D&D 5E Moon Circle Druid Play Report

[Authweight]

So I just ran a session at level two, and one of my players played a moon circle Druid. It seems like he's able to turn into a cr 1 brown bear twice per short rest for a free 34 hp each time, plus lots of extra damage. This makes him faster, tougher, and stronger than anyone else in the game, as far as I can tell.


It seems like the moon circle Druid ability will get weaker as the party levels up, but right now it seems unbelievably strong. Am I reading/playing this right? Or is it just meant to be that a level 2 moon circle Druid is an unholy terror, capable of walking all over his peers?

 

[Paraxis]

You got the jist of it, level 2-6 or so moon druids are very powerful compared to the rest of the group.

Other great CR 1 forms: Giant Hyena, Dire Wolf, and Giant Spider

 

[Thank Dog]

The Dire Wolf is a very underrated form. Most people go the bear due to the extra damage but I'd prefer having advantage on attacks and making everything prone.

And yeah, although the power does wane as you go up levels, it stays pretty darn solid when combined with more spell slots for bonus cures and Barkskin. By the time you hit 6th-level and can go up to CR 2 creatures, you're certainly not going to feel as if you're weak. Once at 6th-level though, things get really interesting.

But yes, moon druids are brokenly OP at low levels

 

[Lrdroland]

Yeah so my DM does max hit points per level and I asked if he wanted me to roll my wild shape HP or do the average and he ruled that I get max because all PCs get max.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I believe that Jeremy Crawford mentioned that Moon Circle Druids were on his "watch list" recently on Twitter. The watch list being the list of things he's considering official errata on.

Out group generally agrees that it is the only real thing in 5e that seems rather overpowered and probably needs an errata. A couple of people have vowed not to play them just to make sure they aren't completely unbalanced compared to the rest of the party. The one guy who currently plays a Druid comments how broken he feels a couple of times a session.

 

[Authweight]

Yeah, we played exactly one fight with the moon circle Druid and everyone at the table agreed it was completely broken beyond repair, and nobody should play it. Setting aside the extra damage, you get 68 free hp per short rest. At level 2, that's already absurdly overpowered.

 

[Lrdroland]

Yeah, we played exactly one fight with the moon circle Druid and everyone at the table agreed it was completely broken beyond repair, and nobody should play it. Setting aside the extra damage, you get 68 free hp per short rest. At level 2, that's already absurdly overpowered.

I think if you make it a long rest then it makes it more in line with other abilities and it is very not broken when you get to lvl 5. The Brown Bear attacks don't scale with your stats or proficiency. So while all other front liners are sitting +6-7 you are still at the +5. By that time I would let it be a short rest again.

 

[Authweight]

I think if you make it a long rest then it makes it more in line with other abilities and it is very not broken when you get to lvl 5. The Brown Bear attacks don't scale with your stats or proficiency. So while all other front liners are sitting +6-7 you are still at the +5. By that time I would let it be a short rest again.

Even if you're doing it twice per long rest, that's a ton of extra hp. A TON. If you can get enemies to attack you (which shouldn't be hard seeing as you're a big bear), then you can just soak a ton of damage without worrying about it at all. You could do no damage at all and still be incredibly useful. The attack is just icing on the cake.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You got the jist of it, level 2-6 or so moon druids are very powerful compared to the rest of the group.

Other great CR 1 forms: Giant Hyena, Dire Wolf, and Giant Spider

Only if you can convince your DM where your PC happened to see a giant hyena, dire wolf, and giant spider. It seems a lot of people keep forgetting that you can't change into a beast your PC hasn't seen yet.

I just DM'd a session last night with a moon druid in the party. Level 4 PCs. Earlier they fought giant toads, which are now his favorite animal to shape change into. Yes, lower level moon druids are pretty powerful, but nothing game breaking. This is probably because the group isn't allowed to short rest whenever they want, so he actually has to decide when to shapechange. Additionally, there's been times when he's had to go back to human form before his time was up when he didn't want (crossing a rope bridge for instance) or times when he had to use another shape for out of combat purposes (like a spider to explore the minotaur beetle's lair). So much like a wizard with direct damage spells that far outdo a fighter's attack but are very limited in how often you can do it, in my experiences of actual play, the moon druid's shape at low levels allows the druid to soak and deal much more damage than a fighter, but on a limited # of combat rounds; the rest he is far behind the fighter with his low AC, low HP, and low attack ability modifiers (since his high stats are in WIS instead of STR or DEX).

 

[Cernor]

I was playing a Moon Druid in HotDQ, in a party of 2. What I found is that being the only front-liner (the other guy is a ranger), I desperately needed that bonus HP. At the church I wildshaped into a giant hyena (45hp) to hold off the people who broke into the chapel, but my form dropped in 3 turns. Sure I felt really overpowered compared to the other guy, but I think that past 6th level (which we'll hit earlier than the book suggests as we've almost hit 3rd level and we're only halfway through Greenest) it'll balance out.

Also, as a DM you should be able to build (if creating the camlaign) or tweak (if running an adventure) your encounters to reflect the power of the Moon druid in your party. Treat them as if they're 1-2 levels higher than they actually are for determining encounter difficulty and see how that goes, or even make easy encounters medium, medium encounters hard, and hard encounters deadly. Just a thought