Im surprised nobody has mentioned 6 spore druid 6 necromancer. Kind of a yucky split but its a killer summoner build.

Easiest is to do Moon Druid to 12. Pick up Tavern Brawler, resilient(dex), and heavily armored. TB and HA will increase strength while wildshaped. Resilient dex increases ac while having bark skin in wild shape. Pick up every “conjure” spell as well as flaming sphere.

Before a battle conjure all your minions, then when it starts, upcast flaming sphere then bonus action wildshape. From there you just maul everything to death.

For more fun, stack up a bunch of crates, then use Crushing Flight from the top while in Owlbear shape.

Edit: also use the potion of everlasting vigor and the hags hair on dex. The former raises strength by 2 and carries to wild shape, while the latter will increase dex

Depends what you want out of the class. If you want to focus on melee then Circle of Moon can do a lot. If you want a pure caster then go Circle of Land. Spores Druid is a necrotic-focused choice for flavor and extra summons.

In all but the Spore druid categories, you’ll want to take Druid to level 11 or 12.

Sorcerer 1 (draconic)/wizard 1/ druid 10

All the best of wildshape with scribed wizard buffs and summons to supplement your own.

The Draconic sorcerer dip gets +ac, resistance to an element, and con wave proficiency

You can haste yourself and then wildshape and then Take the extra actions

Haste is great with the panther wildshape because you can attack and then turn invisible with your second action

In act 3 I would say Spores Druid with the robes from Mystic Carrion. Game changer.

Druid… lackluster?

I think it stems more from the fact you can’t do anything in shapeshift.

Pop concentration spell, pop whatever you need to increase attack, pop summons, shapeshift… fly around like a demon bear.

Let your other beefy character tank the hits from late game while you focus on thinning out the room with that leap.

Summons are great as well and allow for some leeway.

I think most of the complaints about druid stem from specifically MOON druid. It's not significantly better at its niche than land... yet land can affect battle better with options like haste etc. Outside of pure RP, I dont know why anyone would play moon over land at this point.

Even if Larian just allowed moon druid to move the moonbeam or continue call lightning while in wildshape that would be a significant improvement. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Larian decided to completely shitcan the whole playstyle of moon druid....

Been having a great time with spores, you can lean really hard into summoning with like 12 total pera-summons (18 in act three if you do the Necromancy book thing right unlike me) and you get pretty much free damage off your class reaction/bonus action. Most stuff casters are doing cost regular actions so you generally have leftover reactions/bonus anyways. You can take healing word to have that as an option and then spam super slot-efficient concentration spells like moonbeam or lightning conduit. Between the spells, class abilities and the summons it adds up to a ton of damage. Also getting bone chill as a cantrip early on really helps with druids overall lackluster damage cantrip options.

On top of that while you aren’t as tanky as being able to burn wildshape health you get a ton of temp hit points while still being able to cast spells.

Druids are probably the single most difficult class to play well, and you so can expect people to underrate them quite a bit, but speaking from 5e, druids are monsters.

The summons, combined with incredible battlefield control don't give you the highest nova damage which is often believed to be the most important thing in the universe, because you can't really spend all your long rest resources in one turn.

Does this make them weak? Hell no.

Especially with the buffs to wildshape, druids are fantastic, pick spells like moon beam (which btw, doesn't break sanctuary), plant growth and sleet storm and you will be the likely the best battlefield controller in the game, especially with spider for infinite webs.

And then at the same time you can abuse stuff like owl bear with the jump spell to deal hundreds of damage in a single turn.

And the summons just make it even more incredible. You should also try out conjure minor/not minor elementals.

Moon Druid 11, War Cleric 1

You get the fire elemental transformation and summon the nymphs and wood woads.

Concentrate on bless

Go into elemental form

Use bonus actions for more fire attacks

It's insanely strong and requires no items to functions whatsoever

I have a fun Spore druid dual wield build that multiclasses with fighter or ranger. You can do 5 ranger/5 spore/2 fighter for action surge, or you can do 5 fighter (or ranger) and do 7 Druid... it's my post about the Jaheira build. But of course you can tweak it to your liking!

I went full 12 spore druid. It's the items that make the build. For feats put 2 into wisdom ASI, and the third into

For gear you want https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Armour_of_the_Sporekeeper https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Markoheshkir https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Staff_of_Cherished_Necromancy

The chest gives you the ability to summon a cloud of spores that grant haste whenever anyone walks through it for one turn, and cost a bonus action to cast. Spore druids can also cast their Halo of spores or spreading spore as the cost of their reaction.

The first staff allows you to cast one spell per long rest for free, and also gives you a buff that empowers an elemental type and gives you two spells that can be casted once per short rest. I like the poison because it fits thematically and it allows you to cast cloud kill, which can be recasted for free as long as you don't break concentration. So that one buff could give you a spammable spell for free once per short rest.

The second staff makes enemies vulnerable to necro spells and allow you to cast a spell for free when you kill someone. Upcasting blight at level 6 is very powerful.

So every round that you are hasted, you could recast cloud kill for free, cast a level six blight for free (as long as you killed something last turn), and have access to your bonus action and reaction to cast a Spore ability. I like to use the once per long rest free spell slot from the legendary staff to cast heroes feast. Keep in mind you could also loot a staff from the House of Hope that also gives you one free cast per long rest, so you could use that for heroes feast and then have the legendary staff for any other level 6 spell.

Spore druid is the multiclassing one. It has necrotic damage to offer for martial builds and a good source of haste lategame with Armour of the Sporekeeper.

Druids are the best utility casters in the form of area control and summons. The two problems with Druids in terms of minmaxing, which is why you don't see them mentioned much in this subreddit, is that 1) Druids don't want to multiclass, and 2) Moon Druids, the subclass that makes use of Wild Shaping for combat purposes and is the biggest draw for the class, loses all benefits from equipment while Wild Shaped, meaning there's no fun optimization with items.

The best Druid builds will pretty much always be going Druid 12. If you're a Moon Druid then that's the end of the build. Put on some gear that can buff your socials or exploration skills, but otherwise you're done.

If you're Land or Spore Druid, there's some item-play, but as Druids don't really focus on damage the minmaxers won't pay them too much attention. For Land grab stuff that raises your WIS and CON, max out your concentration saving throws, and if there's any items that buff summons those will work well too. For Spore, very similar but also gnab Mizora's Rapier and/or Jaheira's Scimitar to use your WIS for weapon attacks.

So yeah, as a class they just don't really speak to the minmaxers; they don't help you dish out tremendous damage, there's not much multiclassing to be had, and they don't interract too well with the coolest items in the game.

EDIT: I didn't realize the Myrmidon forms don't auto add the relevant ability mod for their weapons unless you yourself are proficient. In that case Moon Druids should ALWAYS multiclass after reaching level 10. Clerics that give the needed proficiencies are a great choice as they won't slow your spell slot progression and also cast with WIS. Fighters are a good choice to get Action Surge at Fighter2 (character12). Barbarian can also be a fun choice, however keep in mind the Rage+Wild Shape combo isn't as potent as it is in tabletop because in BG3 you cannot Rage while Wild Shaped, meaning your turn 1 is to Rage and hit something to maintain the rage, then turn 2 is Wild Shape. Combats in the game rarely last more than 3-4 turns so IMO it's not worth it but your mileage may vary. Do keep in mind multiclassing will give up the third Feat/ASI.

does Moon Druid + Barbarian works ?

End game spores druid are monsters with items. The spore armor gives you group haste. the legendary staff can be tuned into a particular element, and acid gives you a free cloud kill (recastable for free) every short rest. The staff you get from a certain mummy lets you upcast blight at level 6 for free once per kill. If you choose to dualwield these staffs youll be throwing OP spells and hasting your group.

The only major problem is that druid doesnt want to multiclass. Moon druid needs 11 and gets no bonuses from gear other than Moonbasking armor. Its not bad my friend carries us hard just very linear “build”. Land and spore are similar. Sporekeeper armor for spores. Land is a bit more flexible, but their armor will be basically the same as another caster.

Heres some pertinent info though: Tavern brawler increases chance to hit in wildshape Defense fighting style works if wearing armor prior Duel wielding feat is same way Resilient gives you +1 that lingers in WS Heavily armored also works for some reason Monk is a great option for 1 point in, as unarmored defense works in WS (until moonbasking armor, where you’ll want it and its considered armor)

The +2 str potion, +2 mirror and +1 hag hair all work in WS and are the only way to really boost your scores as theyre normally set in stone.

Finally, theyre the best at versatility. When I got Halsin I was surprised how effective dipping in and out of bear form to cast area spells was, and with moon druids only they can bonus action change. Only issue is sever lack of wildshape charges. They also make great sponges. Wildshapes are low inAC so enemies will primarily focus them, for better or worse.

Another reason they make a great choice for Spore Druid. I felt like my BA was just dead 90% of the time, would have loved to use a hand crossbow

Gloom 5 / Spore 7 as an archer (titanstring bow, club of hill giant strength, diadem of arcane synergy, strange ring) is a lot of fun. Still get some summons (everything bar the big elemental) and you throw out decent damage.

a class that strongly incentives single classing with minimal gear requirements

land is easy. pick non druid spells for circle bonus choices

e.g. mirror image and misty step

e.g. haste

e.g. cone of cold

combat is about a strong concentration spell, typically for control

e.g. entangle / faerie fire

e.g. spike growth

and/or sustained damage

e.g. flaming sphere

e.g. moonbeam

e.g. call lightning (combined with wet from create water)

land can still go into an owlbear and have fun too (esp after they mirror image and haste self prior)

longstrider and enhance leap rituals are great at will mobility utility

wis/con concentrarion maintainance skill wise perception and high wis are always handy

goodberry for out of combat healing / long rest supplies

cantrip thornwhip/shille and guidance bread and butter

Ranger 5, Spore 7 using a Bow is a good ranged build with great summons, healing and buffs

Moon Druid 12 or 10 + 2 of other classes is also a popular build, specially after the Tavern Brawler buff

Moon druid 12. In the early game you wildshape give you way more survivability. Pick ritual utility spells and healing word, and use your spell slots on lunar mend. In the mid game you get some great summons and concentration spells (e.g., flaming sphere, sleet storm) that you can fire off in round one before wildshaping. At level 10 you get three attacks a turn in wildshape. As a fire myrmidon, you can haste yourself for six attacks in one turn, plus unlimited movement w/ elemental warp.

A lot of people like necro wizard 6/spore druid 6, but I actually prefer necro wizard 2/spore druid 10 because there’s one specific piece of armor that makes the level 10 spreading spores feature absolutely bananas.

Gloomstalker 8/spore druid 4 as an archer (or gloom 5/druid 7 for more Symbiotic entity HP, but I think the level 6 and 7 features from gloomstalker, and the third feat, are nice to have).

Ranger 5 / Spore Druid 7 - Dual Wield Torches for 1d4 fire + necrotic dmg from halo of spores + shillelagh turn you 1d4 torches into 1d8.

You take ranger for extra attack, two weapon fighting style and some spell slots

Giant Barbarian 5 / Land Druid 7 - The Owlbear build. Extra attack +Wild strike giving you 3 attacks in wild shape. Tavern brawler works now in wildshape. And then owlbear crushing flight damage is affected by target weight. Giant rages + elixir of colossus increase size and weight to increase crushing flight damage.

Also this build can make you go up to 28 strength. Owlbear is natural 20 str +1 hags hair +1 resilient str feat +2 mirror of loss + 2 potion of everlasting vigor and your owlbear enrage +2 str.

EDIT: I forgot to mention why choose Land druid versus Moon druid. Because rage uses bonus action and you don't need Moon druid bonus action wildshape.

I use the stars Druid and then focus on radiant orbs. I can get 10 radiant orbs on a dude with my bonus and action.

One thing I like about Stars Druid in Act 3 is the tech with the Armour of Moonfall giving the 22 Temp HP and 4 AC. Since you can use a free swap each turn, changing forms resets the temp HP. It's like casting a level 3 False Life without using an action or a spell slot. You could start a turn in Dragon Form, then switch to Archer (without using a resource btw), get your temp HP, and do whatever you need to do.

It can 1 shot the grymforge boss. Look it up in YouTube. Owlbear from the top rope

7 Stars Druid/5 Light Cleric

Woodland Being sets up spike growth, you set up spirit guardians. You sanctuary the woodland being if needed. You cast command approach on the enemies to force them through the spike growth and into your spirit guardians into a big cluster for you to then use dazzling breath on them.

Stack boxes. Or find high elevation. Transform to owlbear. Use enlarge. Elixir of colossus. The heavier the better. OWLBEAR FROM THE TOP ROPE CRASHING DOWN AND FLATTENING WHATEVER SORRY CREATURE BELOW!!!

Well i think you answered the question yourself - the best moon druid builds are 10 druid/1 white sorc/1 war cleric or 10 druid/2 fighter

Even with TB working, GWM/SA Water Myrmidon is still the strongest.

Buffs like Ascended Astarion damage or Crusader's Mantle only work on wildshapes with weapons. Unarmed wildshapes get Lightning Charges, Formless Slaughter, and Shriek and that's it.

The optimal way to play is to start in human form, cast a control spell like Hold Person, Sleet Storm, or Spike Growth, then wildshape and attack.

Since you start in human form anyway and need to short rest every combat, as Myrmidon forms use two charges, Action Surge is more appealing than normal. You lose some casting progression, but you need to cast Hold Monster from scrolls anyway and only lose one target from Hold Person. The three attacks from Moon 10 also shift the calculus to favor Action Surge more than on other casters.

Feats are GWM and either SA or Sentinel. I don't like Sentinel personally since it has some antisynergy with control spells, but its still excellent. If SA wield a greataxe and use Prepared and Action Surge before shifting. If using sentinel, wield a Glaive and use Brace and Action Surge before shifting.

You should just go 12 moon druid in my opinion. 6th level druid spells, a 3rd feat and improved wild shape aren’t worth sacrificing for dips into other classes.

If you don’t wanna do that, your next best options are 1 white draconic sorc / 1 war cleric / 10 moon druid or 2 fighter / 10 moon druid.

Why complicate perfection? 12 Moon Druid is simple and highly effective.

Strongest in a party is either water myrmidon with great weapon master and someone with bhaalist armor or panther / tiger with Tavern Brawler vs. enemies that can be proned + jugular strike and someone with bhaalist armor.

Solo it's tb earth myrmidon or panther / tiger vs. proneable enemies.

Yes, Action surge gives a full attack Action.

SA is Savage Attacker yes.

Yeah just Water Myrm if going GWM route (only one with a two handed weapon). Make sure to use a Bhaalist teammate and wet; you can technically do that yourself by saving and reloading while in wildshape but thats annoying tbh. Exploding Icicles on held wet targets is also an excellent for a haste/terazul action.

Mechanically, I think Wood Elf is the "best" race for druid currently in the game, followed by Gold Dwarf. That wisdom bonus is too good, and WE also has skill proficiency galore (and immunity to sleep, a constant thorn in my side). That will serve you really well when ideally you'll want to spend as much time as possible in wild shape. That said, I think playing an interesting character is often more fun than what's mechanically best. I'm thinking about trying a tiefling first to see how the tieflings and druids react to someone that belongs to both groups.

Your best bet is probably a gold dwarf or wood elf. That wisdom score increase is pretty crucial. That being said, I don’t think it’s necessary at all to have an optimal build.

I suggest trying a themed build, like perhaps a drow Druid of the moon that prioritizes becoming a spider. Drow have an affinity to spiders, and the dancing light cantrip might help you while transformed into a beast that doesn’t have darkvision.

Since they spend so much time in wild shape, moon druids don't have to worry too much about stats. Just get 16 wisdom so you can do some casting too. While you can't cast during wild shape, you can still maintain concentration on spells cast before transforming. So the usual m.o. is throw up a flaming sphere or faerie fire (druid/bard exclusive, a favorite), turn into a bear, teach people to respect nature.

I really love druid and I think both Land and Spore are in a great place right now. Land feels a little compelled to grab one of the ones that has haste and I think could use more spells that are unique and per land type only, but has lots of tools for various combat scenarios and great longevity with spell restoration. /All/ of the minion master archetypes could use something (an aura?) to boost minion accuracy, something that lets you make a minion without a corpse because fighting through a big group of enemy types that are specifically not useable and then ending up at a boss with no minion encourages you to store dead bodies at camp, and that is strange. Maybe a necrotic version of crusader's mantle for flavor ?

However, moon druid is in a weird spot right now. Tavern brawler is working for accuracy but not damage. The biggest problem (and this is my big ask for patch 1) is gear issues. Most gear that benefits unarmed damage does not seem to work in animal form unless you are already unarmed, and even then it seems to be a dice roll. My initial game plan was to help juice my other fighters, so with my staff of blessing - I cast bless, shift into wolf or owlbear form, and either distract or guarantee crits. This has worked really well - but I have a naturally low initiative that I planned boost with a +1hat, a +1 ranged item, and a +3 shield. The idea was I wanted the buffs up before the other characters turns/ the enemy turns rolled around. In wolf form, my character sheet shows +2 initiative, one from the bow, and one from the hat. This makes sense, because Every time I shapeshift I lose access to my weapon and shield - I planned to start fights in druid form to benefit from the boost in init and then shapeshift.

However, every time I unshapeshift or get knocked out of it, my character sheet doesn't show +5 initiative, or even +2 initiative, but +0 initiative. I can confirm this by entering another battle and seeing my druid at the ass end of the turn order, every time, despite other characters and enemies having less than +5, or even +2.Even worse: when I cast bless now, the bonus extra blessing from the staff I am wearing doesn't proc. Essentially, I lose all of the benefits from all of my gear, every time I shapeshift. You can fix this by unequipping your gear and then putting it back on.

I have three files going at the moment and one is with my wife. She is playing moon druid and having a blast. Our playthrough is far behind my solo and online dnd player save file. I really want either a fix or a workaround (even a gear set option would work, just anything that stops me from having to unequip and re-equip every piece of gear one at a time every time I leave shape shift form - the ideal fix would be something that simply counts the druid as transformed, unarmored, and unarmed in animal form and checks gear and applies the relevant bonuses each time they shift into or out of form) by the time it becomes an issue for her. It seems insane to me that one subclass has all gear straight up break for them *as a result of using their most commonly used and designed around class feature*

It is really upsetting because she has already done amazing things with moon druid, like bonus action turn into a crow, fly/move up high behind a large group of enemies, free action unshapeshift, and then full action thunder wave them off that high place. Most other classes have to spend two spell slots for that but druid gets to do it with the power of nature and a little thinking. She loves turning into a cat to explore small spaces, she loves making spiked growth choke points for my tank to shove people back into if they reach us. We are having a great time at low levels because gearing is not an issue and I am secretly dreading when she starts missing tons of spell rolls at higher level because her gear is breaking every time she shifts into a cute cat to distract villagers while I steal stuff.

Looks like your off your fence 😂, when I commented he had no mod context just pure ‘Druid is OP is amazing and I don’t get why anyone disagrees!!!’. Then wayyy later by the way I run several mods which make Druid OP in late game. 🙄

Druid is really good early game, but late game they're kinda meh. Especially in combat.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

My level 12 druid gets 3 attacks a turn and deals on average 12 damage per attack as an owlbear

My level 12 wildheart barbarian fighter gets 3 attacks a turn and deals on average 30 damage per attack. And has more HP. Plus, he can also talk to animals.

Only benefit druids have is that they're extra tanky because of their wildshape.

FYI op plays with multiple Druid mods which make Druid OP.

yeah a druid can heal, damage with spells, buff, and fight in melee... but not all at once. You're always facing some shitty dilemma like "should I dismiss one of my two wildshapes to utilize some of my spell slots?". Totally off-putting. It's somewhat similar for other classes, like warlocks having to choose between counterspell and fireball, or paladins stingy with spell slots. But those are very specialized whereas druid's utility can only shine if you use the entire arsenal.

Dude, relax, Halsin will want to fuck you no matter what class you are.

I use Shred, got lucky with my weapon gives +7 to it and then my chest piece gives +5 to all werewolf skills so im sitting at 18/5 Shred, then with enough spirit regen I just teleport to all the enemies and don't even have a basic attack, I just use my core skill as my dps and other things to buff/nerf

Pulverise and puddles does the trick for me , theres lots of guides on it , feel kinda like the hulk ! Smash ! Lol

If you follow everything to the "T" you'll be on Torment IV immediately

https://youtu.be/_vwAytpyLuQ?si=_92-M45e-HWrYotZ

That armor looks dope 🦾

Nice nips haha