Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

===[[Druid]]===
Still here, not quite as eco-terrorist-y, and fully loosening most alignment restrictions. Proportionately less powerful than [[CoDzilla|they used to be]], but still enjoy all the power and versatility of being a full caster.  Druids characters put a lot of their chips into their archetype to define how they're used.

Their archetypes are called "Circles":
* '''Circle of the Land''' (PHB): Used to make a general-purpose caster Druid, with a number of cleric-style "domains" representing Druid's native land - like swamp, forest or even [[Awesome|the Underdark]], plus some passive resistances to poison, disease, fey-charms, soothing the aggression of natural creatures, etc.
* '''Circle of the Moon''' (PHB): Creates a Druid focused on shapeshifting and fighting in animal forms, though they only get one roleplaying benefit, and it only happens when you learn how to turn into people at level 14, and as such might make people think you're a [[murderhobo]]. Also Archdruids of the Moon have an obscene amount of hit points. Can expend spellslots to heal themselves in animal form. Combined with turning into a bear, this makes them pretty good tanks. Infamous for the "angry onion" build, which involves dipping ''juuuuuust'' far enough into barbarian to get access to the bear totem, and through it both Unarmored Defense based on Constitution and resistance to all damage but psychic while raging, since the druid *can* shapeshift and use slots to heal him or herself while raging. As a result, any enemy will have to "peel away the layers" as the druid pops into different animal forms full of expendable hitpoints, all the while the druid whails on them.
A lot of people like to complain that this subclass is strictly better than the land druid, but that's not really true, since they in fact have differing roles. THe moon druid is OP, sure, but it's focused around tanking and augmenting the class's Wild Shape feature. The Circle of the land, however, is meant to be a generalist caster. In terms of its benefits, it for example is the only druid that can regain spell slots on a short rest.
* '''Circle of Dreams''' (Xanathar's Guide to Everything): These druids have come to share good terms with the "nature spirit" type fae, such as [[dryad]]s or [[treeman|treemen]] or [[nymph]]s, and this gives them more fae-like powers due to emulating the fundamental nature of those spirits. They're characterised with rather hippy-esque overtones, much like the Oath of Ancients [[Paladin]]. They have a feature that lets them heal others for a given amount per day, the ability to create an illusion-veiled campsite that's hard to find and which gives them and their buddies home-court advantage in combat, an at-will teleport feature with a d4 turn cooldown, and the ability to stack on a dispel magic on a healing spell three times per long rest.
* '''Circle of the Shepherd''' (Xanathar's Guide to Everything): Essentially the animal companion druids of 4e, with a dash of 4e [[Shaman]]. Spirit Bond lets them summon an animal spirit once per short rest, which effectively creates a 30ft buffing zone for 1 minute that gives a boost depending on what spirit they summon - Bear gives temporary [[hit points]] and advantage on Strength checks & saving throws, Hawk gives advantage on ranged attacks on enemies in the zone, and Wolf gives advantage on detecting checks and causes healing spells to "spread" to other allies in the aura. Beast Speech is a permanent Talk With Animals spell, Mighty Summoner causes the druid's summoned/conjured animals to have increased health and have attacks that count as magical, Guardian Spirit gives them a 24-hour-long Deathwatch spell each time they finish a long rest, and Faithful Summons causes them to reflexively cast a (free) Conjure Animals with a 9th level slot the first time they drop to zero HP, with the resultant summons guarding the druid.
** Got a reprise as part of the June 2017 UA. Spirit Bond now calls forth a Bear, a Hawk or a [[Unicorn]], with the newcomer granting Advantage to Perception checks and essentially turning your healing spells into group-targeting spells for free. Also, Guardian Spirit now provides free healing to your summoned beasts and faeries, restoring HP equal to half your druid level each turn they end within the aura of your Spirit Totem.
* '''Circle of Twilight''' (UA: Druid Circles): Druids who have chosen to specialize in hunting down the undead, whom druids have traditionally been quite opposed to. They get a pool of dice they can use to deal bonus necrotic damage with their offensive spells (which generates healing if the spell kills any of its targets), the ability to cast Speak With Dead and, at a higher level, Etherealness as a spell-like ability once per short rest, resistance to necrotic & radiant damage, and their mere presence gives allies advantage on death saving throws.
*'''Circle of Spores''' (Guildmaster's Guide to Ravinca): Rather than turn into an animal, this turns you into a fungus-man who spreads spores to enemies. Wildshape not only boosts the damage of these spores, but also grants some temporary HP. Enemies who die to these spores can even become temporary spore-zombies as soon as level 6! The Guildmaster's Guide to [[Ravnica]] featured this as the first new official druid subclass since the Xanathar's Guide and was reprinted in ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything''.
* '''Circle of Wildfire''' (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything): The predictably pyromaniacal subclass. At the start, this allows you to spend Wild Shape on summoning little fire spirits to fight alongside you. Fortunately this is not purely offensive, as while you can let enemies explode into flames, allies can heal next to these flames, and your capstone ability lets you cheat death while burning any enemies you see.The Unearthed Arcana where they debuted notably finally gave the Druid a legitimate way to get Fireball, but Tasha's Cauldron pulled back on this to give them Scorching Ray instead.
* '''Circle of the Stars''' (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything): This subclass grants some spell-like abilities as well as a new transformation into a star-man, equipped with one of three special abilities that improve as you progress. You also gain the ability to divine some of the future, granting one of two benefits based on what you roll on a d6. 

The Druid UA also presents a set of optional simpler rules for wildshape, which gives 3 "basic" forms according to climate, and new forms require at least an hour of observation followed by a DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check, or a shorter time in interaction followed by a DC 15 Wisdom (Animal Handling) Check. This keeps the druid for being stupid awesome at polymorphing. Notably, there is an absence of the Dire Wolf among the lists (arguably the best early wild shape form).