Are you thinking about creating a druid character, but concerned that the story and gameplay might be a little limited? This couldn’t be further from the truth! Here’s the top eight reasons you should build a druid character for your next Dungeons & Dragons game…
1. You’re A Swiss Army Knife
The druid class is arguably the most versatile in the game. You can be whatever the party needs when they need it. No wizard to deal high amounts of magical damage? Missing a paladin to act as a tank? Short a cleric for healing and support? While they’ll never outplay those class’s main features, a druid can cover all these bases. Best of all, this versatility is built into the base druid mechanics and doesn’t rely on subclasses. It’s a great class to choose for a smaller party that has some rolls to fill.
2. Live Your Animorphs Fantasy
Wild Shape is the most well known feature of the druid class. Transforming into animals is a really fun mechanic that sets druids apart. While other classes can do this with spells, Wild Shape is a feature with two uses per day. And unlike when using the Polymorph spell to turn into animals, you retain your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores when using Wild Shape. It’s a great option for combat, tanking, stealthing, scouting, travel, and a multitude of other instances.
3. Wield The Forces Of Nature
Druids are powerful spellcasters with a great range of spells. Many of their upper-level spells like Tsunami, Animal Shapes, and Storm of Vengeance are even druid-exclusive. What’s more impressive is the fact that a druid can prepare a list of spells each day using any spells available to the class. They just meditate and ask nature to provide the magical tools that they require. This calls back to the absolute versatility of druids.
4. Dominate The Battlefield
From a combat point of view, druids are really great at battlefield control. Spells like Entangle, Wall of Thorns, and Wall of Fire severely limit an enemy’s mobility and enable you to reshape the terrain to better work for you. Additionally, the druid spell list has a lot of great offensive area of effect options such as Wind Wall, Ice Storm, and Sunbeam. These can create a great combo where you position your target where you want them and unleash devastating magical attacks on them!
5. Summoning For Days
Do you love summoning creatures to assist you in games? You’d be hard pressed to find a class that can out-summon a druid. Plus your spell list allows you to summon a wide range of creatures to suit any occasion. Elementals? Beasts? Fey? Woodland Beings? The choice is yours! And if you really want to go hard with summoning, consider taking the Circle of the Shepherd as your druid circle. In addition to allowing you to summon spirits, its features will really beef up creatures you summon with spells.
6. You’re An Unexpected Scout
While rogues and rangers are typically thought of as scouting classes, a druid can fill this role as well! However, you get the added benefit of wild shaping into an unassuming animal when you scope out what’s ahead. Scan the area from the skies as a hawk. Creep through city alleys as a cat. Sneak into a locked room as a mouse. The options are endless! This also means that you get to rely more on your animal senses and less on your own stealth skill.
7. Be A Representative Of Nature
Playing as a druid affords you some fun roleplaying opportunities. You could choose to act as an advocate for nature, always speaking up as its protector. Or you could go the route of playing a wide-eyed and sheltered explorer, journeying out into the world beyond your small forest community for the first time. Alternatively, you can buck the trope entirely, utilizing the power that nature gives you but basing your characters interests elsewhere. The class offers some great story opportunities.
8. The Pure, Unadulterated Chaos Of It All
If you combine all the perks listed above, what do you get? A powerful class that creates chaos wherever they go! Your game will go off the rails and your battles will get really interesting (and sometimes complicated). Consider the carnage when your spells are flying, summoned creatures start wreaking havoc, the battlefield shifts to your whims, and you instantly burst into ferocious animals. If you play chaotically, the druid class is for you.
Get wild! Until next time, stay creepy and happy gaming.
