Deep Dive - Druid Class
A Druid is the wonderful combination of the Marc Singer character in the movie Beastmaster (1982), the little orange fuzzball the Lorax, and the loveable bear Baloo. Part humanoid and part beast, the Druid’s bond to nature is so deeply intertwined that it is the embodiment of the natural world that it lives in. In ancient history, Druids were quite high up the food chain and were as powerful as the noble caste of the Gaul people. They were responsible for overseeing religious practices, had the power to exile, and even were in charge of human sacrifices. Stonehenge is what most people associate with Druids within our current culture, but their history reaches back further than that.
So how does the Druid of Dungeons & Dragons grow and change throughout the editions, and how does it compare to the grove dwelling denizens of our historical past? Let’s dive in a take a look at the Druid.
OD&D - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: 1d6
• First listed as a monster
• Subclass of the Cleric
• Do not pray to a specific deity
• Focus on nature, will never harm trees
Eldritch Wizardy, 1976 TSR Inc.
The Druid is first found in the supplement Greyhawk (1975), but nature lovers shouldn’t get too excited since the Druid is only presented as a monster, not a character class. Creatures of the forest, these neutral fellows were not someone you want to mess with at lower levels, and even at higher levels, you need to be prepared for a challenging encounter. They are compared to evil high priests but are much more powerful than them. An evil high priest is usually a 4 or 6 hit die creature. The Druid is a 7 hit die creature. Their armor class can be significantly higher than a priest’s as they can wear armor, with no restrictions as to what armor they can wear. Their spellcasting ability makes them an admirable foe since they have up to 7th level magic-user and 9th level cleric capabilities, which gives the Druid access to 4th level magic-user spells and 5th level cleric spells. We don’t see the Druid casting a fireball in the middle of the forest but the 4th level cleric spell turn sticks to snakes was a surprisingly powerful spell in this edition.
In addition to having to deal with a bunch of spells being cast at you, you also have to worry about the animals around you. The Druid can change its shape up to three times a day and assume the form of a reptile, bird, or animal, each once per day. They are limited in that their maximum size is that of a small bear for their new form, which sadly means no tyrannosaurus rex, but they make up for it by having a ton of friends, like up to fifty fighters who will defend them and their forest. Maybe the Lorax would’ve been more formidable if he had an army at his beck and call.
The release of Eldritch Wizardry (1976) brought the introduction of the Druid as a subclass of the cleric, and while we’ve talked about the druid in our Deep Dive on the cleric, now we get to focus on them.
The need for a holy symbol is replaced with the mighty mistletoe, which holds a place of status over other plant life because… well, that’s not really explained. Unlike the cleric, the Druid does not pray to a specific deity but is one with nature, serving and protecting it, and treats nature as a whole as their deity. Angering a god has always seemed like a bad idea, but upsetting the entire planet you live on seems worse, unless you want to take up residency in the Astral Plane. Their abilities and spells revolve mostly around things that can be found to help the Druid protect those who live in nature. It’s a big responsibility since we’re talking about all the animals and plant life in the world. Even if the forest has been corrupted or the chipmunks have become pure evil, a Druid will try not to kill them if they can. Trees are especially sacred to a Druid, and they will protect them over other plants and animals if forced to choose. But Druids are not the rush in and fight as they would prefer to seek vengeance instead of risking their life defending trees and squirrels. This means they aren’t going to save a deer a poacher is hunting, but rather kill the hunter and, if the deer happens to be injured, allow nature to run its natural course.
If the above makes you excited to get in touch with your nature side and want to play as a Druid, you are going to need a few things first. Druids can only be humans, so if you had hoped to be a tree-hugging elf, well too bad. After that, you need a Wisdom score of 12 or higher and a Charisma of 14 or higher. Once you’ve gotten the prerequisites out of the way, you can now start envisioning your character and all the fun things they’ll do. We hope cutting mistletoe is at the top of your list because it is required to cast any of your spells.
In fact, mistletoe is so important that characters, and the DM, are given specific instructions on how a Druid is expected to gather up this important item. You need a golden sickle and a golden bowl, and, if at all possible should be cut on Midsummer’s Eve. If you gather mistletoe on a different night or don’t use a golden sickle and let the mistletoe touch the ground, it loses its efficacy and the DM may decide that it makes your spells less powerful because apparently the ground is coated with an anti-magic field. Who knows, it’s a weird requirement but must be put in for balance since the Druid must be so overpowered right?
Druids do have a wider range of weapons and armor available to them than a magic-user, but not as much as a cleric. A Druid can only wear leather armor and use a wooden shield and are incapable of using metallic armor for whatever reason. To us, it seems weird that the Druid can only wear leather armor seeing as how they are not allowed to kill animals, but who are we to judge their choices. Weapons they are allowed to use include daggers, sickle or scimitars, spears, and slings. Druids fighting ability is similar to that of clerics and they get access to almost all of their magical items unless it is written down. Apparently, they hate written words or maybe they just hate paper? Life has to be confusing for a Druid with all of these restrictions.
The Druid gets it’s own spell list and the spells are all about nature. They are a utility and support class based on their spells alone, as the first offensive spell is the 3rd level call lightning spell they can take upon reaching 4th level, though they do get cure light wounds at 2nd level, so the party can stop screaming at the cleric to heal them and start screaming at the Druid. Beyond that, unless you need to know if it’s going to rain soon, find plants needed for your material components, or are really thirsty and your waterskin is empty, the Druid lacks in spell firepower.
While the Druid is a subclass of a cleric, they are unable to turn undead, which is kind of a big deal in this edition. There are loads of undead creatures and being able to turn them away from you the same way you turn away the boy scouts selling popcorn is a big deal. Instead, the Druid obtains a slew of minor abilities at 2nd level; they can identify pure water, identify plants, identify animals, and pass through overgrowth like briars without any problem. Right about now, you’re probably thinking that turning skeletons to dust sounds a lot better than knowing what poison ivy looks like, but if you can hold on to 6th level, then you’ll be much happier.
When you become a 5th Circle Druid, which is the 6th level title for the Druid, you can change shape in the same manner as the Druid monster from Greyhawk. There is very little information on what you can do when you become a gecko or small brown bear. There are no stat blocks for such creatures, and we’re pretty sure you won’t be wielding your club while you’re a hawk. Since there is no time limit for how long you can be an animal, we suppose that means you can just hang out as a sloth in your forest for the rest of your life.
One thing we do know is that when you change into a beautiful peacock, you lose up to half of the damage you have taken. It’s a strange way to say you regain hit points and it feels like it’d just be easier to say that you have different pools of hit points when in animal form. In addition to shapechanging, you are now immune to charm spells used by creatures found in nature which is pretty handy seeing as you are going to want to hang out in the woods all the time. Plus, if you want to talk to other like-minded treehuggers, you get your own language, which is going to be important if you ever want to level up.
For a Druid to get higher than 10th level, they have to find other Druids, beat them up, and take over their title. There can only ever be four 11th-level Druids in the world, and if you find an 11th-level Druid, give them a wedgie and steal their funny hat, and have enough experience points, you can then become an 11th-level Druid with the title of… Druid. Well, it’s not a great title and you’ve probably been calling yourself a Druid for your entire career in being a nature lover, but now it's official. Of course, if you want to get stronger, you’ll have to find an Archdruid, and since there are only two Archdruids in a world, you may have to search through a few forests to locate them. Again, you must beat them up with your perfectly harvested mistletoe and steal their title from them. Once you get enough experience points to become 13th-level, the final level for a Druid, you’ll have to find the Great Druid, clobber him until he gives up, and steal his antler crown. You then become a 13th-level Druid and are constantly watching with a wary eye at your two Archdruids who probably want to beat you up and steal your crown.
If you are beaten up and lose a match against one of your Archdruids, you then immediately drop in experience points to the start of 12th-level, and then you have to worry about one of the four Druids seeking to become an Archdruid and you might lose even more! It’s a tough life out there and we recommend just killing all Druids below you so you don’t have to worry about losing your position as king of the forest.
Basic D&D - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: 1d6
• Must reach 9th level as a Cleric
• Pure neutral
BECMI Companion Rules, 1984 TSR Inc.
It takes a while, but the Druid finally shows up in Basic D&D in the BECMI Companion Rules (1984) with some additional information found in the BECMI Master Rules (1985). The subclass, as it still falls under cleric, is all about nature, but now the Druid is tasked with maintaining the balance between law and chaos. Humans and elves use the title Druid, but you'll be called a shaman if you’re a different race, though this edition continues the tradition that only humans can be player characters that are also Druids. Druids are always true neutral, and if, for some reason, their alignment changes, they are stripped of their powers until they can regain their neutralness. Being neutral has its limitations as you cannot do anything to sway the balance of law or chaos too far in one direction and so you can’t cast spells that deal with good or evil, like protection from evil. On the other hand, you do get access to spells only for Druids, so that’s nice. Then again, Druids lose their cleric’s abilities to turn undead, so maybe it’s just a toss-up.
If all this strikes your fancy, and you want to immediately create a Druid, you are going to be disappointed. To become a Druid, you must first reach 9th level as a neutral cleric who travels across the world. Once you get to 9th level, calm down because we aren’t even halfway there yet. You have to be neutral. You have to be a traveling cleric as opposed to a land owner cleric. And then, you have to make your best Henry David Thoreau impression and spend up to 4 months in the wilderness as you study and meditate. Only then will a 25th level Druid approach you, teach you how to be a Druid, and bring you into the realm of Druids.
BECMI Master Rules, 1985 TSR Inc.
Once your training is complete, you can officially call yourself a Druid. Well done! If you embrace the Druid life and ascend to the 29th level, you’re stuck until you beat up another Druid. There are only nine 30th level Druids allowed to exist at one time, so you’ll need to hunt one of them down and pummel them into submission in unarmed combat. Lose, and you're waiting 3 months for another title shot. Win, and you’re now the true Lorax, with a slew of 29th level Druids looking to knock you off your animal-bone throne and usurp you.
Now that you are one who speaks for the trees, you’ll be living in the forest for the remainder of your life. No more big city life for you. The forest area you reside in is under your protection, and you are directly responsible for its care. That is not to say that the Druid is the ‘owner’ of that section of the woods, only it’s caretaker. Trees are significant to the Druid way of life, and every tree under their care is a sacred object. Cut down a tree to make shelter or craft yourself some arrows, and a Druid will probably understand. Set the forest ablaze, and you’ll have a pissed off Druid on your hands who will cut you open and probably make a new necklace out of your finger bones. It is best to make sure you properly put out your campfire, for even the evil creatures that live in the forest know that an angry Druid is no one you want to tangle with. Druids are also protectors of all woodland animals in their territory, though they understand that creatures need to eat, so killing a deer or two for dinner is no big deal. On the other hand, don’t get too excited if you tend to a little bunny’s broken leg, as they aren’t swayed by those individuals either. Now, if you pretend you’re a party of firefighters and save the forest from a raging inferno, then you might be invited into their hut for a cup of tea.
BECMI Companion Rules, 1984 TSR Inc.
The last thing we feel we must go over is the Druid and their relationship to weapons, armor, and everyday items. Druids hate metal and they hate stone, and they hate pretty much anything that can’t be labeled as organic. When you turn your back on your god as a cleric and become a Druid, you lose access to the metal armor you once wore and now must garb yourself in leather or cloth. This is because Druids hate “dead” things with a passion of a thousand burning suns, which is stone, metal, and other non-organic or living material. We’ve always assumed metal is a part of nature, but the fact of the matter is, is that it doesn’t fall under nature because it was never alive. Leather armor and wooden shields are perfectly fine because they come from once-living things, like Bambi and Treebeard.
It’s perfectly fine for a Druid to go out in their backyard, the woods, get a deer and gather up some freshly timbered lumber and make some new armor for themselves. We’re not sure if this was meant to be ironic, but it certainly seems like an odd choice. We are working under the impression that making leather armor falls under the ‘use the whole animal’ philosophy, though we would’ve thought that Druids would probably be fruitarians or vegetarians, thus refraining from killing animals to begin with. On the other hand, using wooden shields seem a bit much even for us. So much for the sanctity of the trees and how holy they are as it is repeated constantly through this class. You’d think the Druids would want to protect as much nature as possible and only use “dead” objects so that they can’t hurt what is living.
1st Edition - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: d8
• Half-elves can now be druids
• Halflings are only allowed to be druids if they are a NPC
• Pure Neutral
The Druid appears in the Player’s Handbook (1978), and sadly it remains a subclass of the cleric, though it doesn’t share anything with them except their spell list, weapons, and armor… so long as they aren’t metal because that would be icky. We guess. This edition goes out of their way to describe the Druid as a being focused on nature and balance, that they are the keepers of nature like ancient Druids of Celtic lore. Druids are always neutral alignment, as the balance of all things in life is paramount for them. To them; good, evil, law, and chaos are all needed in the world for nature to stay in balance and, in turn, for it to stay in harmony.
To become a Druid, you must have a Wisdom of at least 12 and a Charisma of 15 or more. There is no reason given why you’d need such a high charisma, but you do. Being a Druid must mean that you have to a handsome individual since charisma in this edition is the measure of the character's combined physical attractiveness, persuasiveness, and personal magnetism. In a nutshell, charisma was all above how attractive you were. We can only assume the high charisma is because if you get to the major leagues and become an important Druid, you have to have underlings whether you like it or not.
Similar to past editions, the Druid isn’t overly concerned about people gathering firewood from their favorite trees or hunting down a few rabbits in their woods. That’s nature, and they are fine with it. Instead, they get rather bristly when arsonists destroy their forest, when poachers hunt for pleasure rather than sustenance, and hate the encroachment of civilization as it is seen as unnatural. A Druid will stay out of most situations unless they feel as if the shift of balance is moving towards one end or the other, though that doesn’t make them stupidly following around behind good creatures and being evil to set things ‘right’. More than they are sensitive to those supernatural forces and aren’t likely to strike down evil creatures so long as the evil creatures aren’t harming their lands.
While many character classes get cool titles as they increase in level, like the magic-user getting to call themselves a Thaumaturgist at 5th level, the Druid is mostly known as an Initiate of the Circle and doesn’t get the title of Druid until they are level 12 and have kicked out one of the nine Druids from this level. That’s right, this edition also has weird restrictions on how many Druids there can ever be. Only nine 12th level Druids are allowed at one time, three Archdruids at 13th level, and only one Great Druid at 14th level can ever plague the natural woodlands at any given time. If you want to increase your level, you have to start cracking heads together to rise through the ranks. It’s hard being a Druid and we don’t see clerics fighting over themselves to gain their god's favor, maybe nature is just a harsh mistress.
Druids keep all other powers they got from before, and it looks like the 1983 BECMI set is based on the Druid presented in this edition with many of the same abilities and rules surrounding it. At 3rd level, Druids learn how to tell plants and animals from each other, as well as knowing if water is pure or not. We can only assume that before, low-level Druids would just stumble around from plant to plant trying to remember the difference between a carrot and an oak tree. After that disappointing level, the Druid has 5th level to look forward to as they get to shapeshift three times a day, once into a reptile, bird, and mammal. Also, they get a slew of minor abilities like additional languages, immunity to being charmed by wildlife, and other abilities from before. The only reason to become a Druid is their access to an expanded spell list focused on nature and you get to shape change into an animal.
Looking at other sources, Dragon #12 (February 1978) discussed the literary origins of the Druid from their real-life counterparts. The first acknowledgment of the Druid dates back to 200 BC from the philosopher Sotion of Alexandria. Gaius Julius Caeser (102-44 B.C.) wrote at length about the Druid and provided, in rich detail, a picture of the Druid unlike any other before him. It speaks of the importance of mistletoe, their conflicts with Christianity, and the Druids of Great Britain.
Dragon #12, February 1978 TSR Inc.
It’s not until the release of Unearthed Arcana (1985) that we find out that your Great Druid title doesn't make you the champ, and in fact, we learn that there is always a bigger fish. If you wish to continue down the path of nature and power, you are going to have a tough go of it. To get to 15th level, you must find the Grand Druid and steal their seat of power. Being a Grand Druid, simply put, is quite grand. You get an extra six slots of spells that can be used to gain an additional 6th-level spell slot or six 1st-level spell slots or some other weird combination of your choice. In addition to that, you also get three 13th-level Archdruids to act as your personal assistants and do your bidding.
Once you get bored of only being 15th level, you can give up your crown and find a successor. Doing so moves you to 16th level and you begin a new process with the title of hierophant until you finally get to the 23rd level and become the Hierophant of the Cabal. All while you are getting stronger, you aren’t gaining additional spell slots as you max out at 6 spell slots for each of the 7th level spells you can cast. Instead, you gain new powers that are strange but can be quite powerful.
The most mundane of these new powers is immunity to all nature-based poisons, but trust us, it gets better. Your life is extended by taking your current level and multiplying it by a decade, so at the 16th level, your time on the planet is extended by 160 years! To maintain such a long life, you learn to take really long naps in the form of hibernating. You can alter your appearance at will, becoming any humanoid you want of any age. Since you are granted this longevity through the powers of nature and not magical means, no one will be able to see your true form short of truesight. At 17th level, the elemental planes are your playgrounds, and the creatures that live there are some of your closest friends. As you get stronger and stronger, you can start instantly teleporting yourself to the elemental planes, starting with earth, then fire, water, air, the Para-Elemental Planes, Plane of Shadow, and even to the Plane of Concordant Opposition, better known as the Outlands - the afterlife for all true neutral creatures.
Dragon Magazine covers a slew of material regarding the Druid. In Dragon #71 (March 1983), we are introduced to several new spells for the Druid. A quick reminder, everything published in Dragon Magazine was seen as ‘official’ material, so anyone playing a Druid immediately had access to these spells. The iconic spell, goodberry, was introduced here and has a fun reversed version known as badberry, which made the berries look normal and delivered 1 point of poison per berry eaten. Dragon #100 (August 1985) has an interesting article about how a character could reconcile the alignment issues that may arise if you played a ranger/Druid. Introduced by Gary Gygax in Dragon #96 (May 1985) as a multiclass option and the rules lawyers came out of the woodwork, pun intended, howling this was an illegal combo. If you recall, Druids must be purely neutral, and rangers had to be of good alignment in this edition. Frank Mentzer’s article, All About the Druid/Ranger, did a great job of logically explaining how the multiclass could be played as a neutral good character without betraying the Druid's core tenets since Druids themselves see the work they do as ‘good’ and beneficial to the world at large.
Dragon #119 (March 1987) had an entire special section on the Druid with Carl Sargent’s article, Underestimating the Druid, an excellent dissertation on how the Druid can be used in ways that players often overlook. Druids were an unpopular class during 1st edition, as the game was still very much a dungeon dive game, so people assumed that a Druid would be a horrible class to play. The article goes to great lengths to explain how such spells like detect traps, animal friendship, detect snares and pits, and transmute rock to mud was incredibly useful in a dungeon setting. John Warren’s article Is There a Doctor in the Forest, provides players with a healing-focused variant, while the authors William Volkart and Robin Jenkins write an extremely in-depth article about the Druid’s journey between the 1st and 14th levels in On Becoming a Great Druid. Finally, Rick Reid introduces nature-based cantrips for the Druid in Cantrips for Druids, Naturally. None of the cantrips have survived the editions, but maybe we still have time for cause rash to make an appearance.
Right before the advent of 2nd edition, Dragon #139 (November 1988) presented many special abilities for elven Druids only. Poison is now fair game for these Druids and a collection of new spells are provided, the best of which is the find woodland familiar. Our Druid now gets a familiar of their own and is the envy of clerics everywhere. The list of familiars is impressive, as you can summon everything from the standard raven and frog to a pixie or leprechaun. We’d summon a leprechaun, but only because we would force it to bring us to its pot of gold.
2nd Edition - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: 1d8
• Subclasses for Druids introduced based on different terrains
• Specialized kits allow for unique druids
Player’s Handbook, 1989 TSR Inc.
The Druid appears in the Player’s Handbook (1989) and there are very few changes from the previous editions. A Druid still needs to be neutral alignment, but it is made very clear that they could care less about most of the complications that come with the world around them. What a Druid worries about is the cyclical nature of the world maintains this internal process. Kingdoms rise and fall, wars are fought, and cities are built, but none of this concerns the Druid. Only when the natural balance of the world is compromised does a Druid feel a responsibility to get involved.
Druids are made out to be even more sneaky and devious when it comes to defending the trees. They won’t rush in when they see the bad guys setting fire to the forest for kicks. They will sit, wait, and plot until they have the perfect sinister plan, then revenge is theirs, this process may take years. Becoming a hierophant is still the life goal of all Druids, but it’s less exciting now as you can only travel to the four Elemental Planes instead of the Para-Elemental Planes and the Plane of Shadow. Mistletoe remains the holiest of all the plants, and the requirements of harvesting your own are somewhat loosened. To be fully effective, a Druid must harvest their mistletoe in the light of a full moon with either a golden or silver sickle. If the Druid fails to treat their mistletoe nicely, like harvesting it during the day or with their bare hands, the effectiveness of their spells that require mistletoe is cut in half.
That’s pretty rough for a Druid, especially when they abhor all metal and will refuse to use metal weapons. They have to grasp the object they hate so much and cut off some twigs for their spells. It’s gotta be hard having so many inconsistencies in your life that you have to follow to the letter or suck in combat.
Druid’s Complete Handbook, 1994 TSR Inc.
The Druid gets a huge amount of information in this edition all bundled in one book, The Druid’s Complete Handbook (1994). One hundred and twenty-seven pages of all things Druid! The first few pages are a recap of everything we already know, but then we go down the rabbit hole and learn more about the Druid than you ever wanted to. The Druid gets a ton of different subclasses based on what landscape they travel in, even though the Druid is already a subclass of the cleric. Eight landscapes get their own specialized Druid, from the Arctic Druid to the Desert Druid, each discipline has its requirements and unique abilities. The Grey Druid is the only one that isn’t tied to an actual type of landscape, as they inhabit the shadows. Their focus is on the molds, oozes, and slimes that live in such areas and can be found in dungeons and caves throughout the world.
Druid’s Complete Handbook, 1994 TSR Inc.
There is even a section on what happens when a Druid decides to befriend the locals and gets involved in farming. It’s a strange thing to add into the game, but there are two pages full of information about farm performance, various modifiers and events that affect the season’s crops, and how much money you’ll get for your bounty. We guess if you get sick of dungeon diving but don’t want to live in the big city, this is one avenue for your Druid to explore.
Druid’s Complete Handbook, 1994 TSR Inc.
Specialty Kits are also introduced for the Druid, these kits act as different archetypes for the Druid, allowing you to further customize what type of nature priest you are. Fourteen kits allow you to create your perfect Druid, though we aren’t going to go over all of them, just our favorites. The Avenger Druid lives to mete out justice to those who have farmed the trees and animals, while the Beastfriend Druid can gain animal friends to help serve them in combat and in protecting their forests. The Guardian doesn’t get out very much, as they are tasked with protecting a specific location such as a sacred grove or dryad’s lair. If you’re into bugs, the Hivemaster is the kit for you as you can control and befriend insects and arachnids. The Lost Druid is a sad and forsaken soul who lost their way after the destruction of the forest they were charged with protecting, their life is now filled with days of wandering the land in search of dark magic, all the while plotting revenge. The Outlaw Druid is the trees' Robin Hood, fighting against the evil that may live in or near the forest. Finally, the Wanderer Druid travels throughout the lands, absorbing the knowledge of the lands they travel.
There is much more in this book, including new backgrounds, spells, magic items, herbal magic, and details behind the Druidic order, their language, and sacred groves, but we need to move on. If you have a chance and are really into the Druid, we recommend finding a copy and giving it a read.
3rd Edition - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: 1d8
• Gains an animal companion
• Shape change can be used to turn into a plant
• No longer needs to be pure neutral
Player’s Handbook, 2003 WotC
The Druid of the 3rd edition appears in the Player’s Handbook (2000/2003) and is later given a few updates in the Player’s Handbook 2 (2006). We’ll start with the good news first, it is now its own class! As for the bad news, well there isn’t really any. The Druid remains as much as it was before, but it can finally crawl out from under the shadow of the cleric and make a name for itself.
As much as everything stays the same, there are several changes to our tree-loving friend. Their spells are still based on all things natural, but they are clearly defined as divine. The spells do not come from a deity as much as they come from nature itself, which channels its power through you, granting Druids the ability to cast spells. Metal is still the bane of the Druid, so most armor, unless it is made of wood and reinforced with special spells, is also useless. That doesn't mean a Druid would explode if they put on a suit of metal armor, but they would lose all of the druidic powers until they take it off and for an additional 24 hours just as a subtle reminder that they shouldn’t do that ever again. It’s probably not worth doing ever unless in real dire circumstances. This does bring us to what types of weapons a Druid may use, which are the club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, short spear, sling, and spear. So while metal armor is out of the question, metal weapons are apparently kosher for woodland spirits.
Like before, Druids still have their language known as Druidic though if you ever teach anyone the language, you immediately and permanently lose all your power until you can atone for such a foul deed. We aren’t entirely sure if they lose their power because the forest overheard their teachings or simply because Druidic language is their source of power, but it seems a bit extreme. Many of the previous powers a Druid would get in past editions remain in this edition, like their ability to empathize with animals, determine if a plant is poisonous, and gain a bonus against plants and other natural creatures that would try to charm them. The greatest new power a Druid gets isn’t that they can no longer physically age, though they still get older and will die of old age, but rather something to make every ranger jealous.
Player’s Handbook 2, 2006 WotC
The Druid now gets an animal companion right off the bat! The druid can choose a badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse, owl, pony, snake, or a wolf as their best friend, and the DM is free to expand this list to similar creatures, like a dolphin if the campaign they are running would involve a different ecosystem. As the Druid gets stronger, they can get stronger companions, like a tiger, a giant octopus, and even a tyrannosaurus rex at the highest levels for them. Your friend is your loyal companion who will follow you into the depths of hell if need be, of course, you may want to leave them at home, and that is ok too. When the Druid advances in level, its companion also gets stronger with additional hit points, an increase to its armor class, and new traits such as evasion and multi-attack.
Wild Shape is in this edition, and while you have to wait until 5th level for it, it’s pretty awesome once you do get there. No longer are you forced to be a bird, reptile, or mammal each once per day, now you can be any small or medium animal for a number of hours equal to your level once per day. Alright, so maybe it isn’t as cool as the unlimited number of hours you could be shape changed, and you only get one use of it immediately, but as you get stronger, so does your shapeshifting abilities! By the time you have reached peak Druid at 20th level, you can change into an animal six times, stay in animal form for 20 hours, and assume the form of a huge animal! That’s not all either, by 12th level you can turn yourself into a plant, and we don’t mean a useless daffodil either. You can transform into a powerful shambling mound or an assassin vine! If that isn’t enough to get you excited, by 16th level you can turn yourself into a large elemental. So that’s pretty neat too.
Complete Divine, 2004 WotC
In the book Complete Divine (2004), we learn about all things divine, and now that the Druid is under this umbrella, there is information to be gleaned. We learn that if a Druid turns away from or loses their connection to nature, they can turn down a dark path. They could become a Blighter, an individual who seeks to destroy all that is green and lush, always looking for the largest forests to lay waste to. There are a few other Druid-oriented prestige classes, though it is typically for multi-classed Druids who dip into bard, sorcerer, or wizard for different reasons.
Races of the Wild, 2005 WotC
While various Dragon articles provide some Druid feats, spells, monstrous animal companions, and more; our last look at this edition is in the Races of the Wild (2005) book which brings us an old title. The Hierophant is back as an Arcane Hierophant and is a prestige class for Druid and wizard multiclass who are looking to bring the arcane into nature. While you lose a familiar, if you had one from being a wizard, you can keep your animal companion and you gain the ability to channel your magic through non-animate plants and your companion! This is great for sending bursts of lightning originating from trees, allowing your animal companion to position themselves in different ways around the battlefield, and utilizing your nature spells to more devastating effects. Of course, hierophants are quite jealous of their power and keep an eye on any who would try to learn their secrets, ending those who might try to use this power for evil.
4th Edition - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: 12 at 1st level, 5 hit points per additional level
• Wild Shape and Primal Aspect define a Druid’s path
• Battlefield controller
Player’s Handbook 2, 2009 WotC
The Druid shows up, but sadly it takes a step back in terms of progress and doesn’t appear until the Player’s Handbook 2 (2009). This edition introduces several a new concept known as Power Sources, where each class gets their power from. The first Player’s Handbook (2008), was focused on the traditional sources of Arcane, Divine, and Martial which meant the classes in that book were Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, and a few others. The second Player’s Handbook was focused on the primal power source where spirits and nature give the class their power, while the final book, Player’s Handbook 3 (2009), is focused on the psionic power source.
The Druid appears alongside the barbarian, shaman, warden, sorcerer, bard, and others and retains a lot of the flavor from previous editions with some changes here and there. Druids believe in the primal beast, the spirit of the world’s original predator. Seen in visions and dreams, the primal beast appears as a shapeless mass of fur, feathers, beaks, and claws. Druids are called on to take a specific aspect of the primal beast, with the first options between the Guardian, who becomes tankier, and the Predator, who becomes much faster. As your Druid gets stronger, they get access to more and more powers that help customize your character to your specific playstyle as well as augmenting your primal powers.
Player’s Handbook 2, 2009 WotC
The other major ability a Druid gets is their ability to Wild Shape. You can transform in and out of being a beast as often as you like with no time limit to your transformation. You are restricted to transforming into a beast of a similar size to yourself, like a panther or wolverine, but otherwise, there aren’t many restrictions as transforming doesn’t mean you can suddenly breathe water or fly through the air. The beast you transform into has the same statistics as you, but you get Druidic powers to make yourself more powerful as a beast and giving you powerful melee attacks and martial effects that a Druid focused on spellcasting won’t get. Most people will probably assume the shape of a natural or fey beast, but some can choose such exotic beasts as an owlbear or a giant crocodile, as suggested in the book. But why stop there? If we want to be exotic, we’d reach deep and turn into a massive spider or a great penguin!
Player’s Handbook 2, 2009 WotC
Once you’ve been a Druid, and have reached 11th level, you get access to one of the four provided Paragon Paths, powerful archetypes that offer unique abilities to characters that follow them. The paragon paths for the Druid are the Blood Moon Stalker, Guardian of the Living Gate, Keeper of the Hidden Flame, and the Sky Hunter. If traveling the path of the Blood Moon Stalker, you are someone who just loves being in beast form and you get abilities to compliment your wild shape. As a Guardian, you track down portals between the Material Plane and the Far Realm. Your hatred of the aberrant nasties that come through these portals drives you to kill them and close the portals forever. Flame Keepers are focused on maintaining the hidden flame inside of them, blowing on it and burning with rage while they are in battle, otherwise, they stay calm and collected. The last path, the Sky Hunter, loves to fly and when in wild shape can swoop across the battlefield, attacking distant enemies in an instant.
Primal Power, 2009 WotC
Several books build on the 4th edition Druid with Primal Power (2009) including new builds, powers, and paragon paths. You can choose to become a Swarm Druid, which is focused on the resiliency of insect swarms and summoning forth insects. The next new build is the Summoner Druid which is focused on the ability to call beasts to your aid, where they will fight side by side with you. Sadly, having an animal companion is outside the abilities of the Druid in this edition, instead, that ability is handed off to the shaman class who gets spirit companions to rip their enemies apart for them.
Heroes of the Feywild, 2011 WotC
There are several more books in this edition that bring in new powers, abilities, builds, and more for the Druid with the next one being the Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010). It introduces the sentinel, a Druid subclass that is a leader and is focused on encouraging their allies to push themselves further in combat. After that are the options presented in the Heroes of the Feywild (2011), where we find the Protector Druid, a subclass that uses their natural surroundings as defensive weapons. While the Protector Druid loses their wild shape ability, they make up for it by getting a Druid Circle that provides new abilities and allows the Druid to summon different spirits to their side. The last book, Heroes of the Elemental Chaos (2012), features elemental-themed Druids that can augment their beast form with elemental matter. Druids of the Elemental Chaos wield powerful magic fueled by the chaos, striking out with the power of primordials.
5th Edition - Druid
Key Features
• Hit Points: d8
• Druid joins a Circle to obtain their powers
• Wild Shape gives access to creature natural abilities
Player’s Handbook, 2014 WotC
The Druid makes a triumphant return in the Player’s Handbook (2014), which is a good thing seeing as how 5e only introduced one other class this edition that isn’t in the Player’s Handbook. If it had waited, we’d pry never get it this edition. The Druid is the preserver of balance, though there is no alignment restriction for this class. You can be chaotic evil and still speak for the trees, though you probably only speak for the evil trees and plants like the yew and poison ivy.
Starting your journey as a Druid, you don’t get much. You can cast Druid spells and you can speak Druidic, which isn’t super exciting but at least you won’t lose all your powers for teaching others the language. Starting at 2nd level, the real fun begins and you gain access to wild shape, allowing you to transform into weak beasts, though they get slightly stronger as you get stronger, but don’t get too excited. Unless you specialize in wild shaping, you aren’t going to be much more powerful than a giant eagle or a giant toad when you reach 20th-level as a Druid, all the while the wizard is summoning burning meteors from the sky.
Player’s Handbook, 2014 WotC
The next exciting part about being a Druid takes place on the next level, and when you become 3rd level you get to join a Circle which harkens back to a lot of the history of the Druid. The first two subclasses your Druid can become are the Circle of the Land or the Circle of the Moon, each taking different focuses for the Druid. The Circle of the Land is geared towards a specific terrain that grants unique spells and the rest of its abilities are basically what the original Druid was. You are immune to the charms of elementals and fey, you can easily stride through natural difficult terrain like briars and thorns, and your ties to nature are strengthened beyond other Druids. Luckily for you, you don’t have to beat up other Druids to level up, so that’s a nice departure from 2nd edition and back.
The other option, the Circle of the Moon, is a powerful circle that allows you to have greater use of your wild shape ability. You can transform into much more powerful beasts, though you are tied to the same limits as other, lesser Druids. You can’t be a swimming creature until 4th level and if you want to soar through the skies, you have to wait until 8th level. Eventually, you’ll get powerful enough to transform into elementals, though you’ll never get stronger than a giant shark or a mammoth as a beast, which is a shame as that means you can’t ever become a giant ape or a tyrannosaurus rex.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, 2017 WotC
Druids get a boost in excitement with the release of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (2017), which provides two new Circles for Druids to join; the Circle of Dreams and the Circle of the Shepherd. The Circle of Dreams is all about your connections to the fey and kind of has a mish-mash of abilities like healing your allies, making a sphere to help you sleep at night, teleporting, and casting certain spells that are somehow connected to the dreamscape but it’s a bit of a stretch. We’re not sure we see the appeal for this subclass, or even what it has to do with the fey. The Circle of the Shepherd also takes a weird direction, and one would’ve thought they’d at least get an animal companion. Instead, they act as the shaman for this edition, summoning the spirits of animals to come save them during battle and help regenerate your allies when they get hurt. This subclass also allows you to summon stronger creatures, granting them extra hit points, making them magical, and summoning them automatically if you are knocked unconscious to protect you from others.
All is not lost for the Druid in the form of weird subclasses as Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (2020) brings in three more subclasses; the Circle of Stars, Circle of Wildfire, and the Circle of Spores. The book also introduces a new way to use your wild shape ability by casting the find familiar spell, which is neat except your animal companion only lasts for so long and then disappears, forcing you to reuse your ability over and over to keep it going. It’s a strange choice for a class that is flavored on communing with nature that no matter what, no animal ever wants to be around you for an extended period.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, 2020 WotC
As for the new subclasses, the first one is the Circle of Spores which allows you to get closer to mushrooms and bad trips. You can infect people with spores, rot their skin with fungal infections, and even animate creatures into zombies by lacing them with some mushrooms. It’s a strange subclass geared towards hanging out with mushrooms until they become sentient enough that you are altered by them, becoming stronger by their presence. After that is the Circle of Stars which is about drawing your power from starlight and constellations, seeing hidden truths within the cosmos. You are given a star map to hold, which grants you power, take the map away, and you lose the power until you can spend an hour making a new map of the stars. You can even become stars, turning your body into a constellation that helps you in battle, though it’s gotta be pretty trippy for everyone else watching your body become luminous and criss-cross with stars and lines connecting them. The final subclass is the Circle of Wildfire, geared towards rejuvenation through fire. You get a fire elemental as your animal companion, though they only stick around for an hour before they run away, again we don’t quite get why no creature wants to hang out with a Druid. Your new powers are focused on healing your allies or burning your enemies as you call upon the spirits of fire. All in all, it’s a pretty good boost for the Druid this edition.
The Druid has gone through a wide variety of transformations across the editions, from forcing you to be a bird once a day to not allowing you to take flight until higher levels in later editions. It’s been a give and take for the Druid as they search for balance and preserve nature from creatures who would destroy it, but they’ve always been there, watching and waiting for their revenge.
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