Witchfire: Wildfire Warlock Build Guide

Author: Lilith

Do you want to play a character that has unique movement options? To enhance the mobility of both yourself and allies? To exert your control over the pace and layout of the battlefield? Perhaps your characters takes the form of something akin to Nightcrawler from the X-Men, or is a shaman with a primal mastery over conjuration. Perhaps they are a disciple of Kossuth who has pledged to cleanse the land of impurities, or simply a commander on the battlefield, viewing encounters as a chessboard as they adjudicate where their allies can and cannot go. If any of these ideas sound appealing, then the Witchfire might be the build for you.

There are three primary reasons this build works as well as it does. The first coincides with a major appeal of the Druid core: its best spells—absorb elements, goodberry, pass without trace, conjure animals, plant growth, conjure woodland beings, polymorph (targeting allies)—do not rely on its casting ability score at all. This allows for the build to make significant investment into our second reason: the combination of eldritch blast, Repelling Blast, and Agonizing Blast as a highly impactful at-will control package that deals decent damage for a caster. The final and third reason is the Circle of Wildfire subclass, which provides this build with a fantastic bag of tricks right from the get-go due to its 2nd level feature, Summon Wildfire Spirit. Together, these options make for a character with incredibly versatile at-will options while still having abundant access to the powerful staples of Druid’s spell list.  As the cherry on top, we finish off this build with a level in Peace Domain Cleric, which is always a welcome addition to a build’s kit, but consider picking this earlier if your campaign is ending sooner than level 20, preferably after you’ve acquired the core pieces of this build. For an in-depth look into the Circle of Wildfire subclass, we explain many of its strengths and strategies in this article.

We don’t find silvery barbs a great fit in our progression, but if you like the spell, then Fey Touched, Strixhaven Initiate, or dipping a level of Sorcerer are some of the ways you can acquire it. 

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

Ability Scores

9 Str, 14 Dex, 14+1 Con, 8 Int, 13 Wis, 14+2 Cha

Our main ability score will be Charisma, and this array will allow us to get it to 18 at level 10. We need 13 Wisdom to multiclass in or out of Druid, which we will mostly be leveling in for the rest of our career. We buy 15 Constitution for hit points and higher concentration saves. Our next priority is 14 Dexterity, the highest value that we get an AC benefit from wearing medium armor. The remaining point is put into Strength to reduce your chance of instantly dying to a Shadow. 

Background (Custom) 

Skills – Perception, Stealth. Perception is the most commonly used, with concrete mechanical benefits, and thus the most important skill in the game for any character. 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.
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 – Researcher. We might not often be the smartest person in the room, but we certainly know where to find the information we need! This background feature funnily enough comes up more the dumber you are. Maybe you are a fraud who got through college by sheer luck, who knows.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW, as page 125 of the PHB states: “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and roleplaying 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 Researcher feature.

Equipment

Level 1 Strategy

In combat at this level, we’ll mostly be using magic stone (unless you need the superior range of eldritch blast) and staying at range. If extra damage is needed, throw in a Hexblade’s Curse too. Your one spell slot per short rest should be kept in reserve in case you need shield. With the hit points and spell slots of a level 1 character, wrathful smite is a gamble, because if you miss or the target succeeds on its Wisdom save, you’re left with little defenses, and even if you hit and they fail, even one opportunity attack can down you, ending the spell. Caution is the name of the game at level 1.

Our offensive capabilities at level 1 are not great, owing to a lack of offensive cantrips and no access to a starting ranged weapon. Try to either buy or borrow a ranged weapon from an ally during this time or risk going into melee with your scimitar. We have fog cloud in our pocket, for if we ever meet wolves or basilisks (the obscurement will negate Pack Tactics and Petrifying Gaze, respectively).
Make sure to rest cast goodberry as there is little merit to waking up without having used all of yesterday’s spell slots.
We can now start to scribe scrolls of fog cloud for emergency purposes, as we will be swapping it out from our base preparations in a few levels. Once you run out, you can simply swap it back in during downtime and scribe more.

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. If you happen to have Warlock slots to spare before a short rest, cast this spell for some extra healing, too. Goodberries are premium quality out of combat healing.
Guidance – Add a d4 at will to anybody’s ability check. Use this whenever you can. If you know combat is coming, can safely make noise, and don’t want to pre-cast a leveled spell, cast this on yourself or another caster for an initiative boost.
Mold earth – A handy 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 (whatever that means). 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).

Absorb elements – We likely won’t be using this much at low levels, but it will 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. The bonus melee damage is irrelevant, while the reaction cost should be noted since you can’t cast shield until the start of your next turn.
Burning hands ^C – This spell can clean up the ever-popular 20 twig blights encounters in Tier 1 with ease. Outside of that, it’s simply never worthwhile.
Cure wounds ^C – Occasionally, when you want to bring someone up and Fiery Teleportation is more valuable than what you would otherwise do with your action, this can be preferable over healing word.

Level 2 Strategy

In combat our strategy has mostly stayed unchanged, however we also have fog cloud in our pocket, for if we ever meet wolves or basilisks (the obscurement will negate Pack Tactics).
Make sure to rest cast goodberry as there is little merit to waking up without having used all of yesterday’s spell slots. We can 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.

Other than absorb elements as an additional contingency option, our spellcasting strategy remains mostly the same. However, the introduction of the Wildfire Spirit creates many opportunities for play-making, and you have access to all the techniques introduced in this article right from the get go. Note that you need sight of the position your targets teleport to.
In a particularly challenging encounter, the combined contribution of Wildfire Spirit and a familiar from Wild Companion is nothing to scoff at. And the best thing is, you can regain both their uses on a short rest.

Level 3: Druid (Warlock 1/Druid 2)

Wild Shape – One of the most under- and over- estimated abilities in the game, due to the misplaced focus the community has on making attacks in Wild Shape. However, as we will be spending most of our charges of Wild Shape on our subclass feature, this will not get too much use.
Something to do when you aren’t busy adventuring is to have your friends harvest poison from you in an animal form while you are incapacitated—by sleeping or otherwise.
Wild Companion (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – If you have access to this optional feature, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to cast find familiar as an action, gaining a familiar for a limited (half your Druid level hours) duration. While the limited duration is a strict downgrade from being able to cast the spell normally, all of our advice in the find familiar Spell Spotlight still applies. In a particularly tough fight, this can be used in tandem with Summon Wildfire Spirit, expending both of your Wild Shape charges.
Druid Circle – Circle of Wildfire. At this level we get our subclass, which represents a significant jump in power.
Circle Spells (Circle of Wildfire feature) – Revivify and plant growth are great options that are always prepared. This effectively translates to some much-needed extra preparation slots since our preparations are limited with low Wisdom.
Summon Wildfire Spirit (Circle of Wildfire feature) – This is and will stay our main schtick. We could write pretty much an entire article on this feature alone… and we did! This is our gimmick, and we will use it in a variety of ways. Check out our article here for all the details. 
Spell Changes: +absorb elements, +burning hands ^C, +cure wounds ^C

Level 3: Druid

Spell Changes (Druid): +flaming sphere ^C, +pass without trace, +scorching ray ^C, +spike growth, –fog cloud.
Spell Changes (Racial Spells): +shield.

Absorb elements – We likely won’t be using this much at low levels, but it will 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. The bonus melee damage is irrelevant, while the reaction cost should be noted since you can’t cast shield until the start of your next turn.
Burning hands ^C – This spell can clean up the ever-popular 20 twig blights encounters in Tier 1 with ease. Outside of that, it’s simply never worthwhile.
Cure wounds ^C – Occasionally, when you want to bring someone up and Fiery Teleportation is more valuable than what you would otherwise do with your action, this can be preferable over healing word.

Flaming sphere ^C – Even if we had the casting stats for this, which we don’t, this would still be subpar, and it eats up our concentration to boot.
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 bounded monster passive Perception scores, and either easily surprise most enemies or avoid an undesirable fight entirely. To make this even more reliable, your party members should pick up Stealth proficiency, even if they have a low Dexterity score.
Scorching ray ^C – This spell is typically equivalent to a magic missile of the same spell slot in terms of damage. That damage gets even worse for us than a typical Wildfire Druid as we only have 13 Wisdom, meaning our to-hit bonus lags behind for Druid spells. Our spell slots are more valuable when used on persistent effects like the aforementioned pass without trace or spike growth, both of which provide sizable party contribution while circumventing our low Druid spell save DC.
Spike growth – A large area, difficult terrain, and some bonus damage to deter movements. Place this between your party and the enemy brutes. In a couple levels you will gain access to Repelling Blast to make this control effect even scarier. 
Shield – This is a must-have spell for any optimized build. +5 AC for a whole round is huge, 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.

Level 3 Strategy

Other than absorb elements as an additional contingency option, our spellcasting strategy remains mostly the same. However, the introduction of the Wildfire Spirit creates many opportunities for play-making, and you have access to all the techniques introduced in this article right from the get go. Note that you need sight of the position your targets teleport to.
A technique specific to Simic Hybrid is combining the Wildfire Spirit with Manta Glide. You can teleport yourself up 15 feet diagonally with an additional 30 feet of falling movement for a total of 45 feet of displacement, which can even be done reactively by having your spirit hold its action. With this, you end up being incredibly mobile on the battlefield.
In a particularly challenging encounter, the combined contribution of Wildfire Spirit, a familiar from Wild Companion, and to a much lesser extent, Hexblade’s Curse, is nothing to scoff at. And don’t skimp on using these abilities, considering you regain all of their uses on a short rest.

We gain access to shield and round out our core defenses, which means we can be the ideal “tank” when holding up a choke point, since very few will get past a dodging character with our high AC.
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. 

Level 4: Druid (Warlock 1/Druid 3)

Spell Changes: +flaming sphere ^C, +pass without trace, +scorching ray ^C, +spike growth, –fog cloud.

Level 4: Warlock (Druid 3/Warlock 1)

Otherworldly Patron – The Genie (Efreeti). Since we are only going 2 levels into Warlock, the Genie option won’t make a huge difference but we pick Efreeti as it provides bonus fire damage, which has minor synergy with Circle of Wildfire’s Enhanced Bond at later levels.
Expanded Spell List (Genie Feature) – Nothing to write home about in the levels we are taking.
Genie’s Vessel (Genie feature) – Note that touching the vessel doesn’t require a free hand, just physical contact. Among the options from the suggested table, a ring would be most convenient.
Bottled Respite – A fascinating ability. It is your personal demiplane, your emergency bag of holding, your get out of jail free card, or just a very comfortable space with personal furnishing. Put what you want in the vessel, break it for emergency retrieval, get inside it to escape anything you don’t like to deal with (and emerge with just a bonus action), and have a Wild Companion familiar or any of your minions carry the vessel around.
Genie’s Wrath – This bonus fire damage counts as extra damage for your attack, as opposed to a separate damage instance like the one from Swarmkeeper Ranger’s Gathered Swarm feature, which means you can apply the bonus from Enhanced Bond later on. Encountering fire resistance is not a big deal since it is only a 1-2 points of damage difference.
Pact Magic — Our spell slot progression is unique and recharges on a short rest. We are not taking more than 2 Warlock levels for this build, but you will use plenty of 1st level spells throughout the adventuring day, so getting 1-2 of those slots back on a short rest is nice. Ideally, your party should be amenable to short resting at least once, preferably twice on an adventuring day. Always use your Pact Magic spell slots first!

Flaming sphere ^C – Even if we had the casting stats for this, which we don’t, this would still be subpar, and it eats up our concentration to boot.
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 bounded monster passive Perception scores, and either easily surprise most enemies or avoid an undesirable fight entirely. To make this even more reliable, your party members should pick up Stealth proficiency, even if they have a low Dexterity score.
Scorching ray ^C – This spell is typically equivalent to a magic missile of the same spell slot in terms of damage. That damage gets even worse for us than a typical Wildfire Druid as we only have 13 Wisdom, meaning our to-hit bonus lags behind for Druid spells. Our spell slots are more valuable when used on persistent effects like the aforementioned pass without trace or spike growth, both of which provide sizable party contribution while circumventing our low Druid spell save DC.
Spike growth – A large area, difficult terrain, and some bonus damage to deter movements, and you can combine this with Hexblade’s Curse to make its damage far from ignorable. Place this between your party and the enemy brutes, and double down with Hexblade’s Curse to threaten even greater punishment. In the next level, you will gain access to Repelling Blast to make this control effect even scarier. 

Hex – Hex is a decent damage buffer and can last multiple combats. Keep in mind that rider against checks can be potent in the right scenarios and your allies will appreciate you.
Protection from evil and good – This spell is admittedly highly situational as there are only a few creature types that are affected by it at all, but it excels against them, and this is the best we’ll get from low level Warlock spells. Disadvantage on attack rolls against the spell’s target, as well as inability to be charmed or frightened, can turn a crippling defeat at the hands of a vampire or aboleth into a narrow escape.
Eldritch blast – The staple cantrip of Warlocks. The damage type is rarely resisted, it has great range, and it’s enhanced by Eldritch Invocations. This will be your bread and butter when you are not casting leveled spells starting at level 5. Until we get our second ray and its supporting invocations, however, magic stone is better for damage.
Magic stone – For now, this does slightly more damage than eldritch blast, but what makes this truly valuable is that the stones can be handed out to your allies and minions, who can throw them using your Charisma modifier for attack and damage—it’s more than possible that throwing your magic-imbued pebble is a better attack than what your allies can do on their turn if they don’t have good ranged options of their own, and/or if they cannot do magical damage.

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 your melee allies want to reach an enemy in the spike area, hand them some magic stones. If an enemy had to be wary of walking in your spike growth without our Hexblade levels, then they will definitely think twice more with Hexblade’s Curse on them. 

Our spellcasting strategy has mostly stayed unchanged, but we can now either use or give away magic stones for some better ranged damage.

Level 5: Warlock (Warlock 2/Druid 3)

Animal Enhancement – Carapace, Manta Glide.
Carapace – Our best option here is +1 AC, which is not very interesting, but as we are not wearing heavy armor this is straight up an upgrade. Nimble Climber is also not a terrible option, however, as it would enhance our movement abilities even more (especially in combination with Manta Glide if we climb up something and then glide down).
Eldritch Invocations – Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast.
Agonizing Blast – Our eldritch blast now has two rays, and we get to add our Charisma modifier to the damage of both of them. A noticeable boost to our at-will damage output.
Repelling Blast – Forced movement without a saving throw is huge, and doubly so for this one because it can be applied twice if both your beams hit. The combat utility of this cannot be overstated. Blast an enemy over a bridge or a ledge. Blast an enemy into an environmental hazard such as a web spell. Blast a ghoul charging your party and force a Dash action. Blast a zombie out of melee range of your caster ally away so your ally can move around without having to Disengage or take an opportunity attack. Blast a wolf out of the Polearm Master Barbarian’s reach so they get another opportunity attack next time it approaches. This is also guaranteed to break a grapple unless the grappler has extra reach to spare. Normally we would not recommend splitting attacks between two enemies, but in the right circumstances it can be more valuable to push two enemies back 10 feet each than to focus fire (for example, if you can push both of them into a web or off a cliff).
Spell Changes: +protection from evil and good.

Level 5: Warlock (Druid 3/Warlock 2)

Eldritch Invocations — Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast.
Agonizing Blast — Our eldritch blast now has two rays, and we get to add our Charisma modifier to the damage of both of them. A noticeable boost to our at-will damage output.
Repelling Blast — Forced movement without a saving throw is huge, and doubly so for this one because it can be applied twice if both your beams hit. The combat utility of this cannot be overstated. Blast an enemy over a bridge or a ledge. Blast an enemy into an environmental hazard such as a web spell. Blast a ghoul charging your party and force a Dash action. Blast a zombie out of melee range of your caster ally away so your ally can move around without having to Disengage or take an opportunity attack. Blast a wolf out of the Polearm Master Barbarian’s reach so they get another opportunity attack next time it approaches. This is also guaranteed to break a grapple unless the grappler has extra reach to spare. Normally we would not recommend splitting attacks between two enemies, but in the right circumstances it can be more valuable to push two enemies back 10 feet each than to focus fire (for example, if you can push both of them into a web or off a cliff).
Spell Changes: +detect thoughts, unseen servant.

Protection from evil and good – This spell is admittedly highly situational as there are only a few creature types that are affected by it at all, but it excels against them, and this is the best we’ll get from low level Warlock spells. Disadvantage on attack rolls against the spell’s target, as well as inability to be charmed or frightened, can turn a crippling defeat at the hands of a vampire or aboleth into a narrow escape.

Detect thoughts ^GP – Via Githzerai Psionics. A rather circumstantial spell from our racial trait, but we do have a free casting of it each day. Handy for information gathering, and can double as a creature scanner.
Unseen servant – Create a mindless, shapeless force which acts at your command within 60 feet of you for an hour. Can be quite handy even without ritual casting, and can double up as a preemptive, budget healing word if you arm the servant with healing potions. 

Level 5 Strategy

Our at-will options are now much more robust with Repelling Blast in play and eldritch blast scaling to two beams just in time. In addition to our Wildfire Spirit, you can exert much greater control on battlefield positioning. 

Our level 5 “capstone” is the combination of Repelling Blast and spike growth, with Hexblade’s Curse as a bonus. Repelling Blast not only keeps enemies further stuck in the difficult terrain, but also adds some nice damage. Hexblade’s Curse will amplify this damage even further, making this spike field rather deadly. Eldritch blast, pushing an enemy with Hexblade’s Curse 10 feet in spike growth, can do an average of 27.5 damage on a hit. And at this level, we have two beams (34.1 average damage when accounting for hit chance)!

Our level 5 “capstone” is the combination of Repelling Blast and spike growth. Repelling Blast not only keeps enemies further stuck in the difficult terrain, but also adds some nice damage. The damage bonus from Genie’s Wrath increases with your proficiency to 3, pretty nice. 

Level 6: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 4)

Level 6: Druid (Druid 4/Warlock 2)

Wild Shape Improvement – We add swim speeds and CR ½ beasts to our options. We can upgrade our riding horses into warhorses with superior strength, defenses, and a Trampling Charge that’s actually a credible attack option at this level if you find yourself running low on resources. Frogs and even quippers add underwater exploration forms, and crocodiles give you access to an attack that grapples and restrains on hit, which is a powerful type of offense to have. It’s an inferior use of a Wild Shape charge compared to Summon Wildfire Spirit or Wild Companion, but still worth remembering as a part of your toolbox.
Ability Score Improvement – Resilient (Con). Adding proficiency to concentration saves is the big draw for us, but other Constitution saves are quite common too, including most saves vs poison, paralysis, and effects that do necrotic or cold damage. We also get +1 to Constitution, giving us 16 and bumping up our modifier to +3. That means that overall this feat increases our bonus to Constitution saves from +2 to +6, decreasing the chance that we’ll fail a DC 10 save from 35% to 15%. We’ll get additional increases when our proficiency bonus goes up. The Constitution increase also gives us a few more hit points.
Spell changes: +healing word, +thorn whip.

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. This is a good option for scrolls though, as there will be quite some moments where it will come up.
Thorn whip – While this is not a reliable staple because of your low Wisdom, it can sometimes be handy to have. At this point, feel free to pick up any cantrip you like instead. 

Level 6 Strategy

Same game plan as 5th level, but with better concentration protection.

Level 7: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 5)

Level 7: Druid (Druid 5/Warlock 2)

Spell changes: +conjure animals, +plant growth ^C, +revivify ^C.

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 DPR of 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.
Plant growth ^C – This spell creates a massive area in which creatures need to spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 feet they move, which is absolutely debilitating. Pairing this up with difficult terrain (that your spike growth can create), speed debuffs from your teammates (such as ray of frost, Lance of Lethargy, or Tentacle of the Deep), or forced movement options (Repelling Blast, Pushing Attack, Crusher, Open-Hand Technique, Telekinetic, etc) is going to spell doom for most enemies.
Revivify ^C – If someone happens to die, you definitely would want to have this prepared, and Circle Spells makes sure we do! 

Level 7 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. This approach speeds up play, sets 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 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).
At this level, conjure animals is our big gun option, which can potentially last through multiple encounters. Some beast options like constrictor snake can grapple enemies on-hit to set up your Repelling Blast plays. You can also supply your summons with magic stone for extra range (again, check with your DM to see what forms are applicable) and to get around resistance/immunity to non-magical attacks.

An additional Wildfire technique you can do with conjure animals, or any creatures for that matter, is to reactively body block an enemy. You can only move through a hostile creature’s space if the creature is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you. By having the Wildfire Spirit ready its Fiery Teleportation, you can move your animals to block an enemy’s movement at a more controlled timing, ruining their original action plan. 

Level 8: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 6)

Level 8: Druid (Druid 6/Warlock 2)

Enhanced Bond (Circle of Wildfire feature) – The main benefit of this feature is the ability to cast spells from the spirit’s space. Do note that while it lets you get around cover for your spells, you still need to abide by line of sight requirements, unlike what the Order of Scribes Wizard’s Manifest Mind ability can do. This acts as extended range for your spells, but it also opens options like casting revivify on someone from far away, or using Repelling Blast from different angles.  

Enhanced Bond (Circle of Wildfire feature) – The main benefit of this feature is the ability to cast spells from the spirit’s space. Do note that while it lets you get around cover for your spells, you still need to abide by line of sight requirements, unlike what the Order of Scribes Wizard’s Manifest Mind ability can do. This acts as extended range for your spells, but it also opens options like casting revivify on someone from far away, or using Repelling Blast from different angles. Lastly, the fire damage bonus from Genie’s Wrath lets you also add the 1d8 bonus from Enhanced Bond to your attack cantrips. 

Spell Changes: +sleet storm, +locate object, –spike growth.

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). The terrain effects are so overwhelming that even if enemies make their save against falling prone with your low Wisdom score, they will still have a very bad day. Additionally, again even with your low save DC, enemy spellcasters will still have a hard time keeping their concentration in its radius. Because of all these effects, the way that enemies will typically escape this horrifying spell combination is individually or in small groups, which the party can easily pick off one by one. 
Locate object – This is circumstantial utility, but the circumstance is actually quite common, and it can be incredibly useful when you need it. Locate your campaign’s MacGuffin, or a magic item, or any plot related object. Think there might be lead in the way? Locate lead containers. Thought about preparing locate creature? Don’t. Cast this instead, looking for their armor, clothes, magic items, or special trinkets. You can really go wild with it, especially now that you have lots of spare slots.

Level 8 Strategy

While the bonus fire damage doesn’t suddenly make you a dedicated damage dealer like a Ranger with Archery Fighting Style, Crossbow Expert, and Sharpshooter, it is nice to have. For reference, this gives you 16.2 DPR at will against AC 16, compared to the 24 DPR from a subclass-less, zero resource consumption Ranger with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter.

With Repelling Blast, you can push an enemy further into sleet storm, or push enemies that escaped back in, further enhancing the value of this spell. If you can add plant growth to the mix, enemies caught within the effects might as well stop trying to move.
While we would typically keep the Wildfire Spirit nearby for reactive movement or emergency escape, it might be worth sending it further out at times for that perfect Repelling Blast angle using Enhanced Bond to push people into an area of effect, or off a cliff side, or even “pulling” enemies towards you by sandwiching an enemy. You can additionally use Enhanced Bond for thorn whip from the air to drop a creature prone, though note your behind-the-curve to hit bonus. 

Level 9: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 7)

Level 9: Druid (Druid 7/Warlock 2)

Spell Changes: +aura of life ^C, +conjure woodland beings, +fire shield ^C, +polymorph, –locate object.

Aura of life ^C – There are only a few situations where the spell’s benefits are worth your concentration and 4th level slot compared to your other options. One such niche use is described here, but it’s only available at a much later level.
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.
Fire shield ^C – The main merit for this spell is that it is non concentration, but compared to absorb elements, this only saves you a couple reactions at best, while costing significantly more in terms of spell slot. The damage in melee is irrelevant and should not be what you aim to use it for, either.
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 improves 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 a few quite good 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 going 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.
8 Mites – This is quite a fascinating creature from 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.
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, almost as much as the 6th level heal spell. Not only that, but they also each have pass without trace 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.
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 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 (they lose to 8 wolves unless you can get the quicklings advantage by proning or restraining their target somehow) while fitting in much more cramped spaces. They also have a higher than normal AC, enemies constantly have disadvantage to hit them, and they have Evasion. Their main weakness is having only 10 hit points, as they rely entirely on their Evasion and speed to survive.
1 Darkling Elder – This is very much of a situational pick, but with darkness and Blindsight, it is still doing somewhat good 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, 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 strong 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 Oathbreaker Paladin or a Warlock with the Undead patron, another valid option instead of the Genie. Where this option really becomes strong is upcasting for a coven, which we will discuss later in the build.

If you aren’t expecting any combat during a day, you can prepare divination and spend your slots on goodberries.

Divination – This 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, hopefully.

Level 10: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 8)

Level 10: Druid (Druid 8/Warlock 2)

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. While this Wild Shape option is still competing with Summon Wildfire Spirit, flight can be useful at times. As a Simic Hybrid with Manta Glide, you can fly up high before dropping the animal form for a massive movement burst.
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – +2 Cha. We’re improving our Charisma here since our eldritch blast will scale to three beams next level. Otherwise, feel free to pick up other feats you prefer to match your table’s game.
Spell Changes: +wall of fire.

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. While this Wild Shape option is still competing with Summon Wildfire Spirit, flight can be useful at times. 
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – +2 Cha. We’re improving our Charisma here since our eldritch blast will scale to three beams next level. Otherwise, feel free to pick up other feats you prefer to match your table’s game.
Spell Changes: +wall of fire.

Wall of fire – The classic “push people into things” spell with great flexibility. While it allows for a save to take half damage when the wall appears (1d8 bonus from Enhanced Bond can apply to this damage instance), after this the wall does not allow any saves. You are guaranteed 5d8 fire damage whenever another creature enters the wall on a turn, or ends its turn within 10 feet of the side you designated to emit heat.
Although the spell says nothing about the wall having to be a straight line (normally walls aren’t restricted as such), which would in fact allow us to bend our wall of fire, Jeremy Crawford seems to think otherwise. There is some ambiguity here, so check with your DM.

Level 10 Strategy

With wall of fire in our arsenal, we can deny a large area, push enemies into it, and bail any ally who is caught within it out with Fiery Teleportation. Enhanced Bond also allows for pushing from different angles, greatly increasing the area you can threaten. Note that the damage for standing in the heat zone is applied at the end of the target creature’s turn, whereas the damage on entry can be applied once on each turn. Repelling Blast and other forced movement effects from your party can trigger this damage multiple times in a round.

Level 11: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 9)

Level 11: Druid (Druid 9/Warlock 2)

Spell Changes: +antilife shell, +flame strike ^C, mass cure wounds ^C, +wall of stone, –polymorph.

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. If your enemies have ranged attacks, that isn’t a default kill situation, but enemy ranged attacks tend to be way less deadly than melee ones, so it’s a still a state of enormous advantage for your party. You definitely won’t cast this every adventure, but sometimes it just wins the fight on its own, and you can afford to prepare the spell at this level.
Flame strike ^C – Tiny area of effect, horrible damage, split damage type is irrelevant. How did this spell get printed?
Mass cure wounds ^C – Might be somewhat useful if you need to bring up multiple allies. However, even just having your summons from conjure animals and Wildfire Spirit deliver potions is likely both cheaper and more effective.
Wall of stone – The next best wall spell for the level, we can potentially shut hallways with it, or make monsters that have high value reactions such as counterspell or shield to waste them trying to make the save (or getting automatically imprisoned in case they already used those).

Level 11 Strategy

At this level, we have plenty of spells with huge impact on the battlefield. Our eldritch blast package is also 50% more potent—with 3 beams instead of 2.
Use conjure animals and conjure woodland beings as your staple options. 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.
When using antilife shell, you can push enemies out of your way with Repelling Blast so you don’t end the spell by moving spell’s effect into them.
Use wall of stone to split up the encounter, create cover and platforms, or trap enemies. Pay attention to the reaction usage of creatures in the encounter. With your low save DC, you might even use this spell to grant an ally extra movement with their reaction, using Wildfire Spirit to bail them out if they fail the saving throw.
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, you have a lower save DC for planar binding than usual, so it’s best that you leave this role to the other caster.
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.
If plant growth is not applicable due to unfavorable terrain or rulings, consider preparing transmute rock in place of wall of stone.
We now get to prepare both or either of divination and commune with nature during downtime. 

Commune with nature – 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.

Level 12: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 10)

Level 12: Druid (Druid 10/Warlock 2)

Cauterizing Flames (Circle of Wildfire feature) – Some extra healing or extra damage. If you have ways to move an ally’s unconscious body to the spectral flame, such as with the help of summons, the healing might be used to revive them with just a reaction. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

Spell Changes: +dispel magic, +shape water.

Dispel magic – A great addition to our spell selection, since it allows you to defend your party members and foil enemy spells. Typically not as good as preventing the spells entirely the way counterspell can, 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.
Shape water – This spell’s ability to both freeze water into a hard surface and animate it to move around can be key in setting off traps ahead of you, crossing gaps, and creating cover in an emergency.

Level 12 Strategy

Heading into the later tiers of play, resistance and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks are more common, but definitely not universal. Conjure animals becomes less of a staple, but as previously stated, you can supply your animals with magic stone (which is Charisma based), and you still have many other spells that control enemies or buff your party, along with Repelling Blast and Fiery Teleportation reliably providing value.

Level 13: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 11)

Level 13: Druid (Druid 11/Warlock 2)

Spell Changes: +conjure fey.

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).

Level 13 Strategy

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 distantly as possible (maybe burying himself between turns) and throw some rocks (which they’re really good at doing) while the galeb duhr is summoned. Don’t forget to prepare your divination spells again during down time. In preparation of a particularly challenging day or whenever you can afford the material component, swap in heroes’ feast to beef up your party before the day begins (if survival is a greater concern, consider picking up heal, which is described next level).

If you do not have a Cleric in your party heroes’ feast can be very useful.

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 14: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 12)

Level 14: Druid (Druid 12/Warlock 2)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Lucky. This gives us a way to reroll critical saves that we fail the first time. We are picking this over War Caster, but feel free to pick that instead if you are having component issues, or if you are getting hit hard enough or often enough such that maintaining concentration is becoming a significant issue.

Spell Changes: +heal.

Heal – This one’s pretty straightforward: you heal yourself or an ally for 70 hit points. Unlike most healing spells, this one is actually pretty impactful for its spell slot. Heal gets relatively more valuable the stronger your party’s defenses are.

Level 15: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 13)

Level 15: Druid (Druid 13/Warlock 2)

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. This spell does not care about your spell DC, and it even works on enemies with Truesight!

Level 15 Strategy

In the event we have 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. Of course, upcasting conjure animals or conjure woodland beings is still a worthwhile consideration.
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 backpocket. Refer to level 18 for how this spell is used.

Level 16: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 14)

Level 16: Druid (Druid 14/Warlock 2)

Blazing Revival (Circle of Wildfire feature) – Some extra survivability. While the extra hit points you restore is better than death ward, this does make you fall unconscious and drop whatever you’re concentrating on.

Spell Changes: +greater restoration.

Level 17: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 15)

Level 17: Druid (Druid 15/Warlock 2)

Spell Changes: +antipathy/sympathy.

Antipathy/sympathy – Use antipathy to make anyone who carries the item you cast it on into walking control machines, 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 class’ spell list help us target even more precisely. A single casting will generate you value for the next 10 days, and while your DC for this spell is not particularly high, enemies who made the save will still have to save again the next minute. 

Level 17 Strategy

Your eldritch blast now scales to four beams! You possess very potent at-will options with Repelling Blast and Wildfire Spirit in play, and they are also especially useful in circumventing common Legendary Action options by keeping allies away from their range after the creature’s turn.
There are not a lot of great 8th level spells, but you can simply upcast conjure animals or conjure woodland beings if extra firepower is necessary. Note that conjure woodland beings at 8th level can create three Sea Hags to form a coven. 

Level 18: Druid (Warlock 2/Druid 16)

Level 18: Druid (Druid 16/Warlock 2)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – +2 Cha. As usual, you can tweak your feat choices to your table, options like War Caster, Alert, Fey Touched for gift of alacrity are worth considering. 

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). 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 (Warlock 2/Druid 17)

Level 19: Druid (Druid 17/Warlock 2)

Spell Changes: +foresight, +shapechange, –healing word*.

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 – We get this because turning into an adult gold dragon that still has Spellcasting and all of your other class features is fun.

Level 19 Strategy

If we spend your resources wisely, 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 a single 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 reasonable choice. 

*Healing word is no longer as important for us. Between healing word scrolls, healing potions delivered by summons, heal, and Cauterizing Flame, you have many ways to bring up an unconscious ally. Another option is to just cast cure wounds (perhaps through Enhanced Bond) and save your bonus action that turn to activate Fiery Teleportation.

Level 20: Cleric (Warlock 2/Druid 17/Cleric 1)

Level 20: Cleric (Druid 17/Warlock 2/Cleric 1)

Divine Domain – Peace Domain. One of the highest value dips in the game. Its pièce de résistance is Emboldening Bond, which is all we are after.

Implement of Peace (Peace Domain feature) – Persuasion. We finish off the duo of Persuasion and Deception on our “face,” pretty handy with our high Charisma.

Implement of Peace (Peace Domain feature) – Insight. We pick up Insight as it is the most frequently applicable skill remaining in this list.

Emboldening Bond  (Peace Domain feature) – This feature gives you and your allies a 1d4 bonus that is applied once on each turn, so the saving throw benefit functions basically like half a Paladin’s Aura of Protection—and we all know how valuable that is. As icing on the cake, the bonus to ability checks can apply to dispel magic, and counterspell checks, as well as rolls for initiative. The bond lasts 10 minutes and scales with your proficiency both in number of targets and uses (6 at level 20), which ensures very consistent uptime. Unless your party is extremely spread apart, being within 30 feet of any other bonded ally should not be an issue at all. 
Spell changes: +detect magic, +healing word, +heroism, +sanctuary, +mending, +resistance, +thaumaturgy.

Detect magic – A handy ritual that every party can make use of. Another good option is ceremony to remove things that mess with alignments.
Heroism ^D – While fear effects become more and more common at high levels, we probably have better things to concentrate on.
Sanctuary ^D – 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. While this does take away some pressure from your target, the low spell DC means you’re better off saving your slots for shield and absorb elements instead.
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.
Resistance – This is guidance, but for saving throws. Especially now, we might want to be prepared when handling strange artifacts out of combat. 
Thaumaturgy – This is mostly fluff and minor utility, as it doesn’t have defined mechanical benefits, but DM-willing you might be able to use it to make yourself more intimidating, create distractions, or trick people. Pick whatever here, we mostly care about this not being keyed off of Wisdom.

Level 20 Strategy

This build, while sharing many common traits with the basic Druid chassis, will feel remarkably different in play. 
We possess the defensive package of 19 AC, shield, absorb elements, with some tail protections provided by Lucky and Blazing Revival.
We boast superior mobility that extends to your party with flight options from conjure animals and the fantastically versatile Fiery Teleportation ability.
We have a powerful 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. Spike growth, sleet storm, wall of fire, wall of stone, and plant growth all provide excellent area control, further enhanced by Repelling Blast. Antipathy/sympathy and antilife shell are amazing cheat codes whenever they are applicable. Additionally, none of these spells rely heavily on your spell DC to generate good value!
We have many miscellaneous tools that allow us to deal with a multitude of problems that might come up during adventuring. Our preparation options include locate object, dispel magic, revivify, greater restoration, heal, divination, commune with nature, and plane shift, which are all 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, foresight, heroes’ feast will keep your party healthy and protected throughout your career. 

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