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D&D 5E D&D's Druid: Circle of the Shepherd Appearing in 'Xanathar's Guide to Everything'

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad
Summary: A druid sub-class focused on summoning creatures and enhancing their entire party.

The focus is on animals, and specifically on animals who are usually prey for a predator and have trouble normally defending themselves. They are able to summon creatures better than other sub-classes, and the beasts they summon get a few buffs. They also have the ability to summon a totem, a spirit creature. Totems do not in themselves fight, but create an aura around themselves. The aura buffs your allies. They also have an ability to use a totem to help their summoned creatures each round, like providing healing to their summoned creatures each round, and things like that. Thematically, it's sort of the druid who, when wandering through the forest, has rabbits following them, and birds, and things like that. They have a very strong connection to the creatures of nature, rather than specifically the land itself or the animal within themselves (which would be other sub-classes of druid).

Some time is spent in the video discussing the nature of summoned creature spells, and Mike Mearls explains these are representations of a creature, but not the actual creature itself being pulled through from somewhere else. There are not ethical concerns about harming an actual creature that you summon for use, for example, as a trap detector/springer, or to do combat with a more powerful foe. It's somewhat like an avatar of the concept of that creature in physical form, rather than a real creature pulled from somewhere else to suddenly battle something or spring a trap. They are things you have created with the spell, which obey your commands because they're part of your magic. This is not to say all the summoning spells function that way - planar binding spells for instance are the real creature being pulled to your location. The easy line to know the difference is if you have to convince a creature to serve you, it's likely a real creature, and if it just shows up and automatically does your bidding, it's likely the representation of the idea or concept of that creature manifest physically for a short period of time by your magic.

This sub-class is a bit more of a spell-caster than some other druid spell-casters. They also get some abilities which augment their summons, like more hit points. They also have a fairly strong support role for the party with their totems.

[video=youtube;_4oDavj7GkU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4oDavj7GkU[/video]
 

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Sorry, haven't had a chance to listen yet, but I wonder about the spells where if you lose concentration, the monster is hostile to you as it relates to the dichotomy of summoning. That seems a little more "you are getting the actual creature" then the spells that have the monster(s) disappear when you lose concentration. Maybe when you summon a more powerful monster, you need to get a little bit of "real monster" in with the archetype part?

It will be interesting to compare this to the divine soul sorcerer (especially if you count twin spell as working on conjure celestial, and given that there weren't any conjure x spells in the sorcerer's original list, I think we can assume that it would work on conjure celestial {otherwise why not include any conjure spells?} [and don't forget planar ally doesn't require concentration]), particularly if the sorcerer (or cleric) gets the demon summoning spells and/or infernal calling. I think you could make a good case for either to be the "best summoner" (although bard with the right magic secrets who inspires his/her summoned critters seems like a good deal too). The DSS can get the most over CR 2 monsters, but isn't particularly good with getting low level hordes and doesn't have any particular ability to enhance the monsters summoned (except for the planar ally).
 

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