Summary

• Wild shapes in D&D are versatile, but DMs can counter with damage bursts to balance the game.
• Druids using animals for espionage could be thwarted by intelligent enemies in the campaign.
• Understanding druid subclasses helps DMs create challenging encounters tailored to each player.

Druids are famous in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons for their versatility. They can be great support options, decent tanks at lower levels (especially Circle of the Moon druids), and cause a lot of damage. While the player will have to choose which of these they'll focus on, they'll still be able to do the rest decently.

Despite all their power, they're not the biggest threat to you as a Dungeon Master, even if they make things easier for the players early on. Still, between stopping their magic, raw damage strikes, and other things, you can ensure the game is properly balanced for your druid player.

We're here to ensure our tips will help you to properly balance and challenge the game for your druid player. That said, using too many of these tricks at the same time or making the game too hard for the druid player all the time can make them not enjoy your game or even kill their character. We recommend only using these tips on occasion.

1 Fighting A Wild-Shaped♛ Dr🃏uid

Damage Bursts Work Well Here

The druid's most popular feature is their Wild Shape, an ability that lets them turn into animals they've seen before, which can go from small spiders to big bears. This feature is already pretty balanced, given the fact you must have seen the animal before (limiting rare creatures at first). It costs an action to transform, and the level of the creature is limited - though Moon druids can transform with their bonus action and take stronger creatures.

The most annoying feature here for the DMs is the fact the druid will essentially get a second health bar, meaning they can take a lot of extra damage depending on the creature they transform into. Wild Shape is also a class feature, not a spell or anything, so it's not something you can counterspell or prevent from happening in any way.

Our solution here is to give your enemy a feature that lets them cause a huge amount of damage whenever necessary. From a paladin's smite to a high-damage spell like Disintegrate (if the campaign is at a high level already), anything that causes absurd damage to a single target can revert the stronger forms quickly.

Despite Wild Shape's wording, instant-kill spells like Power World Kill will immediately kill the druid, not just undo the transformation. If your group is at a high level and can revive team members, go for it, but it's still worth noting.

2 Dealing With Wild Shape Outside O✤f Battle ꦫ

Intelligent Enemies Should Be Wary Of Animals

Another fun Wild Shape trick is infiltration and espionage. You can turn into a fly (or similar), enter whatever place you want to, and see what's going on there. It's a simple yet effective trick that should work in most places the druid goes, but not all of them.

In a world like D&D, where you can have animal familiars that report to someone, people who can speak to animals and get information from them, and the very druids we're discussing, a powerful enemy has many reasons to protect their dungeon from everybody, even the smallest of bugs. Don't be afraid to have magical traps in a high-level dungeon triggered by any creature, even a fly.

Characters who underst💛and the lengths magic can reach should be properly cautious of the presence of animals in a place, as they can be potential spies. Still, a fun alternative is to create an ability that lets your high-level boss differentiate an actual animal from a wild-shaped dꦚruid, only to make things slightly harder.

3 ꦯ ⛄ Pay Attention To Their Subclass

What's Their Specialty?

Regarding subclasses, druids have many distinct options, to the point that each subclass feels like a class of its own. While that makes them a very interesting class, it also makes things a bit more complicated, as you don't know what they'll be capable of immediately.

You can use low-difficulty encounters to see how your druid player deals with their enemies, and keep that in mind when elaborating on difficult𝕴 fights.

Moon druids, as mentioned before, focus on their Wild Shape, making their transformations stronger than any other druid. Land druids have a wide range of spells an෴d can recover spell slots more easily than most. Spore druids can cause a lot of damage and create an army of zombies, too.

Wildfire druids a🧸re a fun mix of damage and healing and come with a unique companion. Star druids are also damage-dealers with some healing tricks up their sleeves. Dream druids are powerful supports, providing extra healing and protection for the group. Shepherd druids can protect the team well, too, have bonuses to their invocations, and will have an easier time than the others communicating with beasts.

4 𒅌 Dealing With Spellcasters

Counter Them And Hit Them

Outside their Wild-Shape shenanigans, druids are a spellcaster class at heart, meaning you deal with them similarly to how you would deal with a wizard, for example. When a character's focus is spells, you can prevent them from happening or hit them as hard as possible.

The best option you have at your disposal is Counterspell, as you can use a mere reaction to annul the druid's action, preventing a powerful spell from happening in the first place. Knowing which spells they have to make sure the material components that cost money aren't super easy to find is also a way to control how often these spells will happen. Constant fights without rest is also a good way to force them to manage their resources.

Focusing on the druid and taking them down is another way to ensure they won't cast spells, and this is particularly useful if they have a concentration spell active. Letting them be in Wild Shape is also a curious gamble since they won't be able to cast spells like this (though if they cast a concentration spell before transforming, they can keep using it). Thus, depending on the situation, perhaps leaving the druid in their animal form is better.