When 5e first came out I had a player who wasn't very happy with Circle of the Land. We sat down with the group and decided that whenever he finished a long rest, his spell list changed depending on the type of terrain that he rested in. He ended up loving it because it let him see more of the subclass and they even took the risk of resting in more dangerous places just for the spell list.

@LarsaXL

3 жыл бұрын

That's brilliant!

@Gargboss

3 жыл бұрын

I like this buff. Did you play the change as mandatory or could he choose to keep his prior list? I imagine it can be a bummer to, for example, be forced into the Arctic list, when a lot of enemies you're going to face there have resistance/immunity to cold (though damage spells aren't always the important ones).

@mikecerutti4721

3 жыл бұрын

Graf We played it as mandatory, but there were a few situations where he could choose because we camped at the edge of the forest along a grasslands, base of the mountain, brink of the underdark, and things like that. That campaign had a lot of time in cities too, so we made a city spell list but I don’t remember what spells were on it.

@Nurk0m0rath

3 жыл бұрын

@@mikecerutti4721 I really like this idea. Might try a circle of land druid if the DM will let me use this change. I'm also a fan of wild magic sorcerers with random daily spell lists, so this would give another option to explore more spells. I sort of wish clerics could refocus themselves to different aspects of their patron deity for a similar effect, but that would be changing whole class features, which would be a bigger pain.

@IndigoF0X

3 жыл бұрын

This is such a cool view of the sub-class, nice one :)

Missed opportunity to say, "Every other subclass is eclipsed by the the Circle of the Moon."

@terrencearc

3 жыл бұрын

That's awesome but the spore druid is infectious

@drdiscostu

3 жыл бұрын

And the circle of dreams is a nightmare

@whatiswhat8061

3 жыл бұрын

the circle of the land is more grounded on the classic nature druid though

@hukoseft

3 жыл бұрын

The circle of the sheperd has lead us here....

@PlanetOfTheApes999

3 жыл бұрын

The Circle of Stars has got to be the best subclass now.

One thing about the temps the Circle of Spores provides that wasn't addressed was that, yes, a Moon Druid can indeed get a lot of extra HP with wild shape as well, but the Spore Druid can get those HP without sacrificing their ability to cast spells.

@loganshort7334

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not used to seeing you outside of your own channel. It's interesting seeing how the opinions of content creators vary

@blaguard6963

3 жыл бұрын

I think that's one of the weaknesses of Druids in general (and Moon in particular) that no one talks about, they are good casters and wild shape is a neat ability, but they have essentially no synergy with one another. You're always doing one or the other unless your campaign goes to an absurdly high level

@Raoul9753

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, but other than that… what does the class really give you? Everything the spore druid gives you is pretty underwhelming. You get extra poison damage on a melee hit, on a class that does not want to be in melee range (remember that you cant wear anything better than leather armor and a shield), and a small range aura that you can trigger ONCE each turn, it costs you your reaction and the damage is so low, even a normal Goblin would laugh it off, and thats IF you deal damage, since the save or suck mechanic means potential you just wasted your reaction for nothing. Then you get to level 6, and while I do agree that most Level 6 Druid Spells are underwhelming, except for Moon and Shepard, yours is just... so bad… again you have to give up your reaction, you raise one CR 1/4 Zombie and it has 1 HP... One measly HP. That thing might be able to distract one enemy for one turn, eating one attack and die, if you are lucky and pass the con save maybe 2, but thats only if the enemy even considers the Zombie a threat in the first place, since at Level 6, you will mostly fight enemies who are not really scared of a Creature with 20 feet movement speed, a +3 to hit and a 1d6+1 damage output… I mean every average enemy can just kite the Zombie forever. Your Level 10 ability is something that should just be part of the wild shape form at level 2. I mean, lets compare it to other Druids: At Level 10, the moon druid can already transform into CR3 Beasts for a whole level and can now decide to transform into an Elemental, The Shepard gains an AoE Heal for his creatures added to his totem, Nature gets immunity to the most common damage type, Dream learns to teleport people around 5 times day… and you? You get the ability to throw your weak spore aura at an enemy, having the possibility (if the enemy fails the con save) to do your 2d8, no modifier, damage… maybe you get lucky and can block a choke point, 10*10 is an ok size, but most of the time you get 1 enemy with that. This should have been an extra feature of your Level 2 Wildshape ability not a Level 10. I cant say anything bad about the Capstone ability though, level 14, you get maybe the strongest boost of all druids. Being immune to crits and to the most common status effects in the game is freaking great. On every other subclass, I would worry that its even overpowered, but on the Spore Druid? Its barely enough to say "meh, its ok..." when you look at the whole package. And thats ignoring that only a few campaigns get to level 14 and then keep going for long enough to make it count…

@ataberkdedemen9802

3 жыл бұрын

Sensei has spoken!

@mcphadenmike

3 жыл бұрын

Blaguard I don’t know if it’s synergy, but wild shaping and spell casting can work well together since you can maintain concentration on a spell when you are wildshaped. So you can cast Faerie Fire, Heat Metal, etc, with your Action, then turn into a bear with your Bonus Action. But since you’re front lining while hoping to maintain concentration, War Caster is a must.

"Bear in mind" "Bear in mind" "Bear in mind" No no, guys. We're talking about druids today. They're bear in *body* when they wildform.

@elowenminer7748

3 жыл бұрын

I heard this and it killed me every time

@elowenminer7748

3 жыл бұрын

“Un-bear-ably good”

@Archimonde259

3 жыл бұрын

Man in Mind Bear in Body

@zaclittlejohn2701

3 жыл бұрын

Moon druid+bear totem is truly a bearbarian.

@billybobjoe5039

3 жыл бұрын

Lmaooo, this is amazing

When you talked about Circle of Shepherd standing back and summoning and not doing much else, my brain went "So basically you're a pokemon trainer?"

@willow7610

3 жыл бұрын

Pretty much

@eboi255

3 жыл бұрын

Yes

@angelganon8213

3 жыл бұрын

Shit I love it already

@itwasidio1736

3 жыл бұрын

Druids also get Planar Binding. Imagine a 10 year old Archdruid walking calmly towards a Tarrasque with several hags, angels, fiends, and elementals behind them.

@obsidiandragon1385

2 жыл бұрын

@@itwasidio1736 ... ... ... I have to make this character now this is amazing

From DMing experience, the shepherds ability to give its 8 1/4 CR summons enough HP to survive one attack. That’s all it takes. S tier imo

@villainvoice5143

3 жыл бұрын

Counterpoint: battlefield congestion. Good if your party lacks a solid frontline. But if you have 2-3 characters who are trying to get in there, adding 4 large or 8 medium critters can make things tricky. Triply so if you’re fighting in confined spaces.

@rararasputin8608

3 жыл бұрын

@@villainvoice5143 Tempting, it comes down to the player: Shepherds can be good swarmers, so it comes down to 'how many is right?'.

@Retlaw32

3 жыл бұрын

Villain Voice for sure, in those scenarios it’s definitely on the Druid to summon accordingly. As a DM I don’t mind letting the Druid choose the summons with the exception of summon woodland beings, which we roll on that one. Purely bc of the flying trex nonsense

@keksjanik2138

3 жыл бұрын

Plant growth and giant owls. I completely gutted a big zombie Encounter on an Open field this way.

@baileyzink8861

3 жыл бұрын

Especially if you’re summoning pixies who can use polymorph

The thing ya’ll missed w the Dream Druids is, having those skills in abilities instead of spells means they can used while Wild Shaped.

@redholm

3 жыл бұрын

That is true. Although I don't find myself Wild Shaping a lot since I'm the go to healer of the party.

@dren5810

3 жыл бұрын

@@redholm how has that been working for you? I was planning on going moon druid for a west marches game but I'd like to be more healing focused. I know wild shape kind of fizzles out in the higher tiers so I'd like to provide something other than just raw damage

@redholm

3 жыл бұрын

@@dren5810 Pretty well. In just 1 level I get that better version of Misty Step :P Hidden Paths should be a pretty good ability to get me anywhere I need to go on the battlefield. 5 Times per long rest. I mean. I can teleport either 60 Feet or send someone else 30 feet. The sending someone else 30 feet is so good. Tank out of position and going after the NPC? Well. Why not Teleport him into position?

@dren5810

3 жыл бұрын

@@redholm As someone who is currently playing a paladin, having a party member who can teleport me would be a god send haha. Tbf I'm level 16 now so its not that much of an issue but yeah its the utility that draws me to the dreams druid, the teleport, the healing that does not cost spell slots! I'm not concerned with raw damage as I have other people to take care of that. All I want is for my druid to be able to set other people up to do cool shit and keep them alive.

@redholm

3 жыл бұрын

@@dren5810 Yea same here. I also use those Healing dice to heal small injuries. Since it's 1d6 and you choose how many. Instead of it being 1d8+5 at lowest. It's honestly really nice to have. In the same way Lay on Hands is really handy for small injuries.

A player of mine was Circle of Shepherd and while it fit his character perfectly he was frustrated that his class was summoning based but you don't get your first summoning spell until 5th level, then finally augment that at 6th level. While a minor frustration it took the group a while to reach 5th level. I think the hardest part when rating subclasses is the fact that most campaigns will never see all capabilities.

@PsyrenXY

2 жыл бұрын

Hello from the future! As of Tashas they get a summon spell at 3rd level now, a damn good one at that 🙂 your totem also buffs your familiar at 2nd level

@dexeronstarsurge

2 жыл бұрын

@@PsyrenXY if you can somehow manage to get that awful component that makes no damn sense, yeah. Unfortunately, was not able to so with my druid.

@broomemike1

Жыл бұрын

@@dexeronstarsurge Lol, what's difficult about finding a guilded acorn worth at least 200 gp? Surely an item available at every blacksmith shop or general goods store!

@eeveegirl009

Жыл бұрын

@@broomemike1 in my campaign the dm makes us players have to work for any material components with gold cost

@broomemike1

Жыл бұрын

@@eeveegirl009 Cool! Like have proficiency and find an acorn to guild?

2:45 Circle of Dreams 7:47 Circle of Spores 15:00 Circle of the Land 20:45 Circle of the Moon 26:30 Circle of the Shepard 31:50 Results

@nomadicwolf6132

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Excellent reference.

@momoe.4075

11 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for this

@drunkcaptain2478

11 ай бұрын

Thanks, the video is so boring I fell asleep halfway through it.

@panpai7774

11 ай бұрын

The mvp

I really like the spore druid idea. And i really feel like the aura shouldn't have been a reaction, just an auto effect at the start of creatures turn.

@AndrewChumKaser

3 жыл бұрын

That, and make any zombies you raise also have the same spore aura. That would propel the class way up there and actually make it compete with moon.

@Special_T_

3 жыл бұрын

For a great example of the spore druid, check out (one of the characters in the first campaign of) NADDPOD (Not Another D&D PODcast), if you enjoy that kind of thing. Awesome campaign of 100 episodes, amazing story arcs, characters (players!), I highly recommend :D

@dancarl761

3 жыл бұрын

I played the Spore druid when it was UA. Then played when it was finalized. I love the idea of spore druid and I still like playing one... I love the role play it introduces and surprise from the DM that I am not just another Moon druid. Improvements I would love to see. 1. Aura not a reaction 2. Maybe a d size Improvement with better scaling for the symbiote. 3. Maybe a choice.. zombie improvements or zombie auras. 3. Scaling zombie stats.

@toribiogubert7729

3 жыл бұрын

I was thinking to rule that if a creature dies insise the aura it makes an Con save, if it fails it come back as a spore zombie. Then all zombies get a poisonous attack if a creature dies after fail a con save from this poisonous attack It becomes a spore zombie even outside the aura. But I have to say, spore druid plus Oathbreaker could be a fun combo.

@justanotherdayinthelife9841

3 жыл бұрын

@@AndrewChumKaser As a DM I always made each zombie explode with a lingering cloud of necrotic damage (or whatever effect their attack is flavored as, I often allowed for a replacement of necrotic damage for the hallucinogenic sporeclouds as per Myconids). So if there is a way to make them more mobile along with this AND only adjacent aura for the zombies as well with only minimal effects until they explode with the full on effect allows so much more. This allows for utility, it allows for attacks, it allows for defense, and it allows for theme.

I have a circle of dreams druid/ bard multiclass with 20 wisdom. He currently has a +5 proficiency bonus. Used the bard to take expertise in perception. Also took the observant feat. So my mans has a 30 passive perception Aaaaand, when using Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow during rests. He can get a 40 perception check lol. Wheres your rogue now?? My party calls him Sauron because his eyes see *everything*

@charger1369

3 жыл бұрын

This is my favorite comment in this video. "Where's your rogue now" I feel so insulted, Rogues passive perception only ever got to 28😭😭😭

@the24thcolossusjustchillin39

3 жыл бұрын

EYE SEE YOU

@evangrescol7772

3 жыл бұрын

"Ability Acquired: True sight" Btw, that's higher than Ancient Dragons

@mke3053

3 жыл бұрын

My player did that with a full class druid... no surprise ambushes on that campaing

These guys are a great example of how to have conversations with people about topics which you both are passionate about, disagree on your perception, hear each other's points, consider each other's points, and come to a mutual agreement. It's actually very satisfying to watch your interactions in this age where most of the internet is a zoo full of angry monkeys throwing poo in each other's faces.

I'm playing a Circle of Spores Druid right now. He's a pretty fun guy

@dhawkeye4439

3 жыл бұрын

I fully approve of this joke

@jwall1646

3 жыл бұрын

This joke is better than the subclass imo

@jamesmoreland7569

3 жыл бұрын

... I too am playing spores

@angelrosado6747

3 жыл бұрын

I have no shame in my Dragonborn circle of spores druid

@BrainNinjaMidget

3 жыл бұрын

@@jwall1646 I don't think it's that bad, sure it's not as strong as a Moon Druid in the early game, but it's still packing quite a punch, whilst not removing spellcasting for the Druid, even in 'Wildshape'.

Alter Self at will might SEEM like a lackluster ability, but that's only in terms of combat potential. What this ability actually does is roundout the Moon druid's *only* weakness: social interaction. Alter self *at will* means that high level moon druids can be anyone... they effectively become dopplegangers.

@monkeyboy324ify

3 жыл бұрын

They also get a swim speed and water breathing at will without using a spell slot

@monkeyboy324ify

3 жыл бұрын

And melee attacks are available if you, for some reason, didn't take primal savagery as a cantrip

Regarding Dreams, I think Monty is being too harsh on it, since he rated Life domain cleric so highly for the same reasons he's rating Dreams lower (healing without using spell slots, Life cleric's domain list is comprised of spells that are already cleric spells).

@jwall1646

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah plus your shelter ability means the wizard gets to use a different spell instead of always taking the kinda op tiny hut spell

@aldoesagood5316

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I disagree with Monty on that one. With the Dreams’ healing, they can now prepare something other than healing word, and they can be more frugal with their healing because that’s all the d6’s are used for.

@thejammiestjam

3 жыл бұрын

@@jwall1646 Exactly. And like they said in the clerics part 1 video, the perfect/ideal party doesn't exist. So does it actually matter if a spell exists like Tiny Hut that can do the same/similar thing as the Dreams feature? No, because there might not be someone in the party who can cast Tiny Hut. Me personally, I play a lot of clerics, and while I've trained my parties to know that I'm not a healbot, it would still be great to have healing abilities that spare my spell slots!

@zarbonthedestroyer7232

3 жыл бұрын

true but a cleric is a more dedicated healer and a druid isn't.

@jwall1646

3 жыл бұрын

Dwayne Bertrand but it’s really not. Just take a look at the forge, war, or order cleric. Just because they get a lot of healing spells doesn’t at all make them a more dedicated healer.

Circle of Spores makes for a great tank, treating it as just a necromancer is a mistake. The base class itself has a great selection of Crowd Control spells, decent HP and access to shields, meaning you can easily force people to stay near you and survive doing so. As long as they stay close to you they will continue to take damage and activating your Symbiotic Entity not only gives you a ton of health but you're now also doing a decent amount more damage per round(at least in early-game). At 6th level you can now raise meatshields that will not only disperse incoming damage away from your party, you can also control so much more of the battlefield through body-blocking. When you can send the spores away you have a great way of forcing concentration saves on enemy spellcasters AND your two main features aren't fighting over a reaction anymore as you can just send them to the space next to you where your enemy is with a bonus action and they're automatically active for a minute. With the capstone you are immune to like half of all CC and ALL CRITICAL HITS, most tanks would KILL for that. At 20th level you literally have infinite HP unless your opponent can do more than 80 damage to you per round every round without crits. It's a good tank that just keeps getting better at what it does as it levels.

@charger1369

3 жыл бұрын

This is an excellent perspective.

@ari4918

3 жыл бұрын

I'm new to dnd in general and even newer to druids, so I appreciate the insight for the subclass that I am most likely choosing.

@maid_of_heart3261

3 жыл бұрын

@@ari4918 If you fight an umber hulk or another creature with a chitinous exoskeleton, ask your DM if you can use that exoskeleton to have half plate or a breastplate made out of it. It's a nice way to circumvent the "no metal" restriction for armor and getting a better AC. My spores druid wears umber hulk breasplate and a wooden shield and she's as tanky as the eldritch knight in the party

@willdouglas1617

3 жыл бұрын

I have played in a campaign when another character tried to play a spore druid like this. It sucked. The extra hitpoints it gains are pitiful, terrible armour class, extra damage on hit but only one attack per round, reaction is gone so no opportunity attacks, long set up needed... We managed to make it work a bit better by my character using a huge amount of his spells to keep the druid alive (mage armour, armour of faith, warding bond), and some homebrewing to make it so that the spores are a bonus action to bring up and last for a minute regardless of the hit points being used up. We also changed the spell list to include spirit shroud. Only then after all that did it feel like it vaguely functioned. Like they said in the video, fantastic concept, terrible execution. Needs more hit points (and/or better AC), more damage (or more attacks) and less action economy juggling.

@LordZeebee

3 жыл бұрын

@@willdouglas1617 I played one like the way i described myself and it was pretty fun c: Though admittedly it wasn't for a terribly long campaign.

I'm worried about the dudes... They haven't mentioned pole arm master lately.

@samvancampenhout9778

3 жыл бұрын

Or variant human.

@stephenvisser3896

3 жыл бұрын

Or crossbow expert

@monodescarado

3 жыл бұрын

Haha

@lucasstrong9208

3 жыл бұрын

oh no... not the polearm master variant human spores druid casting shillelagh on their quarterstaff and dealing extra poison (necrotic according to Tasha's?) and having the hand crossbow ready for anybody who retreats!!!

@kaneo1

3 жыл бұрын

Moon Druid chimp with polearm. Hanging from a branch, bo-whacking you with feet while hand crossbow and tail whip are possible.

Backed the grim hollow kickstarter yesterday can't wait

@thegingergod3122

3 жыл бұрын

Same

To me the shepherd druid has always felt more like the classical image of a druid than the moon druid. Yeah the moon druid channels the power of nature through themselves, transforming into the strongest of creatures mother nature has ever offered. But to me the shepherd, putting down totems, calling upon and summoning the animals of the forest and being able to casually speak with them too, that to me is the real image of a druid. Both of these subclasses are my favorites tho, love both.

The Spore Druid gives you great material to roleplay an interesting and weird character. Mechanically, I lean B+. Fun factor: S+ You get a really nice attack cantrip in Chill Touch. The extra spells you get from the subclass are fairly strong. Their action economy is extremely efficient and can allow you to use every part of your turn. For example, you can cast Shillelagh as a bonus action, use your action to turn on your Symbiotic Entity, then move to an enemy spend your reaction and hopefully get the Halo of Spores damage (buffed from Symbiotic Entity). The next turn you could cast a Healing Word as a bonus action, attack and deal an extra 1d6 poison, then try for Halo of Spores damage. The Temporary Hit points give you a comparable life buff like Wild Shape would, but in general, I would say you are more useful in your original form. Animating weak zombies with Fungal Infestation is surprisingly strong. You strike down an enemy, then spend your reaction to animate them instead of going for Halo of Spores damage. You can use them to give you cover, make an attack, and/or soak up damage. With some smart maneuvering, you can have your zombie make an opportunity attack if an enemy decides to ignore it. Hurling your spores is cool, but not that great. Range is short. Area is small. Yes, it can get a couple enemies, but it can hurt your allies as well. You can spend a bonus action on this ability, so it might come in useful and not really eat into your actions for the turn. Fungal Body is awesome. Depending on stats, taking a few levels of monk add a lot of damage per round due to the 1d6 poison ability. The amount of flexibility in their abilities allow for creative and interesting choices which makes this subclass strong. If the Halo of Spores was a 1/2 damage, I think I would give this class an A or S.

@stormzgaming_1449

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you😤🙏

@dragoninthewest1

Жыл бұрын

Our Druid player is doing circle of spores and is playing basically as a drug I mean Alchemist supplier. DM is allowing him to grow weed and mushrooms to use in campaign.

@jonhbee

Жыл бұрын

The 2 biggest problems with circle of spores (in my experience playing from lvl 1-7) is symbiotic entity not giving that much temp hp and doubling up on reaction features. I played in a party of 3 with 2 other melee characters, and I still was burning through symbiotic entity's temp hp in 2 turns usually. Quite often it'd go use symbiotic entity, next turn get to attack (with PAM too to try to make up for the lack of extra attack), and then turn 3 my temp HP would be gone so I'd use symbiotic entity again. The other problem is, like Kelly said, having 2 reaction based features (3 in my case with PAM) can result in you using it for damage, but then the enemy dies and you can't use fungal infestation, which felt really bad when it happened to me. By far the most difficult to play subclass I've played.

I've said this before but glad to see you guys doing the videos together again. Just feels right.

I m french... I learned english to follow all your videos, and you help me get better in english :) One of the best KZread channel ever U2 are ultimate professionnals; so cool to follow. I never played D&D; now i want to.

@thiccler1127

3 жыл бұрын

Trop cool mec! Ton anglais c’est parfait. Tristement mon niveau du français n’est pas comparable hahahah.

@Observer31

3 жыл бұрын

Tu va apprendre l'anglais canadien... mais bon, il y a pire!

@monodescarado

3 жыл бұрын

Just don’t copy how Monty say ‘iron’...

if you combine circle of spores with the 4th level spell guardian of nature, you can create a 15ft. radius of difficult terrain around you that makes it harder for enemies to escape your spores, and you have advantade on dex and wisdom attack and damage rolls. so if you use a scimitar/shillalagh staff you hit more and harder and then can raise them to fight for you. combine this with a cloudkill around you since you are immune to poison at higher levels and zombies always are and you are suddenly a walking war crime.

@rafikikiki

8 ай бұрын

both guardian of nature and cloudkill are concentration spells so how would you hold them both at once

Druid's a strong class naturally it's just circle of the moon is so absolutely ridiculous it makes other subclasses look bad

@IMXLegedaryBard

3 жыл бұрын

I think the only reason we all think this is op is once they hit 20th level. At that point, yes the subclass is busted. But rarely do any of the campaigns have players reaching this level, unless you're doing like a One-Shot or by God a free-for-all. So once it's 20th level then yes circle the Moon is powerful, but if not honestly shepard and star is really strong and in my opinion are also good contenders. I do feel that the druid needs more love, being that it doesn't have as many subclasses as every other class

@Dramatic_Gaming

3 жыл бұрын

@@IMXLegedaryBard Highly disagree. Yes, the 20th level druid endlessly turning into elementals while casting uncounterable spells is probably the most common thing people will point to when calling it OP, but even early on it's ridiculously strong. Gaining access to CR 1 beasts at level 2 is incredibly powerful when you realize that most of them have way more hp than even dedicated martial classes will have on top of hitting harder than them. And to cap it off you retain your mental stats, so you're better than the martial classes will probably ever be at resisting spells, too. There are CR 2 and 3 beasts that have multiattack to keep pace for levels 6-9, and at level 10 they get elementals. The Moon Druid breaks encounters because they force the DM to have to chew through several characters' worth of additional health and damage before they can even touch the druid. Making encounters that can do that without just TPK'ing the rest of the group is extremely difficult.

@IMXLegedaryBard

3 жыл бұрын

@@Dramatic_Gaming I see your point, and it's a valid point. But I suppose it all at the end is determined by the player and the game itself. You can have this class which you believe is op but being played by a character who doesn't utilize the mechanics that well. That along with reasonable strong enemies can present a challenge.

I once had a player playing a Shepherd Druid. The party was in the tunnels of a pair of purple worms. At one point, he summoned 24 badgers. Not many of them hit, but the damage was consistent enough that the worms spent a lot of their actions just taking them out while the party members took free potshots at them. Yeah, I'll agree that Shepherd Druids are really strong.

Druids are perhaps the most versatile class in the game. You can be a healer as a dreams druid, a melee powerhouse as a sports Druid, a long-range blaster as a land Druid, a highly effective tank as a moon Druid, or a battlefield control/buffer/summoner as a shepherd Druid. I’m playing a Dreams Druid in my current campaign and loving every minute of it.

@GrassPokeKing

3 жыл бұрын

"Sports Druid" lmao

@Pyrela

3 жыл бұрын

@@GrassPokeKing Now I need to make a Sports Druid sub class.

@eboi255

3 жыл бұрын

I did stars and it turned me into a straight-up battle mage...

@feijra

3 жыл бұрын

@@eboi255 same! i love my stars druid thw damage is crazy

@comyuse9103

3 жыл бұрын

wildfire druid is very good all around, good offensive magic always at hand, basic healing magic always available, both augmented by a summoned spirit that that also does it's own damage, effectively being in 2 places at once thanks to the spirit, spare healing off of killing things, and a spare life with the revival feature

"Bear in mind" Good one Monty

@Draeckon

3 жыл бұрын

Monty littered a bunch of bear puns in this one. xD I could hardly bear to here so many of them!

The only criticism I have about the rankings here is that they are looking at how the subclasses augment the druids key abilities but the only truly unique thing all druids get is wildshape. That immediately makes every subclass other than circle of the moon incredibly weak by their standards. But IDK... I get it I guess

@TheSoykeith

3 жыл бұрын

I agree! So much so that I (for my own misery) often play non wild shape using druids. If i do its for utility, and travel never in combat. The Druid becomes very one dimensional if I only focused on wild shape optimization.

@nilsjonsson4446

3 жыл бұрын

If you ignore the druid key abilities, you're just a weaker wizard. But Spores creates a spellcasting wild shape and Shepherd augments the key druid ability of summoning.

@Samlli

3 жыл бұрын

I feel like every other subclass should of got access to 1 or 2 higher level wildshape creatures, where the Moon druids get access to all of that variety and elementals.

@nilsjonsson4446

3 жыл бұрын

@@Samlli That would've been a solution. I think the problem is that the druid class chart is all about wild shape. Aside from subclass abilities, ASI and spells, when druids level up they get Wild Shape, Wild Shape Improvement (swimming), Wild Shape Improvement (flying), slower aging, Wild Shape Improvement (spells) and Wild Shape Improvement (unlimited transformations). How was it not obvious that it's unbalanced to revolve a full class around one ability and only make it actually usable for one subclass???

@carnivoriousleaf

3 жыл бұрын

I mean they're a full caster... That's quite a bit of a rest of the class

I think the healing not being a spell for dreams druid is something not to go underestimated. Like you can cast a whole spell and a spell that works like healing word but stronger

fyi for any viewers not in the know, a gish is a character that is skilled in both physical combat and the use of magic. had to look it up myself, so now hopefully you don't need to

Circle of Dreams is a solid A tier for me. It's a fantastic healer and general support class. I've also played in many games that don't allow Tiny Hut for increased difficulty and drama. You guys seem to prioritize damage dealing over everything but the majority of games I've played are only 25% combat.

I read that as "DUDE" tier ranking ...

@ozymondiaz4031

3 жыл бұрын

Same here

@jordanw2741

3 жыл бұрын

I would love to see a video of Kelly and Monty arguing which one of them is better and why the other one shouldn't be S tier.

@Jin_1814

3 жыл бұрын

Results of the community rating: both are S tier

At this point you guys are like the "Developer's Crew" for D&D. At least that's how it feels for me. :D You come straightforward and dive deep into each class explaining and providing insight on how the class could be used on it's own, or may be mixed up. And you usually offer whatever ways you know to improve on the natural strenghts of a class. Awesome content I'd say! : )

I bought the Grim Hollow Campaign guide and it's awesome! So when i saw there's a player's guide kickstarter, and that the Dungeon Dudes are listed as part of the design team, it really was an absolute no brainer! Insta-backed! Looking forward to it!

Shepard's healing is awesome it is easily my favorite healing class. The unicorn totem turns all your healing words into super mass healing words. Those level one slots are always powerful if you got your totem up.

Spores is like an S flavor wise, but like a C mechanically

@davidlechtenberg994

3 жыл бұрын

Hardly. Symbiotic Entity gives you a big chunk of temporary HP, not unlike what another druid would get from turning into an animal. Except the Spore Druid can keep casting instead of running around as a wolf or whatever low CR thing a non-Moon druid turns into. Circle of the Land gives you...arcane recovery. Yet Spores gets a C and Land gets a B. I think there's an overly large emphasis in this analysis of Spore Druid getting into melee combat, which they will never do as well as Circle of the Moon. In addition, Circle of Spores gets the ability to throw their spores around and irritate casters and ranged, or just do a bunch of small damage hits in the melee chokepoint. Not S tier by any means, not with Moon existing, but easily B if not A. Also, you can spend a few days to build up a zombie force...and then summon animals on top of it. That's a nice horde.

@Corvus31

3 жыл бұрын

@@davidlechtenberg994 Spores is amazing. I'm playing one in Dungeon of the Mad Mage and it's very strong. The large pool of temp hp twice per day that you can take advantage of while controlling the battlefield is outstanding.

@davidlechtenberg994

3 жыл бұрын

@@Corvus31 You mean twice per short rest! Wild Shape recharges on a short or long rest. I can imagine choosing to play Shepherd or Dreams instead of Spores, if I wanted that particular flavor, but I don't think I'd ever play Land over Spores. It's just like asking if I want to play my druid using a d10 instead of a d20.

@SilverFang1496

3 жыл бұрын

Circle of Spores is easily my favorite option.

@prestoneubanks8458

3 жыл бұрын

We have a spore druid in our party hes badass

Hey dudes, really liking these class tier ranking videos. Please keep it up!

Shepherd should be S tier. Druids are casters and since Moon Druids can't cast without dropping Wild Shape until very high levels, they miss out on a LOT of casting utility in favor of Wild Shape conservation. Conversely, Shepherd's Wild Shape is almost completely utility so they have complete freedom to use their Wild Shape whenever without worrying about wasting it.

@niratcire

3 жыл бұрын

Unless there is no other front liner, the moon druid should never rush in round 1. With so many of the druid's best spells requiring concentration, there is no reason to not spellcast first before charging the frontine.

@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar

3 жыл бұрын

A moon druid isn’t a caster. It’s a barbarian with spells

@gabrielzellers1822

3 жыл бұрын

I use my moon druid in two ways. My party consists of a ua beast conclave druid, a dragon ancestor sorcerer, 4 Elements monk, and me. Most times my monk needs help with tanking, and that is what I do. If we need more directed spell casting, I cast spells. Considering I'm also the only who can actually heal consistently, and bam, I play two different ways as needed. I will say though, summoning 8 firehawks and then also turning into a fire hawk is freaking hilarious.

I spend so much time going back and rewatching your old videos, so when a new one gets released I get super excited. Keep up the great work guys!

Symbiotic entity can be activated while in wildshape to give your 1hp rat a bunch of temp hp. Also, beast attacks are considered melee weapon attacks so the necrotic damage would apply to your giant eagle attacks. Also the spore cloud and level 14 buffs apply to you while in wildshape, and you can activate the level 6 reaction feature while in wildshape too (none of the features are spellcasting) so it’s basically a bunch of wildshape buffs, plus additional spells. Also, dreams Druid can use its healing and teleport features while wildshaped since they aren’t spells (and they also can’t be counterspelled because of that), and circle of stars Druid can activate their starry form while they’re wildshaped to stack buffs too.

From watching these ranking videos, I've noticed that Monty tends to be a bit more critical when ranking subclasses than Kelly. Not saying that's a bad thing, just something I've noticed.

@aldoesagood5316

3 жыл бұрын

Monty strikes me as a “utility > fun” type of player, and Kelly strikes me as “fun > utility” type of player. This isn’t meant as an insult either. It’s actually neat that they compliment each other that way Edit: also, to be fair to the Dudes, a lot of the Druid subclasses are lackluster compared to other classes like Fighter or Cleric

@jeremytewari3346

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah Kelly tends to go by “How fucking metal is this subclass”

@brifox

3 жыл бұрын

It also might have something to do with the fact that of the two Monty is clearly the one better suited for being a DM, which might have something to do with his view. And to prove my point even more, I kept forgetting Kelly's name and wanting to call him Sebastian.

@NotYourAverageNothing

3 жыл бұрын

AlDoesAGood I guess I'm a "utility = fun" guy.

One important thing about the Shepard Druid that shouldn't be underestimated: Every hit on a summoned creature is a hit no one in the party had to take, unless it's an AOE. That's worth the price of admission right there. And when that druid goes unconscious they get another full meat shield too!

@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar

3 жыл бұрын

Every hit to the Druid is a hit to all the summons too as summoning spells are concentration

I feel happy that Circle of Dreams is solidly in the "decently good" bracket, but my Druid character didn't survive long enough to see this.

@LupineShadowOmega

3 жыл бұрын

Just played in a road trip style campaign, our Dreams druid saved us from ambushing and traveling issues many times. I personally agree with the initial A.

@alien_nation3617

3 жыл бұрын

@@LupineShadowOmega Mine didn't have such an interesting life. I feel like the backstory I wrote was pretty good, but before the campaign started I abandoned this idea in favour of a drow Devotion paladin/Mastermind rogue/Enchanter wizard multiclass (came up with it for the purpose of roleplaying and character development, so still not sure how this is going to play out mechanically).

@rubenklatten4011

3 жыл бұрын

@@alien_nation3617 for that to work goodz tou would have to have high dexterity(rogue), charisma(paladin spellcasting), intelligence(wizard spellcasting), constitution(hp) and possibly strength for paladin weapon

@alien_nation3617

3 жыл бұрын

@@rubenklatten4011 For a Dex-based paladin, Dex, Cha and Con should be pretty high from the start; for Int, I got a decently good roll and wizardry is supposed to be the smallest plot point of the three. I think the problem is not in the stats, but in that the class abilities may not work together well enough.

@rubenklatten4011

3 жыл бұрын

@@alien_nation3617 yea thats true, i hope it works out for you!

One of my ranger players was experimenting with nature spells more and decided to multiclass into druid. His character is getting more and more interesting as he found out about wildshaping and that his father was a druid too, before he was taken away. But is he still alive?

@kyle1078

3 жыл бұрын

Spore Druid with Ranger could be pretty nasty. You get the extra HP from the Halo of Spores, and that extra 1d6 poison damage is pretty underwhelming usually, but gets better with Extra Attack.

Circle of spores feel a bit like a multi class thing, combine it with something like 5 Bear barbarian, rest in spore druid, then you get an extra attack that adds that 1d6 spore damage and your temp hp is doubled, something I always wanted to try. :)

Playing my first ever druid and I'm loving it. Went Dreams because I didn't have time to read through, was late, and picked it based on what it was called. Not disappointed, I focus on healing and bashing smaller mooks with my shilleagh.

@BLOODKINGbro

3 жыл бұрын

Shillelagh is dope. Makes your wep magical and you get to use wisdom it with the modifier not to mention changes your damage dice to a d8. Dump that strength stat about to flex with some hardwood.

@Pyrela

3 жыл бұрын

@@BLOODKINGbro Phrasing.

@BLOODKINGbro

3 жыл бұрын

@@Pyrela Got a dirty mind there. The spell only works on wood. You can grab any random 2x4 improvised weapon (like a floor board from the tavern) and turn it into a magical weapon.

@Cheesusful

2 жыл бұрын

@@BLOODKINGbro my dreams druid used to lay about her with a shille-ladle :)

i have a spore druid called Fire, a firbolg, and i have played him for about a year and a half, currently lvl 9. To be honest, i like the flavor of the circle a lot, it makes it feel very diferent, unique... but yea, it falls down on efectiveness. The ability at 6th lvl of raising zombies has NEVER come up, not even once, the creature has to be a humanoid or beast, die in 5ft of you, AND you use your reaction... you already use your reaction every time you can for the spore damage. The spore damage is necrotic, and the extra damage on melee is poison, both have encounter a loooot of mosnters with resistance or inmunity, so its hard to go full potential. All of those anecdotes are that, my experience, andit could go very diferent for other person, but yea, not very powerfull. i still LOVE my druid, and i wouldnt change it if i have the chance... and very hyped for that lvl 14th bonus.

Some tidbit of this show I love is, that you can pause it whenever you want and one of them is making a funny face. You both seem to still really enjoy making these videos.

As a Druid main I love this break down of the subclasses, Moon is definitely the strongest, but it isn't my favourite. My favourite circle is the Wildfire circle from Unearthed Arcana. It has some pretty wild abilities and the circle spells for it give you Fireball at level 5, not to mention the Wildfire Spirit ability is pretty cool. Great video guys.

Circle of Spores Druid, while not optimal, can be a really fun build around for a shillelagh centered build. The bonus damage works great with the Polearm Master feat.

Hey Dungeon Dudes ! Chiming in from the Grim Hollow Discord here! So excited and happy to see you guys working on this book! Also, hard sidenote, Ive been subbed to you guys for a hot min and I love your guy's stuff! Personal favorite druid is spore!

As a player new to the Druid-Thank you so much for breaking these down for us! I actually chose Land Druid- Forrest because it matched my background. My group already had 2 tanks up front so I chose not to be a wildshaper. I stay in the back as a utility / caster / shooter. =) I'm loving the Druid Class!

The Circle of Spores druid is conceptually my absolute favorite subclass of any subclass list; I was SO excited to see a necromantic energy being brought to the druid's table, and what better way than through mushrooms?! Sadly, my love for its flavor was not met with its mechanical advantages, as I ended up being quite limited with some of the features offered up to me. While it was one of my favorite characters, I couldn't get what I really wanted from the subclass...I'm hopeful for this to be somehow reconciled...I fully agree with you guys when you reluctantly give it a C tier rank...I didn't want to rank it so low, but I had to as well. Thanks for a great summary of the tier rankings, I couldn't have agreed more with all of your comments and thoughts on these subclasses!

@harrisonbovington729

Жыл бұрын

100% but here’s the thing, as DM, if my Druid wants to play circle of spores, imma buff that bad-boy. It’s a fantastic flavour that even these guys briefly mentioned has heaps of potential if done a little differently.

Aw! I was looking forward to learning more about the Circle of Wildfire :(. I had an idea for a character's brother who became a Wildfire druid. After a terrible accident caused by using a fire spell, my elf wizard grew to fear fire; however, her brother learned to embrace it.

I hate to admit that I sat there refreshing the page until the video dropped. Never thought of playing a Druid but this is sort of convincing. Thanks for getting me back into DnD, your work is great guys!

I’m starting my very first dnd game and I greatly appreciate your channel. You guys are the right amount of flash and substance. And you give educated opinions and stress they are just opinions. Definitely subscribing.

Thinking you guys undersold the Spore Druid. It’s one of my favorites, not just as flavor but with mechanics to keep spellcasting viable. That makes it surprisingly strong.

So experience with circle of spores was basically find a way to get extra attack, I went fighter (eldritch knight), then spore druid for the rest. Effectively a BlightKnight. This was very, very good fun and gave me a lot of options. But... It would have felt absolutely shocking as a pure caster to be honest

@RobThePrincess

3 жыл бұрын

I've come up with similar builds, but in order to make this work, most of your levels are in the Martial class, with maybe only 2 levels or so in druid. This provides very little Temp HP, which means once you take any damage, your Symbiotic Entity has ended. My way around this was to combine it with Echo Knight, so my melee attacks are made from a safe distance. However I had to remain within 30 feet of the echo, so while it was better, I was still very vulnerable to losing my best feature by a minor hit.

Oh my goodness, thank you for this discussion and ranking. I've been wracking my brain to decide which circle to go with.

Another useful and informative video from our favorite DMs! Love seeing how your results compare to the audience rating.

I think the dream druid is stronger than you give it credit for. The ability to not just heal a little bit but to drop your druid level in d6's for healing plus a temp hit point. Plus it's got a huge range and as a bonus action. That's a ton of healing doing more than a healing word would, and not costing any spell slot. Plus the ability to drop a ton of healing at once is even better. At the point where a cleric would be dropping a 6th level spell as their most powerful ability for 70 points of healing you can heal an average of 58.5 points at 13th level, which is pretty close, plus the druid keeps their spell slots, and can do it at twice the range as a bonus. Also I love how united everyone is that Moon druids are OP lol. It does take a dip after the 10th level ability but I'd argue it goes right back up in power with 18th level casting spells while wildshaped, and even more at 20th level with the unlimited wildshapes and they basically become immortal where they can as a bonus action basically heal for 120 hp per turn going into an elemental.

@AdamDModeen

3 жыл бұрын

Honestly it is really good. But it's definitely a B+ imo. The thing that makes me feel bad about it is the 6th level spell, it is super lack luster in the face of a party who has the ability to make the hut. It's a B most of the time but in the right party it is DEFINITELY an A. I feel like it's a jack of all trades, fairly supporty but the druid's area of effect spells.... my god. I really chose it for flavor which for me to is S tier, but was pleasantly surprised all around.

@tadious9415

3 жыл бұрын

@@AdamDModeen yeah it definitely compared to tiny hut it is a lot worse. But the flavor on it is awesome and the burst of healing is always nice. The teleportation circle would also be nice if it was more than just the last place you rested for some flexibility too.

i remember watching some guys play dnd at my Lgs, one of the guys was playing a circle of spores druid but his race was a homebrew fungus character. imagine the giant mushroom dudes from dark souls 1 in the darkroot basin

@MrIrrationalSmith

3 жыл бұрын

Myconids

@Observer31

3 жыл бұрын

@@MrIrrationalSmith have they been released for 5e?

@GrassPokeKing

3 жыл бұрын

All I can imagine is getting one-shot socked in the mouth so hard you get Thanos snapped

@sambrown9475

3 жыл бұрын

@@GrassPokeKing you know the true horror of those mushroom dudes

One of my first characters was a moon druid, i didn't know how to play very much, but I understood that i had to conjure-transform-smash, and it work so well that nobody notice I was a newbie... and the giant constrictor snake is my personal favorite

I have a spore Druid in my campaign that tanks pretty well and handles multiple creatures at once pretty well. I think it just contradicts some of the other Druid features so it’s hard to picture at times without witnessing it first hand.

I haven't watched this video yet - but I like it

@jamesmoreland7569

3 жыл бұрын

I mean it's about druids so how could you not

@F2t0ny

3 жыл бұрын

Influence that algorithm!

@ridwana4037

3 жыл бұрын

Ayy, it's the nerd that doesn't have nerdy friends to talk about nerdy things, so He makes video for it instead.

@HiddenNerdySide

3 жыл бұрын

@@ridwana4037 eeyyyy my channel is nowhere near big enough for people to start recognizing me hahaha

@ridwana4037

3 жыл бұрын

@@HiddenNerdySide Probably because your content was mostly directed for DM, which is not what most people oriented to. But don't worry, you'll get there someday. I hope.

This came at the perfect time! I’m just about to play a druid

Great video. Gonna be starting my first d&d game soon, with my best bud as dm and his gf as the only experienced player as a Barbarian, with my 2 other noob friends as a bard and Druid, and myself as a Paladin. Cannot wait for the Paladin subclass ranking! I’m leaning towards Oath of Vengeance at this time but who knows I might change my mind between now and third level.

I am especially happy this came out because I'm about to play a Circle of the Shepherd Druid this Thursday! :D Love you dudes! Your content is always great and engaging.

Circle of Spores is SOOO good. I play one and I think you are really underselling how good the circle of spores druid is and how much damage it can do. I think you aren't considering that when you are in your wild shape you can't cast spells. Unlike when you are in your fungal form. which can really ramp up your damage and utility.

@ljgraham142

3 жыл бұрын

“Fungal form”..... are you another NADDPod fan?? If so, Melora bless you. Moonshine is a great example of how effectively Circle of Spores can be played, and it made me a little sad to see them rank it so low. That said, I can only imagine what would’ve happened with a circle of the moon Druid in the hands of Emily Axford.

@antongrigoryev6381

3 жыл бұрын

Best Druid spells are concentration ones, and you can cast them before you ender Wildshape.

@niklasschmidt66

3 жыл бұрын

I personally like that you don´t have to roll concentration checks while your fungal form is still up, thats kind of HUGE.

@Corvus31

3 жыл бұрын

@@antongrigoryev6381 except most wild shapes have crappy AC.

@alexesterly3448

3 жыл бұрын

I’ve been considering making my next character a spores Druid bc I love the flavor, but the ranking scared me a bit. However, a lot of comments seem to be agreeing with you that it’s a very underestimated subclass so I’m thinking imma still go for it.

Just as a note for circle of Dreams - the Dream spell is insane and you can get so much use out of it - both roleplaying and offensively. The specific that the druid needs to be the messinger is also pretty cute.

Great job, Gang! Do this for all of the classes! Well researched! Keep up the great work!

My favorite will always be Circle of Dreams. I like playing a supportive role in the party, and while it doesn’t have the greatest combat utility it really helps the party between encounters.

Having played a few different circles, and playing a spores druid for the first time in my current campaign, I have to say it's pretty darn fun. You're a very functional tank at lower levels that slowly turns into a scary necromancer as you level up(armies of undead are very functional but hard to maintain). The WORST thing that, IMO, prevents it from being a really solid A subclass is that you have to spend an action to raise your symbiotic entity. If it was a bonus action to use, it would improve the class so much. If you play a spore druid, beg, plead, bribe your DM into houseruling that symbiotic entity is a bonus action.

I didn't know about the Spore Druid but man, now I really wanna play one! Sounds pretty wicked cool to me.

I love how excited the dudes get. Monty talking about the moon druid and just getting so pumped. its so fun to watch

Been playing A Circle of Dreams Druid in Mad Mage and I agree it's a solid B+. The little bubble you make has been useful for protecting us in the dungeon during a rest. Since I'm the only full castor it has come in handy more often. My only problem is we've been using mostly stealth strategy for combat. I turned in the Pass Without a Trace machine. It's been pretty effective, but that meant that I never really need to heal that much. Although, Fey Points did save us twice when I was low on slots. I feel like this subclass is going to feel a lot more powerful at level ten with the free teleports. There are many situations where I get smashed when our defensive line breaks. Having a way to quickly get out of dodge will make me a much better healer by staying up and not having myself as much. Also it allows me to go be better support by teleporting my allies for flanking and rescuing them from being restrained or parlayed. I however, am not looking forward to the free scry... lame. The teleportation to the last long rest area however, will be useful for the Made Mage in particular. I've loved the flavor of the Fey, but it's just short of being great. I've really enjoyed my Firbolg Circle of Dream Druid archeologist.

Moon Druid and Shepherd Druid are tied for number one. They are the druidiest druids and mechanically they double down on the druids combat strengths: tanking. The Moon Druid tanks via wild shape and the Shepherd Druid tanks via summoned minions. Druids are already the best tanks/summoners and these subclasses make them even better at what they do best.

@BeanLord69

Жыл бұрын

I mean think about it: if a Moon and Shepherd Druid were 1v1; doesn’t matter if the Moon turns into an elemental or not, Shepherd is going to be able to upcast conjure whatever and wreck havoc. I mean the ability to summon a shit load of minions + unicorn totem + Druid spell casting means that you can keep healing your Summons; yourself and throw out blaster spells for high damage. They really underestimated the Shepherd in this one.

I suspected that the Moon Druid was going to be the noose around all the other subclasses’ throats. Yes, it is powerful. But it doesn’t so much completely change how the Druid plays as it shifts the character’s focus away from being a Druid until very high levels. It was an unfortunate throwback to the 3rd Edition Druid and the CoDzilla of old.

@thebeatles9

3 жыл бұрын

MrFinalMax everyone nerfs moon circle as written because it's utterly game breaking. a level 2 gets 80-100hp for free every short rest, in addition to their druid hp and hit dice. you are literally unkillable the entire campaign.

@brighamrichins3

3 жыл бұрын

As powerful as it is, I only pick it just so I can turn into a giant toad (maybe frog, the higher vs one) so I can literally eat my enemies.

@DDGPro

3 жыл бұрын

I like your statement about it shifting focus away from being a druid. Druids were always known for their amazing spell casting ability. Turning into animals was just a side thing. The moon druid takes people's minds away from what being a druid was actually all about. That's why i don't play them. If someone is just playing a moon druid cause of the HP and whatnot, that's not playing a character, that's just being a min/maxer in my opinion. It's a role playing game, not a DPS shootout.

@dhaas4698

3 жыл бұрын

@@DDGPro We all come to the table for our own reasons. Some people are there because, yeah, they want to kick @$$ and take names. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a choice. I find most players just don't want to feel useless at the table. Playing a Druid tank is just playing a more versatile tank than a fighter or paladin.

Circle of Spores relies on the player taking the Golgari Agent background, in my opinion. It requires just a couple of the expanded spells, which the background grants, to really fill the gaps and get that, necromancer/last of us feel, while not feeling like compromising somewhere else. The big benefit this class has, is using wild shape and still being able to sling more spells. One example is positioning at midrange in a fight, getting value from the proximity based features, and spamming Ray of Sickness, while commanding an mob raised by Animate Dead, and bolstered by the Fungal Infestation feature.

I like that they put the community comparison for all subclasses to the end on this one. Feels like it followed more smoothly through the subclasses than when they did it after each one

I think Circle of Shepherd is underrated - not in terms of summoning, at which it's indisputably the best at - but also being the best *healer* in the game thanks to its unicorn spirit. I think this is the single subclass that makes a focus on healing (of course, maintaining concentration on a summoning spell) viable in 5e and it is *much* better at it than the Circle of Life. The amount of healing that unicorn spirit provides is absolutely ridiculous. At around 5th or 6th level, it turns every Healing Word into a slightly worse Mass Healing Word. At 9th level, it just turns every Healing Word into a Mass Healing Word that always rolls the maximum amount. And it's not limited to an amount of creatures, no, it's all creatures of your choice within the unicorn spirit's range, which is HUGE btw. 30ft radius is absolutely massive. Also, if that isn't enough, at higher levels (like 15+) your Healing Words will be very comparable to Mass Cure Wounds.

So I haven't gone spore druid yet but I think the thing that's overlooked is that you're turning your opponent into an ally the moment they die, without a spell slot, with just a reaction. This is pretty powerful. Not as broken as moon druid by far, but still really good.

Hey guys like the video! Just as something that might make the videos a little better would be to put up the text from the books you're pulling info from and putting it up on screen over whomever isn't describing it. Just an idea to ponder. Keep up the good work! 👍🏽

New summoning spells in Tasha’s (from UA) may push up Shepherd to S tier.

Really curious how they feel about some of the new test content such as Circle of Stars and Wildfire. Really trying to convince myself to do one of those instead of moon just to try something different but my god circle of the moon is just so op and tempting

@lunarcat4278

3 жыл бұрын

Circle of Stars in particular can be just as good. It fills more of a swiss army knife than a hammer like the Moon. It can both be an excellent blaster with free guiding bolt and archer, master healer with chalice, or if needed Dragon just sorta... Gets reliable talent for Int and Wis checks and also Con saves for concentration? Later levels you get can either help your allies (and yourself) with an extra d6 to your rolls or conversely inflict a d6 penalty on your enemies' rolls depending on if you got Weal or Woe. At level 10 you can switch your constellation on the fly while also having the damage and healing of Archer and Chalice go up to 2d8 and the Dragon just gets a fly speed. And at 14 to top it off you get to be a better tank with resistance to bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage. Even then you shouldn't be a frontliner sit back and just pummel them to death with 4d6+2d8 Radiant damage every round for 6 rounds and then just start fueling Guiding Bolt with Spell Slots allowing you to upcast if you for some reason haven't turned the enemy into a smoldering pile of ash. Alternatively if you say have a Moon Druid in your party you can make your DM target you instead because even though your friend isn't level 20 you're making them and the fighter functionally immortal. Or pull off some big concentration spell and then just don't drop it because you have reliable talent for it for some reason while also 30' in the air.

@eboi255

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah at 3rd lvl I just put chalice on and did guiding bolt. With the few utility of ice knife, dagger+heatmetal, moonbeam and healing word.

@lunarcat4278

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not gonna lie I definitely undersold Dragon because Reliable Talent on Concentratrion and then later a 30ft fly speed on top of that is huge for a class like Druid that has one of the most concentration heavy spell lists in the game

I really like the circle of dreams, it’s my personal favorite even though I know moon is flat out better, I was a little sad to see kelly back down on A ranking for it because I found the balm of the Sumer court to be a good bit stronger than they said (they may have considered this cause they’re smart guys just didn’t say it) the balm is used as a bonus action from range without being a spell or using a slot which means you can get a party member off of deaths door without using your spell for the turn or your action to use it on direct healing, or even if you do use your action for healing you can give a ton more hit points on the same turn as opposed to being spread out by multiple spells. I personally found it to be increasingly useful while playing adventures league to dump 5d6+5 healing into an ally and still be able to cast call lighting, or anything else for that matter, in the same turn at level 10 Of course I don’t think it’s an s tier and I’ve never played a Shepard Druid so I can’t compare on that basis but I would have given the dream circle a low to solid A instead of B and that’s my case for it

As a new player i'm really liking these class guides. It gives me a good sense of what kind of characters i might enjoy playing in the future.

Two weeks ago I was part of a group that did a one-shot in the Grim Hallow world. I really really liked the feel of the world and the option presented in the book. I really hope that the kick starter goes well this campaign setting is one of the better ones out there.

In defense of Dreams, you can't cast spells whilst wild shaped, but you can use class features. If your party doesn't have a dedicated healer do you really want to drop one of your two wild shapes to heal or just use Balm?

@redholm

3 жыл бұрын

And another thing I see which is niche. It does not say it needs any Verbal or Somatic. So if that is true when kidnapped or silenced you can still heal with your Balm without Meta Magic.

The reason Circle of Spores ranks a B-tier for me: if you have a DM willing to drop some powerful beasts for your party to slay, you can raise Zombie Dinosaurs. Though admittedly, that still keeps it about a B- because the abilities complete with each other.

@williamfitch1546

3 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure their is a size restriction on Fungal Infestation. If memory serves its medium or smaller humanoid or beast so maybe a medium dinosaur but definitely not like zombie t rex.

@natashasurvivallady8021

3 жыл бұрын

@@williamfitch1546 Sadly, you are correct. Still there are some fun beasts, and even dinosaurs, that are available.

I think what makes the circle of the moon S tire isn't only combat, but it can play a great deal out of combat as well whether in roleplaying or trying to solve or find things without entering into combat.

It’s like you guys read my mind. I just searched for a video from you guys in this yesterday. Nice!

I’ve played my share of Druids over the years and without repeating what every over comment about it has said, I think you guys ranked Spores pretty low for what it can do. It’s a super unique and fun subclass to play, even if it doesn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with something like Moon.

I played a Circle of dreams Druid in a ToA campaign and he was great. The 2nd level ability to heal as a bonus action is better than healing word because it is not a spell. Bonus action heal; main action for a big spell.

Circle of Dreams can use its Bonus Action healing while Wild Shaped as well, so you can be fighting and then use a Bonus Action to heal a party member (even get them up from dying). You can't cast Healing Word while Wild Shaped, so it is a great alternative. It's A-Tier IMO.

I roleplayed a druid-monk multiclass whose patron deity is a snake god. I chose the Circle of Spores because of the poisonous aspect matching my character rp, and I realized just how much the monk's unarmed attack bonus actions in combination with the additional poison damage from the circle could benefit (and even resurrection of dead!)

(Excuse my english im not native) im playing a spore druid right now, lvl 7 lizardfolk for like half a year. I get this subclass is not op, Halo of spore using your reaction is massive nerf to the warmagic feat, but at the same time you are super super tanky, and i think not everything in this game is about damage or crazy utility. I like my spore druid because he is a chonky CC machine and a great battlefild controller, a zombi in a reaction is an attack you dont take and o lord they keeeep going. Raise dead its also really good on druid, specially if you go for skellys with bows, lvl 5 with 4 skelletons protected by your mighty CC is a force to reckon with, specially if you cast another summon spell like conjure animals. I think most people dont look a the team composition or spell combo potential just care about what the fetures do. "HURRR durrr posion damage is shit", and i agree is shit! but with my trusty staff of the woodlands and shillelagh by my side ive become my DMs nightmare. And here me out, what would you rather be? the undead emperor of the fungus kingdom or just another generic final furry fantasy guy.

@thiccler1127

3 жыл бұрын

Bro... gotta love that character , it seems a lot of fun

@lordhawkeye

3 жыл бұрын

Amen. I seriously think they should have simply not including Moon, stating reasons why it is so good but it also warps the scale for everything else.

@Casper-Ghost

3 жыл бұрын

@@lordhawkeye It'll matter when Wildfire is released and added to the list in a couple of months though because it can actually compete for the top slot.

I never thought I would enjoy druid, but I've realised that you can't go wrong with one

I think Monty likes the idea of turning into a Bear! Great video to share with a friend that was deciding between a Circle of the Moon and Shepherd Druid!

I appreciate these. There are certain subclasses I look at and squint and can't figure what makes them special, and then you and the community all give it a, "C" and there is some validation.