Flagship Build: Circle of the Shepherd Druid

Author: pandaniel / Lilith

Our Flagship Druid shares many traits with our Basic Build Druid. They have the same subclass, share many spell picks, and feats. The Flagship Druid will also prefer to play at a distance in combat with its control and support capabilities. Early in the game, we will fill the role of a control caster with other very effective forms of support. In Tier 2, we will use the combination of conjure animals and Bear Spirit to become an all-around powerhouse, capable of offense, control, and support all at the same time. Our prepared spellcasting will allow for a great amount of flexibility, which we can leverage both out of combat and at the end of each adventuring day.

Unlike the Basic Build on the Circle of Shepherd, however, we will have a significantly greater durability, as well as a choice between two different variant options for your table. A dip in both Divine Soul Sorcerer and the Life Domain Cleric will not only bolster our saves, but also make us into a powerhouse with the ability to heal great amounts of hit points to our party throughout an adventuring day through a combination of goodberry and Disciple of Life.

Like we have stated on our Basic Build, most of the Druid class’s truly incredible spells are targets of common house rules that can sometimes go as far as making the class not worth picking over other full casters, but we expect a game that runs surprise using Rules as Written, doesn’t impose weird restrictions on the consumption of more than one goodberry per day or changes the interaction between Disciple of Life and goodberry, and at the very least gives you reasonable summons. If this is the case you’ll quickly find that this Flagship is truly amazingly powerful. For more on these table-by-table variations you will want to know about beforehand, check out What to Ask Before Playing a Druid. 

So before we move on, which version of the build would you like to see?

Class: Sorcerer

Skills – Arcana, Insight. Arcana proficiency will allow us to scribe scrolls during downtime. This is especially useful if there’s a Wizard in the party who can learn spells from those scrolls, but even if not, it’s nice to have extra spells on hand. If you play with the spell identification variant rule from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, proficiency in Arcana becomes even more important. We also go for Insight, as we will probably be the best at this in the entire party.
Sorcerous Origin – Divine Soul. The main draw of Divine Soul Sorcerer is the excellent Favored by the Gods ability, which will help us avoid failed saves throughout our entire adventuring career. This, along with the benefits of Constitution saving throw proficiency, shield, and silvery barbs from Sorcerer, adds up to be an all-inclusive defense package for just one level investment.
Divine Magic (Divine Soul feature) – Lawful. Bless is the best option here, and it is not reliant on your Charisma score (or your alignment!).
Favored by the Gods (Divine Soul feature) – A good ability that stays relevant at all levels. Use this like you would use the shield spell, except for saving throws you think you just barely missed. Adding 2d4 means you have over an 80% chance of converting a failed save into a successful one if you missed by 4, over a 60% chance if you missed by 5, but less than a 40% chance if you missed by 6, and less than a 20% chance if you missed by 7. Keep these numbers in your head when assessing whether it might be worth using this. If the stakes are high enough, it might be worth using even with somewhat poor odds of success, but the worse the odds the higher the stakes should be to justify spending this resource, which you can use once per short or long rest.
Spellcasting – We’ve got some invaluable options to pick up here.

Bless – One of the best 1st level spells in the game. Adding 1d4 to attacks and saves may not sound like much, but if three people’s attack rolls go from having a 65% chance of hitting to having a 77.5% chance of hitting, that’s like adding over half a turn of attacks to your side every round; more against high AC enemies. For a concentrating caster with 14 Constitution who isn’t proficient in Constitution saves, this spell cuts the chance of failing a DC 10 save by about a third (from about 35% to about 23%). For a caster (like you) who is proficient in Constitution saves, the chance you fail a DC 10 roll is cut in half. If you like Kobolds, as you should, a particularly bright one spoke about bless here.
Shield – This is a must-have spell for any optimized build, and another big reason for us to dip in Sorcerer. +5 AC for a whole round is highly valuable, and is often the difference between taking the full brunt of a monster’s attacks and going unscathed, taking no damage at all. Do not be afraid to use this, but when you do, think about what you could’ve done differently to avoid spending the valuable slot, especially at these lower levels.  
Silvery barbs – This is a brand new spell that is both potent and flexible. With this spell you primarily inflict a debuff on a target without an attached saving throw, and then if that wasn’t good enough for a first level spell, you simultaneously buff an ally as well. We will mostly be using this to make spells that are reliant on enemies failing their saving throw land more. The advantage you grant to an ally is less important, but it’s nice regardless. This is a must pick for anyone that can get it.
Guidance – This is another great Cleric spell we can get through our Divine Magic feature. One of the most useful and versatile cantrips in the game. Concentrate on it whenever you’re not concentrating on anything else, as the bonus also applies to initiative. 
Mage hand – Utility cantrips are always nice, and the ability to fiddle with things that may be trapped without having to be close enough to be affected by the trap is convenient.
Minor illusion – Create a minor visual or auditory illusion. Very versatile utility cantrip, especially the auditory effect.
Mold earth – A utility cantrip that can be used to quickly create a wall and/or a trench, or simply a small area of cover, if you are in terrain with loose dirt. If you are laying an ambush, you can use it to create a small area of difficult terrain (only two squares, but that can make a difference in the right situation). While we can fly, this can still be very useful, even if it is just for your friends.

Background (Custom) 

Skills – Perception, Stealth. Perception is typically the most commonly used and thus important skill in the game for any character, and we will be great at it. Stealth will help us sneak up on enemies to surprise them, and will give us a nice floor on our rolls when we have pass without trace active.
Tools – Mason’s tools, poisoner’s kit. Proficiency in mason’s tools will allow us to have a +5 on passive Perception involving stone structures (the most common material for dungeons!) and proficiency in the poisoner’s kit will allow us to use poisons for among other things a nice increase in DPR for weapon users in our party. We detail both of these in our Complete Guide to Tools in DnD 5E. If neither of these options feels appropriate or accessible in your game, feel free to pick another listed option that seems good.
Feature – Shelter of the Faithful. Having allies scattered across the world and waiving the healing service fee at relevant temples (you still have to provide material component cost for costly spells) are nice concrete benefits. This is one of the few background features that isn’t totally useless, if you want to pick something else, however, be our guest.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW. The PHB on page 125 states, “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and role playing suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Acolyte feature. Like always, we do not include any information about character traits because we believe that flavor is free and that you should roleplay the character the way you feel about it.

Equipment

Sorcerer Starting Equipment

• Light crossbow with 20 bolts. Ranged attacks are good, so let’s take a crossbow while we don’t have better cantrips. 
• Component pouch
• Dungeoneer’s pack.
• Two daggers.

Acolyte Starting Equipment

• A holy symbol (a gift to you when you entered the priesthood)
• A prayer book or prayer wheel
• 5 sticks of incense
• Vestments
• A set of Common clothes
• A pouch containing 15 gp

Purchasing Goals

• A healer’s kit, and potions of healing
• Mason’s tools, and a poisoner’s kit
• Diamonds worth 300 gp for when you get revivify
• Bullseye lantern
• Medium armor (Half plate)
• A shield

Level 2: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 1)

Additional Proficiencies – Light armor, medium armor, shields (Druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal). From this point on we will actually have some AC. We believe “will not” does not mean “can’t,” and thus we recommend you to look for half plate. The Sage Advice Compendium states that the noted “unwillingness” was purely a flavor consideration, and the multiclassing rule explicitly encourages that multiclassed characters can represent concepts outside of the base classes.  Either way, the build does not depend on having half plate to be a Flagship. Another consideration would be spiked armor, from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, which can explicitly be non-metal. 
Druidic – Druidic isn’t the kind of thing you’ll use everyday, but it has its moments. Notably, it is a hidden message, and an unwitting foe might not even think to look for it. For example, if you find yourself imprisoned or under heavy surveillance, you can leave secret messages for your party in Druidic along with a pre-agreed upon clue or keyword. They can stumble upon it, use the clue to know they need to search for it, and decipher it with something like comprehend languages. Of course, you could also just use it to find and communicate with other Druids. Leave it at the walls of a town if you’re trying to look for one, and watch the reaction of people to see if they notice the message (maybe even ask the party Wizard to enchant an item with magic mouth and the phrase “when someone spots this message, whisper ‘Druid detected’”).
Spellcasting – Our most important feature, which defines the strength of our class. 
Spell Changes: +magic stone, +thorn whip, +entangle, +fog cloud, +goodberry, +healing word

Entangle – A spell which inflicts the restrained condition on all creatures within a 20 foot square if they fail a Strength saving throw, and they need to use their action to make a Strength check to get out in case they fail their save. This is about the best control you can expect out of a 1st level spell, and will serve us very well as our biggest impact option at this level.
Fog cloud –This is a very convenient spell for equalizing bad situations. Obscurement turns attack rolls into flat rolls without Blindsight, thanks to advantage and disadvantage cancelling out, and hinders special enemies and casters as many useful spells and dangerous abilities require line of sight. Keep in mind that creatures that don’t take the Hide action to conceal their noises will still have their location known if your table is following RAW, which means that you can still attack your enemies, and they can still attack you. Especially useful for fighting 3d6 wolves and, unsurprisingly, beholders. Pack Tactics crafted a great video about fog cloud that you can view here.
Goodberry –  A spell that conjures 10 berries that restore 1 hit point each and last 24 hours, they’re the ideal way of turning leftover spell slots into healing during the next adventuring day. Goodberries are premium quality out of combat healing. We’ll be picking up a level in the Life Domain Cleric in a few levels, allowing us access to the renowned “Lifeberry.” A single berry also “provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day,” which is unfortunate if your DM wanted to make food procurement or starvation serious considerations in their campaign.
Healing word – Use only in case of emergency, to pick someone back up from 0 hit points. Rarely do you want to use this preemptively, and never to “top people off”; it’s just not an efficient use of your spell slots, especially when you have goodberry.
Magic stone – A better at-will damage option than our light crossbow, but the best part about this spell is that you can hand it out to other creatures, which you can utilize later on. 
Thorn whip – Not quite Repelling Blast or Grasp of Hadar, but is the next best thing. The forced movement this cantrip provides is especially useful to hurl enemies into hazards—be they natural or created by spells, off ledges and walls, or break grapples. If you can find high ground, be it through terrain or flight, you can pull enemies up and drop them prone as long as they fall 10 feet and take fall damage. Remember that you can also choose to pull your target less than 10 feet, or not at all.

Level 2 Strategy

As we have acquired proficiency in shields, we want to make use of them.Our light crossbow is replaced by magic stones, which you can also pass on to your friends. In combat you’ll either cast bless on your team, or entangle on your enemies. When control is valuable or you can hold a choke point, cast entangle. We also have fog cloud in our pocket, for if we ever meet wolves or basilisks (the obscurement will negate Pack Tactics). Always keep an eye out for thorn whip opportunities, using it while you have height advantage means an extra 1d6 damage while also reducing their movement through the prone condition. 
Make sure to rest cast goodberry, as there is little merit to waking up without having used all of yesterday’s spell slots.
We will now start to scribe scrolls of fog cloud for emergency purposes, as we will be swapping it out in a few levels. Once you run out, you can simply swap it back in in downtime and scribe more.

Level 3: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 2)

Spell Changes: +absorb elements.

Absorb elements – We likely won’t be using this much at low levels, but it will only become more valuable throughout your adventuring career. Elemental damage tends to come in singular large blasts, and the option to halve that amount will significantly improve your survivability. While the bonus melee damage is not spectacular, it does apply to our thorn whip damage. The reaction cost should be noted since you can’t cast shield until the start of your next turn.

Level 3 Strategy

Our spellcasting strategy is mostly unchanged. We now want to use our Bear Spirit before starting a short rest if people do not have temporary hit points to work as a buffer in upcoming encounters. Use Wild Shape as the situation calls for, otherwise, there’s always benefit to gain from Wild Companion. For details on the many ways to use your familiar, consult our guide here!

Level 4: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 3)

Spell Changes: +pass without trace, +spike growth, –fog cloud.

Pass without trace – Going by the Rules as Written Stealth and Surprise rules, pass without trace is your premier 2nd level spell and one of the best spells in the game in general. Use its hour-long duration to cast well ahead of time in any environment with places to hide, watch the +10 bonus completely blitz past the majority of monsters’ passive Perception scores, and either easily surprise most enemies or sometimes avoid an undesirable fight entirely. To make this closer to guaranteed, your party members should pick up Stealth proficiency, even if they have a low Dexterity score. 
Spike growth – A large area, difficult terrain, and some bonus damage to deter movements. Place this between your party and the enemy brutes, and double down with forced movement effects like Repelling Blast from your allies to add some hurt to your already good control.

Level 4 Strategy

We want to prioritize pass without trace before combat because having extra turns against enemies is simply too valuable at all levels, but we will also be casting spike growth in big encounters where it has the potential to shine.
If you have a height advantage, dropping an enemy prone within spike growth using thorn whip will keep them stuck there for even longer. As previously stated, once we run out scrolls for fog cloud, we can prepare it once more to get another stash. If someone else in the party has the spell, it won’t be as important, but they could also scribe scrolls for you.

Level 5: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 4)

Level 6: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 5)

Spell Changes: +conjure animals, +revivify, –entangle.

Conjure animals – The premier all-purpose Druid spell. Up until this level, we were playing as a support caster who did a bit of control and out-of-combat healing (with the addition of the amazing benefits from pass without trace), but now we have just about the most consistent and highest single target damage per round in the entire game at this point. We would like to reiterate that it is crucial you check how summoning spells work at your table. We have a section on this specifically in our article on questions to ask your DM before playing a Druid, including ways to speed up relevant gameplay if that is one of the leading issues.
Revivify – If someone happens to die, you definitely would want to have this prepared. If revivify is not something that you feel is currently necessary in your game—for example, if someone already has it, or you are in the wilderness without the ability to obtain a diamond for a few days, or you believe that sleet storm is a better preparation than revivify in your group, then prepare that instead. We can have both later, once we can afford the preparation slots. A Cleric is more likely to be able to spare the preparation slot for revivify than you are, and the half-casters (Artificer, Paladin, Ranger) are still 3 levels away from being able to cast this spell, so take that into consideration.

Level 6 Strategy

For this build (and generally on Tabletop Builds), we assume you will have worked with your DM to come up with a list of conjures appropriate for your campaign, rather than using the most literal ruling from Sage Advice that implies a DM should choose every single time the spell is cast. We believe that this approach (where the DM still has the final say and players provide suggestions, but the timing of the decisions is away from the table) is the most fun and balanced. Our priority is to speed up play, set clear expectations, and the DM is still welcome to disallow options that are too powerful or not appropriate for their world. This way, the Druid player can prepare for the summoning turns while other players are taking their turns. When playing on a virtual tabletop, players can have dice macros for their “staple” summons set up far in advance. The DM doesn’t have to expend exorbitant effort to pick and run summons while they are already managing everything else. And it’s more fun being able to choose! For a more in-depth guide, check out our article on top 5 spells that do damage. If your DM doesn’t let you choose the animals, but keeps the options you summon reasonable, conjure animals will still be your staple, but expect slower play. This build works perfectly fine with that option, although admittedly becomes a little less versatile if you can never choose. If your DM is prone to giving you 8 quippers in a big fight on land or other such shenanigans, then stay away from this Flagship build (and maybe Druid in general, since they have multiple spells that usually fall victim to adversarial DMs. For more information, check out our article on what to ask before playing a Druid, which was also linked at the introduction of this article). This level we’ll be replacing our big gun option with conjure animals, which can potentially last through multiple encounters. Our Bear Spirit can be used in conjunction with our summoned animals to increase their resilience the same turn they are summoned, as well as refreshing the temporary hit points from your party, so pre-casting conjure animals before you expect fights can be valuable.
Shield and absorb elements remain as part of your core defensive repertoire until the end of your career. At this level, we will start scribing scrolls of revivify for emergency purposes, as we will be swapping it out later in our career.

Level 7: Cleric (Sorcerer 1/Druid 5/Cleric 1)

We now take a dip in Cleric. However, if you are experiencing a lot of enemies with resistance to non-magical Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing, or do not yet need the extra sustain that this level provides, you should consider increasing your offensive capabilities, take another level in Druid to gain the Mighty Summoner feature, after which you can return here in the build.
Divine Domain – Life Domain. We are picking this up for Disciple of Life. Another great option would be the Peace Domain Cleric, which is especially useful in an optimized party due to its Emboldening Bond feature.
Bonus Proficiency (Life Domain feature) – Heavy armor. We won’t be using this.
Disciple of Life (Life Domain feature) – This gives us access to the fabled Lifeberry. The term Lifeberry is a blend of Life Domain Cleric and goodberry, the spell. It means to combine this Cleric Domain and spell to create a very efficient healing source: the lifeberry. This feature will allow us to add an additional 2 + the level of the spell of healing on healing spells you use, which makes upcasting goodberry at the end of the day a better option. This means that every one of your goodberries benefits from the bonus from the feature. This interaction has been clarified as Rules as Written in the Sage Advice Compendium.
Spellcasting – This will allow us to pick up command, filling in Druids’ usual gap of spells that can be used after casting a concentration spell.
Spell Changes (Druid): +sleet storm, –healing word.
Spell Changes (Cleric): +bless, +command, +cure wounds, +detect magic, +healing word, +sanctuary, +mending, +sacred flame, +toll the dead.

Sleet storm – You make a very large area incredibly difficult to leave by making it difficult terrain, heavily obscuring the area (which means that most teleportation effects including misty step no longer work since they need to see the space they teleport into, dimension door still does) and even knocking flying creatures prone. Because of the mechanics of the effects, the way that enemies will typically escape this horrifying spell is individually or in small groups, which the party can easily pick off one by one.
Bless ^D – As bless is a Domain spell for the Life Domain Cleric, we sadly will be doubling up on having this in our spell lists, but it is more than worth it.
Command – A nice non-concentration option that can disable a creature (or more if we upcast!) for a round, and potentially generate a ton of opportunity attacks from our melee allies and summoned animals in the process if we use the “flee” option. Usually Druids aren’t so lucky to have good options like this after casting conjure animals, so this is greatly appreciated.
Cure wounds ^D – We won’t be using this. Ever. No. Healing word in combat, goodberry out.
Detect magic – A handy ritual that every party can make use of. 
Healing word – We no longer prepare this as a Druid spell and prepare it as a Cleric spell instead, which opens up the preparation slot for sleet storm.
Sanctuary – A bonus action casting time spell that forces any enemy that tries to target us with an attack or harmful spell to make a Wisdom save or redirect or lose the attack or spell. We can put this on an ally who is concentrating on a big spell, or on someone who will dodge in a hallway to block off enemies from approaching closer.
Mending – Repairing objects or some specific constructs is a bit of neat utility. Artillerist Artificers and the like will thank us. This also opens up some thrifting opportunities.
Sacred flame – As we go up in level, monsters tend to have better Wisdom saves, whereas their Dexterity saves tend to fall behind, so even though this does less damage on a failed save than toll the dead does in most cases, it can still be a better option sometimes. Moreover, some enemies have their traits turned off if they take radiant damage, which might make this pick worthwhile.
Toll the dead – Your party should be focusing on one enemy at a time, so you should usually be able to use this on a monster who’s missing hit points for the d12 version of the damage. Bong!

Level 7 Strategy

We can fill in our actions between conjure animals and the end of combat with thorn whip, toll the dead, Dodge or command. If an enemy is already surrounded by animals, failing a saving throw against command (flee) could spell their doom. Silvery barbs can also make this combo more reliable.
We said conjure animals is the premier Druid spell, but it isn’t great for every situation. Enemy spellcasters are one of the rare sources of enemy area of effect attacks, which can fell your summons in one swoop, and encounters that take place in areas with awkward maneuverability or extremely open areas can present a challenge. That’s why we pick up sleet storm, which complements conjure animals by covering these situations very well.
Sanctuary is another way to spend your lower level slots for extra defense without using concentration. You can easily put this on yourself while your summons do all the work, or use it to take some pressure off an ally.
You can swap out sleet storm for plant growth when it is good, which is explained at level 6.

Level 8: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 6/Cleric 1)

Mighty Summoner (Circle of the Shepherd feature) – This feature not only gives your summons a bit more hit points (wolves go from 11 to 15, giant owls go from 19 to 25, constrictor snakes go from 13 to 17, etc.), it also makes their attacks count as magical for the purposes of overcoming resistances and immunities, which solves one of the biggest problems with conjure animals at later levels. Those 2 benefits combined make this an outstanding feature, one that fully highlights the true strength of Druids. 
Spell Changes: +dispel magic.

Dispel magic – A great addition to our spell selection, since it allows you to defend your party members and foil enemy spells. Not as good as preventing the spells entirely like counterspell most of the time, but since you can focus an individual, you can erase multiple spells on the same target, be they debuffs on allies or buffs on enemies. The 120 feet range also makes it more broadly viable.

Level 8 Strategy

Dispel magic is notable especially for its range, and its potential to gain favorable trades. Also, if the enemy caster has just cast shield and your party wants them dead within the same round, dispel their +5 AC bonus. You can swap out dispel magic for plant growth when it is good, which is explained at level 6.

Level 9: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 7/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +conjure woodland beings, +polymorph, –spike growth.

Conjure woodland beings – The fey version of conjure animals, for this build, we make similar assumptions as we had made for conjure animals: you worked with the DM to choose what fey you get. Generally speaking, upcasting conjure animals will be superior for damage; the benefits of this spell come from its myriad utility options.
Polymorph – This is very powerful, even if a little less so because we get it late. You’ll often use this on an ally to turn them into a giant ape, which both buffs their offense and gives them a big pool of hit points to absorb any damage they take before their own health is touched. This spell has a very long duration, so if your party has scouted ahead and knows a fight is coming you can cast this proactively and have your allies begin combat immediately as polymorphed beasts (which are likely as strong as or stronger than your party’s martials, and certainly more durable due to the massive health pool despite low AC), to save you from having to use your action in combat.

Level 9 Strategy

Staple options for polymorph include: Giant ape, Tyrannosaurus rex, huge giant crab, and situationally, sperm whale. This is best used early on as both a mild damage increase and a big hit points soak, but casting it on someone who is taking damage to keep them from going down is good too.
There are some formidable options for conjure woodland beings, so let’s discuss the ones we think stand out the most:

8 Pixies – This option is completely insane, and your DM is probably inclined to ban or put a severe limit on it. Look at the spell list and remember you get 8 of each of those spells for your single 4th level spell slot.
2 Dryads – Each dryad has Innate Spellcasting, allowing for 3 casts of goodberry each, meaning 2 dryads can heal your party up to 60 hit points in-between combats. Not only that, but they also each have pass without trace and three casts of entangle so you can conserve a few of your slots. After you have squeezed them out of resources and the duration is running out, you can just send them into combat with shillelagh and let them soak a few hits before dying. If it were just for the healing, our Disciple of Life-boosted 3rd level goodberry would heal more, but getting extra castings of pass without trace on top of the healing is what makes dryads a great summon. When 6th level spell slots become available you get double the resources out of this.
4 Reflections – In case you’re wondering what these are, they were introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and they’re basically the fey version of the shadow: a handful of good damage resistances and condition immunities, with Hide as a bonus action and a Strength Drain on hit. Those are great for when you’re not out in the sunlight, and you’re likely to get great mileage out of them. Do check with your DM before using them.
8 Boggles – They’re only CR ⅛, but they can layer down their oil puddles from a safe distance to create difficult terrain that triggers multiple saves on those who try to get through it and get to the party, creating rifts in space to move freely so they can place those puddles optimally. These are great options for when you find yourself in cramped spaces that restrict the path enemies can take.
4 Satyrs – Satyrs are actually kind of bulky, with 31 hit points each (45 with Mighty Summoner) and they have ranged attacks, making them a very durable option if you want to keep your summons up for longer periods of time. Being ranged also means that they can safely speed up the cleanup of enemies caught in hazard zones such as a web or Evard’s black tentacles created by your party members, making conserving the spell through multiple combat encounters even easier.
2 Quicklings – We wouldn’t actually actively choose this option, but decided to include them if your table has the DM pick the summons. They’re not particularly strong, but they do offer a higher than average damage output compared to most conjure animals options (less damage than 8 wolves or better), unless you can grant the quicklings advantage by knocking prone or restraining their target somehow while fitting in much more cramped spaces. They also have a higher than normal AC, the Evasion trait, and enemies constantly have disadvantage to hit them. Their main weakness is having only 10 hit points, which is somewhat alleviated by Mighty Summoner and Bear Totem bringing their hit points to 16 with a potential buffer of 12 temporary hit points.
1 Darkling Elder – This is very much of a situational pick, but with darkness and Blindsight, it is still doing somewhat noticeable damage, albeit a lot less than your usual conjure animals picks. The situations where we can see it being useful is against advantage seeking monsters (which are probably not a threat to you at this point), casters that are trying to constantly counterspell your party’s casters (or rely on other spells that need to have its targets be visible to take effect), or a large creature whose vision you could obscure by having the darkling elder cast darkness at the creature’s eye level, leaving your party with normal vision and thus with free advantage. All in all, though, you should probably stay away from this most of the time.
1 Sea Hag – Swim speed, a low DC frightened effect versus humanoids (beware the friendly fire), and a low DC conditional save or die. Especially potent now if you can combine the sea hag’s Death Glare with a party member that spreads the frightened condition around a lot like an Artificer with Pipes of haunting or a Warlock with the Undead patron. This option becomes especially powerful when the spell is upcast for a coven, which we will discuss later in the build.
8 Mites – This is quite a fascinating creature from the somewhat obscure Mordenkainen’s Fiendish Folio. While it is squishy and lacks any real damage option, it has a climb and burrow speed, and decent Stealth bonus to keep itself safe. It imposes disadvantage to Dexterity checks and saving throws to non-Fey creatures it can see in a 30 feet radius. On top of that, its Blood Boiling Hex ability is an excellent debuff to basically any d20 the enemy rolls (e.g. saving throws). This is highly potent in a party with multiple spellcasters.

We can now also upcast conjure animals with a 5th level spell slot, which can deal massive damage while occupying up to 16 squares and threatening up to 128 more (on ideal conditions, although they should exert some control over the battlefield regardless).

Level 10: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 8/Cleric 1)

Wild Shape Improvement – We finally unlock flying forms and add CR 1 beasts to our options. The bad news is that enemy health, AC, and damage have scaled faster than our Wild Shape, and we have many more spell slots available, so using Wild Shape to attack has gone from a niche option to practically irrelevant despite getting the giant octopus’ much better on hit grapple. Flight, which would normally be great news is quite inconsequential for us as we have an innate fly speed.
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient (Wis). Several of the nastiest effects in the game at high level are tied to Wisdom saving throws, so let’s shore up that weakness now. This also rounds off our Wisdom score to 18, which is great, leading to an extra slot for both our Cleric and Druid preparations.

Wild Shape Improvement – We finally unlock flying forms and add CR 1 beasts to our options. The bad news is that enemy health, AC, and damage have scaled faster than our Wild Shape, and we have many more spell slots available, so using Wild Shape to attack has gone from a niche option to almost entirely irrelevant despite getting the giant octopus’ much better on hit grapple. Flight can be handy utility at times.
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient (Wis). Several of the nastiest effects in the game at high level are tied to Wisdom saving throws, so let’s shore up that weakness now. This also rounds off our Wisdom score to 18, which is great, leading to an extra slot for both our Cleric and Druid preparations.

Spell Changes: +divination, +spike growth, +shield of faith.

Divination – We have a full list of very strong prepared spells already, so we take this level to prepare a useful ritual. Divination can tell us about a specific event that will happen within the next 7 days, which can give the whole party time to gather important information, solve plot points, and prepare against worst case scenarios and impending catastrophes. A well-informed party always has better chances against the odds. 25 gp should be very cheap at this point, so don’t be shy about casting this ritual.
Shield of faith – Slapping +2 AC on a character Dodging in a doorway and holding the line can be handy.

Level 10 Strategy

You can swap out spike growth for plant growth when it is good, which is explained at level 6. We can now even use divination to find out whether it will be good or not!

Level 11: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 9/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +antilife shell, +transmute rock, +wall of stone, –polymorph, –spike growth.

Antilife shell – If you’re battling against non-undead and non-constructs that happen to have no spells, reach, or ranged attacks, you win. This is what’s known as a “default kill.” A default kill is an encounter state where the remaining enemies have practically no counterplay, and automatically lose. Even if your enemies have ranged attacks, those tend to be way less deadly than melee ones. You definitely won’t cast this every adventure, but sometimes it just swings the fight on its own, and you can afford to prepare the spell at this level.
Transmute rock – A non-concentration control spell that has the same base effect of plant growth, but adds a Strength save for the restrained condition whenever someone starts their turn in the area. They can end the restrained condition with an action, but that cost means they have basically no way of leaving the affected area aside from flight or a teleport such as misty step (dimension door still works because they can still cast the spell while restrained). Since you never want to use this spell on flying creatures, teleports are one of the only reliable ways for creatures to escape. If your DM rules that a transmute rock cast on a ceiling (all discussion until now considered the spell being cast on the floor) then becomes the floor of that area (since the mud falls on the ground), it also doubles down as a soft AoE, but even without this added benefit it is still a fantastic spell.
Wall of stone – This is the next best thing in terms of 5th level wall spells after wall of force, and we don’t have access to wall of force as a Druid. Use this to imprison opponents, divide their forces, and deal with encounters in a more controlled manner. We will mostly be using this on creatures that have already used their reactions to surround them without being offered a save. On the other hand, if an enemy passes the save and spends its reaction to move, it might not be a bad deal either since you deny them from casting shield or counterspell that turn.

Level 11 Strategy

At this level, we have plenty of spells with huge impact on the battlefield. Use conjure animals and conjure woodland beings as your staple options, then use transmute rock and command opportunistically if they can generate good value. Also remember that pass without trace will still greatly swing any fight in your favor whenever it’s applicable, while sleet storm can cover a massive area and disrupt enemy spellcasters. Do note that the restraining effect of transmute rock triggers on the first entry each turn, or at the end of the creature’s turn, so you can immediately force the saving throw if you use thorn whip to drop an enemy into the area.
Use wall of stone to split up the encounter, create cover and platform, or trap enemies. Pay attention to the reaction usage of creatures in the encounter.
You can swap out transmute rock for plant growth when it is good, which is explained at level 6.
At around this level, there’s another venue of long term improvement to your party, in the form of semi-permanent summons.
You can prepare awaken to start amassing tree friends. If your party can access planar binding or they have summons that can be bound by you, however, there’s a lot more to work with. You can supply conjure elemental, or in 2 levels, conjure fey, while other casters can supply options from summon greater demon, or conjure celestial. Some minion options to go for include: dybbuk, babau, bheur hag, korred, earth elemental, which are excellent bodies with strong utilities for the long term.
Of course, at some point, with enough downtime, you can amass enough minions to send out and clear dungeons for you on their own. Consider the amount of summons you bring along that would be appropriate for your table’s gameplay.

Level 12: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 10/Cleric 1)

Guardian Spirit (Circle of the Shepherd feature) – Every time your beasts or fey end their turn in your aura, this provides a small boost in durability. While minor, this can help your summons survive one more hit and combines well with the Bear Spirit temporary hit points.
Spell Changes: +commune with nature, +druidcraft.

Commune with nature – Here we get our final divination spell, with some more Druidic theming than its predecessors. Information is power, and even though you can’t cast this within constructions, you can still explicitly gain knowledge of them from outside their borders. Additionally, unlike its sibling commune, you can just cast it over and over to gain arbitrary facts in all its categories at no consequence besides time. If you don’t expect this to work well in your game, take greater restoration instead, which we detail at level 16.
Druidcraft –  Minor utility. Check the weather forecast, go on a date with an NPC and make a flower bloom for them. You can pick literally anything here… just don’t pick up shillelagh and run into melee.

Level 13: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 11/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +conjure fey, +heroes’ feast, –commune with nature.

Conjure fey – We can get a beast or fey creature of CR equal to the spell slot we use this spell with. Our options using a 6th level slot aren’t great, but as a 7th level spell we have some amazing options that make this spell into a very interesting spell choice. Depending on your party, conjure fey also provides a number of very strong options to planar bind in downtime with multiple spellcasters working together (Druid doesn’t have access to magic circle).
Heroes’ feast – In this Tier of play where gold flows more comfortably, stock up on gem-encrusted bowls (the material component for this spell) and cast it every night before the party goes to bed if you haven’t used your 6th level slot. Or, provided nobody is secretly a Mogwai, cast it into the rest to give everyone a midnight (or 5 A.M.) feast, powering them through the next night’s rest. Advantage on Wisdom saves, immunity to poison and the frightened condition, and an increase to everyone’s maximum hit points (which stacks with those from aid, as, unlike with temporary hit points, there is no rule preventing this type of hit point buff from stacking) is a very nice package indeed. If gold is scarcer in your game you might not be able to do this every night, but if you know you’re facing a green dragon the next day, this is an instant win button. It’s well worth it if you expect to face any kind of big enemy that packs more than attack rolls and damage spells—Wisdom saves are by far the most common of the mental saves after all.

Level 13 Strategy

On days that we won’t be able to use heroes’ feast, pick up heal instead, which we otherwise will pick up next level.
You can swap commune with nature in and out with divination depending on what you prefer. If you aren’t expecting any combat you can prepare all your divination spells and spend your slots on lifeberries.
Some options for conjure fey that are especially interesting:
Bheur hag – This hag has a magic broom that flies and has enough room to give you or another party member a ride, while also being capable of using wall of ice (a solid 6th level spell) and cone of cold (a rather decent 5th level blast, especially when paired with flight) 3 times per day each. She can also cast ice storm 3 times per day, which while not a particularly good spell for its level, looks quite appealing on this discount package as some extra no-concentration blast and difficult terrain.
Korred – This monster has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical weapons, a whopping 120 foot Tremorsense, a 30 foot burrowing speed, at-will stone shape that he can use to create cover for your party members, great ranged attack capabilities, and he can use conjure elemental to get a galeb duhr, which can in turn animate 2 boulders so that you effectively have 4 creatures under your control with a single slot, and they’re all reasonably bulky and powerful. The downside is that the korred needs to maintain concentration on the elemental, so you’d better instruct him to stay as distant as possible (maybe burying himself between turns) and throw some rocks (which they’re really good at doing) while the galeb duhr is summoned.

Level 14 Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 12/Cleric 1)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – War Caster. As a full caster, maintaining concentration on your spells over the course of a fight is a significant part of your combat effectiveness. War Caster makes that job much easier. If your table follows the spell component rules strictly, then this lets you wield a magic staff and a shield more comfortably.
Spell Changes: +heal.

Heal – This one’s pretty straightforward: you heal yourself or an ally for 70 hit points. Due to Disciple of Life, we get an extra 8 on top of that for 78 hit points of healing. Unlike most healing spells, this one is actually pretty impactful for the spell slot. This spell gets relatively better compared to control options the stronger your party’s defenses are.

Level 15: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 13/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +mirage arcane.

Mirage arcane – This is a truly insanely potent spell, because the illusions it creates is interacted with physically, and there is no restriction on which kind of interactions. Lower level illusions such as major image specify that the illusions can’t do damage, while this limit is removed on mirage arcane, and in fact, Jeremy Crawford has confirmed the design intent that this spell can have real, physical, and even lethal effects. With a range of sight and an affected area of a mile, you can use this spell to create a complex net of adamantine walls, pitfalls hundreds of feet deep, lava pools, difficult terrain, and other creative uses to absolutely demolish any tactical advantage your enemies might have. It even works on enemies with Truesight!

Level 15 Strategy

If we can afford 10 minutes of setup time before a fight, or we have a consistent home base where we might encounter enemies, laying down a mirage arcane can provide a massive tactical advantage.
If you have some downtime, or simply want extra protection for your base camp, you can prepare spells like symbol or druid grove to make your base extra secure.

At this level we can prepare plane shift, and while we won’t be using this every day—it is definitely a potent tool to have in your back pocket. Refer to level 18 for how this spell is used.
We also have access to 8th level spell slots, which means we can upcast conjure woodland beings to summon 3 sea hags.
This isn’t clear in the rules, but it’s a very reasonable interpretation that 3 hags that were individually summoned can still be commanded to make a coven once they’re together, giving them access to the equivalent of a 12th level spellcaster with the 3 of them combined. Hags in a coven have their CR increased to above what you can summon, so a DM can reasonably block this maneuver. We are of the opinion that if you call them and they become a coven once summoned, it doesn’t make sense that you’d be unable to conjure them, or that you’d lose control of the hags (the fact that they form the coven on the spot means that they don’t have enough time to create the hag eye, so keep that in mind) or any house rule like that. Still, expect table variance over how this is ruled and whether or not you can get a coven under you. If the DM rules otherwise, you can either prepare animal shapes, or upcast conjure woodland beings for a different array of creatures, such as 6 dryads or 12 reflections. 

Level 16: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 14/Cleric 1)

Faithful Summons (Circle of the Shepherd feature) – At this point in the game, going down shouldn’t be a common occurrence, and being incapacitated shouldn’t be all that common either, but getting a 9th level conjure animals that requires no concentration when that does happen (up to once per long rest) is an amazing effect, which packs an unreasonable amount of power behind it and makes you feel very glad to be a Shepherd. In fact, you can manually trigger it by getting yourself incapacitated when it’s safe to do so, though it’s typically not very advisable during a fight. Having an ally casting something like Tasha’s hideous laughter on you before a long rest ends, however, could be a way to “rest cast” this 9th level conjure animals.
Spell Changes: +fire storm, +greater restoration, –divination.

Fire storm – Sometimes we want damage, and we want it fast, even if it’s at the cost of spell slot efficiency. Fire storm is a non-concentration option that does this job, with good potential in big battles. If we get caught unaware without pass without trace this is a fantastic option, and with the flexible area of effect, we won’t often need to damage our friends. Fire might be a pretty bad damage type, but Dexterity saves stay low across monsters even into Tier 4, so if you aren’t going up against creatures immune to Fire, you should be fine.
Greater restoration – This is a useful insurance for any party to have on hand. In this Tier of play there are some debilitating effects imposed by specific monster abilities that charm, petrify, or curse their target, and having this available if one of those sticks could really turn a fight around. The spell consumes 100gp of diamond dust, so make sure to stock some up in advance.

Level 16 Strategy

Again, if you aren’t expecting any combat, you can prepare your divination spells and spend your remaining slots on lifeberries.

Level 17: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 15/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +antipathy/sympathy.

Antipathy/sympathy – Use antipathy to make anyone who carries the item you cast it on into walking control auras, making creatures of a certain type have to succeed on a Wisdom save once they get within 60 feet or be frightened of the target and as such be unable to approach any further, which spells doom for most creatures. Its long duration means you can have multiple castings for different creature types stocked up. The various divination options in our spell list help us target even more precisely.

Level 18: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 16/Cleric 1)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Alert. A hefty initiative boost that we can use to better place some of our spells before enemies scatter out. If you can’t cast a conjure spell before an encounter, casting it right away is the next best thing. It also makes unseen creatures not have advantage to hit you, which is a side bonus to gain from obscurement effects like sleet storm.
Spell Changes: +plane shift.

Plane shift – Take your party to a general location of your choice on another plane (which requires a tuning fork attuned to that plane, whatever that means). You could also try to send an enemy to another plane, but that shouldn’t be your primary use of this spell. This spell serves as both an escape plan for the party and a way of getting around. It’s better than teleport because it doesn’t have a chance of failure, and you can use it to go somewhere on the plane that you’re on by entering the extradimensional space of a rope trick first, as you are no longer on the same plane.

Level 19: Druid (Sorcerer 1/Druid 17/Cleric 1)

Spell Changes: +foresight, +shapechange, –revivify.

Foresight – An effective non-concentration buff that lasts for 8 hours, which simply makes your target better at everything they do for the day. A premium candidate for rest casting and a straightforward way to spend our 9th level slot without burning our concentration
Shapechange – While this is no magic jar powered by true polymorph, gaining access to high CR monster statistics blocks (notably, adult dragons with the Change Shape trait) is still a highly potent ability.

Level 19 Strategy

With how efficiently we can spend our spell slots, and our low dependency on high level spells, we will likely have our 9th level slot to spare at the end of the day for rest casting foresight. In especially tough fights, conjure animals can be cast using a level 9 slot, which practically gets you your own army to command. This represents an astonishing amount of damage potential, and though they can die to any majorly damaging area of effect at this point, even a single round of 32 angry beast attacks can pull you out of a lot of perilous situations. If we ever want to use our concentration on our 9th level spell without managing 32 creatures, shapechange is a sound alternative. 
After spending your time off to scribe revivify scrolls from level 6 onward, we should hopefully have quite the stash remaining, so we can likely unprepare it here and prepare it again when we run out to replenish our stocks.

Level 20 Strategy

To recap, at the end of our progression, we have amassed some of the best tools we can possibly acquire.
We possess the defensive package of 19 AC, shield, absorb elements, with some tail protections provided by Lucky, silvery barbs, Faithful Summons, and burrowing into the ground with Wild Shape.
A robust package of offense and control, with spells like pass without trace, conjure animals and conjure woodland beings, which are all powerful staples from start to end. Meanwhile, sleet storm, wall of stone, transmute rock, plant growth all provide excellent area control. Antipathy/sympathy and antilife shell are amazing cheat codes whenever they are applicable.
We have many miscellaneous tools that allow us to deal with a multitude of problems that might come up during adventuring. Locate object, dispel magic, revivify, greater restoration, heal, divination, commune with nature, and plane shift are spells that can get you and your party out of many troublesome situations.
And with just how efficient our spell slot usage is, we have several venues to fully maximize our leftover magic reserves. Goodberry (with Lifeberry boost), foresight, heroes’ feast, antipathy/sympathy, and planar binding will keep your party healthy and protected throughout your career.