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

So I wanted to work through the campaign as a druid, but as a druid that focused as a primary melee and spell caster. I chose Circle of Land since it matches the playstyle I am looking for. I progressed 8 levels in game and then finally gave up and changed the class. I felt like I was just a burden to my teammates unless I transformed. I was an elf I had mithril armor a good short sword and a decent shield. Basically, I feel like I had the right spells and adequate gear. Unfortunately, the gameplay performance was nothing to be proud of. I would be lucky to do 6-9 points damage with melee and my spells just did not have any power for damage. Call of lightning was the most underwhelming spell of the lot. I question if shocking grasp would produce the same damage. Moonbeam was a little underwhelming I estimate an average 10 damage. Flame Sword is a nice spell, but I have an issue where it spawns into the left hand turning me into a dual wielder taking away the shield I am trained on. So next issue is you get one main attack, and you need to choose spell, melee, transform. Spell and melee you run into the mediocre damage that I explain above. 9-10 damage on a 30 plus HP opponent means you are just tanking a target till your real warrior’s finish slicing everyone down and come to help you finish your target. This kind of scenario is what forced me to transform on all battles to contribute. When you turn to an owl bear you get double attacks and an area of damage attack option. Once transformed, and only when transformed I felt like I could contribute to the team. Which then turns you into a character that is not really a spell caster anymore just a shapeshifter. I am sure there is a better way to play the class, but for me it was so underwhelming with the performance. What do you suggest? Setup, weapons, spells and I have the gear and can always change back.

IMO Spore Druid is just superior for a caster / non shape changed druid as they can use their spore abilities without losing spellcasting.

Druid spellbooks sucks big time. It's got some of the most mediocre spells. Its CC spells require concentration but are not as good as Hypnotic Pattern or Hunger of Hakkar, its damage spells are pretty terrible, no access to chain lightning and the damage scaling of the other spells drops off a cliff and they don't get any passives or mechanics to boost spell damage or utility like wizard/sorc/warlock do (though warlock is pretty bad as well as a pure spellcaster), the druid healing spells are garbage since you need cleric life domain to make healing spells efficient for spell slot use, otherwise throwing health potions is immensely more effective, and a cleric channel divinity aoe heal is healing for 40+ HP on 2 charges per short rest while a druid lv5 mass cure wound is healing 17-20 HP, pretty terrible as by that point most HP pools are 70-80+ and a single enemy attack is outdamaging that heal.

They need to remove concentration from a lot of druid ground hazard and vine spells to make them an effective CC multiplier class and land druids should get access to chain lightning and improved cantrip damage while spore druids should get Dethrone and have their spore damage improved. Both moon and spore druid should get extra melee attacks on their humanoid forms.

If they reasoned that caster druids would be mediocre because the forms would carry the day as the main class mechanic, they majorly screwed up, as there are like 3 whole items in the entire game that work with wildshapes (2 of them gated to act 3), many feats don't, and many elixirs and potions don't really affect wildshape performance outside potion of speed, and you can't even use consumables while wildshaped or benefit from venoms/oils. The wildshapes don't scale well at all and neither does their spellbook and humanoid form.

I've recently swapped from Moon Druid to Land Druid because the subclass is riddled with bugs that make it not fun to play at all. I still want to Wild Shape, despite all the issues.

I realised that Haste generally makes up for the fact that Moon Druids get Wild Shape as a bonus action. It also buffs your AC which Wild Shapes generally lack.

I'm currently level 8, so I've placed 7 levels into Land Druid and 1 into War Cleric. I've picked up Haste, Misty Step and Mirror Images along the way. Each of those 3 spells sets up your Wild Shape for success. I picked War Cleric for proficiency with Bows, War Priest charges for the bonus attacks in Wild Shape and Sanctuary.

In battles where I want to Wild Shape, I start my battles with Haste and follow up with either Sanctuary for protection or Misty Step to teleport up a high place. I will then spend the second turn using Mirror Images (if I'm about to jump into madness) and then Wild Shape:Owl Bear. If no Mirror Images then I will get to do an attack that turn thanks to Haste. Owl Bear has Crushing Flight as a bonus action so I can generally end the turn having done some damage at least.

In combat scenarios where transforming makes no sense, Moon Beam + Sanctuary is borderline broken. Repositioning doesn't break Sanctuary so I will typically up rank Moon Beam to deal higher damage and can just spam moon beam all battle.

This is currently the most optimal way of playing druid I can think of right now. I just wish Larian fixed all the issues so I can play Druid how I actually want to, but for now I have to stick with the compromises.

Druids should have a feat that allow them to spellcast while shapechanged, imo.

I agree, it's a weird class. Here's a full caster that can't cast anything when they're shapechanged, which is the big feature of their class.

Just poor design, in general. I blame 5e.

The problem with land druids is that they don't really fit the way the game is designed. They are good at dealing with long adventures where you don't get to rest a lot. Larian basicly copied them from 5e and removed all situations where they would be good.

If you want land druids to feel more in line with other classes, consider applying some or all of the following 5e rules and suggestions to your party:
- You do 4-6 encounters before you take a long rest.
- Casters can only switch their prepared spells in the morning, right after the long rest.
- Only spell casters can use spell scrolls.
- If you drink a potion or use a potion on someone else, you can't take any other action during that turn.
- Haste allows characters with extra attack to only take a single attack with their second action.
- Characters (including sorcerers) can only cast one spell that requires a spell slot per turn.
- Characters can only do one single attack as a bonus action and only do it if they also used their action for a weapon attack.

I did manage to also get Jaheira to 95% chance on hold spells after handing her my Act 2 DC items after replacing them with Act 3 ones on my MC.

Ok so she could hold more stuff, but none of the druid damage spells can be cast without breaking that concentration, so then all she can do is firebolt (Gold Wyrmling Staff) or shillelagh melee hit per turn or 2 with haste. And Firebolt doesn't add another 1d4 to that staff with a certain ring so crud.

The bigger issue is that all the damage spells for druids also require concentration, so you can't do much else after casting call lightning but recast call lightning.

Buuuuut, Gold Wymling Staff & Call Lightning & a couple of nifty rings = +1d4 fire, lightning and psychic damage to every melee hit plus shillelagh bonus. Kinda good, plus that OP Water Myrmiddon.

Honestly the Water Myrmiddon is better than the Druid.

Druid spellcasting isent so good for doing direct damage (some exceptions aside) but are very good at support casting, debuffing or buffing.

Lvl 1 gems:
Faerie fire (specially early on) can give your entire party advantage on enemies who fail their save against it. Its a dex save if memory serves but against groups generally at least a few fail their saves. Given the effect it can have thats pretty good for a lvl 1 spell. Also prevents the ones effected by it from using invisibility.

Entangle also a lvl 1 spell can restrain people who fail the save vs it. Strength save I think? Gives them disadvantage on their attacks and you advantage on attacks against them. And the last effect gives the people restrained disadvantage against dex saves. People keep passing the save against your fireballs? Restrain them first!

Once this effect is gone (or they pass their save) the area still counts as difficult terrain. Which can be annoying for melee enemies to deal with.

Detect magic is amazing. But sadly not in the game.

Fog cloud can make people not see you. On the flipaide you cant see them. But can be usefull *oh crap* button in some scenarios.
Jump and longstrider can be usefull as you have to traverse alot in bg3.

Thunderwave can toss enemies off an elevated postion in some situations.

Lvl 2 stand outs:
Pass without trace. Aoe +10 bonus to stealth checks. When the party wants to stealth with heavy armor on.

Hold person. Clerics got it to. But stunning humanoids can be clutch.

Heat metal. Dont recall exactly how implemented in bg3 but the damage it does isent the main attraction of the spell. You can disarm enemies with it or if they pass the save disadvantage on attacks if they keep holding the item. Makes enemies alot less dangerous.

Spike growth. Like entangle creates diffixult terrain. But this alsp damages them if they move through it. If you take abilities that move enemies backwars (like repelling blast from warlocks for example) you can keep getting mileage out of this spell.

Lvl 3 spells.
Call lightning is nice because you can call down lightning in an aoe for 10 turns. First as a casting of the spell and then later as bonus actions. So you can cast this spell. And shapechange in the same turn (as a moon druid anyway) and then tear things apart as an animal while calling down lightning. Pretty sweet! Can only be used outside though for obvious reasons. (Is that last part in bg3? No druids in my party...)

Most of the other lvl 3 spells id consider good and worth taking arent in bg3 sadly (like dispel magic. Curse you Larian!)

Lvl 4 spells:
Ice storm is a nice decent aoe. Ice isent resisted often and it creates difficult terrain. And its implementation in bg3 is insane because if you slip you just straight up lose your turn. Its worse even. You lose your turn and are now prone giving all attacks against you advantage until your next turn.

Conjure woodland beeing. Its a summon. And in bg 3 it can...summon its own summon?

Polymorph is an insane spell. In the tabletop. Which makes what Larian did to it even more insane. You can only turn people into sheep with it. So no turning yourself into tyranosaurus rexes </3 But thats still an enemy that isent shanking you for the time beeing I guess.

Stoneskin is alright in bg3. Material components arent a thing so the cost of the spell isent an issue. You still run into enough enemies wielding mundane weapons that it becomes a nice buff. Arguably more usefull in bg3 then on the tabletop.

Wall of fire. Aside from the INSANE surfacearea of the wall of fire, its a wall of fire

Hope this helps

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.

Well after going to level 10 I respected to a level 5 druid /level 5 paladin. Game changer. I can smite like a boss and cast decent spells. Sad I had to change but that extra attack is so important. Plus you get alot of spell slots to work with on the smites. 6 damage with short sword and shield went to 20 plus damage x2 with a long sword and shield

Henry NYC: Bard can get Speak with Animals at level 1 and warlock at level 2. Ranger gets it relatively soon too ( I think they can get it from level 2 onwards too). So that is nothing exclusively to druids.

If you want to melee AND cast, Land Druids would suck. It's better to think of them as casters and gear/talent accordingly, with the option to equip a shield that gives some dps and ample utility (wildshape).

One level of wizard helps immensely to provide spammable spells while you're concentrating on something else, and to that be sure to look at selectable spells closely: the there's a misnomer on of the "Extra spell" sets that says you get Call Lightning automatically learned but it's actually lightning bolt.

My solution was Max Wis and elemental adept in either cold or lightning, and war caster.

Pally/Druid would be an interesting battlemage variant but you lose some great spells doing so.

Sorry for being late to the party and potentially razing this post; but I've run into zero problems dealing damage as either a pure land druid (maintaining moonbeam, ccing enemies in entangle and then moonbeaming, throwing alchemist fire etc).

I did however deal a TON more damage as a lvl 1 fight and spore druid. Pumped numbers in CON and WIS and around level 8 I never lost once traction while moving through CC's.

There is also a great druid build using a similar lvl 1 war (mostly for AC and concentration buff) using Circle of Spores on YouTube by the name of 'Spud the King'.

Using his set up he was able to make a pretty impressive hybrid spellcaster/melee character which made use of Cloud Kill as well as various spore abilities, such as haste.

Hope you all keel having fun and experimenting with jy favorite class <3

if druid only circle of moon and act him like melee tank or melee dps

druids is trash casters

caster tiers like this

sorc } light cleric } wizzard } if want more support insted dps take life cleric insted light cleric } warlock } bard xD } nothing } darkness } world sickness } druid

I get a lot of use out of my Druid through summons. Having 5 extra allies helps action economy, increases the druid's effective damage output, and you can throw them at baddies as speedbumps if you just need to distract them for a turn or two. Through the 3 summon spells you get up to 5 creatures. Conjure Minor Elemental gives two Mephits for some range damage and flight helps them get into position. Conjure Woodland Being gives a Dryad who can also summon a Wood Woad, both can CC with spells like Entangle and the WW can tank with the regeneration it gets while standing on those vines. Conjure Elemental gives 8 options, depending on if you cast as a level 5 or 6 spell, my favorite being the Water Myrmidon for the healing action that makes everything wet (nice with lightning and cold damage) and it has OK melee and ranged options. Don't forget that you can give the summons buffs like longstrider.

My tactic is to cast a concentration spell depending on what the fight's situation happens to be. Haste on my Barbarian is a good option. Another is call lightning and move the druid into melee and use the bonus action for off-hand attacks. Druid's spell list may feel lacking compared to a wizard, but those summons do a lot of work, scimitars are decent enough melee weapons, and the druid is more survivable thanks to medium armor and shield. Natural Recovery helps a land druid manage spell slots if they happen to spam through spells quicker than other casters.