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Spells
As a moon druid who cannot cast while in animal form, I enjoyed that I had to think very differently about spells. Spells that I could cast and would continue to be useful while in animal form suddenly came into their own, when I'd previously overlooked them in favour of flashier, often higher damage, one-off spells.

Concentration suddenly became a whole lot more important too, as if I lost concentration on a spell in beast form I couldn't just recast something. And its additional importance to moon druids means that issues with the concentration mechanic, which have been discussed in other threads, disproportionately affect them. I hope Larian will consider how breaking concentration incorrectly can also nerf this class when they prioritise any fixes.

Spells I found particularly useful for my moon druid, or just more useful for her than I've found them for other characters, or which felt like they *should* be useful but for one reason or another weren't as good as they could be are as follows.

Cantrips

• Produce Flame is a handy, no concentration light source for a moon druid, whose animal forms might not have darkvision even if they themselves do, though the animation of our beasts with blue fire stuck to their paws/mandibles/wings/bellies is a bit odd. That Produce Flame doubles as a 9m ranged damage cantrip is helpful in a pinch (particularly with its level 5 boost) but is a pain to use it as this, as you need to click twice to produce the flame then twice again to throw it. I'd prefer it if I could just choose the spell then click on a creature, item or surface to throw a flame at them, or my character to create and keep hold of the flame for light. I do like the fact the cantrip can be used to target items and surfaces, so hope this will be kept despite the fact that I think 5e RAW might say its target should be a creature,
• Thorn Whip only does 1d6 damage (2d6 at level 5) damage, but it works at melee range and up to 9m which can be helpful if you're out of wild shape charges and spells and can't get range from your enemies or are at a distance and they're resistant to fire. Plus it's worth it for the odd occasion you manage to pull an enemy off a ledge to your feet, turn into your beast and clobber them. I'd like to see Shillalgh do that! *And* it's got a cool animation (fingers crossed for whip as a weapon in the full release!). Seriously, Shillalagh probably would have been a better melee backup cantrip, if less flexible, but with my druid's CON she wasn't going to be staying in melee range in human form if she could help it, so I'm happy I chose style over substance.

My level 1 druid basically used these cantrips all the time at level 1 as weapons, and then frequently after that once she'd run out of spells and wildshapes which, given I intentionally don't spam rest, happened a fair bit. For example, I always try to complete the goblin camp and shattered sanctum without long resting which I did do with my druid though it took some rationing and so a fair bit of thorn whipping and flame hurling, not always to great effect!

Level 1 Spells

• Longstrider and Jump I've only very occasionally used before, probably as I've played more ranged than melee characters, but found them handy this run when I remembered to cast them, either to get my druid's beast forms to her enemies or her human form away from them!
• Cure Wounds and Healing Word I found I had a different attitude to these with this playthrough. Whereas I've generally just picked Healing Word for my clerics, as it "only" takes a bonus action and can be done from a distance, my moon druid sometimes wanted a way to heal using an action when she'd taken a bit of a beating and wanted to top up her health before using her bonus action to turn back into a beast. She was rarely in a position to heal anyone else as she was usually either an animal or injured herself, so the distance feature of Cure Wounds wasn't helpful and I made a lot more use of potions for her and the rest of my party this playthrough. I still never had to actually buy any healing potions, though I did run quite low a few times and for the first time didn't end up with piles of unused healing potions at the end of the game. I'm not particularly conscientous about looting, so I'm not sure if this shows the number of potions to be found in the world is about right, or if it were too many and when you're using potions as the principle means of healing for three of your party you should expect to be buying them.
• Faerie Fire is a spell I've only tended to use situationally before, but a 10 turn advantage on attack rolls against enemies is a pretty good effective buff in the early game for the druid's beast form ... if they can maintain concentration.
• Entangle Entangle like Faerie Fire is a 10 round concentration spell which gives advantage on attacks, but also gives enemies a disadvantage. However, my druid couldn't get within clawing distance of affected enemies without being caught herself, so I didn't really use it. I suppose it would be helpful if fighting larger groups to keep some of them at a distance and pick them off with ranged party members while the druid dealt with any enemies at close range, or if all wildshape charges and level 2 spells have been used to try to keep enemies at bay while finishing them off with cantrips.
• Speak with Animals felt like an RP necessity for my moon druid, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that while I know some people hate it I appreciate the effort Larian have gone to to give animals dialogue content and secrets they can share. It was also interesting how speaking to animals *felt* different to me when I was RP-ing as a character that spent so much time in animal form, though of course there was no difference in the actual conversations at all!

I didn't find any of the other spells at level 1 worth keeping in my spell book. Well, I suppose Thunderwave was helpful at level 1 to push enemies away and do some damage, but once I had my wildshapes I had better uses for my spell slots as I couldn't make use of it in beast form.

Level 2 Spells

• Barkskin is handy to cast before turning into most animals, and gives them a boost to 16 AC unless they already have 16 AC or higher, which I think only the Dire Raven does of the EA beasts. It's particularly useful for the bear form which only has a natural 12 AC so Barkskin is going to help it perform it's most useful role as a tank, and for the Deep Rothe which can be a bit of a combo tank/damage dealer if you raise its AC from it's base 10. But I soon found out that in a fight where a moon druid goes this route, they're going to struggle to do any real damage, so it's only really useful when using other party members for DPS.
• Flaming Sphere along with my wolf form was my go to when I wanted to try to do some damage, particularly at level 3, though the fact Flaming Sphere can be upcast at level 5 to double damage dice kept it up at the top of my list throughout the game. I've cast Flaming Sphere a couple of times with Gale in previous playthroughs and not known what the hell to do with it. I had been trying to use it as a damage spell and thought it was terrible. How wrong I was! Send Flaming Sphere into a knot of enemies before joining it in my wolf form and it's basically a summon that draws aggro with 50 HP and a ton of resistances, is immune to fire damage (so v useful in the fight against Grym), acts as a light source to make sure my party can see the enemies, is an ally for the purposes of my wolf's Pack Tactics which gives the wolf advantage on attack rolls, can block a chokepoint, can inflict multiple enemies with burning status doing 1d6 (2d6 if upcast) damage unless they run away (which is also good if it reduces melee pressure on my wolf), can ram a specific enemy for 1d6 (2d6 if upcast) fire damage per turn, and can move around setting stuff alight on its own turn without using my action or bonus action. Plus, I can cast it and turn into wildshape before going into battle, getting my meatshield benefit plus a useful offensive spell from the start, effectively saving a whole combat turn. Okay, I did get burned myself more than once and I learned to be *very* quick to cancel the spell or at least turn off its flame at the end of the fight before it came following me burning everything in its wake ... including my party. But it was a price worth paying, and to be honest it wasn't that often the sphere survived until the bitter end (or to its max 10 turns) given it requires concentration. But it was great while it lasted! Admittedly, the damage it does to enemies isn't huge given its AoE damage isn't applied until the end of enemies' turns. But in addition to my melee damage it's not to be sneezed at and the spell is also so much more than a damage dealer. Of course, most of this is not by any stretch RAW so Larian would be justified in nerfing it, though I think they'd need to think hard about balance for moon druids if they did. Introducing Summon Beast as an alternative to its aggro/per turn additional damage/pack tactics benefits would perhaps help.
• Moonbeam is overpowered on its first round given it does damage both when it's cast on enemies and on their turn, rather than just the latter as per RAW and because of this was still occasionally helpful. But I largely found it a waste of concentration for my moon druid as you can't move the Moonbeam in beast form, so enemies just moved out of its way and I couldn't do anything about it until I returned to human. There aren't enough combat areas with unavoidable choke points where I found I could make good use of a static Moonbeam, especially given its small AoE, though I did manage to trap enemies in it it would do its damage each turn which is at least better than Call Lightning and Heat Metal. Of course, even if it were moveable, that would use an action that could otherwise be used for melee attacks, but it wouldn't necessarily need moving every turn, there's the option of Haste to get an attack along with a moonbeam move, and even if my druid was not attacking she might be better in wildshape anyway for the extra HP. All in all, wouldn't be a bad spell for moon druids if fixed.
• Heat Metal is another concentration based, multi-turn damage and debuff spell that can be upcast and could theoretically be useful for a moon druid to use for tougher heavily armoured enemies like Bernard and co., especially as its damage is reapplied by bonus action leaving the action free for biting and clawing (and can be applied twice if you have two bonus actions - not sure that's per RAW, but great if so!). But again reapplication of damage is blocked in beast form so the spell is nerfed for moon druids. The actual debuff only lasts one turn so the spell requires reapplication to justify its spell slot.
• Spike Growth as a long lasting concentration spell that can help control the battlefield while doing some minor damage sounds as though it could potentially be useful but I'll be honest I was having so much fun playing with my pet Flaming Sphere that I didn't really try out its potential, so just read Niara's focused spells comment and suspect I made the right choice given she says the way the spell is implemented means it does very little damage and fails to slow enemies for long, which will make this
• Flame Sword was pointless for my moon druid, and anyway what self-respecting moon druid would be using a *sword*? But can I just ask, is it right that it is light but not finesse? It says it looks like a scimitar, and scimitars are finesse but I suppose it is called a sword.

In summary, level 2 spells include one buff (Barkskin) that I found useful for tanking as long as concentration could be maintained, but required the sacrifice of my druid's ability to supplement her fairly low beast form damage with spells. It could still be the right choice sometimes, but generally I found a more aggressive approach bettter. There are no useful damage spells that can be used in animal form at level 1 so it was exciting to see three (possibly four, if Spike Growth is included) at level 2. But Moonbeam and particularly Heat Metal are nerfed for moon druids due to non-RAW restrictions on their beasts' abilities and Spike Growth is apparently just generally nerfed. Flaming Sphere really came into its own and for the first time I enjoyed playing with it, but it really *isn't* RAW and is a bit mad. Much as I grew to love my pet rock, I think it probably should be reduced to RAW, AS LONG AS the other spells are fixed and can be manipulated in beast form, and we get an alternative summon (I think Summon Beast is a level 2 druid spell).

Level 3 Spells

• Sleet Storm is a 10 turn concentration spell that could be really helpful for controlling the battlefield when there were lots of enemies on open, flat ground BUT it is terrible at coping with different levels. Eg, when I cast it on the big "steps" down to the Sussur Tree and the Hook Horrors from the Myconid Village, its ice surface coated only a single step and though the Horrors were forced to make saving throws each turn they didn't fall prone if they failed. And when I tried to cast it on the duergar boat on the way to Grymforge, goodness knows where the surface ended up. On the water we left behind us, perhaps? This issue must be addressed if it's to be of any use in the many battlefields that use the maps' verticality.
• Call Lightning is another 10 turn concentration spell, and it can do 3d10 lightning damage per turn, but it requires expenditure of an action to activate, and again that can't be done in beast form. If it could, then this could situationally be useful for moon druids who could make use of their animal HP shield while casting it, or use Haste to call lighting and melee attack each round. I wish!
• Daylight lasts for 100 turns and casts bright light over a wide area, so great for helping beast forms see what they're doing. No concentration required either and can be cast at a static location or on a member of my party to act as a super strong moveable light source. I learned the hard way, though, that if cast on a party member it had better not be my druid. Like Light it affects the equipped weapon so as soon as my druid changed shape and lost her weapons, it went dark just as she needed light most. Gah! Not sure the spell needs to change to address this, possibly just something I need to be careful of.
• Plant Growth as a non-concentration, 10 turn spell that slows enemy movement speed has potential to help control the field of combat, but with only two level 3 spell slots it had no look-in compared to upcast Flaming Sphere or (in the right environment) Sleet Storm. At higher levels, I can see this being something that might be helpful to cast and forget on the first round to delay more distant enemies moving towards your party, then cast a concentration spell of choice on the next round before transforming.

In summary, while level 3 introduced some more potentially interesting spells for my moon druid, the way the two that would have been the most useful for combat were implemented in a way that made them far less so than they should have been. Still, at least I could upcast Flaming Sphere!

Overall, once I worked out what I wanted from spells as a moon druid, I found the selection offered was what I needed ... if only they'd worked as they should. Except for Flaming Sphere which worked far better than it should, and for which thank goodness in the circumstances. As mentioned, a summon would have been nice (and necessary without Flaming Sphere) and I felt the lack of a decent buffing spell that would help my druid's attack and concentration saves. Obviously, Shadowheart with Bless would have been good there, and helped my druid while also letting her concentrate on her own damage spell. But I was surprised there was nothing in my druid's spellbook itself that would have a similar effect. Not sure if this is due to 5e, or the fact not all druid spells have been implemented.