D&D 5e Druid Circle Of The Moon Guide

Druid is a great class, it allows you extreme versatility and roleplaying fantasy not always seen in the other archetypes available in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Druid is truly versatile in every situation, you can use offensive magic, summon animals, heal and cause difficulties for your enemies in battle.

Druids have a wide variety of spells and cantrips available to them from their earliest levels and can select from several different ‘circles’ which will give them different benefits. And that’s why you’ve arrived at this article!

So you’re new to playing druid, or perhaps you’re a veteran and you would like to know more about Circle Of The Moon – but you don’t know where to get started.

You want to know what Circle Of The Moon druids are capable of, what are their strengths and weaknesses, their limitations and powers? If you find yourself wondering about all of these questions, then you are in the right place!

Below is a guide that will tell you everything you will need to know about the Circle of the Moon. We’ll be outlining what this will do for your druid, your party, and the best stat combinations to make your character effective in battle and other roleplay situations.

Because D&D terminology can be difficult, especially for new players, we’ve included an extensive Frequently Asked Questions section that will aim to explain some of the more technical terms that we use in this article.

So let’s grab our staff, our companions from nature, and step into the shoes of a druid!

Let’s start with the absolute basics. Perhaps you’ve never played druid before and would like to know if the base class is for you. A druid is a member of the animalistic race of people known as druids. They are very similar to rangers and paladins in many ways, but they also share similarities with bards and wizards.

As a druid, you gain access to a wide range of magical abilities, including summoning creatures, healing others, and even causing harm to your foes.

The main difference between a ranger and a druid is that a ranger uses weapons and armor while a druid does not. This means that a druid has no weapon attacks, but instead relies on their magical abilities to deal damage.

A druid is a spellcaster, so they cast spells using verbal and somatic components. However, unlike most classes, a druid only has one level of spells per spellcasting ability (Intelligence). So unless you choose to multiclass, you will not be able to increase your spell casting beyond 1st level.

A druid gains experience points by leveling up, just like any other character. Unlike other classes though, a druid cannot advance past 3rd level without taking a long rest. At the 4th level, you may take another long rest. At the 6th level, you must complete a full 8-hour long rest before advancing again.

This means that a druid takes longer than other classes to reach maximum level, and therefore requires more time to train and prepare for combat.

You will learn how to summon creatures such as wolves, bears, owls, and bats. These creatures will follow you around and fight alongside you during battle.

You may also call upon animals to help you out when you need them. For example, you could ask a wolf to attack a nearby enemy, or a bear to protect you from incoming blows.

Another important feature of the druid is its connection with nature. Druids can commune with nature and see things through the eyes of animals. This allows you to understand the natural world better, which helps you to predict the actions of your enemies.

For example, if you sense that there is danger ahead, you might be able to warn your allies. Or maybe you notice that a group of bandits is hiding behind a bush; you could use this information to plan an ambush.

As well as being able to communicate with animals, you can also use plants to heal yourself and others. You can use these plants to create potions, salves, oils, and even food.

Finally, a druid has two special features: Wild Shape and Animal Companion.

When you wild shape, you transform into an animal form. Your game statistics change according to the beast you take on. For instance, a humanoid druid becomes a werewolf.

Your DM determines what kind of beast you become, based on your choice of an animal companion. The DM might require you to make a Wisdom saving throw to maintain control over your new form. On a failed save, you revert to your normal form.

An animal companion is a creature that follows you everywhere you go and fights at your side. It obeys your commands and understands your language. If it dies, you can bring it back to life with a successful DC 10 Charisma check.

An animal companion shares your alignment and personality traits. It has a strength score, a constitution modifier, a Wisdom modifier, and a charisma modifier. It also has hit points equal to your own plus your proficiency bonus. The DM determines whether your animal companion can speak and whether it can cast spells.

If your animal companion ever leaves your side, you can send it away with a DC 15 Charisma check. When your animal companion returns to you, roll a d20. As a result of 20, your animal companion joins you again. Otherwise, it stays where it was sent.

As a lunar-themed druid, it could be good to have an animal companion that is more ethereal and magical – such as a giant butterfly, insect, or elegant animals like a stag or a moon bear. Whatever you choose, try to make it fit the backstory and theme of the character you have created!

One of the unique class features that druids have available to them is the Circle of the Moon.

The Circle of the Moon is a set of rituals that allow you to draw power from the moon. To gain access to these rituals, you must first find a sacred grove in which to perform them. Once found, you must make a DC 25 Wisdom (Perception) check to locate the grove.

Once located, you must spend 1 week performing the rituals within the grove. During this time, you are under the effects of the lunar cycle. The exact effect depends on the ritual performed. Some rituals require you to sleep outside overnight, while others simply require you to meditate for several hours each day.

After completing all the rituals, you return home and resume your normal activities. However, you may still receive benefits from the rituals you completed during your stay in the grove. In addition, when you complete a long rest, you regain any expended uses of your Moon’s Blessing feature.

There are five different rituals available to Druids who wish to call upon the powers of the moon. They are listed below along with their requirements and effects. Keep reading to check them out and learn a little more about the rituals in your arsenal.

This ritual can only be used by members of the Circle of the Moon. It takes 8 hours to perform and requires no material components. When you perform this ritual, you feel the presence nearby of the Goddess Luna, and she grants you her blessing. You can now cast the following spells once every short or long rest without needing to extend material components:

This spell allows you to identify magical items, creatures, and other magical phenomena as if they were invisible. This spell does not reveal the nature of magic items, but rather how they work. For example, an item might glow faintly blue, or it might cause its wielder to take damage whenever he attempts to use it.

You can’t identify non-magical objects such as weapons, armor, and mundane equipment.

When you finish a long rest, you can choose one ability score of your choice to increase by 2, or two abilities scores of your choice to increase to 4. These increases last until you finish another long rest.

This ritual can only be used by members of the circle of harmony. It takes 8 hours and requires no material components to perform. When you perform this rite, you feel the presence of the goddess Lunara nearby, and she blesses you. You can now cast spells using your Wisdom modifier instead of Intelligence.

This ritual can only be used by members of the circle of healing. It takes 8 hours and requires no material component to perform. When you finish this ritual, you gain temporary hit points equal to half your Druid level rounded up.

A question I get asked often is “what race should I play as?” Well, there isn’t the best race for a Circle of the Moon Druid. Any race will work well enough, but some races are better than others.

First off, if you want to be able to use your Circle of the Moon abilities, then you need to be able to see the moon. This means that you’ll need to be able to cast detect magic, and possibly even identify.

So, most of the common races won’t work out well for you. You could try playing a half-elf, but they don’t have much in the way of spellcasting ability.

Next, you’ll probably want to take advantage of your Circle of the Moon ability. For example, you might want to pick a race that allows you to cast the moonbeam cantrip. If you’re going to do this, then you’ll probably want to pick something like a tiefling, since they already can cast cantrips.

Finally, you’ll want to pick a race with an appropriate level of intelligence. Many of the lower-level races lack the mental capacity to cast spells effectively. So, you’ll likely want to pick a higher-level race.

In general, though, any race will work just fine. Just keep in mind what you want out of your character, and choose accordingly.

As a Circle of the Moon Druids, you’re going to want specific items to get the most out of your spells. As such, you’ll want to make sure that you’re wearing proper gear.

Armor – Armor protects from physical attacks. As such, you should consider getting light armor (or perhaps medium armor) while you’re still leveling up, this is because as a druid you will often be fighting at mid-range.

You don’t have to be completely paper-thin and you want to make sure your armor class is high enough that you don’t just get one 1-shot by enemies. Once you’ve reached high levels, you may wish to switch to heavy armor, or else find special armor that gives you benefits specifically for your class – such as additions to modifiers, or special effects to enhance your nature magic.

Shields – Shields provide an additional defense against ranged attacks. They also allow you to move more freely while blocking. However, shields aren’t very useful when it comes to melee combat. So, unless you plan on being primarily a ranged attacker, you shouldn’t bother with them.

Weapons – Your weapon choice depends on what kind of damage you plan on dealing with your spells. A wand of cure wounds would be ideal for a healer, whereas a mace would be perfect for someone who wants to deal lots of damage.

The following list is a good place to start looking for spells. There’s a lot of information online about how to build a druid, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. But, I’ll give some recommendations based on my experience.

• Cure Wounds – Cure Wounds is one of your best friends. It can heal yourself, others nearby, and creatures within 30 feet. You must learn how to use it properly, however. Make sure to cast it before you enter combat, and then after each attack. Also, make sure to only cast it on allies. Casting it on yourself will cause you to waste a turn healing yourself.
• Detect Magic – Detect Magic is another great spell. It lets you know whether or not there are magical traps around you. It’s especially helpful if you’re trying to figure out where the next ambush is coming from.
• Identify – Identify is a great spell to have. It allows you to identify various types of objects. This includes things like weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, etc. If you need to identify something quickly, you can even ask your DM to roll a d20 and see if they succeed.
• Lesser Restoration – Lesser restoration is a great spell to help you recover health. It’s particularly useful when combined with other spells that restore hit points. For example, you could cast Greater Restoration on yourself, followed by casting Lesser Restoration on yourself again. Then, you’d regain all of your lost hit points.
• Nature’s Aid – Nature’s aid is a great spell to use when you’re low on hit points. It heals you but does less than cure wounds.
• Protection From Elements – Protection from elements is an awesome spell. It protects you from fire, cold, lightning, poison, and acid damage. It’s also great for keeping your water cantrips in check.
• Resilient Growth – Resilient growth is a great spell to keep your plants alive. It works well with any plant-related ability you might have, such as the druidic focus tree, which has many abilities that benefit from growing plants.
• Regrowth – Regrowth is another great spell. In addition to restoring your hit points, it restores your hit point maximum. It’s also useful for recovering from critical hits.
• Scrying – Scrying is a great spell to detect hidden items. It’s especially useful when combined with Identify. You can scry for up to 1 hour per level.
• Totem Animal – Totems are a great way to get extra benefits from your animal companion. For example, if you have a bear totem, you gain the following benefits:
  • Bear Totem Level Benefit Bear’s Endurance bonus to AC increases by 2 at 4th level, 6 at 8th level, 10 at 12th level, 14 at 16th level, 18 at 20th level, and 22 at 24th level.

The Circle of the Moon is a good choice for a druid. They work well with nature, animals, and their inner spirit. As A Circle of The Moon Druid – you are bound to be more in tune with the moon and lunar themes.

This is something you’ll want to keep in mind when crafting the backstory for your character. Here are some tips that can help you roleplay more effectively as a Circle of the Moon druid.

A lot of people think that druids are just selfish. After all, they spend most of their time alone in the woods, communing with nature. But this isn’t true!

Druids care about helping others. When you’re in the wilds, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to help those who are suffering. Whether it be healing someone injured by a wolf or helping someone find food, you’ll always find ways to contribute to society.

Take a look at the possible gods you could be worshiping to keep in line with the concept of your lunar powers. Perhaps you’re playing a hippie-Esque druid who is always stargazing, or perhaps you have more of a fae backstory and have some innate connection to the moon.

Either way, religion is an important thing to consider with your druid. Remember – the moon is also part of nature!

Your druid has at least some kind of innate connection to the natural world, so remember a lot of their actions and thoughts are going to be with nature in mind.

Perhaps your druid will feel uneasy in large cities or other slices of civilization, or perhaps they will be angry with other members of their party for not being so conscious about animals and nature. Whatever you come up with – it’s important to keep the roots of your character in mind!

And that’s about it! There is a nearly endless amount of detail that you can go into when considering your character, as well as their backstory and min-maxing their gear and stats – but that’s something you can decide to do as your campaign progresses.

In conclusion, a Circle Of The Moon Druid gives you an awesome character theme as well as a long list of different unique abilities that you’ll be able to use in lots of different situations.

We hope that this guide has given you all the information you’ll need to know to set up your Circle of the Moon Druid and that you now feel a lot more confident in building it! Soon enough you’re bound to have a deep connection to your character and will be able to both roleplay them within the world and use them effectively in battles.

Below is an FAQ section that will answer any additional questions you may have leftover!

Get your last-minute questions answered here! We will cover everything else that you need to know about the 5e Circle of the Moon.

You get a bonus feat every level (up to 3), which means you get one extra feat per level after that. It also gives you access to the following spells:

• Circle of the Moon
• Moonbeam
• Moonshine
• Lunar Strike

If you’re planning on taking the Circle of the Moon path, then you should probably take 4 levels of it. However, if you’re looking to play a druid that focuses on animal companions, then you may only want to take 2 levels of it.

Yes! You can even combine classes to make a hybrid druid/class combo. For example, you could take two levels of Ranger, then take three levels of Circle of the Moon, and finally take four levels of Druid. This would give you the benefits of both classes.

No. While Wild Shape lets you change your form, Circle of the Moon allows you to change your environment. You don’t have to worry about changing shape because you can simply cast the spell from wherever you are.

No. You can have both, and you can switch back and forth between them whenever you wish.

The Circle of the Moon ability works once per encounter unless you spend a swift action to use it again. So, if you cast it during combat, you can use it once per round. If you cast it outside of combat, you can use the ability once per day.

Yes. Animal Companions are a great way to build a druid. They allow you to gain experience points by interacting with non-player characters, and they provide you with a constant stream of new animals that you can train.

Yes. As mentioned earlier, you can use the Circle of the Sun or Circle of the Moon feature at will.

It depends entirely upon what kind of druid you are. If you want to be a melee fighter type of druid, then the Circle of the Sun might be better suited to you. On the other hand, if you want to be a caster type of druid, the Circle of the Moon may suit you better.

Yes. You can multicast the Circle of Moon spell into the Circle of the sun spell.