Druid Land vs Moon Differences

[Streeja]

I just got the two Druid subclasses to level 4 and was looking for the differences. What I see is...
Circle of the Land
- Regain spells outside of combat in lieu of resting at level 2
- Wildform is an action

Circle of the Moon
- Gets bear form at level 2
- Gets raven form at level 4
- Wildform is a bonus action (instead of full action like Land)

And that is it. The spells appear to be the same.

Am I missing something here? I realize we are capped at level 4, so there may be more differences at higher levels. Just wanting to know what the differences in BG3 are not at level4.

If what I see is correct, there is really no reason to ever choose Circle of the Land in early access.

[Soft Lockpick]

My impression is it's the opposite. The moon specific forms aren't big deals and land gets you extra spell options that are higher value. Raven might be good enough though.

End of the day you're playing a hybrid. You won't be as good a fighter as the fighter. You won't be as good a wizard as the wizard. You won't be as good a rogue as a rogue. But you can fill the roles in a pinch. So optimize for one and know you can kind of backup fill the others.

Also, in this game specifically there's sides of beef laying all over the place so healing has VERY low value because you can just carry so many consumables even at level 1. Which minimizes the impact of the moon class feature.

[rak22]

Do Land Druids actually get extra spell options in EA? (In pnp, they do starting at level 3.) This would be the only reason that I'd consider taking Circle of the Land over Moon.

The moon-specific forms aren't spectacular, but being able to transform as a bonus action is nice (and better than the extra cantrip/spellslot recovery that the land druids get)

[Streeja]

The land bonus spells open up at level 3 or 4. They are in game. The best one I think is the misty step and mirror image. Getting those both are nice.

[Nogi Everfree]

Well, they gave land druids access to forms they shouldn't have access to until level 8 (direwolf and giant spider), so it is no real surprise that the sub classes seem too similar. They blurred the wildshape distinctions between moon and land by giving land druids the most powerful forms they can ever get in the game. (Land druids cap out at CR 1 beasts at level 8)

Normally, the forms moon druids can take are about 4 times more powerful than anything the land druids can muster. (A dog vs a direwolf... a normal spider vs a giant spider, ect)

They stepped away from this design, and instead created a crippled "exclusive" form for the moon druid. (Seriously... That "polar bear" is weaker than a damn brown bear,,,), and called it good.

[Fistimus Maximus]

Originally posted by rak22:

Do Land Druids actually get extra spell options in EA? (In pnp, they do starting at level 3.) This would be the only reason that I'd consider taking Circle of the Land over Moon.

The moon-specific forms aren't spectacular, but being able to transform as a bonus action is nice (and better than the extra cantrip/spellslot recovery that the land druids get)

you get them as certain levels, so I picked coast and got misty step and mirror image. check dandd beyond you can see the cap stone and spells you will get at later levels.

[Streeja]

So to sum this up, there is currently little difference between the two sub-classes.

If you like to transform, the Circle of Moon has wildform as a bonus action, extra wildforms (bear and raven), and heal in wildform that makes it the best sub-class for that playstyle.

If wildform is not your go to move, then the couple extra spells offered by Circle of Land may be more useful to you.

Slight margin of differences at level 4 at least in BG3 so far.

[dolby]

Originally posted by Streeja:

So to sum this up, there is currently little difference between the two sub-classes.

If you like to transform, the Circle of Moon has wildform as a bonus action, extra wildforms (bear and raven), and heal in wildform that makes it the best sub-class for that playstyle.

If wildform is not your go to move, then the couple extra spells offered by Circle of Land may be more useful to you.

Slight margin of differences at level 4 at least in BG3 so far.

i mean i would be fine with land i guess but scrolls and EA rest totally make it a waste of subclass.

[Hobocop]

I think technically, you could do two-weapon fighting with Shillelagh clubs since clubs are Light weapons.

So that's funny.

Though I guess that depends on if Shillelagh ends automatically if cast on another weapon currently like it's supposed to. Haven't tested it.

[Mosey]

Dual wielding shillelagh is a PITA. It only applies to the main hand weapon so if you want two you gotta juggle weapons and take two turns.

As far as which one is better, Land gets one more Moonbeam but since they can both cast it I'd say they're both great. Bear's can chuck people into a beam and the Land druid moves the beam.

Amazing spell economy and fantastic damage. 2D10 when you hit them with the beam, 2D10 on their turn, so functionally 4D10 damage in an AoE you can move at will.

Pretty darn OP for the content we have.

[R3sistance]

If we get polearm master than that'd achieve a similar effect with Quarterstaff for attacking on bonus action.

And yeah, right now Land druid has forms it really shouldn't have access too. Should just be normal wolf and Giant Wolf Spider instead which are weaker than Direwolf and Giant Spider, as well as being CR appropriate.

[BigAlzBub]

This only applies to the tabletop version of the game, but hey...

The main power of druids of the moon kicks in at higher levels than the game will allow for. Being able to shift into elemental forms (and being able to wild shape at-will at 20th level) is just plain busted. Elemental shifting is extremely harsh if you can multiclass with a single level of Monk or Barbarian which allows you to add a second stat to your armour class (wisdom or constitution respectively) and it makes huge difference, particularly if you can convince your friendly local arcane caster to give you a mage armour spell on top.

That said Circle druids have some really dirty tricks, my personal favourite is summoning stuff, Conjure Animals lets you summon 8 "giant" poisonous snakes that have +6 to hit, do 1d4+4 damage and can deal 3d6 poison damage, the DC to resist is only 10 but “¯\_(ツ)_/¯“
And then there are the Pixies...oh dear god, my DM will never forgive me for the Pixies..
The 4th level summon woodland being spell can summon 8 pixies, pah you say, what can 8 meddling fey do?!? How about turn into a Griffon with 3 attacks per round with +6 to hit, the beak does 1d8+4 and the two claws do 2d6+4, or they can each cast confusion, sleep, entangle or dispel magic. Now I believe this was SO broken that sage advice nerfed the spell and made out that you don't get to pick what you summon, but according to RAW (rules as written) yes, yes you probably do, and if you ever do it, your DM will probably never forgive you either... :p

[Streeja]

Originally posted by Pumis:

Originally posted by Mosey:

Dual wielding shillelagh is a PITA. It only applies to the main hand weapon so if you want two you gotta juggle weapons and take two turns.

As far as which one is better, Land gets one more Moonbeam but since they can both cast it I'd say they're both great. Bear's can chuck people into a beam and the Land druid moves the beam.

Amazing spell economy and fantastic damage. 2D10 when you hit them with the beam, 2D10 on their turn, so functionally 4D10 damage in an AoE you can move at will.

Pretty darn OP for the content we have.

You can't move the beam in BG3. At least I weren't able to. Maybe I missed the option of how.

You can move the bean. After you cast it, an icon for move beam shows up in your hotbar. You move it as a bonus action.

[Mosey]

Originally posted by Streeja:

Originally posted by Pumis:

You can't move the beam in BG3. At least I weren't able to. Maybe I missed the option of how.

You can move the bean. After you cast it, an icon for move beam shows up in your hotbar. You move it as a bonus action.

^ This.

It's an action, but moving the beam doesn't cost another spell slot so you can 'hold' that amazing 2nd level spell for an entire combat.

And you can hide after each beam move to avoid taking any fire, too, if you're smart.

[dolby]

Originally posted by Mosey:

Originally posted by Streeja:

You can move the bean. After you cast it, an icon for move beam shows up in your hotbar. You move it as a bonus action.

^ This.

It's an action, but moving the beam doesn't cost another spell slot so you can 'hold' that amazing 2nd level spell for an entire combat.

And you can hide after each beam move to avoid taking any fire, too, if you're smart.

its cool in small places i like it... but it would be nice if you could use one spell without concentration!!

[Mosey]

Originally posted by dolby:

Originally posted by Mosey:

^ This.

It's an action, but moving the beam doesn't cost another spell slot so you can 'hold' that amazing 2nd level spell for an entire combat.

And you can hide after each beam move to avoid taking any fire, too, if you're smart.

its cool in small places i like it... but it would be nice if you could use one spell without concentration!!

What amuses me are the Wizards that blow a 2nd level spell on wiping out a single goblin, then turn around and say moonbeam is only good in small spaces.

I mean, obviously the wizard is a bad player but with moonbeam I can move the beam around to do 4D10 to anyone the entire combat and that's a 'bad spell' or a 'bad usage' just because they're spread out?

Madness.

Took out the whole goblin city with one 2nd level spell, even though they were spread out.

Go figure.

And as for concentration, what else am I going to throw instead of 4D10? Entangle? Yeah right.