Bow Druid

[Herobizkit]

Bone, Flint, Wood tip, heck, even Quartz can be used as an arrow tip.

And that's even before you get into natural Poisons...

 

[HawkGirlReborn]

Hypothetically, as a druid could i druidcraft Nightshade thorns to use as arrowheads?

 

[77IM]

As a house rule, sure. I like the idea of giving non-damaging cantrips some attack value (e.g. allowing mage hand to pick up a weapon and attack with it, or prestidigitation to trip someone, that sort of thing).

RAW, nothing in the druidcraft spell suggests that you can use it to conjure plant parts or manufacture arrowheads.

Also, nightshade does not have thorns (the poison is in the berries) (I think).

 

[Guest 6801328]

Mixing in a couple levels...or even 1 level...of Rogue could be thematic. A druid who is extra stealthy in natural terrain and strikes by ambush.

 

[AtomicPope]

Druids get access to Flame Arrows. It's not a great spell but it does increase the damage of bow attacks. Other than that I don't see much in the way of Druids for bows.

It would be easy to homebrew a Druid Circle using Circle of Land as a template. Instead of a bonus cantrip and Natural Recovery...
Hunter - Proficiency in Longbow and Archery Fighting Style. Add Hunter's Mark to the Druid's spell list. Then add the Ranger Bow spells to the Circle Spell list. At 14th level, after using the attack action with a bow cast a spell as a bonus action.

Not crazy powerful but gives Druids a reason to use a bow.

 

[jasper]

Just ask your dm to swap out x weapon proficiency with a bow. No other changes, dips, creation of new circles are needed.

 

[jgsugden]

For this character concept, I'd take a level of druid, then 5 levels of ranger, then 14 more levels of druid.

 

[Nutation]

For this character concept, I'd take a level of druid, then 5 levels of ranger, then 14 more levels of druid.

Since this thread is live again, I've been running a bow druid for quite a while in Adventurer's League. The effectiveness definitely tapers off with level.
I run a straight wood elf grassland druid, pumping Dex in light armor, which is a good approach anyway. The character does have stealth and thieves' tool proficiency, which coupled with Pass Without Trace gives some versatility. (That's always an issue in AL.)
Haste is the most effective buff. I wish Haste could be up-cast on more targets, because there's usually a fighter or barbarian around who's a better choice.
One tiny advantage is that I don't need to pick Thorn Whip or Produce Flame to have a ranged attack option when the combat is going well or when my other options are all bonus actions anyway (Healing Word, Call Lightning, Flaming Sphere, etc.).
Of course, Shillelagh doesn't scale well either if you only ever get 1 attack per round.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The bow attack is better as the cantrip until level 11. At least if you go primary dex. 1d8+5 is higher than 2d8. And it is a lot better minimum damage which is a huge plus. Haste makes it easily usable if you are alone. And if you fight with others there is no harm in just having a single attack since you will be using much mire powerful spells anyway.