever heard!!!. That dm is a hero and so was that ranger!!!. What a way to go and such an awesome way for an undead hero to be created and remembered. That’s just jaw dropping at how cool that moment must of felt.
Love the idea of a druidic necromancer, and not just because of the song "Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship". Thanks for pointing out the flaw in the "it's not natural" restrictions.
Thanks I love necromancers I covered this in my video about necromancy wizards. In my opinion it’s much better to just use corpses as tools not as a necessity. So the spores Druid uses that mentality well. And yeah not wearing metal makes no sense. You manipulate leather to make leather armor, what’s the difference?
@@TheSinisterheroes Same. Always loved necromancy and the Halo of Decay gives a nice aura of decay feel. My best guess is that the metal restriction comes from an feeling that metal isn't natural. It makes no sense given that metal is a natural thing and is forged using natural processes. Part of me thinks that they just don't want druids in plate armor.
@@Hadex79 I think it’s more to do with metal being what cuts down trees and trees are burned to fuel the fires to run the forges to craft metal. Think of Saruman vs the ents
Honestly, I loved the flavor the spores druid had when going through all the options of what to have as my sub class. I chose the spores and began my session zero with my DM. That was fun and i wanted to know more about what to expect as I progressed on in the campaign. After a couple other videos it kind of discouraged me about how people play this class and that they say it is more thematical and not practical. I was well prepared to start thinking of multi-classing and then i cam across your video. You give me more hope for this class that I may want to just stick it out. Giving me ideas for ways to best utilize what I have been given in my arsenal of the class. You helped open up my eyes to what I had initially fallen in love with when first choosing the class. I have been apart of murder hobo parties and I grow tired of the antics that it becomes... monotonous. We all agreed that we want more of an Roleplaying feel to this campaign and I didn't want to feel like a bother while still having fun with my new friends. I am not used to the roleplaying s this is a new fun thing for me to experience and so far I am loving the interactions with my companions. I just wanna say thank you for giving me hope that even as I level up I wont have to feel like I have to multi-class to feel useful in combat with my allies while still staying true to my character. Granted we have only finished our 3rd session this evening, but once again, thank you. You've reinvigorated the passion I wanted to enjoy with this class. Thank you!
I am so glad you found your way into roleplaying. When I first did it I got hooked so hard. Still till this day I get so pumped for a session just to be able to be my character again….. probably should look into that. 🤣😂🤣 I feel like a lot of people get forced into multiclassing just from a power gaming point of view. Yeah it can make you mechanically stronger in some ways. When it comes to spell casters most people gets the rules wrong. Like if you take 1 level in a different caster you only have access to that first level spells. You can’t choose higher level spells from there list. Because you have to level up in that class to swap out spells that you have spell slot levels. As a spell caster you can grow so much in power just with your natural progression. I am glad you took the chance and stayed with the class. There will be times where you won’t be as strong as other characters, though it’s supposed to be that way. Every class has different strongest points. Specifically as a spore Druid your just better off staying in a singular class. The benefits of symbiotic entity gain in level with the temp go bonus, but you still have access wild shape. I also really have a hard time joining the theory of multiclassing in a roleplay way. You have to garner this in game aspect of it in my mind to do so. Which seems so counter productive when you dedicate your self to a class already. That’s just my perspective, I tend to dislike multi classing.
I am currently playing a Warforged Spore Druid with the Faceless Background. He was build as an executioner, as a Tool to a city, which citizens don't like to make their hands dirty. But the designer of this Warforged decided to plant a seed of an Gulthias-Tree inside of him, to make him into a living timebomb as the blood of the killed criminals nourished the seed inside. Now my Warforged, named Scrub, wanders the world in hope to find answers to why He is who He is. And uses instead of spores necrotic twigs and vines, that grow out of the seed in his body. Thanks to your video I now know how to use some of the Features of the Spore Druid better in combat as well as in Roleplay scenarios. ^^ (My English isn't the best. Greetings from Germany :) )
HELLO GERMANY!!!!!!! I am so glad to read your characters story that’s incredible! I am glad the video is helpful to you. Thank you so much for checking it out!!!
I am so happy to have been a help, it’s a really cool subclass you are gonna have a lot of fun!!, if you get any hiccups are feel like something is off I would be happy to help !
Multiclassing with Gloom Stalker/Dueling is my favorite build. Combining Symbiotic Entity with Shillelagh and Hunter's Mark makes melee brutal. Having Dread Ambusher as a Druid makes you a front of the line fighter. And you can still cast with your off-hand.
I never really understood why the gloom stalker was so powerful till it clicked what umbral sight did. Considering how often you can be in places where it’s dark putting out a candle makes you invisible unless they have blind sense. And you get that at level 3
@@TheSinisterheroes that and since Pass Without Trace is a 2nd level spell means you don't have to dip to far into ranger, to make your spores druid extra sneaky , even if you made Dex your dump stat.
I love this subclass because of the combinations of role play and combat quick things I would use for multi classes, Spores plus grave cleric, spores plus mercy monk and, spore plus swarm ranger just for basic examples of what this subclass allows
My problem with the level 6 zombie ability isn’t the 1HP, the issue is it only works on humanoids and beasts, so it comes up infrequently at level 6. As you level up it comes up less and less (can come up more in the right campaign). I wish it was just any creature of a specific size because the typing limits it so much. Great video!
Thank you so much!!! I can see that being an issue, though I don’t feel as if it’s game breaking if the dm rules it to work on any creature. It is strictly limited in its uses, I doubt it would cause any problems.
I love to see someone else who's pumped about the Circle of Spores! I just made a Character named Omnigul with this and looove how flavorful it is! Thanks for the vid 🤙 PS: could you please turn the music down in the future? ❤️
Hi! Super helpful info, especially for this brand-new D&D player who thought a HoS druid was a great idea for my first character. Needless to say, each combat turn is a sweat inducing “omg there’s so many things, what have I done!” moment, which of course I love anyway! Can’t wait to get my spreading spores next level, I’m already prepping some nasty tricks to frustrate my dm 👹 A gentle bit of feedback on the background music, I have auditory processing issues, and the high-pitch repeating melody made it very hard to concentrate on your voice. My brain already hurt from all the info, and those little violins were like little gremlins ripping up my mental notes as I took them, lol
Hmmm I never heard of issues like that I am so sorry. In the next few months I intend to change the music. I hate to tell you but almost all of my videos have that same music.
@@TheSinisterheroes it’s ok, no need to apologize! It’s one of those fun little things I’d always struggled with and didn’t know had a name until fairly recently. It tends to show up a lot with ADHD and autism, but can also be a standalone issue or related to brain injury, damage from ear infections, etc. Thanks again for the great info, and I’ll be digging through what other gems your channel has to offer 😊
Spores druid multiclass with swarmkeeper ranger. the blighted one. instead of spores its all because of a lingering curse. give everything a much darker feel.
I think you could use the curse and the spores harmoniously, let the curse be decay, and let it show in the form of spores that eat away. Level 5 swarmkeeper the rest spores
My Dm is letting me play a myconid spore druid and I am loving it, I currently have 119 health at lvl 9 since I went the tanky route with tough and going for max Con since we roll for our stats. My DM ironically fails to hit me on 3 out of 4 attacks, but that means I just get to make concentration checks all that often.
Let me just say I love the spores Druid. and I’d do just about anything to get them extra attack and be a gross spore gish. It’s my dream, and I dream constantly. Scimitar of speed??? Anyone???
24:17 it was so refreshing to hear “who cares?” in regards to power, because honestly I’m sick of the power-gaming mentality in the community is it really worth it to roll high numbers on dice with a boring fighter multiclass that has no roleplay characteristics, instead of just using the characters that really interest us
It’s one of those things that I have a lot of difficulty with. Like if you feel strong there’s a bunch of ways for each class to do that. The part that loses me is a character that has one of these minmax builds, they loose the connection to their class. Your class should mean more to you than just a thing you do. It takes a lot to be able to be any of the classes. It also dose a disservice to the other classes being used. Like the warlock dosent have the same impact when paladins sorcerers and bards all take hexblade for 2 levels. It makes the hex blade a joke.
I have a character I've wanted to play for ages who's a Spore Druid with 1 level of Life Cleric She's blessed/cursed with powers over life and death, so she's travelling to try and better harness her powers for good, though she struggles with people because of the nature of her being She doesn't have a malevolent bone in her, but she thinks she's a monster She's really good at medicine and healing magic, as well as fighting with her quarterstaff
You know those classes compliment each other well. That life cleric healing buff dose wonders, on top of the duality of your theme. You really need to play that character. If they sit in the bench for too long they become almost like a dream.
@@TheSinisterheroes Yea, I was pretty happy with how the character sheet turned out I love the theme of the character; I usually play the quiet, low charisma characters, but this could be a nice change from the emotionally distant characters I usually play
Running point buy with a Hill Dwarf I end up at 8/14/20/10/20/10 with 263 Hit Points (+4 Con, +4 Wis, Tough feat & average HP) or a Tortle with 16/8/20/8/18/10 & 243 Hit Points (+4 Con, +2 Wis, Durable & Tough feats & once again average HP). In either case I play the character as a perpetually high AF hippie with a strong Canadian accent (including excessive use of the word "Hozer") who's very kind, supportive & encouraging but makes Grog from Critical Role look like Einstein (even though Grog has, like, 6 Int). The figurine I use is a druid with mushrooms growing all over him (Tortle & Dwarf each) with the entire thing painted black (no special color detail) as he channels a black, magical "fungus" or "mold" through his entire body. Whenever I turn a humanoid into a zombie I use a solid black Myconid figurine, as I'm flooding the entire body with mold & animating their remains. Once the zombies die, they "melt" into a puddle of black goo that immediately grows various plants & fungus. I even have names for all 3 of them: Dave, Davin, Dylan & Dale. Party leader gives a speech on what to do next, why it's so important & then asks for team input--but I just slowly look at him and go "Uh... huh?"
What level are you? I really like the imagery of how you use the mold and how you painted the character. And how you raise the dead. It really hits on all the points, just out of curiosity why do you play him as low intelligence?
@@TheSinisterheroes He's high AF all the time. Maybe dumb or maybe a side effect of the mold inside him. He's a magic pothead. Edit: Used him in a one-shot test drive in Ravnica & will be sending him into Ravenloft at level 5 with Strahd.
Oh yeah I could definitely see that. This is my favorite Druid subclass I think it really creates this cool character that is meant to thrive in harsh environments.
Thoughts: Tortle 1 fighter unarmed fighting 2 spore 7 hunter ranger col slay/ multi atk def Spore x Exp ath for grappling, blind fighting w/ fog cloud....
I gotcha I really just ended up wanting the two weapon fighting style and just used 2 scimitars. I never got the fighting style but I nearly used my bonus action so it helped out in my opinion
You might be thinking about lizardfolk with the natural armor. With this using fists as weapons you may wanna run it by your dm first cus the text dose say melee weapon attack
Man you definitely need to check out MR rhexx m.ru-vid.com he has some awesome lore videos about everything!!! He will blow your mind if you love the lore
I got my DM to let me exchange animate dead for summon undead, putrid form, easier to manage and thematically beautiful. I'm tearing up thinking about it.
This subclass reminds me of the scene in avatar the last airbender were Sokka was tripping balls on some kind of weed like cactus juice and said 'giant mushroom!!! fuzzy giant friend!!!!" It's such a good show and the spores druid is solid enough I guess but it's damage output is underwhelming and the zombie feature at level 6 is just so restrictive it literally clashes with the earlier features a lot since you need the temp HP to use the earlier features but the level 6 feature requires you to be right next to a slain creature maybe the feature is ment to be used on a fallen zombie but it's still uncomfortably restrictive
I never watched avatar. And before you murder me I want you to understand I also really love the spores Druid. I can say from experience that it is a lot of fun to play. If your concerned about damage you should look into the spells that Druids have access to there’s plenty that will keep you doing just fine dpr wise. Being at level 6 you don’t have access to spreading spores yet so being around melee is useful for your halo of spores. I played melee as this Druid and I got to use everything. It dose have more of a risk that way. Though I always enjoy melee way more.
@@TheSinisterheroes don't get me wrong I am taking the spells into account which is why it gets a passing grade in my eyes I just don't like how restricted the zombie ability is and it doesn't improve either even when you can use the halo of spores at range you can only use it in melee range throughout the entire subclass but if you are looking for a melee build then you can ignore this flaw but yet again I am only seeing this though my eyes so perhaps you are seeing something I'm not the potential is there I'll admit but being forced to maintain melee range to use the zombie ability on slain enemies while trying to maintain the temp HP from my spores form to maintain my other core abilities is just too much of a hassle for me a lot of moving parts to keep track of but yet again that's just my opinion doesn't mean it's true and you should watch Avatar the last airbender it's an amazing series and I have a feeling you'd like azula she gives a lot of narcissistic villain vibes which might help with a character concept in the future a highly recommend series in my opinion
War caster!!! Full out get call lightning up spores out !!!!! Keep that concentration and use primal savagery as my main attack shield in one hand!!! I’d probably forego the on hit necrotic dmg unless I had like green flame blade but only if the dm would allow it but I’d much rather keep rocking with primal savagery. If it looks like hp getting low use healing spirit and love the tank caster life
@@TheSinisterheroesCool. I'd love to find a way to make the Poisoner Feat work. I've not played a spores druid but in theory it seems possible, coating undead weapons in poison and rocking some potent poisons if you can get them. Cheers.
The poisoner feat dose work for all poison damage. It dose work for spells as well. I would negotiate with the dm to make it work like elemental adept where it pierces immunity and makes it work like resistance.
I played a tortle spore druid once he rolled a nat one on his first initiative roll ever and then finally on his turn scared the living shit out of some hobs via gas baaed war crimes
I created a reborn rabbit folk spore druid undying Warlock. The crazier the better with me lol. She was raised from the dead by a fay wild dryad to share in vengeance against the world of man.
It’s such a strange coincidence that I am reading so many builds that have 2 different spell casting modifiers. So how did you come up with mixing them both? Like how do you utilize your skills in combat?
@@TheSinisterheroes Well a spore druid allows you take 4 temporary hit points, deal an extra d6 melee combat damage and role for damage again ontop of damage from Halo of spores. Undying Warlock allows the use of false life, which gives again the use of more temporary hits. I thought combining both of these spell casters would help fortify me both before and during combat.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but temporary hit points don’t stack they just replace each other. So like if you have 10 temp hp and you cast like false life you end up with what ever was the highest number, but they don’t add to each other. Your dm could rule it that way, but most of the time it’s just not built that way. Sorry again
@@TheSinisterheroes it might! I've just always heard how much better the monk is in bg3 and how you should not multiclass spores druid. I'll probably try it one day im not one for optimization, I usually have an idea and just try to build it the most fun way
I’m a beginner and i was using an app to help out with the making, I switched my subclass from land of forest to spores. The only problem is the app doesn’t provide this option so I was wondering what changed between the classes besides the spells you gain as you level up. Like do I still have entangle or plant growth? Or do some of those change aswell.
You have your base spell list and the base abilities no matter what subclass you choose. Spores gives you a different wild shape option. Some domain spells that are always prepared. a 1 hp minion, and a reaction, and then later a bonus action to do. At high levels you get a great defensive option. Entangle and plant growth rock out on the Druid spell list, you can still use your wild shape as normal.
I don’t get it, in truth. You manipulate leathers to make leather armor. Metal isn’t artificially made. They can use metal scimitars. I think it maybe a cool idea to restrict it if it had something to do with wild, but it dosent.
@@TheSinisterheroes If it is a twist on the fae's weakness it has nothing to do with metal being "unnatural" because fae are weakest to "cold iron" which is unprocessed and naturally found iron ore. The D&D lore is that druids take an oath not to wear metal. It is flavour that makes druids unique.
@@TheSinisterheroes It's just flavour. You can still wear other armour just made out of dragon scale, or chitin, or whatever. Druids made a pact to never wear metal so wearing metal could cause a druid to lose their connection to their abilities and magic.
That I would so be on bored with. I just wish they really brought that feel to 5e cus the Druid is strong! Having that wouldn’t really hinder them in anyway, but it would really bring you to this incredible understanding. Instead they just list in 5e as they don’t were metal
Thanks for checking us out!!! It’s a work in progress but thanks for your suggestion, I think you maybe right in a very big way, thank you for the suggestion
Sometimes classes and subclasses really don’t mesh with people. I know I have a few that I just don’t ever wanna be. I did really enjoy playing as a spore Druid. It was a lot of fun and it really really made me appreciate the Druid as a whole because of it. You’d be surprised how long it lasts. I had it for quite a while. You can also get really creative with it and use reach weapons or focus more on cantrips. A big part of it is your party composition. Having more melee tanky characters makes this easier.
IMO the melee benefits are a trap. This subclass plays best as a flexible mid-line caster that can jump into melee or tank a few hits if necessary. The real benefits are a boatload of THP, occasional free zombie, ANIMATE DEAD (!), and some good circle spells.
@@imasspeons that is the smarter play, as primal savagery will put pace your melee weapon attack anyway. Though I will go on and do it anyway cus I love being trapped!!!
@@TheSinisterheroes on average, most campaigns end before inefficient builds become a problem so who cares? As long as everybody's having a good time, play what you like! This isn't quite as strong as Wildfire or Stars and Shepherd is leagues better, so if you're playing Spores then it's probably for flavour or entertainment anyway. I'm currently running a lizardfolk druid that loves eating everything he comes across and has a slight affinity for nearly rotten carrion.
@@imasspeons it’s a nice synergy between the lizardfolk and the Druid. I think they really work well together lore wise as well. I think you should play what you feel makes you happier to play the game.
