Questions for those who have played or seen played the Bear Totem Barbarian/Moon Druid combo

[Penhall]

Greetings.
I've looked at several build guides for for the Bear Totem Barbarian/Moon Druid combo. I like the idea of a raging bear in combat and want to try this out for the AL league (Dragon Heist) game that's about to start next week for me. I'm working on what the character will look like down the road and want to get some feedback from who have in game experience with the various build options. I'm considering the following class splits: 5 Barb/15 Druid or 8 Barb/12 Druid, but am open to other suggestions.

I have the following questions for someone who's played or seen this build played:

1) Knowing that my main purpose is to be a damage sponge rather than a damage dealer, how much time are you spending in wildshape during combat vs out of wildshape and fighting?

2) Which wildshapes are you actually getting the most mileage out of in game?

3) Is it worth it to pursue wildshape CR's greater than 4 at the cost of some Barbarian abilities?

4) How much time are you spending rage monstering vs casting spells?

5) Do you find the higher spell slots (7th and 8th) more useful in and out of combat vs the extra hp and abilities from the extra levels of Barbarian?

6) Are their other level splits of Barb/Druid that you would recommend?

Thanks in advance for any advice and let me know if I need to provide additional info or clarification. Just hoping to elicit some responses from folks with actual in-game experience with this type of build.

 

[FullCaster]

Multiclassing is insanely overrated. Going pure Moon druid all the way is better in my opinion. By going pure Druid you don't delay your spell progression and your higher level abilities. The higher level abilities and spells getting better as you level so why delay them/skip them.

 

[Obliza]

I'm a huge fan of Bear Totem Barb 3, Moon Druid 17.
Still get access to all levels of spells, I don't think additional levels of barbarian are worth it at all.

Your damage is great, you benefit from reckless and rage. Although there is some argument over this (Do beasts just have attacks? Or do they use strength for those attacks?)
You want to play in a group that loves short rests.

It entirely varies whether you will be casting spells or raging or wild shape raging. My point would be that 3/17 gives you all the options.

1d8 hit dice is entirely fine for hp.

You lose
+1 Rage Damage
Extra Attack
Beast Aspect 6 (Meh)
Feral Instinct (Great but still meh)

I don't consider the above better than higher level spell slots.

 

[Blue]

Okay, you mentioned AL league. You can't consider just a 20th level build, with AL you need to consider a build that is playable at every level in-between. So toss out any 20th level optimization - that'll be such a small part of your actual play experience in terms of ratio spent at that level (IF that goal is ever reached).

So, you need to be able to hold your own at every level. What do you expect, at the low levels, to get out of each class? For example, barbarian one gives your rage - but only for 1/3 of your encounters a day, not all. Barbarian levels come at the opportunity cost of reduced CR for your Moon Druid form.

So, work out for every level where you can be that it's not below-par vs. a straight classed character, and see where that leads you. Trying to look at the final numbers only can leave you lagging far behind during a lot of your actual play.

 

[Penhall]

Thanks for all of the replies so far and each has some valuable advice that I hadn't considered yet. However, I'm hoping to get some actual in game feedback from folks who have played the class and what was reality vs what they expected going in. This is less about optimization and more about the build they chose and what worked or didn't work.