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First Druid follow-up
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<blockquote data-quote="RogueJK" data-source="post: 7896372" data-attributes="member: 170"><p>Yes, Circle of the Moon is good. However, it's a different playstyle than your typical caster Druid. If you're wanting to be a dedicated Summoner, or dedicated Elemental blaster, or a dedicated Controller, you don't want to be a Moon Druid. There are other Druid subtypes that will be better at those (like Shepherd for Summoning, Land for Controlling, or Wildfire for Blasting).</p><p></p><p>Instead, think of Moon Druids as frontline melee Tanks like a Fighter or Barbarian, but one that also happens to have the ability to have a single buff, control, or damage spell running while they do so, and that has a bunch of utility, exploration, and healing spells for outside of combat.</p><p></p><p>You can't cast spells while Wild Shaped, but you can Concentrate on one. So the typical combat pattern for a Moon Druid is to start combat by using their 1st round Action to cast a Concentration spell, either a buff/debuff like Faerie Fire, or a control spell like Entangle, or one of the specialized Bonus Action Damage spells like Moonbeam or Flaming Sphere. They then use their 1st round Bonus Action to Wild Shape into the biggest and meanest Combat Wild Shape form available to them at that particular level, and their Movement to close with the enemy and start tanking hits. From there, they use their Actions on the 2nd and subsequent rounds to Attack using their Wild Shape form's melee attacks, while using their Bonus Actions as needed to control their Concentration spell or burn spell slots to heal themselves, and soaking up damage from enemy attacks throughout the rounds.</p><p></p><p>The cool part about a Moon Druid is that they retain their three mental stats in Wild Shape form, but adopt the three physical stats of the animal form. So you can worry less about STR/DEX/CON and focus more on WIS. Most Wild Shape forms have fairly good STR and CON and adequate DEX.</p><p></p><p>So for a Moon Druid, I'd do something like:</p><p>Wood Elf Moon Druid</p><p>STR 10</p><p>DEX 14+2</p><p>CON 15</p><p>INT 12</p><p>WIS 18+1</p><p>CHA 10</p><p></p><p>Skill proficiencies: Perception (Racial), Survival and Nature (Druid), Insight and either Athletics or Acrobatics (Background)</p><p></p><p>At Level 4, take the Resilient CON feat, to gain +1 CON and proficiency with CON saves (including Concentration checks when you take damage while concentrating on a spell). This is absolutely essential, because you will be getting hit. A lot. And constantly losing Concentration is frustrating, and a waste of spell slots.</p><p></p><p>At Level 8, take the Observant feat for +1 WIS and a nice bonus to your already high passive Perception.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Or, if you want to be an even more of a utility caster outside of combat, go with:</p><p>Variant Human Moon Druid</p><p>STR 10</p><p>DEX 14+1</p><p>CON 15</p><p>INT 12</p><p>WIS 18+1</p><p>CHA 10</p><p></p><p>Skill proficiencies: Perception (Racial), Survival and Nature (Druid), Insight and either Athletics or Acrobatics (Background)</p><p></p><p>Take Ritual Caster: Wizard at Level 1, which gets you the ability to scribe and cast any Wizard Ritual spell you find. (I'd start with Find Familiar and Detect Magic as your two starting options, and then add any others that you can find as you come across them in your travels.)</p><p></p><p>Then take Resilient CON at Level 4, and +1 WIS +1 DEX at Level 8</p><p></p><p></p><p>A great option for a Moon Druid is to dip 1 level into Monk, to gain the Monk's Unarmed Defense ability, which allows them to calculate their AC as DEX+WIS when not wearing armor. This still functions when Wild Shaped, allowing you to use the animal's DEX + your WIS (+4 or +5), instead of the animal's DEX + their Natural Armor, which is usually only +1 to +3. So for a 1 level dip, you get a nice boost to the otherwise rather low ACs of most Wild Shape forms (with a few notable exceptions like the Earth Elemental, whose Natural Armor is higher than +5).</p><p></p><p>The combination of this dip, along with the Resilient CON feat, greatly increases your chances of keeping Concentration while tanking in Wild Shape form, because more attacks will miss due to your higher AC, and when you do get hit, you get to add your proficiency bonus to your Concentration check which means you're more likely to succeed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RogueJK, post: 7896372, member: 170"] Yes, Circle of the Moon is good. However, it's a different playstyle than your typical caster Druid. If you're wanting to be a dedicated Summoner, or dedicated Elemental blaster, or a dedicated Controller, you don't want to be a Moon Druid. There are other Druid subtypes that will be better at those (like Shepherd for Summoning, Land for Controlling, or Wildfire for Blasting). Instead, think of Moon Druids as frontline melee Tanks like a Fighter or Barbarian, but one that also happens to have the ability to have a single buff, control, or damage spell running while they do so, and that has a bunch of utility, exploration, and healing spells for outside of combat. You can't cast spells while Wild Shaped, but you can Concentrate on one. So the typical combat pattern for a Moon Druid is to start combat by using their 1st round Action to cast a Concentration spell, either a buff/debuff like Faerie Fire, or a control spell like Entangle, or one of the specialized Bonus Action Damage spells like Moonbeam or Flaming Sphere. They then use their 1st round Bonus Action to Wild Shape into the biggest and meanest Combat Wild Shape form available to them at that particular level, and their Movement to close with the enemy and start tanking hits. From there, they use their Actions on the 2nd and subsequent rounds to Attack using their Wild Shape form's melee attacks, while using their Bonus Actions as needed to control their Concentration spell or burn spell slots to heal themselves, and soaking up damage from enemy attacks throughout the rounds. The cool part about a Moon Druid is that they retain their three mental stats in Wild Shape form, but adopt the three physical stats of the animal form. So you can worry less about STR/DEX/CON and focus more on WIS. Most Wild Shape forms have fairly good STR and CON and adequate DEX. So for a Moon Druid, I'd do something like: Wood Elf Moon Druid STR 10 DEX 14+2 CON 15 INT 12 WIS 18+1 CHA 10 Skill proficiencies: Perception (Racial), Survival and Nature (Druid), Insight and either Athletics or Acrobatics (Background) At Level 4, take the Resilient CON feat, to gain +1 CON and proficiency with CON saves (including Concentration checks when you take damage while concentrating on a spell). This is absolutely essential, because you will be getting hit. A lot. And constantly losing Concentration is frustrating, and a waste of spell slots. At Level 8, take the Observant feat for +1 WIS and a nice bonus to your already high passive Perception. Or, if you want to be an even more of a utility caster outside of combat, go with: Variant Human Moon Druid STR 10 DEX 14+1 CON 15 INT 12 WIS 18+1 CHA 10 Skill proficiencies: Perception (Racial), Survival and Nature (Druid), Insight and either Athletics or Acrobatics (Background) Take Ritual Caster: Wizard at Level 1, which gets you the ability to scribe and cast any Wizard Ritual spell you find. (I'd start with Find Familiar and Detect Magic as your two starting options, and then add any others that you can find as you come across them in your travels.) Then take Resilient CON at Level 4, and +1 WIS +1 DEX at Level 8 A great option for a Moon Druid is to dip 1 level into Monk, to gain the Monk's Unarmed Defense ability, which allows them to calculate their AC as DEX+WIS when not wearing armor. This still functions when Wild Shaped, allowing you to use the animal's DEX + your WIS (+4 or +5), instead of the animal's DEX + their Natural Armor, which is usually only +1 to +3. So for a 1 level dip, you get a nice boost to the otherwise rather low ACs of most Wild Shape forms (with a few notable exceptions like the Earth Elemental, whose Natural Armor is higher than +5). The combination of this dip, along with the Resilient CON feat, greatly increases your chances of keeping Concentration while tanking in Wild Shape form, because more attacks will miss due to your higher AC, and when you do get hit, you get to add your proficiency bonus to your Concentration check which means you're more likely to succeed. [/QUOTE]
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