Baldur's Gate 3 best Druid build
Unleash your inner animal with the best Druid build in Baldur's Gate 3
Do you need a strong Baldur's Gate 3 Druid build? If you're itching to channel the elemental forces of the world around you in Baldur's Gate 3, the Druid is the class to choose to help you unleash your inner nature-loving beast.
Druids walk on the wild side with an array of actions and bonus actions that tap into their primal animal instincts. They can become extraordinarily powerful characters in Baldur's Gate 3, and to maximise this power you'll need to start carefully selecting your options from the first moments of character creation. Here's everything you need to know about the best Druid build in Baldur's Gate 3, including information on cantrips, spells, subclass options, and more.
Note: Looking for lots more builds to choose from? Check out our dedicated list of the best builds in Baldur's Gate 3 for each class!
Baldur's Gate 3 best Druid build
In Baldur's Gate 3, the Druid class begins the game with Mastery of the Wild Shape. This honors the Druid's kinship with animals by allowing them to transform into various types of beasts. The Druid's primary ability is Wisdom.
Druids start the game with two Level 1 spell slots they can restore with a Long Rest. Druids also begin with two cantrips, which are spells that don't use spell slots and can be cast at any time. They'll also receive a number of known spells equal to the character's Druid level plus their Wisdom modifier. They can choose any of the spells from this list to add or remove from their spell slots while they are not in combat and not moving.
Druid subclass options
Upon reaching Level 2, Druids can choose from the following subclass options, known as Druid Circles:
- Circle of the Moon: Highlights the Druid's Wild Shape action, which allows you to shapeshift into an in-game creature and gives you some of the statistics of whichever beast you've transformed into.
- Circle of the Land: A spellcasting-focused option that focuses on hefty, damage-dealing elemental magic instead of constantly relying on Wild Shape.
- Circle of the Spores: Honors a commitment to the dark side of the world by harnessing the power of necrotic spores and other fungal, disease-related spells.
Druid Weapon, armour, and class proficiencies
- Druid weapon proficiencies: Club, dagger, javelin, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, and spear
- Druid armour proficiencies: Light armour, medium armour, shields
- Druid skill proficiencies: Choice of two: Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, and Perception
- Druid saving throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
- Level 4: War Caster
- Level 8: Sentinel
- Level 12: Lucky
Best Druid race, background, and skills
In Baldur's Gate 3, your race, background, and chosen skills can grant you additional actions and traits that help strengthen your character. While these may vary based on your team composition and approach, here's what we've found to be the best picks for a solid Druid build.
The best Druid race is Wood Elf.
The Wood Elf race grants a moderately increased movement speed and a proficiency bonus to Stealth checks. Elves also have Darkvision, which allows them to see in the dark, plus Fey Ancestry for advantage on saving throws against being Charmed. Magic also cannot put elves to sleep. Choosing a Wood Elf also broadens the Druid weapon choices, as elves gain Proficiency with long and short swords, along with long and short bows.
The best Druid background is Folk Hero.
Folk Hero grants the Animal Handling and Survival Skills. Animal Handling allows you to handle tasks such as calming down domesticated animals, keeping mounts from getting spooked, and intuiting an animal’s intentions, while Survival helps you follow tracks, hunt wild game, predict the weather, and avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.
The best Druid Skill Proficiencies are Insight and Nature.
Insight allows a character to determine creatures' true intentions, while Nature allows them to share helpful lore about terrain, plants and animals, the weather, and natural cycles.
Best Druid Circles
The best Druid subclass is the Circle of the Moon, which grants greater Wild Shape abilities. As you progress, you'll get numerous shapeshifting options to transform into subclass-specific creatures like the Dire Raven, which can avoid attention and blind enemies, or the Sabre-Toothed Tiger, a big cat that shreds armour and regenerates hit points. As an added bonus, this class also receives unique cosmetic options, so you can be sure that you'll look memorable right before morphing into a feline.
Best Druid spells and cantrips
Druids begin Baldur's Gate 3 with two cantrips and two Level 1 spell slots. They can choose additional spells as they progress, though be aware that spell levels do not correspond with character levels. Druids can also select an additional cantrip at Level 4. Here are the best Druid spells and cantrips for each of these levels.
Best Druid cantrips
The best Druid cantrips are:
Level 1 cantrips: Shillelagh, Thorn Whip
Level 4 cantrip: Poison Spray
Best Druid spells
These are the best Druid spells by spell Level:
Level 1: Healing Words, Cure Wounds, Thunderweave, Entagle
Level 2: Barkskin or Moonbeam
Level 3: Call Lightning
Level 4: Blight
Level 5: Contagion
Level 6: Flesh to Stone or Heal
Best Druid feats
Druids can choose feats at Levels 4, 8, and 12. The best Druid feats are:
War Caster grants saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell. Lucky grants three luck points, which you can spend to gain advantage on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can also use a luck point to force an enemy to reroll their attack. Sentinel allows you to use a reaction to attack an enemy when they attack you in melee range, and it also grants advantage on opportunity attacks and prevents targets hit by those strikes from moving for the rest of their turn.
If you've followed our instructions, you should have an excellent Baldur's Gate 3 Druid build capable of taking to the wilds of Faerun with gusto. If you're interested in other class builds, check out our best builds guide. If you find that your character isn't exactly what you need, you can always respec them. And, while you're here, why not check out our guides to how to multiclass and on romancing the game's various companions, too?
Disclosure: Former RPS deputy editor Adam Smith (RPS in peace) now works at Larian and is the lead writer for Baldur's Gate 3. Former contributor Emily Gera also works on it.