D&D 5E how do you druid?

[pukunui]

Thanks everyone! I think I've figured out what I'm going to do.

I'll give the harpy some lair actions as well as some legendary actions. She does, after all, have a lair in the adventure (it's a big old hollowed out tree trunk). I think I might also do away with some of the specific spells that are giving me trouble and give her some thematically similar special actions instead (eg. instead of call lightning, I could give her the kraken's Lightning Storm action).

And yes, I love the idea of having some birds that help her out. Or maybe some stirges. My players hate stirges!


EDIT: Hmm. What would people suggest as lair actions for a harpy lairing in a big old dead tree in the forest? The bronze dragon's warding wind action looks pretty good, as does the copper dragon's muddy ground action. I suppose one or more of the green dragon's lair actions might be fitting too. Can anyone think of anything unique to a harpy, though? Maybe something that lets one of the swarms of birds get a free attack or something?


EDIT 2: Would it be too cruel of me to give the harpy access to polymorph so she can turn one of the PCs into a harmless little field mouse or something that one of her birds can then scoop up into the sky ... meaning that if the PCs attack the harpy, they risk causing her to lose concentration on the spell, which would result in the PC turning back into their normal form, which no crow or whatever would be able to hold on to, which would mean the PC would fall ... Seems like something this harpy would do. The adventure makes a point of mentioning that she is "more evil than most villains could ever hope to be". (It also suggests that I let the players know that "nobody wants to imagine what the harpy's been doing to [her captive]. It's enough to say it's unspeakable.")

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

EDIT 2: Would it be too cruel of me to give the harpy access to polymorph so she can turn one of the PCs into a harmless little field mouse or something that one of her birds can then scoop up into the sky ... meaning that if the PCs attack the harpy, they risk causing her to lose concentration on the spell, which would result in the PC turning back into their normal form, which no crow or whatever would be able to hold on to, which would mean the PC would fall ...

No, that would not be mean at all. GMs should be forcing players to make hard decisions.

As an aside, it is a great idea. Consider it stolen and used against my players soon.

 

[pukunui]

Awesome. Thanks.

EDIT: In case anyone is wondering, I'm working on converting Arekla, the half-fiend harpy cleric from "Wedding Bells" (Dungeon #89). For the half-fiend harpy part, I've mashed together the cambion and the harpy stats. I'm getting kinda bored with clerics as antagonists - we've had quite a few in recent adventures - so I thought I'd change it up a bit. The adventure calls for a gnoll druid in the opening ambush, but I thought I'd go with the harpy being a druid rather than a cleric and just not have the gnoll druid. But now I'm thinking I might make the harpy a bard instead. Bard fits the theme of a harpy nicely, and I can still give her things like polymorph ... and I'll give her a few druidy things via her lair actions and such. And if I do that, I can put the gnoll druid back in the opening encounter.

 

[Uchawi]

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.

I would take the druid circle idea, but replicate it with stone pillars ala stone henge that let a caster extend the amount of concentration spells they have in effect. There would be some trigger to use them. If the party figures it out they can use it to. Maybe they would come back to the place eventually to stop a wave of destruction.

 

[dmnqwk]

Ignoring wild shape for a druid protagonist is essentially turning it into a cleric with nature-domain, druids are not just about casting spells but converting from spells to wild shape and back again. The Druid is not limited by physical form and can become a drawn out encounter.

Also look at fighting a druid as a process, not a single encounter. Have the druid conjure up an army of Giant Owls (one of the most effective CR to damage ratio creatures, alongside Black Bears) while the druid escapes. The PCs then have a tough time dealing with flying creatures who deal high damage (so cannot simply be ignored).

Once they catch up with the shapeshifted druid (who took animal form to escape) have it fight them in that form until it loses, then have it cast another concentration spell, perhaps spike growth to really cast them to slow down while using ice storm to try and pick them off. If the druid gets low, it's time for call lightning or another conjure spell and wild shape before running away again.

The final time they catch up have the animal form beat on them before switching to caster form and unleashing their secret weapon - an awakened beast! While the beast "tanks" for the druid, have the druid pepper the heroes with call lightning - making use of further thunderwaves, ice storms and blight before the piece de resistance - polymorph!

So overall this Druid could have:
1) Conjured Animals (or elementals/fey depending on level) and wild shaped to escape. Pick something tricky, so flying enemies if the party is melee heavy, or fire elementals if they rely on burning hands/fireball too much.
1a) Interlude where the wildshape druid fights them for a bit.
2) Spike Growth/Wind Wall/Wall of Fire to slow them as the druid rushes off in wild shape, while channelling the spell.
2a) Interlude where the druid fights as a wildshape
3) Awakened Beast joins the fray while the druid uses any spell slots remaining to pepper the heroes.
4) The Druid polymorphs into something dangerous, like an umber hulk. Consider allowing it full access to abilities (which I don't think normally occurs with polymorph)
5) Druid is defeated and the heroes are left feeling victorious after fighting an epic encounter with one of the most versatile casters in the game.
6) Give them lots of magical items because they surely deserve it after this!