Shepherd Druid Build Guide – The Ultimate Summoner – 2024 Update

For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) as well as Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (mostly for Silvery Barbs) as those tend to be the most commonly used books at tables. Always be sure that if you’re following a guide that you’re adhering to your tables rules about what sourcebooks you are allowed to follow.

Any spell, class, feature, or other game item that is linkable on this website is covered by the 5th edition Open Games License and will be in the Player’s Handbook, but not everything in the Player’s Handbook will be linked to. All other materials that aren’t linked to are from other sourcebooks or aren’t allowed to be linked to per the 5th Edition Open Games License, so please refer to the appropriate sourcebooks for that information.

For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you would not be multiclassing. While multiclassing can be excellent for many of these, this is for those who want to play the build all the way through in the same class. Guides that use multiclassing will be separate from these.

For spellcasters, you may notice substantial overlap between the spell lists of builds with the same base class. This is due to each guide utilizing a generically good spell list and not considering extenuating factors that will influence how you particularly sculpt your spell list. When creating your own spell list, you should take into account the campaign setting, what spells any other party members are capable of casting, potential overlap (ritual spells tend to overlap so it’s rare you need multiple people capable of casting them), or potential shortcomings in the parties total spell list. While this guide can definitely help point you in the right direction for crafting a spell list, you should use your judgement and preferences to figure out what spells make the most sense for your character.

To that end, please refer to the Spell List and Spell Tier list for any substitutions you’d want to make to the build.

As Druid can change their spell choices with a long rest, don’t be afraid to liberally change around spells and experiment. The spell choices given in the guide are simply suggestions and do not have to be perfectly adhered to.

The Complete Druid Spell List

Druid Spell Tier List – The Best Druid Spells

Beyond the fact that this class is very powerful, this is the true “summoning” class is D&D (eat your heart out Conjuration and Necromancy Wizards). Most of your abilities focus around making anything you summon better, but not all of your abilities are reliant on you summoning something making this a well rounded class either way.

Speech of the Woods (Level 3) – C+ Tier – This is a functional Speak with Animals that works all the time! While I don’t love Speak with Animals, you can use it a lot more liberally when it’s always active.

Spirit Totem (Level 3) – B+ Tier – This ability has a lot of utility and many good options on top of it. None of the totems are super stand out, but all of them have their purpose.

Mighty Summoner (Level 6) – C+ Tier – This is a reasonably decent buff to your summons, but non-magical weapon resistance no longer exists so the second half of this ability is kind of awkward. If your DM makes a reasonable house rule to make this work (maybe just saying it’s force damage which was kind of how this operated in 5e rules anyway), then this ability is around B tier. If not, then this is probably C- tier as some additional health isn’t great.

Guardian Spirit (Level 10) – C+ Tier – As long as you can keep your summon inside the totem area, then they do get a decent stream of healing, even if it’s just a little bit at a time. Not too bad, but nothing incredible here.

Faithful Summons (Level 14) – B- Tier – This ability kind of breaks under the new rules as Conjure Animals no longer summons literal animals, but if you just use it as it summoning four CR 2 or lower beasts, then this works just fine. Anyway, this ability is good, it just sucks that you can’t really control when it happens making this pretty unreliable.

The Ultimate 2024 One D&D Subclass Tier List

DnD 2024 Class and Subclass Tier List Breakdown

Level	Class Features/Feat	Notes
1	Druidic, Spellcasting, Primal Order (Warden)	+ Guidance + Starry Wisp + Detect Magic + Entangle + Faerie Fire + Healing Word
2	Wild Shape, Wild Companion	+ Goodberry
3	Circle of Shepherds, Speech of the Woods, Spirit Totem	+ Spike Growth
4	Feat: War Caster (WIS) Wild Shape improvement	+ Shape Water + Summon Beast
5	Wild Resurgence	– Detect Magic + Conjure Animals + Revivify + Sleet Storm
6	Mighty Summoner	+ Dispel Magic
7	Elemental Fury	+ Polymorph
8	Feat: Resilient (CON) Wild Shape improvement	– Faerie Fire + Giant Insect + Wall of Fire
9	–	+ Absorb Elements + Transmute Rock
10	Guardian Spirit	+ Thorn Whip + Wall of Stone
11	–	– Healing Word + Heal + Transport via Plants
12	Feat: Wisdom to 20	None
13	–	+ Plane Shift
14	Faithful Summons	None
15	Improved Elemental Fury	+ Animal Shapes
16	Feat: Constitution to 18	None
17	–	+ Shapechange
18	Beast Spells	+ Foresight
19	Epic Boon: Boon of Luck	+ True Resurrection
20	Archdruid	+ Antipathy/Sympathy

Not seeing the build you would want from this guide? This article can help!

The Ultimate One D&D Druid Guide – Mastering Druids

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Species: Human

Attributes:

	POINT BUY
STRENGTH	8
DEXTERITY	14
CONSTITUTION	14 (+1 background) = 15
INTELLIGENCE	10
WISDOM	15 (+2 background) = 17
CHARISMA	10

Class: Druid

Class Features: Druidic, Spellcasting, Primal Order (Warden)

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Perception, and Survival (Variant Human)

Background: Farmer

Human Feat: Musician (or Alert if two or more party members have Musician)

Starting Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sickle, Druidic Focus, Explorer’s Pack, Herbalism Kit, and 9 gp + 50gp from background

Starting Spells:

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Detect Magic
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Healing Word

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Species: Human

Humans are simple – you get an extra Origin feat, Heroic Inspiration each long rest, and an extra skill. This is a great species for those who didn’t get their origin feat of choice with their background.

Human Feat: Musician (or Alert)

Musician is an excellent feat that at least one party member should have, if not two. However, if your team doesn’t need a Musician, Alert is an excellent backup.

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Attributes

	POINT BUY
STRENGTH	8
DEXTERITY	14
CONSTITUTION	14 (+1 background) = 15
INTELLIGENCE	10
WISDOM	15 (+2 background) = 17
CHARISMA	10

Like other casters, Constitution and their spellcasting attribute (Wisdom in this case) should be pumped as much as possible. Since Druids with Warden have Medium Armor proficiency, there’s no reason to go above 14 Dexterity as you can only get the +2 modifier while wearing medium armor. The rest of the stat allocations are really up to you, but the best is typically having a split of neutral Intelligence and Charisma. If you don’t have anyone with good Intelligence, investing in that to have slightly better skill checks could be a good idea as well.

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Proficiencies: Insight, Perception, and Survival (Human)

Solid proficiencies for Druid as they’re all Wisdom based skills.

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Background: Farmer

The best background for Druids as it gives Constitution and Wisdom on top of the best Origin feat that you can get with this attribute split.

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Starting Equipment – Leather Armor, Shield, Sickle, Druidic Focus, Explorer’s Pack, Herbalism Kit, and 9 gp + 50gp from background

Standard Druid fare, nothing novel.

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Class – Druid

Starting out, Druids get three abilities – Druidic, Spellcasting, and Primal Warden.

Druidic is a language known only among druids, and if you want to covertly talk or leave messages to other Druids, this is how you’d do it.

Spellcasting is pretty much the same as the other full casters and will be expounded on in other sections.

Finally, you get a new feature with Primal Order. You have the choice between Magician which is exceedingly mediocre or Warden which gives you medium armor and martial weapon proficiency. I would personally always take Warden as medium armor proficiency is way too tempting to not pick up.

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Starting Spells

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Detect Magic
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Healing Word

This is going to be an extremely standard spell list for a level one Druid. You have good cantrips and versatile level one spells with varying effects from healing to CC. You only have one way to deal damage at this point, but Druids are support casters first, so having spells that are good at making your allies lives easier is a good thing.

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Level 2

Class Features: Wild Shape, Wild Companion

Spell Change Log: + Goodberry

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Detect Magic
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word

For your base Druid abilities, you get access to your Wild Shape, and like every Druid except for Moon Druids, you can turn into anything max CR 1/4 that can’t swim or fly. You’re really only going to use this for utility as you should be a more dangerous threat in human form, but you can use it in combat in a real pinch.

The final ability that you get at this level is Wild Companion. You can use Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar, and while it’s not permanent like a Wizard’s would be, getting it for a bit is still pretty good!

For your actual spell choice, you can pick up Goodberry. Goodberry is a weird spell as it functions as food replacement, but also heals whoever eats it by 1. This is good to dish out some light healing in early levels, avoid using rations, and if your DM is willing to play ball (while it doesn’t work within the official rules, most DMs allow it), you can feed it to downed allies to bring them back up with your action (and sometimes a Medicine check). This use is good in particular as each ally can carry a few berries around to bring up anyone who gets downed (you in particular if you have no other healer in the party).

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Level 3

Class: Circle of the Shepherd

Class Features: Speech of the Woods, Spirit Totem

Spell Change Log: + Spike Growth

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Detect Magic
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth

Level 3 means your subclass and second level spells!

Your first ability you get is Speech of the Woods. This functionally gives you a permanent Speak with Animals spell that’s both thematic and quite good.

Your second ability is a pretty complex one with Spirit Totem. You can create a totem that can do one of a few effects, and to make things more difficult, all the modes have some good utility to them. One gives temporary health to everyone inside the area, one can allow players to get advantage on an attack (at the cost of your reaction), and the last one can let everyone benefit from your healing spells. The one you’d use would heavily depend on the situation, but in general, if you’re using summons you’re probably looking to use the first or last mode to give that summon a bit more sustain (especially as you get into higher level summoning spells).

For level three you get one of the strongest Druid spells in general, not just in the second level slot – Spike Growth. This spell is truly messed up for many reasons. First off, the range on this is absolutely massive with the AOE also being quite solid. Second, enemies take 2d4 damage for every 5 feet that it travels, and considering this is difficult terrain, that can add up. Lastly (as mentioned previously), this is 5 feet traveled, not moved. If you or your allies have a way to force movement, you can stack up an unholy amount of damage extremely quickly. Even if you have literally zero other ways to make this good, it’s still such a good spell that it doesn’t matter.

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Level 4

Feat: War Caster (WIS)

Class Feature: Wild Shape improvement

Spell Change Log: + Shape Water + Summon Beast

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Detect Magic
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast

Hitting level four means a feat, better Wild Shape, a cantrip, and more spells.

For your first feat, you absolutely have to pick up War Caster. Buffing your Wisdom to 18, getting advantage on concentration checks, and being able to spellcast when you don’t have two free hands is excellent.

You get an improvement to Wild Shape – up to CR 1/2 and you can swim now. Not the highest impact upgrade, but it can be nice for some adventures/campaigns!

For your cantrip choice, you should pick up Shape Water. This is just a super versatile spell, but it’s definitely nice to have.

Furthermore, you get a new spell to work with this level with Summon Beast!

Summon Beast is a really solid summoning spell that will synergize well with all of your subclass abilities and upcasts reasonably well.

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Level 5

Class Feature: Wild Resurgence

Spell Change Log: – Detect Magic / + Conjure Animals + Revivify + Sleet Storm

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Conjure Animals
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm

Now you get access to third level spells and Wild Resurgence!

Wild Resurgence lets you, on each of your turns, to convert a spell slot into a Wild Shape charge if you have none. Conversely, once per day, you can exchange a Wild Shape charge for a first level slot if you like. Realistically, this ability isn’t that helpful, but if you really need to Wild Shape and you’re all out, this will be helpful.

You get way too many excellent spells at this level, so we’re going to need to make room. To that end, I would recommend cutting Detect Magic. While an excellent spell, it is common enough that someone else should be able to pick up that slack for you anyway!

For your spell choices, you get the excellent Conjure Animals, Revivify, and Sleet Storm.

Conjure Animals is a very solid spell that moves around the battlefield absolutely demolishing anything that comes across it. This is nice as you don’t have to even get close to enemies to put the hurt on them!

Revivify is an absolute staple for every party to have and you can never have too many people who can cast it. You likely won’t cast this often, but it’s invaluable to always have it prepared.

Sleet Storm is an excellent AOE spell that makes a lot of difficult terrain, blinds enemies, can knock enemies prone, and can really stifle spellcasters. This is really brutal against pretty much any enemy that doesn’t have an excellent ranged attack option.

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Level 6

Class Features: Mighty Summoner

Spell Change Log: + Dispel Magic

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm

Level 6 brings a new subclass ability with Mighty Summoner. This gives a solid buff to your summoned creature by giving them more health and magical attacks. As of right now, there are summon spells that create creatures without Hit Die (like Summon Beast), so that wouldn’t get the health benefit by the literal interpretation of the rule, but many tables use a variant rule where summons without Hit Die have 1 Hit Die per spell level, so for a second level Summon Beast, they would have 2 Hit Die. Talk to your DM about this ability to see what they say!

For your spell choice you can pick up Dispel Magic! Dispel Magic is no Counterspell, but it is the next best thing! Being able to stop an existing magical effect is a staple for every party and you really can’t have too many of them.

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Level 7

Class Feature: Elemental Fury

Spell Change Log: + Polymorph

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Faerie Fire
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Polymorph

Level 7 brings a new Druid feature and a new spells!

Your Druid feature is Elemental Fury which lets you choose between adding your WIS modifier to cantrips or you get 1d8 elemental damage to a melee attack once per turn. For most Druids, you’re interested in the improvement to cantrips as you’re not going to be in melee, so that’s what you’re picking.

For your spell, you get the best fourth level spell in the game – Polymorph. Polymorph is so egregiously good as it can take yourself or an ally who’s low on health, low on resources, or for whatever reason not able to fight and turn you back into a threat. While the Beasts don’t scale past level 8, Giant Ape and Tyrannosaurus Rex will remain viable for quite a long time regardless. Furthermore, this can function as CC as well to turn an enemy into something harmless like a Crab for a little bit in case you need that. Excellent spell all around.

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Level 8

Feat: Resilient (CON)

Class Features: Wild Shape improvement

Spell Change Log: – Faerie Fire / + Giant Insect + Wall of Fire

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire

You get another fear this level and I like going for Resilient (Constitution). Getting 16 Constitution and proficiency in Constitution saving throws makes you even tankier than you were before and makes it much harder to lose concentration on your spells.

Level 8 also brings you the final upgrade to your Wild Shape where you can go up to CR 1 and pick Beasts with a Flying speed which is excellent for utility. Not something you’ll realistically use in combat still, but can be great in niche situations.

Since there’s a few spells you want, something has to go, and right now it’s Faerie Fire. This is decent CC, but not something you’re looking to use anymore.

Your first spell is completely changed from 5e, Giant Insect. You have three forms that you can summon, and as of writing, the spell is completely broken. First, the summoned creature has way more health than it should for the spell level (an error that seems to have been rectified on dndbeyond). The Giant Spider form in particular is extremely strong as it can lock enemies in place with its attack from a range which can be brutal against the right enemies.

Second, you get one of my favorite spells in the game – Wall of Fire. Wall of Fire has good range, great AOE, and great damage. It’s just a great spell all around and is super consistent at destroying low health enemies and roasting tougher ones.

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Level 9

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: + Absorb Elements + Transmute Rock

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock

Level 9 brings two spells and you’re going with a first level option and a fifth level option: Absorb Elements and Transmute Rock.

Absorb Elements is great at defending yourself against large blasts of elemental damage, like from a Dragon’s Breath weapon. While those types of attacks were likely not common earlier in your campaign, they’ll definitely become more common as you keep ascending in levels, so this is a good time to grab it.

Transmute Rock has an incredible amount of versatility as you can get get enemies stuck in a -4x speed terrain, trap them in stone, destroy buildings/hallways, and so much more. Extremely versatile with strong uses in and out of combat.

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Level 10

Class Features: Guardian Spirit

Spell Change Log: + Thorn Whip + Wall of Stone

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Goodberry
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone

For level 10 you get another subclass ability, cantrip, and spell!

Your penultimate subclass ability is Guardian Spirit which grants passive healing to all of your summons. Since the conjure spells were changed, you can only have one summon out at a time, but healing them is still nice.

For your cantrip choice, I like picking up Thorn Whip early for this build. This can synergize well with Spike Growth to drag enemies along it which would make this the highest DPR cantrip available to you. There is risk involved as dragging enemies closer isn’t ideal, but this will shred lower health enemies.

Finally, for your spell choice you can pick up Wall of Stone. Unlike the other CC spells currently available to you, Wall of Stone is good at truly trapping enemies where they are. While the wall can be broken through, it is very tough so it will likely consume at least a couple of turns worth of actions to get through. However, sometimes that’s all you need as bisecting fights and cutting enemy action economies in half is extremely powerful.

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Level 11

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: – Goodberry / + Heal + Transport via Plants

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants

Sixth level spell time and you need to make a little more room to get multiple of them. With that, Goodberry should be nixed at this point as that’s the only non-essential spell still in your rotation. If there ever comes a time you really need it, you can always bring it back.

For spell pickups, you can grab Heal and Transport via Plants.

Heal is excellent as it’s 70 flat points of recovery with some status recoveries on top of it. A little pricey, but worthwhile.

For your second spell, you get the excellent Transport via Plants. While there are limitations here compared to Teleport, this is a full spell level lower and has no failure rate, you just need two big plants you know about. This should be a simple ask and will only stop you from getting where you want to go in very specific biomes or if your DM is being a real stickler.

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Level 12

Feat: Wisdom to 20

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: None

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants

Twelve level brings another feat, and I would recommend simply pushing your Wisdom to 20 for the best spells possible.

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Level 13

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: + Plane Shift

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift

Seventh level spell time, and you can pick up another excellent transportation option – Plane Shift. While you can’t use it to travel within the same plane, this can be a decent escape tool provided you aren’t in combat and you have the magic fork attuned to the plane you’re trying to go to. What’s nice about this, though, is that if you’re going back to your original plane, this doesn’t have a fail chance like Teleport would. In a real pinch, you can try to banish creatures with this as well making it rather versatile.

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Level 14

Class Features: Faithful Summons

Spell Change Log: None

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift

Level 14 brings your final subclass feature – Faithful Summons.

This feature is extremely cool as you going to 0 or simply being incapacitated automatically summons animals to defend you, for a full hour, without requiring Concentration. The only awkward part is that the subclass ability specifies that you are casting Conjure Animals, but the rest of the ability spells out what it intended, so ignore that part and just summon the 4 beasts.

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Level 15

Class Feature: Improved Elemental Fury

Spell Change Log: + Animal Shapes

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes

You get improvement to your Elemental Fury and access to eighth level spells!

Improved Elemental Fury increases your cantrip range to 300 feet. Not that exciting, but it could be helpful.

Now you get access to eighth level spells so you can take what’s arguably the best one – Animal Shapes. Rather than dive into it, you should check out the Druid spell tier list to see why I rate this spell so highly, but even without its broken uses, you can still find some solid utility for this.

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Level 16

Feat: Constitution to 18

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: None

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes

You get your final feat, and while a bit boring, I like just buffing up Constitution. More health and better concentration checks can never be bad.

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Level 17

Class Feature: None

Spell Change Log: + Shapechange

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes
9th Level Spell	Shapechange

Finally, you’ve reached ninth level spells!

To kick it off, you have to take the Druid’s best ninth level spell with Shapechange.

Shapechange is a better Polymorph that lets you turn into anything and even change forms as needed if the current one is working for you. This is an incredibly powerful spell as a CR 17-20 monster should be substantially stronger than a single level 17-20 adventurer making you a much bigger threat in a given fight. That said, since this spell lasts an hour. It is possible that you may get to fight multiple times with the spell active making it even more potent!

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Level 18

Class Features: Beast Spells

Spell Change Log: + Foresight

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes
9th Level Spell	Foresight
9th Level Spell	Shapechange

Level 18 brings a new Druid ability with Beast Spells.

Beast Spells is definitely more interesting as it allows you to spellcast in Wild Shape (provided the spell doesn’t need a material component). This is pretty strong as you can turn into a Flying creature and be a lot more mobile while spellcasting which can drastically increase your odds of surviving an encounter.

For your spell, you can take the best buff spell in the game with Foresight. Foresight turns any melee ally into an absolute beast by giving them advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, and all enemies have disadvantage against them. That is extremely powerful, and lasting nearly a whole day is the cherry on top.

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Level 19

Epic Boon: Boon of Luck

Class Features: None

Spell Change Log: + True Resurrection

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes
9th Level Spell	Foresight
9th Level Spell	Shapechange
9th Level Spell	True Resurrection

Level 19 brings your Epic Boon, and it’s hard to go wrong with Boon of Fate. Being able to potentially turn a failure into a success and vice versa, even if it’s once per short or long rest, can be the difference between surviving an encounter and not.

For your spell choice, you can pick up True Resurrection. While you are unlikely to cast this often, being able to restore a being in their entirety is pretty strong if you’re in a situation where a Revivify doesn’t get the job done.

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Level 20

Class Feature: Archdruid

Spell Change Log: + Antipathy/Sympathy

SPELL LEVEL	SPELL NAME
Cantrip	Guidance
Cantrip	Shape Water
Cantrip	Starry Wisp
Cantrip	Thorn Whip
1st Level Spell	Absorb Elements
1st Level Spell	Entangle
1st Level Spell	Healing Word
2nd Level Spell	Spike Growth
2nd Level Spell	Summon Beast
3rd Level Spell	Dispel Magic
3rd Level Spell	Revivify
3rd Level Spell	Sleet Storm
4th Level Spell	Giant Insect
4th Level Spell	Polymorph
4th Level Spell	Wall of Fire
5th Level Spell	Transmute Rock
5th Level Spell	Wall of Stone
6th Level Spell	Heal
6th Level Spell	Transport via Plants
7th Level Spell	Plane Shift
8th Level Spell	Animal Shapes
8th Level Spell	Antipathy/Sympathy
9th Level Spell	Foresight
9th Level Spell	Shapechange
9th Level Spell	True Resurrection

Your final level brings you the capstone ability – Archdruid. You can regain a charge of Wild Shape when you roll initiative if you have none and you can convert Wild Shape charges into spell slots. This is much weaker than the previous iteration of Archdruid, but so few campaigns make it this far so it probably doesn’t matter much.

For your spell choice, you can pick up Antipathy/Sympathy. This spell is super weird, but can be really good if you know what types of enemies you’re dealing with as it can be set up well in advance in an area of your choosing. Definitely niche and not the easiest to use, but it can be powerful with careful planning.