What to Ask Before Playing a Druid

Author: Lilith

The Druid class in D&D 5E is infamous for being DM dependent. The class has access to monster statistics blocks that require DM permission, and several of its spells and abilities can be interpreted in different ways. One of our Core Tenets is that communication is key. This guide acts as a handy checklist that helps align your and the DM’s expectations on how the class plays at a table. 

The first set of questions are about what animals your Druid can Wild Shape into. Even for non-Circle of the Moon Druids, there are beasts that provide valuable utility, including Blindsight, Tremorsense, burrow speeds, and Spider Climb. 

According to the rules for Wild Shape,

What source books can you select beasts from?

How do you decide if your Druid has seen a particular beast? 

Is there a way for them to learn more? What part of their background/backstory would let them “unlock” these animals? At Tabletop Builds, we believe none of the currently accessible beasts in the game are particularly problematic for balance, so it might be totally reasonable for a DM to allow you to have free reign (if they agree).

Which racial features can you use in Wild Shape? 

Traits like a Goblin’s Nimble Escape, a Satyr’s Magic Resistance, a Wood Elf’s Fleet of Foot, or a Kobold’s Pack Tactics can be build-defining, especially for Moon Druids. On the topic of Kobolds, if you are playing a race with Sunlight Sensitivity, you may wish to check if that drawback applies to your Wild Shape forms as well.

Druids have the following armor proficiencies:

What happens when my Druid wears metal armor?

If the book said outright that Druids had to live with 12 AC (+Dexterity) armor, we’d never have this discussion. The non-metal restriction goes out of its way to prescribe to you what your character wants rather than what they can do, but then never interacts with that restriction in any way again. Sage Advice explains that it’s essentially legacy fluff left over from past editions rather than a strict balance or mechanical interaction. The Druid explodes?

It’s unclear whether you can ignore the restriction and just cast your cool nature spells without being a hippie who, inconsistently, only dislikes metal when it’s on their armor and shield. Alternatively, could you access armor made of non-metal materials? The rules do imply they exist in a few places:

• Spiked armor (Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, p. 121)
• Minor Properties of Magic Items, Strange material (Dungeon Master’s Guide, p. 141)
• Dragon scale mail (Dungeon Master’s Guide, p. 165)
• Scorpion armor (Tomb of Annihilation, p. 208)
• Signature Equipment (Acquisitions Incorporated, p. 59)
• Mind Flayer Survival Mantle (Volo’s Guide to Monsters, p. 81)
• Bronzewood and Leafweave armor (Eberron: Rising from the Last War, p. 134)

If you are planning on multiclassing with your Druid, this may also be an interesting additional topic for this discussion.

Can a Druid in Wild Shape wear barding? 

This can potentially raise your AC by quite a bit if you use a form regularly, with some preparation. If you can wear it, what happens when the Wild Shape ends?

Does the DM or the player choose what is summoned with conjure animals, conjure woodland beings, etc?

One of the big appeals of Druid is their summoning spells, such as conjure animals and conjure woodland beings. Conjure spells are infamous for how much time they can take and the hassle they can cause, so it’s best to iron out how to work with them beforehand. 

For several spells, the rules don’t state how summons are picked. Sage Advice explained that the implication is the DM picks. This is a common approach, though it can multiply the slowdown these spells create when cast by removing the ability for the player to prepare their summons during other players’ turns. The DM already has a lot on their plate running a combat, so forcing them to flip through the Monster Manual each time the Druid does their thing can be frustrating. 

A common alternative approach is to roll on a table, or roll on a table based on region. This tends to lead to even greater time clogs as the DM and player shuffle around to find the creature statistics, then the player figures out the creature’s tactics, then double checking what happens whenever their abilities come up. 

Another alternative is to give a player free reign, except with a few of the most powerful creatures banned. Some summoning options for a DM may wish to watch out for or limit the number of: 

• Velociraptor (a unique combination of a low Challenge Rating, two attacks per turn, and Pack Tactics, leading to sometimes ridiculous damage) 
• Chwinga (providing permanent Charms)
• Pixie (access to spells that can severely impact the game when used in multiples, including polymorph).

Our recommended solution is to agree beforehand on a set of “staple” options, and the player has the summon statistics ready before casting. These could be thematic to the Druid, the regional climate, and so on.

How does initiative work for summoned creatures?

Druids have multiple abilities that summon allies to their aid, and with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Wild Companion optional feature, they can also have their own familiar. For most summon spells before Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the summoned creatures rolled their own initiative. This creates delay as the Druid player has to keep track of different initiative orders. A possible house rule to speed up play is to have all summons/pets/mounts share initiative with their owners, acting on the same turn or taking their turns before or after their owners.

How would you like to handle multiple simultaneous attack rolls?

With multiple creatures of the same type are attacking, resolving the attacks one by one often leads to massive time clog. A more efficient approach would be to establish a target number to beat the AC, roll all the attacks at once, and count the number of hits. Using average damage rolls will also save a lot of time, especially when you’re not playing online.

Does “auto-grappling” from beasts have a size limitation?

Some beasts can automatically grapple enemies they hit, regardless of size difference. Sometimes a DM may decide it does not make sense for a constrictor snake to grapple a Tarrasque, despite Rules as Written. Check with your DM beforehand how they might rule.

What happens when a creature wants to drop from high up and fall on an enemy?

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced an optional rule called “Falling onto another creature,” which is the only published rule that addresses this. According to the rule, the creature fallen on must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, or take half the fall damage the falling creature incurred. 

However, this can get out of hand when you summon multiple creatures with flight and they go as high up as possible before dropping down (falling is instant). This is a technique sometimes jokingly referred to as “Conjure Airstrike.” Consider 8 summoned giant bats, summoned above a creature, which Dash and fly upwards, then stop flying and plummet to the ground, crashing into a dragon in kamikazee fashion from a great height. This is an incredible amount of damage, using the rule described in Tasha’s. 

Though some tables may allow it for a dramatic occasion, or as a trump card, this should not be used without DM discretion, so definitely ask them about it beforehand before summoning a horde of furry friends above your enemies. 

How does the plant growth spell work in your game?

This spell is poorly written, and it’s hard to determine how exactly it works, but it’s a potentially very potent spell on the Druid spell list. 

Which part of this spell description is flavor, and which part is mechanic? How does the presence of plants affect the spell area and what does “become thick and overgrown” mean? What counts as plants? 

The radius of this spell can be read in different ways.

1. The entire area, regardless of plant coverage in each square, becomes 4x speed penalty. 
2. Existing plants grow to undefined size to become the spell effect. 
3. Only exactly the area with plants already existing impose the speed penalty.

One way to handle this is to agree on a consistent ruling, possibly by defining a baseline expectation for the spell. Can you make use of general moss throughout the dungeon? Can the spell effect expand from a plant you carry by your side?

How does the goodberry spell work?

It’s not covered by the rules, so you might want to ask whether you can feed a berry to an unconscious creature as an action. This isn’t explicitly Rules as Written, but Sage Advice suggests it might be permissible. You should also ask if a familiar could feed a berry to someone as well.

Occasionally, a DM might believe a creature cannot eat more than one berry without becoming overful, despite no mention of this within the spell’s description. 

Finally, you should check if they follow the Sage Advice regarding the interaction between the Life Domain Cleric feature Disciple of Life and goodberry. If so, you may wish to consider taking a dip into Life Cleric for this powerful effect!

How do you handle stealth and surprise?

Pass without trace, the spell that grants the party +10 to Stealth checks for an hour, is an amazing tool on the exclusive Druid and Ranger lists. However, its value is dependent on whether your game actually uses the Rules as Written on determining surprise.

When run using Rules as Written or using almost any house rule that still makes use of Stealth checks to determine surprise, pass without trace is an invaluable tool for any party. However, enough DMs run surprise completely differently from the book that it’s worth checking on.  

How does obscurement work in your game?

Druids have access to spells that create heavy obscurement, such as sleet storm. They or creatures they summon also have ways to utilize it. However, the rules surrounding obscurement may not be the most intuitive and should be discussed, in case the table is unaware of Rules as Written, or purposefully chooses to houserule it. 

The main takeaways for Rules as Written are: 

• If a creature is unseen, but can still be heard, others still know its location. 
• If two creatures cannot see each other, attack rolls from one creature to the other will have both advantage and disadvantage, making it always a “straight roll.” 

How do special senses like blindsight and tremorsense interact with features that require sight?

Are you able to “see” something that you can only detect via special senses? How do these features interact with illusions, cover and obscurement?

That’s a lot of questions! Druid probably has more variation between different tables than any other class. We hope that this article has been helpful to provide you a list of discussion topics you might want to bring up with your DM before playing a Druid.

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