D&D 5E how do you druid?

[pukunui]

Am I missing something, or does a spellcasting druid not make for a particularly effective antagonist? I was whipping up a harpy with druid spells earlier, and I noticed that practically all of the druid's combat-oriented spells require concentration.

Entangle, faerie fire, fog cloud, barkskin, flaming sphere, gust of wind, heat metal, hold person, moonbeam, spike growth, call lightning, conjure animals, sleet storm, and so on.

All of those spells require concentration, so a single druid can't combo any of them.

It seems like you'd have to have a whole druid circle's worth of antagonists to make an effective fight in terms of druid spells. Note that I'm not factoring shapechanging into this, particularly because the NPC druid in the back of the MM doesn't get any shapechanging.

Anyone got any thoughts on how to make a druidic spellcaster be an effective antagonist? (If it matters, my PCs are all 4th level, and I was looking at making the harpy a 5th level spellcaster.)

 

[AtomicPope]

If the Druid is a boss fight then make it a real boss. I would recommend you give the Druid Legendary Actions:

Natural Spell - cast a Cantrip
Nature's Marshall - order one friendly Animal to make a weapon attack
Swift Wings - Fly 1/2 speed without provoking attacks of opportunity

If they're a flyer then consider Spike Growth and casting Thornwhip. Lots of damage synergy and it's annoying. Rather than summon animals you should have swarms of flyers like a murder of crows, more thematic. You can cast Hold Person as a higher level spell, like a 4th level spell, and affect 3 characters. Then the crows devour them by pecking their soft, juicy eyes.

 

[Celtavian]

I do not think you can make a druid spellcaster a very effective antagonist if you follow the concentration rules and play it like a PC caster. At best you could conjure some animals, that's about it. They don't have the effect or AoE damage spells to be super effective.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Add in some minions to take advantage of all her combat support. Doesn't need to be a solo fight.

 

[iserith]

I think I would just go with the druid circle. I think it's a bit more memorable than a lone druid and reinforces a key aspect of druid lore.

 

[TerraDave]

I have done the shaman casting druid spells with a wider group.

That can work well, though the party may know who to go after to end something.

And there is a reason those spells need concentration: they can be pretty powerful. I do also like the circle of druids for that reason.

 

[ccs]

Ignore the concentration mechanic.

 

[iserith]

Ignore the concentration mechanic.

Or if you don't want to ignore the mechanic outright, you could throw an awakened tree in the encounter whose heartwood, exposed by a lightning strike and magically empowered by mysterious druidic magic, allows the druid to ignore the need for concentration while the druid is within a certain radius of the living tree. Telegraph how the druid is drawing power from the tree when casting spells and include a ring of toadstools or standing stones around the tree that marks the radius the druid needs to be in.

If the players care about the druid's enhanced spellcasting ability, then they'll probably take down the tree or try to pull the druid away from it. A sample of the heartwood, properly extracted before the tree is killed, can be used as a consumable to ignore the need for concentration for one hour.

 

[tuxgeo]

Am I missing something, or does a spellcasting druid not make for a particularly effective antagonist? I was whipping up a harpy with druid spells earlier, and I noticed that practically all of the druid's combat-oriented spells require concentration.
. . .
Anyone got any thoughts on how to make a druidic spellcaster be an effective antagonist? . . .

This might be a design choice: if Druids don't make good antagonists, then it might be the case that they aren't meant to: in D&D 5E, they're the good guys, and they need to employ teamwork for greatest effectiveness -- such as the teamwork of a cohesive band of adventurers.

If you think of this as being a feature instead of a bug, that might give some consolation for an inability to build a great druidic villain. (I'm totally leaving out the question of whether real-life druids were ever villainous, of course.)

 

[Merchant of Shadows]

1. NPCs don't follow the PC creation rules.
2. Solo enemies in a white room rarely make a memorable encounter.

Put some magical menhirs that he can transfer the concentration of his spells to and that will keep raining thorn and thunder on the characters unless they shatter/dispell them. Make him constantly shift between animal forms to trample/poison/pounce/constrict them. Make him teleport from one three to another and turn into swarm of ravens that scaters until his turns comes each time he is attacked.
He must really step up on his action economy if he is not to be steamrolled by the characters.