Not in the Mood for Druid

Looking through FiveThirtyEight's amazing survey the other day yielded a number of interesting insights to the types of characters people enjoy playing. The most baffling thing to me though is the very poor representation Druids received in the survey. They ended up being the least popular class, which for a class with such utility, diversity and flexibility, really left me surprised. 

There's 6 druids in this picture... maybe.

Lets Talk Options

Druids have to be almost hands down, one of the most flexible and interesting classes to not only play, but also role-play. I think that most must simply view them as forest dwelling hermits who hate everything but trees and things that cannot speak. This however, doesn't have to be the case. Perhaps your druid is an urchin who has gained their powers after spending time with the vermin that frequents a large city. Or maybe, your druid trained as a cleric following the teachings of a nature god but was never blessed with the gods divine abilities. 

Thematic backstory options aside, another area druids shine in when making a character, is if you rolled poorly for your stats. Using the wild shape ability allows you to mitigate a number of these issues, as you can utilise the beasts stats to become stronger and more robust. This will potentially allow you to pass strength, dexterity and constitution checks if you are in an appropriate wild shape. 

Then finally along this vain, you have the options of focusing on spell casting, battlefield control, melee combat, potent healing, powerful class abilities and access to ritual casting. Hell, if you desired you could take particular spells to allow yourself to attack with just your hands becoming a sort of Werewolf. 

Circles of Circumstance

Now, after covering the previous reasons about why druids rock, we should probably move onto even more reasons they are awesome, the sub-classes. Druid sub-classes each provide a great and thematic bonus to further customise your druid, each of these options provides great advantages but don't sacrifice on the terrific utility of the druid. Each subclass can still wild shape, heal, cast spells and react to any situation in a number of ways. This means that playing a druid will never be as monotonous as a fighter or perhaps even a cleric. 

Additionally with Xanathar's Guide to Everything bringing along 2 great new additional sub-classes the druid now thankfully has 4 options to pick from at level 2. I guess this was potentially the druids largest setback compared to a number of other classes with the initial release of 5e. 

Measuring the Worth

Druids are often undervalued in the party composition with characters like bards or wizards often taking the utility/control slot of the party. Although there could be strong arguments as to why each of these other classes could be more successful, it should be recognised that druids can step up to swing with the big dogs. On top of the healing, summoning, battlefield control, damage, tanking and all round awesomeness of the druid, here are a few other "out of the box" examples on why druids are a better option. 

The Perfect Spy: Rogues and monks maybe able to stealth and infiltrate, hanging from rafters to eavesdrop on an enemies plans. Druids however can just stroll up to the enemy, jump on their lap, listen to the conversation whilst reading all the important paperwork on their table then stroll away when ever they desire, as a cat, or a dog, or monkey. Random animals show up in our lives from time to time and no one ever suspects that they are in fact a half crazed gnome in cat form spying on us. Hell if that isn't going to work you could always meld with the stone hearth/floor/wall.

Intelligence Gathering: Talking to an NPC is great for finding out information, but what if they are being tight lipped. Sure a cleric might be able to assist with a zone of truth, or your barbarian with their fists, but why beat around the bush, when you can just ask it. With spells like speak with beasts and speak with plants druids can often find the answers they are looking for. 

Ambassador/diplomat: Does anyone hate a druid? They don't typically represent a political or regional faction and therefore with no real affiliation, can provide excellent neutral intermediaries between your party and other factions. With no major need to stack points into strength or dexterity due to the advantages of wild shaping, characters could easily pump up charisma to increase their success in this area.