Wild Shape Seem Weak

[Mister Sir]

I been playing a druid on my main character, went for circle of the moon but the more I play that char, the more I realize how much more useful every other character is. Astarion is huge rogue damage dealer, Karlach and Lezael are great and versatile, you get the point. Many of the classes seem just very powerful and I would argue that even other druid subclasses are probably fine.

Here we got circle of the moon though, while I am still lower level in it, just 4, and I am well aware that later on there be owlbear form and other forms if you don't multiclass, how you can attack 3 times a turn, as well as extra hp bar basically when you shapeshift, the issue comes in how little pairs with it.

I can think of several multiclass possibilities for most of the classes, yet hardly anything worth with wild shape druid. Unarmed attacks don't work so can forget the monk passives, magic don't work, action surge don't work, even unarmored defense somehow is really bad with it, You just get your animal stuff and buff cast on you and that is it, nothing really more interesting can you do outside barbarian rage before shapeshift. Worst of all is that half the time I don't even shapeshift cause I wanna save it for harder encounters, in which I then spend half the combat running my bear ass around, trying to get to targets. It got so bad that half through one of the boss fights I just shifted back and became an archer, a bad one at that but better than no cardio bear.

[Naamtar]

Publicado originalmente por #12:

The tavern brawler feat works in wild shape and makes your damage way higher on the high STR animals. You can also cast summon spells and the summon will hang around after you shape shift. You dont even need to wild shape every fight you are still a full caster with lots of good spells.

Tavern Brawler working with wild shape is good to know, that brings considerable strength to the class.

[Texas_Jake]

Moon Druid is a hard sell until after level 5, I can admit that. But once you get the armor from the forge and a couple of other trinkets it really starts to come into its own. I like them because I can start with debuffs, toss out some dmg spells, and then the first time I get hit shift into a bear/owlbear.

At that point it's very hard to down the Druid because of the heals and all the leftover spell slots. Even if they can I will just shift again on the next turn, but by then if I am not close to winning said fight I have made an error.

Are there better classes absolutely but Druid is a lot of fun to play and has a lot of great dialogue specific stuff.

[Mosey]

You can basically ignore anyone that says Druid is a bad class. It's widely viewed as one of the top classes in the game.

They get the most HP you can possibly have. They are mega tank, and when their tank gets beaten they become a caster with some pretty great offensive and defensive spells. I'm looking at Moonbeam and Call Lightning and thinking 'who thinks these are bad?' because they are some of the most efficient damage dealing spells in the game.

If they don't want to burn all their offensive spells, they can summon elemental or nature spirits that tank and lay the smack down. Their pets are legion.

Seriously, the people who think Druid under performs are people who just aren't smart enough to take advantage of their massive amount of powerful abilities. They start off kind of 'meh' but quickly become one of the most powerful classes in the game.

All that being said, the shape changes are not damage dealing powerhouses outside perhaps the Owlbear. Moon Druids get more utility out of those shapes but Moon is largely wasted effort compared to Land getting spell recovery comparable to a Wizard.

Personally, my go-to as a Moon Druid is to summon a mini army then I turn into an Owlbear with a few self-buff spells running. Freedom of Movement, Barkskin, heck even just Resistance if you're running low on slots.

I do want to say that I think some of the shapes, like say Panther, could really use a small tweak where their abilities count as a standard attack so they can actually chain their attacks better. Their leap knockdown counting as a spell instead of an attack is...not great. You will never be able to take advantage of their prone status yourself and their big attack relies on them being prone. That was a disappointment for me.

[Moffin Bovin]

Publicado originalmente por Naamtar:

Publicado originalmente por #12:

The tavern brawler feat works in wild shape and makes your damage way higher on the high STR animals. You can also cast summon spells and the summon will hang around after you shape shift. You dont even need to wild shape every fight you are still a full caster with lots of good spells.

Tavern Brawler working with wild shape is good to know, that brings considerable strength to the class.

i don't think that's good value. out of wild shape its a total waste. Shillegagh is giving you your wisdom on attacks and damage so the +1 to str is wasted (although i guess you could take con instead). even in wild shape its not that much extra damage and the +1 str is again completely wasted. You aren't going to be an owlbear all the time.

[Hobocop]

Publicado originalmente por Moffin Bovin:

Publicado originalmente por Naamtar:

Tavern Brawler working with wild shape is good to know, that brings considerable strength to the class.

i don't think that's good value. out of wild shape its a total waste. Shillegagh is giving you your wisdom on attacks and damage so the +1 to str is wasted (although i guess you could take con instead). even in wild shape its not that much extra damage and the +1 str is again completely wasted. You aren't going to be an owlbear all the time.

For owlbear, it's +5 to-hit AND damage per attack. That's quite a lot for one feat if you're using wild shape in combat with any regularity.

[Mosey]

Publicado originalmente por Moffin Bovin:

Publicado originalmente por Naamtar:

Tavern Brawler working with wild shape is good to know, that brings considerable strength to the class.

i don't think that's good value. out of wild shape its a total waste. Shillegagh is giving you your wisdom on attacks and damage so the +1 to str is wasted (although i guess you could take con instead). even in wild shape its not that much extra damage and the +1 str is again completely wasted. You aren't going to be an owlbear all the time.

It is good value if you spend most of your time as an owlbear.

It's bad if you use any shape without strength, since it literally applies your negative to STR twice making you objectively worse any time your strength is low.

This includes your natural state, so be careful with Tavern Brawler. It can actually make you worse depending on what you're using.

[Fast]

Publicado originalmente por Mister Sir:

Publicado originalmente por Fast:

Druid is categorically the most garbage class in the game by a margin...no one thinks this class is good.... It is not multiclass friendly, its a wisdom class (ooofff not as bad as intel but the next worst thing in BG3), it does literally nothing as good as any other class, it has bad item choices, wild shapes are limited to wild shape stats, which are really bad btw. And the spell list is kinda poor.

Just play another class unless you are RP.

Huh so I am not crazy after all, and it does feels poopy. I would suck having to swap mid act 1 into something else, even would feel weird. I wonder about going circle of the spores instead maybe.

just swap to something even slightly better, ranger is exceedingly mid, but multiclass friendly, has some good damage, and reasonably good gear tbh.
They are no fighter or paladin but they are good and still ...nature-ish.
if you want a caster, pick literally any other caster...

[The Bunny In the Bush]

Publicado originalmente por Mosey:

Publicado originalmente por Moffin Bovin:

i don't think that's good value. out of wild shape its a total waste. Shillegagh is giving you your wisdom on attacks and damage so the +1 to str is wasted (although i guess you could take con instead). even in wild shape its not that much extra damage and the +1 str is again completely wasted. You aren't going to be an owlbear all the time.

It is good value if you spend most of your time as an owlbear.

It's bad if you use any shape without strength, since it literally applies your negative to STR twice making you objectively worse any time your strength is low.

This includes your natural state, so be careful with Tavern Brawler. It can actually make you worse depending on what you're using.

Depends, if you manage to get the Club of Hill giants, it can be kinda funny, perticularly if your a gnome with all points in wisdom, intelligence and charisma for saves during wildshape

[Dragon Master]

Playing a druid myself I'd argue that druids are among the most powerful classes in the game, but also one of the most complicated. You have to know how to play them to make the most of them.

So, wildshape is really only REALLY good if you're Circle of the Moon. Your HP pool while wildshaped is completely different than your health, so you can have an extra 160+ health per short rest (owlbear form) and it only takes a bonus action for Circle of Moon to wildshape, and their attacks at that point become magical in nature whereas the Circle of Land and Circle of Spores do not.

Your forms also get more hp as you level up so you don't outlevel what you wildshape as, and as an example being a spider who can web enemies and poison them can be huge. If an enemy is poisoned they have disadvantage on all ability checks and attacks. You can be one of the only people who can make enemies attack you instead of other party members as a bear, you can regenerate health as a sabertooth tiger, you can avoid all fall damage as an owlbear so jumping from high up as part of its leap attack lets you do massive damage, someone found a way to do upwards of 1000 damage using the owlbear form.

Moon druids, as a result, are some of the best tanks in the game. Get Gale to cast haste on you while wild-shaped and you'll be putting out some really good damage. You can also use a bonus action to heal yourself using your spell slots.

If you choose to play a moon druid you don't really need to focus too much on your physical attributes (strength, dexterity and constitution) because it will all be replaced by the shape you take

****

Druids are one of those classes where, depending on the subclass you choose it changes your entire playstyle. So you absolutely need to know what you're doing.

[Fast]

Moon druid considered the worst subclass in the game, the other 2 are not far behind.

They dont get very good items, they have barely any dialogue interactions, they dont have the greatest stat pool, and sadly their spells list is not on the same level as cleric, bard, sorc,wiz,warlock, or even paladin tbh..

Its saddening cause I like druids on the TT but they suck in BG3.

[TazManIam2]

My character is a straight, Druid, wood elf, spell sword. He isn't as great a fighter as Karlach or Lazel. He doesn't have Eldritch blast like Wyl. But I don't need a second Wyl. (Actually, I should start leaving him in camp with Astarion and Halsin. I don't like any of their dialog. Maybe I will get Eldritch blast for my character at next opportunity and leave the weak warlock behind. He still uses too many Revivify). La'Zel hasn't been out of camp for too long.

Spike Growth is very useful against those who don't jump. Equiping Swordmaster gloves, Sword of Justice, and Bow of the Banshee work pretty well for me. I had a lot of trouble with Wyl and Shadowheart getting killed, but have leveled and equipped them now to where they can hang in there. Actually, Shadowheart is a little something like a queen on a chessboard, now. She has great movement, dual wielding, healer, and some bow skills. She is also hard to kill now. Equipment makes a big difference.

[Mosey]

Publicado originalmente por The Bunny In the Bush:

Publicado originalmente por Mosey:

It is good value if you spend most of your time as an owlbear.

It's bad if you use any shape without strength, since it literally applies your negative to STR twice making you objectively worse any time your strength is low.

This includes your natural state, so be careful with Tavern Brawler. It can actually make you worse depending on what you're using.

Depends, if you manage to get the Club of Hill giants, it can be kinda funny, perticularly if your a gnome with all points in wisdom, intelligence and charisma for saves during wildshape

I'm pretty sure the club doesn't translate onto shape changes, but yeah that's not a bad option if you aren't shape changed. They upped the STR to 19 from 15 making it much more attractive.

You'll still take big negatives to hit and damage as a shape without STR though, which seems like a bug to me. It doesn't just double positive values, it also doubles negative values.

[Chaosolous]

Druids can be outclassed by most every other class.

The only thing is, those classes aren’t Druids… so the other classes kind of lose in that regard.

I’ve been having a blast with my moon Druid. To each there own. I play for fun, not min maxing.

If you’re a min maxer then don’t Druid. You’ll be sad.

[Edstyles]

Found the shapeshifts you get at later levels to be quite good. THe myrmidons seem pretty decent. Are they strong enough to compete with other classes? prolly no but its still ok . the utility provided by the different summons and shapes make up for the lack of power.

[Ephemerant]

Circle of the Moon is great. You get better Wild Shapes, can Wild Shape as a Bonus Action, and can use Spell Slots while wildshaped to heal yourself. Plus at later levels you you can turn into elementals

As a Moon Druid, Wildshape should be your most used ability. So pretty much exclusively use Bear until you get Owlbear, run at the enemy, and pair it with another melee and two ranged. Wildshape refreshes on Short Rest.

But that doesn't mean you can't cast spells, you just shouldn't make it your priority. If you wanted casting spells to be the focus, Circle of the Land would have been better.