Summary 1: Tortle. PB: 14/10/14/10/15/8. Druid 1: Perception, Nature, Guidance, Thorn Whip, Entangle, Goodberry, Detect Magic, Detect Poison & Disease. Hermit: Poisoners Kit, Wooden Shield, Scimitar, Totem. 2: Druid 2: Spore, Purify Food & Drink 3: Druid 3: (Purify Food & Drink), Pass without Trace, Spike Growth, (Detect Poison & Disease), Thunderwave 4: Druid 4: ASI Wisdom x2, Primal Savagery, Healing Spirit, Locate Animals & Plants 5: Druid 5: Conjure Animals 7: Druid 7: Polymorph, Conjure Woodland Beings 9: Druid 9: ASI WIS x2, (entangle), Absorb Elements, Commune with Nature, Wall of Stone, Conjure Elemental 11: Druid 11: Frostbite, Heal, Bones of the Earth 13: Druid 13: Warcaster, Plane Shift, Reverse Gravity 15: Druid 15: Antipathy/Sympathy, Tsunami 17: Druid 17: Resilient Constitution, Foresight.

NOTE: Symbotic Entity only triggers on melee WEAPON attacks. Primal Savagery is a melee SPELL attack.

“Tortley Mossome video!” -NYTimes “Treantmonk’s video was Sporific!” -Dallas Observer “He’s such a Fungi!” -D&D Beyond Great build Chris!

My absolute favorite combo, and honestly reinforces an old gag: Druid: "I have Class Features stronger than entire Classes!"

I hope Myconid's will eventually become an official player race for something like this since Myconid Druid Circle of the Spore works great thematically and systematically to how well all the spore abilities work together you don't need to talk normally so no one will hear you or your allies talk strategy since you communicate telepathically and since people can't see spores they don't know they're being surrounded by a swarm of invisible spores that will eventually take root in a victim bringing them back as a spore servant to do your bidding

I feel like these restrictions are a bad idea. They just push players towards stronger classes that don’t get touched by them and completely kneecap warlocks for no reason.

This is a great build. Very cute and extremely resonant. It's so easy to imagine this character in the mid-levels, hiding out in their shell while their zombie/conjured army runs all over the battlefield. I have the same puzzled feeling as you every time I read the Tortle's age description. It doesn't really mean much, but I'm just stuck wondering why... I also really liked the meta-analysis and the discussion about the nature of optimizing. One other thing that I think is worth communicating very clearly: all options exist and must be analyzed relative to one another. A "good" option is only good in comparison with other options, and the same is true of "bad" options. If you take away the best option, it doesn't mean there is no best option anymore, it means that a different option is now best. This is something I think most people who are really interested in optimizing understand almost intuitively, but I think a lot of other people can struggle with.

I super appreciate that you approach creating your characters conceptually first. It's a great combination of story & mechanical excellence.

What i learnt from this (besides the excellent build) You cannot take the optimancy out of THE Optimancer!!

Chris you’ve been providing me with free content for many years and I have been listening to a number of your videos again and just wanted to give a small token of my gratitude. Thank you for honestly being two of the best parts of my week friend.

Damn. Why haven't tortles conquered the World yet? Each adult tortle has what is equivalent to banded mail and is stronger than a human on average. Get 100,000 of them together and they'll chew through any army without artillery or magical support. XD

Great build, fantastic commentary on optimisation. Now I want to play a Spore Druid, too

This is really cool! It’s great to see a Druid build that isn’t just a generic, tree hugging, WOW rip-off Druid. Your Tortle Spore Druid seems like a really well rounded and versatile character!

Chris, I’ve been checking out a lot of your previous videos between current uploads. Always such great content! Thank you for top tier build guides, rankings, and news.

Tortledruid is pretty close to Treantmonk lol

Nice video. Hope you'll make the Circle of the Land Druid build, soon. Edit: I'd like to clarify why I'd love it if you'd make such a build. Imo, the Circle of the Land Druid is the most underrated kind of Druid. Which sucks, because seems to me this type of Druid fits the "God" playstyle perfectly.

This sounds like such a great and fun build. I'd never thought I'd consider to play a tortle, but now I can totaly see me playing this one. Thanks :)

Did you look over the fact that part of the Circle Spells that Spore Druids get is Chill Touch? Thus getting that “ranged cantrip” you were speaking of?

Looks like a fun build. Was surprised to not see Flame Blade. While Flame Blade may not be a panacea, it scales up ok and can result in fairly decent melee output. I figured it would be part of a melee focused build.

Love to see this build updated with the one dnd rules, lots of new options for the melee Druid.

knocked that challenge out of the park. nicely done!

Merry Christmas! Another great vid 👌

Tortle druid build starts at 8:42

I am currently playing a spore druid. Loving it so far.

I just started playing D&D again and so far I’ve taken an affinity towards marshal class characters. I LOVE how much thought you put into your caster builds, and they seem like a ton of fun! With that said, would you mind doing one or two videos on creating melee or archer builds? Here is a couple ideas I had, that I don’t think are necessarily original. - Gloom-stalker Ranger (5) + Rogue Assassin. (15) Human Variant. - Half-Orc Champion Fighter for HO Savage Attacks & CF 19/20 to Crit + Barbarian (2 levels for Reckless Attack. 19/20 Crits + Advantage at will + extra damage on Crits! *Edit:* I forgot to include polearm master for an extra attack as a bonus action, and extra opportunity attacks. More attacks = more Crit opportunities. I love your builds so I’m dying to see what you can do with a martial class!

Nice build. Cool that someone made a charitable donation.

I kinda overlooked some of the cool aspects of both the spore druid and the tortle on the first pass. Thanks for reminding me and giving my evil PC brain new ideas.

This is pretty solid even in an environment without those restrictions

Great vid! I love pet/minion classes esp. necromancer themed. I’m not a huge fan of the age limitations for tortles either. It doesn’t make sense seeing as turtles can live much longer life spans irl. Buuut it does give a cool thematic motivation as to why the character is dabbling in necrotic magic. Maybe it’s a tortle who is aging and nearing the end of its life and wants to preserve its sentience for much longer, thus accepting the Druidic circle of the spores. Seems like an alternate lichdom story taken from a more natural approach.

Several sessions at level one?! Dear gods, that sounds awful. Admittedly I go with milestone leveling over experience points, but my understanding is that the rules expect you to level up to 2 in one session, to 3 in two more sessions, and each subsequent level requires three more sessions. As fun as low level play is, I can’t imagine being so limited for so long. That said, thanks for making the Tortle fun!

Love that they changed it from poison to necrotic! Lol. Gonna be playing this guy soon. :)

10:16 To be fair, average age is not representative of total possible age. You could interpret this as the large infant mortality of tortoises/ turtles dragging down the bell curve and just homebrew that a Turtle who does not take a mate can live for up to 180 years (a more accurate age for a tortoise creature)

BUT tortles ! They are a clutch to the spore druid, simply because it's the best way to have high AC with a druid. I'd love to have a non tortle medium/high AC spore druid.

Really like this one! I dunno if they've changed in more recent publications, I've not been playing D&D for a few months, but I had a concept for a Warforged Spore Druid that was similar to this conceptually. Agree that the restrictions are a bit strange and don't really accomplish much.

As one of the feats I would take past level 10, would be magic initiate. That would allow me to choose spells that would be more interesting to kind of help with the fact that level 8 spells are kind of boring. I would also consider sunblast there as well. The warcaster feat may be the best swap here. Shilleleigh may be a good option once you take your first asi in wisdom. Constitution asi may also help here to help boost the amount of damage you can take. This build could be melded into some other subclass just by recognizing that subclass' core themes.

I wish this build was AL legal. The spore Druid is in Tashas and the tortle is Xanathars. Love your builds

His tone of voice is so much more pleasant and less judgmental sounding in these old videos. Strongly prefer them.

I think it's a tortally mossome character, at least mechanically. Being able to concentrate while turtled is pretty amazing. Especially with summons.

Tbh while some loose restrictions can be fun to make something play a bit differently. More so I find it fun to look into less used subclasses and or feats and look for weird combos. Like one I'm planing on trying is running cavilier with flail and shield mastery. It's sword and board but at least now it gets some utility against large and smaller enemies with the sheer amount of prone saves you can herl out. There is room to improve and all, I've been pondering if mobility later on is worth the asi due to it synergizing with the cavs charge ability. A example of at least looking to overlooked subclasses and feats can interact.

You have an interesting outlook on spell choice that is quite a bit different than how I think about spells. Is it part of your optimizaiton? You tend to look at the spell list and say "I will cast goodberry and entangle, so no other non-ritual spell is worth-while. I will select rituals for my other preparations." Whereas, I look at spells and think "I might want to cast an entangle, but what if they're getting advantage on us and a fog cloud might be useful or maybe I think a faerie fire might be more valuable," and I tend to choose multiple spells to give myself more "options" in combat. Is your spell selection part of your optimization or a style choice? Would I be just as effect in combat with spell choice like yours?

18:53 Since you get Chill Touch at level 2, you will have your ranged damage dealing cantrip for free. I'd personally go for Shillelagh, wielding a quarterstaff. It goes nicely with the extra damage from Symbiotic Entity at early levels, since you will use your Wisdom instead of Strength as a modifier.

A Celestial Pact Warlock at 6th level gets a bonus to radiant and fire damage equal to their charisma modifier. A Celestial Pact Warlock using Sacred Flame and Fire Bolt isn’t that much behind a warlock using Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Blast is definitely better, but a Celestial Pact Warlock who doesn’t use it isn’t completely crippled. Every other Warlock except the Hexblade on the other hand, I agree with you on how crippled they are without Eldritch Blast.

U are just the best creator there is

Very cool in depth look at spore druid! Do you think taking Shillelagh and foregoing strength, but picking up polearm mastery would allow for a greater melee build? That extra 1d6 poison per attack and that extra 1d6 force from guardian of nature looks tempting!

I saw the "Rules" for the build and instantly thought Shadow Sorcerer, Hexblade Warlock, Any Paladin, Necromancer Wizard, and if it isn't AL Artificer. Be creative. I look for the exploits because AL has so many rules to "Balance" the game. Now I want to make a Hexblade Tortle.

I actually played a Sportle recently and i gotta say, that xd4 per reaction really adds up over time when you're lvl 3. I mean you don't have much else to spend it on anyway. And that AC with a shield makes you virtually unhittable at such a low lvl

Nice. Turtle is my favorite DnD race. So many classes get an instant buff just for taking this race. 19 AC at level 1? Yes please.

if you could take feats before level 10 with this build, what level would you take them at instead? I'm also trying to limit the summoning spells to the ones that come with the circle of spores to limit the bogging down of combat you mentioned. Would this build work okay if I picked some different spells instead? I wanted to stick more to the death theme so I picked some of the insect ones.

I like this druid of spores have you ever thought of doing a multi-class of monk and druid sorry if you already have one. I was thinking druid of spores with spike growth and thorn whip but do monk empty hand for the pushback into the spikes too IDK what do you think?

Nice, returning to the Savage Coast. Nice. Squirtle Squirtle Squirtle.

you did the full druid, now I will do the warlock after lvl 10 multiclass: as a real skulker choose dark elf. Point buy should get this block: str8-dex16-con14-int8-wis12-cha16 10 levels hexblade pact of the blade Invocations: devils sight thirsting blade eldritch smite relentless hex one with shadows the spells that are needed/preferred: booming blade cantrip (green flame blade for multiple enemies) darkness (in case the drow free one is used up) hex (in case hexblade's curse is used up) shadow blade both asi used to get cha to 20. level 11 to 13 into soul sorcerer (2d4 on a save or attack is the reason for soul, but any is fine) choose subtle and quickened spell 14 to 17 into assassin rogue for crits on a surprise and feat warcaster 18 to 20 back to sorcerer to get some more spell slots and sentinel feat. so final result is warlock10 rogue4 sorcerer6 it plays like this: sneak around with the darkness. When you arrive at 30-35 ft of an enemy use one with shadows on yourself. only an ACTION or MOVEMENT will get you spotted. bonus action for 5th level shadow blade. bonus action for hex curse. bonus action to teleport 30ft towards the target. STILL INVISIBLE AT THIS POINT. then when it is your turn you can make 2 weapon attacks with advantage, autocrit on a hit, and a quickened booming blade as a bonus action. the damage is 4d8*2 attacks+2d6sneak+10 (cha)+7d8(shadow+booming blade)+5. then add a 5th and 2 3rd level smites for another 14d8 damage and you get a crit worth 58d8(29 uncritted)+4d6+15=285 damage on average. And if the creature tries to willingly move it: 1 triggers the booming blade effect for 4d8 damage and 2 enables me to make a 2nd booming or green flame blade with advantage for 7d8+2d6+5 (44) damage on impact. But hey it is thunderbolt and eldritch blast that are broken so this is perfectly fine. Even though this character is strongest at 20th level, it should at least be on par with the martials at any level. Since 4 of the invocations are level 5+, between levels 2 and 5 something like fiendish vigor would be in place. Furthermore, until the armor of hexes kicks in at level 10 the hexblade is somewhat vulnerable, so it's possible to use tomb of levistus up to level 10, although it's ac should outdo a rogue and they can also make do.

Really enjoyed this video, thank you! I'm having trouble picking Circle of Spores in dndbeyond--doesn't show up in the list of choices for Druid. Suggestions on what character creation settings and/or purchased content I need for Circle of Spores to be an option?

Someone else said it as well, but I'll say it too. Please make a land druid build! They definitely don't get enough love, and I wonder what your take on it would be. I really like my witch (swamp druid + magic initiate for find familiar).

I would love to see a video where you make your version of the circle of spores druid.

Running point buy with a Hill Dwarf I end up at 8/14/20/10/20/10 with 263 Hit Points (+4 Con, +4 Wis, Tough feat & average HP) or a Tortle with 16/8/20/8/18/10 & 243 Hit Points (+4 Con, +2 Wis, Durable & Tough feats & once again average HP). In either case I play the character as a perpetually high AF hippie with a strong Canadian accent (including excessive use of the word "Hozer") who's very kind, supportive & encouraging but makes Grog from Critical Role look like Einstein (even though Grog has, like, 6 Int). The figurine I use is a druid with mushrooms growing all over him (Tortle & Dwarf each) with the entire thing painted black (no special color detail) as he channels a black, magical "fungus" or "mold" through his entire body. Whenever I turn a humanoid into a zombie I use a solid black Myconid figurine, as I'm flooding the entire body with mold & animating their remains. Once the zombies die, they "melt" into a puddle of black goo that immediately grows various plants & fungus. I even have names for all 3 of them: Dave, Davin, Dylan & Dale. Party leader gives a speech on what to do next, why it's so important & then asks for team input--but I just slowly look at him and go "Uh... huh?"

I just finished a campaign with a tortle at fighter5/druid12. Was a fun build with lots of versatility. I went batle master and it was amazing how often those maneuvers disarmed or proned my opponents. My character was equipped with a shield and spear, spartan style (dm liked the idea so he let me have a spear one handed). The shield was my father's shell. Hero forge realisation here: www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D6297273/ and Dnd Beyond sheet: ddb.ac/characters/15837525/6OYwJx We ended up with some pretty sweet gear through the adventure. This was my first full campaign of DnD and I loved it so much!

Combining this with monk would be a rediculous number of dice rolled!

I don't get the thing with greataxes. Sure your Half orc Barbarian loves those D12's on the Brutral Critical, but a D10 is going to on average do 1 damage less per hit, which I guess when you include all the critical stuff is another 4 or so damage you miss out on late game. But the 10ft reach on the Glaive, plus the ability to take Polearm master would massively offset that. Also not sure how that makes sense from a gameplay perspective either, would greataxes be banned by religious decree in the world they are playing in?

My half-elf celestial warlock fits this build really well.

When you shared what the challenge was, I kinda assumed it was less of a DM restriction situation and more of a “I’m tired of seeing these in builds, show me something different,” type of thing.

What are the chances of revisiting the spore druid for an optimized build from level one? Great video!

Awesome build! Dare I suggest it is made even stronger (as so many builds are) with a level of Hexblade? You’re kinda wasting the 16 in Strength anyway, so it’s easy to put those points into a 14 Chr instead. And look at all you get for the low low price of a level of delayed spell progression: - Cantrips! Booming Blade/GFB for a significant increase in melee attack damage, plus Minor Illusion or Mage Hand - Shield, for when you really, REALLY don’t want to get hit - A Hexblade’s Curse per short rest, plus a 1st level spell recharge - Hex Warrior mostly makes up for nerfing your Strength (and skipping Shillelagh) - Another 1st level Warlock spell - maybe Hex, or Armor of Agathys for even more THP between wild shapes, or a useful ritual like Comprehend Languages or Unseen Servant - Wrathful Smite might occasionally be worth a slot and your concentration - Finally, if the campaign goes all the way to 20th, Warlock 3 (esp. with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones) beats Druid 18-20 every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Hey Chris! Not sure if you will see this or not because the video is quite old, but I have watched this 4-5 times trying to get some ideas for a similar build I will likely be playing in an upcoming campaign. Mine will be a Lizardfolk and thus prioritizing DEX instead of STR. But I am also thinking about including a 5 or 6 level multi class of swarmkeeper to make better use of Symbiotic Entity. In your opinion, do you think it would be worth it to do so or would I be better off going straight Druid? Love all your content! Thanks!!!

I'm no joke running exactly this build in one of my main campaigns

I wonder if the gm would allow a bag of holding full of octopi? Need a zombie? Pull out an octopus, throw it on the ground, chill touch it, and boom you have a zombie.

You don’t have Patreon? You just went to the top of my list of D&D video contributors!

I THINK I can see kind of the idea behind the houserules. Not all of them, but some of them. I think the intended target of the house rules were optimized characters that are a pile of multi class features that don't really come online until later levels. Think, character that runs Paladin x Hexblade, dumping Str, so they have to make it through Paladin 1 with -1 to their melee attacks, for example, or that also adds Sorcerer 1 in there, so they aren't really getting any higher level features until at least character level 7 or 8. I think most of the things being banned were things that the person thought such characters could use as crutches until later level, like Moon Druids, or just coasting on Eldritch Blast damage, or characters that are assumed to have Warcaster, and thus use weapons, a shield, and spells from level 1. Uh, you got me on battle axes. That just seems like someone's campaign got ended early from 1 very lucky battle axe crit. I don't think those limitations actually accomplish that goal, but I think that was the goal they were supposed to achieve, hence the level-by-level snapshots, making sure the character isn't a useless pile of parts still missing the glue at any point.

Hey also spore druids get access to chill Touch 1d8 neurotic damage 120 ft the being you hit can't heal until your next turn and if it's undead they on top of no healing have disadvantage on all attack rolls

The max age thing bugged me as well, but the thing that really confuses me is how a Shield helps when they use shell defense? Are they leaning it against their shell for cover?

I would have chosen Speak with Animals as a ritual spell. Talk with the critters in swamps and the underdark. Would the Cantrip (Thorn Whip) allow you to use the bonus damage from Symbiotic Entity?

Why didn't you take Faerie Fire with this build? Given it's reliance on melee early on, FF would be great for this character.

(Stupid Idea) (Yes I have Made A Character For this) Going for the magic user that focuses on using the weaknesses of others against them in battle. Mainly focusing on maximizing cantrip damage along with the ranger feat that let's you find out the big three combat matters stats.

NOTE: Fungal infestation say IF a beast or humanoid dies within 10ft of you not WHEN a beast or humanoid die, so RAW you can use your reaction in another turn in case you use your reaction use Halo of spores

Any builds in mind for the Tasha's subclasses? I'm loving my Stars Druid, and want some inspiration for how cool the subclass feels.

I just made a level 3 Tortle Spore Druid for a one shot my friend ran. I wish I saw this.

I think the house rules are for getting rid of things that are picked too often, not that they're better than others

What about a Celestial Warlock Pact of the Tome using Firebolt (and using Sacred Flame when fighting some of the many enemies resistant or immune to fire)? Is that what the person made with their restrictions? Why is it so much worse than an Eldritch Blast Warlock? It frees you up to explore some of the other Warlock invocations since you're not using Hex Blade or Eldritch Blast, and it's a class feature (not an invocation) that lets you add your Charisma modifier to Fire Bolt and Sacred Flame damage. It only adds it once per attack, not multiple times, but its still pretty decent damage. At level 1, it gives you something very similar to the Paladin Lay on Hands ability - slightly less healing & less flexibility in how many HP to give, but with 60ft range as a Bonus Action instead of a the range of touch with an Action. And at level 10 it gives you a slightly worse version of the Inspiring Leader feat. But one of the big things is that by not using Hex Blade or Eldritch Blast, you get to use so many more invocations than a Warlock that is using a bunch of invocations to boost their Hex Blade or Eldritch Blast build.

you forgot that the spore druid gets chill touch automatically, probably could pass on frost bite and pick something else

Great challenge, best character build but your only allowed abilities and features that use a d20 and one other die. Weapons hit dice and spell must all use the same die type

What do you think about the level 10 ability not being usable if you don't have symbiotic entity up?

i truly have always homebrewed to a certain extent, not becuase the bases classes arent amazing. But becuase i take characters from the novels ive written, and cosmetically enjoy creativity over power

I was wondering, what your optimal Race pick would be for this character if you didn't have the restrictions that were given?

Do you still get the shield bonus when retracted in your shell? I suppose you could strap it to your back just prior to retracting. 😜🐢

the harrengon age is arbitrarily long aswell. they live a centuary. i feel these were mixed up.

Sportle.

what do you think about tortle wizard? great ac w/o a spell and lets you have the withdraw as an option for important spell you're focusing on, espesially when you don t need to hold up counterspell.

As misguided as this whole build "challenge" was, it still reminded me about something I was hoping to see on here some day. Do you have any suggestions for a character that is already multiclassed by Lvl 5 and that can compete with a solo classed character at that level within Adventurers' League rules? I go to a convention every year that runs 1 shot Lvl 5 campaigns that I love to play in. That said, I frequently find that any player who tries to multiclass for these ends up significantly weaker than the other players due to a lack of multiattack or 3rd level spells. I've puzzled over this for a long time, but I can't seem to come up with any multiclass that is competitive at this level. I guess to put it another way, the challenge would be this: -A 5th level character -Adventurers' League legal. -At least as viable as an optimized character of the same level that did not multiclass. The closest thing I've managed is a Moon Druid 2 / Totem Barbarian 3 for pure tanking while still getting a second attack, but even that struggles to compete with something like Moon Druid 5 that can just summon more animals to help tank instead of just sponging up the damage alone.

What is your opinion on the Primal Savagery cantrip? Any comments on that friend?

You've made lemonade out of lemons! Except the lemonade is poisoned... Make a Con save. Seriously though, 19 AC at 1st level? That's Fighter type AC. I'd make this character a devotee of Zuggtmoy and lean into being a creepy old crazy Tortle hermit.

How well does this hold up with the Tasha's Cauldron of Everything version of the Spore druid?

Slightly disappointed it’s not called sporturtle

great axe is specifically to counter the brutal critical that high level barbarians get, rolling 1 extra die. but as the greataxe is most 'optimal' for barbarian, the greatsword is more optimal for the rest.

Huzzah! I know this is a year old video. But, playing this character in a game with no such restrictions, would you recommend a dip into another class - and if so, what class? I was thinking a 1 level dip into cleric, just unsure of the subclass. Everything is open to be used, tashas, etc.

Can we call Wild Shape, Spore Shape for the spore druid since you aren't transforming into an animal, Spores wrap around your body to protect you

Hi Chris, how would you optimize a spore druid (no holds barred)? There were some big restrictions put on the spore druid build by the sponsor. Cut loose, what you do?

Phanaton Build When?

Random question pertaining to fungal infestations... Do the zombies have a max health above 1 to which they might be restored??? Small zombie forest armies rise across the nations!!!

The problem is being prone in the shell yes the plus four to AC is helpful but it’s mitigated by attackers having advantage to hit.

How did you get those modifiers for saving throws? The ones from being in your shell? I don't see the option to add them.

So does Shell Defense also get to add the shield to AC? Are we talking 23 AC at lvl 1? Or would it be 21?