Of all the classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, Druids are the only characters that can pivot between being powerful casters and crushing skulls with animalistic melee attacks.
Picking the right feats for your Druid means understanding your playstyle, and that’s why I should preface this list with my own biases. I tend to find pleasure in the simple things, like the image of an owlbear smacking a goblin directly in the face. My Druids don’t have much time to cast epic spells, because I make them shift into a bear, or a dinosaur when possible, and smash into everything in sight. My favorite feats tend to boost that melee-heavy approach, but I’ve included some feats for Druids that want to flex their spellcasting muscles and some honorable mentions that should appeal to everyone.
Ability Score Improvement
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Taking an Ability Score improvement instead of an actual feat is the best, most boring option available to any level 4 character. It works for Sorcerers, Druids, and every other class because it’s the most reliable way to get a permanent increase in overall power. It’s also available fairly early, and as a Druid, you really can’t go wrong with taking two extra points to your Wisdom as your very first feat.
War Caster
War Caster is a phenomenal feat for Druids, mostly because of the way it interacts with Wild Shape. This feat grants advantage on Concentration saving throws and allows characters to cast Shocking Grasp as a reaction. The reaction will only be available to Druids in their human form, but the advantage on Concentration saves carries over into Wild Shape. Because of that, you can massively buff yourself with a spell like Haste, for example, and then run into the melee in your Wild Shape without much fear of losing the buff.
Elemental Adept
When Druids are casting spells, they’re usually taking advantage of the destructive power of the elements. The Elemental Adept feat lets your Druid ignore damage resistance to one type of element, and when you use that element, you can’t roll a 1 on any of your damage dice. Your damage type choices are Acid, Cold, Lightning, Fire, or Thunder. There’s no wrong choice, but I’d recommend Lightning because it pairs so well with my favorite Druid spell, Call Lightning, and it’s even more useful if you also take the War Caster feat.
Mobile
Enough with the casting, it’s time to get back to bashing things. Mobile increases a character’s movement speed by 3 meters, allows movement with the Dash action to ignore difficult terrain, and lets characters avoid attacks of opportunity from enemies they’ve already hit with a melee attack. People might typically associate this feat with Barbarians or other melee-first characters, but I love choosing it for Druids because the bonuses also apply to your Wild Shape. In animal form I can smack an enemy to cancel out an opportunity attack, and then take a ton of movement to flank my other opponents. It’s useful and really plays into the fantasy of shifting into an immensely powerful creature.
Spell Sniper
I promised some feats for Druids specializing in spellcasting, and it really doesn’t get much better than Spell Sniper. The feat lets you pick up a free cantrip, with great options like Eldritch Blast and Bone Chill, but more importantly it also reduces the number you need for a Critical Hit with a spell by 1. Critting on both a 19 and 20 might not sound like a huge improvement, but when most of your actions are spent dishing out spell attacks, you’ll notice the difference very quickly. Suddenly 10% of all your spell attacks are critical hits, and that’s a lot of extra damage.
Honorable Mentions
Athlete
The Athlete feat grants a +1 to Strength or Dexterity, reduces the movement required to stand from prone, and boosts jump distance by 50%. This is a fun feat for Druids because the bonuses apply while in Wild Shape, but because the jump distance doesn’t stack with abilities like the Dilophosaurus form’s Pounce attack, I’d prioritize Mobile.
Magic Initiate
The Magic Initiate feat grants a Druid two cantrips and a 1st level spell from the Bard, Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell lists. If you’re someone who plays a Druid as a full caster, then this is absolutely worth considering as it can really help round out your personal spell list.
Lucky
Three times per long rest, the Lucky feat allows you to either gain advantage on an attack, ability check, or saving throw, or force an enemy to reroll an attack. Need I say more? This feat works well for any character, though it’s obviously less focused than some of your other options.
Resilient
Resilient gives you a +1 to any Ability Score and grants you proficiency with that ability’s saving throws. Because you can choose Constitution, which also counts for Concentration saving throws, this feat is in direct competition with War Caster. I’d rank Resilient second, but there’s definitely an argument to be made for taking either.
Sentinel
Sentinel is a tempting option for Druids, with one drawback that could be mitigated by your playstyle. The feat allows you to take a melee attack on an enemy as a reaction when they attack one of your party members, and it also gives you advantage on attacks of opportunity and makes those attacks, when successful, stop enemy movement for the rest of the turn. All that said, the reaction part of this feat doesn’t work when you’re in Wild Shape, so it’s significantly less useful for Druids like me that spend most of their time melee fighting as an animal.
Published: Jul 30, 2024 03:14 pm