I'm a sixth level circle of the moon druid. I cast Conjure Animals as my action and conjure two brown bears which I command to attack. Then I wild shape as my bonus action into a brown bear myself. I jokingly call it Bear Force One. All three brown bears can wreak havoc.

"Your out of wild shape druid! What are you gonna do now!?!" (Polymorphs into a Giant Ape) "oh shit!"

Just recently our Spore druid saved us from a total TPK by turning into a rat and running like hell out a murder hole in Pax Tharkus (Dragonlance) the rest of us got dusted by the BW of a Ancient Red Dragon. He then snuck back in and retrieved a pinch of dust and reincarnated 3 of the four characters. My monk was forcibly raised by the BBEG and was being tortured so he turned into a rat snuck into my cell, polymorphed me into a rat and we both escaped. Druids are the ultimate infiltrator

Action: Conjure animals; 8 wolfs Bonus action: Wild-shape; dire wolf

Well.... I do know a story of a Moon druid that decided turning into a goldfish while falling was a good idea....

For stat block purposes, a squirrel is just a rat with a climb speed.

In order to give my druid a wide variety of animals to shape into I made part of his backstory that he worked in a circus for awhile. All sorts of exotic creatures were on display.

My favourite druid moment was in a scenario where our party was setting up an ambush in a forest, so our druid climbed up into a tree and hid among the branches. He asked the DM when the enemy was directly below him and then jumped down while transforming into a bear.

Haven't been playing 5e for long but leaving the party speechless at low level by turning into a spider to crawl under a locked door or turn into a cat in the tavern to hear the town gossip has been a lot of fun.

Be druid. cast Mage Hand. Wildshape into squirrel. Flying speed of 30 feet.

Fill bag of holding with water, cast water breathing on the party, they don't need to hold their breath anymore 👌

Bear totem barbarian mix with circle of the moon druid sounds amazing. Raging polar bear.

Druids are amazing! Though dammit WotC should release more beast forms! The pickings are really slim at higher levels...

See I have always dug (heh heh rock puns) earth elemental's. I love burrow speed tremor sense and don't underestimate siege monster. I have literally broken castles in this form. Also my land shark routine, ten or so feet under ground and earth gliding around the battle seeing with tremor sense. Pop up long enough to make 2 slam attacks with reach so no opportunity attacks and then slide back under ground like a breaching great white.

I love playing a druid. My character once wildshaped into a Pleiosaur for an underwater battle (via a homebrew spell that gave me the knowledge I needed). Our shadowblade wizard rode my back into battle. It was amazing.

In playing a Circle of the Shepherd Druid, I've only used Wild Shape for combat once, and that was for a quick getaway. As for utility, Wild Shape is really only limited by what the DM allows, which is cool. Some of what's been said here applies to the Conjure Animals spell too, which is available to all Druids (of 5th level or higher) and is key to a Shepherd Druid build. As always, rock on Dudes!

Between y’all and Nerdarchy I wanna play a Druid now.

Moon Druid at LVL 2 can be a Giant Hyena! Most HP, and has rampage! This gives you an extra attack when you kill something.

I know I’m a year late for this, but for those interested in expanding their available wildshape choices thematically, here’s what I do at my table. All Druids of the circle are required to undergo a pilgrimage to discover a new animal form, spells, components, and information for the benefit of the circle. This has the following benefits: 1. it explains how Ghostwise or Lotusden halfling find themselves in different locations. 2. It expands gameplay as the Druids of the circle are required to return a semi-annually to learn and share new forms, information, spells and components. 3. And it gives both the player and the DM a very plausible rationale as to why the Druid is able to wildshape into exotic animals. I hope this helps! Stay wild, my friends!

Circle of the moon is really the best subclass for druid. It has the same number of spell slot so the druid can still heal, summon, or cast offensive or utility spells, but no over druid can be this good at fighting or explore new environment. It will never be the barbarian or the fighter for raw damage but the fact that your healer can protect himself in a fight or escape easily by flying is gold

Been playing the same Moon Druid through two separate campaigns now, naturally she's pretty high level. In the first campaign we entered a horse race, and figured out that we could buy a horse, have someone ride it while concentrating on Tensors Floating Disk, so the whole party could ride that, then whenever the horse got tired I, the druid, could turn into a horse. The race was an in-game four days long, and we won, due to this and some other shenanigans that involved an Otyugh Yo-Yo.

Wild Shape REALLY hits its stride when your DM starts bringing in expansions that add more dinosaurs and Monster Hunter monsters into the world. Great Jagras can outright *shut down* a lot of single enemies.

My Moon Druid has a mentor from the Circle who can change forms. When it does so, I have seen the shape and can transform into it at the appropriate level. Thus, my circle has an institutional memory of virtually all beasts. Also my base race is Eberron's Ghostwise Halfling. This subrace can use telepathy, so even in wild shape I can communicate with one nearby ally at a time.

You can get Adventure League legal flight at level 2 as a human druid. Get an owl familiar with Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster, then turn into a mouse and have it pick you up and fly you around.

It has been officially stated (through Sage Advice and the twitter feeds of the developers) that all racial features translate to Wild Shape forms except those that specify an actual body part in the description of the feature (not just the feature's name). As such, the Lizardfolk's *Bite* "Your fanged maw..." and *Natural Armor* "You have a tough, scaly skin...", or the Tortle's *Claws* "Your claws are natural weapons...", *Natural Armor* "Due to your shell...", and *Shell Defense* "You can withdraw into your shell..." features do not transfer to the Wild Shape (unless the form in question has those features). The Dragonborn's *Breath Weapon* and the Bugbear's *Long-Limbed* both count as racial features that do transfer to the Wild Shape, because even though the name might refer to something natural to the race, the description doesn't specify a breath sack or a stretchy limb. They even refer to the *Breath Weapon* in particular in those posts. You can look it up if you don't believe me.

My eyes lit up up when you guys mentioned a Dragonborne Druid, which one of my players is using. I thought his would be the only time I would hear of someone being a Dragonborne Druid! Its actually a pretty neat combination

I'm quite disappointed with the lack of variety at CR3 and higher. But I loved that video, gave me a lot of great advice for my level 5 moon druid to use next week. I think it'd mess me up if Monty was on the left and Kelly was on the right, though. 😅 Keep up the great work guys, I always love watching your videos!

With one level of monk, because you keep your wisdom score, you can use your unarmored defense to gain a buff to your AC even while in wild shape form.

I feel required to mention the Goldfish. 😂😂🤣

Awesome video! Sharing it with my wife now, she's playing a 5th level "Circle of the Moon" druid in my campaign and will love this :)

I think it's important to note also that at level 18, a Druid can cast spells with somatic and verbal components while in Wild Shape form, and that at level 20 a Druid can use Wild Shape an unlimited number of times per day. This is especially useful for the Druid of the Moon, who can then turn into elementals all willy-nilly just for the boost to Hit Points. And I really don't see any rule that says you can't Wild Shape into a Fire Elemental, rush into combat and get low on hit points, and then Wild Shape into a Fire Elemental to regain them. Nothing seems to say that you must revert to your normal form before using the ability again.

In my case I consider the "Beast" thing to be any monster with Int 5 or less and falls under the CR restraints, because I love diversity and hate pointless restrictions on classes meant to be liberating.

I DM'd an underdark campaign and the druid was awesome with the spider wild shape she accessed the upper levels of a dungeon with it cutting out whole levels of monsters and traps. She ended up instead of getting elemental wild shape getting the ability to turn into a unicorn, figured it was an OK tradeoff, and that's how her character ended, she lost herself to the Unicorn shape and lived as a unicorn forever, pretty great.

Super-Relevant, super-timely video for one of my players. Circle of the Moon Druid is a powerhouse at lower levels

I started playing a Protector Assimar Moon druid and am loving it so much. Although it would work out good even for a land druid. The extra radiant damage really helps the druid keep up with other classes in terms of damage after 5th level. And your enemies will learn to fear the Giant Glowing Flying Spider.

Thank you a lot for these series. Have been very insightful and helpful as a new player

I’ve learned about the druid monk multiclass as well. Regardless of what wild shape option you choose, you get an option for your bonus action in the form of martial arts, a guaranteed extra attack from the Extra Attack feature, a better AC in most cases, and a few other cool abilities. You could concentrate on a Wall of Fire and make a minimum of three total attacks on your turn, all of which are more powerful than usual from being in a beast form.

One of my fav tricks, was in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. When trying to repair the postern gate, I changed into the shape of a giant wolf spider, and covered the inside of the gate in webs, as well as the wizard casting mending to repair it. Then I used the same shape to scout throughout the town. Worked SO well.

Ghostwise Halfling Moon Druid. One of the funnest things I've ever done. The DM and I discussed it and decided that the Silent Speech ability could be used in beast form. Which allowed me to communicate with a single person while beast shaped. So when my party got into a scuffle with some crooked guards I was their trump card as I was the Barbarian's trained Chipmunk. I told him to fastball special me into the group of them and turned into a Brown Bear, crushing one of them with the force of my weight and then eviscerating the other with claws and teeth. Then later on I climbed up into the rafters of a ballroom which we knew was likely to be attacked while a party was happening and I dropped down onto some cultists as a giant spider. It took me right back out of wild shape but I crushed 3 of them instantly and it frightened the others seeing a giant spider falling from the ceiling.

There is an often overlooked but useful feature for the Moon Druid that you left out. At level 2, as a bonus action while in a wild shaped form, the Moon Druid can expend spell slots to roll 1d8 per slot level and regain hit points for the beast shape. At low levels especially, that can keep a crucial wild shape up just a little while longer.

These videos are amazing. Thank you so much for your content. Any thoughts on possibly talking about Circle of Dreams?

This was a nice concise and well organized video I can refer to if I play a druid. thanks.

I'm impressed you had the updated brown + to hit in your video after the WOTC updates

How have I missed this one! Understanding wild shape is something that’s holding me back from playing a Druid. Got no excuses now!

Thanks so much for this video! It was easy to understand and had all the info I wanted :)

Useful, detailed guide. Thanks!!

The druid I played was a Moon druid that i feared toward healing. I loved using the Gian Spider as my go to form for this since its poison was a reliable form of damage, and its web was a great defensive control option!

Nice summary, and well done differentiating between Circle of the Moon and other circles. I was a bit disappointed to not see any suggestions for multi-classing with a Moon Druid. It's pretty common to dip a level or two of Barbarian or Monk for the unarmored AC boost. Also Barbarian Rage makes for nice damage and defense boost. Other melee classes also have interesting multiclass potential. I also would have like to have seen a mention of Feats that are appropriate, like Resilient (CON) or Warcaster for those concentration checks you'll need (especially considering your low AC).

When you use wild shape to take a giant eagle form, can you catch an enemy take him up and drop off to kill him?

Get the magic initiate feat > Choose the wizard spell list > Grab Find Familiar > Conjure an owl > Wild shape into a Spider > Web yourself upon the back of the owl > Look through it's eyes as it flies around all the while still being able to telepathically communicate with it! XD *Note: The Owl has keen hearing, keen sight, and 120ft of darkvision. YOU'RE WELCOME!

I'm using this guide to play. As a complete novice .. I am loving the characters versatility.

Excellent run-through, very thorough! 😆

I'm playing my first druid and I just leveled up and had absolutely no clue how to do wildshapes and was extremely confused 😅 thanks for the help

I hate that line of: "if you have seen it" all DM's i have played at, me playing as druid, disregards that you are a druid, and never introduces the party to ANY bloody beasts, but expects you to "only beasts you have seen" Most DM's suck in this regard. Just make an 80 year old humand druid, " i have seen the world, i know nature. im level 1 because im old. lol

Mage Armor can be your early level Circle of the Moon's best friend. Bear AC of 13+

I'm currently loving my Dwarven Monk/Druid. I chose all my wild shapes for their mobility, or other senses, and all the monk abilities carry through. I get the monk speed bonus while wildshaped (which is just FUN when I can burrow as fast as lots of things run), can make unarmed attacks at monk damage rather than claw damage, and use ki points. It's been a blast.

I'm currently a level 6 Ranger Beastmaster who just took dual class into Moon Druid, can't wait to see how this combo will grow together!

Druids can use any of the dinos in Volo's Guide, assuming your DM allows it. That gives you access to some pretty good options at higher levels. The brontosaurus is a really good CR 5 option for example.

Great video DDudes! Do you guys have a video comparing Druid Wildshapa vs Polimorph Spell?

A couple of potential forms you skipped over: Deinonychus (CR 1) Allosaurs (CR 2) Brontosaurus (CR 5) Also I made good use of pairing casting a spell with the bonus action Wild Shape of the moon druid. During the final battle of the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, on my first turn I cast Earthquake and then turned into a Brontosaurus.

Pretty timely. I'm having trouble deciding between playing a Moon Druid or a Lore Bard for my first 5e game.

I'm playing a circle of the moon with our kenku rogue riding him into battle it helps getting that advantage to attack rolls and the chance to knock the target prone.

Oh this the Dudes, I thought YT was recommending the Nerdarchy video twice in a row but that one was on wildshape multiclassing not the feature itself.

Recently started a campaign with a Githzerai CoM Druid 2 / Divination Wizard X. So far he's just 2 Druid / 1 Wizard. At this point he has either invisible mage hand (up to a minute), or an owl familiar who can carry him around in his tiny wild shape forms. There's a two level delay for access to higher level wizard spells, but in exchange wild shape CR1 2x/short rest, light/med armor, shields, two druid cantrips, and some 1st level druid spells. Very versatile and great fun so far.

Love you guy's and thank you for all wonderful content. Got a question how would you lower the stats/cr rating of a creature so the moon druid could change into say giant ape which is cr7?

Honestly the curve of wild shape makes sense. On early levels (until 4 or 5 maximum) you are still in human level, and we as human just CANNOT face a crocodile in mano-a-mano. But someone at lvl 15? That is pratically a demigod to common folk, an animal wouldnt be much problem for someone who can be compared to Heracles. Also Kelly mentioned elephant warfate and thats true, kings in India would ride them as sign of power, and Hannibal actually manage to take elephants to invade Rome itself, crossing the alps

My go-to early wild shape is a Panther. A cr 1/4 giving you a blitzing 50ft movement speed with a 40ft climb. As well as a pounce that if you land a claw attack after running straight 20ft, if the target fails a strength saving throw, they fall prone and now you get to make your bite attack as a bonus action at the prone target, giving you a situational multi-attack. They also make great trackers/hunters with advantage to any scent based perception checks.

Summoning 8 stench kows and Wild Shaping into a 9th can be a hilariously effective combination.

I've started to play a Circle of Spores druid very recently in a new campaign and i think the wildshape im most excited about trying out is the Elk. Not the giant variety mind you, just a normal elk. 3d6+3 damage and a chance to knock the target prone by just charging at them seems absolutely incredible compared to what most characters are able to pull off at level 2. Also the Giant Wolf Spider for its great climbing speed and +7 to Stealth.

I've been Druiding for several months now after being exclusively Warlock, and I've had a few good experienced with Wild Shape. The first time Wild Shape saved my ass was when our newly second-level party was deliberating how to descend, horses and all, into a deep valley. We had some bizarre ideas that included using Move Earth to create a dirt elevator. We decided to simply climb down using ropes and taking the animals around the long way. However, I had a disastrous roll and fell off of the rope. The fall would have killed me outright, but I used Wild Shape to turn into a very small insect, reminding the DM that it doesn't matter how far an insect falls, they don't ever get hurt since they are so light. I believe I got a point of inspiration for that. Just recently I used a similar move when our party was leaping from a crashing spaceship (long story). One of use cast feather-fall on us all, but I again rolled terribly and somehow didn't get the effect. I saved myself by turning into a flea and burrowing into the fur of my faithful mountain goat. Not quite as fortunate, but something that has become something of a legendary move in our group, is the Tactical Bear Strike. My Moon Druid had justifiably become quite fond of the Brown Bear form, using it often in combat. We had followed a mysterious person to some rooftops of dubious structural integrity. On the top of an adjacent and slightly taller building we saw some baddies. To get up there we devised that our shield-bearing dwarf would use his shield for our small tiefling to bounce off of and gain access. I followed and, in my excitement, became a giant-ass Brown Bear mid-leap. The roof collapsed. Everybody fell through both floors of the house. The baddies were killed. An innocent occupant of the house was killed. It was awful, but effective! Moon druid is definitely the way to go. I play another Druid that is Circle of the Shepherd and...well...he sucks. He's had one super crowning moment of awesome with his summon, but it was only due to an amazing roll and a ridiculous idea that no DM in his right mind should have allowed.

Nice guide, thanks! What do you guys think of Healing Spirit?

Never played a druid before, finally made a fun moon druid so this is really nice :)

Awesome guide

I hope think one of my shining moments wild shaping into a Giant Spider was when my party and I were dispatched to the "northlands" of our campaign and we had to hike and traverse mountains and a blizzard (in which I rolled a Nat 1 on Constitution and lost a toe lol). During the session we had to scale a mountain which we thankfully came prepared for with climbing equipment. During this our Halfling Rogue and Shield Guardian whom she was bonded to were forced to make a dexterity save. Of all things, the Shield Guardian succeeded, but our Rogue (who is absolutely notorious for never getting downed save once early in the campaign) rolled a Nat 1 and was blown off the cliff face. Thankfully, my Moon Druid who was shifted into a Giant Spider was busy supporting our climbing ropes and such with my webs when this happened. In the moment of desperation, I fired my web and caught our Rogue as she was falling, saving her from what would've most likely been a fatal fall. Point being, Giant Spider is dope 😂

I know this is a bit old but id love to see more about wild shape. What are some of the best concentration spells to pair with it? What martial class features (like rage and divine smite) have cool synergies with it? How does the later long duration of wild shape interact with a short rest?

Very helpful videos!

subscribed all your videos all been very helpful

Hey Dudes. First of all. Thanks for all the awsome vids you make. Learning alot from you guys. I´m just wondering... I play a Moon Druid in a Wildemount campaign, lvl 3. I´m thinking about multiclassing with cleric. How would that work? Or would it even work? Peace out

I really enjoyed causing "stampedes" by casting conjure woodland beings then using wildshape. Summon a bunch of bulls or horses and run over your enemies. Even better at higher levels with the rhino.

Out of combat in a farm town, turn Into a pig, no-one expects Sargent mud snuffles

The Druid in the game I'm running has made excellent use of the Flying Snake form. After level 8 they had several games where they were fighting large groups of enemies and she was able to take one out every attack because the poison for the Flying Snake has no save. It just does 3D4 damage every hit as long as the enemy isn't immune or resistant. It also has flyby and a decent, for a beast, AC so is pretty maneuverable in combat. Very low HP but she's done very well with it.

Quetzalcoatlas is the best flying beast form imo i always play a lizardfolk from chult that turns into onky dino , reptile, and amphibian forms and this is my go to flyer for sure!! Also the name is based on the Aztec and Mayan feathered serpent god of creation.

Volos guide gives you the Brontosaurus for high level moon druids. More hit points than an earth elemental, proficiency in Con saves, and its a gargantuan creature. Also, casting such spells as Sunbeam lets you turn into a Megazord. It’s so much fun.

I have for a Cures of Strahd I played a half wood elf (Variant Weapon Uses) moon druid with the haunted one background. He did not study for his druid powers they are natural also. He was attacked my a a weird wolf and thinks he may be cursed . I would i see a bow starting out shouting arrows or later would skin change them into flaming arrow using produce flame also I used the Primal Savagery cantrip to claw creatures that got in melee. The DM also let me skin change an Ape into a "Werewolf" form.

My main issue with Wild Shape is the lack of high-CR beasts to turn into for Circle of Moon. At CR6, there's just the Wooly Mammoth, but where are the dinos? the Dires? When I DM, I allow Druids to transform to more powerful, idealized, versions of animals they already turn into. To go from Wolf to Dire Wolf, it's just an increase of a couple ability scores. The 'apex' form of the wolf, the 'Primal Wolf' if you will, an idealized manifestation of every myth and legend about wolves brought forth from the outer planes is even bigger, faster, stronger and hits harder, but his abilities are still basically 'wolf, just supercharged'. This lets Circle of the Moon Druids still consider their shape-shifting relevant, without having to shoehorn themselves into a specific shape or two just because there's no statblock for what they want to turn into.

You give us a lot of great info on wildshapes that are good tactically & strategically, but some shapes a great for the simple fun of them. Say we've a few miles to hike in front of us, that's just too much effort, I'll change into a cat and curl up to ride in the hood of the fighter's cloak. Wake me up when we get there.

Adding your levelled proficiency to the wild shapes gives some forms a bit more use in terms of a ToHit bonus. It seems like a grey area rules wise but can be argued logically since you use your forms like other classes use their weapons. Also, the forms would be proficient in the use of their own natural weapons. For added fun, add an (ear)ring of protection for bonus AC in wildshape and a belt of strength for added DMG in shape as well as all shapes use STR as their DMG stat.

Nice video on wildshaping, which is way convenient as mine just hit level two....however I went Circle of the Land and it is nie impossible to find guides on this path. Any chance of seeing one on the other PHB Circle? : )

One I haven't been able to do myself but have discussed with a friend of mine in a hypothetical scenario: Party is attempting to destroy an enemy camp, but outnumbered. Druid transforms into a skunk (using one of the common homebrews, as technically they aren't in the manual) , Rogue tricks the enemy camp into congregating in a 'kill box', Druid sprays the entire enemy camp at once (the specific homebrew had a cone or AOE spray), weakening them for the party and giving the party an advantage.

We house ruled a small change to wild shape if you have a flight moving speed you can shift to fliers and if you have a swim speed you can shift into swimmers but you get the worse of your speed or the forms speed.

I’m a frequent Druid, (it’s my favorite class) and one of my favorite things to do besides using my wildshape for Tanking in Combats is also the utility abilities, our ranger crit failed an attempted assassination from a ledge and since the arrow never shot and the bow string snapped I wild shaped into a Horse and let him use Horse Tail hair to restring his bow, BE CREATIVE with the utility animals have to offer, Poisons and Venoms, Feathers or Hair for Bows and Arrows! Possibilities are Open!

Elemental Forms are costly but there is a secret to getting 2 in one combat. Short rest as a Fire Elemental. Roll the Fire Elemental's hit dice and recover your uses of wildshape still. So enter the fight, run in dealing tons of damage and tanking. After you lose the form, drop down your big concentration spell then Elemental form again!

Quetzalcoatlus is a pterosaur! Not dinosaur but just a huge flying reptile :) But good to know that they are in the handbook!!

Awesome vid guys

Was playing a druid and was glad to find that I could maintain concentration while shape-changed. Cast pass without a trace for our rogue while he was on a stealth infiltration then changed into a mouse and hid in his pocket for the duration.

Had so much fun playing a moon druid recently. DM threw some trolls at us, which would have been a tough encounter, but for my fire elemental shape making short work of them. Trolls ended up using most of their actions just trying to put out the fire and didn't get in much offense. Oh, and if you go earth elemental, it's only right to shout, "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!"

For more wildshape options, use the half dragon template, at the cost of 2 CR you get a breath weapon resistance two additional vision types and the draconic language to any pre existing beasts. A giant blue half dragon scorpion sounds crazy.

Great video, thanks! Just to make sure of something! Keeping the better saving throw or ability modifier if your natural form is better... Does that include AC? A Druid Wood Elf with 20Dex, gaining +5 AC, turning into a brown bear which has ac11 and 10 dex, would your AC be 11 or 16? Thanks a lot for the help in advance!

My favorite wildshape was when my druid joined a group back in the RPGA days. We were fairly low level and traveling cross country. My character was pretty much leading them as no one else had much survival skills. We reach the stop were are going to camp and everyone is worried that something might come alone. They are all coming up with plans to try to protect the camp. DM asks what I'm doing. I said "I take out a blanket and drops it on the ground." Everyone was looking at me like is he going to sleep out in the open? "I then wildshape into a badger and start digging a burrow... 5' under the ground and 10' back." The last thing the group sees is the badger coming back out of the hole, grabbing the blanket in his mouth, and pulling it back into the hole. Everyone was like... well he's safe for the night... but what about us?

Thanks for this video! I'm planning play with a druid. Does anybody knows if in the 5e there is a prestige class like "master of many forms", back on 3.5e?