Druids are arguably the most complicated class in 5th Edition. They are full casters, with many spells exclusive to them, some of which summon various kinds of creatures. On top of that, you have basically all Beasts (to a certain CR) that you can transform into via Wild Shape. Playing a Druid might mean having several books open at once, or many tabs open on your browser, depending on how you roll.
Druids' role in a party is a little nebulous. They have a ton of offensive magic, but typically not the massive damage spells of a Wizard or Sorcerer. They also have access to a lot of healing magic, but are generally not thought of as the "healing class" as much as a Cleric.
Your subclass, though, can help you define that role. Let's take a look at them.
Circle of the Land:
(I should probably have been doing this the whole series, but I guess I should give the subclasses a clear line to break them up. Oh well.)
Circle of the Land is, in itself, kind of several different subclasses, each themed around a particular environment. The notion here is that you are deeply connected to that type of region (one assumes it's your home or perhaps where you learned to be a druid). We'll cover those different environments when they come up.
At level 2, you just flat-out get an additional druid cantrip, perhaps to emphasize that this is a subclass about spellcasting rather than wild shape (it's one of two in the PHB, the other of which is certainly built around Wild Shape.)
You also get Natural Recovery. During a short rest, you can recover expended spell slots with a level equal to or less than half your druid level rounded up, as long as they're 5th level or lower. And you can use this once per long rest. This is straight up identical to a Wizard's Arcane Recovery feature, and is a nice way to have more spells to work with per day.
Also at 2, you get Circle Spells. Depending on your chosen environment, you get extra spells that are always prepared and don't count against the limit on spells you can prepare.
Arctic Druids get hold person, spike growth, sleet storm, slow, freedom of movement, ice storm, commune with nature, and cone of cold.
Coast Druids get mirror image, misty step, water breathing, water walk, control water, freedom of movement, conjure elemental, and scrying.
Desert Druids get blur, silence, create food and water, protection from energy, blight, hallucinatory terrain, insect plague, and wall of stone.
Forest Druids get barkskin, spider climb, call lightning, plant growth, divination, freedom of movement, commune with nature, and tree stride.
Grasslands Druids get invisibility, pass without trace, daylight, haste, divination, freedom of movement, dream, and insect plague.
Mountain Druids get spider climb, spike growth, lightning bolt, meld into stone, stone shape, stoneskin, passwall, and wall of stone.
Swamp Druids get darkness, Melf's acid arrow, water walk, stinking cloud, freedom of movement, locate creature, insect plague, and scrying.
Underdark Druids get spider climb, web, gaseous cloud, stinking cloud, greater invisibility, stone shape, cloudkill, and insect plague.
Hoo, that's a lot to sort through. Weirdly, you don't get any 1st level Circle Spells. Some of these are not on the Druid spell list, which is an extra boon. There's also some overlap. Obviously I'd say go with the environment that fits the character. More spells is always great, but I'm sort of too overwhelmed by these lists to decide which I think is the best.
At level 6, you get Land's Stride. Nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement, and you can pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them or taking damage from thorns, spines, and similar hazards. You also get advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement (like in the Entangle spell.) This is kind of narrow - it's not immunity against difficult terrain or all restraints - only plants. So... I'm going to say probably underpowered.
At level 10, you get Nature's Ward. You can't be charmed or frightened by elementals or fey, and you are immune to poison and disease. While the narrowness of elementals and fey is a bit annoying (how many elementals can charm or frighten?) the total immunity to poison is actually pretty great - you can have a much easier time fighting things like green dragons.
Finally, at level 14, you get Nature's Sanctuary. If a beast or plant creature attacks you, they have to make a Wisdom save or be forced to choose a different target or the attack fails. The creature is aware of this effect before it makes the attack. On a successful save the creature becomes immune to this for 24 hours. While this is a pretty good souped-up sanctuary effect (given that it doesn't matter if you've harmed the creature,) by level 14 there aren't a ton of beasts or plants that are going to pose a big challenge to a party - not like an Undying's similar effect on Undead, for example.
And that's Land druids. Circle Spells become a more common thing in later books, and I think that's kind of the main attraction to this subclass. I like the theming around different environments, but I think there are much cooler caster-only subclasses to choose from that come later.
Circle of the Moon:
Moon Druids are all about that Wild Shape. One of the hallmarks of the Druid class is their ability to shift into different animal forms, and this subclass really emphasizes this as a core gameplay mechanic.
First off, the really big selling point: At level 2, you get Combat Wild Shape. You can now transform into a beast as a bonus action, rather than as an action. While transformed, you can expend a spell slot as a bonus action to regain 1d8 hit points per the level of slot expended.
Additionally, you get Circle Forms. While most Druids only ever get to turn into CR 1 creatures at most, a Moon Druid gets those to start with, and you can be a beast of CR equal to your level divided by 3, rounded down, meaning by level 18 you can be a CR beast (such as a Mammoth.) Restriction on swimming and flying speeds are also dropped earlier.
To me, these features were built with the notion of just two Druid subclasses in mind - Land being spellcasters and Moon being shapeshifters. I'd actually like to see more new subclasses at least being able to Wild Shape as a bonus action and transform into other things... which they might do. I am, after all, doing this review in part to remind myself of what all these subclasses do. Anyway, this is obviously the beast-shifting subclass, and these features make that work.
At level 6, you get Primal Strike, which makes your attacks in Wild Shape count as magical, which is really a necessity for any class that relies on natural weapons or unarmed strikes.
At level 10, you get Elemental Wild Shape. You can spend two uses (which is all of them per short rest) to transform into any of the four primary Elemental creatures - Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. These creatures are CR 5, which outclasses any beasts you can transform into until level 15, but also tend to have more complex and interesting abilities, giving you a bit more to work with in these forms.
At level 14, you get Thousand Forms. You can cast alter self on yourself at will. This is thematically appropriate, though not quite as much of a showstopper as the previous abilities.
Looking at Circle of the Moon, I of course have seen the power that this subclass gets at higher levels thanks to Keyleth from Critical Role, who is level 20 by the end of the campaign. Thanks to Beast Spells and Archdruid, you can basically stay in your elemental form at all times, and every turn you can just bonus action to give yourself over 100 temporary hit points every turn while you blast away with, say, a Sunbeam spell. Indeed, a level 20 Circle of the Moon Druid might, in fact, be the most powerful kind of player character in D&D - nigh indestructible and with very potent spellcasting.
I can understand why I don't see a lot of people playing Circle of the Land, and simultaneously I can understand why I see a ton of people sticking to Circle of the Moon.
Next post I'll touch on the options out of Xanathar's. There's only seven subclasses for Druids, so it shouldn't take too long.
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