Druidcraft and It's Many Uses

[Mistwell]

Let's talk about Druidcraft, and the many creative uses for that spell.

As a reminder, it's a Druid cantrip with a 1 action casting time, a range of 30 feet, and Verbal and Somatic components. The verbal component is "Whispering to the spirits of nature".

With it, you can do any of the four following things:

1) Create a tiny, harmless sensory effect that predicts what the weather will be at your location for the next 24 hours. The effect might manifest as a golden orb for clear skies, a cloud for rain, falling snowflakes for snow, and so on. This effect persists for 1 round.

2) You instantly make a flower blossom, a seed pod open, or a leaf bud bloom.

3) You create an Instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as falling leaves, a puff of wind, the sound of a small animal, or the faint odor of skunk. The effect must fit in a 5-foot cube.

4) You instantly light or snuff out a Candle, a torch, or a small campfire.

So what are some fun and/or interesting uses for Druidcraft?

Here are some thoughts:

If the party can see in the dark, enter a room and snuff the torch.

If the party has someone using minor illusion or silent image of something that could be enhanced by smell, use it to enhance their illusion. Like for example an illusion of a wounded human works better with the smell of fresh blood.

The sound of a small animal is a useful distraction to guards. They're going to pay attention to the sound of a baboon around the corner.

There are some interesting economic tricks you can play with the second use. A farmer could ship a suitcase of seed pods to market, and the druid can bloom/blossom them on arrival. Much cheaper transportation.

Anyone else have thoughts or stories on how to use this spell to interesting effect?

 

[rgoodbb]

As multi-utility cantrips go, I find Druidcraft the least useful. Obviously Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy have more uses, even Mould Earth and Shape Water get more use from me. I really struggle with it. So would also be happy to find out more.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Offering a bud and then instantly making a flower bloom has got to be one of the best ways to flirt.

People make careers off of knowing what the weather will be tomorrow -- Every ship, market stall, or well-dressed youth will want access to that knowledge.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

sounds like a small animal are the great go to signal for something

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Let's talk about Druidcraft, and the many creative uses for that spell.

...

With it, you can do any of the four following things:

...

3) You create an Instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as falling leaves, a puff of wind, the sound of a small animal, or the faint odor of skunk. The effect must fit in a 5-foot cube.

...

And if you've ever adventured with a druid, you'd know that they're always puffing "wind" and both sound and smell like a small animal. So, this effect is redundant, really.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[pukunui]

I personally find the weather icons bit more than a little cheesy.

I have yet to see anyone in any of my groups actually use this cantrip.

 

[MNblockhead]

Plant grenades! The Druid can carry near-ripe sandbox-tree fruit (or an even more dangerous fantasy equivalent); the druid throws the fruit and using druid craft causes them to explode just as they hit or land near an enemy.

Hassle treants by making them prematurely flower or increase foliage.

Instant chia pets!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Our druid tried to use it to stop the docks burning down, after my fire genasi started a fire. They weren't entirely successful though.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I personally love the Prest/Thaum/Druidcraft cantrips, but unfortunately I also see them a victim of DM style. Where they could be useful in the Interaction pillar, but which more often than not are unnecessary due to how some DMs might call for checks.

So long as we have a "skill list"... there are some DMs that can and will just use the list as-is, and where additional "story-enhancing" RP aspects like using these cantrips are not really necessary for that style... or even that those DMs might be reticent to "bend" the mechanics to reward those players (under the belief that if you allow for a advantageous bending of the mechanics once, the players are just going to do it over and over and over and over again.)

Case in point... using druidcraft to bloom a seed into a flower to hand to someone. From a "story-enhancing" perspective, that's awesome. And if this appeared in a short story or novel, it'd be a really nice moment. But in a game of D&D... there are a good percentage of DMs that, when told by a player "I wish to influence this NPC in a positive fashion", will tell the player straight away "Okay, roll Persuasion". And the results of the check is what happens, because its assumed that anything needed for the check is done in the background because they are making the check. There's no need to "enhance" the story with what the character is actually doing to influence the NPC (which is where the idea of using the spell to bloom a flower would come into play) because the DM's personal style just doesn't ask that level of detail of players. It's assumed the PC already doing everything possible to influence the NPC, which is why they get to make the Persuasion check in the first place. And if by some chance the player offered up the "blooming flower" bit anyway... the player might think (or expect) that because they were enhancing their "free" Persuasion check with a bit of background, that perhaps they should get something on top of their roll-- like maybe gaining Advantage on the Persuasion check.

Now some DMs absolutely go along with that line of thinking-- that yes, if a player adds in details like this to the game, the DM will offer up Advantage to them as a reward for it because for their particular style of game that kind of "story-enhancement" is welcomed and encouraged. But some DMs definitely find the "giving out of Advantage" that cavalierly to be a slippery slope they don't want to encourage. Because then the players spend all their time just trying to find ways to "game the system" (in that particular DM's opinion) by looking for ways to get Advantage repeatedly or evn doing the same "trick" over and over and over again for it.

That particular DM that has that style would absolutely not want to open that pandora's box of "free Advantage", because their game perhaps is much more mechanically focused... where gaining mechanical advantage comes out of the game mechanics offered by the rules themselves and not just offered on a whim because of "story". Some DMs just don't find that "story" should take precedence over "gameplay". Which I can completely understand.

It's not my personal style of DMing, and indeed, I'm the type who does offer Advantage seemingly willy-nilly for every little "story-enhancement" thing the players offer because I often just feel like mechanics get in the way. But for others, I can certainly see why those cantrips hold very little sway. There's no actual mechanical heft to them, and thus can be safely ignored by a percentage of the gaming populace.

 

[MNblockhead]

More to DEFCON1's point, I've found this problem especially try in organized play. Perhaps to avoid complaints of partiality or failing to follow the rule, many AL DMs just call for skill checks. I've also noted that many players seem annoyed by attempts by other players to roleplay out scenes.

Outside of AL games, I think DMs have a lot of ways to reward creativity, which would make the use of cantrips like prestidigitation and druidcraft shine.

My preferred approach is to adjust the DC number. That may not be proper according to RAW. But giving advantage seems like such a blunt instrument. Here is how I look at it.

Grumpy McStabbyspear the town guard may not be inclined to gossip with the PCs who are new to town. The recent rains soaked the kindling and he can't light the brazier he normally warms himself with on cold evenings--and nobody in the town watch thought to bring dry kindling to him. He's cold, miserable, underpaid, doesn't feel respected, and he and his wife had an argument in the morning. He is not happy standing out in the cold but is also not looking forward to going home to a crabby wife.

The PC, Doe-ai Treehugger, approaches, and comments on the cold. She asks if she can light the fire at the brazier and warm herself. Grumpy complains that the wood is soaked. But that's no obstacle to Doe-ai, who uses Druidcraft to start the fire. As the fire warms the two, Doe-ai continues the chit-chat, asking Grumpy about his family, etc. She learns he has a young daughter. She takes out a seed of a rare orchid, puts some dirt in small bag, wets it with her water flask, and used druid craft to sprout it and cause it to bloom, "here, I think your daughter would like this." "Oh, she will LOVE it, as will the missus" says Grumpy whose eyes light up in wonder and appreciation.

Only now does Doe-ai begin to ply him for information about the town and NPCs the party needs to learn about.

Persuasion DC if the player simply comes upon the guard and says "I'm going to make persuasion check to try to learn X information from the guard" = 18.
DC after lighting the fire = 15
DC after the flower = 10 AND I would give inspiration if the character didn't already have it.

Depending on the nature of the information, I may also just make it an auto-success. For example, if the information is not sensitive.