My current campaign character is a Circle of Spores "Ecomancer" Druid. Going for like a necrospellcaster Poison Ivy vibe that breathes life back into dead plants/beings. I'd love to see you put your expert spin onto a build like that!
Amazing build as always! I had heard about the Spore Druid/Beast Barbarian mix before but adding the glaive+pole-arm master combo does make it better and with more flavor. I would kinda think that maybe this character and your "Zombie Fungus Parasite" build would know one another. This one feels like he was/is a woodsman who comes into town to recruit people to come help him clear the forest. One day, he cut into a fairy or demonic mushroom that has infected him, and the hoard of zombies are all the people who promised to work for him.
I’m a big fan of mixing swarm keeper ranger and spores druid. That way your swarm could be spores or your spores could be an extension of your swarm. You can take crossbow expert for a bonus action attack and hunters mark to get yet another d6 to add to your damage. This can let you keep your temp hp by staying out of range plus you can also take advantage of other spells the Druid might get.
Interesting build , and a pretty successful blending of a spell caster and a barbarian. For flavor with regards to animate dead , I would go with mycelium entering the corpses.the mycelium mayhem from the fungus among us.
This is so amazing and thorough! I'm going to play this as my next AL character. One thing I could add is that in terms of items you'd want as many spell storing items as possible (rings and gems especially). Scrolls or gems with negative energy flood to buff your undead minions and getting control of a shield guardian and keeping it within 60ft for the damage split are musts; you could flavor the thing like a Wood Woad.
Great job as usual man! Fun build for combat and flexible out of combat, so keep going 👏 PS: I'm waiting too for Crystals of Z'leth, I discovered Obvious Mimic thanks to you!
This idea just screams villain to me. Could be a potentially interesting fight for a party (especially with some home brew or reflavoue to make the “fungus zombies” more threatening so party doesn’t just blitz the main villain
Ooh I’ve got one I was working on recently. Eladrin Fey Wanderer 14/Dreams Druid 6: - They’re a striker/healer/face that uses Shillelagh and Thorn Whip as their primary attacks. Spellcasting is used primarily for control and healing. Dueling fighting style or Druidic Warrior for two more cantrips. Scale Mail + Shield at 14 DEX gives you an 18 AC. Attacks, Spellcasting, and face skills all key off WIS. Feats are open once you max WIS. Fey Touched, Spell Sniper, and Resilient DEX/STR/CHA are all good options.
So there are a few more race options. Bugbears work great in case leveraging reach and if you do get surprise, Fizbans dragonborn can help AOE more to get more kill turned infestation zombie reaction thing, Thri-kreen can let you do both pole-arm and claws at the same time without needing to weapon juggle the last 2 options I'm not entirely sure how to get the clunkiness out, but they are generally good on barbarian and high caster/barbarian multiclass builds, perhaps when run out of temp hitpoints. Wildhunt shifter being great on any reckless attack barbarian or mark of warding dwarf for armor of agathys (might work better with a moon bearbarian😅😮😂😊) to maximse the damage they take if they hit you and adding fire shield of course never dissappoints either.
Mark dwarf or WH shifter does not work with symbiotic entity. Temp hp overwrites, which is effectively losing them, since symbiotic and armor refer to specific temp hp from the feature/spell.
@@ronjimzhang4013 I know and I said that using them as is would be clunky, which is especially in the case of the mark dwarf since separate uses (when 1 runs out you fall back on the other) is hard to pull off it would be better to just use a moon druid instead. As for the shifter it can still work, since the reason to choose it is not the temp hp, but the foes don't get advantage, so we can be reckless with reckless attack. Besides spores temp hp would quickly outgrow that of shifter anyway. So we let symbiotic entity overwrite shifters temp hp for it's effects. I do think that since Aasimars with radiant consumption cover a similar area combined with either giant barbarian or rune knight could also be fun, since we cover a greater area and we can therefore make a bigger impact on the field. So while they would 1 attack less I do think there's enough to work with for it to be worth it.
One of the homebrew things I do for spores Druid is make the temporary HP scale with total player level instead of Druid level. I also make the symbiotic entity attack scale up doing a total of 4d10 damage though it is strictly once per turn.
I'd go with a similar level breakdown with Spores Druid, but with a Githzerai Bear Totem Barbarian. Githzerai Bear Totem means that when raging they'd have resistance to all damage, which is going to help maintain the Symbiotic Entity. Besides the Psychic damage resistance, I went Githzerai for advantage on saving throws against Charm and Frighten, Mage Hand and Detect Thoughts for out of combat utility, and Shield for instances where I am unable to rage. Also, one thing to note with the build if you are managing to play this at max level, at 14 levels of Spores Druid you become immune to critical hits, which when combined with the Barbarian damage resistances will make it even easier to keep the Symbiotic Entity active.
If you don't wanna go the Polearm Master route, you could take Dual Wielder instead. While raging you claws both count as simple weapons, though not light, so they fall under the criteria for Dual Wielder. That gets you a bonus action attack as well as a +1 AC while raging. It may not add your Str modifier to the damage roll of the bonus action attack, but it still benefits from Rage and Symbiotic Entity, and if you have an available ASI later on you can always pick up Fighting Initiate for the Two-Weapon Fighting style. Not as powerful on the spreadsheet, but it's still fun and flavorful.
Hadozee resilience is better than the Goliath version! 1d6 plus PB, productive bonus times a long rest saves you more hit points than a 1d12+ CON, and automatically scales as you level up. At 1st level you prevent 11hp of damage spread out over more attacks. Goliath maxes out at 1d12+5, but hadozee get a total of 6d6+36!
The Spore Beast, not a bad build. I played as a Triton Spore Beast (Beast Barb 6/ Spore Druid 10) whose natural weapons were his fins that would elongate and sharpen when he would rage. It was fun for sure.
Alternate version. 2lvls spore, 11lvls samurai fighter or echo knight (flavored enemy seeing double due to spores), picking up fey touched hunters mark and wisdom, back into spores druid. Get action surge to start round 1 entity, and hunters mark and attack 3 times. Build comes on late but still works well theme. Other kensei monk and spores with unarmed defense, flurry of blows, and maybe 2 lvls fighter for action surge.
You could go a slightly different way with this too. It gets you less attacks per round, but more damage on the hits you do get. Instead of barbarian, go lycan blood hunter. now you have crimson rite damage on top. Plus now you can cast spells in combat, which means you can take fey touched instead of polearm master to get Hunter's mark. Now you're doing 4d6 for 3 attacks. The other benefit is you can pick up Absorb Elements to get some damage reduction on some spells. If the resistance isn't as important to you, you could go Blood Hunter Order of the Profane Soul, pick up hex, use polearm master, and have Great Weapon Fighting style, so you're rerolling 1's and 2's like crazy. Edit: 3 levels of echo knight get's you that extra attack
I was literally working on this last night, 😂 . I created a variant human, so i want to use my tail as my reaction to roll a D8 and add it to my AC. Which is 15 at level 5, so potentially up to 23 to hit. Figuring out how to activate your spores and rage without wasting a turn is the part I can't figure out. But if you have those two on, you are putting up some serious damage.
this is so amazing from a flavour prospective, I'd go with making him get infected by some sort of mutation virus at lvl 3 barbarian, so my claws are not a "beast" form but are actually a weird mutation infected arm like in the game Prototype and the more I advance in level the more the virus take over and unlocks all spore druid cool abilities, but at the cost of my humanity. In the end is a tragic hero pressing forward to get his mission done before the last bit of his mind is eaten by this degenerative illness, I'd see him ending his arc with an epic sacrifice, fighting an horde of enemy inside a burning building to be sure of not becoming a threat himself
I did something similar, but I mixed ranger and Druid, and hunters mark+ pole arm master was 1d10+2d6+4 x2 +1d4+2d6+4. Not quite as good as your combo with the claws, but it got the job done, and honestly the build wouldn’t have worked without the zombies I summoned because it was fragile, lv 12 6 and 6, but as long as I wasn’t hit I was the dps and healer of the party, out damaging the rogue and with other useful spells.
In theory, it’s great. But you’ll be splitting both classes’ resources. Monks want ki and Spores wants Druid levels. But, fortunately, Long Death Monk needs the fewest Ki points. Unfortunately, Long Death’s first feature does not stack with Spore’s Temp HP.
Got a challenge for you. Make a suicide bomber, you run in and fireball centered on yourself. I think what I’d do is forge cleric 2 and evocation wizard 18, shield master feat, half plate and have a 20 AC plus shield, harengon for race, before combat cast haste, then when you fireball your friends don’t get hit and you’ll have 2d4 plus you’ll need resilient feat for the proficiency, also rabbit hop for an easy escape. You could also try an arcane trickster build for this as well as you get evasion and then just go the rest into wizard, you’d be sqiushy but fast
I'm surprised you didn't go Ranger for those first five levels and go for a DEX melee-build to stick with Light Armor and two-weapon fighting. Sure you don't get that crazy 4th attack, but you'll have better AC to help keep the temp-HP. Plus, you could have stacked it with Hunter's Mark (after all, damage to your temp HP doesn't proc a Concentration check). Because, sure, Advantage on attacks is nice, but the enemy also gets Advantage when you attack with Reckless which will put your temporary HP at risk of depleting all the faster. Otherwise, I would go for Fighter for those first five, DEX, again, and go for a Battle Master to have Trip-Attack to help proc some advantage, plus have Action Surge in your back pocket.
I’m new to dnd and I like playing aggressive support characters. That can take control over the battlefield and while being a frontline dps/tank. So I made a Githzerai with 3lvl in totem barbarian, 7 in battle master, and the rest in moon druid. With the pole arm master, sentinel, G.W.M, Mage slayer, and slasher feats. Is there anything I can change or improve on.
I definitely see the case for not being able to wield a weapon while you have claws. "Each of your hands transforms into a claw [singular], which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty". -so claw singular like a crab's claw rather than a cats, which weapon handles were not designed for. Given that the inside edge of a claw is thin enough to cause slashing damage, here are something that could be in a claws grasp that make more sense: a grappled enemy, a willing or incapacitated ally, a rope, a shield [action to equip implies its strapped to your arm for security]. [EDIT: Also, from Polearm Master, "When you take the Attack action and attack with *only* a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon" the only would imply you can't switch between the types of attacks you are making] If you can wield a weapon however, I would take custom lineage-defensive duelist for the species. The asi spent on PAM is replaced with defensive duelist. It's unlimited and can mitigate an entire hit rather than part of one. 6 levels of Beast barbarian is important so that your attacks become magical. If you can't wield a weapon in your claws at the table, throw on 1 level of war cleric for a wis mod number of BA attacks, which could be used for another claw strike, when you take the attack action. Alternatively, monk 1 [taken before barbarian for a better unarmored defense] could be appealing if your dm is serious about the metal armor refusal of druids and being unable to wield a weapon in your claws. Monk 1 gets you a consistent bonus action attack and wis + dex unarmored defense, since your wis is probably going to be higher than your con. It won't be magical though, so it won't always be as valuable. Or there's longtooth shifter w/o needing to take another class level, you will just need to take defensive duelist with an asi instead. Also, Gift of the Chromatic dragons could be good to take down the line to preserve temporary hitpoints since you can't cast absorb elements while raging.
In regards to taking 6 lvls in beast, I think that taking 6 in giant barbarian would also still be solid. While you lose 1 attack you get more damage choice, greater reach (especially if we go bugbear instead), take up a greater area which good for our spores and a thrown range. If however we are fine with 7 lvls outside of druid than rune knight is also solid adding action surge, concentration/rage free resistance to bps so hill rune is kinda mandatory, other runes and increased size. What do you think? I'd love a gestalt campaign for this. Though I might play as a Thri-kreen that got infected with 1 of those zombie ant spores. 😅😂😊
@@woutvanostaden1299 nice! Love thri-kreen as a species! No custom lineage feat is going to give you unarmored ac with camouflage, telepathy and 2 additional nearly fully functional arms, lol Both giant barb and rune knight are both more clear about working with polearm master. Rune knight works better with concentration spells, and action surge would let you spell up and fight in the same turn, it has quite a bit of demand on your bonus action though, so PAM might be a little wasted if you're setting up [giant's might, hill rune, storm rune frost rune?]. With giant barb, the extra damage dice on your attacks helps bridge the claw gap. Thunder damage is the most dependable since many things like fiends have at least resistance to the whole suite of fire, cold, lightning and acid. One funny interaction, is with a reach weapon the slasher feat and the reach bonus from the subclass, you get an opportunity attack when enemies enter your reach, and with slasher's -10' on a hit, they might run out of movement before they can get to you! [Bugbear's reach bonus is only in play on your turn, so it wouldn't interact with opportunity attacks] Sentinel instead of slasher would definitely prevent them from reaching you on a hit, but it's a full feat and this interaction is kind of maligned as cheesy. Another thought is that with such high level allocations though, your spore thp is going to be pretty low for a long time. So you won't likely be getting a ton of mileage from the extra spore damage. To hit the ground running, after 1 level of monk you could have 2 attacks every turn, a couple of 1 +2 BA attack uses from level 2 on and then extra attack at 5. This makes the most of those thp while you still have them. When you have 4 attacks popping off per turn, fey touch-hex starts to look appealing as well, particularly if you could set up the hex before rolling initiative
@@elliotbryant3459 I tried keeping my comment concise and relatively clear, but you always have a few more thought on the matter. Some of which you've laid out quite nicely in this comment, including the benefits of using the race or the 2 big boi subclasses, thank you for that. In regards to slow down due to extra leveling, you could also switch druid after lvl 3 or 5 (depending on priorities) gain a few lvls there before you come back for the last 1,2 to 4 lvls.
Edit: I did also say that I would especially love it in a gestalt campaign, since those rules are different and you essentially get both classes with each lvl, causing them to scale equally at the same time. (If you've never heard of gestalt rules, they are rules in the DMG for an extra tough campaign, DnD shorts has a quick video on it)
Instead of barbarian and instead goliath I don't hate the idea of taking lvls in lycan blood hunter with a radiant consumption Aasimar, although giant and barbarian or rune knight are also interesting. Lycan also has a fun theme potential. 😂😊😊
My current campaign character is a Circle of Spores "Ecomancer" Druid. Going for like a necrospellcaster Poison Ivy vibe that breathes life back into dead plants/beings. I'd love to see you put your expert spin onto a build like that!
Amazing build as always! I had heard about the Spore Druid/Beast Barbarian mix before but adding the glaive+pole-arm master combo does make it better and with more flavor. I would kinda think that maybe this character and your "Zombie Fungus Parasite" build would know one another. This one feels like he was/is a woodsman who comes into town to recruit people to come help him clear the forest. One day, he cut into a fairy or demonic mushroom that has infected him, and the hoard of zombies are all the people who promised to work for him.
I’m a big fan of mixing swarm keeper ranger and spores druid. That way your swarm could be spores or your spores could be an extension of your swarm. You can take crossbow expert for a bonus action attack and hunters mark to get yet another d6 to add to your damage. This can let you keep your temp hp by staying out of range plus you can also take advantage of other spells the Druid might get.
Interesting build , and a pretty successful blending of a spell caster and a barbarian. For flavor with regards to animate dead , I would go with mycelium entering the corpses.the mycelium mayhem from the fungus among us.
This is so amazing and thorough! I'm going to play this as my next AL character. One thing I could add is that in terms of items you'd want as many spell storing items as possible (rings and gems especially). Scrolls or gems with negative energy flood to buff your undead minions and getting control of a shield guardian and keeping it within 60ft for the damage split are musts; you could flavor the thing like a Wood Woad.
Great job as usual man! Fun build for combat and flexible out of combat, so keep going 👏
PS: I'm waiting too for Crystals of Z'leth, I discovered Obvious Mimic thanks to you!
This idea just screams villain to me. Could be a potentially interesting fight for a party (especially with some home brew or reflavoue to make the “fungus zombies” more threatening so party doesn’t just blitz the main villain
Swamp Thing nice, new character
Ooh I’ve got one I was working on recently.
Eladrin Fey Wanderer 14/Dreams Druid 6:
- They’re a striker/healer/face that uses Shillelagh and Thorn Whip as their primary attacks. Spellcasting is used primarily for control and healing.
Dueling fighting style or Druidic Warrior for two more cantrips. Scale Mail + Shield at 14 DEX gives you an 18 AC.
Attacks, Spellcasting, and face skills all key off WIS.
Feats are open once you max WIS. Fey Touched, Spell Sniper, and Resilient DEX/STR/CHA are all good options.
I hear you like Teleporting to an unoccupied space you can see within 30ft
God I love your unique builds! Keep up the awesome content!
This channel really shines for me.
So there are a few more race options. Bugbears work great in case leveraging reach and if you do get surprise, Fizbans dragonborn can help AOE more to get more kill turned infestation zombie reaction thing, Thri-kreen can let you do both pole-arm and claws at the same time without needing to weapon juggle the last 2 options I'm not entirely sure how to get the clunkiness out, but they are generally good on barbarian and high caster/barbarian multiclass builds, perhaps when run out of temp hitpoints. Wildhunt shifter being great on any reckless attack barbarian or mark of warding dwarf for armor of agathys (might work better with a moon bearbarian😅😮😂😊) to maximse the damage they take if they hit you and adding fire shield of course never dissappoints either.
Mark dwarf or WH shifter does not work with symbiotic entity. Temp hp overwrites, which is effectively losing them, since symbiotic and armor refer to specific temp hp from the feature/spell.
@@ronjimzhang4013 I know and I said that using them as is would be clunky, which is especially in the case of the mark dwarf since separate uses (when 1 runs out you fall back on the other) is hard to pull off it would be better to just use a moon druid instead.
As for the shifter it can still work, since the reason to choose it is not the temp hp, but the foes don't get advantage, so we can be reckless with reckless attack. Besides spores temp hp would quickly outgrow that of shifter anyway. So we let symbiotic entity overwrite shifters temp hp for it's effects.
I do think that since Aasimars with radiant consumption cover a similar area combined with either giant barbarian or rune knight could also be fun, since we cover a greater area and we can therefore make a bigger impact on the field. So while they would 1 attack less I do think there's enough to work with for it to be worth it.
One of the homebrew things I do for spores Druid is make the temporary HP scale with total player level instead of Druid level. I also make the symbiotic entity attack scale up doing a total of 4d10 damage though it is strictly once per turn.
I'd go with a similar level breakdown with Spores Druid, but with a Githzerai Bear Totem Barbarian. Githzerai Bear Totem means that when raging they'd have resistance to all damage, which is going to help maintain the Symbiotic Entity. Besides the Psychic damage resistance, I went Githzerai for advantage on saving throws against Charm and Frighten, Mage Hand and Detect Thoughts for out of combat utility, and Shield for instances where I am unable to rage.
Also, one thing to note with the build if you are managing to play this at max level, at 14 levels of Spores Druid you become immune to critical hits, which when combined with the Barbarian damage resistances will make it even easier to keep the Symbiotic Entity active.
If you don't wanna go the Polearm Master route, you could take Dual Wielder instead. While raging you claws both count as simple weapons, though not light, so they fall under the criteria for Dual Wielder.
That gets you a bonus action attack as well as a +1 AC while raging. It may not add your Str modifier to the damage roll of the bonus action attack, but it still benefits from Rage and Symbiotic Entity, and if you have an available ASI later on you can always pick up Fighting Initiate for the Two-Weapon Fighting style.
Not as powerful on the spreadsheet, but it's still fun and flavorful.
Hadozee resilience is better than the Goliath version! 1d6 plus PB, productive bonus times a long rest saves you more hit points than a 1d12+ CON, and automatically scales as you level up. At 1st level you prevent 11hp of damage spread out over more attacks.
Goliath maxes out at 1d12+5, but hadozee get a total of 6d6+36!
I remember Colby did something similar with Spores
The Spore Beast, not a bad build. I played as a Triton Spore Beast (Beast Barb 6/ Spore Druid 10) whose natural weapons were his fins that would elongate and sharpen when he would rage. It was fun for sure.
Alternate version. 2lvls spore, 11lvls samurai fighter or echo knight (flavored enemy seeing double due to spores), picking up fey touched hunters mark and wisdom, back into spores druid. Get action surge to start round 1 entity, and hunters mark and attack 3 times. Build comes on late but still works well theme.
Other kensei monk and spores with unarmed defense, flurry of blows, and maybe 2 lvls fighter for action surge.
You could go a slightly different way with this too. It gets you less attacks per round, but more damage on the hits you do get. Instead of barbarian, go lycan blood hunter. now you have crimson rite damage on top. Plus now you can cast spells in combat, which means you can take fey touched instead of polearm master to get Hunter's mark. Now you're doing 4d6 for 3 attacks. The other benefit is you can pick up Absorb Elements to get some damage reduction on some spells.
If the resistance isn't as important to you, you could go Blood Hunter Order of the Profane Soul, pick up hex, use polearm master, and have Great Weapon Fighting style, so you're rerolling 1's and 2's like crazy.
Edit: 3 levels of echo knight get's you that extra attack
I was literally working on this last night, 😂 . I created a variant human, so i want to use my tail as my reaction to roll a D8 and add it to my AC. Which is 15 at level 5, so potentially up to 23 to hit.
Figuring out how to activate your spores and rage without wasting a turn is the part I can't figure out. But if you have those two on, you are putting up some serious damage.
this is so amazing from a flavour prospective, I'd go with making him get infected by some sort of mutation virus at lvl 3 barbarian, so my claws are not a "beast" form but are actually a weird mutation infected arm like in the game Prototype and the more I advance in level the more the virus take over and unlocks all spore druid cool abilities, but at the cost of my humanity.
In the end is a tragic hero pressing forward to get his mission done before the last bit of his mind is eaten by this degenerative illness, I'd see him ending his arc with an epic sacrifice, fighting an horde of enemy inside a burning building to be sure of not becoming a threat himself
I did something similar, but I mixed ranger and Druid, and hunters mark+ pole arm master was 1d10+2d6+4 x2 +1d4+2d6+4. Not quite as good as your combo with the claws, but it got the job done, and honestly the build wouldn’t have worked without the zombies I summoned because it was fragile, lv 12 6 and 6, but as long as I wasn’t hit I was the dps and healer of the party, out damaging the rogue and with other useful spells.
I wonder how the would play with Long Death Monk and Spore Druid....both are Wis based
In theory, it’s great. But you’ll be splitting both classes’ resources.
Monks want ki and Spores wants Druid levels.
But, fortunately, Long Death Monk needs the fewest Ki points.
Unfortunately, Long Death’s first feature does not stack with Spore’s Temp HP.
Got a challenge for you. Make a suicide bomber, you run in and fireball centered on yourself. I think what I’d do is forge cleric 2 and evocation wizard 18, shield master feat, half plate and have a 20 AC plus shield, harengon for race, before combat cast haste, then when you fireball your friends don’t get hit and you’ll have 2d4 plus you’ll need resilient feat for the proficiency, also rabbit hop for an easy escape. You could also try an arcane trickster build for this as well as you get evasion and then just go the rest into wizard, you’d be sqiushy but fast
(I'm planning on creating a forge cleric who can cast heat metal on her own armour. Shhhh don't tell my DM!)
@@apollyon1 you should look at the “warm hug” build from dnd deep dive, that’s perfect for what your going for and minimizes the damage you take
I remember making a "FU-NK" (Fungal Monk)... See what you can do with that one!?
I would have to get back to you on how I'd build a Spore Druid striker. Too many concepts popping off at one time. So many ideas.
☕️ ☕️
I did this with a plasmoid for a moldy beer ooze man
My moon druid likes to get up close and personal. Especially after I made him a vampire
This is the fit you should have worn for the true priest vid
I wanted to make a Vulture Aarakocra, and thought that Circle of Spores Druid was the best fit. It came out pretty good.
I'm surprised you didn't go Ranger for those first five levels and go for a DEX melee-build to stick with Light Armor and two-weapon fighting. Sure you don't get that crazy 4th attack, but you'll have better AC to help keep the temp-HP. Plus, you could have stacked it with Hunter's Mark (after all, damage to your temp HP doesn't proc a Concentration check). Because, sure, Advantage on attacks is nice, but the enemy also gets Advantage when you attack with Reckless which will put your temporary HP at risk of depleting all the faster. Otherwise, I would go for Fighter for those first five, DEX, again, and go for a Battle Master to have Trip-Attack to help proc some advantage, plus have Action Surge in your back pocket.
It’s Bacterian from Dragon Ball.
I’m new to dnd and I like playing aggressive support characters. That can take control over the battlefield and while being a frontline dps/tank. So I made a Githzerai with 3lvl in totem barbarian, 7 in battle master, and the rest in moon druid. With the pole arm master, sentinel, G.W.M, Mage slayer, and slasher feats. Is there anything I can change or improve on.
I would go Barb for 1st level to get as many hp as possible and then druid after.
I definitely see the case for not being able to wield a weapon while you have claws. "Each of your hands transforms into a claw [singular], which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty". -so claw singular like a crab's claw rather than a cats, which weapon handles were not designed for. Given that the inside edge of a claw is thin enough to cause slashing damage, here are something that could be in a claws grasp that make more sense: a grappled enemy, a willing or incapacitated ally, a rope, a shield [action to equip implies its strapped to your arm for security]. [EDIT: Also, from Polearm Master, "When you take the Attack action and attack with *only* a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon" the only would imply you can't switch between the types of attacks you are making]
If you can wield a weapon however, I would take custom lineage-defensive duelist for the species. The asi spent on PAM is replaced with defensive duelist. It's unlimited and can mitigate an entire hit rather than part of one.
6 levels of Beast barbarian is important so that your attacks become magical. If you can't wield a weapon in your claws at the table, throw on 1 level of war cleric for a wis mod number of BA attacks, which could be used for another claw strike, when you take the attack action. Alternatively, monk 1 [taken before barbarian for a better unarmored defense] could be appealing if your dm is serious about the metal armor refusal of druids and being unable to wield a weapon in your claws. Monk 1 gets you a consistent bonus action attack and wis + dex unarmored defense, since your wis is probably going to be higher than your con. It won't be magical though, so it won't always be as valuable. Or there's longtooth shifter w/o needing to take another class level, you will just need to take defensive duelist with an asi instead.
Also, Gift of the Chromatic dragons could be good to take down the line to preserve temporary hitpoints since you can't cast absorb elements while raging.
In regards to taking 6 lvls in beast, I think that taking 6 in giant barbarian would also still be solid. While you lose 1 attack you get more damage choice, greater reach (especially if we go bugbear instead), take up a greater area which good for our spores and a thrown range.
If however we are fine with 7 lvls outside of druid than rune knight is also solid adding action surge, concentration/rage free resistance to bps so hill rune is kinda mandatory, other runes and increased size.
What do you think? I'd love a gestalt campaign for this. Though I might play as a Thri-kreen that got infected with 1 of those zombie ant spores. 😅😂😊
@@woutvanostaden1299 nice! Love thri-kreen as a species! No custom lineage feat is going to give you unarmored ac with camouflage, telepathy and 2 additional nearly fully functional arms, lol
Both giant barb and rune knight are both more clear about working with polearm master. Rune knight works better with concentration spells, and action surge would let you spell up and fight in the same turn, it has quite a bit of demand on your bonus action though, so PAM might be a little wasted if you're setting up [giant's might, hill rune, storm rune frost rune?].
With giant barb, the extra damage dice on your attacks helps bridge the claw gap. Thunder damage is the most dependable since many things like fiends have at least resistance to the whole suite of fire, cold, lightning and acid. One funny interaction, is with a reach weapon the slasher feat and the reach bonus from the subclass, you get an opportunity attack when enemies enter your reach, and with slasher's -10' on a hit, they might run out of movement before they can get to you! [Bugbear's reach bonus is only in play on your turn, so it wouldn't interact with opportunity attacks] Sentinel instead of slasher would definitely prevent them from reaching you on a hit, but it's a full feat and this interaction is kind of maligned as cheesy.
Another thought is that with such high level allocations though, your spore thp is going to be pretty low for a long time. So you won't likely be getting a ton of mileage from the extra spore damage. To hit the ground running, after 1 level of monk you could have 2 attacks every turn, a couple of 1 +2 BA attack uses from level 2 on and then extra attack at 5. This makes the most of those thp while you still have them. When you have 4 attacks popping off per turn, fey touch-hex starts to look appealing as well, particularly if you could set up the hex before rolling initiative
@@elliotbryant3459 I tried keeping my comment concise and relatively clear, but you always have a few more thought on the matter. Some of which you've laid out quite nicely in this comment, including the benefits of using the race or the 2 big boi subclasses, thank you for that.
In regards to slow down due to extra leveling, you could also switch druid after lvl 3 or 5 (depending on priorities) gain a few lvls there before you come back for the last 1,2 to 4 lvls.
Edit: I did also say that I would especially love it in a gestalt campaign, since those rules are different and you essentially get both classes with each lvl, causing them to scale equally at the same time. (If you've never heard of gestalt rules, they are rules in the DMG for an extra tough campaign, DnD shorts has a quick video on it)
I could see using minotaur instead of longtooth shifter since can bonus action (provided they fail the save) shove 10 ft.
Fungal Yaoguai.
Instead of barbarian and instead goliath I don't hate the idea of taking lvls in lycan blood hunter with a radiant consumption Aasimar, although giant and barbarian or rune knight are also interesting. Lycan also has a fun theme potential. 😂😊😊