So excited for this build!! Moon druids are a fave at my table. Enjoy that time with your kids, my dad died unexpectedly last week, I’m only in my early 20s, but I’m just so grateful for all the great time I got with him and the fun vacations and adventures we went on when I was younger. Those memories really do last forever
Cheers to all my fellow BOOM-kin druids! Wrong franchise, I know, but any Druid love is good love. Have a great vacay, Colby! One dad to another - Family time > anything ❤
We actually run the moon Druid a bit differently than most tables. We actually use your proficiency bonus instead of the beasts. Let’s say your level 20 Druid turns into a little bear. Instead of the +2 proficiency they use, you use your normal +6 bonus.
That makes total sense. Why the heck would you run it any differently? I just thought that was RAW tbh, since you don't become a CR 1 or whatever creature, you're just yourself but shapeshifted.
I am physically disabled and have started playing dnd in the past year or 2. I’ve become obsessed with dnd builds 😂 Anyways I’ve been slowly forming the idea for a disabled character who uses wild shape as an accommodation. I’m going to make some homebrew rules allowing my character to be wild shaped most of the time but maybe adding a homebrew exhaustion mechanic to make it more balanced. This is an incredible build for that idea.
Important, talk this through with your DM. Your DM is the arbiter of the rules and homebrew. Although I am sure: Every DM, who isn't an absolute asshole and a total buzzkill, will allow this. Your idea is beautiful.
I definitely want to see that other Paladin/Druid build you teased in your intro, that's more Paladin than Druid, and compare it to this one in both function and flavor! Looking forward to it!
I think Eldritch Knight might be the better option for a Fighter subclass, in practicality - I understand the superiority dice are much better in terms of spreadsheet nova damage though. Let's you add a spellcaster level to your multiclass total for spell slots, and gives you much better access to Find Familiar. It also frees up a Druid spell preparation by giving you alternative access to Absorb Elements, gives you access to Shield, and Mage Armor could be interesting as an 8 hour duration defense boost to your Wild Shapes.
I think the only thing that I would change is for superior technique, I would choose ambush. I think if you are banking on beating at least one creature in initiative, you should have something that helps with initiative.
I was thinking about this, too. No DEX bonus means that getting to attack before someone else is not even close to a sure thing, and would basically require Pass Without a Trace to pull off an ambush. That, to me, justifies not depending on it, and instead using a different race. Warforged (a Dryad?) or Loxodon would have (8d6 avg 28) less burst damage, but would probably contribute more as Druids.
Time to rewatch all your old videos to get me through this vacation. In all seriousness. Congrats on getting out there with your family! D&D comes and goes but family is forever.
I'm currently paused before the start of the actual build because I was so intrigued by your sponsor. I'm so glad I actually listened to it instead of skipping it. I went and bought the pdf/ebook with your code and can't wait to try it out!
Supernova Moon is a cool name for sure but Colby mentioned Dad energy, and now I can't get the "Papa Bear" build out of my mind 😂 P.S. Have a great family vacay!
Not gonna lie, I thought that you were gonna make a palabear as soon as I saw that the dudes released the Druid multi class video. Great work Colby. Enjoy the time with the fam!
Alright, I mentioned this on Treantmonk's video re: Moon Druid optimization, so I'll mention it here: If your party is getting magic items, particularly your martial characters, then you need to give your Moon Druid in the party some love. They are martial characters at heart that happen to have some spells to fall back on. Scale up that Insignia of Claws to a +3 if the other martials have +3 weapons. Give them a Belt of Fire Giant Strength if your other martials are getting capped strength + proficiency bonus. It's frustrating that Moon Druids don't get some sort of automatic scaling or spell usage for this (Something like what Kensei Monks get to enchant their weapons would be perfect) or apply their Proficiency bonus instead of the base beast, so the least we can do as DMs is keep the fantasy our players want relevant. It's awesome that Colby can come up with a build that makes Moon Druids work at higher levels through burst-focused multiclassing... but your players shouldn't NEED to do that to stay relevant.
You're right, players shouldn't NEED to do this to be effective, but also, the GM shouldn't NEED to give them customized items to help them maintain relevance either. The game should be better balanced all around between all classes to ensure that issues like this are minimal and rarely so impactful that an optimizer feels stronger in play than anyone else.
I agree with this and if I hadn't been so unfamiliar with 5e when I had a moon druid in my party I would have done more than just let them use their proficiency bonus instead of the beasts. I had plans to do similar things with monks but in the 7.5 years I ran 5e games I never had a monk in my party...I am hopeful that now that I have switched to PF2e I will be able to convince someone in my party to play a monk. I just love the fantasy of the monk character but I am getting way off topic. As the other comment mentioned we shouldn't have to do such things as a DM to help classes to be on par with others but we don't live in a perfect world and I think it is better the DM does something rather than just force players to deal with an unbalanced system.
A druid is a full caster, for game balance there is no way they should be anywhere near as good as a fighter when wild shaped. I really like that your combat style should probably change as you level a druid up, and wild shape still has amazing non combat uses even when it drops off in combat.
@@jiminkpen9750 Right, but as it stands, a straight class moon druid is so far behind fighter outside of the very early levels (particularly discounting magic items) that the character fantasy of "I turn into an animal and tear my opponents to pieces" is largely relegated to casting Polymorph, which most casting-oriented character can gain the ability to do. I think the "X class shouldn't be better than Y class" comparison is a bit misleading, now that I think about it. What I would REALLY like is for Moon Druid to fulfill a particular niche that Fighter doesn't necessarily fit, but I would like them to both be equally "Effective". Maybe a moon druid has more battlefield control and presence than a fighter without the appropriate archetype, but lacks the damage and staying power a fighter does over the course of a day, but if balance dictates "This option should be bad", then the option isn't really an option.
@@joshuahampton6141 but a moon druid is a full caster... so it isn't behind the Fighter in any way at all. In wild shape it gets a load of new hp, can heal, fly, swim, change as a bonus action allowing all sorts of shenanigans. Oh yeah, can do that twice and recover them on a short rest. So... how would you balance all that and give them lots of damage to allow fighters a niche? They already have a ton of battlefield control, druids are top tier controllers.
I am little surprised you didn’t take the Ambush manoeuvre from Tasha’s to improve your initiative since going early in the combat order is so important to make sure that the big first turn nova damage is on an optimal enemy rather than just who ever is after you in the turn order
I think that the fact you've made so many cool builds that the dungeon dudes thought were sub-par that they directly "challenged" you to do one they might think is bad (i haven't watched their video, hence the "might") is hilarious... Anyways, please enjoy your vacations with your family, even if there were no videos at all i'll be there for your return!
I appreciate all your hard work and creativity. Unfortunately for me, I've found big baddies to rarely fail a strength saving throw in my campaigns. Therefore no trip attack and all those numbers would be skewed in our D&D world.
On the topic of "reluctant" Druid: One of my favorite PCs from an Eberron game was a Warforged Spores Druid Made as a prototype to all other Warforged, he was written as a massive weapon of destruction that was deemed too volatile to be allowed to stick around for after the war. How'd he get demoted to lv3 Druid? He got banished to the Feywild, and Titania ripped him apart and forced him to be a protector of the natural world and its creatures instead of a murder hobo. Still tried to be a murder hobo, and was always reluctant to work with anything that wasn't a warforged though XD
Moon druids have always been my most favourite subclass relating to druids! Thank you so much for doing this video! And have fun on the holiday! I wish I saw this before I started my current aarakocra moon druid that has just dipped into Monk at level 7. Any tips anybody has on improving this I would be grateful 👍
I don't know how many there are, but maybe some high dex beasts? Unarmored defence should still work and you already have a great Wis. The downside would be the number of attacks? You could go up to monk 5 to get that eventualy, capping wis on the way or improving your Dex, depending of your status and the beasts. Monks also gain a lot stuff for bonus actions that should work while in wild shape, like patient defence or step of the wind.
I was wondering if it would be better to take the ambush superior technique for one of your maneuvers since the character’s dex is pretty low? Currently, the character does not have any other ways to boost initiative, which your bugbear needs for surprise attacks. Either way, seems like a pretty good build
I would love to see a character build thats fully focused on just getting large and larger in size (along with powerful hits and the like). A boxing match with a kaiju
@@DnDDeepDiveDid that for one campaign was just throwing and body slamming enemies managed to get to gargantuan size thanks to an item. Ended up loosing her when she got scottied to the realm of the Amazonian angels. (A floating island that was nearly impossible for people to get to in one piece.) Was fighting a huge ent. I slung our monk at the tree so he could pee on it. I was holding it down when it beamed out and took me with it. I ended up playing your fear warlock paladin named warrick with the eyes of a Deadman to see the strings of fate. So he can harvest and guide souls for the god of death to the gate of reincarnation.
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, I was excited to see it, I have a rune knight im playing now and it gave me quite a bit of inspiration. But I'd love to see what'd be possible If the main goal was to get gargantuan or larger, and what you could do with that
One of my favourite "suboptimal" Wild Shape options for the Moon Druid is combining the Fog Cloud spell [which creates a 20ft radius sphere o' heavy obscurement] with the Jaculi [a beast from Tomb of Annihilation, which has 30ft blindsight and a respectable +4 to hit bite with 2d6+2 damage and a charge-like spring attack]. It's not exactly the most powerful combo ever, but I like it a lot. Definitely requires talking to the other players at the table, though, because combos that use heavy obscurement have a tendency to only be any fun for the person pulling them off.
Great build Colby! Seems like it would be really fun to play. Also I for one find so endearing how you creators in this community support and riff of each other. Have an awesome vacation with the family!
Love this build! Wanted to suggest Alert as an alternative for Druid 4 or Druid 8. It seems like a lot of this build is flexing surprise attacks, so going before your opponent seems really important.
Moon Druid is one of my favorite subclasses in the game. The animals don't scale well, but getting those elementals helps. It's a shame it took so long to get them, though. I always love your videos and try to cut out time on Tuesdays to watch them, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy for you to get to go on a bit of a vacation. I wouldn't have blamed you if there weren't any uploads during that time, but your dedication to your channel shines through. I hope you enjoy that break. A break from work and stress is never a bad thing to take! You should've gone with Echo Knight!!!! (Did you get your nickel?)
I'm glad to see a great scaling moon druid build, I normally look to play martial characters but moon druid held a special place that I loved thematically. Side note, is your camera out of focus or is youtube playing tricks on me? xD
So I have been enjoying your videos for over a year. It has been enjoyable to watch your transformation for the first videos to now. Love the outtakes and Musial renditions at the end. I have been wondering about a dive bomber Druid build. So the concept is for a flying Druid that then dives for a round at the target. Then in the second round right as it enters the baddies “square” transforms into a ram or creature with a charge bonus. So falling damage + charge damage. Next round walks out of the dust cloud, patting off dust and coughing. I have been unable to play d&d for about 10 years now due to life, I used to be an avid concept build monkey back in the day. Love your work and the channel at large.
Colby! You sly, sly man. I'm playing a "mostly not wild shaped" moon druid that I started before discovering your channel, and had just come to a big fork in the road after starting with 2 levels of moon druid and 6 ancestral guardian barbarian levels. Was debating between jumping back to druid vs. going battlemaster fighter with superior technique fighting style. This video was uncannily perfect for me and is helping me confirm my battlemaster plans as viable. Your level 7 decision is very similar to my level 9. As is, I am fairly evenly split even at level 8 between staying in barb form and swinging my greataxe vs. wildshaping into CR 1 beasts (with extra attack and barb AC). If I don't go battle master and instead go druid, next level I'd get summon beast and have something useful to concentrate on during combat, then next level is a really useful ASI or great weapon master (my strength is kind of low, though, and if i'm investing into druid so much maybe I prefer doing more wildshaping). So the druid levels aren't wasted before druid 6. Anyhoo, didn't mean to get into the whole thing. Just wanted to say thanks for the video and how uncanny it is that your video touched so clearly on the exact decision I'm wrestling with. Happy vacation :).
Your hairstyle in this video is on point! I have watched the struggle with the Rambo bang giving the superman curl, but you persevered and now have the amazing looking swoop.
There’s an alternative build that focuses on casting spells and takes advantage of the only good scaling the moon Druid has (hit points/dice), but requires the Adept of the Black Robes feat from Dragonlance. Wild shape gives you a pool extra hit dice that you can yeet at someone while in wild shape whenever they fail a save against your spell such as moonbeam, call lightning, flaming sphere, or wall of fire if you can maintain a grapple. For most wild shapes, these are d12s and d10s and they’ll scale in number. It also makes otherwise bad choices like the killer whale viable, as it’s hit point pool is massive. It also may not be optimal to take elemental wild shape, as the hit dice there are twice as expensive. If you stay to level 15 for CR5 forms, you will eventually get the brontosaurus and the elusive opportunity to use a d20 as a damage die! Plus you still have 2 levels left to do a paladin or fighter dip by the level 17 benchmark depending on what spell you want to focus on.
Have fun with your kids on a nice vacation. I'm at the beach with my family and haven't been on UA-cam much, just dropped by to watch this one. As for the build, it vaguely reminds me of Treantmonk's Tornado build. That one used elven accuracy for damage rather than going bugbear. I think I would only go bugbear if I had a reliable way of getting a surprise round or otherwise winning initiative. That build didn't smite till level 12 though, this comes online faster. As for Echo Knight, it is much better than any other fighter sunclass.... but only when you're taking the attack action and have a bonus action free. Also if you have the constitution for it. I think you could make it work, but it seems like this is a case of having another good option.
Actually, thinking about it mote, going elven accuracy would make your sustained damage so much better and it would generate lots of crits where you could smite for double damage. And we wouldn't be as dependent on surprising or winning initiative.
I got to play this last night. It was a lot of fun. Super bear goes crazy. I played it at level 10, but had to swap your 3rd level of foghter for a 6th of moon druid since dm wouldnt let me have insignia of claws... and we wouldb be fighting all kinds of stuff with damage resistence to non magical attacks. Just the same... it preformed really well. Lots of fun roleplay, dm let me wear winged boots as a bear... so i was a flying smiting super bear that went nuclear on the boss. Great fun all around, this was one of my favorite builds ive listened to so far so im happy i finally got to try it out in real play!
I think this is my jumping off point with you. I came for the PF2 content. I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable but was still hoping for more. That being said, thank you for making the videos of that system you did make. It was a fun and enjoyable, if brief, ride. I can clearly see why you have so many fans in the D&D community. You seem like a great human being, and moving forward I wish you nothing but the very best in all facets of life. Enjoy the extra time with your family; fatherhood is one of the the two best jobs in the world.
Upon rewatching, I just imagine the lay on hands feature is applied by a big slobbery lick to the face. And the cure for 5 points is a headbutt nuzzle.
Colby, enjoy your family time. I was a shitty husband, but trying to be a good dad. Take those vacations and live in those moments. Also just purchased the Wolves of Langston and am excited to try it out! Thanks for the discount, enjoy your family trip.
An ability score increase seems like a bit of a waste. I'd probably go Lucky, which is a feat I'm always wanting but can rarely fit in (and start fighter for the Con). Or, I'd get the Magic Initiate you mention later.
I don’t think I will ever agree that moon druids scale poorly. The combat wild shape is always useful and you are a full caster. The point is to adapt and respond appropriately to the situation. Still love the build video as always.
It's more accurate to say Moon Druids martial ability doesn't keep up with other martial starting at level 5. As you say you're still a full caster, but most of the time people don't pick Moon Druid because they want to be a primary caster. Wild Shape doesn't ever become garbage but it goes from insane at 2 to below average at five to kinda bad before you pick up Elemental forms, where it's still average but super cool.
It would be interesting if you could use your spell slots to help the scaling. Still not sure about that though, fighters/non-casting martials need a role and just don't currently.
Enjoy the break, Colby! One thing from early in the build … some animals such as the giant scorpion have blindsight, so depending on how the adventure goes, blindsight might not be needed.
Race aside, Cleric of the War Domain is PHB can use martial weapons and heavy armor. Assuming your typical rules of point buy / gold buy options etc, 2d6+4 x2 (with greatsword or maul) is pretty wild and is a fairly strong and overlooked subclass. This is available level 1 and level 2 if you go further in the class your hit % is considerably higher via the channel divinity, assuming you didn't go Fighter or another class to boost the hit / damage etc. I'm currently running a Drow follower of Eilistraee, combo Cleric (War) with the intention to take Monk and Druid levels. Going 2nd level Monk for the unarmored feature, as follower of that specific goddess I plan to do some naked fighting/dancing. I want to round it out with Druid for the Moonbeam spell which feels like it polishes the build of nicely. 2 level Fighter dip for a nova round if it goes that far. Moonbeam with 4 greatsword swings isn't top tier, but surprisingly tanking and bursty / reliable damage. Multiple fights turns into less greatsword and then leaning on monks flurry of blows.
Great stuff! I would love to see you experiment with Rune Knight/Hexblade. The synergies with Cloud of Daggers, Booming Blade, Sentinel (?), Fire Rune (shackles), awesome grappling and a polearm is great!
If Strixhaven backgrounds are available I'd recommend taking one to get find familiar for free. Opening up one of your ASI's to take something like the Alert feat to insure you are going high in initiative order.
I'm surprised the Alert feat was never discussed - since the build does so much worse if it doesn't beat the enemy initiative, it seems like a flat +5 to initiative does more than just about anything else for improving the reliability of the build. It's easily better than a +1 to the DCs or hit chances of some druid spells you're almost never going to cast, at least.
Aasimar as a moon druid race is good also for extra healing once per long rest with Healing Touch. Should also be able to use your activatable aasimar ability while wild shaped as well.
For reference, theres about 40ish creatures that are between CR 6 and 8 with an AC 15 or higher in the hp range of 112. If you are DMing and someone brings this character to the field and you want to make them feel like a hero, throw a Stone Giant (CR 7 hp 127 AC 17) at 'em and let the moon druid have a slightly less than average chance to one shot it.
Just to point out: the Earth Elemental's AC is only 2 higher than the Air, and it has 36 more HP BUT: the Air Elemental has more resistances (lightning and thunder), more condition immunities (grappled, prone, restrained) and NO VULNERABILITIES (Earth is vulnerable to thunder damage). Also Air moves 3x faster, which for getting to the enemy at medium-long encounter distances before they act might be really important. That said, it's super situational. The Earth elemental does have burrow and tremorsense (to dramatically increase your 'effective' blindsight against most corporeal non-flying targets).
Love the video. Have to say though for people tight on cash 20 bucks isn't a few bucks in reference to Wolves of Langston. So even 5 bucks off its more than a few bucks. Wolves of Langston is great though and well worth the price point and then some. Just acknowledging some are tighter on cash than others in reference to saying something is only a few bucks.
One thing to note about the Blind Fighting Fighting Style is the "However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense" line from the Wild Shape feature.
I've played a very similar build but I went 2 pal, 1 monk for AC (because you can use it in beast form) and the rest druid. For race I played an aasimar because I love the idea to transform a brown bear in a golden brown bear
So i had an idea for a ridiculous build that would be very interested in seeing your take on it. Ever hear about the Glyph of Warding/genie warlock trick? where you can essentially stack as many concentration spells as you want in an alternate dimension, pop in and say the magic word, pop out and just be decked to the nines in all the juicy buff spells. Works incredibly well on a bladesinger with just a single level dip in Genie warlock. a truly "break glass in case of emergency" thing but could be interesting to do the math on. for a "Nova" build. Caveat heavy but, exploring the possibilities right? 😁 Anyway, love your vids man
This is going to be the first piece of non-official dnd content I've bought but like I spent more on lunch today so it's too good of a deal to pass up.
If you can say that you've seen it, the Deinonychus is quite a solid one as well. Less damage, hp, and ac (tho magic can make that higher, such as barrier tattoo). HOWEVER a potential of FOUR attacks all with smite is mathematically better. Iirc
Fighting initiate ... Bait and switch would also be good to take. Pumps up the AC by D6. Or switch with a grappled allie. One min a squishy gmomb wizard..next second a large grizzly bear 🐻 !
"and now you can bounce back allies from unconscious with a point of lay on hands without leaving your bear form" You could already do that with Goodberry! 😂
I had an idea and I have no idea if you've done it yet, a Glamour Bard Tank build that takes advantage of Mantle of Inspiration to give themselves and their allies some bulk and keep reorganizing the battlefield to keep yourself between your allies and the enemies
I'm currently playing a Glamour Bard Support-ish character and between Inspiring Leader and Mantle of Inspiration I noticed that I'm a lot bulkier than I initially thought alongside my allies and I'm curious how else that could be taken advantage of
Why stop at just 3 classes? Add a 1 lvl dip in barb for better defenses and extra damage when not concentrating. Then add a one or two dip into cleric for more support options. The holy chimera Druid. Add hex with all those juicy multi attacks for even more damage.
Another great build. I agree, druids in 5e need a rework to make them more balanced and useful. Being curb stomped as an AC 11 bear doesn't sound fun. Thank you for another videi
For what it's worth I rule that players can only cast spells with a duration longer than 1 minute before donbat if they want to benefit from them during combat. It avoids an entire free setup round for the party where everyone is casting buff spells, regardless of whether or not it seems feasible in the situation.
So as a DM, I'd love for you make a video on tips on encounters against a high powered party, without feeling cheap or combative. Not sure if you DM, or if you do it is often, but I'd even love a players opinion of combats that were still hard for your overpowered characters, but not getting combative or annoying DM tricks that just neutralize the thing you are good at. Pretty please...also I'm sure others amongst us would agree, it'd be a helpful video. I am currently DMing a game(high story, high drama, high power) and encounters are my weakness as a dm, I have 10 players, about 2-3 being "OP", and the 7-8 being solid powerful good characters. So at this point most of my encounters have only been one round, but at least a solid one round where everyone gets to do something...
To support the algorithm, I will rewatch every one of your videos over your break
That's a good idea actually, I don't think I've rewatched too many, it might be time for me to go back to the beginning!
Actually a ton of videos I’ve saved to watch later, it’s finally time to eat through those
Doing that too !!
Man, I'd love to know how long that would take
Me too!
There's nothing like being a dad. Spend as much time with the chaos minions as you can, they grow up faster than you think.
So excited for this build!! Moon druids are a fave at my table. Enjoy that time with your kids, my dad died unexpectedly last week, I’m only in my early 20s, but I’m just so grateful for all the great time I got with him and the fun vacations and adventures we went on when I was younger. Those memories really do last forever
Condolences for the loss of your father. I'm happy to hear you have happy memories to fall back on.
@@jamesbolt1003 thank you. It’s so important to make the most of the time we get
Thanks and so sorry to hear it! 💔
My condolences. Go get yourself some comfort in the form of D4 episode ... or something else.
The Supernova Moon: D&D Build #139
Level 1:(see above) [druid 1]
Level 2:(see above) [druid 2 & subclass]
Level 3:(@18:21) [paladin 1]
Level 4:(@20:23) [paladin 2]
Level 5:(@23:17) [fighter 1 & fighting-style]
Level 6:(@25:50) [fighter 2]
Level 7:(see above) [druid 3]
Level 8:(@29:39) [druid 4 & ASI]
Level 9:(@31:02) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 10:(see above) [druid 5]
Level 11:(@35:48) [druid 6]
Level 12:(@40:28) [druid 7]
Level 13:(@41:00) [druid 8 & ASI]
Level 14:(see above) [druid 9]
Level 15:(@46:32) [druid 10]
Level 16:(@47:48) [druid 11]
Level 17:(@48:14) [druid 12 & ASI]
Cheers to all my fellow BOOM-kin druids! Wrong franchise, I know, but any Druid love is good love.
Have a great vacay, Colby!
One dad to another - Family time > anything ❤
Am a cat and bear druid, but druid love is druid love. Elune-Adore.
Question. Can you cast mage armor on your familiar, or horse?
@@vitdra Yes. Why not?!
We actually run the moon Druid a bit differently than most tables. We actually use your proficiency bonus instead of the beasts. Let’s say your level 20 Druid turns into a little bear. Instead of the +2 proficiency they use, you use your normal +6 bonus.
That makes total sense. Why the heck would you run it any differently? I just thought that was RAW tbh, since you don't become a CR 1 or whatever creature, you're just yourself but shapeshifted.
this simple change fix the moon druid problems after lvl 6
I am physically disabled and have started playing dnd in the past year or 2. I’ve become obsessed with dnd builds 😂 Anyways I’ve been slowly forming the idea for a disabled character who uses wild shape as an accommodation. I’m going to make some homebrew rules allowing my character to be wild shaped most of the time but maybe adding a homebrew exhaustion mechanic to make it more balanced. This is an incredible build for that idea.
Important, talk this through with your DM. Your DM is the arbiter of the rules and homebrew. Although I am sure: Every DM, who isn't an absolute asshole and a total buzzkill, will allow this. Your idea is beautiful.
@@ThorsShadow They're already onboard! We have another campaign about to start so after that we'll figure out the specifics.
That sounds pretty bad ass!
@@Frequincy100 That's awesome! :D
Can you share more about the alterations you agreed to at your table?
I definitely want to see that other Paladin/Druid build you teased in your intro, that's more Paladin than Druid, and compare it to this one in both function and flavor! Looking forward to it!
I don't think I'll wait too long to put it out... maybe a couple of months?
@@DnDDeepDive hope you'll put it out soon! I'm super interested
yes!!!
The answers to all intro questions. Yes! I love your symbiotic relationship with Kelly and Monty
Love the crossover synergy with the Dungeon Dudes!!!
I think Eldritch Knight might be the better option for a Fighter subclass, in practicality - I understand the superiority dice are much better in terms of spreadsheet nova damage though. Let's you add a spellcaster level to your multiclass total for spell slots, and gives you much better access to Find Familiar. It also frees up a Druid spell preparation by giving you alternative access to Absorb Elements, gives you access to Shield, and Mage Armor could be interesting as an 8 hour duration defense boost to your Wild Shapes.
that's a cool idea ! I want to make the most damage causing build with just a 2 level dip into moon druid
I think the only thing that I would change is for superior technique, I would choose ambush. I think if you are banking on beating at least one creature in initiative, you should have something that helps with initiative.
Also, I picked up that Wolves of Langston solo adventure! excited to try it.
I was thinking about this, too. No DEX bonus means that getting to attack before someone else is not even close to a sure thing, and would basically require Pass Without a Trace to pull off an ambush. That, to me, justifies not depending on it, and instead using a different race. Warforged (a Dryad?) or Loxodon would have (8d6 avg 28) less burst damage, but would probably contribute more as Druids.
Enjoy your vacation! I love how you take the time to mention and discuss utility options even for nova builds like this.
Time to rewatch all your old videos to get me through this vacation. In all seriousness. Congrats on getting out there with your family! D&D comes and goes but family is forever.
I'm currently paused before the start of the actual build because I was so intrigued by your sponsor. I'm so glad I actually listened to it instead of skipping it. I went and bought the pdf/ebook with your code and can't wait to try it out!
me too!
Me three!
Supernova Moon is a cool name for sure but Colby mentioned Dad energy, and now I can't get the "Papa Bear" build out of my mind 😂
P.S.
Have a great family vacay!
Goes well with 1 of his MOM healer builds. Now where are his rambunctious kids builds??
Not gonna lie, I thought that you were gonna make a palabear as soon as I saw that the dudes released the Druid multi class video. Great work Colby. Enjoy the time with the fam!
Checked out the Wolves of Langston solo adventure. About halfway through and I gotta say, I’m having a ton of fun. Great ad choice Colby!!!
Alright, I mentioned this on Treantmonk's video re: Moon Druid optimization, so I'll mention it here:
If your party is getting magic items, particularly your martial characters, then you need to give your Moon Druid in the party some love. They are martial characters at heart that happen to have some spells to fall back on. Scale up that Insignia of Claws to a +3 if the other martials have +3 weapons. Give them a Belt of Fire Giant Strength if your other martials are getting capped strength + proficiency bonus. It's frustrating that Moon Druids don't get some sort of automatic scaling or spell usage for this (Something like what Kensei Monks get to enchant their weapons would be perfect) or apply their Proficiency bonus instead of the base beast, so the least we can do as DMs is keep the fantasy our players want relevant. It's awesome that Colby can come up with a build that makes Moon Druids work at higher levels through burst-focused multiclassing... but your players shouldn't NEED to do that to stay relevant.
You're right, players shouldn't NEED to do this to be effective, but also, the GM shouldn't NEED to give them customized items to help them maintain relevance either. The game should be better balanced all around between all classes to ensure that issues like this are minimal and rarely so impactful that an optimizer feels stronger in play than anyone else.
I agree with this and if I hadn't been so unfamiliar with 5e when I had a moon druid in my party I would have done more than just let them use their proficiency bonus instead of the beasts. I had plans to do similar things with monks but in the 7.5 years I ran 5e games I never had a monk in my party...I am hopeful that now that I have switched to PF2e I will be able to convince someone in my party to play a monk. I just love the fantasy of the monk character but I am getting way off topic. As the other comment mentioned we shouldn't have to do such things as a DM to help classes to be on par with others but we don't live in a perfect world and I think it is better the DM does something rather than just force players to deal with an unbalanced system.
A druid is a full caster, for game balance there is no way they should be anywhere near as good as a fighter when wild shaped.
I really like that your combat style should probably change as you level a druid up, and wild shape still has amazing non combat uses even when it drops off in combat.
@@jiminkpen9750 Right, but as it stands, a straight class moon druid is so far behind fighter outside of the very early levels (particularly discounting magic items) that the character fantasy of "I turn into an animal and tear my opponents to pieces" is largely relegated to casting Polymorph, which most casting-oriented character can gain the ability to do.
I think the "X class shouldn't be better than Y class" comparison is a bit misleading, now that I think about it. What I would REALLY like is for Moon Druid to fulfill a particular niche that Fighter doesn't necessarily fit, but I would like them to both be equally "Effective". Maybe a moon druid has more battlefield control and presence than a fighter without the appropriate archetype, but lacks the damage and staying power a fighter does over the course of a day, but if balance dictates "This option should be bad", then the option isn't really an option.
@@joshuahampton6141 but a moon druid is a full caster... so it isn't behind the Fighter in any way at all. In wild shape it gets a load of new hp, can heal, fly, swim, change as a bonus action allowing all sorts of shenanigans. Oh yeah, can do that twice and recover them on a short rest.
So... how would you balance all that and give them lots of damage to allow fighters a niche? They already have a ton of battlefield control, druids are top tier controllers.
Wolfs of Langston remind of the old Lone Wolf series of books that got me into this genre
Yes!! The Choose Your Own Adventure books that let you carry over from book to book!
I am little surprised you didn’t take the Ambush manoeuvre from Tasha’s to improve your initiative since going early in the combat order is so important to make sure that the big first turn nova damage is on an optimal enemy rather than just who ever is after you in the turn order
That, and precision attack would help with the low to-hit numbers.
Came for the same. But love the build. 😊❤
Who wouldn't allow a bear to smite? It's so cool.
Like, You see the claws getting glowy and fiery with radiant energy.
Boom.
So cool.
I think that the fact you've made so many cool builds that the dungeon dudes thought were sub-par that they directly "challenged" you to do one they might think is bad (i haven't watched their video, hence the "might") is hilarious... Anyways, please enjoy your vacations with your family, even if there were no videos at all i'll be there for your return!
I appreciate all your hard work and creativity. Unfortunately for me, I've found big baddies to rarely fail a strength saving throw in my campaigns. Therefore no trip attack and all those numbers would be skewed in our D&D world.
On the topic of "reluctant" Druid:
One of my favorite PCs from an Eberron game was a Warforged Spores Druid
Made as a prototype to all other Warforged, he was written as a massive weapon of destruction that was deemed too volatile to be allowed to stick around for after the war. How'd he get demoted to lv3 Druid? He got banished to the Feywild, and Titania ripped him apart and forced him to be a protector of the natural world and its creatures instead of a murder hobo.
Still tried to be a murder hobo, and was always reluctant to work with anything that wasn't a warforged though XD
Moon druids have always been my most favourite subclass relating to druids! Thank you so much for doing this video! And have fun on the holiday! I wish I saw this before I started my current aarakocra moon druid that has just dipped into Monk at level 7. Any tips anybody has on improving this I would be grateful 👍
I don't know how many there are, but maybe some high dex beasts? Unarmored defence should still work and you already have a great Wis. The downside would be the number of attacks? You could go up to monk 5 to get that eventualy, capping wis on the way or improving your Dex, depending of your status and the beasts. Monks also gain a lot stuff for bonus actions that should work while in wild shape, like patient defence or step of the wind.
I was wondering if it would be better to take the ambush superior technique for one of your maneuvers since the character’s dex is pretty low? Currently, the character does not have any other ways to boost initiative, which your bugbear needs for surprise attacks. Either way, seems like a pretty good build
During this build I kept thinking about the movie The Golden compass and they're armored bears
I would love to see a character build thats fully focused on just getting large and larger in size (along with powerful hits and the like). A boxing match with a kaiju
We ended up getting to Huge on my Rune Knight build (that I did with Treantmonk...)
@@DnDDeepDiveDid that for one campaign was just throwing and body slamming enemies managed to get to gargantuan size thanks to an item. Ended up loosing her when she got scottied to the realm of the Amazonian angels. (A floating island that was nearly impossible for people to get to in one piece.) Was fighting a huge ent. I slung our monk at the tree so he could pee on it. I was holding it down when it beamed out and took me with it. I ended up playing your fear warlock paladin named warrick with the eyes of a Deadman to see the strings of fate. So he can harvest and guide souls for the god of death to the gate of reincarnation.
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, I was excited to see it, I have a rune knight im playing now and it gave me quite a bit of inspiration. But I'd love to see what'd be possible If the main goal was to get gargantuan or larger, and what you could do with that
Enjoy your vacation time with family! It's always good to refresh the mind, body, and soul. And, happy belated Father's Day.
Thank you for another wonderful build, Colby! Enjoy your vacation!❤
One of my favourite "suboptimal" Wild Shape options for the Moon Druid is combining the Fog Cloud spell [which creates a 20ft radius sphere o' heavy obscurement] with the Jaculi [a beast from Tomb of Annihilation, which has 30ft blindsight and a respectable +4 to hit bite with 2d6+2 damage and a charge-like spring attack]. It's not exactly the most powerful combo ever, but I like it a lot. Definitely requires talking to the other players at the table, though, because combos that use heavy obscurement have a tendency to only be any fun for the person pulling them off.
I will miss having your videos to listen to at work. Have a great Vacation Colby!
Great build Colby! Seems like it would be really fun to play.
Also I for one find so endearing how you creators in this community support and riff of each other.
Have an awesome vacation with the family!
Love this build! Wanted to suggest Alert as an alternative for Druid 4 or Druid 8. It seems like a lot of this build is flexing surprise attacks, so going before your opponent seems really important.
Just wanna say haven’t watched the full vid but the way you’re saying it makes me so keen. Have a well earned vacation my guy!
Great job as always. Love the idea of this build and your never ending enthusiasm to find unlikely synergies.
Moon Druid is one of my favorite subclasses in the game. The animals don't scale well, but getting those elementals helps. It's a shame it took so long to get them, though. I always love your videos and try to cut out time on Tuesdays to watch them, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy for you to get to go on a bit of a vacation. I wouldn't have blamed you if there weren't any uploads during that time, but your dedication to your channel shines through. I hope you enjoy that break. A break from work and stress is never a bad thing to take!
You should've gone with Echo Knight!!!! (Did you get your nickel?)
Spending time with loved ones is the most important part of life. Have fun!
I'm glad to see a great scaling moon druid build, I normally look to play martial characters but moon druid held a special place that I loved thematically.
Side note, is your camera out of focus or is youtube playing tricks on me? xD
So I have been enjoying your videos for over a year. It has been enjoyable to watch your transformation for the first videos to now. Love the outtakes and Musial renditions at the end. I have been wondering about a dive bomber Druid build. So the concept is for a flying Druid that then dives for a round at the target. Then in the second round right as it enters the baddies “square” transforms into a ram or creature with a charge bonus. So falling damage + charge damage. Next round walks out of the dust cloud, patting off dust and coughing. I have been unable to play d&d for about 10 years now due to life, I used to be an avid concept build monkey back in the day. Love your work and the channel at large.
Colby! You sly, sly man. I'm playing a "mostly not wild shaped" moon druid that I started before discovering your channel, and had just come to a big fork in the road after starting with 2 levels of moon druid and 6 ancestral guardian barbarian levels.
Was debating between jumping back to druid vs. going battlemaster fighter with superior technique fighting style. This video was uncannily perfect for me and is helping me confirm my battlemaster plans as viable. Your level 7 decision is very similar to my level 9.
As is, I am fairly evenly split even at level 8 between staying in barb form and swinging my greataxe vs. wildshaping into CR 1 beasts (with extra attack and barb AC).
If I don't go battle master and instead go druid, next level I'd get summon beast and have something useful to concentrate on during combat, then next level is a really useful ASI or great weapon master (my strength is kind of low, though, and if i'm investing into druid so much maybe I prefer doing more wildshaping). So the druid levels aren't wasted before druid 6.
Anyhoo, didn't mean to get into the whole thing. Just wanted to say thanks for the video and how uncanny it is that your video touched so clearly on the exact decision I'm wrestling with.
Happy vacation :).
Your hairstyle in this video is on point! I have watched the struggle with the Rambo bang giving the superman curl, but you persevered and now have the amazing looking swoop.
There’s an alternative build that focuses on casting spells and takes advantage of the only good scaling the moon Druid has (hit points/dice), but requires the Adept of the Black Robes feat from Dragonlance.
Wild shape gives you a pool extra hit dice that you can yeet at someone while in wild shape whenever they fail a save against your spell such as moonbeam, call lightning, flaming sphere, or wall of fire if you can maintain a grapple. For most wild shapes, these are d12s and d10s and they’ll scale in number. It also makes otherwise bad choices like the killer whale viable, as it’s hit point pool is massive. It also may not be optimal to take elemental wild shape, as the hit dice there are twice as expensive.
If you stay to level 15 for CR5 forms, you will eventually get the brontosaurus and the elusive opportunity to use a d20 as a damage die! Plus you still have 2 levels left to do a paladin or fighter dip by the level 17 benchmark depending on what spell you want to focus on.
My first 5e character was a Moon Druid Pally. Still love them. So thank you for taking the concept to the moon 🙂
Have fun with your kids on a nice vacation.
I'm at the beach with my family and haven't been on UA-cam much, just dropped by to watch this one.
As for the build, it vaguely reminds me of Treantmonk's Tornado build. That one used elven accuracy for damage rather than going bugbear. I think I would only go bugbear if I had a reliable way of getting a surprise round or otherwise winning initiative.
That build didn't smite till level 12 though, this comes online faster.
As for Echo Knight, it is much better than any other fighter sunclass.... but only when you're taking the attack action and have a bonus action free. Also if you have the constitution for it. I think you could make it work, but it seems like this is a case of having another good option.
Actually, thinking about it mote, going elven accuracy would make your sustained damage so much better and it would generate lots of crits where you could smite for double damage. And we wouldn't be as dependent on surprising or winning initiative.
I got to play this last night. It was a lot of fun. Super bear goes crazy.
I played it at level 10, but had to swap your 3rd level of foghter for a 6th of moon druid since dm wouldnt let me have insignia of claws... and we wouldb be fighting all kinds of stuff with damage resistence to non magical attacks.
Just the same... it preformed really well. Lots of fun roleplay, dm let me wear winged boots as a bear... so i was a flying smiting super bear that went nuclear on the boss.
Great fun all around, this was one of my favorite builds ive listened to so far so im happy i finally got to try it out in real play!
Happy belated father's day, love your videos and your overall Aura. Enjoy your vacation! And one challenge, an Aquaman build!
I think this is my jumping off point with you. I came for the PF2 content. I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable but was still hoping for more. That being said, thank you for making the videos of that system you did make. It was a fun and enjoyable, if brief, ride. I can clearly see why you have so many fans in the D&D community. You seem like a great human being, and moving forward I wish you nothing but the very best in all facets of life. Enjoy the extra time with your family; fatherhood is one of the the two best jobs in the world.
Such a cool build! Well done. I’m excited to see the other bills you mentioned at the beginning
Happy late father's day Colby! Enjoy the extra time this coming month!
I bought wolves of langston as soon as possible while watching this, it's awesome!
Thanks Colby! Excellent content & bought from sponsor. 😄
Upon rewatching, I just imagine the lay on hands feature is applied by a big slobbery lick to the face. And the cure for 5 points is a headbutt nuzzle.
I saw myself booping them with my snoot. healing boop
This is the first time ever I rewatched A SPONSOR-PART within a YT-Video... HOLY CRAB this sounds awesome!
Colby, enjoy your family time. I was a shitty husband, but trying to be a good dad. Take those vacations and live in those moments. Also just purchased the Wolves of Langston and am excited to try it out! Thanks for the discount, enjoy your family trip.
Just wanted to add that a video of your trip, maybe highlighting cool a activities or locale, could be an interesting change of pace for the channel.
We used to have books like this ... called Fighting Fantasy books . Really cool
TGIT! My favorite day of the week, thanks Colby!
An ability score increase seems like a bit of a waste. I'd probably go Lucky, which is a feat I'm always wanting but can rarely fit in (and start fighter for the Con).
Or, I'd get the Magic Initiate you mention later.
So excited for this one! my main character I'm playing right now is a lvl 12 moon druid!
Summer Vacation VLOG with Colby !?!? Woot!
Have a great vacation and enjoy your time with family!
I don’t think I will ever agree that moon druids scale poorly. The combat wild shape is always useful and you are a full caster. The point is to adapt and respond appropriately to the situation. Still love the build video as always.
It's more accurate to say Moon Druids martial ability doesn't keep up with other martial starting at level 5. As you say you're still a full caster, but most of the time people don't pick Moon Druid because they want to be a primary caster. Wild Shape doesn't ever become garbage but it goes from insane at 2 to below average at five to kinda bad before you pick up Elemental forms, where it's still average but super cool.
It would be interesting if you could use your spell slots to help the scaling.
Still not sure about that though, fighters/non-casting martials need a role and just don't currently.
Enjoy the break, Colby! One thing from early in the build … some animals such as the giant scorpion have blindsight, so depending on how the adventure goes, blindsight might not be needed.
Race aside, Cleric of the War Domain is PHB can use martial weapons and heavy armor. Assuming your typical rules of point buy / gold buy options etc, 2d6+4 x2 (with greatsword or maul) is pretty wild and is a fairly strong and overlooked subclass. This is available level 1 and level 2 if you go further in the class your hit % is considerably higher via the channel divinity, assuming you didn't go Fighter or another class to boost the hit / damage etc.
I'm currently running a Drow follower of Eilistraee, combo Cleric (War) with the intention to take Monk and Druid levels. Going 2nd level Monk for the unarmored feature, as follower of that specific goddess I plan to do some naked fighting/dancing. I want to round it out with Druid for the Moonbeam spell which feels like it polishes the build of nicely. 2 level Fighter dip for a nova round if it goes that far. Moonbeam with 4 greatsword swings isn't top tier, but surprisingly tanking and bursty / reliable damage. Multiple fights turns into less greatsword and then leaning on monks flurry of blows.
😯Awesome build, Definetly Wanna Play this!
Great stuff! I would love to see you experiment with Rune Knight/Hexblade. The synergies with Cloud of Daggers, Booming Blade, Sentinel (?), Fire Rune (shackles), awesome grappling and a polearm is great!
If Strixhaven backgrounds are available I'd recommend taking one to get find familiar for free. Opening up one of your ASI's to take something like the Alert feat to insure you are going high in initiative order.
I'm surprised the Alert feat was never discussed - since the build does so much worse if it doesn't beat the enemy initiative, it seems like a flat +5 to initiative does more than just about anything else for improving the reliability of the build. It's easily better than a +1 to the DCs or hit chances of some druid spells you're almost never going to cast, at least.
Aasimar as a moon druid race is good also for extra healing once per long rest with Healing Touch. Should also be able to use your activatable aasimar ability while wild shaped as well.
For reference, theres about 40ish creatures that are between CR 6 and 8 with an AC 15 or higher in the hp range of 112. If you are DMing and someone brings this character to the field and you want to make them feel like a hero, throw a Stone Giant (CR 7 hp 127 AC 17) at 'em and let the moon druid have a slightly less than average chance to one shot it.
Just to point out: the Earth Elemental's AC is only 2 higher than the Air, and it has 36 more HP BUT: the Air Elemental has more resistances (lightning and thunder), more condition immunities (grappled, prone, restrained) and NO VULNERABILITIES (Earth is vulnerable to thunder damage). Also Air moves 3x faster, which for getting to the enemy at medium-long encounter distances before they act might be really important.
That said, it's super situational. The Earth elemental does have burrow and tremorsense (to dramatically increase your 'effective' blindsight against most corporeal non-flying targets).
"Colby, what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything ?!"
"...Bears."
Didn't know I wanted this until you posted it.
My character sheet is ready
Eldritch claw tattoos work great with moon druids as well
Love the video. Have to say though for people tight on cash 20 bucks isn't a few bucks in reference to Wolves of Langston. So even 5 bucks off its more than a few bucks. Wolves of Langston is great though and well worth the price point and then some. Just acknowledging some are tighter on cash than others in reference to saying something is only a few bucks.
One thing to note about the Blind Fighting Fighting Style is the "However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense" line from the Wild Shape feature.
I've played a very similar build but I went 2 pal, 1 monk for AC (because you can use it in beast form) and the rest druid. For race I played an aasimar because I love the idea to transform a brown bear in a golden brown bear
So i had an idea for a ridiculous build that would be very interested in seeing your take on it. Ever hear about the Glyph of Warding/genie warlock trick? where you can essentially stack as many concentration spells as you want in an alternate dimension, pop in and say the magic word, pop out and just be decked to the nines in all the juicy buff spells. Works incredibly well on a bladesinger with just a single level dip in Genie warlock. a truly "break glass in case of emergency" thing but could be interesting to do the math on. for a "Nova" build. Caveat heavy but, exploring the possibilities right? 😁 Anyway, love your vids man
Great build. Love Moon Druids!
This is going to be the first piece of non-official dnd content I've bought but like I spent more on lunch today so it's too good of a deal to pass up.
Ooof, time to rewatch this whole playlist for that sweet algorithm! Enjoy your break!
Aw man, gold star!
If you can say that you've seen it, the Deinonychus is quite a solid one as well. Less damage, hp, and ac (tho magic can make that higher, such as barrier tattoo). HOWEVER a potential of FOUR attacks all with smite is mathematically better. Iirc
This reminds me of a recent build I made: Moon Druid 14, Totem Barb 3, Paladin 2, Monk 1
Fighting initiate ... Bait and switch would also be good to take. Pumps up the AC by D6. Or switch with a grappled allie. One min a squishy gmomb wizard..next second a large grizzly bear 🐻 !
Over 100 damage at level 6?! I think you just found the win button for any early-mid game D&D combat 🤯
Cue Luke: "that's no moon."
And Akbar rewritten: "it's a supernova!"
"and now you can bounce back allies from unconscious with a point of lay on hands without leaving your bear form"
You could already do that with Goodberry! 😂
I don’t let unconscious people eat or drink in my games, cause it makes no sense.
If you can get your hands on a belt of giant stregth it makes the giant scopian MUCH better
The content is amazing as always, but i also really enjoy Colby singing in the epilogues, haha.
I had an idea and I have no idea if you've done it yet, a Glamour Bard Tank build that takes advantage of Mantle of Inspiration to give themselves and their allies some bulk and keep reorganizing the battlefield to keep yourself between your allies and the enemies
I'm currently playing a Glamour Bard Support-ish character and between Inspiring Leader and Mantle of Inspiration I noticed that I'm a lot bulkier than I initially thought alongside my allies and I'm curious how else that could be taken advantage of
Wolves of Langston reminds me a bit of old choose your own adventure books but with dice
Have a great vacation! ^-^
Great video by the way
I backed your sponsor today. I’m looking forward to playing it!
Why stop at just 3 classes? Add a 1 lvl dip in barb for better defenses and extra damage when not concentrating.
Then add a one or two dip into cleric for more support options.
The holy chimera Druid. Add hex with all those juicy multi attacks for even more damage.
Another great build. I agree, druids in 5e need a rework to make them more balanced and useful. Being curb stomped as an AC 11 bear doesn't sound fun. Thank you for another videi
For what it's worth I rule that players can only cast spells with a duration longer than 1 minute before donbat if they want to benefit from them during combat.
It avoids an entire free setup round for the party where everyone is casting buff spells, regardless of whether or not it seems feasible in the situation.
Lol. Bear paladin snuffles and licks your face to wale you up. 20:19
Enjoy your vacation!!!!
So as a DM, I'd love for you make a video on tips on encounters against a high powered party, without feeling cheap or combative. Not sure if you DM, or if you do it is often, but I'd even love a players opinion of combats that were still hard for your overpowered characters, but not getting combative or annoying DM tricks that just neutralize the thing you are good at. Pretty please...also I'm sure others amongst us would agree, it'd be a helpful video. I am currently DMing a game(high story, high drama, high power) and encounters are my weakness as a dm, I have 10 players, about 2-3 being "OP", and the 7-8 being solid powerful good characters. So at this point most of my encounters have only been one round, but at least a solid one round where everyone gets to do something...