What are y'all putting on your moon druids? (tactician)

[Larco]

Running a short rest party so made Shart a moon druid. Tactician not honour. It's working pretty well; tavern brawler with owlbear/earth, an army of summons and terrain control spells is pretty OP. But... given many of the spells I'm casting don't have saves and most items don't affect her in wildshape, wondering what's good to put on her.

So far my mainstays have been the sentinel shield to make sure she goes first, the haste helm for mobility at the start of combat (the 3 turns of momentum carry over into wildshape) and the armor of moonbasking for the ac and temp hp. What about other stuff though?

Currently filling the rest of her slots with orb stuff - luminous gloves, callous ring, coruscating ring, boots of stormy clamour. If I drop a spike growth she's getting a stack of orbs and a bit of reverb on everyone she hits which seems... ok and the debuff sticks around.

Is there anything better though? I started getting excited about the devotees mace when I realised the 10 turn buff stuck around in wildshape. Until I remembered that stuff like whispering promise and reviving hands/hellriders pride wouldn't ofc work in wildshape...

Has anyone found good combinations that allow you to apply some interesting bonuses? I'm usually just dropping water/fog/spike growth/ sleet at the start of combat depending on whether its ranged/melee/casters and then wildshaping. Just wondering if there's any interesting tricks of the trade I'm missing?

[brendan_in_china]

Not an answer, but I'm watching w interest because I've got Halsin Moon druid in party - and he blows chunks.

[bijsmaak]

It is more logical to have Halsin to be the moon druid. Otherwise there is also another druid J in the game.

[Larco]

Originally posted by bijsmaak:

It is more logical to have Halsin to be the moon druid. Otherwise there is also another druid J in the game.

You're assuming Halsin's alive, well and... still hitting on me. Sadly, he suffered an unfortunate accident :)

[Chaosolous]

There isn't much gear for them until Act 3.

[Larco]

Originally posted by brendan_in_china:

Not an answer, but I'm watching w interest because I've got Halsin Moon druid in party - and he blows chunks.

The key to making them a bit op is tavern brawler if you've not got that. Makes them hit hard in wildshape. And for reasons I don't fully understand it seems to (seriously) buff their spike growth damage. Throw in summons at higher level and it's a pretty strong package. That doesn't compete for gear.

[Spiral90]

So once you have Tavern Brawler, really just stuff to boost AC and Initiative. Most of the good gear that even works with Wild shape only starts popping up in act 3.

If you give the boots of striding on and cast a concentration spell (moonbeam) you can't be moved or knocked prone while concentrating. If you wild shape WHILE concentrating you can maintain the buff even if you lose concentration until you change back. but you can get the same benefit if you cast guidance out of combat and take off the boots before it runs out.

Only other thing is Strength Elixirs persist in wild shape. If you mainly use Owlbear or Earth Myrmidon Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength won't do much, though a Dire Raven or cat with 21 strength is funny. Cloud Giant is what you want which you can start buying at level 9.

[Larco]

Originally posted by Spiral90:

If you give the boots of striding on and cast a concentration spell (moonbeam) you can't be moved or knocked prone while concentrating. If you wild shape WHILE concentrating you can maintain the buff even if you lose concentration until you change back.

Oh, that's a good one. Can't believe I missed that. They even give you an extra turn of momentum for a total of +6m the first turn. Thought I didn't have them as I recruited Minthara but no, they're in inventory. Cheers. On pots, yeah I'm using up pots of hill giant strength if only just for utility (jump and carry weight outside combat). They don't do a whole lot but I went a bit overboard on them. Cough. 70.

[seeker1]

If you're interested in mods, there is a mod called Druid Wildshape Gear.
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/4535

What I like about it is it's all equipment that gives specific bonuses and features to druids in wildshape, and much of it is really in turn best for a wildshape-focused Moon druid. Like Halsin comes by default. (There was a wildshape bug in Unlock Level Curve, but it's been fixed for a while.)

I go back and forth on keeping him a Moon druid. I think it's interesting the way the 2024 rules update Moon druid. It kinda bugs me that the game gives you two druids, so I sometimes make Halsin a shaman, or Jaheira a witch. (When I respec companions, I usually like to choose ones that still fit the nature of the character and their dialogue. Those are mod classes, of course.)

The other option is just to make them different kinds of druids, but I still don't like Circle of the Land, although the Circle of the Land update in 2024 rules makes it a bit more ... interesting. I don't particularly like vanilla Circle of the Spores. Its one and only interesting feature is necromancy on your enemies; to me not interesting enough.

These days, I am inclined to make Halsin a Circle of Thunder druid (new mod that just came out), and Jaheira Circle of the Sea, or Circle of Wildfire. Unfortunately, the toolkit is a bit buggy ATM as to picking druid subclasses. Hope that will be fixed in Patch 8.

[Larco]

Originally posted by seeker1:

If you're interested in mods, there is a mod called Druid Wildshape Gear.
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/4535

Cheers Ill check that out. Probably going to do custom run next (honor but without single save) then play round with some mods. First run I had Jaheira dual wielding the thorn blades as gloom 5, spore 7. It was actually surprisingly good - high initiative, 3 attacks (4 first round) + the reaction attack, lots of damage riders, summons and crowd control - and felt lore friendly. Agree on circle of the lands though - feels like a cut price wizard.

[seeker1]

The 2024 update for Circle of the Land is much better, and I have it from a 2024 Druid update mod which also updates Circle of the Moon, and Circle of Spores (though I'm still not using it), and includes Circle of the Sea. Vanilla Circle of the Land has you constantly picking biomes at each level up point and then getting spells which in many cases you would get as a druid anyway. It's all kind of daft. 2024 Circle of the Land makes more sense; you simply choose one of four biomes, and immediately all the "biome spells" of that biome become available. (There's also other new features.)

[brendan_in_china]

I've read a few guides now and honestly, I'm tempted to respec to Land druid or Hunter ranger.

Could cast Barkskin, quaff Str elixir, respec Tavern brawler (so cheesy), gear him with initiative/momentum items. Or simply bring in hard hitting Lae'zel/Minthara or uber-magicians Shart/Gale.

Land druids I grok. They become a CC caster mixing evoker w cleric + cool flavour. Like em a lot.

Guess if MC was druid from early levels and I knew wild shape forms inside-out, Halsin would be more effective.

Welp, going to P.o. Sleeping slumber Halsin to full spell slots and try Moonrise breakout - without violence. We'll see how well his wild shaping make that happen.

[Larco]

Originally posted by brendan_in_china:

I've read a few guides now and honestly, I'm tempted to respec to Land druid or Hunter ranger. Could cast Barkskin, quaff Str elixir, respec Tavern brawler (so cheesy), gear him with initiative/momentum items. Or simply bring in hard hitting Lae'zel/Minthara or uber-magicians Shart/Gale. Land druids I grok. They become a CC caster mixing evoker w cleric + cool flavour. Like em a lot. Guess if MC was druid from early levels and I knew wild shape forms inside-out, Halsin would be more effective. Welp, going to P.o. Sleeping slumber Halsin to full spell slots and try Moonrise breakout - without violence. We'll see how well his wild shaping make that happen.

I mean, you've got to play the game the way you want. But, let's face it, the whole thing is knee deep in cheese. I remember the days when your character finding a magical sword was a big deal. BG3 throws magical items at you from the get go and some of them are ludicrously OP. It's not to say that's bad, just the way Larian went. But they obviously had to balance the game around that and, in particular, do something to keep classes that can't use magical items on a par with guys that do. Druids using tavern brawler feels low key compared to a lot of the stuff in the game. But, if you're determined not to use it, yeah, a wildshaping druid isn't going to be competitive once warriors are slapping on +damage gloves, getting easy advantage and using GWM to hit stuff with +3 weapons :)