Tooth and talon. Access powerful wild shape forms with the moon druid; the tankiest and most savage of the druidic subclasses.
What is the circle of the moon?
Druids have always received their magic from an aspect of nature. Some may receive it from the land, sea or even stars. Moon druids (as the name implies) receive their magic from the moon.
The moon is heavily associated with transformation. Werewolves and other lycanthropes have always had their shape changing abilities linked to the moon and this is also the case for moon druids.
Where moon druids differ from lycanthropes is that they have complete control over their shape shifting (known as their wild shape). They are not transformed when the moon is full; rather, their powers are drawn from the moon to use as and when they choose.
All druids can wild shape, but for moon druids, this ability is significantly enhanced allowing them to become much more deadly creatures. Think of the likes of Sirius Black from Harry Potter, who is an animagus.
D&D 2024 has changed wild shape significantly as well as updating how moon druids work. In this article, I take you through how you can optimise these powerful druidic warriors.
At a glance
- Transform into deadly beasts
- Complement wild shaping with powerful nature magics
- Use your wild shape to become something of a tank with more hit points than most other classes
- The best druid subclass for a melee combatant
- Also a utility class with a range of uses out of combat from spellcasting and wild shape
Circle of the moon features
Circle of the moon druids are wild shape specialists with a deep connection with their beast forms. With that comes a bunch of enhancements to their wild shape through their features which I’ve explained below:
How has wild shape changed?
D&D 2024 has brought with it a bunch of changes to how wild shape works. In some ways, this has made the ability less powerful, in other ways, has made the ability more powerful. In reality, I feel it balances the ability nicely. Below are the changes you can expect to wild shape:
- Now only requires a bonus action to activate (allowing you to get stuck straight into the action)
- You get more uses as you level up
- You regain less uses on a short rest, but have more ways to regain uses such as expending a spell slot
- You don’t assume the hit points from your wild shape from anymore. Instead you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your druid level (and more for a moon druid)
- But this also means you can remain in your wild shape until your full raft of hit points reaches 0 rather than reverting to your humanoid form when your wild shape form’s hit points are all lost
- You now have a set number of wild shape forms known
- You can speak while in your wild shape form
- Damage in your wild shape form can scale with your levels
- You can summon a wild companion using the find familiar spell by using a spell slot or a wild shape use
Circle forms – Level 3
How it works
Wild shape gets a big, scalable boost when you become a moon druid at level 3:
- Armor class: Your armor class in your wild shape becomes 13 + your wisdom modifier. You can either use this or your beast form’s AC.
- Enhanced temporary hit points: Rather than the typical number of hit points gained when you wild shape, moon druids have this tripled. You now gain 3 times your druid level in temporary hit points when you wild shape.
- Better wild shape forms: Moon druids have access to more powerful forms that they can transform into. The challenge ratings (CR) of these forms is equal to your druid level divided by 3 giving you a maximum beast CR of 6.
Tactics
This is a meaty feature with a lot of moving parts so let’s break it all down by each aspect:
- Armor class: Beasts have notoriously poor AC so this is a huge boon making your AC better than studded leather can achieve (assuming your wisdom is high, which it should be). The tactic here is to invest in wisdom as you’ll need your AC as high as possible as you should be operating as a bit of a tank on the front lines of combat.
- Enhanced temporary hit points: This is technically a nerf from your previous extra hit points, but it was the right nerf to make and still makes you gnarly enough to operate as a tank. With your enhanced AC, you may actually find that your hit points go further anyway so maybe it’s just more balanced… Either way, you should be utilising those hit points as a front line tank to protect your allies.
- Better wild shape forms: Higher CR forms means better damage and abilities in your wild form. You’re limited by a number of forms known so make sure you choose forms for different occasions. Once you hit level 8, you’ll want a form that can fly, but you’ll also want at least one with a swim speed, one that can sneak about (so something tiny) and one that’s great for combat. This should cover most uses for your wild shape. And while you wait for flight, you could grab something with a climb speed instead.
Circle of the moon spells – Level 3
How it works
At level 3 and beyond, you gain access to some additional spells known as part of your circle of the moon subclass. What’s unique about these spells is you can use them while in your wild shape giving you spellcasting capabilities without having to revert to your humanoid form.
You get the following spells at the following levels:
| Druid level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3 | Cure wounds, moonbeam, starry wisp |
| 5 | Conjure animals |
| 7 | Fount of moonlight |
| 9 | Mass cure wounds |
Tactics
- Use starry wisp for ranged attacks when your health is depleted and you need to get out of the way of danger. Even better, you can take a flying form at later levels and rain down spells from the relative safety of the skies.
- You can now operate as a frontline medic with healing spells you can perform while operating as a tank. Sadly, cure wounds takes an action, but in life or death moments, it can be worth it.
- Fight with friends with conjure animals for some coordinated attacks.
Improved circle forms – Level 6
How it works
Your wild form can now choose to cause it’s usual damage with attacks or radiant damage instead.
Tactics
- Great for bypassing resistances, and radiant damage will be resisted less than standard wild shape damage types.
Moonlight step – Level 10
How it works
Essentially an enhanced misty step. You can now use your bonus action to teleport 30ft and get advantage on your next attack roll before the end of your turn. You can do this a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier each day but can also be expended using level 2 or higher spells slots if you’re desperate.
Tactics
- Great for getting into combat quickly or shifting positions to get at a different target more safely.
- You can use it to escape sticky situations too, but because of the advantage on an attack roll that turn, is most effective when used aggressively rather than defensively.
- Another reason to maintain a high wisdom score for additional uses of this.
Lunar form – Level 14
How it works
Deal an extra 2d10 radiant damage once per turn when hitting someone with a wild shape attack.
Tactics
- This stacks with primal strikes from the elemental fury feature for druids so that’s a bonus 2d8 and 2d10 at level 15 for druid wild shape attacks. I’d definitely recommend taking this option for moon druids as you really want your focus to be on wild shape attacks over spell casting.
Building a circle of the moon druid
Moon druids are a little unusual in their build, as they spend so long in their wild shape form that your basic build ends up mattering less. Still, there are some important things to keep in mind and do with your build which I’ve detailed below:
Ability scores
Recommended options
- Wisdom: The most important moon druid ability as not only is spell casting tied to this, but also uses of things like moonlight step and your wild shape AC.
- Constitution: You’ll need this for your hit points and maintaining spell concentration so should be high.
- Dexterity, intelligence and charisma: Because you’ll spend so long in wild shape form, the usual importance of dexterity for a druid is mostly gone. Still, better AC in humanoid form remains helpful, otherwise you can go in for a bit of intelligence for knowledge skills or charisma for face skills.
Options to avoid
- Strength: Not important for a moon druid
| Ability score | Point Buy | Standard Array |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 8 | 8 |
| Dexterity | 12 | 13 |
| Constitution | 15 | 14 |
| Intelligence | 8 | 10 |
| Wisdom | 15 | 15 |
| Charisma | 13 | 12 |
Skills
Recommended options
- Perception: Important for anyone in the party and highly used.
- Insight: Important face skill.
- Nature: Decent knowledge skill.
- Arcana: Decent knowledge skill.
- Religion: Decent knowledge skill.
Options to avoid
- Medicine: Magic is a much more effective form of healing
- Survival: Used far too little to be of much use.
- Animal handling: Used far too little to be of much use.
Species/race
There are a couple of things to consider when choosing a species for a circle of the moon druid:
- Resilience: While you’ll spend a lot of time in your wild shape form, at least some resiliency features should work alongside this such as extra HP. Moon druids need to operate as tanks and frontline warriors so you should expect to get battered a fair bit.
- Utility features: You’ll want traits that can be used outside of combat more than those used in combat when you’ll be using wild shape features.
Recommended options
- Dwarf (2024): An extra hit point per level will stack with your wild shape really nicely. Tool proficiencies are much more useful now too. Smith’s tools is probably your best option from the lot.
- Orc (2024): More temporary hit points are practically useless, especially as you can’t gain them in your wild shape form, but you might want to consider an Orc for their ability to keep standing when reduced to 0HP.
- Elf (2024): Grab some innate utility spells and an extra skill.
- Gnome (2024): Out of combat utility through spells and some resilience to spells.
- Human (2024): Your best option for a moon druid. Grab an extra origin feat and an extra skill proficiency. Plus you get a free use of heroic inspiration every day. All of this can easily be used alongside wild shape.
Options to avoid
Dragonborn (2024): You can’t breath fire or sprout wings while in wild shape. Plus you can get better flying in wild shape anyway (at least from level 8).
Goliath (2024): These traits only seem to work in your humanoid state so don’t seem worth taking.
Tielfing (2024): Too many innate spells rely on being in combat which you’re unlikely to use often due to wild shape spells being restricted to those granted to your subclass.
Backgrounds
Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. Remember that you can either choose to increase one of the ability score options from a background by 2 and the other by 1, or you can choose to increase all 3 ability scores by 1.
You also get an origin feat linked to your background too.
For a moon druid, you need to make sure you prioritise wisdom for your ability score increase. Any background without this isn’t worth taking. Of these backgrounds, the ones with best other features are:
| Name | Ability scores | Origin feat | Skill proficiencies | Tool proficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farmer | Strength, constitution, wisdom | Tough | Animal handling, nature | Carpenter’s tools |
| Guide | Dexterity, constitution, wisdom | Magic initiate (druid) | Stealth, survival | Cartographer’s tools |
| Sage | Constitution, intelligence, wisdom | Magic initiate (wizard) | Arcana, history | Calligrapher’s tools |
| Sailor | Strength, dexterity, wisdom | Tavern brawler | Acrobatics, perception | Navigator’s tools |
| Scribe | Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom | Skilled | Investigation, perception | Calligrapher’s supplies |
| Wayfarer | Dexterity, wisdom, charisma | Lucky | Insight, stealth | Thieves’ tools |
Farmer is a particularly good option as it includes a constitution increase and the tough feat for that extra durability you need.
Weapons
Weapons really aren’t important for a moon druid (remember your wild shape doesn’t end just because your wild shape temporary hit points are depleted, you can stay in this form till you hit 0HP). In reality, you should be fighting tooth and claw or occasionally casting spells in your humanoid form.
You might consider a quarterstaff or club to pair with shillelagh for the occasional times you need to perform some weapon fighting (ranged attacks should use your cantrips).
Armor
Use studded leather armor and a shield for those occasional times you’re not in wild shape (like before you’ve taken a turn in combat). A shield is definitely worth taking as you’ll need weapons so little anyway, you can easily occupy a hand with a shield.
If you take the warden primal order, half plate might be your best option for medium armor. Keep in mind that there’s no longer a restriction on the use of metal armor for druids.
Other class guides
Not sure a circle of the moon druid is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other D&D 2024 class and subclass guides.
