The Problem with Druids in D&D 

This is legitimately one of my favourite copypastas ever and really inspired me with my own D&D worldbuilding, leading to me making a whole story about a fungal god and mushroom necromancers

Y’know, you might be right about that. But you’re going to wish I could. 😘

Tbh this subclass makes me think of a druid that carries around a plank to wack people with and to use if they want the benefits of constructed ground

Hey, when are you going to upload the restless?

My strength is waning 😘 The war will not end 🤣 The last battle was only the first 😎 I need to scream or else they won't find me 🤔 But I have no voice to scream with 😻💋

basically me...

Imagine playing a changeling moondruid and getting to also create as many personalities to roleplay as you want, on top of all the complexity of the options mentioned in this video... Same here btw, well not forever DM, but just finished my year long first campaign and got to play again Ps, really not looking to sound like i have a wrinkly brain, not claiming i'm any good at playing the character either, but it's fun

Why is this so true?

Is there an opposite approach for forever DMs like me who when they finally get to be a player want to track as little as possible and just play fighters? 😄

that honestly explains so much.

Oh

#copypaste

I have seen this joke on the past 3 dnd videos I've watched

Why is this everywhere now

You again...

Very true!

Yeah, I play DnD 3.5 on a Play-by-Chat site. In my "Notes" section I have all the stat blocks for commonly used summons and, in the future, will have the statblocks for every commonly used Wild Shape. The most useful thing, however, is having Pre-Made Attacks with all the various plus and minus explained. You know things like: "Summoned Eagle Dive Attack Hit 1d20 +3(Base Attack and Dex) +2(Dive) Damage 2d4+2(bonus from strength and Augment Summoning, doubled due to dive) " Or "Summoned Crocodile Bite Hit 1d20 +6(BaB and Strength) +2(Augment Summoning) Damage 1d8 +9 (One and a half strength augmented) Grapple, if hit 1d20+8 (BaB and Augmented Strength)" I just prepare the macro and in quest a click of a mouse is what separates me from the dice roll. Really speeds up the pace!

Yeah, I use dnd beyond and just make all the pay to get content as homebrew to use it for free.

.. Do people not know how to use google?

You can look up what a shark does with a lexicon or an online search. Now you can do that. Do not add more mechanics. In our OSR game of choice, the only thing that doesn't change is your HD and attack bonus. If you have a monster manual nearby, it probably has stats for how much a dog bite hurts if you need to look it up.

This is why spores and wildfire druids are so interesting Spores druids represent the cyclical way of nature. You live, and you die, and then you rot so that other things can live and die and rot. It's poetic in a way, and could work well for a druid who's main schtick is that nature is an unbreakable cycle, similar to how grave domain clerics protect the cycle of life and death, rather than pervert it with undeath. Wildfire druids, on the other hand, are a good representation of nature's fury, the raw destructive power nature possesses, and how, in an instant, you can be snuffed out like a candle. A wildfire druid would work very well as an eco-terrorist in a more modern setting, seeking to tear down civilisation to let nature thrive once more. Hell, dreams druids explicitly draw their power from the summer and winter courts of the feywild. The fey are dark and fickle creatures on their own, and that could play into that by having a dreams druid who reflects that, by them being just as twisted, fickle and cunning as the fey are.

I read the druid description the other month when making one. Had a long talk with my DM/GM about the fact that druids have the whole balance of nature and a lot of their forms are predatory, therefore there can be circles that see others as lesser and... prey on them. Some food for thought ;D Also, if a Druid A "changes into that animal" and Druid B sees them, my GM has ruled that because Druid A is officially that animal other than in mind/personality, Druid B can now become that animal. Therefore, if one member of a circle were to go see a T-Rex, come back and show the other members of their circle, you now have a grove of T-Rex druids. Likewise a magic show with a shapeshifting druid? Amazing. Other DM/GMs may rule differently though, so although mine is happy with that at our table, it's best to double check with yours.

@@sev1120you just described by Firbolg wildfire Druid, he hates humans and anything mechanical

That would fall under the Archfey influence. Powerful nonaligned spirits that represent nature in all it's extremes.

I had a carnivore druid that only ate meat. Me and the ranger got along great

Best way to balance something like imo would a fail vs succeed mechanic on mixing animal forms. Fails would make every single negative of the mix the biggest portion, while success does the same with the positives, then to figure out the difficulty mark of fail or success be from what you are trying to mix, a wolf and a dog are naturally very similar so much easier to succeed, while a dragon and a spider are extremely different so much easer to fail. It would still be quite a bit of work to balance out which aspect of each form takes precedent both from how the player wants to fuse the two, and how their stat blocks blend from those chosen points.

You could limit it to one specific chimera that you embody. Set the number of hybrids as a level state, ie level 2 you can have a 2 animal chimera, level 5 add 1, level 8 add 1, etc. That or you can force limit the parts, ie my Chimera has the arms of an ape, whether that's a dexterous spider monkey hands or a powerful gorilla ones depends on what you want when you shift. That way you have a limited range of options that can keep things interesting without exploding in possibilities.

Late reply but there is a druid archetype in grimhollow's player guide called Circle of Mutation that is basically that.

You mean like B'wana Beast?

You should look at the Grim Hollow Druid subclasses.

I think I’m gonna make a 5e version of this now. Thanks

​@@bananabanana484yessssssssssssssss

Or become a trashcan firing off spells and slap down your battletech minature

so... a mimic-@$$ druid, then? (excuse my surface level DnD knowledge)... would be really funny if the actual mimics originated from the urban druids' f*ck-ups

3.5 remains unparalleled. Broken often, but so much you could do, so much creativity.

Yessss, I love it

I honestly never had that problem I was always bringing nature to them. Then for the teammates it's really based on what they're trying to do. Not everybody needs the click from the get go or at all. As long as they don't screw over the druid, the druid doesn't mind what they do

I forgot the god name but it's the god that allow that you can wear metal. But that God might be a good god to worship if your a solar punk druid.

Cant you be a pragatic druid that is against the really bad pollution but wants to seek alternatives and something something history that people want that too often enough, with an old friend, or from a community where they did that. And why he lik i pragmatic and wants to recreate that,, if they arent screwed over too much. Like why would a druid hate all people, they could have had friends.

@@marocat4749 Druids being "neutral" doesn't mean empty, neutral is basically pragmatic due to most likely living and seeing the circle of life first hand. They can be aloof hippes that can turn into a bear and eat you.

Yeah you literally turn into a water or air elemental every turn for infinite hp, because nothing can hit you hard enough to wipe out your hp pool, and you are immune to 1/2 of the conditions.

@@hurnn1543 power word kill

@@XZaiter they still need to drop you below 100 hitpoints for that to work. And good luck doing that when your hitpoints are always refreshing

@@sev1120elementals dont have a lot more then 100. Air have less then 100, fire - 102, water have something - 114, earth - 126

@@XZaiter Also how many monsters have Power word kill as an ability?

I know right! I want to hug her!

Not to be dramatic, but I would die for her

Gracie will realize her pinnocio dreams, I'll make damn sure of it!!

That's how the unbridled power of nature felt. Hm, maybe that's why Gracie was chosen.

I adore her. She kind of reminds me of the flower-tending robots from Mario Odyssey.

There's a Final Fantasy XIV compendium online that has Astrologian and the weapon. It's a really interesting and well balanced buff oriented class

like what if i can ask?

@godiswatchingyee2633 There a very Swiss army knife type of caster. They have a spell for any situation. You can be supportive, you can be a tank, you can be a healer, you can control the battlefield. But you can't do all of those things at once so you have to prepare spells based on what kind of situation you're gonna be in. Has your party angered the holy empire and they're sending paladins to rock your shit? Heat metal. Subclasses also will determine what sort of strategies your character will be best at. I picked a moon druid so I can charge in as a direwolf and soak up damage then change back and heal the warlock who failed his dex save on a fireball.

what is that movie or show that he is using in those clips around 22:46 basically the ones he uses to show what solarpunk is kind of like?

​@@henrypozo5793 it's an edited version of an ad named Dear Alice for some dairy company

It really reminds me of the Jewish myth of the Golem and of Robo in Chrono Trigger...

Gracie feels like Pinocchio

Autogonmes are just the updated Warforged renamed. But yes, Gracie would definitely be perfect for one.

@@andrewdowns3673 different lore and settings, but they do have a near identical feel.

Currently my campaign has 'achievements,' that buff certain aspects. One let's all Druids scale level based on the Moon Druid cr, while Moon Druids get the same scaling as Polymorph. This achievement also let's party members retain their mental stats (int, wis, cha) when affected by polymorph.

Yeah I think that's why they released the Druid subclasses for Tasha's. If you want to play an "optimized" druid that uses wildshape to turn into a beast for combat the only good option is really just Circle of the Moon. Also I just want to say, there's way better options outside of Beasts, which is why I love 3rd party content and homebrewed content that allows you to extend beyond beasts to things kind of "beast adjacent" like plants and monstrosities.

@@snazzyfeathers some of the best combat options aren't always the most obvious. Laying down a debilitating control spell like Sleet Storm then wild shape into a badger and burrow under ground. Makes it near impossible for the enemy to force you to break concentration.

@@kylethomas9130 Oh for sure you can cast a spell and wildshape for concentration bonuses, but I'm talking about pure combat. Like wildshaping and then just going to town in your new form without spells. I could play a Moon Druid for that but I just wish the scaling was better for all Druids, not just a single subclass.

Because non-moon druids are not meant to use wild shape for combat, but for utility. The alternate uses for wildshape that non-land druids get for combat supports this.

If I play dnd, I’ll probably go for a Druid, I absolutely love the vibe they give

I played a wild elf moon druid as my first 5e character. I mostly used an app to track my prepared spells, an app to track my wild shapes. Looked up "best druid spells" for an idea to prep originally. What made playing my druid easy was his approach to combat was more Barbarian than a full caster. Cast a buff on an ally or prep Call Lightning, bonus action wild shape. Subsequent turns kill bad guys, bonus action Call Lightning if you aren't using your bonus action.

So I was playing a Moon druid and this was pretty early on in the campaign. There was this tower that we had to gab the McGuffin from (forgot what this was a couple years ago). Anyway the tower was like 300 feet (91 meters) up. The monsters were these flying creatures that had Flyby. Basically the design of this dungeon was the PCs would be on top of the tower with minimal cover to hide behind but the creatures would fly in, make an attack, and fly away with out taking damage from an opportunity attack. Melee based attacker had a really bad time of it. Me, "I wild shape into a Giant Spider." They would attack then fly out over the drop-off and I'd target them with my Web attack which restrains them. *pew, restrained, whistling noise, HUGE splat *pew, restrained, whistling noise, HUGE splat *pew, restrained, whistling noise, HUGE splat It was hilarious, as a Giant Spider I took out at least 4 of the 8 creatures just with my web.

@@raph3699 Haven't played either, but now want to play a robot druid

Ya they are not as hard as people say they are. I think it is because I had really good dm’s

Mineral based druid is awesome. I'm going to work on that now.

Definitely want a Geomancer druid. Maybe give them Tremor Sense.

@@kylethomas9130 Giving me FFT vibes.

@@kylethomas9130 Geomancer in DnD has a history of being a somewhat different beast, check the 3.5e prestige class if you're wondering about it

my latest character is a tiefling druid heavily inspired by her, but I multiclassed into sorcerer to make use of the charisma increase and gain some nice offensive cantrips. The backstory bears some superficial resemblance to hers but at 4500 words long it is more a coincidence than unimaginative, I started writing it before I watched the movie anyway, she just gave me a solid base to work on and channel my ideas into.

Aren't warforged druids just dinobots from transformers? :'D

Antonio:"You don't see warforged druids everyday." *insert the Buzz Lightyear isle scene from Toy Story 2* Note:A warforged druid was also my first ever character I am not excluded from this joke

Ah, someone hasn't learned about the one known as T-wig.

It's a Chobani ad?! Dangit. I was hoping that was a show with 6 seasons with 20 episodes each!

I also got a bit emotional at the Urban Circle Druid description! Glad I'm not the only one haha. Says a lot about the state of the world and our desire for change... Solarpunk is a brilliant inspiration for Druid characters - and I'd love to play a Solarpunk inspired game!

@@JJ_439 I didn't even know it was a thing until this video. I'm definitely going to check it out. But I'm glad I'm not the only one who got hit hard by the concept. It's a great concept.

@@danieljohnson9917 Andrewism and The Penultimate Conquest have some good videos about Solarpunk! :)

I started getting emotional hearing the story of Gracie. Idk why I started getting so emotional, I was just really touched and it hit me out of nowhere 😅

HAH

Nice

You could almost say it's unBEARable!

absolutely agree.

Most people ignore it as really it's more of a roleplay option that originates from older editions. Playing a druid who uses metal armor and tools is fine to do.

To quote the Sage Advice Compendium written by the designers of the game: "**What happens if a druid wears metal armor?** The druid explodes. Well, not actually. Druids have a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and the original Player’s Handbook (1978). The idea is that druids prefer to be protected by animal skins, wood, and other natural materials that aren’t the worked metal that is associated with civilization. Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but chooses not to. A druid typically wears leather, studded leather, or hide armor, and **if a druid comes across scale mail made of a material other than metal, the druid might wear it**. If you feel strongly about your druid breaking the taboo and donning metal, talk to your DM. Each class has story elements mixed with its game features; the two types of design go hand in hand in D&D, and the story parts are stronger in some classes than in others. Druids and paladins have an especially strong dose of story in their design. If you want to depart from your class’s story, your DM has the final say on how far you can go and still be considered a member of the class. As long as you abide by your character’s proficiencies, you’re not going to break anything in the game system, but you might undermine the story and the world being created in your campaign." What I read of this tells me, if you want to play a Druid who wears standard metal armors like say Scale Mail, Half-Plate, Breastplate it won't be broken mechanically it just will come in conflict with your character's/settings lore and story. Talk with your DM about wearing metal armor or working to compromise by finding Scale/Half-Plate/Breastplate made of non-metal so you could wear that.

A wooden shield with hide or leather can be sufficient AC, also inexpensive to replace if you keep fighting Black Puddings or similar monsters. My biggest problem playing a druid was my character kept accruing gold they didn't need to spend on stuff, because you spend much less money on spell components than other casters.

It's a old bs rule that doesn't actually have a mechanical effect in 5e. Openly admitted by the devs to be a unneeded relic. Feel free to ignore it

I originally posted this in response to the vid, but I'll put it here too to let you know that you are playing druids exactly correctly. "3:59 This is not correct - Druids *CAN* wear metal armor, and there is no penalty for doing so. It's not an explicit rule or limitation (anymore), which is also confirmed by Jeremy Crawford . Instead, it's written as the choice of the druid (JC also says a druid would choose not to wear metal)... but thankfully, my druid can simply disagree with his bogus opinion that _MY_ druid would not choose to wear metal armor (especially since he uses metal weapons). 1. The metal limitation originally applied to ALL metal gear, including weapons, in reference to old Celtic lore fucking with magic. This happened at the same time when Clerics could only use blunt weapons. None of that shit is valid or relevant anymore, especially since druids can use metal weapons. 2. After the change away from the above, metal never had any sort of "interference property" against druids. It was purely at the discretion of the deity the druid worshipped, with Mielikki explicitly allowing her druids to use all the gear her rangers could use aka metal armor. This means the limitation is entirely contingent on the whims of the deity in question. Period. An earth god should have no issue with the use of the *naturally occurring mineral* . 3. Metal armor is far more natural than leather armor. The same way druids have no problem with potions; extracting and refining natural components to craft things, they would have no problem using completely natural metal, which is merely the concentration of a given mineral. Leather armor, on the other hand, goes through a far more unnatural process where the substance of the hide is literally chemically altered into something quite different from the original animal hide. As such, something as mild as the blending of metals to create alloys, wouldn't pose a problem either. For all the reasons above, it doesn't make sense to claim that druids can't wear metal armor in D&D." As another commentor, Finalplayer14 mentioned, "it just will come in conflict with your character's/settings lore and story" ---- This means there is *no* conflict if it is in fact _not_ at odds with my character's lore. As he mentioned, just talk to your DM. Especially because it's not an actual rule, and there are exactly zero penalties for wearing metal armor anyway... except for Heat Metal... In short, your druid can simply choose to be fine with metal armor, and voilà, he can wear metal armor.

The thing I love about druid players is that like... while druids can be mean, most druids end up being the heart and soul of the party. They tend to be the kindest and sweetest. But also they're the type of people where you cross them and they will insure that your punishment is painful

My circle of dreams Druid just has a substance abuse problem

@@boiqi "hey man, you should try some of this stuff. It'll give you crazy dreams, dude!"

Personally I went Wildfire Druid as a Yuan-ti Pureblood Outlander. Effectively, he was from a Japanese cultural analog and while the people of his homeland venerate nature, they do so in the form of venerating the living spirits there of. Often times getting them to help in exchange for favors/gifts. So my druid's wildfire spirit was sort of along the lines of a warlock patron in their culture, and since it was a fire spirit, the idea was that it needs to consume fuel. The fuel however has to have significance. It feeds on the spirit of the object, not just its physical form. So he had a stash of keepsakes. Things that actually mean a lot to him emotionally. Each time he used the spirit's influence, he'd pay.

While the Circle of Spores and Circle of Stars Wildshapes are more up front in their application, the Circle of Wildfire Wildshape requires a little bit more creativity from the player. Especially when it comes to the teleportation and being able to cast Druid spells from your Flame Spirit. If you want to get more mileage out of the Wildfire Druid, I have seen a few interesting builds that take a dip into Arcana Domain Clerics to pilfer some Wizard cantrips such as Firebolt and Green-Flame Blade to use alongside the damage bump for fire spells while also using your Wisdom Modifier.

Agreed, I've had a lot of fun with this. I played a Wildfire Druid from levels 1-10 who thought of himself more as a fighter than a caster, and Shilelagh+GreenflameBlade was his standard attack. Near the end he took a single level of Efreeti Djinn Warlock (reflavoured to be his wildfire spirit itself as a reciprocal patron) which added lots of flavour and a little bit more damage each round, too, such that Greenflame Blade and Scorching Ray were dealing an additional 1d8+4 damage per round. Warlock also netted access to Hellish Rebuke (flavoured "Fiery Rebuke"), which made him annoying to hit in melee, too.

I always loved the flavor of wildfire druids. "Forest fires are an important part of the natural cycle of nature, so I'm doing my part by BURNING IT ALL DOWN AHAHAHAHAHA"

My 10 year old daughter plays a wildfire druid. It was her first self made character and she plays it better than her older brothers play most of their characters lol.

@@chriswhitefield3026 that's wonderful 😊

Rome was afraid of Germania not the Celtic highlands. They didn't concur beyond the highland lines because they considered it a wasteland and would gain nothing from its domination.

The soldiers of Rome were very superstitious and believed the celts of Britain capable of magic. The leadership didn’t fear them, the soldiers did.

*mumbling in mud and rock language intensifies*

How dark? I love the idea and aesthetic but it feels like most media portrays Solarpunk as too utopian for me personally. Most seems to portray it as a sort of environmental art project that functions as an ersatz substitute for real nature without ever really delving into the issues that would come with that.

I’m going for the stereotypical Wood Elf Moon Druid Totem Babarian, but threw in some Astral Monk & magic items. He’ll end up resisting all damage, immune to all conditions other than Stunned (incapacitated that goes with it) Deafened & Charmed (Elves have Adv), along with his lowest save being a +5 at Adv. If your DM allows it & does a lvl 20 one shot would definitely recommend trying it. Try the Polymorph into Contagion (Slimy Doom) with Fire Elemental combo to perm stun also. Druids can be monsters aha.

Agreed on that! Beasts and Plants would be a nice buff to the Druid as a whole across all subclasses. You could argue that "nature" exists outside of just beasts and plants as well. Kind of like eldritch stuff, being able to turn into abberations and monstrosities would be really cool

My Druid character is really more into plants than animals in general, so this’d be nice

Honestly we just need more creature plant spells

That's really cool. I especially like how you mentioned how you relate to it, and I feel ya. Thankyou for sharing ^.^

You mean both druids and warforged? Or just the combination of both?

@@mikonyx7712 I don’t like either of them normally. But this specific combination worked for me for some reason.

​@@Flasais there a reason you dislike them? just curious, is all

@@user-im4me2hz7k The concept of the magitech construct with the warforged doesn’t vibe a lot with me. In my personal opinion, it conflicts with the fantasy elements, introducing some elements aligned with sci-fi, and the mechanics of the warforged as both a construct while still a living being feel convoluted to me. As for the druid, I am not a fan of shapeshifting personally. So the core element of the class, which is wild shape, ruffles some feathers to me. Also, the wild shape mechanics are open for abuse due to the way hitpoints are treated in it. Finally, the fact that players that want to do well as druids need to have stat blocks for the relevant animals leads to two main scenarios: 1) either the player knows these stat blocks by heart or have them available with them, which sometimes can catch a DM off-guard depending on the situation they created (which, granted, is not a great problem); or, 2) the player wants to transform into something but doesn’t have the stat block at hand (or has one which is not entirely accurate), leading the DM to have to aid with this during combat usually.

My last character was a warforged druid, but used Circle of Wildfire.

Death is just ... your opinion, man

I played a beast barbarian /spores druid that was a satyr stoner bro. It was a lot of fun when the setting was basically fantasy college.

Amazing

I agree, it's kind of ironic that the most well known example of the anti-capitalist solarpunk is an add made by a corporation.

And pomegranate is linked to the myth of Persephone who had to spend half the year below ground (ie winter) and half the year above ground (summer). Eating the pomegranate represents hope for the return to life & growth during the depths of winter.

It's soooooooo badasss!!!

how does the gm handle your character? what rules did you set about it

⁠@@berkanasc1038The Feegles were just the Spore powers with every instance of Necrotic changes to Slashing or Bludgeoning, depending on whether they were head butting or not. She was good with people and I seem to be able to get Headology off well. I think we changed the Animate Dead fungus thing into an Extra Attack because I wanted to hit people.

So Wall-E

@@xingli2831Yes.

@@xingli2831 wall-e is a trash compactor robot with feelings, not a sentient terraforming machine. Go watch the movie again.

if you really want to get into the game, there are online spaces you can try to fjnd people to play with! an example is r/LFG

@@welkin7321 Problem with playing with "randoms" is that there's a risk of encountering a player or DM from hell, which can really sour someone's experience of the game, especially if its their first time.

But it also keeps you from getting archdruid, which is absurdly powerful, and throws you back in your spell progression. Almost noone will ever see their character reach lvl 20, though, so it might be of very little concern.

Multiclassing is, and always has been and optional rule. If the DM allows this optional rule, they are inviting broken builds.

@@blobjorn3248 I disagree: The most broken "builds" are monoclasses (Peace and Twilight Cleric, newer Sorcerers, Eldritch Knights/Arcane Trickster Shadow Blade abuses, Armorer and Battle Smith Artificer...) Multiclassing is a suboptimal choice in most cases imo, but often very fun. Exceptions are exceptionally powerful dips like Hexblade and Paladins. EDIT: Also, the GM has the last word. If someone multiclasses to break the game, the GM can always say no.

@@blobjorn3248 Multiclassing is in the Player Handbook. Even a rules lawyer can’t logically reject it. And if your DM does reject it they’re a cunt. Why would you dampen creativity and options for the people who you want to give a fun experience to? It’s a DMs job to improvise. Improvising combat difficulty is part of that.

@@xandroy1273 Yeah, I joined a campaign recently and realized 2 Monk levels for my Druid would be super useful, and though infinite wild shape is busted af, I won’t reach level 20 for years, if I ever do. The no metal armor thing makes Monk’s unarmored defense super helpful, especially since Wis is your casting stat. And +10 move is always great. I think those are way more valuable considering the amount of time spent not being level 20. But if I were doing a level 20 one shot I’d consider pure Druid. Infinite wild shape makes you borderline invincible.

The RPDR references and the dorohedoro clips got me 😂

I might be wrong with 5e but druids can only be one of the 5 neutral alignments. I've always liked the idea of an evil druid though taking land back from those that settled it and reverting it back.

@@codiejanssen6492 To be fair, the rules only apply to the Faerune setting, and even then they are just guidelines. You can made a evil druid if you want.

Evil druids could push the narrative of invasive species or imbalance. Just because something is “part of nature” doesn’t guarantee harmony.