Cantrips are minor spells that a Druid can cast at will without using up a spell slot. They do not need to be prepared in any way. At level 1, a Druid knows 2 cantrips and a number of level 1 spells equal to their level + their Wisdom modifier. For the purpose of this article, let’s assume you have 5 spells and none of them count against anything. You know the cantrip~~, full stop~~. The circle spells are always prepared and don’t count against the number of spells.
Cantrips are counted separately from the spells that you learn. Each caster class has a specific number of known cantrips at each level. By defeault, you cannot swap, prepare, or unprepare them. The druid only says how many cantrips are known, how many spell slots they have, and how many spells they can prepare. You can cast a maximum of 21 spells per day (which does not include cantrips, since they can be cast as often as you wish without using a spell slot). The cantrips known limitation only applies for your bard levels.
The extra cantrips from your feat will be extra and do not count to the cantrips known limitations for the bard. Cantrips do not count as spells known. Most classes have separate “Cantrips known” and “Spells known” columns. At 1st level, you know two cantrips of your choice from the druid spell list. You learn additional druid cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table.
📹 Druid spells ranked: Cantrips
Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Rating System 3:22 Control Flames 4:52 Create Bonfire 6:21 Druidcraft 7:24 Frostbite 8:25 Guidance …
Do cantrips count towards wild magic?
Wild magic is a random phenomenon that can occur due to various factors such as magic going wild in a region, a curse from a deity, or a deliberate attempt by the caster after learning how to trigger it. It can be helpful, harmful, or even weird. To help players understand the effects of wild magic, a wiki has created random generators for each wild magic table. This wiki allows players to roll 1d100 on the cantrips wild magic table as a standard action, eliminating the need to roll and scroll. Wild magic is unpredictable and can have both helpful and harmful effects.
How do you calculate druid known spells?
To cast druid spells, choose from the druid spell list and choose a number equal to your Wisdom modifier and druid level. The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, a 3rd-level druid with a Wisdom of 16 can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level in any combination. Casting a spell doesn’t remove it from your list.
You can change your list of prepared spells after a long rest, but it requires time spent in prayer and meditation. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability, as your magic draws upon your devotion and attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom modifier when referring to a spell and when setting the saving throw DC for a druid spell and making an attack roll with one.
What are the rules for cantrips?
Cantrips are free, weak magic pieces that don’t have significant effects and are level 0 spells. They don’t cost anything and don’t even have a spell slot. On the other hand, spells are powerful and require a character’s spell slots to cast various components. They are used to pace out attacks in battle. A cantrip is like a penguin, but it’s not suitable for fighting a demogorgon. In contrast, spells are like a pen full of carnivorous dinosaurs, and when used to deal damage, the carnotaurus should be used instead of the penguin.
Do cantrips count as 1st level spells?
A spell is a discrete magical effect that shapes the energies that suffuse the multiverse into a specific, limited expression. Each spell has a level from 0 to 9, indicating its power. Levels range from lowly magic missiles to earth-shaking wishes, with cantrips being level 0. Spellcasting is a crucial skill in fantasy gaming, and different character classes have unique ways of learning and preparing their spells.
A spell is a single shaping of the magical energies, which a character carefully plucks at the invisible strands of raw magic, pins them in place, sets them vibrating, and releases them to unleash the desired effect, usually within seconds.
How many cantrips can a druid know?
It is acknowledged that the Druid TableLevel Proficiency Bonus Cantrips are known; however, it is also recognised that JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by an extension, and that your browser does not support cookies.
Do druids get cantrips at level 1?
At the initial level, the player gains proficiency in two cantrips from the druid spell list. Additional cantrips are learned at higher levels, as illustrated in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table. In the event that JavaScript is disabled or blocked by an extension or browser that does not support cookies, the functionality described herein will not be available.
Are cantrips included in prepared spells?
It is now the case that cantrips are to be regarded as 0-level spells, and thus may be prepared in the same manner as any other spell. Similarly, they can be replaced after a long rest, in a manner analogous to other prepared spells.
Do cantrips count as prepared spells druid?
Each caster class is associated with a specific number of known cantrips at each level. These cantrips are immutable and cannot be swapped, prepared, or unprepared by default. In the absence of a class feature that permits the swapping of these cantrips at the time of level advancement or at the point of a long rest, they remain fixed and distinct from both known and prepared spells.
Do cantrips count against spells known?
Cantrips are not associated with recognized or prepared spells and are analogous to the cantrips of other classes. These spells are not leveled and do not consume spell slots.
What class knows the most cantrips?
The sorcerer has a higher initial allotment of four cantrips than any other class.
How many cantrips does a druid know?
At the initial level, the character is able to cast two cantrips from the druid spell list. Additional cantrips are acquired at higher levels, as illustrated in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table. JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension or browser that does not support cookies.
📹 Must-Have Druid Spells for Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Are you ready to harness the energies of nature and weave them into the fabric of your Dungeons and Dragons game?
I really think the game should just grant players the flavor Cantrips like Druidcraft automatically when you pick the class. You can’t swap them out, but they don’t cost against your list. For people who are more min/maxers, they will never use them anyway. For players who want to do some more flavor stuff, it doesn’t force them to drop an actual useful cantrip (either battle or utility) for something that is going to be just used for flavor 99.9% of the time.
So Guidance is the best cantrip on the list, as the only blue option. No surprise there… but one thing that Treantmonk didn’t mention, and that is often overlooked — Initiative rolls are ability checks. If you know you’re about to enter combat in the next minute or less, cast Guidance on yourself or a party member and add 1d4 to initiative checks. This feature gets this cantrip used more often at our table.
In defense of Produce Flame, what other ranged spell attack cantrip options does the druid even have? Thorn Whip is usually better but Produce Flame still has unique utility for the druid specifically. In a similar vein to what other attack cantrips they get, Produce Flame is also druid’s best light source by default too, making it decent utility, even if said utility anti-synergizes with its damage function. Cantrips are easily druid’s weakest spell level relative to other classes and I see Produce Flame as just the best of a bad situation. It would certainly be trash for a spoiled wizard but it suddenly becomes a lot better when you don’t have Fire Bolt or Light anymore.
It is easy to overlook, but control flames is somatic only, and has a decent range of 60 feet. This actually makes it fairly good for stealth purposes. Get within 60 feet of a nonmagical flame and dim it or snuff it out, making it easier for the rogue to sneak around. It is definitely niche — but it performs well in that niche. I agree with the orange rating, and in my experience people tend to underrate it (basically considering it low end of red / “useless”).
I think shape water differs from mold earth in that there actually is almost always water around. At the least, every adventurer’s pack includes a waterskin that holds 4 pints of water. This often isn’t enough for making cover in combat, but it gets you the utility of making and freezing small simple shapes. You can freeze objects in place such as a door, make an ice slick, make a fake window to replace the one you just broke, etc. At the very least I’d say it’s on par with mending, which it can often replace (it can also cover a larger area and patch things that mending can’t such as burns).
I do like create bonfire a bit more as it is a nice set up for controlling s space and creating bottle necks (fuel allowing of course). Most in world creatures just see flame also it remains so you can hit it with control to flair it up. Cut off or divert most pursuers or set fire to the most wood framed buildings. I would say it is a circumstantial 2 stars.
I’m surprised about Create Bonfire being this low, considering Tasha’s and all the push/pull stuff available now. I get it, Concentration, but even so, it can really do a lot, and conserves resources. In a team setting, it’s surprisingly good. Can stack damage. It encourages and promotes tactical play and teamwork. Love that the wording is ” for the first time on A turn”, which means anyone could play ping pong with an enemy, pretty much like any sustained damage spell, only it’s a cantrip, so no worries about wasting spell slots. I think it’s really interesting combined with a tank/melee running Booming Blade. All in all, makes every fight at a bare minimum fun and potentially engaging for other team players, vs everyone doing their thing. For RP purposes, it’s frightening that someone can just make everything burn at will. Witch at the stake and all. Evil loan shark ties up someone to a chair and the rest is history. Idk, I like it a lot more than red.
I had Infestation on a Swarmkeeper Ranger with the Druidic Fighter fighting style, the theme was just too strong to pass up. I think I cast it twice ever, even at level 2 it couldn’t compare to just attacking. The time I used the cantrip to make a swarm of bees drag and assassin out of a tree was almost funny enough to justify the choice.
A note on control water: Ice has a lower density than water, and freezing water can cause serious damage to structures when it’s inside small cracks, due to its significant expansion. If a DM is willing to take that into account then it may become more useful. It isn’t game breaking, but it means you could do stuff like shatter a lock using water from your canteen.
I really like Magic stone for a great many of my own character ideas. I think an important factor is whether it can benefit from the extra attack feature. I would argue that it can, as the ranged spell attack isn’t the action used(rather, a modification to the normal mechanics), but the throw is, which arguably would be an attack action.
Create Bonfire is my “go to’, hardly red. That’s crazy! You cast it, keep your concentration going and then cast whatever you want every other turn. If you did NOTHING else except cast it and let it die (no concentration), it does decent cantrip damage. For low level druids, this is the best cantrip in the game.
Create Bonfire is orange for me. It can be used very tactically at low levels before the big second-level concentration spells come into play. It can be used to block off paths/hallways, funnel enemies or put directly under an enemy to force movement and AoO. It can also be used with thorn whip to provoke the extra damage more often. It definitely falls off once you reach 3rd level, but it is great at levels one and two when you don’t have better options for concentration.
I will point out, gust has been an all star in my druid that is focused on battlefield control. It works great with spells like spike growth where you can make the creatures move and is a good replacement for thunder wave if you are out of spell slots(my druid is also in a coastal campaign where a lot of fighting happens on boats and I can usually try to push someone off the boat with gust)
I’ve been looking more intently at druids lately, and I can’t help but particularly appreciate the coincidence of one of my more favored D&D related websites deciding to make a series on their spells. Thanks. : ) Also, I could have sworn that Thorn Whip forced you to always move them 10 feet, I’ve read it multiple times, and I can’t believe I missed those two all important words “up to”. Still, I just kind of like Frostbite better due to range, but I definitely rank it higher in my own personal preferences now.
create bonfire: the concentration requirement does suck, but it’s not hard to target 2 (or more) creatures with the initial casting of this spell. further, anything that isn’t worn or carried automatically catches fire. so, if you throw it in a doorway that is made of wood, then you can drop concentration after a round because the door and the wood frame are now on fire. if you also take control flames with this cantrip, there’s a lot you can do when it comes to battlefield control (and you can immediately snuff out any flames that make things difficult). this should be an orange ranking at the lowest, but i feel like any druid would find uses for this spell. poison spray: as it is it’s garbage, but i’ve fixed it in my homebrew to make it something that people actually want now. instead of a 10ft range single target con save for d12s of poison damage, i’ve made it a 10ft line con save for the poisoned condition until the end of the caster’s next turn. no damage. also, every time the players go up a cantrip die rank, the distance of the line increases by 5ft. so, at 5th level it’s a 15ft line con save for the poisoned condition. the original mechanics made it almost completely useless to any caster, but now it’s very useful both in and out of combat. produce flame: i would argue that since you produce the flame that sits in your hand, if you wanted to you should be able to hit someone for a melee spell attack with this spell. this spell seems so enamored with being a utility cantrip that a variable attack type would fit right in.
I’m a big fan of Mold Earth for utility purposes. It’s primary function is great (as you mentioned, when the terrain allows it) by giving a prone creature full cover hiding in the hole, but the ability to create images in the ground or wall are great. Draw a map of the area you scouted, create a portrait of the suspicious guy you saw, leave an arrow in the wall to indicated where you chased the bad guy to, etc. The create/remove difficult terrain I mainly use to stomp around and smash the floor up for flavor reasons (somatic only)
Control Flames is A-mazing for shadow monks, gloom stalkers and other subclasses that rely on combat lighting, so you don’t have to rely on darkness because it is cheaper and doesn’t use your concentration. Niche, yeah, bot for those subclasses is best cantrip. For magic initiate purposes or other means of getting cantrips from the druid class, of course. Guidance or Shillelagh +control flames.
In my opinion, these cantrips are underrated: 1. Control Flames: It’s the range and lack of verbal component that elevates this spell. Great for exploring, great for stealth, and decent for utility. Sneaking through an enemy hideout, having the option to silently, unfailingly extinguish flames at 60 foot range is impressive. My wizard had this cantrip when playing through Tales of the Yawning Portal (levels 1-11), and it was one of my favorite spells. I regretted taking Mage Hand. On a druid, Control Flames would likely rank even a little higher. 2. Druidcraft: having the ability to know the weather conditions for the next day allows the druid to help the party plan ahead (Call Lightning Y/N, strong winds Y/N, heavy precipitation Y/N, limited visibility Y/N). In campaigns such as Tomb of Annihilation and Rime of the Frostmaiden, both of which I’ve run, this cantrip would have had a big impact on the campaign… if players had selected it. On the other hand, since druidcraft has a verbal component, it’s difficult to use for stealth. The wolf howl/goblin cave is a pretty good use of the spell though. 3. Resistance: saving throws can be DEADLY and there are few ways to increase the chance of success on these rolls outside of a few leveled spells and bardic inspiration, which are very limited resources. This could vary between tables, but in my experience, saving throws outside of combat can in fact be predicted most of the time. Cast Resistance just before walking near a suspicious section of floor, activating a strange switch, walking across a narrow platform, diving down a deep well, etc.
I’d actually rank thunderclap as red. The key drawback is thus:Everything within 100ft now knows your party is there! In published dungeons this can be suicide as you suddenly alert half the dungeon of your presence! It doesn’t matter much in 1-2 fights per day style campaigns, so maybe it’d be orange for those, but if we’re talking anything with ANY dungeon crawling at all the spell will get you killed unless your gm ignores that element.
Love your content, but I need to go to bat for produce flame here. I’d personally probably give it a purple ranking, but there’s absolutely no way imo that it deserves a red one. It’s frankly on the better side of druid attack cantrips. It doesn’t target an awful save (like so many of their cantrips do); and while 30 ft isn’t great range, it’s better range than most of their options – especially since it’s an attack roll rather than a save. None of this is to mention that D8 is on the high side of their cantrip damage (even though fire is admittedly a “meh” damage type). Your observation that you’re throwing your light source is valid, but I don’t see why that should count against it, since none of the other cantrips even have the versatility of being a light source. Yeah it’s a crappy one, but in a pinch it might be better than nothing, and I’ve always personally liked the fiat of being able to start a fire at the snap of my fingers (that seems to actually come up a lot). I agree thorn whip is better, but I don’t think it’s green:red better. No disadvantage at melee + 10 ft drag with a lower die roll on an even worse damage type without the benefit of a (shoddy) light source / fire starter? Again, agree thorn whip is better, but not three stars better. Red to me is for spells that are traps or just really bad choices. Produce flame is a perfectly serviceable cantrip in my experience.
Shape Water is the most powerful cantrip in 5th edition as long as you have a decanter of endless water, or even just the create water spell. There are so many uses for water that you can freeze or turn into a simple animated construct. If your DM lets you use it on ice there are so, so many campaigns that make it S tier.
In T1 it’s rare, but you sometimes encounter a monster that is immune to non-magic-weapon damage. And you sometimes encounter things that resist non-magic damage. If a meleer or archer in the party has no magic weapon, this can be a great spell – cuz I’m pretty sure this does magical bludgeoning damage (find out if your DM thinks otherwise – most DMs I know consider it magical (or even consider it a spell attack, not a ranged weapon attack), and that seems to be RAW). Anyway, give other party members stones to throw, and they’re now doing magical damage. A bow vs something that resists it does 4.5 + 3 / 2 = 3.75 av dam. Magic stone is 6.5. I agree magic stone is not useful past tier 1 (lvls 1 to 4). Tasha’s letting you switch out a cantrip makes this one worth considering now for low lvl use.
I tend to think Produce Flame deserves an orange rank alongside such illustrious alumni as Resistance and Thunderclap, though I do 100% agree that it should have been better. At least having the option to replace the flame automatically and a 60 foot range would be okay, not amazing. Still, I think it has circumstantial use. A Wildfire druid likes it better as an at-will option than Create Bonfire, and once they have their bonus fire damage at 6th it could well be better than Thorn Whip, depending on what you’re concentrating on. If you have a Spike Growth to yank a foe through, no, but if you’re running a Conjure or Summon I think it’d likely be better value. I suppose a spell that is Orange for only one sub is still red overall. I like Druids, but I still feel their cantrip list might be the poorest, other than maybe bard.
Hard objection on Druidcraft. You missed out the part that it gives you weather forecasting. Excellent for when you decide when to engage with call lightning, use fog without concentration or sneak in somewhere and use heavy rain to drown out sounds and wash away footprints. It gives so much more options and maybe reminds the DM that weather is indeed a thing, we all probably a at least one campaign, where it never came up.
Btw.: I somewhat disagree that it’s normal for most cantrip lists to be mostly orange because cantrips tend to be situationally useful. I personally feel that the cantrip lists of wizards, sorcerers and warlocks feel quite a bit stronger than the druid list. Yes, they have some stinkers aswell, but I would love for druids to have access to Firebolt, Ray of Frost, Toll the Dead, Minor Illusion, Message or Mage Hand, just to name a few. I personally feel that very few of the druid cantrips are on that level.
Here is the final thing for those who want it! Blue*** Spells Guidance Green** Spells Thorn Whip Purple*** Spells Frostbite Magic Stone Mending Primal Savagry Shillelagh Orange** Spells Control Flames Druidcraft Mold Earth Resistance Shape Water Thunderclap Red* Spells Create Bonfire Gust Infestation Poison Spray Produce Flame
Shape water: 125 cubic feet (3500 liters or 925 gallons) of water instantly freezing would create insane force due to expansion. As long as you can somehow fit the water in a crack, for example by using, (wait for it!) Shape water, you should be able to crush almost any material, and even create explosions. This use should come up at least once in one game played somewhere on earth, at some point in time.
21:20 Produce Flame I’m joining a campaign in progress, in two days, as a Wildfire Druid. I’m taking this Red* cantrip, because it benefits from the level 6 subclass feat “Enhanced Bond” and I’ll be starting out at level 5. Sure, it’s range is short but 3d8 as a cantrip at level 6 is still a great option. With the druid’s list of healing spells, staying midway between melee and ranged seems the logical place to be anyway. The pet’s teleport can get me out of melee as my bonus action, if I was to get swarmed.
13:50 but are the commoner’s proficient in throwing the stones? It’s a ranged spell attack for you or someone else and Ch. 10 of PHB says, for /PCs/, “Your attack bonus with a spell attack equals your spellcasting ability modifier + your proficiency bonus.” but as Chris will often point out, the rules for PCs and NPCs are different.
One thing I really like Mold Earth for is for large scale engineering. Digging canals and trenches or making levees, stuff like that. Very circumstantial for PCs, but there are campaigns where that is quite valuable. But the worldbuilding implications are probably the bigger thing. Also, Thorn Whip is fantastic if you are playing a race that can fly, since its pull (which need not be horizontal) is just enough to cause fall damage, which also knocks the target prone. An extra d6 isn’t spectacular by the time you get access to other forms of flight, at best bringing your damage up to average for a cantrip, but giving allies advantage will always be significant, and the movement reduction is good for keeping enemies within spell AoEs. Heck, lifting a creature out of an AoE and then dropping them back in is even possible with a few spells like Spike Growth.
I think Create Bonfire is a bit underrated, but it very quickly loses its value as you level, 1-4 it has some decent uses especially when you can essentially force enemies to enter it and stay in it – it’s a bit circumstantial but it’s not targeting CON and it does have the ability to do ongoing damage. A reasonable low level damage option, certainly better than most of the CON and/or Poison cantrips I’d have thought? The lack of light from it, and the inability to move it (because that’d be cool) about sort of sucks…
12:10 oh i was confused for a second there. so the attacker doesnt use the caster’s FULL spell modifier. the attacker uses their own proficiency bonus + the caster’s spell ability modifier. i think it would probably work out to be the same as if it was the caster’s full spell attack modifier (caster’s prof. + caster’s spellcasting mod), but yea it could be a little different. also id probably try to argue to home-rule produce flame to be 60 ft, and the flame stays in the hand after thrown.
With so many useful concentration spells on the druid spell list, I am surprised that you rated the non-concentration combat spells produce flame, primal savagery, and shillelagh so low. If your concentration spell is in effect and working, then the druid need some other non-concentration way to affect the battle. I feel like having at least some of these attack cantrips is almost a requirement for any druid to ensure they can use their more powerful spells and still keep going.
in a one shot, I had a warlock cast magic stone and hand them to his flock of familiars. the rest of the fight, he just sat back working support, casting minor illusion for the rogue, and getting his pact of chain familiars to pelt the enemy with stones. I don’t think it worked very well, or was entirely legal. but it was one hell of a memorable encounter!
OK Optimizer have to politely disagree on ranking for shape water. I would give it a green ranking. So many uses for it and with low level druid spell slots of create and destroy water you can get your fill. Throw in Thorn Whip and you are pulling monsters into ice spikes or slippery sheets of ice (go prone .. go prone), pulling down chunks of ice on top of foes. Need to look for treasure in murky water.. done advantage please DM on that investigation check. Need to block a doorway for an hour done. Need ice stairs, bridge, ladder, pole.. Done. Need to divert a stream or throw up some cover.. done. Need to move water to put out a fire.. Done. But like with Minor illusion you will need to work some stuff out with DM. But with this one creativity is the only limit and a druid should always know where the water is. Is there water in this room.. No.. is there water in this room… No… Is there water in this room..Yes.. Oh its on!!! lol
Rating of Mold Earth is WAY OFF. Here is everything of the top of my head I’ve used it for: Mold Earth – Bury, Foxhole/Trench, Fortify Camp, Conceal Travel, Dam Rivers, Farming, Dig Wells, Illusions on Stone, Clean Water, Sap Structures, Stone Molds, Stone Printing Press, Climbing Aids, Gemstone Manipulation, Ramp/Bridge, Silent Communication, Barricade Outside entrances, Shelter, Concealded Trench Travel, Intricate wood markings, Paper transfer rubbing, ect. I would take it before any cantrip save Guidance and possibly Minor Illusion
Honestly, I’ve never stopped being p*ssed that the druid spell list doesn’t include Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp, all ELEMENTAL cantrips with much, MUCH better range, damage or secondary effects than the utter sh*t druid attack cantrips. They should have been included in the druid spell list since the PH … particularly when you consider that they’re not all that great as attacks anyway; they’re just MILES above and beyond the druid cantrip selection … and if you’re not playing a Moon druid, you NEED effective ranged cantrip attacks. If Shillelagh’s damage scaled, I’d take it and never look back because being able to attack with, say, a magical club or quarterstaff with my WIS bonus, doing Xd8 damage in melee, would be almost as awesome as playing a Hexblade warlock. As it stands, I consider it crap … particularly because I’ve TRAINED with the quarterstaff, and it IS NOT a “versatile” weapon. there is EXACTLY ONE maneuver with a quarterstaff that works with one hand. It is a spinning strike in which you END, not start, your move with the weapon in one hand, and its use is … as you say … exceedingly circumstantial. Therefore, the staff should be considered a two-handed weapon, which means it should do a d8 damage by 5E standards. This is not to say I disagree with you ranking; it’s just that I have completely different reasons. 😉 Thorn Whip is likely the best druid attack cantrip in the game, and I can’t argue with your logic; pulling a creature into a Spike Stones spell, for example, guarantees at least a couple of dice of damage to an opponent for the cost of an action and a cantrip.
My DM almost made our 2nd session a TKP. Against four wolves and a handful of Goblins. No kidding!! Two players (out of four) were casting death saving throws, I was down to ONE HP, AFTER distributing Good Berries & casting Healing Word. My DM is an experienced player, but new to DM. I’m praying he gets better. But in THIS SITUATION, perhaps “Resistance” might be better than “Guidance”???
I think that Thunderwave and similar are pretty circumstantial (but beyond Guidance and Thorn Whip, Druid doesn’t have stand-out must-have cantrips). But in the circumstances where Thunderwave is going to shine, Con isn’t such a terrible save, and is probably better than Dex. The things that are going to swarm you are going to be small and fast, or else, you wouldn’t have let them swarm you. It would be nice to be able to target Int, but Dex is probably the worst save for that circumstance.
Create Bonfire, strange niche use: Cook food underwater, with Water Breathing active. Catch fish, cast Create Bonfire. Fire damage is generally halved underwater, but there should still be easily enough heat to cook your fish, and mundane fire is obviously not an option underwater. Produce Flame should have just been a secondary effect of Fire Bolt. It seems that good DM’s will usually allow players to hold a Fire Bolt in their hand for light, even though that’s not allowed by RAW.
With Tasha’s Rangers can prioritize Wisdom and use Shillelagh and Magic Stone as the two cantrip they get from the fighting style. It can let you play a very “Primitive” outdoors character who can still be effective with magic weapons both ranged (MS + sling) and melee (shillelagh) from the earliest levels and still be effective as you go up in levels with them. But yes… I wish they scaled a little bit. Even if it was just like GFB and BB where at the start they just let you use your casting stats instead of str/dex, then level 5 they become 1d8, then 2d8 at 11th, then 3d8 at 17th.
My case for Magic Stone or Shillelagh past 4th level: Both cantrips add your modifier to the damage. Which I assume for many is going to be +3 or +4 at that point, +5 if you got lucky on rolling stats or had a +2Wis at the start and used your ASI for +2Wis. So a d6+3 tends wind up at 6-7 (7-8, 8-9 for higher bonus), but is never less than 4. Now 2D8 is 8-10 which is same or better, but has a low of 2. For a typical rolling we might be a point shy but it’s much more predictable, and I think that’s the important bit. Neither requires a Con save which is nice for that as well, though we lose the secondary effect. At 11th lvl the 3d8 is going to pull away more and while still possible to roll lower, is less likely. I don’t really know how much we’ll be worrying about that at 11th? Now if we’re talking a D6 damage the MS/Shl I think holds up still, though just barely. I do think thorn Whip is going to wind up better (or is always better) because of the movement effect and no saving throw requirement. Play it well and the D6 damage is actually the secondary effect. So I’m not saying MS/Shl is must have or anything. Just that I think the static bonus is good and it’s often overlooked because the dice itself isn’t as big.
Why on earth would you rank Shillelagh the same as Primal Savagery? PS does 1-4d10 scaling with level, Shillelagh does 1d8+mod forever. The only thing I can think of is that you could use it for attacks of opportunity or some kind of bonus action stuff, but at that point, why not get the War Caster Feat and use primal savagery for your opportunity attacks. I think this rating is outdated since Shillelagh was at one point the only way for druids to make a melee attack with their modifier until Primal Savagery was released. I don’t think it’s reflective of its current value at all.
Aye this Tuesday i start my first DnD campaign… I am playing a Tiefling / Druid … I like the backstory and ideal of race and class… So i am here on your page/channel to learn about the spells etc… I have idea to be a group healer, descent fighter… Most i want to Crowd Control all beings CR 20 below so my party can go ham on target… Also want to do lot of RP since my first DnD campaign I am still learning everything yet i have my idea how i want my druid to become. So starting at level 3, i am looking to learn cantrips and low level spells to start off with that can help my party.
One case Resistance might come in handy is putting it on the party tank before they rush into battle to help them get in and maybe tank the first hit of a big attack. If you’re going up against something with a really nasty attack you know has a recharge, like a Demilich’s Howl for instance, putting resistance on someone and trying to bait that attack out, knowing they can use resistance to possibly tank it and make them use it up so the party can attack at will. Granted, if you have someone with say Death Ward or a protective spell that counters it (say Protection From Evil and Good if you know that enemy can cause Charmed or Frightened) can do that job better, but if they’re busy doing something else or you just want to save a spell slot, it’s an option. Another option is if you or a party member are under an effect with a recurring saving throw. You can pretty much be certain that turn they’ll need resistance. If they’re, for instance, Stunned, that might be the difference between them being out of the fight for the rest of the encounter or being back into the fray.
You’re gonna hate me, but the first thing I thought when seeing your variant monk was to mix 7 levels of it with 13 of druid, but I would use a quarterstalf and take one level of druid at 2nd level (then 6 more monk levels) just so I can have shillelagh at level 2 and just that one thing would make your variant monk pop off early, then once I’d have evasion AND standing still, just go Druid and become REALLY good in combat as a Druid, which in my opinion opens tons of Druid build cause only moon Druids are good in combat and that’s really only early game Edit: So fully optimized would mean a 8 monk/12 druid split, that way you don’t sacrifice any ASIs at the cost of losing that one 7th level spell cast (you’ll probably tell me here in a few weeks how a 7th level druid spell is greater than 2 feats but until then) However this character would still have access to 6th level spells which is greater than any half caster when they cap out, which is kind of the theme of this build without compromising the casting stat, max that WIS early and it’ll help you scale extremely hard late game and still be very viable the entirety of the characters career
I would like to know whats your opinion abour thorn whip out of combat. If you read the text, this say, literally: that lashes out at your command toward a creature in range. So, i understand you only can use it agaist enemies. But i had imagined my little druid gnome using this cantrip to look like a mini forest spiderman, using this vine-like whip to grapple the branch trees and move between the forest while he is shouting: “Wiiiii” You think i could do it in my campaign? What de you think about use this cantrp in other situations? If you was my DM, you would accept this?
in all my 6 years playing this game I conjure animals ONCE ! to scout around. Conjure Elemental TWICE !! Once for a fight and once to set an elemental free from its gem ! I am not a fan of summoning spells most of the time “specially if its multiples” . and my main charcter is a druid Who HATE summoning because its ting a spirit to her hims and make it charmed basically she doesn’t like Enchantments and think of this as enslaving that spirit which she absolutely abhor ! but I do like cast find familiar and Find Stead they are far more like an extension to the charcter rather than I conjure 4 constrictor snakes of 4 cows 30 feet above the enemy
The unspellable magic stick one has some use at high levels imo. Some druid builds/circles don’t really have good bonus action or reaction options. If you have a bonus action that you can’t use for anything better, just pop this in case you get an attack of opportunity. I agree it sucks but it’s a non- concentration bonus action cantrip. It’s free. Also, it is kinda ass on druids but taking magic initiate for it can enable some weird builds. Especially now that onednd lets magic initiate use whatever spellcasting mod you want. Overall, it can be used well and I’m glad it’s in the game.
I’m soon to start a Tortle circle of Spores druid.. It might be cliche, but I’ve never played a druid, nor a tortle, and it sounds fun. Your Druid spell articles will be helpful for me. My issue is that the druid gets only 2 cantrips at level 1. I plan to use Shillelagh (staff and shield), and Tasha’s options to adjust attribute modifiers. I want at least one ranged damage cantrip…. so there’s no room for guidance. Tasha’s options really help to make the approach viable, shillelagh at lower levels and then switch it out as the druid become more spell focused.
Another thing worth mentioning about Mold Earth, it is not just outside vs inside, but if you usually get to prepare your battlefield it goes up tremendously in value. I think that is actually the bigger thing. You can build pit traps, fortifications, and funnel your enemy with difficult terrain. If you expect to be ambushing the enemy, or using clever tricks to make the fight happen on your terms, Mold earth becomes amazing. If you expect to just face the challenges head on, and take the encounters as they come, mold earth is not so great.
I think you value range a bit too much. Druids aren’t squishy wizards, it isn’t that bad being closer to enemies I would rate poison spray orange. The situational being on whether or not you come across poison resistance. It being common does not mean it’s guarantied. If you know ahead of time that enemies won’t resist it often then it’s really not that bad. Con saves are also overrated imo. Most creatures have good cons but how many creatures have proficiency with them that you want to be casting cantrips against? Most the worst creatures get like a +3 or +4 on their save. That’s really not that bad. Especially with the new magic items from tasha that can increase your DC. Also would rate produce flame higher for the same range reason.
Why do sharp fingernails do corrosive damage? A bite, I could sort of see, if they specify “your saliva becomes more acidic”. But it doesnt, and it does specify fingernails! They could have said it becomes a magical attack, and does slashing. I think a d12 slashing is fine for a cantrip, so why do the weird thing with it?
So, I’ve never played D&D, I’m just trying to get started and started creating a character – a Wood Elf Druid. As I get to the spell casting part, I’m wondering why the players handbook I have only lists these as cantrips Druid Spells Cantrips (0 Level) Druidcraft Guidance Mending Poison Spray Produce Flame Resistance Shillelagh Thorn Whip But your article has different ones?
Magic stobe early on is okay if you caat entangle or ferrie fire and use it as you dont break concentration action. Control flames I’ve use where DM said a creature next to flame or fire could be considered as having clothes tgat ate flamable and even tge padding under armor is flanable. Theyd take qd6 damage.
On mending and the not repairing stuff with a break over a foot in one direction… “As long as the break or tear is no longer than 1 foot in any direction, you mend it, leaving no trace of the former damage.” I think it could mend a 4 foot tear in a cloak, but it would leave a trace of the former damage because the tear you are fixing is over 1 foot. “As long as it’s not bigger than one foot, you fix it with no trace.” This to me implies if it is over 1 foot you fix it with a trace of the former damage.
Druid is my go to class and I’m a long time Chris watcher and I almost always agree with the logic – but produce flames being red is a little silly by the criteria later out in the beginning. It’s an at will lantern that doesn’t require a free hand before it is an attack cantrip, and at the very least should be orange
Shape water does not produce ‘images in the water’. It produces ‘simple shapes’. What counts as a simple shape? Certainly a plank, which you can then freeze. What about a ladder? Also, what is water? Is mud or snow water? A lot is up to DM interpretation, but many of the key uses aren’t that debatable. Having played a character with this cantrip, who carried 4x wineskins before he got an endless decanter, I got a TON of mileage out of this cantrip. I blocked murder holes by freezing water into them, stuck doors shut, built shelters in a blizzard, walked over sewage, dried clothing, …
New-ish player here and I realized that some of these aren’t in the PHB. Our DM suggested to stick to this book first before trying out any sort of expansion for a more streamlined experience. Is there a list I can find that separates the “original” spells from the newer ones? Or do you recommend just asking our DM if we can use the expansions instead?
Create Bonfire + Graviturgy = one of the best cantrips in game. You cast it, damage that enemy, move him 5ft up (out of AoE of CB), then he falls back into it and has to make save once more. So instead of classic d8 or d10 cantrip dmg, we have 2d8. And this grows to 4d8, 6d8 and 8d8 on higher levels – I really don’t see a reason why it is rated RED.
My DM is a physicist so my experience might not be representative but imo SHAPE WATER is amazing. Why? Water expands when frozen. Need a way to break a lock – shape water, fill the lock with it, freeze it, …, profit 🙂 Need to crack a rock, loosen a stone, remotely trigger something? I know I might be overoptimistic when it comes to it’s usefulness in typical campaigns, nut I love it either way.
I think your underselling produce flame a little bit. It’s a safety net, as a druid I can’t hold a druidic focus, a torch, and a sheild at the same time so if I don’t have produce flame and don’t have darkvision I’m out of luck when it comes to seeing in the night. You can have a lantern eventually but I still like the safety net of produce flame.
mold earth has 1 more powerful ability than just creating cover. you can use it to “1-hit kill” (though requiring 3 actions and 2 castings of the spell) any medium or smaller creature standing on loose earth. this is doable at level 5: fighter 2, any sorc 3 action: shove prone bonus action: quickened mold earth ground underneath (enemy falls into the pit prone) action surge: mold earth on top of the enemy (now he’s buried alive and we consult the rules for suffocation). technically the enemy is still alive. just removed from combat until their allies dig them out (which will be hard to do if you’re occupying them). and once the combat is over they have most likely suffocated to death depending on their con. it’s a situational tactic but it’s powerful when it applies. this can be adjusted for larger creatures at higher levels by simply polymorphing them into something tiny that can’t move on land like a quipper or a sea horse (so you don’t need to shove them prone) and they will have 5 ft of earth stacked on top of them.
I agree with most of these rankings, but for my play style at least …… Create Bonfire (Purple) I get the reservations he has about it using your concentration but you aren’t always using another a concentration spell but it’s basically an unlimited use crowd control effect that can damage objects (rope bridges, siege machinery, wagons etc). If you don’t like where it is from round to round you can just recast it making it more versatile than any other concentration spell. In my mind, it would be green but the caveat that you just can’t use it when you already have a concentration spell up that uses a spell slot makes it clunky enough to be purple. Some DM’s will allow Create Bonfire and Control Flames to synergize opening up more options. …… Druidcraft (Green) It’s a fun spell to have at hand almost to the extent that Prestidigitation is, it gets points just for that alone. The sensory effect is more useful than what he applies a ranking to. I’ve used it to create the smell of blood in water to move Crocodiles away from the party …… Frostbite (Red) I see any CON save cantrip on a single target as a waste of an action. …… Magic Stone (Orange) It doesn’t scale. Garbage after level 4 without a way to work a second attack in. If someone else in your party needs to use this, then they’re pretty hard up and maybe should find another way to contribute. …… Produce Flame (Purple) It’s the only attack roll cantrip Druids get with any range really at all. 30 feet isn’t great but the 15 feet of Thorn Whip is almost melee range.
Poison Spray is better than Primal Savagery most of the time. Most enemies are NOT resistant/immune to poison and in that situation Poison Spray does better damage. If it is a better spell the majority of the time how is it RED💔 when Primal Savagery is PURP💜. We also assume that Primal Savagery is not your only damage cantrip because it would be kind of silly to have a melee-only spell as your only damage cantrip. So, Poison Spray + (Other Damage Cantrip) > Primal Savagery + (Other Damage Cantrip) I know it’s a minor point but PS shouldn’t rate higher than PS. IMHO. PS- TY TM TU👍
Appreciate this, very helpful! I started with Shileleagh & Magic Stones. Will consider Guidance & Thorn Whip next time I can add or switch things out! Shileleagh & Magic Stones have served me & my party (who I’ve handed Magic Stones to, along with Good Berries, prior to battle). I like your breakdown analysis a lot–THANK YOU!! 😁🌱🌰🌿
If my scorecard is correct, that’s one blue cantrip (Guidance) and one green cantrip (Thornwhip). You’re not selling me on “druids are great primary spell casters.” I’m a bit surprised that you glossed over Thorn whip’s “up to ten feet closer to you.” With a 30-foot range there are a lot of vectors that can pull an enemy “closer,” especially given 5e’s non-Euclidian geometry. Does the player get to pick the enemy’s final square and path OR do you have a rule about where enemies land and how they get there? If I as a player get to pick where the enemy ends up the positioning is a LOT more valuable than if there’s no possibility of, say, some sideways movement as well. Also Shillelagh has TWO material components as well as somatic components. So you’ve got your club or quarterstaff in one hand, and you use your other hand for the somatic components, which means you can’t use Shillelagh with a shield. In that case, just wield the staff two handed and get the d8 that way. I guess the draw is using WIS instead of STR to hit but there are so many problematic complications/tradeoffs with Shillelagh. I think if I’m a druid in melee I want a shield and will just use a scimitar and DEX as my secondary stat.
Treatmonk my dude, I always struggle to understand how you miss the obvious??? Produce flame has a 10min duration non concentration, you could produce 2 flames on your hand for double the light source or to attack with one and u will be able to keep the other as a light source, and no where it says that u cant cast spells while having this effect on yourself, its pretty dam good in my opinion. and yes you can use produce flame while equipping a shield.
You’re overreacting to the super cheesy “magic stone machine gun” nonsense. You spend all of your time discussing that spell with respect to applications that any experienced DM would not allow. But you don’t really develop reasonable applications. You’ve rated it inappropriately low because you’ve made a strawman. Magic Stone is a straight up Blue attack cantrip when attack cantrips count, which is low level. You even say as much. Then you dilute your overall ranking by mixing in your hate for munchkin machine gunners. At first level, a Druid can have WIS 18, and will do 5-10 hp of magical bludgeoning damage on a successful hit. How does that compare to 1-10 fire from Fire Bolt…It is more reliable. How does it compare to 2-16 force/necrotic averaging 9…Magic Stone is lower, but has a higher minimum damage and does not require concentration. Also, it attacks objects. Plus, if Eldritch Blast doesn’t get the slot/ability power up, the Stone is better. Whenever I’ve played a Druid or Artichron, there has always been at least one other character in a party where 1-8+Mod gives them 3-10 and using one of my stones gives them 5-10 from a magical ranged weapon. Using one of my Magic Stones has always been the better ranged option for somebody. Forget about the commoners and constructs…your party cleric, rogue, or bard will probably get better damage from a Magic Stone. I’ve played in a group where our lowDEX Paladin used my stones until level 4. I’ve played in a group where Magic Stone was the only “quick on tap” source of magical weapons for MULTIPLE characters against an opponent that was resistant to non magical attacks.