Another druid trick I found. You can cast Speak with Animals then switch that spell out with another prepared spell and keep the effect on yourself. So Speak with Animals only costs a first level spell slot. It doesn't use up a prepared spell slot too.
My main issue with Speak with Animals is that it requires concentration, which is annoying for utility spells. A lot of other druid spells use concentration too, like guidance, resistance, and most of the level 2 spells. Not to mention items, like the items that confer the shield of faith effect. In general, utility and pre-buff spells are best not prepared, since you won’t need them in combat ever and out of combat you can just switch them in and out as needed. Same could be said for the movement boosting spell. I cast that once after long rest and then replace it with something else. Can also do that with good berries. Just depends if you want to deal with the micro-management hassle.
I kind of wish speak with animals were a cantrip since sometimes you are just wasting a spell slot because the animal has nothing useful to say, except flavor text, and most puzzles could be solved also with animal handling instead, which druids are likely to be good at. But really, if you are playing a Druid, you will want to talk to every single animal you see because it is fun and the voice acting is great. I actually skipped on animal handling because I figure I’ll never use since it doesn’t come up when using speak with animals.
