Circle of the Moon Druid 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@Crier Kobold

Moon druids are infamous. Wild Shape is a messy feature that has huge problems in play that can be frustrating for everyone to deal with, from the DM needing to manage the wild-shaped player to the druid doing the wild shaping wanting to do interesting stuff in fights to the team who have to slog through long encounter to potentially challenge the massive pool of hit points Circle of the Moon offers.

On top of that, Circle of the Moon highlights the biggest problems with a foundationally flawed CR system. Some players who don’t delve into the Monster Manual and other resources to find the best of the best beasts can be left feeling nearly powerless with single, mediocre attacks every round while other tables will need to deal with multi-attacking beasts shredding low-tier encounters’ balance to pieces.

Circle of the Moon is complicated, messy, and controversial, but can be a blast to play with specific expectations met by all parties involved.

2nd Level: Combat Wild Shape and Circle Forms

Combat Wild Shape lets you transform as a bonus action and spend spell slots to heal while in Wild Shape. The bonus action transformation is critical to your in-combat performance. The healing is something you should almost never use, as your spell slots are worth a lot more than 1d8 per spell level hit points. Don’t heal with this, almost ever!

Circle Forms is where this option gets… problematic. It changes the CR limitations presented by the base Wild Shape, going from CR ¼ to CR 1, which normally asked you to wait until 8th level. As you level, you can transform into beasts with a CR equal to your druid level divided by three.

There are a few core issues here. First, CR is a horrendous system. It always has been, and it is not a secret. Brown Bears and Lions are both CR 1 creatures, and the difference between these two can’t be understated. Brown Bears have 34 hit points, multi-attack with a d8+4 and 2d6+4 attacks, and a 40 ft. speed and a 30 ft. climb speed. Lions, a beast of supposedly equal CR, have eight fewer hit points, worse damage on their attacks, and only makes one attack.

Yes, Lions have a laundry list of other abilities that are pretty interesting; Pack Tactics gives you advantage on your attack roll, Pounce lets you potentially knock stuff prone, and Running Leap gives you some cool ways to explore the world! The trade-off is not even close, though. Multiattack at 2nd level with the equivalent of a longsword and greatsword is outrageous amounts of damage. Why use these interesting or unique abilities offered by lion when a multi-attack bear is going to make most combats a complete breeze?

This then cascades with what I’ll call the “hit point problem”. Druids, at 2nd level, have 8+1d8+ twice their con mod hit points, normally around 15. Brown Bears have over double your average hit points, and you can wild shape for up to two hours, twice per short rest. Your DM goes from having to challenge a party whose collective hit points are around 60-70 to challenging the lone druid who is rocking, with just the CR 1 Brown Bear, 68 hit points plus however many more the druid has every short rest.
Because of the short rest recharge, some DMs will feel like they can’t provide short rests because there isn’t a way they can possibly deal with that quantity of hit points fairly relative to the rest of the party.

A 2nd level Circle of the Moon druid likely is going to have more total hit points than the rest of the party combined, AND has multi-attack, AND has 2nd level spell slots. All of this power comes alongside being a full caster with Summoning Magic and other powerful effects ready to go.

There are yet more problems, though. Wild Shape has a condition that requires you to have seen beasts you want to transform into, leading some tables to majorly gate what monsters a druid has seen and gutting their character, while others leave it open to their backstory and watch as the druid can steamroll the lower tier encounters single handily. As a druid, I definitely want to use the cool features the different beasts offer, it's the core engaging element of Wild Shape. This gate leads to conflict that compounds with the higher CR access.

Managing Circle Forms Wild Shape

Given the problems Wild Shape poses, how can one go about addressing them? I’ve got some basic guidelines that can help reel in some of its issues:

Multiattacking creatures shouldn’t be seen prior to 5th level.

Single attacks can still be powerful with the CR 1 creatures to make the Wild Shape feel powerful. If you're a DM, I’d recommend letting players use a lot of different shapes. Multiattack at 5th level feels more fair for other players as well, specifically for the paladins, barbarians, rangers, fighters, and monks in the group.

Have a conversation with your DM about your hit point total before taking this option.

Spending a bonus action to spontaneously gain 30 hit points when the barbarian is only representing 40 (including resistances) is something they’re going to need to account for. This may result in encouragement to use just one Wild Shape per encounter, or that you use it more on exploration. Your DM may be encouraged to give you more places to use Wild Shape’s exploration utility, which in turn weakens your total combat prowess.

Spellcasting and Wild Shape

Unique to Circle of the Moon is using your Wild Shape combatively. Typically, druids use Wild Shape to explore as tiny creatures or use the various speeds unlocked as you level to get into places challenging for others. Circle of the Moon is looking to maul, spending action after action in combat not using the enormous spell list druids also get.

This juxtaposition makes druids prior to Beast Spells have some trouble using their spells effectively in fights. On one hand, you want to be making a bunch of attacks as a beast or elemental as fast as possible to leverage your hit points; on the other, you can only concentrate on one spell while transformed and can waste a giant amount of hit points if you swap back to try to get a cast off.

This leads to three important things to consider valuing in spells: long duration, concentration, and protection.

Long-duration spells, like Summon Beast or Conjure Animals, can be cast prior to the wild shape and used while attacking for major advantage. In the lower tiers this is especially potent; a 3rd level character with multi-attack and a summoned ally attacking is a ton of damage for a single character. The core issue with these effects is your low AC and high hit point pool, resulting in many sequential saves to maintain concentration.

This makes long-duration spells without concentration meaningful, in particular Fire Shield, which was opened up to druids in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Longstrider is an easy option to consider for some bonus speed, as is Jump. Goodberry offers you a way to still act the part of a healer by giving healing options to your allies to use while you’re mauling things should somebody drop.

Spells that protect your concentration on their own also are considerations, namely in Barkskin and Stoneskin. These can be overkill, as you have a ton of hit points to play with anyway, but if you want to get hit less to leverage your hit point pool for even longer, Barksin will do that for you.

Feats like War Caster are vital to your performance if you want powerful effects up simultaneously. If you want to empower your character the most while staying within the druid class, this feat is my number one recommendation.

CR ½ - 1 Beasts of Note

Given how directly tied to its power the beasts are, here are some interesting options available to you with CR 1 beasts to look out for. You’re still gated by Wild Shape’s speed restrictions (no Giant Eagle/Octopus until higher levels) but still have some cool options to consider.

Brown Bears, as mentioned prior, have multi-attack with 2d6 and 1d8 weapons, a big chunk of hit points, and Keen Sense, a feature to keep in mind when exploring. This is the default option for raw power at 2nd level.

Giant Toads and Giant Octopuses have swim speeds, meaning you can’t use them until 4th level. From there, though, Giant Toads have the Swallow mechanic alongside potentially 2d10+2 damaging bites. Toads also have a huge Standing Leap for getting across fairly large gaps.

Giant Octopuses have Underwater Camouflage for advantage on underwater stealth checks, and Ink Cloud for a 20 ft. radius Fog Cloud-like effect that comes with a bonus action dash, which is pretty sweet. Its tentacles also hit for 2d6+3 and can grapple and restrain hit creatures.

Giant Spiders come with built-in Spider Climb for exploration and Web, Web Sense, and Web Walker for all your webbing needs. Its bite comes with a save or 2d8 poison damage that can poison and paralyze creatures it drops to 0. Web being a ranged attack option makes this a flexible and super fun creature to play as.

Lions are better Tigers in almost every way, with Tigers getting a small Bite dice size increase, but losing 10 feet of speed and the lion’s Running Leap and Pack Tactics. Both do get Keen Spell, though, for empowering perception checks.

Giant Hyenas have Rampage, which is access to a bonus action extra attack should it drop something with its 2d6+3 Bite attack, a 50 ft. speed, and 45 hit points. While Brown Bears are definitely the default strongest, Giant Hyenas hit like a bus, can make conditional extra attacks, and have even more hit points. An underrated option I’d love to build an entire character around.

Warhorses are a CR ½ option to consider as well; they have far fewer hit points, but get Trampling Charge with a 2d6+4 bludgeoning hooves attack and a 60 ft. speed.

Giant Goats are another meaningful CR ½ mention, with a cute Sure-Footed trait to avoid falling prone and a charge and ram combo for potentially 4d4+3 damage and a save or prone.

6th Level: Primal Strike and CR 2 Beasts

Primal Strike lets you ignore resistance to non-magical weapons. Non-magical resistance is stupid, and shouldn’t exist in this game. Because it does, this is a reasonable feature, but not the bulk of what you get here. The bulk of your 6th-level power bump comes with access to the CR 2 Beasts!

Cave/Polar Bears are a direct upgrade from Brown Bears with more HP and higher damage multi-attacks, but not otherwise that notable. Polar Bears come with a swim speed, too!

Giant Boars have a charge, like the Giant Goat, and a Tusk attack that can hit for 4d6+3 and potentially knock something prone. They also have Relentless to help pad out your hit points further, which resets with each different boar you transform into.

Giant Elk are the Warhorse upgrade, coming with 42 hit points, 60 ft. speed, Charge, and two attacks: a Ram to pair with their Charge for 4d6+4 damage, and a regular Hooves attack for 4d8+4 damage. Giant Elk hit like a truck, and typically are going to feel like better versions of Rhinoceroses.

Plesiosauruses have 68 hit points each, opening up your total hit point pool to potentially 136 at 6th level, plus whatever your druid’s normal hit points are. Their bite does a reasonable 3d6+4 as well, making it a boring, yet effective, means of soaking huge amounts of damage.

Giant Constrictor Snakes are also notable because they have a ton of hit points (60) but are also huge. 15x15. These snakes are MASSIVE. Constrict is a neat ability and all, but sometimes you just want to take up a ton of space, and Giant Constrictor Snakes do that.

8th-10th Level: Elemental Wild Shape, CR 3 Beasts, and Flight

Elemental Wild Shape gives you four additional shape options, all of which are solid (or liquid or gas) in the four base elementals, each rocking a CR of 5. For just raw hit points, each has at least 90, resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing, one or two other resistances, immunity to poison damage, and immunity to a laundry list of conditions. They all have multi-attack with at least 2d6 + 3 hits, some dealing bonus damage on hit, and they all also come with unique, powerful abilities like Fire Form, Whelm, Earth Glide, and Whirlwind. Fire is probably the worst of the bunch, but they’re all good enough that you’ll feel pretty powerful transforming into them over basically every beast option you’ve been using.

Giant Scorpions are the only new CR 3 beast worth mentioning, having three attacks a round with 52 hit points and the highest beast base AC we’ve seen up to this point at 15. This is probably the only option that can compete with the elementals for its flexibility, but their bonus hit points, resistances, and special abilities are usually going to dwarf the two d8+2 claw attacks that can grapple and 1d10+2 + potential 4d10 poison damage the scorpions get.

Giant Eagles and Giant Vultures are a CR 1 option that’s worth mentioning, as at 8th level you unlock fly-speed monsters. Both have multi-attacks, around the same hit points and a solid fly speed. Vultures hit harder and have Pack Tactics to make hitting easier while Eagles have an 80 ft. fly speed for when you need to be speedy. Neat options to keep in mind.

12-18th Level: Thousand Forms and CR 5 and 6 Beasts

Thousand Forms is a cute and flavorful capstone to pair with your upper-tier beasts; Alter Self at will isn’t going to be all that exciting at this tier, as the only mode you’re regularly going to find any use in is the disguise element. Still, at will does manage to make it a fine addition to the sheet, and when it comes alongside other potent abilities.

None of the CR 4 beasts are particularly exciting; Elephants and Stegosauruses are your two options, and neither can compete with the Elemental Wild Shapes.

Triceratops are 95 hit point CR 5 beasts with Trampling Charge. Trampling Charge is a conditional multi-attack requiring you to move, hit with your gore, and knock the creature prone to get a single bonus action attack.

This is another point where it's clear how atrocious CR is; a Triceratops comes nowhere close to the power of any of the four CR 5 elementals. One ability and no passive resistances or traits versus the laundry list of passive immunities, resistances, abilities, speed, and muli-attacks should be a nail in the coffin for any semblance of balance CR is supposed to be showing.

Giant Crocodiles are actually notable at least because they get multi-attack, have a 50 ft. swim speed, 85 hit points, and multi-attack with a grapple and knock creatures prone on each attack. I can think of encounters where I’d rather be Giant Crocodile than the elementals, specifically when trying to debilitate a moderate-sized group of creatures alongside my melee allies. 3d10+5 and 2d8+5 also both are huge amounts of damage. This is supposed to be the same challenge as a Triceratops. Wild.

CR 6 gives you access to Mammoths, which like Triceratops and the other weaker options before it, lack multi-attack, damage resistances, and decent abilities. Just Trampling Charge.

The Polymorph in the Room

There is yet another problem Circle of the Moon druids face: Polymorph. Wild Shape lets you retain your own mental ability scores, which is a meaningful upside, and doesn’t require concentration, but any 7th-level character under a Polymorph effect can become a Giant Ape, which is easily one of the best beasts that you’ll literally never have access to. Any 7th-level caster with Polymorph can let a character function in combat as well or better than you for a single 4th-level slot, and that’s a real bummer.

There still is plenty of merit in turning into elementals and bashing things over and over, but knowing a single 4th level spell can do the bulk of what a moon druid is capable of doing is a bit depressing.

All Together

Circle of the Moon Druids have two major power spikes: one at 2nd level, when you unlock the subclass and get multi-attack, and one at 10th level when the CR jumps from 3 to 5 with Elementals.

If you want to stick with the beast themes in the upper tiers, you better get very comfortable making one or two attacks a turn and passing. Elementals are a blast when you get them, but knowing they’re never going to improve is demoralizing in a full 20-level campaign. It can also be annoying to juggle your powerful upper-level spells with your limited Wild Shape uses; we’ve covered a ton of information here, and that’s before considering concentration effects and long-duration spell effects like Fire Shield that I’d consider core to Circle of the Moon’s performance.

Here are the big takeaways from this breakdown:

Circle of the Moon has the potential to be utterly busted at moments.
Long-duration spells that linger or protect your concentration are key.
Brown Bears can be a huge problem for 2nd-level tables to handle.
Beasts without multi-attack are a lot worse than beasts with multi-attack.
The moment you get Elemental Wild Shape, you’re probably never going to be encouraged to Wild Shape into a beast again.
When played “fairly”, this circle shines brightest from levels two to twelve, giving you lots of room to have a blast with it.

Good luck out there!

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