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

[Arial Black]

You know Treantmonk's God Wizard concept: (briefly) a wizard who doesn't seem to do much themselves but instead makes victory easier by empowering allies and messing with enemies?

Well, I want to do the same, but with a druid. Specifically, a single-class 5th level druid.

What spells should I prepare to maximise that role?

 

[KarinsDad]

Meld Into Stone because a god shouldn't be bothered with helping out mere mortals.

 

[FrogReaver]

Druids don't get a lot of save or suck spells.

Druids can Prepare about 9 spells. The following are the most important spells for a God Druid IMO (ranked by what best to worst God Druid spells).

1. Pass Without Trace - (Surprise is perhaps the strongest advantage you can gain over the enemy. Pass Without Trace nearly guarantees your whole party gets surprise when presented with the possibility of sneaking up on a group of enemies).

2. Healing Spirit - (No matter how the DM rules this spell to work it's one of the best out of combat healing spell available.)

3. Entangle - (Multiple use spell. Creates Difficult terrain which can be semi-useful. More importantly restrains enemies that fail a strength saving throw. The only way out after being restrained is to use an action making a strength check.)

4. Faerie Fire - (Single Dex save or the whole party gains advantage against the targets. Advantage against the enemy is strong and is nearly universally useful but the spell doesn't make the enemy suck like entangle does, it just makes the enemy die faster due to being hit more often.)

5. Fog Cloud - (The spell has a number of tactical uses and requires no save. It's a great option to have but you need to be creative with it).

6. Plant Growth - (Provides Super Difficult Terrain in a huge area and you get to place non-difficult terrain paths in the area just where you want. Enemies get no saves. This is a great spell to cast against primarily melee enemies, or to provide your party a tactical retreat, to help prevent enemies from retreating, etc)

7. Healing Word - (The emergency healing spell. When an ally drops to 0 you want to be able to cast this spell)

8. Wind Wall - (Situational spell that protects against ranged weapons and small flying creatures. Can provide a small amount of damage.)

9. Lesser Restoration - (The spell can cure some nasty conditions and can do so while you are concentrating on more useful spells).


*Honorable Mention - Goodberry, Charm Person, Spike Growth, Conjure Animal, Call Lightning, Dispel Magic

 

[rgoodbb]

For that role, Entangle/Faerie Fire are two good ones to start with or choose one.

Thorn Whip and Thunderwave provide good push/pull control, especially painful over Spiked Growth/Bonfire

Hold Person, when it sticks is up there for God control. Flaming Sphere can be in that bracket for area denial.

I was still using Thorn Whip at 7th level and having a blast with it.
-Pulled a fish monster out of the water to land at the Barbarian's feet. (she had a water phobia)
-Pulled different monster into direct combat with melee character
-Pulled flying creature off of a cliff face
etc.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

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.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

*Honorable Mention - Goodberry, Charm Person, Spike Growth, Conjure Animal, Call Lightning, Dispel Magic

Moonbeam is strictly superior to call lightning in general (unless you're outside in a thunderstorm), and actually works for a God Druid concept unlike CL. You can put spells like flaming sphere or moonbeam in a location to get enemies to move out of it, and only have to spend an action if you want to move them.

 

[FrogReaver]

Moonbeam is strictly superior to call lightning in general (unless you're outside in a thunderstorm), and actually works for a God Druid concept unlike CL. You can put spells like flaming sphere or moonbeam in a location to get enemies to move out of it, and only have to spend an action if you want to move them.

What makes you say moonbeam is better?

 

[pukunui]

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.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

What makes you say moonbeam is better?

Call lightning only works if you have an area with a 60' radius, 10' high space for the clouds to appear. So in a large amount of the dungeons in "Dungeons and Dragons", it doesn't work AT ALL. Not being able to use it in houses, caves, dungeons, castles, and so on is a huge, huge limitation. Big points to moonbeam. Moonbeam can be cast at level 2 for 2d10 damage, and does the same damage as call lightning at higher levels. Point to moonbeam for letting you 'downcast' by a level. Moonbeam appears in a place and does damage, you only need to spend actions if you want to move it. Call lighting only does damage if you spend your action. Point to moonbeam. Moonbeam can be moved 60' per round, call lightning can only happen in the original 60' circle. Point to moonbeam, but either of those is unlikely to be a limitation in practice.

Moonbeam does radiant damage while call lightning does electrical, not much difference. Moonbeam uses con save while call lightning uses dex, I'll call that even since there are more good con saves than dex saves but some dex saves get evasion. Both have the same 5' AOE, no points. Moonbeam has the 'unshifts shapeshifters' rider, but that's so situational I won't call it a point. If you're outdoors in a thunderstorm, call lightning has an effectively unlimited area and gets an extra d10 damage. This is so situational I won't call a point for it, but did mention it to forestall someone 'catching' it.

I consider moonbeam a solid default spell choice, while I'll only take Call Lightning if I expect to be fighting outdoors in a thunderstorm, and even then that's more flavor than anything else.

 

[FrogReaver]

Call lightning only works if you have an area with a 60' radius, 10' high space for the clouds to appear. So in a large amount of the dungeons in "Dungeons and Dragons", it doesn't work AT ALL. Not being able to use it in houses, caves, dungeons, castles, and so on is a huge, huge limitation. Big points to moonbeam. Moonbeam can be cast at level 2 for 2d10 damage, and does the same damage as call lightning at higher levels. Point to moonbeam for letting you 'downcast' by a level. Moonbeam appears in a place and does damage, you only need to spend actions if you want to move it. Call lighting only does damage if you spend your action. Point to moonbeam. Moonbeam can be moved 60' per round, call lightning can only happen in the original 60' circle. Point to moonbeam, but either of those is unlikely to be a limitation in practice.

Moonbeam does radiant damage while call lightning does electrical, not much difference. Moonbeam uses con save while call lightning uses dex, I'll call that even since there are more good con saves than dex saves but some dex saves get evasion. Both have the same 5' AOE, no points. Moonbeam has the 'unshifts shapeshifters' rider, but that's so situational I won't call it a point. If you're outdoors in a thunderstorm, call lightning has an effectively unlimited area and gets an extra d10 damage. This is so situational I won't call a point for it, but did mention it to forestall someone 'catching' it.

I consider moonbeam a solid default spell choice, while I'll only take Call Lightning if I expect to be fighting outdoors in a thunderstorm, and even then that's more flavor than anything else.

I really dislike the con save on moonbeam, that said it can be used in any situation and given a choke point can actually make a great tactical choice to cause enemies to want to avoid that choke point. I agree it's definitely better for a God Druid than Call Lightning.