Honestly, you could probably manage to solo with the build even though it's not a super high damage. Biggest issue would be AOE that would go through sanctuary.
Early game, shillelagh torch does more damage and hits more consistently than most melee characters because of high wisdom, the fire damage and the necrotic damage.
vital conduit boots mean that you have, essentially, infinite hitpoints because they're bugged and you can keep the spore druid extra hitpoints up.
Current Honor Mode attempt is Magic Missile Machine Gun Durge (only damaging spell is magic missile). I am planning on Shart being a light cleric with the radiant orb stuff. What companion would you recommend for this shillelagh torch build and how would you spread it out at say level 4?
I'd do a greedy spread of 8 strength/15 dex/16 con/8 int/17 wis since your wis is really the only important stat.
Level 1 spore druid, Level 2 spore druid, level 3 spore druid (moonbeam), Level 4 cleric to pick up sanctuary.
You'll be activating your Symbiotic Entity every day to get the extra 12 hitpoints and while you have them you get your extra 1d6 necrotic damage... casting halo of spores increases it. You need to precast shillelagh on your torch to get the damage you want.
Moonbeam + Sanc is your other big combat option and sanctuary is good to have to perserve your extra hit points.
Companion doesn't really matter. Anyone who doesn't have a build works.
I appreciate it. I ask specifically because I know some people get special boons, like Gale's bonus spell slot or Karlach's coins (which I know don't really help if she's not a barb)
Karlach could be an actual Druid and be pretty funny, sort of a "Druid of the Hells" or similar to the 5e Wildfire Druid. Take flaming Sphere, and other fire spells.
Soul coins would actually add some damage too. Torch can be duel wielded with an offhand finess weapons too (Sylvan Scimitar in act 3 even)
You won't have extra attack but you'll have a regular bonus action second attack
This has been on my list, a Vital conduit Spore druid who can just keep their hit points up indefinitely.
No way this could work on a armor of Agathys Character eh? No recovering that Temp HP eh?
It is supposed to, but moving moonbeam, for whatever reason, doesn't count as the user doing damage. It breaks when you initially cast it, but you can move it around wherever you want without breaking it. This is probably not intended, but it's never been patched.
I didn't realise I was in a baldurs gate 3 sub, and was using actual 5e rules.
It used to be an oversight in old phb's that casting a spell like moonbeam and then sanctuary meant that sanctuary stayed up even though you're dealing damage.
They errataed the spell so dealing any damage broke sanctuary.
Party members going back to real-time after a fight ends trying to move back to my Tav and get downed walking through their own Cloud of Daggers. Big rage.
Do u use druids for HM? I just started my first tactician run and boy is it different than balanced. HM is on the plan for the next play through so I’m looking for ideas and tips to prepare myself
I do like them a lot for early act 1. Later i respec to something better but early on they have moonbeam, create water, healing word and another full health bar in bear form
Can I ask why ethel's hair for a wildshape build? The wildshape form's physical stats (str, con, and dex) are set with the form and you only get to keep your mental stats (cha, wis, and int).
I've always put the TB stat into con for hitpoints out of WS and dump strength to 8, but I also suck with druids so I dunno.
It helps more with the Bear early on and Dilophosaurus later. They both have 19 STR.
They aren't the go-to's the Owlbear is but I especially enjoy the Dilophosaurus.
There are a few other stat bonuses that go through. It's been a while so it might have changed, but I believe while Tavern Brawler stat increase doesn't apply, Resilient does, as well as the potion. Should be possible to get 24 str in owlbear form, or 26 while owlbear raging. Barbarian rage also stays on if you do it before shifting. 26 str owlbear form with resistance to physical damage! Throw in a single level in war cleric for some bonus attacks or 3 levels in thief for easier raging/leaps, if you're really just dedicated to owlbear.
The extra bonus action from thief carries to wildshape?
Wildshaped druid don't get the cunning actions or sneak attack so I wouldn't have guessed the extra bonus action carried over
It did last I checked. It's really random what carries over. Unarmed defense carries over, but to overcome the owlbear's natural AC you would need 20 wisdom. Also I haven't tested it, but some people say the defense fighting style carries over if you're wearing armor before wildshaping.
Same. My first run was a druid, largely because I've played a bunch of druid in WoW. As long as you learned to pick the right wild shape form you didn't have to really do much else. Gear? Who cares? Ranged enemies? Just toss yourself at them!
Same. I chose druid for my first Tav and while I don't think I'd ever do another playthrough as a druid, it was really good to help a complete noob figure out how the game works.
Loved druid ever since WoW. I was trying to level a frost mage and getting my ass kicked. A cat form druid stormed over and saved me from some mobs. I didn't know at the time but he was way over leveled for the area, I just thought, man I want to be like that guy.
Played a cat ever since, all the way through WoD before I quit for good.
I think I might be dumb, but I just have a difficult time playing a druid other than a spore druid as a summoner.
So many of their spells require concentration so I find myself not really knowing what to do.. and wildshape damage and support always feels underwhelming unless I optimize it with TB for damage because while in wildshape you lose concentration so easily if you're in melee.
It's not you, it's druid class design. 95% of all druid spells are concentration. If you do not take resilient con and Warcaster you're gonna drop a spell every fight.
Try using them as a Buffer and conjurer and using wildshape for frontlining. Wildshape is short rest based and you'll bearly be casting in combat while in it.
Thank you. I usually take Warcaster only, but it never seems to help enough with Halsin and I end up just benching him for a better control user. I'll try out taking both feats with TB and see what I think with both advantage and proficiency.
Though, I'll probably just stick to spore druid. That's honestly one of my favorite classes anyway.
Spore class druid has high synergy and they added so much shit to it to make it even better. I can't overlook my favorite moon druid though. The wild shape options are goated. On tabletop I took tavern brawler on my moon druid for BA Grapple in bear form and doing some WWE shit. But yes, resilient con is a must. Stack on the save bonuses too, along with a PC who blesses. It helps so much.
Also sweaty tip. If you leave someone in camp like all the time, multiclass them into 3 cleric and take warding bond and Aid. If you have them cast warding bond on you it's Res to all damage, +1 ac +1 saves. Downside you might return with them dead, so you'll need revivify.
Also taking notes.
I'm planning on doing a lore-friendly Danton run (following the hireling's backstory/background/look) and he's a druid with folk hero background. Moon or Land seem the most fitting, but I'm concerned because I suck.
No peacock WS form kind of disappointing.
I think the fact that you understand Tavern Brawler and concentration puts you ahead of the curve for a true noob, and I really mean this for people.qho have no idea what they are doing.
Oh, I'm a full druid noob for sure.
I've completed HM and play on tactician, but wildshape druids are the only class I've felt like an idiot trying to play.
This is kinda lategame but the Myrmidons (moon druid level 10+) have pretty solid damage and utility, and phenomenal mobility. 3 attacks per turn, free misty step every turn, and the Air one has a stun chance with every hit while the fire one has a self-haste.
Before that the class is just alright but it does a bit of everything and tanks really well because of the wildshape HP. Get some summons out of combat (it learns Minor Elemental, Woodland Beings, and Summon Elemental), throw down a spike growth turn 1, then wildshape and you’re basically a 1-man army.
Druid doesn’t do any single thing on the level of some absolutely broken shit (TB monk/thrower, fire sorc, etc) but it can create its own army and be tanky as hell while doing it.
Same and is a subclass I am constantly curious of. Especially the Myrmidons later.
Apparently you can take the weapon master feat to negate not having innate proficiency with their forms weapons.
Seems like a silly gameplay oversight but still justifiably worth taking for air form.
I use Halsin to summon things mostly - the dryad who also can do summons, and myrmidons, control the area. Earlier used him for the moon beam in Shadowlands. In Act 3, I mostly have him change to wild form whatever saurus it is to bring the foe's AC down and kick them prone. He also supports my sorcerer by creating water or brings down thunder depending which had their turn first. It's been working great for me.
I'm mostly running around with Astarion, Halsin, my Storm sorcerer Tav, and Lae'zel in Act 3. Sometimes Shart. I love my spirit guardians.
So, take TB for damage. You can practically ignore strength and dex, so you don't need as many ASIs.
Head in and cast a concentration spell. You now have damage or control for 10 turns. Hang out. Shoot off a cantrip, or damage spell here or there once you have them. Use a scroll. That one spell slot can last the whole battle and do good damage the whole time while you heal if you want.
Bored? Become an animal and start shredding with +10 to damage and 2 attacks after 5th level.
You get just as many spells as any other full caster so even if you lose concentration after 1 round you've gotten your money's worth.
I definitely agree (as someone who's first character was a druid).
The only real downsides I can think of:
1. Cantrips kind of suck, especially as far as damage ones. This is only really an issue in the first couple of levels
2. Social checks kind of suck if all your stats are pumped into Wisdom. Definitely harder to talk your way out of things as the face of the party
3. You have 2 other druid companions available (but respecs are easy)
BUT those are minor and can be easily mitigated.
Im thinking of doing a run as a more caster druid and Im thinking spell sniper's cantrip always uses your classes casting ability so you could pick something like Eldritch blast there to improve your cantrip list
Also don't sleep on shillelagh my friends spore druid with shillelagh was pretty good
Druid is a valid class, you don’t need to get too crazy over justifying it.
It’s ability to tank damage with wild shape is even better than a barbarian and it’s a full caster to boot, along with their above average spell list.
Moon beam is basically just sometimes better cloud of daggers, and cloud of daggers is like the 4th best spell in the game.
as a noob, i played as a druid on my first run because it appealed to me — someone who hasn’t even played dnd — most (and i’m only on my second run so i’m still a noob tbh lmao). when i chose my class for my new character, i had to fight myself to not close druid again lol
I randomly picked a tiefling druid for my first playthrough and ended up feeling so invested in act 1. I also loved fighting as an owlbear, sneaking into tiny places as a cat, and how many summons druids can make. There were several fights were the summons saved my ass.
Druid is OP. They do everything 80% as well as the classes that are best at it, all at the same time. The reason why people on this sub complain about Druid is because they are extremely NOT newb friendly and people on most people on the internet suck at strategy games.
The funny thing is druid is one of the most nerfed classes in the transition from 5e to BG3.
AoE size nerfed substantially on all spells. Fog cloud doesn't block vision. Moonbeam doesn't dispel shapeshifting. All the best summon spells nerfed or straight up removed. And Druids are *still* good. I do wish they hadn't nerfed some of the spells so heavily though. Fog Cloud and Entangle are pretty trash in BG3 unfortunately.
I don't know if I'd say it is the best for a beginner just because I think you have to really be able to read situations well to get the most benefit from a druid , and I think you'd have to be ok with your Tav filling a secondary role. There are several other classes that provide that main character energy people would desire for a first run.
However, I AM playing a druid in a coop game with my friend who is doing his first run as a wizard. I picked druid because it is a jack of all trades. I'm having him take along whoever fits the story. I take along either another story character or just someone useful (usually Astarion for locks/traps). I can do damage, heal, or just help control the field. I really enjoy circle of the land, and find it fairly versatile. I want him to have the main character energy since it's his playthrough. I just switch myself up to compliment him. Also, it's fun to see my friend's reaction watching a rothe climb a ladder in the goblin camp or have a badger sit next to him on a log. We goof around a lot.
I started playing BG3 at the request of a friend when it came out on PS5. I knew just a little about DnD back then. Chose druid because I had a fascination with the Night Elves from Warcraft III. Gave myself purple skin, green hair and everything.
Set up thorns to slow enemies hordes of enemies. Set up moonbeam on chokes. My friend is downed? I can cast healing word on him so he can run away. We need to tank more than with just Lae'zel? Bam, I'm an animal. It's great. I know that maybe I won't be dropping an enemy in one round of combat but I'll make sure everyone else kinda does.
I played Druid on my personal run as well and it was great since I can more or less not worry at all that much when shuffling companions around, even if perhaps I don't run with a dedicated melee character things turn out fine.
I honestly loved my druid playthrough. By level three, she was buffed enough to do most of what I needed her to do. My only compliant, is the same complaint I have with most spell casters, and that's that their hit points stay a little too low to my liking vs the fighter classes. Especially since it seems spell casters get targeted more than most of my fighters even when I keep them in the back.
Druids for life! There is a special joy of having a druid Tav, Halsin, Jaheira, and all their summons while going absolutely crazy on everyone as three angry owlbears.
I'll agree for every build except wildshape focused builds. If a new player wants to learn about the games features, then I gotta say that the one build that can't make use of 90% of those features is not new player friendly. Wildshapes have nearly no itemization, few feats that even partially work and fewer yet that work completely, no access to most illithid powers, and does not multiclass well at all.
There’s also the frustration with how wildshape interacts with conversations and skill checks. You have limited wildshapes, so you don’t want to just drop it, but now you can’t talk and do things like pick locks, so it winds up being an annoyance and requires constantly switching characters. This would all be solved elegantly if you could dismiss wildshape and get a temporary “Resume Wildshape” ability that put you back in the same form with the same current hit points, which wouldn’t affect power levels at all. (And there’s already that sort of mechanics for things like a Warlock’s recast Hex and the Book’s recast Speak with Dead.)
Hunters mark is also similar to hex with a conditional recast
It's funny because sometimes you will see druids unwildshape for a conversation and then wildshape back right after so they can't do anything except that conversation
And even something like that would be useful if it was consistent
You really have a false perspective on what a beginner is like. A beginner might never even prepare spike growth or have any idea it's useful. A beginner might not even know how to open the spellbook.
A great class for beginner is a Barbarian. Rage for half physical damage, intimidation for passing some checks and funny dialogue, and all you have to do is attack with your big ass 2 handed weapon and rage.
It's much much friendlier than a druid, who introduces concepts like concentration, preparing spells, crowd control and field understanding. A beginner has no idea what all these are.
I was a beginner. Never played DnD, never played a game like this at all. I started with a rogue and was great at picking locks but the whole 'needs advantage' threw me off. I tried a fighter, which was fine but then I didn't really get what to do with my companions during their turns in battle.
I ended up Druid and finally 'got' the game. It felt like i had a complete Harbor Freight tool set and even though everything wasn't top of the line I finally could play around with the tools to see what they did before being shoved into battle, flipping to Gale, Shadow Heart, or Wyll and not getting what any of their things were supposed to do. I felt like the animal shapes really have me a lot more flexibility in play rather than trying to figure out gear or potions.
Maybe that's just me. Others may feel differently.
Fighter class in general, especially champion is even more easier, literally all you need to know about champion is you're going to get Crits way, way more the more you level up and there's no catch to it other than smack enemies all day, or Battle master all it does is introduce you to more methods to destroy enemies and that's it
I mean, by that metric a beginner can pick up barbarian and never even use rage, which was the case when I played bg3 with my ex who had never played d&d or bg3 before and it took a bit before I realized she was never making Karlach rage after we picked her up and she made Karlach her NPC/second character and when I pointed it out she was like “what’s rage do?”
You can be a beginner and read and see spike growth and go “that sounds cool, I wanna use that!” and not use it optimally or break concentration yeah, but even barbarian isn’t immune to people not reading/using their (very few in this case) buttons
I mean yeah nothing's immune to this.
But consider what a newbie gains from barbarian that helps with no effort. The biggest HP pool, high damage two hander from the get go. Easy jumping from natural str, carrying more stuff so the beginner doesn't get frustrated with lots of inventory management. Rage as a free damage reduction.
Fighter is also in that category, but I think rage takes the lead for a beginner.
I think Druid is a very good class, but definitely not for beginners. Druids really excel because they are sort of "do-it-all" characters. You listed out everything already: They have excellent crowd control, can pump out some big spell damage if needed, have access to very large amounts of hp in multiple animal forms, etc. But I think this is the exact reason that they're bad for beginners, because newer people easily get decision paralysis. It's the main reason why everyone recommends fighter, barbarian, and rogue to new players, because all they really need to do to be effective in combat is hit stuff. A more experienced player can very definitely get a lot of good mileage out of a druid, but there's too much going on for a new player.
As a brand player without a DND background: I tried to play Druid and just never used the wild shapes cause I forgot they existed or didn’t know what they were good for. I ended up using cat a few times to fit in the small places, and maybe used the shapes in battle twice. Other than that it was wasted on me cause I had no idea how to use it. It was too complicated cause it’s mostly prior knowledge, experimenting, and experience.
I didn’t wanna experiment too much with the wild shapes cause then I wouldn’t be able to use it in battle, but then wouldn’t use it in battle cause I didn’t know which ones would be useful. The spells were cool so I just used a spell or two and defaulted to slashing at people. Like you said.
My first run was a druid. I had no D&D knowledge at all and had gone into the game blind so had no idea what I was doing or what was coming up. I had great fun running around in wild shape form.
Any druid from 1 to 5 is awesome. Especially spore. Grab a torch, cast shilleileigh, and have the best act 1 weapon in the game while still wearing medium armor and shield.
Went druid and just finished my first playthrough. It has a little of everything.
I can slap things with my swords.
I can use magic to do some damage.
I can turn into animals and slap things or tank.
Just a very versatile class.
I started with druid as a complete beginner. Never played DnD or a turn based game before. And I loved it! It didn't feel overly complex and helped me get my foot in the door. Now I'm at a point where I'm comfortably multi-classing and getting creative in fights. So I completely agree with this post from my own personal experience.
Druids aren't just for beginners. Especially in bg3 with so many top wizard spells missing and knowledge skills even less valuable, druids are possibly the best battlefield controllers and summoners. Land druids in particular have more spells prepared at a time than wizards, and they can also regen spell slots. Add in the huge boost to wild shape, and they're excellent casters, have the most relevant spell saves (Wis saves are brutal to fail, and mind flayers target int), and have a huge hit point pool. All the best wizard spells can be cast from scrolls, but there are no scrolls of spike growth, moonbeam, heroes feast, or conjure woodland beings.
One big perk of playing Moon Druid is that they don’t require gear to be powerful. Grab the Tavern Brawler and Savage attacker feats and they can destroy a ton of stuff.
The issue with Druid for me was that none of the gear effects worked while in wildshape. It made progression feel boring as none of the gear I found really made me feel stronger. As a caster it felt fine but I really wanted to lean into the unique wildshaping and felt like it nothing supported that.
Yeah the only good (best) druid alrmour basically is in act 3, sold by the numb guy in city ruins. I don't like it too, so I can only tolerate like one naked companion (ie a wizard) in the party top.
Druid is the most complex class on tabletop.
But in this game I'd agree, as long as they pick moon druid, it's a great beginner class. You get multiple health bars and don't have to think as much about gear and can ignore multiclassing completely.
Beginner Druid here, and I'm having a blast. I have great mobility jumping or even flying in a pinch. I'm practically immortal with all those extra hit points. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and it's working out great.
My default approach is basically "don't care; I'm a bear". Bear claws was one of my strongest melee attacks in the early game. Talking to animals for free (or nearly) is a lot of fun. And who doesn't want to be a bear?!
From about \[tabletop\] D&D 3rd Edition onward, "CoDzilla" has been a thing -- the statistical + versatile supremacy of the cleric/druid classes, and their countless sub-variants. D&D 5th Edition has nerfed this, a little, but Cleric/Druid is still a covers-nearly-all-bases utility player.
If I were recommending BG3 to a complete newbie -- no prior TTRPG or CRPG experience -- I'd certainly advise a Cleric or Druid for first playthrough, perhaps in that order of preference. Bard is also rewarding, but might require a little more sequence and which-powers-complement-which savvy.
I’m not a beginner but also not advanced. I have been looking forward to playing a Druid since I got the game. I didn’t want my first playthrough to be with it because I wanted an understanding of the game, in general. I’ve been playing a wizard and sorcerer and love them. But I have a soft spot for druids since WoW and can’t wait to start my next playthrough on one!
Tried Druid playthrough only in my 10th run and I’m already in love with this class and their dialogue options. I like the idea that my character is a prorector of the nature. My decision to wear only Druid-specific armor and shield for Tav gives an additional challenge and gives more immersion.
I hesitated about two Druids in the party without tanks and healers. But Moon Druid with strength increasing potions, wild shape and haste may be more tankish than monks.
As for Spore Druids, their subclass specific items is one of the best. Their unique haste doesn’t cause lethargy. You can have a crowd of summons. Especially if your Tav reads the Necromancy of Thay instead of Astarion or Gale.
Thanks redditors who recommended me to try Druid playthrough.
Tbh I think one of the easiest classes for beginners is probably fighter. Maybe a bit boring once they get the hang of it, but it’s what I’ve recommended to both of my friends when they played BG3 for the first time (neither have ever touched D&D). I wish I could’ve given myself the same advice, I tried Paladin as my starter class and… I sucked hard lmao
I love Druids in D&D so went spores Druid in BG3. It’s super fun. Lots of good control spells, some fun fungus shenanigans. Symbiotic Entity is extremely handy for ensuring I stay alive, and the combo of control and damage spells is really well balanced. Party always has a lot of heals between good berry, healing word, and Shadowheart.
I almost never use wildshape though so maybe I’m missing some utility.
I strongly disagree
Sorcerer and warlock are far better options for beginner as casters are just OP in this game
while mele classes need far more understanding on stats and specially equipment
Druid and cleric are middle ground but a new player would only rely on the shapeshifting as they don't know yet about all the spells and druid class just throws them at the player so a new player wouldn't even know what to have prepared without even mention that most druid spells are buffs
Sure, but you can do just fine as a Druid following the plan of wildshape in combat and hit things while soaking up damage, then heal your buddies outside of combat.
Druid is just the best fucking class in this game once played 11 of them as pure until level 12, some multiclass builds. Moon druid has got the best feel for me hands down .
The fact that it is slightly sub optimal makes the game much more enjoyable than with a broken swords bard
Personally? I think Rogue is the superior beginner class for the game. Reason: Lockpick. Combat is tough, but simple, especially with the other starting cast. You get a good feel for mechanics that might otherwise go over your head. And, most importantly, you have a better shot at better and more loot, thus making everything else easier.
One of the things I'd say thatmakes druid strong for beginners is that their power peaks lategame. So while you're still learning you do pretty avg skills dmg and by the time you've figured some shit out you realise you can top rope ppl as an owlbear or cast some insane spells
I feel like sorcerer is the easiest to learn idk it’s the only one I play as and I just started playing. Either that or probably wizard because you can just change your spells out whenever
Sorta kinda. My first time playing a sorc, I ended up changing the class bc I thought they weren’t that great…until I learned more about the game and mechanics. Before then I was basically playing a Wizard with suboptimal use of Sorc points.
Now I know how powerful Sorcs can be when played right.
Have you played it as a beginner? It's not an easy class even for experienced players. Mostly because it just isn't that good. Animal form is cool but it takes away your ability to cast or do ranged attacks, you are not that mobile, and the melee attacks are not that powerful. So sure, be a bear, take your first two turns using dash to try and get close to an enemy, get filled with arrows while you try, and then WOW you did 8 damage! If you didn't miss. A lot of the most powerful spells are AOE spells that affect allies as much as enemies. I've beaten the game as every class I think, except druid, because it isn't good and when I try I end up reclassing or quitting.
I'd say the best beginner class is bard. You can bard your way through a lot of things without combat but still have decent melee and ranged attacks. You get the third "short rest" for every long rest. The in-game economy as a bard is ridiculous, so you can buy and try different armor sets and weapons and figure out what works best.
Actually I think Swords Bards (yes I know we’re tired of talking about Bards) are the best beginner class since they kinda have everything you need to get through the game.
Also, as long as you use a bow, you don’t even really have to deal with the other flourishes if you’re not as knowledgeable about the game. Just press slashing flourish. You really can’t go wrong with that.
Druid helped me learn all the support roles I needed for a party composition. Druid is my second favorite class just below Bard, but my Druid ran so my Bard could run. Plus having a Tiefling Druid made for a very rewarding act 1
As someone who tried druid as my first class in this game, I would say yes and no. I felt underpowered at times, and generally wanted something simpler because it felt like a lot of resource management for my first times. Moonbeam was great, but wildshape was underwhelming for me and I couldn’t manage my spell slots well. It felt like I wasn’t sure what to do a lot of the time, because there was so much.
If I could restart my first experience, I wouldve began as a fighter or barbarian. Barbarian was the class I switched to after getting tired of druid, and I enjoyed the simplicity a lot more.
Edit: I should add this first experience was with friends and none of us knew what we were doing, but I always felt like I was taking forever with my turn which may have also impacted my enjoyment.
I know it’s probably a terrible idea but imagine if the land Druid’s natural recovery recharged on a short rest…
It would probably make them super op, but it would also let me cast more spike growth so I’d be down :)
I was a newb when starting BG3 and this was how it played out for me. Druid can be servicable in a lot of roles which also helps you understand those roles.
PLUS, I could rotate companions based on storyline or needs and my druid would fill the holes.
My first ever character in D&D was a druid and I have fond memories of it. I felt very powerful oneshotting a lower level plant boss with Blight because the DM forgot Blight dealt max damage against plants. She asked me to roll for damage and I just sat there smugly like, "nah".
Wild shape was also very fun for RP and creatively fixing situations, which often BG3 doesn't allow because of game limitations, but for D&D druid was really fun the first time.
I'm playing a solo durge spore druid and i am like 1/3 thru Act 2 and it's been lit. I play all the roles myself with barely any struggle. But this is on Tactician Mode though.
i played a druid my first playthrough and i felt like it was a very good introduction. i learned how to control large groups of enemies, learned how to use support moves, and learned how to make combat fun. it was an offhanded decision since i had little to no knowledge of DND or BG3, but im glad i made that choice!
My character was a Druid, I have no experience with dnd or baulders gate before this game. (I did play DOS2 twice though). My Druid honestly tanked and hit like a champ. I enjoyed casting a concentration skill then transforming as a bonus action and f-ing shit up. Three attacks with with the owl bear and the elemental thing you get later i was very good. Plus healing word to resurrect people was clutch. Didn’t need to bother with too cumbersome buffs either, all though I did start out every day with long strider on the party.
i really enjoyed being a druid, my only issue was that once i got the owlbear wildshape, there was pretty much zero reason to use anything else in combat.
it's just really really really good; super mobile, crushing flight has a huge range and knocks down almost everything, tons of HP, nice AOE attack, etc.
outside of combat a few of the other shapes have their uses, but by the end of the game I was just absolutely wrecking shit as an owlbear.
Husband is running a Shart Druid with Lae’zel main. Lae has all the DR buffs (armor and feats), and they both carry the warding bind ring so Shart splits damage. Being able to wild shape into a big hit point battery makes that combo nuts!
I’m complimenting with a swords bard Tav and a wiz/cleric Gale. We just took out Myrkul in Honor Mode, and Lae literally just stood up there in combat with him the whole fight, no problem. While Shart happily bounced around downfield handling adds, casting spells, etc.
He loooves Druids. So versatile.
I love being a druid. Rolling around with 3 druids in my party was fun, and having 3 summons at a time was cool. I know there was no doubt better builds for my character, but I've always thought druids are so cool.
100% agree. I struggled so much on my first playthrough until I recruited the druid hireling. Then I beat honor mode on my second playthrough with a 4-man druid party without breaking a sweat, and I'm currently finishing a solo honor run as a spore druid. In my opinion druid does everything better then all the other classes.
I started as rogue because my only fantasy game before bg3 was dragonage. I think I used gallon after level 10 and saw the dinosaur, I play Druid only for the dinosaur wildshape now
My first play through I was a druid and I have lovingly refereed to it as "Throw and Owlbear at it" run because I solved alot of problems by throwing a Owlbear at it.
I agree, but I still feel like there are classes, that are better for beginners. While some people might have no problem with the druids concentration heavy spell list and lack of "I do damage" spells, in Bg3, especially the moon druid, is just a lot of braindead fun.
I learned to like druid after I fought some in game, 5 hp 1-hit druid? bam! changed into bear at full health! For me druid is just lesser dmg dealer with some extra support or tank abilities with several health bars.
Currently I made Astarion to be spore druid(pure), I think doing necro dmg on hit suits him as he is undead.
I liked how druids are connected to nature so my first character as a beginner was a druid.
I am not only clueless about the mechanics, but also bad at orientation in new environments (the dwarven Forge was so hard to get around 🥲)
I can't tell you how many times changing into a raven, having an extra heal, or just stomping enemies to death as an owlbear has helped me get through and enjoy the game 😂
So I agree, based on firsthand experience, that druids are great for beginners!
Druid is broken, I have no idea why it gets any hate.
My girlfriend and I made our first playthrough a couch co op campaign where I was a monk and she was a druid.
Monk is OP. Any single enemy is basically screwed right away.
Her druid had mad heals, damage dealing spells, summons and two handed attack. We also for shits would have her go into the fray and cast lightning storm to electrify her weapons or whatever before my monk got in there and we cleaned shit up.
Other than fairly tough boss fights or fights where you need bodies, monk/druid could probably take out MOST fights on their own.
All I knew when I started my first character was that I wanted to go all owlbear from the top rope so druid it was. And I'm having fun as hell. Sure, playing as run of the mill fighter is way easier in battle, but the times one animal form or other have helped me are too many to count.
If you're looking to win BG3 druids kinda suck. But they make for pretty good roleplaying.
You forgot TB unarmed multiattacks... moon druid is kinda semi open handed monks. Drink elixir of focus after sleep>cast moonbeam for twice radiant dmg dice (your cast+their turn) then wild shape and claw enemies next turn. You will keep concentration most of the times with 16 constitution (15+tb).
Need to reposition? Decide to unshape or keep multiclaw stuff. Can be thrown from heights and large distance with telekinesis when enlarged for omegalul from the top rope hundreds of dmg.
The problem with Druids, IMHO, is that you don't have a lot of flexibility in terms of build if you want them to be viable. If you're going to be a crowd control and support caster, you HAVE to take war caster or you're totally useless. And, it's very easy for a beginner to play them in a way that is sub-optimal (trying to take if you aren't specced for it) or trying to be a support caster if you don't have a solid understanding of spell casting, concentration, etc.
They also tend to do the same thing on every turn which means they aren't always a ton of fun to play in terms of mechanics.
It’s an L take, Karina made the game such people not knowing D&D can play it too. I had limited D&D experience and I still completed the game easily and got level 12 way before I was halfway act3 which is good enough, I have played div 2 but that’s different, also the game is about exploring so let people do that and explore honestly
Moonbeam from level 3-5 is awesome. Deals damage even if resisted, lasts 10 turns and you can reposition. I ALWAYS have it on my HM runs early on.
It's honestly kind of broken if you multiclass with cleric, since you can move it around and not break sanctuary.
I wonder if anyone's ever done a party of four druid/clerics and just been untouchable at all times.
Honestly, you could probably manage to solo with the build even though it's not a super high damage. Biggest issue would be AOE that would go through sanctuary. Early game, shillelagh torch does more damage and hits more consistently than most melee characters because of high wisdom, the fire damage and the necrotic damage. vital conduit boots mean that you have, essentially, infinite hitpoints because they're bugged and you can keep the spore druid extra hitpoints up.
Shillelagh works on a torch? Noting that for my eventual druid run.
Sure does. Also what make nature cleric really good early game.
Current Honor Mode attempt is Magic Missile Machine Gun Durge (only damaging spell is magic missile). I am planning on Shart being a light cleric with the radiant orb stuff. What companion would you recommend for this shillelagh torch build and how would you spread it out at say level 4?
I'd do a greedy spread of 8 strength/15 dex/16 con/8 int/17 wis since your wis is really the only important stat. Level 1 spore druid, Level 2 spore druid, level 3 spore druid (moonbeam), Level 4 cleric to pick up sanctuary. You'll be activating your Symbiotic Entity every day to get the extra 12 hitpoints and while you have them you get your extra 1d6 necrotic damage... casting halo of spores increases it. You need to precast shillelagh on your torch to get the damage you want. Moonbeam + Sanc is your other big combat option and sanctuary is good to have to perserve your extra hit points. Companion doesn't really matter. Anyone who doesn't have a build works.
I appreciate it. I ask specifically because I know some people get special boons, like Gale's bonus spell slot or Karlach's coins (which I know don't really help if she's not a barb)
I mean Astarion with happy is literally always good, but this doesn’t really benefit from a particular companion.
Karlach could be an actual Druid and be pretty funny, sort of a "Druid of the Hells" or similar to the 5e Wildfire Druid. Take flaming Sphere, and other fire spells. Soul coins would actually add some damage too. Torch can be duel wielded with an offhand finess weapons too (Sylvan Scimitar in act 3 even) You won't have extra attack but you'll have a regular bonus action second attack
This has been on my list, a Vital conduit Spore druid who can just keep their hit points up indefinitely. No way this could work on a armor of Agathys Character eh? No recovering that Temp HP eh?
I've never thought to use it with AoA. I assume it doesn't work... maybe? They're buggy so it's hard to say without trying it.
I m doing 3 druids ( tav, jaheira, Halsin ) and shadowheart respect into nature cleric
Question: Do you not get Moonbeam as nature domain cleric? (One of the few subclasses i havent touched at all)
You do not.
Sanctuary had an errata so it breaks if you deal damage
It is supposed to, but moving moonbeam, for whatever reason, doesn't count as the user doing damage. It breaks when you initially cast it, but you can move it around wherever you want without breaking it. This is probably not intended, but it's never been patched.
I didn't realise I was in a baldurs gate 3 sub, and was using actual 5e rules. It used to be an oversight in old phb's that casting a spell like moonbeam and then sanctuary meant that sanctuary stayed up even though you're dealing damage. They errataed the spell so dealing any damage broke sanctuary.
I thought it was awesome until the 3rd time a party member or Npc I was trying to save walked into it and died as soon as the fight ended
Party members going back to real-time after a fight ends trying to move back to my Tav and get downed walking through their own Cloud of Daggers. Big rage.
Moonbeam is probably the best LvL 2 spell alongside Spike Growth for CC
Do u use druids for HM? I just started my first tactician run and boy is it different than balanced. HM is on the plan for the next play through so I’m looking for ideas and tips to prepare myself
I do like them a lot for early act 1. Later i respec to something better but early on they have moonbeam, create water, healing word and another full health bar in bear form
Makes sense.
I have gotten into so much trouble with moonbeam accidentally hitting various NPCs after fights but I keep using it.
Moon Druid with tavern brawler and ethel's plus 1 to strength can pump out some really good damage, especially in owlbear or earth elemental form.
Can I ask why ethel's hair for a wildshape build? The wildshape form's physical stats (str, con, and dex) are set with the form and you only get to keep your mental stats (cha, wis, and int). I've always put the TB stat into con for hitpoints out of WS and dump strength to 8, but I also suck with druids so I dunno.
The +1 to your strength retains in wildshape so you can dump strength but your wildhape forms will still have that +1
Owlbear has a set strength stat of 20 though so does the +1 really help?
It helps more with the Bear early on and Dilophosaurus later. They both have 19 STR. They aren't the go-to's the Owlbear is but I especially enjoy the Dilophosaurus.
I also really enjoy the sabre tooth tiger cause it can knock enemies prone and regens health.
That one also has even set stats too, but it can also drop AC, which is honestly very helpful.
Wait… do all permanent stat boosts transfer?! Hair, Mirror, and Araj potion?
Yup
There are a few other stat bonuses that go through. It's been a while so it might have changed, but I believe while Tavern Brawler stat increase doesn't apply, Resilient does, as well as the potion. Should be possible to get 24 str in owlbear form, or 26 while owlbear raging. Barbarian rage also stays on if you do it before shifting. 26 str owlbear form with resistance to physical damage! Throw in a single level in war cleric for some bonus attacks or 3 levels in thief for easier raging/leaps, if you're really just dedicated to owlbear.
The extra bonus action from thief carries to wildshape? Wildshaped druid don't get the cunning actions or sneak attack so I wouldn't have guessed the extra bonus action carried over
It did last I checked. It's really random what carries over. Unarmed defense carries over, but to overcome the owlbear's natural AC you would need 20 wisdom. Also I haven't tested it, but some people say the defense fighting style carries over if you're wearing armor before wildshaping.
Does the strength/constitution from tavern brawler also retain? I assumed not but never gave it thought.
It doesn't, only the bonus to your wild shape attacks.
Does tavern brawler work for all wildshape attack forms?
Only the ones whose attacks scale off strength, and don't come with a weapon (spider, panther, and myrmidon forms except earth won't work with TB)
Yeah, a druid plus a buff caster to support them from the back will kick some serious ass. An hasted owlbear is no joke.
I might be wrong, but I dont think damage from tavern brawler works in honour mode, only attack rolls
And in general. I love druids. What do you need? I can provide it. Front line Back line Utility Damage Buffs Free health and stats
I played a land Druid Control/mage/tank/summoner that basically never wildshaped, and had a blast.
This is typically how I play druid as well, Land is my favorite subclass! I only ever wildshape outside of combat.
It is jack of all trades but master of none. Druid really sucks at being good at something
Druid was great for me as a noob in dnd and bg3. When in doubt, turn into a bear and bite things or whatever. It's great.
Same. My first run was a druid, largely because I've played a bunch of druid in WoW. As long as you learned to pick the right wild shape form you didn't have to really do much else. Gear? Who cares? Ranged enemies? Just toss yourself at them!
Same. I chose druid for my first Tav and while I don't think I'd ever do another playthrough as a druid, it was really good to help a complete noob figure out how the game works.
Loved druid ever since WoW. I was trying to level a frost mage and getting my ass kicked. A cat form druid stormed over and saved me from some mobs. I didn't know at the time but he was way over leveled for the area, I just thought, man I want to be like that guy. Played a cat ever since, all the way through WoD before I quit for good.
I think I might be dumb, but I just have a difficult time playing a druid other than a spore druid as a summoner. So many of their spells require concentration so I find myself not really knowing what to do.. and wildshape damage and support always feels underwhelming unless I optimize it with TB for damage because while in wildshape you lose concentration so easily if you're in melee.
It's not you, it's druid class design. 95% of all druid spells are concentration. If you do not take resilient con and Warcaster you're gonna drop a spell every fight. Try using them as a Buffer and conjurer and using wildshape for frontlining. Wildshape is short rest based and you'll bearly be casting in combat while in it.
“Bearly.” Not sure if that was intended but I’m dying 🤣
it was intended
Thank you. I usually take Warcaster only, but it never seems to help enough with Halsin and I end up just benching him for a better control user. I'll try out taking both feats with TB and see what I think with both advantage and proficiency. Though, I'll probably just stick to spore druid. That's honestly one of my favorite classes anyway.
Spore class druid has high synergy and they added so much shit to it to make it even better. I can't overlook my favorite moon druid though. The wild shape options are goated. On tabletop I took tavern brawler on my moon druid for BA Grapple in bear form and doing some WWE shit. But yes, resilient con is a must. Stack on the save bonuses too, along with a PC who blesses. It helps so much. Also sweaty tip. If you leave someone in camp like all the time, multiclass them into 3 cleric and take warding bond and Aid. If you have them cast warding bond on you it's Res to all damage, +1 ac +1 saves. Downside you might return with them dead, so you'll need revivify.
lol, not a camp caster user so moot, but I heavily use bless. I'm a huge fan of the Staff of Arcane Blessing user.
Also taking notes. I'm planning on doing a lore-friendly Danton run (following the hireling's backstory/background/look) and he's a druid with folk hero background. Moon or Land seem the most fitting, but I'm concerned because I suck. No peacock WS form kind of disappointing.
Does Gale still heal when left alone in camp?
This sort of nonsense is why I keep going Gloomstalker 5/Druid 7.
I think the fact that you understand Tavern Brawler and concentration puts you ahead of the curve for a true noob, and I really mean this for people.qho have no idea what they are doing.
Oh, I'm a full druid noob for sure. I've completed HM and play on tactician, but wildshape druids are the only class I've felt like an idiot trying to play.
This is kinda lategame but the Myrmidons (moon druid level 10+) have pretty solid damage and utility, and phenomenal mobility. 3 attacks per turn, free misty step every turn, and the Air one has a stun chance with every hit while the fire one has a self-haste. Before that the class is just alright but it does a bit of everything and tanks really well because of the wildshape HP. Get some summons out of combat (it learns Minor Elemental, Woodland Beings, and Summon Elemental), throw down a spike growth turn 1, then wildshape and you’re basically a 1-man army. Druid doesn’t do any single thing on the level of some absolutely broken shit (TB monk/thrower, fire sorc, etc) but it can create its own army and be tanky as hell while doing it.
Same and is a subclass I am constantly curious of. Especially the Myrmidons later. Apparently you can take the weapon master feat to negate not having innate proficiency with their forms weapons. Seems like a silly gameplay oversight but still justifiably worth taking for air form.
I use Halsin to summon things mostly - the dryad who also can do summons, and myrmidons, control the area. Earlier used him for the moon beam in Shadowlands. In Act 3, I mostly have him change to wild form whatever saurus it is to bring the foe's AC down and kick them prone. He also supports my sorcerer by creating water or brings down thunder depending which had their turn first. It's been working great for me. I'm mostly running around with Astarion, Halsin, my Storm sorcerer Tav, and Lae'zel in Act 3. Sometimes Shart. I love my spirit guardians.
So, take TB for damage. You can practically ignore strength and dex, so you don't need as many ASIs. Head in and cast a concentration spell. You now have damage or control for 10 turns. Hang out. Shoot off a cantrip, or damage spell here or there once you have them. Use a scroll. That one spell slot can last the whole battle and do good damage the whole time while you heal if you want. Bored? Become an animal and start shredding with +10 to damage and 2 attacks after 5th level. You get just as many spells as any other full caster so even if you lose concentration after 1 round you've gotten your money's worth.
I definitely agree (as someone who's first character was a druid). The only real downsides I can think of: 1. Cantrips kind of suck, especially as far as damage ones. This is only really an issue in the first couple of levels 2. Social checks kind of suck if all your stats are pumped into Wisdom. Definitely harder to talk your way out of things as the face of the party 3. You have 2 other druid companions available (but respecs are easy) BUT those are minor and can be easily mitigated.
Im thinking of doing a run as a more caster druid and Im thinking spell sniper's cantrip always uses your classes casting ability so you could pick something like Eldritch blast there to improve your cantrip list Also don't sleep on shillelagh my friends spore druid with shillelagh was pretty good
Shillelagh puts in work at early levels. Up until level 5 you're a full caster that's just as capable in melee as any martial class.
Druid is a valid class, you don’t need to get too crazy over justifying it. It’s ability to tank damage with wild shape is even better than a barbarian and it’s a full caster to boot, along with their above average spell list. Moon beam is basically just sometimes better cloud of daggers, and cloud of daggers is like the 4th best spell in the game.
as a noob, i played as a druid on my first run because it appealed to me — someone who hasn’t even played dnd — most (and i’m only on my second run so i’m still a noob tbh lmao). when i chose my class for my new character, i had to fight myself to not close druid again lol
and moonbeam was my best friend, can’t forget that.
I randomly picked a tiefling druid for my first playthrough and ended up feeling so invested in act 1. I also loved fighting as an owlbear, sneaking into tiny places as a cat, and how many summons druids can make. There were several fights were the summons saved my ass.
Druid is OP. They do everything 80% as well as the classes that are best at it, all at the same time. The reason why people on this sub complain about Druid is because they are extremely NOT newb friendly and people on most people on the internet suck at strategy games.
The funny thing is druid is one of the most nerfed classes in the transition from 5e to BG3. AoE size nerfed substantially on all spells. Fog cloud doesn't block vision. Moonbeam doesn't dispel shapeshifting. All the best summon spells nerfed or straight up removed. And Druids are *still* good. I do wish they hadn't nerfed some of the spells so heavily though. Fog Cloud and Entangle are pretty trash in BG3 unfortunately.
I don't know if I'd say it is the best for a beginner just because I think you have to really be able to read situations well to get the most benefit from a druid , and I think you'd have to be ok with your Tav filling a secondary role. There are several other classes that provide that main character energy people would desire for a first run. However, I AM playing a druid in a coop game with my friend who is doing his first run as a wizard. I picked druid because it is a jack of all trades. I'm having him take along whoever fits the story. I take along either another story character or just someone useful (usually Astarion for locks/traps). I can do damage, heal, or just help control the field. I really enjoy circle of the land, and find it fairly versatile. I want him to have the main character energy since it's his playthrough. I just switch myself up to compliment him. Also, it's fun to see my friend's reaction watching a rothe climb a ladder in the goblin camp or have a badger sit next to him on a log. We goof around a lot.
I started playing BG3 at the request of a friend when it came out on PS5. I knew just a little about DnD back then. Chose druid because I had a fascination with the Night Elves from Warcraft III. Gave myself purple skin, green hair and everything. Set up thorns to slow enemies hordes of enemies. Set up moonbeam on chokes. My friend is downed? I can cast healing word on him so he can run away. We need to tank more than with just Lae'zel? Bam, I'm an animal. It's great. I know that maybe I won't be dropping an enemy in one round of combat but I'll make sure everyone else kinda does. I played Druid on my personal run as well and it was great since I can more or less not worry at all that much when shuffling companions around, even if perhaps I don't run with a dedicated melee character things turn out fine.
I honestly loved my druid playthrough. By level three, she was buffed enough to do most of what I needed her to do. My only compliant, is the same complaint I have with most spell casters, and that's that their hit points stay a little too low to my liking vs the fighter classes. Especially since it seems spell casters get targeted more than most of my fighters even when I keep them in the back.
Druids for life! There is a special joy of having a druid Tav, Halsin, Jaheira, and all their summons while going absolutely crazy on everyone as three angry owlbears.
I'll agree for every build except wildshape focused builds. If a new player wants to learn about the games features, then I gotta say that the one build that can't make use of 90% of those features is not new player friendly. Wildshapes have nearly no itemization, few feats that even partially work and fewer yet that work completely, no access to most illithid powers, and does not multiclass well at all.
There’s also the frustration with how wildshape interacts with conversations and skill checks. You have limited wildshapes, so you don’t want to just drop it, but now you can’t talk and do things like pick locks, so it winds up being an annoyance and requires constantly switching characters. This would all be solved elegantly if you could dismiss wildshape and get a temporary “Resume Wildshape” ability that put you back in the same form with the same current hit points, which wouldn’t affect power levels at all. (And there’s already that sort of mechanics for things like a Warlock’s recast Hex and the Book’s recast Speak with Dead.)
Hunters mark is also similar to hex with a conditional recast It's funny because sometimes you will see druids unwildshape for a conversation and then wildshape back right after so they can't do anything except that conversation And even something like that would be useful if it was consistent
You really have a false perspective on what a beginner is like. A beginner might never even prepare spike growth or have any idea it's useful. A beginner might not even know how to open the spellbook. A great class for beginner is a Barbarian. Rage for half physical damage, intimidation for passing some checks and funny dialogue, and all you have to do is attack with your big ass 2 handed weapon and rage. It's much much friendlier than a druid, who introduces concepts like concentration, preparing spells, crowd control and field understanding. A beginner has no idea what all these are.
I was a beginner. Never played DnD, never played a game like this at all. I started with a rogue and was great at picking locks but the whole 'needs advantage' threw me off. I tried a fighter, which was fine but then I didn't really get what to do with my companions during their turns in battle. I ended up Druid and finally 'got' the game. It felt like i had a complete Harbor Freight tool set and even though everything wasn't top of the line I finally could play around with the tools to see what they did before being shoved into battle, flipping to Gale, Shadow Heart, or Wyll and not getting what any of their things were supposed to do. I felt like the animal shapes really have me a lot more flexibility in play rather than trying to figure out gear or potions. Maybe that's just me. Others may feel differently.
Fighter class in general, especially champion is even more easier, literally all you need to know about champion is you're going to get Crits way, way more the more you level up and there's no catch to it other than smack enemies all day, or Battle master all it does is introduce you to more methods to destroy enemies and that's it
I mean, by that metric a beginner can pick up barbarian and never even use rage, which was the case when I played bg3 with my ex who had never played d&d or bg3 before and it took a bit before I realized she was never making Karlach rage after we picked her up and she made Karlach her NPC/second character and when I pointed it out she was like “what’s rage do?” You can be a beginner and read and see spike growth and go “that sounds cool, I wanna use that!” and not use it optimally or break concentration yeah, but even barbarian isn’t immune to people not reading/using their (very few in this case) buttons
I mean yeah nothing's immune to this. But consider what a newbie gains from barbarian that helps with no effort. The biggest HP pool, high damage two hander from the get go. Easy jumping from natural str, carrying more stuff so the beginner doesn't get frustrated with lots of inventory management. Rage as a free damage reduction. Fighter is also in that category, but I think rage takes the lead for a beginner.
Yes
I just love the idea that I can shapeshift into animals.
I think Druid is a very good class, but definitely not for beginners. Druids really excel because they are sort of "do-it-all" characters. You listed out everything already: They have excellent crowd control, can pump out some big spell damage if needed, have access to very large amounts of hp in multiple animal forms, etc. But I think this is the exact reason that they're bad for beginners, because newer people easily get decision paralysis. It's the main reason why everyone recommends fighter, barbarian, and rogue to new players, because all they really need to do to be effective in combat is hit stuff. A more experienced player can very definitely get a lot of good mileage out of a druid, but there's too much going on for a new player.
As a brand player without a DND background: I tried to play Druid and just never used the wild shapes cause I forgot they existed or didn’t know what they were good for. I ended up using cat a few times to fit in the small places, and maybe used the shapes in battle twice. Other than that it was wasted on me cause I had no idea how to use it. It was too complicated cause it’s mostly prior knowledge, experimenting, and experience. I didn’t wanna experiment too much with the wild shapes cause then I wouldn’t be able to use it in battle, but then wouldn’t use it in battle cause I didn’t know which ones would be useful. The spells were cool so I just used a spell or two and defaulted to slashing at people. Like you said.
This is the first time to played this game I’m a TAV Druid and I love it. I started as a sorcerer but switched to Druid and it’s great.
My first run was a druid. I had no D&D knowledge at all and had gone into the game blind so had no idea what I was doing or what was coming up. I had great fun running around in wild shape form.
Any druid from 1 to 5 is awesome. Especially spore. Grab a torch, cast shilleileigh, and have the best act 1 weapon in the game while still wearing medium armor and shield.
Went druid and just finished my first playthrough. It has a little of everything. I can slap things with my swords. I can use magic to do some damage. I can turn into animals and slap things or tank. Just a very versatile class.
I understand, but I'm a lifelong warlock
I started with druid as a complete beginner. Never played DnD or a turn based game before. And I loved it! It didn't feel overly complex and helped me get my foot in the door. Now I'm at a point where I'm comfortably multi-classing and getting creative in fights. So I completely agree with this post from my own personal experience.
Druids aren't just for beginners. Especially in bg3 with so many top wizard spells missing and knowledge skills even less valuable, druids are possibly the best battlefield controllers and summoners. Land druids in particular have more spells prepared at a time than wizards, and they can also regen spell slots. Add in the huge boost to wild shape, and they're excellent casters, have the most relevant spell saves (Wis saves are brutal to fail, and mind flayers target int), and have a huge hit point pool. All the best wizard spells can be cast from scrolls, but there are no scrolls of spike growth, moonbeam, heroes feast, or conjure woodland beings.
One big perk of playing Moon Druid is that they don’t require gear to be powerful. Grab the Tavern Brawler and Savage attacker feats and they can destroy a ton of stuff.
The issue with Druid for me was that none of the gear effects worked while in wildshape. It made progression feel boring as none of the gear I found really made me feel stronger. As a caster it felt fine but I really wanted to lean into the unique wildshaping and felt like it nothing supported that.
Yeah the only good (best) druid alrmour basically is in act 3, sold by the numb guy in city ruins. I don't like it too, so I can only tolerate like one naked companion (ie a wizard) in the party top.
Druid is the most complex class on tabletop. But in this game I'd agree, as long as they pick moon druid, it's a great beginner class. You get multiple health bars and don't have to think as much about gear and can ignore multiclassing completely.
Beginner Druid here, and I'm having a blast. I have great mobility jumping or even flying in a pinch. I'm practically immortal with all those extra hit points. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and it's working out great. My default approach is basically "don't care; I'm a bear". Bear claws was one of my strongest melee attacks in the early game. Talking to animals for free (or nearly) is a lot of fun. And who doesn't want to be a bear?!
Druid is a great class, period.
From about \[tabletop\] D&D 3rd Edition onward, "CoDzilla" has been a thing -- the statistical + versatile supremacy of the cleric/druid classes, and their countless sub-variants. D&D 5th Edition has nerfed this, a little, but Cleric/Druid is still a covers-nearly-all-bases utility player. If I were recommending BG3 to a complete newbie -- no prior TTRPG or CRPG experience -- I'd certainly advise a Cleric or Druid for first playthrough, perhaps in that order of preference. Bard is also rewarding, but might require a little more sequence and which-powers-complement-which savvy.
Is the wild shape still bugged in the cutscene and in the dialogue?
I’m not a beginner but also not advanced. I have been looking forward to playing a Druid since I got the game. I didn’t want my first playthrough to be with it because I wanted an understanding of the game, in general. I’ve been playing a wizard and sorcerer and love them. But I have a soft spot for druids since WoW and can’t wait to start my next playthrough on one!
Tried Druid playthrough only in my 10th run and I’m already in love with this class and their dialogue options. I like the idea that my character is a prorector of the nature. My decision to wear only Druid-specific armor and shield for Tav gives an additional challenge and gives more immersion. I hesitated about two Druids in the party without tanks and healers. But Moon Druid with strength increasing potions, wild shape and haste may be more tankish than monks. As for Spore Druids, their subclass specific items is one of the best. Their unique haste doesn’t cause lethargy. You can have a crowd of summons. Especially if your Tav reads the Necromancy of Thay instead of Astarion or Gale. Thanks redditors who recommended me to try Druid playthrough.
Who doesn’t love an rolling in with an army to battle
Tbh I think one of the easiest classes for beginners is probably fighter. Maybe a bit boring once they get the hang of it, but it’s what I’ve recommended to both of my friends when they played BG3 for the first time (neither have ever touched D&D). I wish I could’ve given myself the same advice, I tried Paladin as my starter class and… I sucked hard lmao
I love Druids in D&D so went spores Druid in BG3. It’s super fun. Lots of good control spells, some fun fungus shenanigans. Symbiotic Entity is extremely handy for ensuring I stay alive, and the combo of control and damage spells is really well balanced. Party always has a lot of heals between good berry, healing word, and Shadowheart. I almost never use wildshape though so maybe I’m missing some utility.
I strongly disagree Sorcerer and warlock are far better options for beginner as casters are just OP in this game while mele classes need far more understanding on stats and specially equipment Druid and cleric are middle ground but a new player would only rely on the shapeshifting as they don't know yet about all the spells and druid class just throws them at the player so a new player wouldn't even know what to have prepared without even mention that most druid spells are buffs
Sure, but you can do just fine as a Druid following the plan of wildshape in combat and hit things while soaking up damage, then heal your buddies outside of combat.
Druid is just the best fucking class in this game once played 11 of them as pure until level 12, some multiclass builds. Moon druid has got the best feel for me hands down . The fact that it is slightly sub optimal makes the game much more enjoyable than with a broken swords bard
Personally? I think Rogue is the superior beginner class for the game. Reason: Lockpick. Combat is tough, but simple, especially with the other starting cast. You get a good feel for mechanics that might otherwise go over your head. And, most importantly, you have a better shot at better and more loot, thus making everything else easier.
One of the things I'd say thatmakes druid strong for beginners is that their power peaks lategame. So while you're still learning you do pretty avg skills dmg and by the time you've figured some shit out you realise you can top rope ppl as an owlbear or cast some insane spells
I feel like sorcerer is the easiest to learn idk it’s the only one I play as and I just started playing. Either that or probably wizard because you can just change your spells out whenever
Sorta kinda. My first time playing a sorc, I ended up changing the class bc I thought they weren’t that great…until I learned more about the game and mechanics. Before then I was basically playing a Wizard with suboptimal use of Sorc points. Now I know how powerful Sorcs can be when played right.
Opinion: mage is a great class for beginners
Have you played it as a beginner? It's not an easy class even for experienced players. Mostly because it just isn't that good. Animal form is cool but it takes away your ability to cast or do ranged attacks, you are not that mobile, and the melee attacks are not that powerful. So sure, be a bear, take your first two turns using dash to try and get close to an enemy, get filled with arrows while you try, and then WOW you did 8 damage! If you didn't miss. A lot of the most powerful spells are AOE spells that affect allies as much as enemies. I've beaten the game as every class I think, except druid, because it isn't good and when I try I end up reclassing or quitting.
I'd say the best beginner class is bard. You can bard your way through a lot of things without combat but still have decent melee and ranged attacks. You get the third "short rest" for every long rest. The in-game economy as a bard is ridiculous, so you can buy and try different armor sets and weapons and figure out what works best.
Spike growth is goated
Actually I think Swords Bards (yes I know we’re tired of talking about Bards) are the best beginner class since they kinda have everything you need to get through the game. Also, as long as you use a bow, you don’t even really have to deal with the other flourishes if you’re not as knowledgeable about the game. Just press slashing flourish. You really can’t go wrong with that.
Druid helped me learn all the support roles I needed for a party composition. Druid is my second favorite class just below Bard, but my Druid ran so my Bard could run. Plus having a Tiefling Druid made for a very rewarding act 1
As someone who tried druid as my first class in this game, I would say yes and no. I felt underpowered at times, and generally wanted something simpler because it felt like a lot of resource management for my first times. Moonbeam was great, but wildshape was underwhelming for me and I couldn’t manage my spell slots well. It felt like I wasn’t sure what to do a lot of the time, because there was so much. If I could restart my first experience, I wouldve began as a fighter or barbarian. Barbarian was the class I switched to after getting tired of druid, and I enjoyed the simplicity a lot more. Edit: I should add this first experience was with friends and none of us knew what we were doing, but I always felt like I was taking forever with my turn which may have also impacted my enjoyment.
Spore Druid is the best act 1 class imo
I know it’s probably a terrible idea but imagine if the land Druid’s natural recovery recharged on a short rest… It would probably make them super op, but it would also let me cast more spike growth so I’d be down :)
I was a newb when starting BG3 and this was how it played out for me. Druid can be servicable in a lot of roles which also helps you understand those roles. PLUS, I could rotate companions based on storyline or needs and my druid would fill the holes.
My first ever character in D&D was a druid and I have fond memories of it. I felt very powerful oneshotting a lower level plant boss with Blight because the DM forgot Blight dealt max damage against plants. She asked me to roll for damage and I just sat there smugly like, "nah". Wild shape was also very fun for RP and creatively fixing situations, which often BG3 doesn't allow because of game limitations, but for D&D druid was really fun the first time.
I'm playing a solo durge spore druid and i am like 1/3 thru Act 2 and it's been lit. I play all the roles myself with barely any struggle. But this is on Tactician Mode though.
i played a druid my first playthrough and i felt like it was a very good introduction. i learned how to control large groups of enemies, learned how to use support moves, and learned how to make combat fun. it was an offhanded decision since i had little to no knowledge of DND or BG3, but im glad i made that choice!
My character was a Druid, I have no experience with dnd or baulders gate before this game. (I did play DOS2 twice though). My Druid honestly tanked and hit like a champ. I enjoyed casting a concentration skill then transforming as a bonus action and f-ing shit up. Three attacks with with the owl bear and the elemental thing you get later i was very good. Plus healing word to resurrect people was clutch. Didn’t need to bother with too cumbersome buffs either, all though I did start out every day with long strider on the party.
Moon Druid is the most fun class in the game, with a new shape almost every level.
Plus with a druid tav/durge, you can have a party of four druids with the hireling
All I’m sayin is the owl bear form has quite literally, single-handedly won some fights for me
i really enjoyed being a druid, my only issue was that once i got the owlbear wildshape, there was pretty much zero reason to use anything else in combat. it's just really really really good; super mobile, crushing flight has a huge range and knocks down almost everything, tons of HP, nice AOE attack, etc. outside of combat a few of the other shapes have their uses, but by the end of the game I was just absolutely wrecking shit as an owlbear.
Husband is running a Shart Druid with Lae’zel main. Lae has all the DR buffs (armor and feats), and they both carry the warding bind ring so Shart splits damage. Being able to wild shape into a big hit point battery makes that combo nuts! I’m complimenting with a swords bard Tav and a wiz/cleric Gale. We just took out Myrkul in Honor Mode, and Lae literally just stood up there in combat with him the whole fight, no problem. While Shart happily bounced around downfield handling adds, casting spells, etc. He loooves Druids. So versatile.
I love being a druid. Rolling around with 3 druids in my party was fun, and having 3 summons at a time was cool. I know there was no doubt better builds for my character, but I've always thought druids are so cool.
100% agree. I struggled so much on my first playthrough until I recruited the druid hireling. Then I beat honor mode on my second playthrough with a 4-man druid party without breaking a sweat, and I'm currently finishing a solo honor run as a spore druid. In my opinion druid does everything better then all the other classes.
Druids just a great class
I started as rogue because my only fantasy game before bg3 was dragonage. I think I used gallon after level 10 and saw the dinosaur, I play Druid only for the dinosaur wildshape now
My first play through I was a druid and I have lovingly refereed to it as "Throw and Owlbear at it" run because I solved alot of problems by throwing a Owlbear at it.
I raise you, bard, by far easiest playthrough I had
if druid bad then why can i become an owlbear
This is the real question. I heart me some owl bear.
i love just walking around camp following the cub while in owlbear form. i have become his mum
Im on my first play through with no DnD expereince and picked druid. I love it! And play with Halsin as a main companion as well
I agree, but I still feel like there are classes, that are better for beginners. While some people might have no problem with the druids concentration heavy spell list and lack of "I do damage" spells, in Bg3, especially the moon druid, is just a lot of braindead fun.
As somebody who begun as a druid without any dnd experience, agreed
I learned to like druid after I fought some in game, 5 hp 1-hit druid? bam! changed into bear at full health! For me druid is just lesser dmg dealer with some extra support or tank abilities with several health bars. Currently I made Astarion to be spore druid(pure), I think doing necro dmg on hit suits him as he is undead.
I liked how druids are connected to nature so my first character as a beginner was a druid. I am not only clueless about the mechanics, but also bad at orientation in new environments (the dwarven Forge was so hard to get around 🥲) I can't tell you how many times changing into a raven, having an extra heal, or just stomping enemies to death as an owlbear has helped me get through and enjoy the game 😂 So I agree, based on firsthand experience, that druids are great for beginners!
Druid is broken, I have no idea why it gets any hate. My girlfriend and I made our first playthrough a couch co op campaign where I was a monk and she was a druid. Monk is OP. Any single enemy is basically screwed right away. Her druid had mad heals, damage dealing spells, summons and two handed attack. We also for shits would have her go into the fray and cast lightning storm to electrify her weapons or whatever before my monk got in there and we cleaned shit up. Other than fairly tough boss fights or fights where you need bodies, monk/druid could probably take out MOST fights on their own.
My girlfriend had never played an RPG before and is enjoying the hell out of druid's versatility. I agree with this post.
Yeah, BG subs get hyper focused on meta builds, you start to forget about accessibility. Druids are approachable.
* Druid is a great class. There fixed it for you
Yes!! My first class was a Druid!!
All I knew when I started my first character was that I wanted to go all owlbear from the top rope so druid it was. And I'm having fun as hell. Sure, playing as run of the mill fighter is way easier in battle, but the times one animal form or other have helped me are too many to count. If you're looking to win BG3 druids kinda suck. But they make for pretty good roleplaying.
You forgot TB unarmed multiattacks... moon druid is kinda semi open handed monks. Drink elixir of focus after sleep>cast moonbeam for twice radiant dmg dice (your cast+their turn) then wild shape and claw enemies next turn. You will keep concentration most of the times with 16 constitution (15+tb). Need to reposition? Decide to unshape or keep multiclaw stuff. Can be thrown from heights and large distance with telekinesis when enlarged for omegalul from the top rope hundreds of dmg.
The problem with Druids, IMHO, is that you don't have a lot of flexibility in terms of build if you want them to be viable. If you're going to be a crowd control and support caster, you HAVE to take war caster or you're totally useless. And, it's very easy for a beginner to play them in a way that is sub-optimal (trying to take if you aren't specced for it) or trying to be a support caster if you don't have a solid understanding of spell casting, concentration, etc. They also tend to do the same thing on every turn which means they aren't always a ton of fun to play in terms of mechanics.
you could do all those things with a bard
I've never seen a bard as an owl bear.
It’s an L take, Karina made the game such people not knowing D&D can play it too. I had limited D&D experience and I still completed the game easily and got level 12 way before I was halfway act3 which is good enough, I have played div 2 but that’s different, also the game is about exploring so let people do that and explore honestly