D&D 5E Druids seen in the Wild (Shape?)

[Seramus]

I see a fair amount of Moon > Wildfire > Stars in that order of frequency.
I've never seen anyone play Land, Dreams, Shepherd, or Spores.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I love druids thematically. Two of my recent characters was a Stars Druid who was full on sacrifice goats under the neolithic architecture (Göbekli Tepe T-pillars this time, not Stonehenge sarsen-and-lintels); and a Wildfire Druid (with his wildfire spirit, Flambé -- a Molotov Cockatiel).

I think Defcon 1 has the right of it -- druids fall into the 'other' category where people try them when they have something specific in mind (or want a change of pace), but then go back to the tried and trues quite a bit.

So it surprised me when I started running a game recently with a Land Druid and I started taking a closer look at their spell list to make sure I seed a few Druid scrolls into treasure...and their spell list is really really good! Like, I want to play this, good!

One thing to think about is whether these spells together make a cohesive role. Like, does this character replace the cleric or wizard or such the party otherwise might have had?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Not really seen enough druid to comment, which is why I have voted "What's a druid?".

 

[TwoSix]

Yea, way more than 50% of druid I've seen have been Moon. I've seen one Spore, one Shepherd, and two homebrewed subclasses; every other druid has been Moon.

 

[el-remmen]

I only have two examples, Circle of the Land (swamp) and Circle of the Stars.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've never had a Circle of the Moon druid in the party. I've seen Circle of the Land a few times, and Circle of Wildfire once, though.

My gaming group doesn't really care for Wildshape. The guy in my current group wanted to roll up a druid but only if I would let him swap out the Wildshape ability for something "more interesting" (his words, not mine). I let him trade it for a feat (I think he chose War Caster.)

 

[Quickleaf]

A few druids I have seen in my games...

• Nia Steeleyes: Human Druid (UA Circle of Twilight) 3 / Ranger 1
• Koko: Grung Druid (Circle of Land) 12+
• Aric Thornbloom: Goblin Druid (Circle of Moon) 3
• one-shot, can't remember name: Druid (Circle of Wildfire) 3

 

[Stormonu]

In the games I've run/been in, I have seen one Wildfire, one Land, one Spore and the rest have all been Moon druids.

 

[James Gasik]

I've never had a Circle of the Moon druid in the party. I've seen Circle of the Land a few times, and Circle of Wildfire once, though.

My gaming group doesn't really care for Wildshape. The guy in my current group wanted to roll up a druid but only if I would let him swap out the Wildshape ability for something "more interesting" (his words, not mine). I let him trade it for a feat (I think he chose War Caster.)

This is how I feel, which is why I kind of ignored the class until recently. I've never liked any edition's form of Wild Shape, and the last time I played a Druid in 3.5 I made heavy use of alternative class features that let me swap it out.

It always has the same problem- great when you get it, but soon you're struggling with terrible defenses and mediocre damage output. The last time I wanted to play a Wild Shape Druid was in PF1e, but once I looked at the cost of Wild Armor, I noped out of there.

Don't get me wrong, there are uses, like being able to scout or get into places you shouldn't at low levels, but there's a lot of handwaving in there "oh, nobody will pay attention to a random rat" and it bugs me that the Druid can basically steal the Rogue's thunder and still have a full spell allotment. Plus, I can see times when I wouldn't need to Wild Shape, leaving that resource sitting there unused.

I kind of like Tales of Valiant, where you can swap Wild Shape uses to recover spell slots. Options are good, and ones I can ignore and not feel nerfed are even better.

 

[Voadam]

I have seen two 5e druid PCs in the games I have played in or DMd. I am currently playing a moon druid because I wanted to focus on wildshaping as my standard thing.

The other was someone playing a house ruled druid where wildshaping worked differently to give form options but modifiers to your stats, not replacing your stats. I do not recall his subclass.