Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Druid Circle of Land- Caster Build

I like Druid a lot, as this is the only class that grants the spell to enable the player to speak with animals all day every day - starting from day ONE! It also offers (as an option) the unique spell that pulls enemies towards you (other similar spells only push enemies away). It gives every Druid the unique healing spell that creates food-like healing berries that can be shared with others. Additionally, if the player starts the game with a druid, they can pick the spell to turn a crappy starting weapon (Quarterstaff) into a very usable weapon as if it were in the hands of a dedicated melee fighter.

At level 2, all druids have to pick a subclass while retaining all their innate capabilities. Moon Druid has improved shapeshifting options, so they are best in fighting with shapeshifting. Spores Druid uses shapeshifting abilities to improve their own health pool and increase their own weapon/fist damage, so they are best in weapon fighting without shapeshifting. Land Druid is given a total of 8 (at level 9) extra spells to pick from a large spell pool that would be otherwise either unavailable or only available at a later time, so Land Druids are best in fighting with spells.

Because all Druids can shapeshift, they can "cheat" death with shapeshifting, the benefit of which is very noticeable when playing in Tactician mode. If played to take advantage of that, they can rely on shapeshifting to have the equivalent of a substantially larger health pool, making them the most durable tank during the initial 20 or so hours of gameplay on Tactician difficulty, until this "cheat" ceases to matter later.

Roleplay-wise, Druid has advantage in certain quests, in addition to carrying the spell for talking to all animals all the time. One example is, they can automatically trigger an easy-to-miss quest that enables the player an extra option for resolving a critical conflict, which yields an arguably much better result favoring the player.

So, I guess, there must be something not right that makes your Land Druid lackluster in combat. Without further details, I noticed one thing you revealed: you use Short Sword (proficiency granted by your Elf race), which is not ideal for a Druid. Finesse-based Druids are much trickier to play well and typically requires multiclassing. As a single-class Land Druid, you are much better off if you focus on what a Land Druid can do best: spellcasting. Turn to melee (or bow) or shapeshifting only if you have advantage for not using spells. Also, choose optional spells wisely to best fit your chosen playstyle.