D&D 5E Druids seen in the Wild (Shape?)

[James Gasik]

Since I started playing 5e, and this includes Adventure League, so I've seen a lot of characters, I've seen a few Druids. And the vast majority of those Druids are Moon Druids. Turning into an animal seems to be something Druid players value highly.

So it surprised me when I started running a game recently with a Land Druid and I started taking a closer look at their spell list to make sure I seed a few Druid scrolls into treasure...and their spell list is really really good! Like, I want to play this, good!

So the question came to me then, are Moon Druids really the majority? Or are there more Druid players who focus on spellcasting out there than I realize?

 

[Leatherhead]

Like maybe 1/3 druids I've seen were Moon. Which means they aren't the majority (or even seen more than any other druids) but they are the most common.

 

[Li Shenron]

I haven't seen enough to draw statistically relevant conclusions, but I have seen both. The choice has been more tactical than narrative: do you want to fight combats as a melee beast, or with spells?

We have been using Xanathar, but nobody has ever chosen its two Druid subclasses.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The two Druids I have had in my games over the past decade both went Moon. I suspect because they thought that if they wanted to be primarily spellcasters they would have played wizards or clerics instead. Wildshaping is the true "special" thing that makes druids different than both of them (just like Bardic Inspiration is the bard's) so they preferred to go more in on that side of things.

Druid spellcasters also have the unfortunate "little brother" syndrome to a certain extent, in that they are also a WIS-based caster like the Cleric, their class story of being more just "hermits connected to the earth" does not lend itself to as many or as easily incorporated stories of the campaign world as Pantheon of Deities are to the Cleric, and the Druid's nature-specific spells are not so good as to make up for the loss of a lot of the best support-spells the Cleric gets.

At the end of the day, I think a large amount of the player base looks at it all as "Wizards go Boom!", "Clerics help the party!", and "Bards are the party Face and talker!". And then The Druid and Sorcerer are left to be picked up after the fact merely as a change of pace-- unless a Druid player wants to go all-in on shapeshifting and the Sorcerer player has really strong tactical ties that make them want to maximize their Metamagic potential.

(And a reminder... I said "a large amount", not "all" or "most".)

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I have not been in too many games with druids. In the one game I have, it was a moon. When I play a Druid, it is exclusively a Land Druid. Yes, their spells are great. I love the utility and, at higher levels, their spells offer lots of cool options, especially in sandbox campaigns.

 

[MarkB]

Druids do have a good spell list, but a surprisingly large percentage of them are concentration spells, which can make it tough to use a diverse set of spells in combat. The Moon Druid approach of kicking in one concentration spell in the first round, then wildshaping and taking it to the enemy in melee while maintaining that spell often works out better.

 

[Horwath]

PHB, 100% moon druids
but tasha's did bring more balance to the force...err class.

 

[Oofta]

Since I started playing 5e, and this includes Adventure League, so I've seen a lot of characters, I've seen a few Druids. And the vast majority of those Druids are Moon Druids. Turning into an animal seems to be something Druid players value highly.

So it surprised me when I started running a game recently with a Land Druid and I started taking a closer look at their spell list to make sure I seed a few Druid scrolls into treasure...and their spell list is really really good! Like, I want to play this, good!

So the question came to me then, are Moon Druids really the majority? Or are there more Druid players who focus on spellcasting out there than I realize?

I haven't seen a ton of druids, but it's been varied. The moon druid is overpowered at lower levels but at mid levels they're just okay and high levels it seems like they start to fall behind. So maybe it's because most of the games you're playing are lower level?

The other issue is that some of the druid builds that really excel rely on summoning and running that many extra critters can be a pain.

 

[mellored]

Like maybe 1/3 druids I've seen were Moon. Which means they aren't the majority (or even seen more than any other druids) but they are the most common.

This.

Moon druids are the most popular, but not the only druids.

And I house ruled moon druid CR to scale a bit better, but some people just like turning into animals.

 

[ezo]

Most definitely more moon druids, by far. Probably 80-90% are moon druids IME.