5e Druid Spells Guide

Level 3: Call Lightning, Sleet Storm, Conjure Animals, Plant Growth. This is where druids become dangerous. Call Lightning gives you three turns of 3d10 lightning damage on a save. Sleet Storm ends flying enemies and ranged attacks in one cast. Conjure Animals is the best summon in the game if you pick the right forms. Two crabs with a combined AC of 11 and four attacks each is better than most players expect. Level 4: Banishing Smite, Conjure Woodland Beings, Freedom of Movement, Giant Insect. Banishing Smite is a reaction that removes any creature below hit point threshold. It works on legendaries too. I have pulled Tiamat's dragon form out of a fight twice with this combination. Freedom of Movement ends grappling, restraint, and swimming penalties for the whole party. It is worth slotting even if nobody in your party is a monk. Level 5: Call Lightning (upcast), Animate Objects, Commune with Nature, Dryads. Animate Objects turns a bundle of sticks into eight creatures with decent damage output. It is not amazing but it distracts enemies and gives you extra actions without using your turn. Commune with Nature is a ten-minute ritual that tells you the nearest source of fresh water, any large creatures within a mile, and whether the land has been affected by magic recently. Most druid players skip it. I have used it to find hidden dungeons three separate times.

Wild Shape deserves its own section because it interacts with spellcasting in ways the rules do not make obvious. While transformed, you cannot cast spells or use material components that require a free hand. This means your focus item is effectively locked away while you are in beast form. The workaround is simple: do not rely on Wild Shape for spellcasting. Use it for scouting, transportation, or staying conscious after a critical hit. These are separate uses. I ran into a specific edge case with a Circle of the Moon druid who tried to maintain concentration on Flaming Sphere while Wild Shaped into a CR 1 beast. The beast form had an Intelligence of 3. The sphere stayed there because the concentration check used the druid's stats, not the beast's. But the druid could not command the sphere while in beast form because the rules say you cannot take actions that require hands. I spent three sessions arguing this with the DM. The ruling was that the sphere kept moving on its own but the druid could not redirect it. That is a real limitation you need to plan around. Circle of the Land gets bonus spells. These are always prepared and do not count against your normal number. For a forest land, Lesser Restoration and Speak with Plants come free at levels 3 and 5. For a swamp, Mossform and Water Breathing. These are not powerful spells. They are utility spells that save you from buying gear or failing ability checks. Treat them as background noise. Do not build your spell list around them.

Circle of Stars is different. It gives you access to Starry Forms which replace Wild Shape. The Ward Form gives temporary hit points and resistance. The Forge Form adds radiant damage to weapon attacks. This circle does not care about your spell list as much because the features are self-contained. If you pick this circle, invest heavily in Charisma or Wisdom depending on how you want to build. Both work fine. Concentration management is the main failure point for druids. You will have three spells up at once by level 7. Barkskin on the tank. Call Lightning on the battlefield. Concentration on the enemy front line. When you take damage, you need to make Constitution saves. At lower levels these are brutal. The workaround is simple: do not upcast Call Lightning until you have at least 14 Constitution. A 13-Concentration save on a 3d10 lightning bolt is too risky. Another counter-intuitive insight: Healing Word is a bonus action. This means you can cast it on an ally and then cast a reaction spell like Oppping Attack or Shield in the same turn. Druids do not get many reaction spells. Abundant Step from Circle Stars is one. Mirror Image from the Magic Tree feat is another. These combo with Healing Word more often than people realize.

Equipment matters more than most players think. A druidic focus is required for spells with material components. Most focuses cost 1 gold piece. But you can also use a component pouch. The difference is that a focus gives you a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls if you have the Arcane Focus feature. Without it, both options are mechanically identical. Do not spend more than 5 gold on a focus. It does not matter. When to not cast druid spells. This is the part most guides skip. If you are in a social encounter with no combat threat, Dispel Magic and Detect Magic are dead weight. Use Prestidigitation instead. If your party is fighting undead, Turn Undead from a paladin is better than Create or Destroy Water. If you are facing a boss with legendary resistances, stop spamming Call Lightning and use Suggestion or Hold Person instead. Bosses save through half your damage. Crowd control works better. I once played a level 9 druid in a campaign where the DM ruled that Conjure Animals summons did not count toward the party's action economy because they were "nature spirits." This meant my four summoned wolves were essentially decoration. I lost that fight. The workaround was to switch to Polymorph on myself and use the giant scorpion form directly. The DM could not argue with that because it was my character, not a summon. It is a narrow rule but it happens enough that you should have a backup plan.