So while looking at the Circle of Dreams and the Circle of the Shepherd, the Circle of the Shepherd seems the better of the 2 right from the get go thanks to the Totem Spirits Feature. The Balm of the Summer Court feature for Circle of Dreams is nice too, but lacks the versatility of the Spirit Totem feature. It doesn't hurt that the Spirit Totem Feature comes back after a short rest, versus a long rest recharge time for Balm of the Summer Court. I get that both are good for support druids, but the versatility and availability of the Spirit Totem feature seems to pull the Circle of the Shepherd ahead of the Circle of Dreams. Anyone else get the same impression?
D&D 5E Xanathar's guide Druid Circles
- Thread starter Zmajdusa
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Chaosmancer
Legend
In terms of support, I'm biased (and looking from my groups rules) but I'd give the edge to the Dreams.
LEt's go 6th level for easy math,
Dream druid has 6d6 (+6 temp) to distribute over the course of a day.
Shepherd can use one of their spirits per short rest, If they choose bear that is 11 temp hp if they were in the space when the bear appeared. Hawk which grants advantage is nice, but my tables generally end up with more ways to have advantage than we know what to do with (flanking rules mostly), or empowering healing spells with +6 gained.
I'd say it is even here, bear gives more temp but I prefer healing over temp, unicorn empowers healing spells, but I'd give an edge to free healing over making a spell better, because the dream druid essentially has six additional healing words in their back pocket... Actually, druids don't get that so they have 6 castings of healing word (kind of) to work with.
It's a slight edge and frankly, if my table didn't use flanking shepherd would edge out dreams, but then I look at their later abilities. Shepherds get summoning, but dream has some teleporting and their capstone is not a bad ability, plus the ability to hide a part while they rest can be pretty good if your lacking tiny huts.
LEt's go 6th level for easy math,
Dream druid has 6d6 (+6 temp) to distribute over the course of a day.
Shepherd can use one of their spirits per short rest, If they choose bear that is 11 temp hp if they were in the space when the bear appeared. Hawk which grants advantage is nice, but my tables generally end up with more ways to have advantage than we know what to do with (flanking rules mostly), or empowering healing spells with +6 gained.
I'd say it is even here, bear gives more temp but I prefer healing over temp, unicorn empowers healing spells, but I'd give an edge to free healing over making a spell better, because the dream druid essentially has six additional healing words in their back pocket... Actually, druids don't get that so they have 6 castings of healing word (kind of) to work with.
It's a slight edge and frankly, if my table didn't use flanking shepherd would edge out dreams, but then I look at their later abilities. Shepherds get summoning, but dream has some teleporting and their capstone is not a bad ability, plus the ability to hide a part while they rest can be pretty good if your lacking tiny huts.
Chaosmancer
Legend
Good point
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