Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Moon Druid seems pointless

So, after playing BG 3 as a Moon Druid, I have to ask, what's the point of this subclass? In dnd 5e tabletop Moon Druids are considered one of the strongest subclasses for a reason. You get extra health, damage, etc, while still being a full caster.

In BG 3 though they serve no purpose. Not because their forms are weak, but because both Spore and Land Druid get the same level of power with extra stuff on top of it. Land gets extra spells, Spore gets damage and minions. Both can turn into an owlbear, both get extra hp, both get extra attack.

Moon druids:

Level 6 ignoring magic resistance - magic weapons are everywhere. And most bossess have got resistance/immunity to physical damage in general, meaning its completely pointless feature.

Extra forms:
-Bear is weaker than dire wolf and no pack tactics.
-Dire Raven is a great scout and that's about it.
-Sabretooth Tiger is solid and can knock enemies prone, but only comes online at level 8.

Lunar Mend is Terrible, you're better off using short rest or have somebody else heal you like healing word, etc.

Being able to wildshape as a bonus action is the only good thing, but you could always be in Animal form prior to the fight.

To make matters worse, you cant move concentration spells in any of the wildshapes.
Owlbear rage charges disappear at level 8 I think.
Elemental forms come online at level 10, which means Moon Druid is weaker for the vast majority of the first two acts. If you really want them, respecing at level 10 seems like the best solution

Some ideas:

-Take away multiattack from other circles.
-Make level 6 feature do something like extra damage, turning immunity into resistance. Or rebalance the bosses.
-Restrict other circles only to the basic 4 forms you get at the beginning wirh maybe polar bear and raven added later. Owlbear could come online at level 10 for non Moon Druids.

What do you think?

I think these are all very bad ideas, as they all take something away from other subclasses instead of adding some to moon Druid.

I've not played moon druid in the full release yet, though I did do a playthrough in EA.

My two biggest problems with the class, much as I enjoyed it, were (a) not being able to activate/move concentration spells like heat metal, call lightning & moonbeam when in wildshape and, (b) the ridicuous ease with which concentration is lost in BG3 which affects all classes but moon druids disproportionately given they are more reliant on concentration spells as they can't cast in wildshape. If just those two things were fixed, along with the bug that means you have to re-equip items after wildshaping to regain their benefits, for me the moon druid would be hugely improved.

By level 5, it was also much in need of some better wildshapes, but not having tried what we get in the full release I'm not yet able to comment on how far that's provided.

Unfortunately, both of those problems still exist. Along with a lot of other issues. Lots of things that should synergize with Moon Druid just don't. Even some Moon Druid specific gear doesn't fully work with Moon Druid.

That said, I can't complain about form access. Owlbear is a massive power spike. I was able to 1v1 a minotaur as an owlbear when I entered the Underdark at level 6 and it wasn't even a close fight. Saber-tooth Tiger is also incredibly strong as you do a lot of damage and can chain knockdowns to keep enemies prone almost permanently.

.... Of course, THAT said Owlbear is available to all druids, so Moon Druid doesn't actually have a meaningfully strong unique form until level 8.

Elemental forms are also quite strong, but they're also kind of a risk since they eat both Wildshape charges and damage is so insanely high (on Tactician, which I play) that enemies will occasionally still slap you out of it in one or two rounds anyway, leaving you naked for the rest of the fight.

Okay, we seem to have a number of active threads about Moon Druids, so let's rationalise.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=886064 was created first so we'll use that and I'll lock others. PM me if you'd like me to move any of your posts from this thread to that one.