God Wiz...er...I mean, Druid?

[FrogReaver]

Conjure animals is good for this. It almost doesn't matter what you get, as long as the critter can use the help action to help a PC. Even a hour's ride on horses can be helpful.

I agree conjure animals is a great spell. It's one of the druid's overall best spells. That said I wasn't convinced of it's control functionality and so I left it out of the main list. If a good case can be made for it helping with battlefield control and out of combat as well then I'd gladly move it to the main list.

 

[FrogReaver]

One thing to note about druids is that most of their spells require concentration. This severely limits the amount of battlefield control they can do.

Nearly all control spells require concentration. Since that's what God Wizards and God Druids do then I'd say it's par for the course.

 

[BacchusNL]

I agree conjure animals is a great spell. It's one of the druid's overall best spells. That said I wasn't convinced of it's control functionality and so I left it out of the main list. If a good case can be made for it helping with battlefield control and out of combat as well then I'd gladly move it to the main list.

-8 raptors all multi-attack with advantage. Killing stuff quick is solid battlefield control.
-8 wolves all attack with advantage on their knock-prone attack.
-8 giant poison snakes each have a chance to give enemies the poisoned condiotion
-8 constrictor snakes can grapple a whole bunch of stuff
-8 stench cows are really smelly
-8 Deep Rothe can all cast dancing lights
-1 Quetzal can be a pretty effective air-lift with 15 minutes of work and bunch of ropes

 

[FrogReaver]

-8 raptors all multi-attack with advantage. Killing stuff quick is solid battlefield control.
-8 wolves all attack with advantage on their knock-prone attack.
-8 giant poison snakes each have a chance to give enemies the poisoned condiotion
-8 constrictor snakes can grapple a whole bunch of stuff
-8 stench cows are really smelly
-8 Deep Rothe can all cast dancing lights
-1 Quetzal can be a pretty effective air-lift with 15 minutes of work and bunch of ropes

But you don't technically get to pick which beast you summon, just the CR that you will summon. If your DM allows your choice of beast then this becomes a great God Druid spell. But without that choice you don't have enough control of the spell to make it a good God Druid spell, at least not in a way I can see. Sure it's still good for damage dealing, but damage dealing isn't what you're after as a God Druid.

 

[BacchusNL]

But you don't technically get to pick which beast you summon, just the CR that you will summon. If your DM allows your choice of beast then this becomes a great God Druid spell. But without that choice you don't have enough control of the spell to make it a good God Druid spell, at least not in a way I can see. Sure it's still good for damage dealing, but damage dealing isn't what you're after as a God Druid.

Obviously. Milage may vary, and I can see a point being made that some DM's might dislike Raptors or so, but I've yet to see a DM say "nope" to a Druid who wants to summon a pack of wolves. Or "Reef sharks...? You are getting monkeys, my friend".

 

[FrogReaver]

Obviously. Milage may vary, and I can see a point being made that some DM's might dislike Raptors or so, but I've yet to see a DM say "nope" to a Druid who wants to summon a pack of wolves. Or "Reef sharks...? You are getting monkeys, my friend".

Like I said, if you get to pick your beasts then by all means you should always take this spell on the God Druid and every other druid.

 

[Arial Black]

Thanks for some great advice guys.

I'm going to give summon-type spells a miss. They are tactically great, but I want to avoid hogging the screen time at the table.

Any thoughts on which druid circle?

 

[200orcs]

I like Grassland, Underdark and Arctic. They all have advantages. Some people also like Desert for control

I'm general Grassland is considered the superior choice in the forums. But Arctic has a certain theme and appeal to it

 

[Phazonfish]

What everyone else said, but also Heat Metal. It is a nasty debuff that only druids and bards get. Target metal armor to make a creature have permanent disadvantage on attacks and checks. Free bonus action damage every turn. Target a weapon to disarm if you thing they can't make a Con save (or don't want to, because success means they are still holding scalding hot metal).

 

[Leatherhead]

Nearly all control spells require concentration. Since that's what God Wizards and God Druids do then I'd say it's par for the course.

Snare doesn't!
It's also conveniently on the Druid spell list, making it worth consideration.

Another handy spell for Druid's is Guidance. The best buffing Cantrip in the game.