D&D 5E Shillelagh after 5th Level

Kobold Stew

Last Guy in the Airlock
Supporter
I like the spell as it is -- it lets me build a wisdom-based fighter (human, taking magic initiate).

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."
 

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Antilles123

First Post
Does this spell really have to be amazing? I've just taken it with my land druid for the simple reason that I'd like to have some sort of better melee option. I also have other cantrips that I can use for ranged.

I don't expect to be super awesome in melee.
 

Does this spell really have to be amazing? I've just taken it with my land druid for the simple reason that I'd like to have some sort of better melee option. I also have other cantrips that I can use for ranged.

I don't expect to be super awesome in melee.
It was never about being amazing but at least at being OK, and shillelag won't allow a druid to be even OK at melee at higher levels.
 

Vulf

First Post
With Polearm Expert it does well enough. Druids don't need to be good at melee. It's really booby prize for not giving them Shocking Grasp.

Clerics are halfway decent with Shillelagh in a campaign where specific weapons are hard to find. I know in Curse of Strahd, our 22 Wisdom Life Domain Cleric gets an ungodly amount of use out of it using the Black Staff that drains hitpoints.

When standing within 10 feet of the 18 charisma paladin, all his Wisdom saves to resist the insanity from the staff are auto-succeed. It is an incredible amount of synergy we never planned for but that makes him extremely hard to kill.
 
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MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
It was never about being amazing but at least at being OK, and shillelag won't allow a druid to be even OK at melee at higher levels.

If you're not OK in melee at higher levels without shillelagh, then you're probably not using wild shape. :) Druids are not typically melee combatants, except through becoming a bear. (Consider the AD&D druid... leather armour, scimitar, moderate hit points. That's not a great front-line fighter).

Shillelagh is best at low levels, where it gives your druid a magic weapon - for a minute, without concentration. That, by itself, is really good. You can deal more damage to creatures with resistance when otherwise you'd struggle. What makes Shillelagh problematic in a balance way is that it allows you to use your spell-casting stat rather than Strength/Dexterity to attack, and that it stacks with all other bonuses to attack. Multiclass with shillelagh? Things get tricky.

But Shillelagh isn't actually a problem. The misconception here is that druids (sans wildshaping) are good in melee. They're not. The two paths are spellcasting and wildshaping.

Shillelagh is useful when you're fighting fiends and undead that are resistant to your usual attacks, but it's also a signal about the role of the druid.
 

Ganymede81

First Post
If you're not OK in melee at higher levels without shillelagh, then you're probably not using wild shape. :) Druids are not typically melee combatants, except through becoming a bear. (Consider the AD&D druid... leather armour, scimitar, moderate hit points. That's not a great front-line fighter).

Shillelagh is best at low levels, where it gives your druid a magic weapon - for a minute, without concentration. That, by itself, is really good. You can deal more damage to creatures with resistance when otherwise you'd struggle. What makes Shillelagh problematic in a balance way is that it allows you to use your spell-casting stat rather than Strength/Dexterity to attack, and that it stacks with all other bonuses to attack. Multiclass with shillelagh? Things get tricky.

But Shillelagh isn't actually a problem. The misconception here is that druids (sans wildshaping) are good in melee. They're not. The two paths are spellcasting and wildshaping.

Shillelagh is useful when you're fighting fiends and undead that are resistant to your usual attacks, but it's also a signal about the role of the druid.

Literally everything here was already addressed by Sword of Spirit's post.
 

Ancalagon

Dusty Dragon
I will take a moment to note once again my dismay that the green flame blade and similar cantrips are not in the PHB where they should be. Aren't they a fundamental part of certain builds?

edit: it almost feels like I "have" to buy that book just to get a few cantrips. Come on.
 

cbwjm

Seb-wejem
I wouldn't call them fundamental, but they really do help round out an Eldritch Knight. Actually, now that they are available, I don't think I've built a single EK without at least one of them.

Sent from my SM-G925I using EN World mobile app
 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
I will take a moment to note once again my dismay that the green flame blade and similar cantrips are not in the PHB where they should be. Aren't they a fundamental part of certain builds?

edit: it almost feels like I "have" to buy that book just to get a few cantrips. Come on.

Green flame blade wasn't in the original PHB. Or any PHB.

The thing is that a lot of builds don't exist until material comes out to support them. It's why people buy expansion books... To expand their options!

If GFB had been in the PHB, then something else wouldn't have been, and then when the other thing came out in a supplement, some people would ask why it wasn't in the PHB!

The 5e PHB very deliberately hearkened back to earlier editions, though it does have some new material.

Cheers!
 


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