The Circle of Stars Druid: D&D 

can you take a look at pathfinder 2e ? I'd love to see how you would make a god wizard in this game. I throughly enjoyed your guides for pathfinder 1e and 5e

Agreed. You don't even need Sage Advice. It says right in the spell description: "At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st." since you are casting it without using a 2+ spell slot the damage doesn't increase.

WotC's rule of thumb is generally to state what something can do rather than what it can't

I’m Playing it now. The free casts are always level one. You can ‘buy’ higher spell slot casts because it’s on your spell list. Hope that helps maybe 🤔

I am curious about how you read chalice needs to target a second creature?

Somehow I had completely missed this! An amazing boost.

Yeah thats makes the other forms also very useful

This may be an update since this post is a year old, but d&d beyond says you can change form with a bonus action each turn.

@@Mmmbop0987 It's not in the TCoE errata, so that sounds like an error.

@@timeforsuchaword I don’t own the book, so you’re probably right, no one tell my DM!

I would say it is stronger than the other Druids, but not by much compared to the best options. And I like the flavor.

I thought the spores always did necrotic? I have a spores druid, the poison damage is added to melee while the halo of spores damage is the necrotic if the save is failed

@@GrimViridian I see you missed the update! Your Symbiotic Entity now does necrotic damage not poison. The Halo of Spores remains unchanged. But you not knowing does rather illustrate my point.

@@colinlove4659 ah I did! That's awesome and much better, too bad that campaign is on hiatus right now XD

That really helps Spores be that combat necromancer, but spores is still reliant on how much downtime your DM gives you to raise a zombie/skeleton army.

My favorite thing to do is HP tank with this build. Chalice + Healing spirit to restore any round 1 damage before the HP comes online or Dragon + Healing spirit to make sure the HP doesn't drop.

I think they limit themselves to spells in the PHB or the current book to make sure that owning another sourcebook is not required.

@@TreantmonksTemple they could have reprinted it XD

I think I'd allow that if one of my players asked because it just fits.

It should be what you get at 14th level and have it work like your guiding bolt which makes it a direct upgrade and a decent capstone.

Do any subclasses get extra spells that are as high as 7th level spells? The highest I've seen for expanded spell lists for subclasses is 5th level spells. Edit: not counting magical secrets from bard

I've been thinking exactly the same.

Yeah, a decent number of the spellcasting subclasses in tasha's get some kind of spiritual weapon equivalent. The reason it's not quite as good for the stars druid is that it comes at the opportunity cost of the other starry forms.

Well Archer form can't be upcast at all, so it is only scaling by your wisdom mod, at least until level 10, and at level 10 it's not going to keep up. Means it is great at low levels, and then falls off as you have better things to do with your bonus action/wild shapes.

@@Kurse_of_Kall I don't know who upcasts Spiritual weapon at 6th level anyway so at 10th level you're basically replicating the 4th level version. As far as keeping up, it's a bonus action. Druids aren't always going to be doing something with their bonus action anyway, and at 10th level you can change forms as a free action at the start of each turn, you aren't always going to be in direct danger of attack or concentrating on something vital and damage is damage even if it's not as much as a great weapon master divine smite.

@@andrewmcmillan229 refer back to the first reply. The reason it isn’t that good, is because if you take archer then you can’t take dragon, and dragon is better than archer in almost every scenario past lvl 5. Like, with resilient constitution feat it would be almost impossible to lose concentration

@@matiasrostworowski5141 yeah but the 10th level ability let's you switch forms. This means if you are safe you can switch to chalice for healing or you can go and do some extra damage to that pesky backliner. I mean it isn't a very long range but if you are making other casters take damage and do concentration checks as well then that is worthy.

Yeah, I mean Chalice stuck out to me quite a bit. Doubling or tripling my first level cure wounds is pretty great for stretching my spell slots

Did you ever use the Dragon form for the concentration bonus. I mean a lot of druid spells are con. I've heard people blasting with Guiding Bolt + Archer form as bonus action.

Probably has War Caster and a lot of faith.

I think dragon form pairs better with resilient constitution than war caster since it gives a minimum of ten before modifiers. Low rolls can still happen with advantage, but improving your minimum total is always nice.

I do like the the archer though. Its basically spiritual weapon without using a spell slot. Then later its an improved spiritual weapon. Dragon is still the best but having the option of the other two is nice especially once you can switch them up. Shame druid don't get spirit guardians as that would work great woth the dragon constellation.

Weal could help that a little. If you get hit, especially if its 22+ dmg where you're needing more than a 10 to save, give your self Weal and a d6 to help with the Concentration Check. Can only use this a few times but helpful still. Woe is basically a weaker version of Unsettling Words, you cast a spell that requires a save then throw Woe at them taking d6 away to make sure it sticks. Great for Polymorphing an enemy or other big take out spells.

Sad Shepard & spore druid noises

Moon isn't bad, it's just the only ciecle people seem to know or take?

Shepherd is cool bruh

While moon will always be strongest, Wildfire, Spores, and stars are all awesome.

D4 did a great fathomless warlock. Took 1 level is sorcerer for frostbolt because it's on theme. Whole build is about frost damage and slowly enemy movement. One of my favorite builds of his

So true. I'm always happy to get a push notification when there is a new video =)

yes, Chris rly makes an effort and produces good stuff!

@@dajosh6271 kinda crazy that it’s taken this long. His God Wizard guides were incredibly popular. I guess there just wasn’t RU-vid marketing in them.

This combo is pretty much the only reason my level 2 party didn't get TPK'd in Rhyme of the Frostmaiden!

I mean tbf, when I played my cleric using SW, I was frequently frustrated with the slow movement of it, especially with people moving around a large map. While SW might have a higher max range, being able to hit anyone in that range reliably without having to worry about movement speeds is very nice.

The form lasts for 10 minutes. There are plenty of times when there's 5-10 minutes of in game time between encounters and getting more than 2 or 3 battles before taking a short rest is pretty rare itself. This ability really shines when used with something like swarmkeeper where you have spike growth and move them with thorn whip as your action and bonus action shoot them for more movement (for groups of enemies) or for single target plop down a moonbeam shoot them move them put of the moon beam then action move the beam for 2d10 damage and another 2d10 when they start their turn. It's a pretty powerful bonus action

Wdym? You have 30 feet of movement and it's a ranged attack. Last I checked you couldn't move spiritual weapon 60 feet lol. Feels more like 6 feet most days

A spore ranger 5 stars druid 2 gets 3 attacks plus the spore damage. Something like 4d6+12 minimum and you can push and pull your enemy into moon beam for single target or spike growth for big mob fights.

do yo uthink that is intentional or an oversight?

Bards with Glibness cast on themselves are actually the best counterspellers. Just sayin'...

Actually the best counterspeller in the game is a 10 Abjurer / 2 Star Druid, at that level you can counterspell 9th level spells with 3rd level slots and that’s automatic. Second best is Bard with Glibness.

Yeah, that's valid. I meant to say it makes them the best counterspeller class

@@Similacrest totally fair.

And start form lasts for 10 minutes. If your dm runs 3 encounters in a short rest 2 of them might be within 10 minutes of eachother

I like Woe as a bit of a weaker version of Eloquence Bard's Unsettling Words. Cast Polymorph or other big spell on creature then react with Woe taking d6 from the save to make sure it sticks. But ya Weal is great for Dispel Magic or if you get hit by a big attack and need more than a 10 to keep concentration (if not in Dragon form) give yourself a d6.

That's easily solved by having your druid attend circle meetings, asking for ingredients, and *maybe* having to earn them with a quest that ties to the main story of the campaign? I've brought this up to my DM/GM and they were for the idea. Because there's nothing stating you can't use circle meetings for this, I've even had my druid form bonds with other circles. This is a great roleplay option too. Especially if you have a DM that cares about your inventory for your spell ingredients anyway.

I just stole my components, and made profit

No

Yep, green is where I would go

Yes, I based on the word another. I agree you can heal yourself and apply the boost unquestionably.

I think since you can do the bonus to healing to yourself the intent is to be able to do both the initial spell healing and the bonus healing to the same creature. That’s how I’d rule it. Either way, being able to heal two creatures with the same casting of healing word is nice.

Tbh I think they are tall good if you use them right

I miss the firebolt cantrip more. It should have given a choice of a fire based cantrip when you picked the circle.

dragon isn't a combat form, primarily. it's just straight utility. having advantage on wisdom and intelligence checks for 10 min is pretty good. that's arcana, history, insight, perception, and investigation being the prominent ones. i can think of more than a few situations where i would be willing to expend a charge of wild shape for 10 min of advantage where the light doesn't matter much at all. and you can drop it whenever you want. i think 2 combat forms and 1 utility form is more than reasonable. and being a utility form it won't see combat very often. after level 10 though, aside from using it for flying, it'd be decent in the situation that you know you're going to take damage and you really want to keep concentration up, as you can't get lower than a 10. switch to dragon for the turn(s) (depending on how hard whatever is attacking you hits on average). i feel like this form is underrated. which it definitely is if you're only thinking of it in terms of combat. on an unrelated note, chalice doesn't say that extra d8 can't be used on the same target as the heal. it's basically: you restore hp to a creature (with a spell slot), and then also to you or another creature. so you can def do it to yourself if the original spell was on you. or another creature other than yourself, which would still include the original creature the spell was cast on. just found it interesting the video interpreted it that way.

@@emilya.4925 Yes, you can totaly focus Heal with the Ability, which makes it pretty nice in a game where the DM actually punishes players dropping to 0. If the DM doesnt punish it and just goes RAW, you can totaly abuse that you can pop up 2 allies with one Bonus action and a Level 1 Spellslot... Regarding the Utility of Dragon Form, I agree that the advantage is nice, but its still very rare that it will be worth a limited ressources, unless you are in downtime and know you wont need Wild Shape for something else.

Maybe cleric for spirit guardians? Cast spiritual weapon and you basically have the archer effect as well. Then you just need something effective to do woth your action and you are set.

I did say it was the best of the "need to hit on target for damage" spells at first level...

@@TreantmonksTemple you just sound so upset in the video that it’s not an AOE spell. Maybe it’s just my perception that’s askew.

A 2 level dip into anything to get spiritual weapon seems like too big an investment. Besides, if you are going to dip 2 levels for a bonus action attack, why not dip Wildfire? You get 2 hours instead of 20 min and get a 9 square AoE attack with your bonus action every round. Should outdamage the archer significantly I would think.

I'm afraid not; spells cast without a slot are always cast at their lowest level unless otherwise specified.

The assumption is lowest spell slot unless the ability says otherwise. See the pinned comment.

DM's hate him! See the one trick that makes this stars druid unstoppable He bought one of those d1 dice that exist

yes. it's the way I'm running it. And even if it did count as a spell you could still cast a cantrip using your action.

Would we make the same assumption for Fey Touched and Shadow touched? They also don't say...not sure "the rules don't specifically say you can't" means that you can assume otherwise.

@@TreantmonksTemple I haven't seen fey or shadow touched. But other similar abilities all say the level of spell you cast it at so it makes sense to me that you could cast it at the highest level available to you

@@moto2442 I can see that reading of it. We are in that area where the rules say you can cast guiding bolt without expending a spell slot, and they don't say you can't also upcast with a higher level spell slot and gain the same benefit.

@@TreantmonksTemple I couldn't font the example I was thinking of but I could be wrong. However the text for the tieflings spells says 'hellish rebuke as a 2nd level spell'. That is probably a counter example as the darkness just says at 5th level you may cast darkness. I do feel like it should either scale or star Map should increase the duration of starry form.

You could upcast it with a spell slot. The rule of thumb though is that when you cast without a spell slot, unless otherwise stated, you always cast the spell at its lowest level so using the ability? No. Ofc if your DM says it's cool then it's cool. Even then using it during turns you're concentrating on something else or to have advantage on your Archer attack is likely the play here.

I would assume it is not giving you the ability to upcast it

@@TreantmonksTemple I agree, but on the other argument, the only other scenario with which this matters is warlock invocation with false life, which specifically says as a 1st level spell. So there is no other rulings to really rely on.

@@UnbornHeretic It's in the sage advice compendium that spells cast without slots are cast at their lowest level unless otherwise specified. I do agree that it would have been better for general clarity if they just said 1st level in the ability.

@@UnbornHeretic See the pinned comment.