As self-appointed King of all multiplayer (kidding) I just wanted to forward some feedback on a class issue that I have seen repeated by others. People are unhappy with the Druid right now and it comes off as underwhelming.
issues I have heard mentioned:
Shapechanging:-Animal forms are underpowered -
Polar bear/Bear form is an awful tank as it has no AC, damage mitigation or ability to impose disadvantage on attack roles. It is a giant meat cushion, with a low chance to hit that ends up dying round 1 due to being focused down.
it also does poor DPS. Giving Polar Bear a limited RAGE ability would really help here and would help distinguish it as an Tank form, just a single 10 round charge would fix the problem here.
Wolf is underwhelming as a DPS form, high miss chance and again has little in the way of survivability.
The other forms are mostly utility except for Deep Roth which is also fairly mediocre - it has a charge but doesn't DPS or Tank very well.
Basically the forms need more to differentiate themselves and to be beefed up a bit. As has been pointed out the Ranger Companions are stronger.
Spellcasting:Heat Metal tends to target the weapon instead of the armor which the target will drop as a free action henceforth preventing future damage from Heat Metal as a BA
Moon Beam is fine, don't change anything.
The Druid suffers from mostly DOT based spells and no frontloaded direct damage spells. Depending on Race you may have no consistent way to deal ranged damage as Druids don't get any Bow proficiency naturally and slings are not in game.
I have dabbled with a Druid build that uses a Dual wield Flaming Scimitar/shillelagh and mirror image but it is a tricky build to get right and utilize because Mirror Image is unreliable. Druids can have decent AC with medium Armor but its frowned upon sometimes for roleplay purposes.
Elite Build - The Brand - Druid DPS Striker
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=804171#Post804171(Its a bit outdated but still viable)
Anyway, just some thoughts.
