Druids are the go-to masters of the natural world. For a Dungeons and Dragons campaign taking place in the wilderness or focusing heavily on exploration, keeping a druid around is definitely worthwhile. Despite their designation as a spellcasting class and their inability to wear metal armor, druids are a well-rounded addition to the party.
Not to mention that due to the nature of Druidic Circles, a player can customize their character even further to make sure they are invaluable assets to the team. No matter the terrain, a well-built druid can surely earn their place at the gaming table.
10 They Can Communicate With Animals
Especially valuable in low level campaigns, a druid’s ability to communicate with animals is part of their primary appeal. They have early access to spells such as Speak With Animals, Animal Messenger, and Animal Friendship.
Using these spells can help parties avoid unnecessary battles, gather aid, or even find out information from places where they just cannot go safely. With some good dice rolls, they may even collect a temporary entourage of animal allies.
9 Or Be Animals Themselves
Starting at level 2 a druid can assume the form of an animal with their Wild Shape ability. In the process, they take on much of the stats of the animal they assume while keeping their own personalities, charisma, and intelligence. At higher levels, they can assume larger or more interesting creatures. With the right feat selection, they can even take the form of various monsters.
The best part? It counts as a spell-like ability rather than using a spell slot. This lets them slip into areas that would otherwise be blocked to them, or cause some intense panic when there’s suddenly a dinosaur in the middle of the mess hall.
8 Their Animal Companion Can Actually Help
Druids can have various animal companions which essentially take up the spot of another character. Depending on the choice made, they can have a permanent messenger, fighting companion, or even a mount. It could also give an in-game lore reason as to why nobody ever worries about food.
They are far more versatile than other spell caster’s familiars, and since they don’t have to do any special rituals or whatnot like the others, they don’t completely lose their minds if something were to befall them.
7 Using Plants In A Way No One Else Can
Less interested in animals and more interested in plants? Druids can do that too.
Starting at level 2, a druid can use the spell Locate Animals and Plants, which can be beneficial to locating food or key items. At 3rd level, they can Speak with Animals. Who keeps secrets better than the houseplant? Then finally the 6th level spell Transport via Plants allows a druid to literally fast travel at any distance within the same plane of existence.
6 No Secret Is Safe When You Have A Druid In The Party
While the party rogue and bard are masters of communication, gathering evidence from the people, druids can get anything else. That loyal dog is just itching to talk to someone who can understand it, and those trees are watching that secret rendezvous happening after dark.
Druids are generally overlooked for their information gathering and espionage capabilities, but they definitely have their own place in the world of secrecy.
5 The Druidic Language Is Theirs Alone
The only class allowed to learn Druidic is druid. They are forbidden to teach the language to anyone else, and doing so regardless strips their status from them. Having a druid on the team prevents wild secrets from being hidden behind a linguistic wall.
This grants access to an insanely valuable skill that would have been lost on that one shot NPC hidden in some out of the way location. After all, there are more important things to be doing than trying to run a fetch quest.
4 The Weirdest Races Can Be Player Characters
Everyone gets tired of playing the base races at some point. An excellent way to try out a new race is to make one a druid. Some sort of monster race suddenly becomes a herald of balance and fits well with the campaign.
Being able to put in a different race opens up the opportunity to some interesting plot points as well as opening the player’s mind to unique play styles. It allows the entire group to be enriched, as long as they don’t get too carried away with being a special snowflake.
3 They Are Not Limited By The Rules
The house rules still apply to them, but the rules of the world around them? They can be ignored. Their focus is on preserving balance, saving the ecosystem, being part of the world around them, and protecting life. That, or whatever their circle puts out for them. They care little for the laws of cities and find what is important to them through other means.
Generally speaking, even the religious in the bunch are going to be more interested in the higher calling of the world rather than what the Gods think.
2 Evil Druids Can Really Shake Up The Game
Evil druids have their place with the rest of the tyrannical and maniacal. Nature doesn’t have to all be about plants and animals. Death exists as well. Druids well within the Circle of Wildfire bring about destruction in order to foster new life.
Other druidic subclasses allow them to focus on blights and disease, granting poison and disease immunity within the Circle of Land. Anything can be twisted, and druids are no exception.
1 At Higher Levels, They Can Stop Aging
If the character is lucky enough to reach level 18, they are gifted with the ability Timeless Body. This grants the druid slower aging, thus allowing some shorter-lived races to keep up with some longer-lived ones. For plot heavy campaigns, this is essential to any long-running game.
Nobody wants to calculate age-related debuffs and consider age-related health concerns. If someone has made it all the way to level 18, chances are they are pretty invested on keeping the character around. So live on with 10 years only affecting age by 1 and keep that delicate natural balance in check.
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