D&D 5E Increase a Druid's AC (one player campaign)

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Hey all,

tl;dr
What is a good way to significantly increase the AC of a Druid, using regular items and game-rules?

The longer explanation
I'm having a one-player campaign which I play with a friend just for laughs... (And because the 2 other campaigns we play just isn't enough).

The player is a Druid, who has a pet panther with some extra features (and quite a bit extra HP) as permanent pet, to do some extra damage and to decrease the effects of a single bad roll. Effectively it's close to a 2 player party (Druid + panther), with both players at Level 4.

The Druid player has 35 hitpoints and an AC of 14 at the moment:

• Hide armour (AC = 12)
• Wooden shield (AC = +2)
• Unfortunately no Dex bonus to the hide because her Dex is 11, so +0

I'd like to get that up to the 16-18 range over a couple of sessions, preferably with items described somewhere in the "literature" (i.e. dmg, phb), while at the same time not using very rare or unique items yet, because she is just a Level 4 now. I noticed that she is coming up to bigger monsters now, who get larger bonuses to their attack rolls, and she is getting hammered because a lot of the attacks hit her. The obvious problem is that she has no tank in her party. Obviously, Druids cannot use metal. And that's something that I don't want to violate. Also, Druids normally don't need such high AC, but one-player campaigns are different.

Regarding the pet panther: The player controls the pet in combat, but I (the DM) control the pet in roleplay outside combat. The panther has an AC of 13 (increase by 1 compared to the monster manual) and 28 hitpoints (large increase compared to the monster manual, because the panther's HP increases by 5 every time they level up). I will eventually give the panther some cat-armour, which may include small bits of metal - to increase its AC as it levels up, keeping in mind that a panther needs to remain stealthy. I will also slowly increase its damage and attack bonuses, so that it basically levels up.

All ideas to increase the Druid's AC are welcome!

 

[KahlessNestor]

The spell barkskin sets the druids AC to 16. Sage Advice says a shield doesn't stack on top of that, for whatever reason (seems weird it wouldn't), but you could change that. You could reflavor metal armor types so that they don’t contain metal. Like chitin or dragon scales or ironwood. There's a cloak of protection as well.

If she's a moon druid, there is no reason she can't tank. It's what they do; they're vary flexible that way.

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[Baldurs_Underdark]

That's some excellent ideas, which gives me some options without bending the rules too much.

She already uses Barkskin, but it is a concentration spell, which kinda sucks. Worst case, the concentration can end after just 1 attack, and the spell is gone. But I like the idea of just "reflavouring" the other items. The cloak is a good one too.

 

[rgoodbb]

Retcon Defensive Duellist Feat with a dagger in hand might be another way at 4th or Human. But really Barkskin as above for a set 16 AC or different Dex Stats (which I appreciate you probably don't want to change).

Control spells might help you keep attackers at bay for a while longer as well. Entangle, Thunderwave or Flaming Sphere for example.

 

[KahlessNestor]

That's some excellent ideas, which gives me some options without bending the rules too much.

She already uses Barkskin, but it is a concentration spell, which kinda sucks. Worst case, the concentration can end after just 1 attack, and the spell is gone. But I like the idea of just "reflavouring" the other items. The cloak is a good one too.

If she's moon druid, barkskin + wild shape is all she needs. She'll be using her other slots for healing and not casting.

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[Baldurs_Underdark]

Btw, conveniently she chose to be a Land-druid (Circle of the Land)... so the wild shape does not get used much in combat.
It is a decision that we can question, but it was taken multiple sessions ago, and reversing it would ruin the roleplay, so that is a no-go.

 

[KahlessNestor]

No worries. I didn't know, and I haven't played Land yet. A control spell like Entangle might work, then pew pew with Produce Flame. Use items and refluffing armor to increase AC.

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[schnee]

It kind of sucks, but yeah, a Land Druid is squishy. They're a little less squishy than a Wizard, but not much.

IMO, if this is a solo game, I think you should be open to just tweaking the game a bit more. It's a team game by design, and there's a definite rock/paper/scissors balance inside one party. Monsters are created knowing there will either be several characters, or at least one person with a much higher AC than the Druid. There's nothing wrong with house-ruling a bit to make a solo game work better.

--

OK, that was the TL;DR. Here's the wall of text.

If you want to buff the character, here are a few more things to consider:
- Make Barkskin and Stoneskin non-concentration. Just give it a duration.
- All Wild Shape forms are full HP and get the player's Constitution HP bonuses.
- Give the player 'War Caster' or 'Resilient Constitution' for free.
- Give the Druid more Wild Shapes per rest. That would make infiltration, subterfuge, scouting, etc. less of a limited resource, and the Druid could have much more intel for each fight.

If you don't want to do that, then there's always tweaking the challenges to better fit the character. D&D is flexible enough to have anything from war to royal intrigue to Ocean's 11 heists. Why not make the challenges solvable - or have conditions that can be tipped in favor of the player - by infiltration by stealthy wild shapes? Use fewer combat monsters, and more natural hazards? Or do things like 'build the dungeon with all sorts of traps that are meant for defense, but can be turned agains the denizens by a clever infiltrator that's small enough to fit under the poorly-made doors'? Whether this is fun or not depends on the player, of course.

Also, there's nothing that says you have to use the creatures in the Monster Manual as written. I DM'd a group that rolled INCREDIBLE attributes in a 3.5 game, and they performed 2-3 levels above their CR because of that. I had to substantially change encounters in the official modules to present any challenge at all. Why not go the other way, and make the bigger monsters slower and more clumsy this campaign?

HTH...

 

[Tormyr]

That's some excellent ideas, which gives me some options without bending the rules too much.

She already uses Barkskin, but it is a concentration spell, which kinda sucks. Worst case, the concentration can end after just 1 attack, and the spell is gone. But I like the idea of just "reflavouring" the other items. The cloak is a good one too.

Definitely going to need the Warcaster feat and a decent Constitution score then. Not just for barkskin​ but other concentration spells in general.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Warcaster is a good one. Thanks for the tip.
We just realized that she has been casting all kinds of spells without dropping the shield/staff, so she's basically been using part of the warcaster feat all the time anyway.

With all your advice, I think I have made up my mind. I've just given her the warcaster feat for free, will create some none-metallic armours and a cloak. That should probably keep us going until level 10+.

Thanks for all your tips!