Guide to Playing Moon Druids

Table of Contents

Scoring Scheme

Main Features of the Guide

This distinguishes itself from the other Druid guides through the following:

Introduction to the Moon Druid

The Circle of the Moon Druid is a powerhouse – it combines the full spellcasting abilities of the Druid with the power & utility of the numerous beasts published in DM resources. Highly versatile and extremely resilient, the Moon Druid can fill numerous roles during combat: debuffer, tank, healer, summoner, grappler, etc.

The main limiting factor of the Moon Druid is that it requires a high level of knowledge. To perform optimally, a Moon Druid needs to be intimate with his spells, his Wildshape options, as well as the creatures it can summon through Conjure Animals, Conjure Woodland Beings and Conjure Feys. To keep track of the extensive list of creatures involved, I strongly recommend players consult the free Companions for D&D 5e app.

The Moon Druid has a strongly uneven growth curve. Widely considered broken at level 2, Wildshape does not improve until level 6, when CR2 forms become available. The next big jump occurs at level 10, with the new possibility to Wildshape into Elementals. Players who stick with the Moon Druid until level 18 will be happy to gain the ability to cast spells while Wildshaped, and those who reach level 20 can Wildshape every turn to become near unkillable.

Although Wildshape can deal immense damage at low levels, other martial classes easily surpass it starting at level 5. After this level has been reached, the Moon Druid will find itself relying on its spells more and more. This doesn’t invalidate the use of Wildshape – to the contrary, perhaps the optimal way to play a Moon Druid is to concentrate on a powerful spell (typically Summon Animals) before Wildshaping and entering the fray.

This guide is designed to lead players to maximize their Druid PC by helping them choose the right Wildshape form and to combine it with spells, feats, and racial abilities.

Moon Druid Features

Other Druid Guides

Moon Druid Guides:

Bestiaries

D&D Sources Used

Core Books: These three are the primarily books; most content listed here come from them. DMs will usually let you freely use material from these books.

These are published by WotC but not AL Legal. Most of the races are not native to the Forgotten Realms.

WotC Adventures

These contain magical items to find, andBeasts to observe for Wild Shape. Whether or not you are allowed to conjure the various Beasts, Fey & Elementals included in these adventures is up to the DM.

Guild Adept (AL Legal):

These third party supplements have been judged AL Legal through the Guild Adept program. They contain additional Beasts, Fey, and Elementals to use for Wild Shape & for conjuring spells. Unfortunately, few DMs own them, so you might trouble getting them into play.

AL Adventures:

These AL missions give you magical items as rewards. The Staff of the Woodlands is especially worth seeking out.

Ability Scores

Introduction

The Moon Druid is arguably the character that is the less dependent on ability scores. Physical attributes are replaced while Wildshaped and are thus relevant only when in caster form. Additionally, many of the strongest Druid spells do not depend on Wisdom. The Moon Druid is thus an excellent choice if you rolled poor stats at character creation.

Races

Introduction

While Wildshaping, the Moon Druid retains the benefit of any feature from its race and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. Since a Moon Druid spends a considerable amount of time Wildshaped, this puts a premium on races that provide such features. You have lot of room to be creative with your race choice here, as stats do not matter much to the Moon Druid.

Determining if a features carry over while Wildshaped requires close examination to the wording of the feature – for example, the Dragonborn’s Breath Weapon ability technically only requires a mouth and can thus be used while Wildshaped. When in doubt, ask your DM if the features of a race work with Wildshape.

PHB Races

DMG Races

Elemental Evil Races

SCAG Variants

Chult Race Packages

Volo’s Guide Races

Mordenkainen's ToF Races

Guildmasters' GtR Races

Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron Races

Eberron: Rising from the Last War Races

The Changeling, Kalashtar, Shifters, and Warforged are different from their Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron versions. The Orc is better than the Volo's Guide version.

Humblewood Races

Feats

Good Feats

Feats are extra valuable for the Moon Druid - they often offer substantial benefits, both when Wildshaped and when not.

Racial Feats

Bad Feats

Skills

Class Skills

Other Skills

Languages

Languages for Conjured Creatures

Although your conjured creatures can understand any verbal commands you issue them, you can't understand them back unless you know their own language.

Other Languages

Equipment

[!NOTE] DS Disadvantage on Stealth checks

Weapons

Magical Weapons

Armors

Druids cannot wear metal armor. A kind DM might allow you to buy or craft "natural" armor equivalent to metal armor, opening up options. By default though, you are only allowed to wear these few types of armor:

Magical Armors

Crafting Armor

As seen in the previous section, Magical Armor not made of metal is extremely rare and outright absent from many published WotC adventures. Unless your DM tweaks the treasures in published adventures or runs homebrew, your best bet is probably to craft the armor yourself.

The DMG and XGtE both contain optional rules for crafting magical items - ask your DM if you can use them.

According to these rules (p.128 of both books), to craft a Magical Item you'll need:

The gp & time requirement are much more relaxed in XGtE; for example, a Legendary item takes 100,000gp and 1 year in XGtE but 500,000 gp and 55 years in the DMG!

Crafting Materials

The materials needed are up to the DM. To procure them, XGtE suggests that the PCs face a creature with a CR appropriate to the rarity of the item to be crafted.

The list of magical armor listed above suggest the following materials are suitable: Crystal, Scale, Petrified Giant Mushroom, Scorpion part, Stone, and Wood.

The Wood could be mundane such as Cedar, Ebony, Oak, or Yew, or magical such as Darkwood, Greenwood, Ironwood, or Wyroot.

Alternatively, other materials might be appropriate: Bone//Mane/Skin, Chitin/Shell, Bark/Cord/Leaf, Gem, Obsidian, Spidersilk, etc.

Equipment for Wildshape

Most magical items do not help the Druid while in Wildshape. DMs may thus struggle to reward a Moon Druid PC with exciting loot. Here are a few ideas:

"Up to the DM" Items

Wildshape Forms

[!NOTE] DG Expected damage if all attacks are non-critical hits

CR < 1, No Swim/Fly

These forms are generally terrible at combat, and that's the point: by looking non-threatening, you can infiltrate and spy on others. The best form is probably one that is inconspicuous: a cat in a city, a frog in a marsh, a weasel in the forest, etc. Still, a few forms provide benefits that may not be obvious:

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR1, No Swim/Fly

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR1, Swim

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR2, No Fly

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR <= 2, Fly

Non-combat forms

Combat forms

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR3

Adventure-specific Beasts

Elemental Forms

Elementals can speak and resist nonmagical weapons.

CR4

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR5

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR6

Adventure-specific Beasts

Brachiosaurus (BotJR), AC16, 145HP, 40 DG: 20' Reach. Also has alternative tail attack that does 34.5 damage but knocks enemies Prone (DC15). Gargantuan size. Alternative to the Mammoth if its Charge can't work. A straight upgrade to the Brontosaurus, and has excellent defenses.

Shapechange Forms

The level 9 spell Shapechange works similarly to your Wild Shape, letting you adopt the form of a creature you have have seen. The CR of the creature can't exceed your level, and the creature can’t be a construct or an undead.

This section heavily depends on what creatures you have seen through your adventuring career, but here are a few ideas:

Polymorph Forms

Debuff Forms

Buff, CR 5, 6, & 7

Adventure-specific Beasts

Buff, CR8

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

Buff, CR10

Adventure-specific Beasts

Creature Forms Availability

Requirements

Additional restrictions

Beside the existence of the creature, there are some additional restriction on the target form:

Polymorph has the least restrictive requirement: having heard or read about the Beast is sufficient. The DM could reasonably ask for a Nature or History check if the Beast is rare or foreign.

For Wild Shape, observing a polymorphed or conjured Beast may be enough to let you Wild Shape into the form.

With the Conjure spells, you can request specific creature(s), although the DM is free to ignore your suggestions. Some DMs may also be more likely to oblige if your character knows about or has seen the creatures before, or if they are native to the land you are visiting.

DM Courtesy: Not a requirement, but if you wish to use a creature from a source your DM doesn't own, it is common courtesy to show him a picture or printed copy of the relevant stat block.

Awakened Beasts

Awaken

The Awaken spell (level 5) can "awaken" a Beast of size Huge or smaller, increasing its Intelligence to 10 and allowing it to speak one language.

By RAW, there is nothing preventing a PC from using Wild Shape or Polymorph to turn into an Awakened Beast, or to conjure Awakened Beasts. Of course, some DMs may object to this.

Unique Beasts

Some Beasts have a name and unique stats. By RAW, these Beasts are legal forms for Wild Shape, Polymorph, and the Conjure Animals / Fey spells. In practice, the DM is unlikely to conjure these creatures, and some may even prohibit Wild Shaping and Polymorphing into them. The following adventures feature unique Beasts:

Variant Beasts

Some Beasts do not have their own stat block, but are instead variants of existing monsters with some changes. By RAW, there is nothing stopping you from using these altered forms for Wild Shape, Polymorph, & conjuring spells. The MM & VGtM have the following variants:

Excluded Creatures

While looking for creatures for the summoning spells, I've decided to exclude the following:

Wild Shape Communication

When Wild Shaped, your ability to speak is limited to the capabilities of your beast form. This means you generally can't speak as a Brown Bear, as a Wolf, etc. However, there are some workarounds that allows you to communicate while in Wild Shape:

Telepathy / Beast Speech

Understanding Beasts

While Wild Shaped, you qualify as a Beast. Features & effects that let someone understand Beasts will work on you, allowing you to be understood.

Giant Eagle, Elk & Owl

The Giant Eagle, Giant Elk and Giant Owl all speak their own language; the Druid can thus communicate to some extend while Wild Shaped into them. However, there is some ambiguity regarding what language(s) you can speak while Wild Shaped into these forms:

Single-Word Pointing

A simple communication method is to make a physical list of frequently words such as "Danger", "Treasure", "Fight", etc. While Wild Shaped, you point at the correct word(s) to communicate. Examples of lists: a wooden board, a large scroll, a series of flash cards with words of them, shield engravings, embroidered words in a cloak, etc. The main advantage of this method is that it doesn't require any extra work from other players; you just say "I point at the words "Danger", "Traps", and "Ahead" and everyone will get what you meant. The main problems is that the list itself may have to be physically large (especially if you become a Huge or larger Beast) and that you need to be physically close to the list. The later makes it near impossible to communicate this way during combat.

Here are examples of words to use.

Basics

Things

Actions

Directions

Creating a Beast Language

At the most basic, you can have your Druid attempt to communicate through Charades. Although Charades can be hilarious, they can be quite imprecise and inefficient; after a few, your party risks getting bored & may start ignoring you.

At the other extreme, you and your friend could learn the Morse language; you'd then be able to communicate freely regardless of the Beast form. The commitment for this is substantial, though.

An alternate approach is to come up with a rudimentary "language" making use of the signs & sounds a Beast can make. For example, moving a right paw to the ground could mean "Watch for Traps", while a Growl could mean "Let's attack".

The advantage of the pseudo-language approach is that the Druid can communicate at any time (including combat) with his allies.

The disadvantage is that it requires some work to come up with the language & memorize it. Also, it may be difficult to make up a language for Beasts with unusual appendages (Giant Spider, Constrictor Snake, etc)

A kind DM might assume the characters themselves memorize the language, so you can just say "My character does the sign for Danger".

Example: Bear Communication

Conjure Animals

[!NOTE] DG Expected damage if all attacks are non-critical hits.

CR Options

Conjuring Animals gives the Druid four options for summoning:

Technically, the DM gets to pick the creature(s) you get; in practice, most DMs let the player choose the creatures.

There are three main reasons why you'd prefer to conjure higher CR beasts instead:

  1. CR 1/4 creatures are extremely vulnerable to AoE damage.
  2. It can be difficult to maneuver so many creatures around, especially if they are Large.
  3. It can take too long for a player to control so many creatures around

CR <= 1/4

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR 1/2

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR1

Adventure-specific Beasts

CR2

Adventure-specific Beasts

Conjure Minor Elementals

CR Options

Conjuring Minor Elementals gives the Druid four options for summoning:

Technically, the DM gets to pick the creature(s) you get; in practice, most DMs let the player choose the creatures.

CR <= 1/4

Adventure-specific Elementals

CR 1/2

Adventure-specific Elementals

All Gens can cast Detect Evil and Good & Tongues.

CR1

Adventure-specific Elementals

CR2

Conjure Woodland Beings

CR Options Conjuring Woodland Beings gives the Druid four options for summoning:

CR <= 1/4

Adventure-specific Fey

CR 1/2

Adventure-specific Fey

CR1

CR2

Adventure-specific Fey

Conjure Elemental

All Elementals have resistance to nonmagical attacks Exceptions: Flail Snail, Xorn, & Frost Salamander

Upcasting Options

Conjure Elemental can be upcasted to summon stronger Elementals.

CR3

CR4

Adventure-specific Elementals

CR5

CR6 (Upcast Required)

CR7 (Upcast Required)

Adventure-specific Elementals

CR9 (Upcast Required)

Conjure Fey

Upcasting Options

Conjure Fey can be upcasted to summon a stronger Beast or Fey.

CR3

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

Amphisbaena (TftYP), 12AC, 60HP, 24DG: 30' swim Amphibian, 10' Blindsight, and its attack auto-restrains (escape DC16). A variant of the Giant Constrictor Snake that can attack twice. Giant Lightning Eel (TftYP), AC13, 42HP, 29DG: 5' speed, 30' swim. Terrible defenses. Blindsight 60'. Its Lightning Jolt can stun multiple creatures (DC12), but that's not enough to prefer it to CR6 options. Giant Snapping Turtle (ToA), AC17, 75HP, 18DG: 40' swim. The CR6 Beasts are much stronger than this. Mutated Crocodile (RotLK), AC12, 60HP, 11DG: 30' swim. Its attack auto-restrain (DC13), and it can reduce the HP of the restrained enemy by 3 as a Bonus Action. Worse than the CR2 Giant Constrictor Snake. Siren (TftYP), AC14, 38HP, 7.5DG: 30' swim. Magic resistance, a Stupefying Touch that stuns (DC13), & can cast Greater Invisibility once per day. Extremely fragile compared to the CR6 options.

CR4

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

CR5

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

CR6

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

CR7 (Upcast Required)

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

CR8 (Upcast Required)

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

CR9 (Upcast Required)

Adventure-specific Beasts & Fey

Druid Spell Analysis

Cantrips

Level 1 Spells

Level 2 Spells

Shapeshifters List

Level 3 Spells

Level 4 Spells

Level 5 Spells

Level 6 Spells

Level 7 Spells

Level 8 Spells

Level 9 Spells

Multiclassing

When to Multiclass:

What to Multiclass Into:

Wildshape AC: Monk & Mage Armor

The Monk's Unarmored Defense lets you calculate your AC as 10+ Dex Mod + Wis Mod. This means forms with strong Natural Armor don't benefit much from Unarmored Defense, while forms without it gives you a straight Wis Mod bonus to AC.

Here I list the effect of Unarmored Defense on Wildshape forms. I assume a Druid with 20 Wisdom; the maximum bonus is thus +5. If you have 18-19 Wisdom, reduce all numbers by 1; if you have 16-17 Wisdom, reduce them all by 2; etc. Note that Mage Armor gives you the same bonus to AC as Unarmored Defense with a Wisdom of 16.

CR1:
CR2:
CR3:
Elementals:
CR4:
CR5:
CR6:

Wildshape AC: Barbarian

The Barbarian's Unarmored Defense lets you calculate your AC as 10+ Dex Mod + Con Mod. This means forms with low Con & strong Natural Armor don't benefit much from Unarmored Defense, while forms without Natural Armor gives a straight Con Mod bonus to AC.

Here I list the effect of Unarmored Defense on Wildshape forms:

CR1:

CR2:

CR3:

Elementals:

CR4:

CR5:

CR6:

Party Synergies

Helping your Wildshape

Helping your Summons

Other Combos

Action Economy

Bonus Action Uses

Spells (Casting Time):

Spells (Ongoing Effect):

Class Powers:

Races:

Wild Shape:

Reaction Uses


Revision #11
Created 22 June 2024 21:27:00 by Steve
Updated 23 June 2024 00:26:06 by Steve