Can we get a Shepherd Druid guide?

[Undrhil]

I am willing to work on one, but I've never made a guide before and I'm not 100% sure that my analysis would mesh with what others think. I'm kind of an odd-ball when it comes to the way I play.

 

[gyor]

Your personal perspective has value. There is no perfect D&D, it's not that type of game.

And I'm sure anything you miss others can offer suggestions to fix.

My suggestion is remember the Find Familiar spell's familiar can be a fey, which the features of the circle of the shepherds features will enhance.

So get a feat to great you the spell, I prefer Ritual Caster Wizard feat, because it nets you Unseen Servant as well and later spells like Tensers Floating Disk and Illusionary Steed.

This gives you at will minions, something the Circle of the Shepherd doesn't normally have, but fits the theme. Also note despite being semi illusions that steeds from Illusionary Steed use horse stats aside from speed, so any druid spell that effects beasts effects them.

 

[Nhym]

I know this is old, but here you go: Nhym's Guide to Fuzzy Fury (A Shepherd Druid Guide 5e)

 

[RogueJK]

My suggestion is remember the Find Familiar spell's familiar can be a fey, which the features of the circle of the shepherds features will enhance.

So get a feat to great you the spell, I prefer Ritual Caster Wizard feat, because it nets you Unseen Servant as well and later spells like Tensers Floating Disk and Illusionary Steed.

This gives you at will minions, something the Circle of the Shepherd doesn't normally have, but fits the theme.

I agree that a Familiar and other Wizard summons is definitely thematically appropriate for a Shepherd Druid. However, even a Fey Familiar gets minimal enhancement from Shepherd's features, mechanically speaking.


The 3rd level Spirit Totem ability has a bit of potential benefit for the Familiar, at least with the Bear spirit. Bear would add 8 or more Temp HP to the Familiar if it was in range when the Spirit was summoned. That props up the Familiar's measly 1 HP, but not by much. 9 total HP at 3rd level means it could potentially survive a hit, but 16 HP at 10th level (for example) almost certainly won't.

Unicorn and Hawk are of lesser benefit, since a Familiar without extra Bear Temp HP will drop with one hit so won't live long enough to need healing, and Familiars can't attack. However, a Familiar with Advantage on Perception from Hawk could be handy in a few scouting situations (for those Familiars that don't already have that) but it only lasts 1 minute, it only works within 30 feet of the Spirit, and it is only usable once per short rest.

In addition, this Spirit benefit applies to all allies in range, not just specifically Fey, so it wouldn't really matter what type of Familiar was summoned for purposes of the Spirit Totem.


The Level 6 Mighty Summoner ability grants 2 extra HP per Hit Die to summoned Fey. So your 1 HP Fey Familiar now has a whopping 3 HP, plus potentially some temp HP from Bear Spirit. Even with this plus Bear, 14 HP at 6th level might survive one hit, but maybe not, and that survivability drops off even further at higher levels. Without Bear, 3 HP is a negligible difference from 1 HP. Their attacks would now be magical too, but that doesn't matter because Familiars can't Attack as mentioned above.

The 10th level Guardian Spirit ability for the Fey Familiar to heal while within the Spirit's aura is also of negligible benefit, since even with 2 extra HP plus Bear Temp HP it won't survive past one hit at levels 10+ in order to need to be healed by the aura.


So even with a Shepherd Druid, a Familiar is not suitable for combat.