Spore druids - Are they any good?

[Quadsword]

I've never done a playthrough with Halsin as a mainstay in my party, but I want to try something a little different. After seeing how disappointing Moon Druid was as a subclass (literally zero gear options until act 3, and even then you only get like 2 items) and how Land Druid is just a wish.com cleric, how does Spore Druid hold up?

[Aerohank]

It's not very good.

[Mander]

Spore Druid is among the best classes in the game, with the caveat that is a druid focused on Area Denial and DoT damage especially (at least in the beginning). Therefore, is a class for clever terrain manipulators, but is also capable of being min-maxed to death and beyond (thanks mainly to symbiotic entity).
At level cap (and with dedicated equipment), a spore druid is a duellist, a tank (8xspore druid level temporary life points), a AoE/ area denial caster (wall of fire, heat metal, insect plague…) and a direct damage caster (thanks mainly to haste spore + sunbeam, which can be casted twice per turn).
And if you really need to fck ♥♥♥♥ up, just raise them all: fungal zombies, nymphs… you can build a meat wall and shoot arrows with impunity.

[DontMisunderstand]

Spore Druid is insane. Slap a weapon into both hands and go to town. Even up to level 9 my Spore Druid is still outpacing the damage output of both my Fighter and my Paladin, while being the tankier than the rest of the party combined, and having a better spell list than the Wizard.

[Lily]

Druid is one of the strongest classes in the game if you understand what they're good at. Moon Druid is decent at attacking, but what makes druid strong is its spell selection with powerful options for each tier.

Great Spells for each Spell level:

Spell level 1. Fog Cloud, Create or Destroy Water, Healing Word, Enhanced Leap, Longstrider, Entanble, Thunder wave.
Spell level 2. Hold Person, Moon Beam, Flaming Sphere, Spike Growth.
Spell Level 3. Call Lightning, Plantgrowth, Sleet Storm
Spell Level 4. Confusion, Ice Storm, Conjure Minor Elemental, Conjure Woodland Being, Wall of Fire, Freedom of Movement
Spell Level 5. Conjure Elemental, Insect Plague, Wall of Stone
Spell Level 6. Heal, Wall of Thorns, Heroe's Feast, Sunbeam

Good Spells but more situational:

Spell Level 1. Faerie fire, Speak with animals and some would argue Ice knife
Spell Level 2. Darkvision, Lesser Restoration, Enhance ability, Protection from Poison, Gust of wind, Heat Metal, Pass without trace.
Spell Level 3. Daylight
Spell Level 4. Blight
Spell Level 5. Greater Restoration, Mass Cure wounds

Great unique spells druid doesn't normally get through Circle of Land:

Spell level 2. Misty Step, Silence, Invisibility, Darkness, Web.
Spell Level 3. Haste, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bold.
Spell level 4. Greater Invisibility
Spell Level 5. Cone of Cold, Cloud Kill.

Druid is all about the spells and Land gets more diverse spells based on your choice of which land type you choose on each level up. Along with spell slot recovery and a few other Key features Land is the best of the druids up until act 3. Land gets Landstrider which makes them immune to difficult terrain although not to slipping on ice or grease or getting ensnared with web or black tentacle. But you are immune to spike growth damage and its slow down.

Land also gets immunity to poison later on meaning you can just hang out in your own cloud kill while in wildshape or have an ally cast it on you while in melee.

But lets move on to Spores. How does spores compare to land?

Well spores has the strong spell list of the druid and they get their own circle spells even if they're not as flexible. For starters Spores druid gets access to Bone Chill, a solid ranged cantrip which is one of druid's main weaknesses. They have poor ranged options. Spores also gives bonus necrotic damage on weapon attacks so just getting a little bit of extra damage can be nice while you focus on being a primary caster. A Drow works wonders here getting access to twin crossbows giving you something to do with your bonus action until later in the game.

The ability to animate quite a bit of undead is fairly strong. Druid is already one of the best summoners in the game and Spores druid pushes that up to top 2. With animate dead and fungle infestation your undead actually combo well with one of your circle spells, Cloud kill, since they're immune to poison allowing you to send most your summons into your death cloud and causing further problems.

You get a lot of AoE damage with spreading spores which makes them quite good at just chipping enemies away and combine that with air or water myrmidon along with create water and you can dish out a lot of damage without risking any of your party.

The flaw with the summoner play style is just how much micromanagement there is. It can be tedious to play and the summons aren't always bulky enough to justify their use. A few are absolutely worth their salt, like the Upcast animate dead, Upcast conjure elemental,, Conjure woodland being, but the Spore summons and the lesser ice elementals require a bit of work to make useful later in the game.

Some items you should consider are obviously the necromancy items but also Phalar Aluv which can add a lot of extra damage from your summons. Another thing is the Spores unique Armor you get from Carrion allows you to bonus action cast haste spores which is one of the strongest support abilities you can get in the game.

If I was to rank the Spores druid against most the classes I'd say its superior to most other classes but when compared to the other 2 druids I'd say spores is worse than Land up until act 3 and better than Moon Druid. This includes the assumption you're using tavern brawler with Moon or land. I still Think Spores is better than moon even in this case.

[Mander]

Publicado originalmente por DontMisunderstand:

Spore Druid is insane. Slap a weapon into both hands and go to town. Even up to level 9 my Spore Druid is still outpacing the damage output of both my Fighter and my Paladin, while being the tankier than the rest of the party combined, and having a better spell list than the Wizard.

Have you also built the 8/16/23/17/20/18 with ambusher, sussur dagger and caustic band (+ bonespike gauntlets in act III and spore druid armour)?
It's insane. God of the Verdant Abyss level of insane.

[DontMisunderstand]

Publicado originalmente por Mander:

Publicado originalmente por DontMisunderstand:

Spore Druid is insane. Slap a weapon into both hands and go to town. Even up to level 9 my Spore Druid is still outpacing the damage output of both my Fighter and my Paladin, while being the tankier than the rest of the party combined, and having a better spell list than the Wizard.

Have you also built the 8/16/23/17/20/18 with ambusher, sussur dagger and caustic band (+ bonespike gauntlets in act III and spore druid armour)?
It's insane. God of the Verdant Abyss level of insane.

Nah. I've got the caustic band for extra acid damage on each attack, but I'm just using the Adamantine medium armor. Off-hand the club of hill giant strength for a tiny bit more damage output, knife of the undermountain king in the main hand. Picked up Savage Attacker as my first feat. And that's genuinely all it took to keep pace with my Great Weapon Master Fighter.

[Lord Farquad]

Spore zombies are not that great. Just go for necromancer or moon druid.

[Mander]

Publicado originalmente por Lord Cumquad:

Spore zombies are not that great. Just go for necromancer or moon druid.

Partial correction: spore druid has a quantity over quality approach to summoning undead.
It’s a style that can be augmented with specific loot, but it’s not necessarily the ace in the sleeves of a spore druid. Spore Druid aren’t pets summoner as strong as a necromancer (who have a quality over quantity approach), true, but Spore Druid niche isn’t summoning anyway.
Can they be played as? Certainly, but you’re skipping out on what spore druid do better: AoE, Area Denial, DoT damage as a caster, duelling and tank as a fighter (especially if you discard charisma).
Spore Druids are terrain manipulators and builders of chokepoints, with the potential to stay in the trenches they dug and kill everything that comes their way.
You need to be clever and play a little like a chess master to properly perform though.
An example from my spore druid playthrough: Auntie Ethel, met too early to fight her in melee.
As a Spore Druid, I casted Spike Growth under her and added Silence from Shadowheart.
Auntie Ethel proceeded to die by walking trying to escape the trap, incapable of doing anything. Add Karlach and Lae’Zel to push her back in the centre of the growth during their turn and you literally don’t need to hit her once.
Or any stupid combos of plant growth (no concentration required)+ AoE damage (insect plague). They can’t even reach you before dying…
Heat metal (made a mockery of Thorm), wall of fire… moonbeam… sunbeam!
Spore Druid is really great.

[Chaosolous]

They’re alright. Like a tanky necromancer.

[Pimpin Pippin]

So druid is a class for when you already know the game inside out and you want to dump on some bosses with some masochistic overly complicated tactics.

There is no genuine practical reason to take a druid over other classes when you consider how much extra effort and knowledge you gotta put into making a druid work compared to making a simplistic sorcerer or cleric work.

But druids do have some neat spells and other features that, frankly, can easily hurt you as much as they can hurt the enemy.
And you gotta know exactly when and where to use these spells/features and against who and how.

Druid forms get almost zero benefit from high quality gear (thanks for that design...) and their subclasses are... flavorful but lacking in power compared to the raw simplistic power other spellcaster subclasses bring.

For Spore druids perhaps wait for level 6 before you respec into Spores for the Fungal Infestation ability, it at least enables you to play as a somewhat fun zombie druid - before that its really boring.

Be warned that, for some reason, Spores druid has counter-synergy with Wild Shape - you will burn your charges of Wild Shape by using your subclass which is a really god-darn awful design.

[Mander]

Publicado originalmente por Pimpin Pippin:

So druid is a class for when you already know the game inside out and you want to dump on some bosses with some masochistic overly complicated tactics.

There is no genuine practical reason to take a druid over other classes when you consider how much extra effort and knowledge you gotta put into making a druid work compared to making a simplistic sorcerer or cleric work.

But druids do have some neat spells and other features that, frankly, can easily hurt you as much as they can hurt the enemy.
And you gotta know exactly when and where to use these spells/features and against who and how.

Druid forms get almost zero benefit from high quality gear (thanks for that design...) and their subclasses are... flavorful but lacking in power compared to the raw simplistic power other spellcaster subclasses bring.

For Spore druids perhaps wait for level 6 before you respec into Spores for the Fungal Infestation ability, it at least enables you to play as a somewhat fun zombie druid - before that its really boring.

Be warned that, for some reason, Spores druid has counter-synergy with Wild Shape - you will burn your charges of Wild Shape by using your subclass which is a really god-darn awful design.

I respectfully disagree.
Planning chokepoints and funnelling enemies in your area denial spells, is hardly a hassle. It’s just planning after all. 😊
I mean… building a firewall inside a chokepoint, therefore guaranteeing that enemies will take maximum damage for every moment spent trying to reach me, is hardly… a difficult concept to grasp, methink?
Sure, it’s less immediate than an evoker going fireball or another AoE, but so what? In 2 turns, the damage output will be the same, more o less.
Again, haste spore + sunbeam or any AoE spells is ridiculous for annihilating multiple opponents per turn. And with a little bit of cleverness, devilish schemes can be performed…
Zombie galore is an option, sure, but it’s the lesser choice: symbiotic entity is there to keep you alive and it makes you a tank with an attack as bonus action. I personally wouldn’t waste it on raising subpar zombies (but it is still possible to make them works, if you really want it, especially with some combos of races and gears).

[DontMisunderstand]

Publicado originalmente por Pimpin Pippin:

So druid is a class for when you already know the game inside out and you want to dump on some bosses with some masochistic overly complicated tactics.

There is no genuine practical reason to take a druid over other classes when you consider how much extra effort and knowledge you gotta put into making a druid work compared to making a simplistic sorcerer or cleric work.

But druids do have some neat spells and other features that, frankly, can easily hurt you as much as they can hurt the enemy.
And you gotta know exactly when and where to use these spells/features and against who and how.

Druid forms get almost zero benefit from high quality gear (thanks for that design...) and their subclasses are... flavorful but lacking in power compared to the raw simplistic power other spellcaster subclasses bring.

For Spore druids perhaps wait for level 6 before you respec into Spores for the Fungal Infestation ability, it at least enables you to play as a somewhat fun zombie druid - before that its really boring.

Be warned that, for some reason, Spores druid has counter-synergy with Wild Shape - you will burn your charges of Wild Shape by using your subclass which is a really god-darn awful design.

Symbiotic Entity does the main thing that Wild Shape is for without the drawback of cutting off your spellcasting. It doesn't have quite as much hp as the wildshapes, but it genuinely doesn't need to. You'll go through an entire max difficulty playthrough without even being knocked out in battle without that much effort. It's not exactly counter-synergy, but rather a better way to use the class resources. In exactly the same way that the Sorcerer can trade spell slots for more Sorcery Points, it just gives more options.

[cookie]

i make two moons (jahiera and halsim )- that turn into 4 myrmidons teleporting wherever they want and dealing massive water and ice damage - use fire when needed but the hiemal strike is powerful

[Humpenstilzchen]

It´s very good if you know what you are doing. Almost a bit op.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Pretty terrible class. Gets half decent in chapte 3.