Moon Druid build: The Blazing Inferno D&D 5e

[@bluesman2050]

It would be great if you could make a “Treatmonk’s Guide to Druids” folder in your channel. You have done a ton of great Druid content, especially in the last year, and it would be helpful to have it is one place to be able to go back to and rewatch.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I have a playlist for these videos, it's called Moon Druid Videos.

[@squarepusher13z]

I love your emphasis on making builds table friendly and still powerful.

[@nickm9102]

There is a problem with "table friendly" this implies that the mechanic is the problem. This is how people think and is a false premise. Too many people think "I can't do this effectively so ther must be something wrong with it. After all it can't be my LACK of proficiency, it has to be the game's fault." The real problem is that players rarely plan what they will do and in the instance where they do plan they don't prepare for the plan. If you know that you are going to throw a lvl 5 Fireball but you don't grab your math rocks until after you tell everyone your action. That takes time that is better used elsewhere. It also helps if you have enough to roll everything at once but I accept that not everyone is willing to buy hundreds of dice for whatever reason. It also helps if your table can be trusted to pre roll in combat. I have observed and played efficient summoners. It is almost a meme at my group table that by lvl 9 my character has a separate money pouch with 10 silver pieces in addition to their normal coin pouch. I also have 10d4 at the ready and I make them swarm for easy tracking. But I also have PCs with Conjure Animals and/or animate dead. My Tempest Cleric has Animate Dead and in DoMM he was always followed by his 8 skeletons (his bone brigade) which I had my color coded dice sets for each one so I was typically faster on my turn running 8 skeletons, 1 Cleric, and a familiar than most people with their one PC. With Conjure Animals I typically use wolves as a personal preference but raptors can play the same way, pair up the 8 roll 4 with pack tactics then the other 4. If something changes the roll from Advantage/Disadvantage then ALWAYS use the die matching the piece color for single rolls. This way you still preroll if allowed and if something changes the situation you don't waste time rerolling. So yes there is a problem but it isn't a build, ability, or spell, it is the players inexperience with the mechanic.

[@sortehuse]

@@nickm9102 There's no way of avoiding combat slowing down if you summon 8 beasts of challenge rating 1/4 even if you are a skilled player and have a skilled DM. If you upcast it to 5th level it's 16 Beast. Also you will never get new DMs if you say that it's there fault that they are inexperienced. Very DM (and player) has been inexperienced at some point.

[@squarepusher13z]

@@nickm9102 I completley agree with you that players need to become familiar with their mechanics and figure out how to play their characters in a way that is efficient and to understand the rules. I also think your system demonstrates that you are considerate of the other people at your table. But more complicated summoning spells do present an administrative burden to the DM and to a lesser degree to other players at the table. I am the only optimizer in my main play group, and we rotate DMing with everyone getting a turn. Most of my group are casual gamers who roll some dice every couple weeks. Everyone learning the minutiae of summoning spells is more administrative work. Also there is no way around the fact that a summoner's turn tends to take longer than the barbarian's etc... Also other players need to know what my summons can do for the party to fight as a team. In my play group, playing a decent summoner using pre Tasha's spells would feel like assigning my friends homework. Builds like this one are more friendly for my table, because not everyone wants to involve that level of admin work in their escapism. But different tables have different context :)

[@nickm9102]

@@sortehuse where did DMs come into this? The topic is summoning spells. As for speed in combat you didn't read what I said because I GAVE EXAMPLES of how to avoid slowing it down. As for players not knowing a mechanic... don't use the spell or feature if you don't understand it. I don't play Barbarians, Fighters, or Monks mainly because I don't have a firm understanding of the mechanics. That is my fault for not bothering to read through them not the class for being complex. I play casters because my 1st character was a Ranger. Learn the stabby stab, and the swish and flick. My second character a Warlock so learned resource management. Then I went to Wizard for variety and to practice against analysis paralysis. Yes I couldn't play a fighter but then I have to rely on the DM or other players to remind me to use second wind instead of attack again or that goading attack might be a better choice because the paladin next to me is almost down.

[@Spruble]

Yeah, I personally hate those darkness/fog cloud, or summon 20 raptors builds that spoiled the fun for everyone else.

[@valentinrafael9201]

Chris: We will need our wisdom to 20 asap, and not just for our spellcasting mod. Me: Monk multi class confirmed

[@jcdenton2187]

One of the few cases where a Monk dip is extremely beneficial.

[@jorgef005]

The sonuvagun did it! He multiclasses into Monk! I can't believe it!

[@robdavis3274]

To improve your giant scorpion at level 10, have your summoned fey cast darkness on your target and use scorpion’s blindsight ability to get advantage

[@logancuster8035]

This is a little difficult to set up since the Fey goes immediately after your turn.

[@Michael-ls9eu]

@@logancuster8035 Could have it ready the darkness spell until just before your turn, after your movement, or something similar.

[@logancuster8035]

@@Michael-ls9eu that not how that works. It creates darkness with its Bonus action teleport. Which can not hold

[@jay_caspian2050]

This is awesome, Chris! My favorite build of this series. Also, I love your thumbnail for this video.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thanks! The image was ai generated and it turned out pretty well.

[@Mr.Drobnick]

I'd love to see a Treantmonk Variant of the Shepherd Druid that is aligned with the new table friendly philosophy. The subclass really pushes players to take Conjure Animals and Conjure Woodland Beings, but what if it was reworked to support table-friendly summon spells like those found in Tasha's?

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Good idea, I'll start thinking about that

[@morganpetros9635]

I've actually been considering this for a while ... and how to blackma ... *ENCOURAGE* DMs to houserule the new Summon spells to give them hit dice. 😈 If you look at the CR 2 beasts (i.e., single-beast conjurations for Conjure Animals), it seems fairly reasonable to me to give the single-creature, template summonses from Tasha's 2 hit dice per spell level. But I'll keep my "encouragement" tactics to myself for now. 😈🤣

[@zraal3759]

One way to use conjour animals to be very player support in combat is conjour 4 to 8 tiny or small spiders. Each party member gets a spider helper. The spiders use the help action for the charector it is riding.

[@brannenpfister2579]

1 level in life cleric and you become the best healer in the game!

[@luizkormann314]

I just needed to wait 3 months for a moon druid build, worth it

[@joshuarawlins7793]

I really enjoy all your content. I watch every video and have watched many of them over and over. I have used 3 of your builds in game. So, for me I'm happy to see a build video. as always thanks for the great video.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Awesome, thank you!

[@cfalkner1012]

The level of research, brainstorming, and understanding that is all implicit in these build videos is… *chef’s kiss*

[@DefaultierYT]

You couldve technically squeezed out 9 starting strength for 15lbs extra carrying capacity, if you put the +1 racial into either dex or con, since that gives you an extra point buy point. Not hugely impactful, but hey its technically strictly better. :)

[@Shalakor]

No kidding. I got very distracted with that. I'm kinda obsessed with getting point buy right (even though basically every campaign I've played in for the 5E era has been dice role generation), and how common it is for people to not fully understand how use point buy effectively. So, it's slightly unfortunate when people giving advice like this don't point out these kinds of finer details, only focusing on meeting their main goals (even if it's understandable).

[@warmwaterpenguin]

Whole series has been banger after banger, but man its so satisfying to see it all get pulled together into a super cool unique build.

[@ChristnThms]

Love it. Interestingly, you could play a Wildfire Druid alongside this build. Both are fire-centric Druid builds, and yet totally different as well.

[@Comp_Laments]

You cant imagine the joy on my face when u said plasmoid. Ive been looking to play a plasmoid for like 3 days. I recently made a color chart that makes my plasmoid change into 21 different colors based on moods. (DM approved) (Light to dark / red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, greyscale) and wanted to find a caster class that felt right to be a plasmoid. I can just imagine a slime bear or cat. all warlock, wizard and sorcerer builds I thought of didnt feel right. So I thank u so much😊

[@badnewsbears9358]

Skill expert over resilient wisdom at druid level 4 is worth mentioning. Expertise in athletics could secure more grapples at the cost of a weaker wisdom save.

[@bigbbrendan]

"I want my builds to be able to be accepted at any table" Proceeds to make a 1 million Scoville gummy bear druid

[@comfortablegrey]

I was hesitant to start this build because the scene like it was focused on fire damage.Chris did a great job of calling my fears early on, and I came out with an interesting plasmoid characters mission point

[@mickeygosselin]

Absolutely love the build, if I were to play it, I'd go straight druid up to 10, then 1 level dip for monk, and finish off with druid, stay away from the fighter and wizard levels, that way I get higher level spells and can cast while wildshaped

[@Gafizal1]

This is a truly epic build; strong work, Sir! I predict this series of builds are some that will become TM classics online. 🎉 - at lower levels I think there’s also a lot to be said for summon beast air form: flyby and the out of combat utility of grappling Med party members and flying them, and / or yourself, over hazards or up to high places.

[@Jon-wq2ne]

This is why I love this channel, I'm always surprised by what you come up with and the effectiveness of it. I was certain when I saw the title you'd focus on Wall of Fire, drag enemies in and out of that while you're fire immune and park them on the hot side while it blocks their line of sight. I did not for a second think this would be a thorns build.

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

A monk level on a Treantmonk build, I never thought I’d see the day…

[@sortehuse]

Maybe I'm being very strict but I see the Amorphous and the Shape Self traits as being something the Plasmoid can do because of it's anatomy. I don't see how there could be another explanation for these traits. You could argue that Shape Self is a loophole like Fleet of Foot, but being Amorphous is something specific about your anatomy.

[@dillonvandergriff4124]

See, you're just looking at it wrong. This plasmoid is so stinking good at shaping themselves that they can take the form of a bear! :)

[@dreamwanderer5791]

Believe me, I'm in the same boat here. I can see Fleet of Foot as simply being able to quickly see and maneuver trails and whatnot due to a wilderness connection. There is no possible way to explain Plasmoid shape changing without bringing up anatomy. I know why he chose one, because it is a loophole, but man does it feel bad.

[@keeganmbg6999]

I agree entirely. I like the concept he was going for with the plasmid but I really don’t see it working out if I was a player and as a DM I certainly wouldn’t allow it. Then again, if he simply changed this build around a bit he could grab Rune Knight if he wants ADV or even go Monk Way of the Astral self and always get +5 to his Athletics checks from his Wisdom.

[@SortKaffe]

Giff would be better at maintaining a grapple as they get "advantage on Strength-based ability checks". However, the name of the feature is "Hippo Build", which strongly implies that it's due to its anatomy (despite not explicitly spelling it out either).

[@sortehuse]

I think that the core of the problem is the "physically capable of doing so" in the Wild Shape deception is quite vague, so it will be different at each table what is allowed and what isn't.

[@vladimirserpov6773]

As a DM I allow conjure animals with condition of each player getting control of several summoned animals :)

[@pandoraeeris7860]

One of the best uses I've found for Moon Druids is being able to cast a concentration spell (such as Moonbeam or Call Lightning) and then immediately shift into a defensive form, perhaps one that can stay completrly out of reach of enemies, such as a bird or spider, or one that can hide. As you can use 'spell actions' (like calling lightning or moving your moonbeam), you've got a great attack and you can make yourself virtually untouchable (unless the enemy has some unusual means of movement or spells/ranged attacks that c as n reach you, or some kind of detection if you're hiding).

[@voxvesper4617]

This would be a great alternative to the Rune Knight in your Grappling Team Combo tactic too.

[@Marc.Google]

Such a great Druid build! Thank you, Chris.

[@krandomzz]

yaaaaas I've been waiting for an updated moon druid build ty so much!!

[@thunder_bug_1451]

I really like this series. I’m especially looking forward to the armorer build!

[@gaborengel3788]

Great video, I was looking forward to the builds after all those 'prequals'.

[@alexanderzweber8453]

Not sure if I mentioned this in the races video, but because shape self *does* mention a physical attribute, namely that you are in reversion a limbless blob, you can argue that the whole ability is not allowed in wild shape. Personally, I'd only rule that the reversion requires you to be not in wild shape, maybe not be allowed to give yourself hands or feet, but still allowed to make the pseudopod, but the argument that it doesn't work with wild shape certainly holds consistent with the rulings on wild shape. Also, I'm not aware if there is a ruling on this, but the way I rule it is that "enters a (x) space" means that any time you occupy part of the space of the object that you did not occupy at the start of the turn, so any creature larger than medium that you aren't occupying every square of space that they occupy, you can simply move into another space that they occupy, negating the need to back out of their space completely.

[@nathanaelthomas9243]

Thanks for the video! It has improved my opinion of the Druid class 👍🏻

[@ChristianW1975]

Yes, a build video 😁

[@zraal3759]

The same points you are making about the plasmiod are applicable to the changeling. Sense the changeling shapechange ability reads exactly like the plasmiod ability. With the changeling you could have the stats of a bear, but look like a like a wolf. Not very mechanically impactful as the plasmiod, but significant in some situations. Particularly when wanting/needing to use a more powerful animal firm, but wanting keep the appearance correct to the area.

[@SpikeRosered]

I love the builds that will give DMs a WTF! moment when they see them in action.

[@cmccbuilds8229]

Might be a good one for the Gauntlet ;)

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Hmmm....

[@havocwrecker6305]

Late to this vid, but RAW it’s pretty much up to the DM if a wildshape can grapple. Unless your wild shaping into a wildshape with a fist attack, because they clearly have hands. You need at least one hand free to grapple.

[@dlepley0801]

If you want to build this but can't get DM buy in for plasmiods then you can take custom lineage or v.human for the skill expert feat. Give yourself a +1 to any stat, an additional proficiency but more importantly get expertise on athletics. At level 11 when the build comes online it gives a +4 to athletics which is effectively advantage for grapple checks.

[@besteger]

Bouncing here & there & everywhere!

[@davidc9005]

Off topic : Would like to see samurai have ritual casting? With tea ceremonies incense etc ... Maybe a few ki points at higher levels. Would be an easy fix for samurai. Thoughts ?

[@williamtaylor6886]

Love Druid versatility: When the fire strategy won’t work, pick a different element or cast spells. Full prepared casters can be ready for anything but anti-magic zones.

[@tscoff]

Thanks Chris. This is very useful!

[@johngillan4475]

Wow what a build. Many thanks

[@eraz0rhead]

Heh. That's a great way to solo a dragon. I'd have to say, the dragon has 1 option that leaps to mind. Take the single attack action and use "Shove" to move the druid 5 feet away from it (the Shove action doesn't say "move 5 feet" it's 5 feet _away_, so the fact the druid is in it's square, and has to move more than 5 feet doesn't prevent this, and while the Fire elemental is immune to being grappled, it isn't immune to forced movement). (EDIT -- I just realized that the phrase "5 feet away from you" might be ambiguous.. I've read it as "until it is 5 feet away from you", but I guess it probably means "5 feet in a direction that is away from you", so if that's the DM's interpretation, this wouldn't work. Most of the time those are the same, but in the case of shared spaces, the edge case isn't well covered by that phrase, IMO.) Since this isn't a grapple attack the Druid doesn't have advantage either, but the lack of proficiency in Athletics is still going to be against the Dragon. But once free of being grappled, the dragon is free to take to the air and come back another day :) (That's not accounting for Lair actions, like the surging tide that could pull the druid 20 feet away, also breaking the grapple). Such minor quibbles though, for an impressive build, as always.

[@Thamer4life]

What if you added more wizard levels for Flame Stride? This build could now set multiple targets on fire at 80 feet of speed. Touch, enter space, move to next target. That's 1d10+3 from touch, 1d10 from entering a creature's space, 1d6 from flame stride, and the creatures you set on fire either take 1d10 every turn or have to waste an action to douse their fire. If they attack you, that's another 1d10 from flame body. With optimal pathing, you should be able to do this to every enemy on the battlemap. Repeat every turn. It's not a great damaging spell, but it sure is annoying, which is what you want to be as a tank :p

[@elliotbryant3459]

Flames Of Phlegethos could come in handy for that combo

[@deiveonmartinsen1831]

I am so very very excited for this!

[@logancuster8035]

So good Chris 🎉 one Hell of a build.

[@SrasyKing]

I feel two levels of Barbarian react similarly to 1 level of Fighter and 1 level of Monk while getting you resistance to magic attacks as well. The spells you are using do not cost concentration either which adds to the synergy. Mark of Warding Dwarf (for Agathys) could work with this build as well for more on hit damage.

[@wassentme1891]

He probably has more builds in the works.

[@DandDgamer]

I don't think you want barbarian if you are doing the cute wizard dip, though its maybe good otherwise. It forces you to have a 13 strength that does nothing, whereas you can qualify for fighter with dex IIRC. So you'll end up sacrificing significantly in stats. Also wisdom is still better to pump than con IMO because summon fey is really important pre-10 to do any damage. Barb clears EZ for low level games of course.

[@wassentme1891]

@@DandDgamer Completely forgot that! If he does more builds I hope we see Barbarian, but since he is already dipping Wizard this doesn't seem the best time.

[@mattf5935]

If you are going to use the Barbarian rage feature, that means you can't concentrate on spells like summon fey, etc. That is a pretty major limitation given how important that concentration spell is to the damage numbers.

[@SrasyKing]

@@mattf5935 Starting 1 Barb first will give you a couple more AC then base wildshape forms. Also rage can be used as needed. I would think of it as getting two concentration spells that gives resistence to physical damage, +2 damage on a hit, and can be cast in rage. This is IMO better then a fighting style and second wind.

[@paoloborello3430]

Treantmonk builds a grappling character with +0 STR, optimisers all around the world are scraping their heads thinking WTF! 😂

[@chrislieu6757]

Plasmoid + Earth Elemental = Earth Glide through wall of stone vertically up. It's situational but another thing you can do.

[@darthwikkie]

Me, almost always going Air or Earth Elemental: "That's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for him."

[@talkinggibberish]

A Plasmoid that looks like flowing magma sounds cool for this.

[@NexusCrux]

Reminds me of Tuloks the Barbrarians video on Toph from Avatar where he did something similar but with the Earth Elemental

[@chrisvossler8795]

I don't remember if you talked about this in the spells video, but how does Summon Fey work with wildshape? It requires verbal commands, so do you have to give it a general command before wildshaping? Choose a form that can speak?

[@mtswerens]

Add two levels of Rogue and get expertise athletics and a bonus action dash for dragging enemies through spike growth, if so inclined.

[@xenotundra3346]

The tweet says as long as it doesn't specifically reference a body part, the amorphous trait obviously relies on the plasmid physiology which a bear for example doesn't have. If you asked your dm if your wildshape could be flavoured as an augment to your plasmid shape change then that's home-brew and completely up to the dm but it is disingenuous to try and present it as rules as intended.

[@arsov9885]

That was amazing! Thanks

[@r.downgrade5836]

Optimization by multiclassing into 5E D&D Monk. Well now I've seen everything.

[@Elkay_J]

How would kenku compare with plasmoid here? You get advantage on your grapples with kenku recall. (shouldnt require anatomy for wildshape) but its only several times per day. Would that be a suitable substitution?

[@Cyclopsided]

Yeah, that would work just fine.

[@fasterpet]

I do wonder if every wildshape build will include one+ level in monk ... The unarmored defense is such a good combo with wildshape for many forms.

[@veteran673]

I chuckled so hard at 31:20 " Dragon took 80 dmg, he is grappled and on fire" dunno why i found this funny, probably becouse its weird for dragon to strugle

[@brianmclaughlan2546]

While the plasmoid abilities don't explicitly say "because of your anatomy...", it is obviously because of anatomy. They aren't expert grapplers because they watch a lot of WWE; it's because their natural form is stretchy. They don't have poison resistance because they've been building up a tolerance to Iocaine powder just in case they run into a battle of wits; again, it's their anatomy. Every plasmoid ability is based on their anatomy. So, by RAW, I wouldn't allow any plasmoid abilities while wildshaped. That said, if a player wanted to do this, I would talk to them and feel them out. If they simply thought they were finding a loophole they could exploit, I wouldn't allow it. But if they wanted to do it because they thought it would be cool to be a gummy bear with extendable pseudopods, I'd Rule of Cool it and allow it.

[@srmillard]

Interesting. Do you think it makes sense to treat all racial abilities due to anatomy (biology)? I know WoTC are considering changing "racial" to "species". If this is the case, species is very closely tied to biology, anatomy, so you'd have a good case

[@brianmclaughlan2546]

@@srmillard I can understand the argument for just saying "no racial abilities work while Wildshaped" since that would be a lot easier and would help keep the races balanced. However, there are some racial abilities that simply should be allowed in Wildshape. Dwarven Stonecunning comes to mind. It would be silly for the dwarf to suddenly forget how to recognize stonework when they take a different form. (Interestingly, newer races and those presented in OneDnD seems to be moving away from these "culture-based" racial traits, so the problem may partially fix itself.) Other racial abilities such as Githzerai Mental Discipline would still be an issue. A Githzerai in bear form should still have their strong mental defenses against being frightened. I think that's where having an impartial DM that can adjudicate what makes sense comes in handy.

[@srmillard]

@@brianmclaughlan2546 unfortunately the only means for deciding what racial/species trait does/doesn't survive in wildshape is our intuitions. And different people's intuitions come apart. The intuitions of what is a biological mechanism for someone with a Ph. D in biology compared to someone with a high school education will differ. Moreover, what we're being asked to judge is a fictional entity, e.g., a dwarf :)

[@srmillard]

Amazing build 😍😍😍

[@joshuaguzman6211]

One of the few monk dubs in 5e

[@nicheva417]

Also. The pinnacle of actual Druidic myth refers to their ability to call pillars of fire from the sky.

[@benjaminmiller3075]

Really fun. Thanks!

[@ArticleNoun]

Super fun build.

[@JMCLoader]

A monk multiclass from treantmonk!? Add to thumbnail for instant 2million views!

[@Apfeljunge666]

I know RAW a lot things from race might carry over to Wildshape but honestly, to me, almost all racial traits in the whole game seem to be based on biology implicitly, so I wouldn't allow them to carry over as a DM. The exceptions would be almost exclusively things that are explicitly magical.

[@gnawedwick]

I kinda expected This to be a desert storm barbarian with aoe burn wild shape build. You're get the same unarmored defense and concentration saves with out having to do a triple class dip...

[@itspabbs]

I think I'd be tempted to go halfling for the race just help protect from nat 1's. But then again... I seem to roll at lot of 1's

[@jaceg810]

Would call lightning be a fine replacement for summon fey in a scenerio where gold is very scarce

[@jaceg810]

@@mogalixir First off, they are a newer dm, taking up the mantle in a group that has been going for years, they have not yet fully figured out pricing, sold a ring of protection for 60 gold for instance, among other jank. However just straight up leaving because they have yet to learn how the game works would be overly harsh wouldn't you think? (also they never formally banned conjure animals, however they where not a fan of the potential 8 demons running around with summon lesser demons, so the dm probably wont like it)

[@MacDanielx]

Sir, the type of Fey matters. Fuming has advantage on an attack roll

[@amnesium793]

Hi! Generally a fan of your builds and the channel, but I'm not convinced by this one. 1 - Grapple availability. Prior to very high level (16 in your case) you will have likely 2 uses of your special grapple per day, which is central to the entire build because of the 1d6 bonus (only a +4 to the initial grapple check isn't great). I understand moving away from your previous standard of 8 combat encounters per day with one short rest, but here I think you'll find yourself somewhat starved of uses. This is particularly relevant in case of multiple enemies: One singular big enemy lends itself to the build (likely that most melee attacks will target you etc). If an encounter consists of three equally strong enemies, your effectiveness will be greatly lessened - you will only ever be able to grapple one enemy per combat. Furthermore, your damage output in the black dragon scenario is also somewhat inflated? Taking six hits in melee range per round will be beyond most typical combat encounters even at higher levels (which you do mention yourself; just to reiterate that the black dragon scenario is unlikely to be common or representative). 2 - Maintaining a grapple. What if the enemy tries to escape your grapple and causes another contested check? Close reading of the Plasmoid feature suggests to me that no advantage applies to checks to maintain a grapple. It only specifically names initiating or escaping, and if this advantage applied to maintaining a grapple as well, the trait could simply read "You have advantage on grapple checks", which it doesn't. Since your 1d6 bonus to the check only applies on the initial grapple attempt, this leaves you with a flat roll and a +4 bonus, which is pretty poor. What's worse, the vast majority of your damage relies on an enemy hitting you in melee range - so even if your grapple target doesn't escape, it has still passively negated most of your damage output! The enemy does use its action for this though - in case of big boss monsters, not too bad; in case of multiple enemies, not that great. Honestly, I would expect most enemies to try to escape the grapple rather than hit you - even in the case of non-intelligent beasts/monsters, "running away from what's burning me" seems like a sensible instinct and not DM metagaming. 3 - Forcing melee attacks. Past the obvious instance of grapples incentivising enemies to hit you in melee range, there isn't much there (something that for example your Armor of Agathys build accounted for and tried to solve). Your opportunity attacks aren't exactly threatening, and you don't disincentivise/disable movement some other way (be it booming blade or sentinel). Unless a pure melee enemy has no other potential target, I would imagine most intelligent enemies would avoid the fire elemental that hurts just to be near. Any spellcaster or ranged enemy would try to avoid being near you to begin with. 4 - Maintaining concentration, bit of a minor point. Proficiency in constitution saves and (in fire elemental form) a +3 to CON is usually more than solid for a caster to maintain spells, but I would argue that the bar is higher for a build that relies on being in wildshape (and thus cannot really afford to recast during combat), even more so since, again, your build relies on taking hits in melee range when casters usually position in such a way as to not get hit at all. To illustrate, consider your example of fighting a black dragon: At level 12, you have a total con save bonus of +7 in fire elemental form (granted, this jumps to +8 just one level later), which means you have a 10% chance of failing a concentration save of DC10 (rolling 1 or 2). At six attacks, this gives you a chance of roughly 53% to maintain concentration through six attacks that connect, or 64% to maintain through the average number of hits of 4.2 (6 attacks, 70% chance to hit). Not bad, but certainly not a negligible chance of failure, considering (again) that you can't easily recast spells. 5 - You multiclassed into monk ;) I'm personally also not a big fan of assuming many pre-cast spells before combat, but dropping longstrider and focusing on summon fey/fire shield might be fine. All in all - it's still a moon druid? It'll do well at lower levels with wild shape, and more than fine at higher levels being a druid with high wisdom (albeit slightly delayed spell progression). I just don't think that this is an interaction I would build around, considering that the setup is heavily resource constrained, of limited effectiveness versus multiple, smaller enemies, and potentially circumvented by one or two actions on the side of the enemy. I also want to mention that I really like the deep dive into wildshape from all angles, like the deep dive on smites before it! Are you planning on looking at Wildire Druid again in combination with the new summon spells? Your old video on them was great.

[@steveolson5916]

I like the idea, but not sure unarmored defense is worth it. In the example, most of the damage done is coming from BEING HIT. If the dragon hits 95% of the time, outgoing damage is 96.9 and incoming damage is 90.7/2 = 46. This compared to 70% chance yielding 80.6 and 33.

[@LokangoFreewar15]

another way to go is to take blindfighting and make your fey to use tricksy on you so you have easy advantage on attack rolls and are protected against attacks and as it's a 5 ft area it's too small to interfere with your allies

[@martinnielsen7746]

You never mention mage armor for boosting defense on the wild shape forms? Maybe make a build with war cleric for that ekstra bonus damage attack og war wizard for mage armor and arcane deflection for defence? And of course find familiar for exploration and advantage on one attack in combat 🤔 I would love to see how that comeperes to this? ☺️

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Thanks

[@susannahammond2033]

I'm going to be playing a moon druid in a lvl 20 1 shot. I would love to see your take on this.

[@glarak9819]

On a lvl 20 One-Shot straight druid would be the way to go. Unlimited Wild Shapes are amazing. Basically get back to full health with a bonus action by Wildshaping again

[@susannahammond2033]

@@glarak9819 I was planning on doing all 20 lvls in druid but how do I compete damage wise? The elements don't do much damage by themselves. Do you have a concentration spell suggestion?

[@glarak9819]

@@susannahammond2033 I personally like Draconic Transformation, as it is a good weaponized bonus action. And gives you a respectable 60ft. flying speed, if you don't take a flying option. Beside that you have good battle field control options, like wall of stone. Don't forget that you can cast all your spells that don't have consumables while in Wildshape as an 18+ Druid, so a Damage/Controller hybrid might be your best bet.

[@theshadowbadger]

Where’d you get that animated token?? So cool!

[@boumxyz]

Would casting wall of fire, transforming in fire elemental grappling and moving in and out of the wall not be better than concentrating on your fey ?

[@voxvesper4617]

So as a Plasmoid, (assuming you can use "Change Self" while in Wild Shape with DM's permission), you could possibly use Unarmored Defense when shifted into an Amphisbaena (12 AC, NOT natural armor), then Change Self to grow a couple plasmoid arms that could hold a +1 shield (+3 AC) -- maybe even a weapon in the other arm? -- then you could wear an Amulet of Health (+4 AC from 19 Con) you can get to 20 AC with Cloak of Protection (+1 AC). In Combat, perhaps in one round you could Bite, then Constrict (grappled + restrained) 1 person. Then the next round (if DM allows it) you could grapple (not Constrict) someone else with the plasma arm that isn't holding a shield.

[@rasmusborg2945]

Hey Treant! I was very happy to listen through this video, amazing work. But I heard you mentioning using fire shield. I got very happy to hear that you could being a moon druid. How do you make it work cause it's not a druid spell except for Wildfire druids?

[@brunoprestes6151]

It was added to the Druid list on Tasha’s

[@venomrobot8940]

I was wondering the same thing for a while, but I checked the optional druid spells in Tasha's and Fire shield has in fact become a druid spell.

[@Red13aron]

If your DM rules that the Wing Attack knocking you prone makes it free of the grapple, then you'll have a hard time maintaining the DPR.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

You are immune to the prone condition in fire elemental form.

[@matthewlenard8346]

Hello Chris, I hope your day has gone well. Did you take the elemental Adept feature with this build, yes I watch the whole video, no I wasn't able to pay attention to everything you said. Did you say by multiclassing into wizard at 13th level gave you a sixth spell spot? I was under the impression that if you had 10 levels in Druid and 10 levels and wizard you would only have access to level 5 spells. The other thing that confused me is when it comes to the Fey summoning spell I'm pretty sure it written in the rules it says that it is based off of the class level that you have obtained the spell with, so even if you were able to get higher spell slots from multiclassing into wizard I do not believe that would make your summoning Fey spell stronger.😊 I don't know if it's something that is allowed at your table but at level two Druids get access to summon Beast depending on which books the DM allows at their table. The summoning Beast spell scales pretty well with leveling, with the land Beast options at level two you have a mount for any of your small-sized allies that get to attack with Perma advantage and it has a climb speed.

[@gregkaye5583]

What makes you think that the plasmoid shape self ability could be used once you transform into a beast?

[@dudubassmonster]

I don’t agree with the d10 fire dmg by just entering the same space as the enemy. That doesn’t mean you are actually touching it. For you to touch you need to get one attack to hit, hence the name of the fire elemental attack name: touch. The d10 would apply if the enemy touched you. Not the other way around. If you manage the grapple than on the next turn I would apply the d10 fire free. Does that make sense? One other thing is, can fire elementals grapple? Nothing says it cant, but if you think about it, it flys and hovers, it is immune to grapple, prone, restrain etc, and can move through spaces… i don’t believe its tangible enough to exerce pressure (like air or water) to keep a grip, right? i dont know, fire doesn’t hold… But still, creative build! Good job

[@venomrobot8940]

The Fire Elemental explicitly states that entering a hostile creature's space causes fire damage: "In addition, the elemental can enter a hostile creature's space and stop there. The first time it enters a creature's space on a turn, that creature takes 5 (1d10) fire damage and catches fire; until someone takes an action to douse the fire, the creature takes 5 (1d10) fire damage at the start of each of its turns." To answer your question, all creatures can use the basic actions like attack, dash, dodge and disengage. grappling is a special attack that replaces one of a creature's attacks with a grapple. So yes, all monsters can grapple. There is one caveat though, taking the attack action is not taking the multi attack action, and grappling only allows replacing an attack from extra attack, not multi attack. as a result, a monster has to spend it's whole action to try and grapple someone.

[@dudubassmonster]

@@venomrobot8940 fair enough but if the enemy is already on fire it doesnt matter if you get out of its space or not on the following turns…

[@konsimaurer7922]

Hey guys, just tried to semi copy the build in aurora, which should use all available official content, but it says that the grappling thing at level 1 fighter is not available. Did they change that?

[@voxvesper4617]

Could you share a DNDB link to the final build?

[@augustolenzuen800]

Hey, Chris, I have come up with a build of my own using Wild Shape inspired by your videos. I was wondering if there's a way for me to send it to you for your appreciation. FYI, I think you'll like it! Cheers!

[@Amanofan7777]

So if plasmoid is a no go, what's the next best option? Variant human with resilient WIS to get it to 20 sooner?

[@alanabdallahrogana5949]

If you only take CR 2, conjure Animals is kind of tablet friendly. Furthermore why not use armor of agathys for some Ice and fire combo?

[@JugglingAddict]

And since you can get AoA from mark of warding dwarf (I like dwarven fortitude on builds with monks) You don't have become more mad. taking 1 or 2 more levels in monk gets you a few more things too. Although I am aware that you took plasmoid for the grapple advantage, which we don't get with a different race with 2 more levels of fighter (rune knight) that shouldn't be a problem.

[@jakewarman7277]

You do rune Knight fighter instead of battlemaster if plasmoid is not allowed

[@dominicdwk]

Do you prefer Wizards more than Druid’s?

[@pcz2093]

Do you prefer Summmon Fey over Draconic Spirit?

[@dantePureDebil]

How do You achieve grapple as bonus action? I rewatched this video but am still missing what allow this build to do this

[@Hagot428]

The level of monk lets you make an unarmed attack as a bonus action when you attack, then you can substitute that for a grapple

[@ThirtytwoJ]

I would go as far as spore druids having secret ability to always get plant growth from mushroom spores. Grow smushy stinky cave mushrooms.

[@michaelmuirhead910]

I knew this wasn’t going to be a straight 20 moon druid, but a 4 class phasmoid? With monk? Wth is happening here?

[@SmokeSolo1975]

Take Athletics as a skill and skill master as a feat and you get expertise in grappling

[@Crowsbane4]

Isn't bonfire concentration, and you can't do that while wild shaped

[@KaitlynBurnellMath]

Huh, yep, Fire Elemental only has 16 CON, so monk unarmoured defence is better than barbarian unarmoured defence.