D&D: 5 Good Feats For Druids
Every handful of levels, all characters get a chance to either increase their stats (an “ability score improvement,” aka ASI) or take a feat. Druids are in an interesting place when it comes to this choice for a couple reasons. In short, they only have one stat that really matters (Wisdom). You’re going to want to reach 20 Wisdom, but your best starting roll, racial bonuses, magic items, and maybe a single ASI is usually enough to do that. Because they’re always shapeshifting into animals (which overrides most of their base stats), druids don’t really need to worry about buffing anything else.
Which means it’s very likely that you’ll soon be looking through the feats wondering which ones to take instead. And there are some amazing options that will really round out whatever part of being a druid you like most. Today, I wanted to go over some feats I’ve taken and really enjoyed using:
1. Magic Initiate
This is my favorite feat in the game, I’ve picked it more than all other feats combined. 2 free cantrips and a 1st-level spell are an incredible boon, more than enough to patch the biggest weaknesses in your base class. Paladins and Monks can take a ranged attack, martial classes in general can gain some magic, and spellcasters can steal some killer spells from someone else’s list. Because the spell often scales off the wrong ability, I usually go for versatile utility options like minor illusion, shape water and find familiar. Each will serve you well, there’s a reason I’ve written articles dedicated to each one. (Yeah, I know shape water is already on druid’s spell list, but I took it anyway because it doesn’t require ability checks/saving throws to function. So I might as well grab it from Wizard and save my actual druid cantrips for stuff that requires Wisdom.)
2. Resilient (for Constitution)
Resilient is one of the most straightforward feats in the game. You simply gain 1 point in a chosen ability, and also roll saving throws for that ability with advantage. Most characters who take this are filling a hole in their save proficiencies. For druids, that save will be Constitution.
This is an evergreen feat that almost any class will find valuable. For druids, advantage on Constitution checks is massively useful because you’ll need to make one whenever you take damage while concentrating on a spell. Moon druids will often cast a self-buff on themselves before wading into battle in combat form, and even regular druids will often use channeling spells they’d rather not need to recast after getting hit. If your Constitution stat is an odd number that levels up with that bonus ability point, even better.
3. War Caster
This is a great feat for druids who want to excel at every part of combat. It does three different things, each of which buffs a different facet of your toolkit. Casting druids can now use spells for opportunity attacks, shapeshifting/casting druids gain advantage on constitution checks to not drop their active self-buff, and shield-toting druids can now cast spells while their hands are full with a weapon+shield. No matter what situation you find yourself, War Caster will earn its keep.
4. Lucky
Lucky is one of the most powerful feats in the game no matter what character you’ve built. And even a cursory glance at the description is usually enough to understand why, no explanation needed. Those rerolls can be used to salvage most common situations, giving you the edge during crucial ride-or-die moments. In particular, it can turn a disadvantaged roll into a super-advantaged one, since you essentially roll the dice thrice (twice for disadvantage, once for lucky) and choose your favorite. It also inherently boosts your critical hit chance by making you roll more often. Just all-around a killer feat.
5. Fey Touched or Shadow Touched
I can’t link to these as they were released in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, but you should check them out if you can. Firstly, it buffs your Wisdom by one, which sometimes is enough for an ASI on its own. Then it gives you a very useful spell (misty step or invisibility) and lets you choose another just for fun. The fact that these spells are considered Wisdom spells and can use higher-level spell slots is incredible. Some good options I’d consider for the second spell are silent image, disguise self, hunter’s mark, bless, or hex, depending on which feat you took.
Bonus #6: Telepathic
Here’s another great feat from Tasha’s. First you get +1 Wisdom again, but then you also can communicate telepathically. This is incredible for druids, who normally can’t talk while in Wildshape. Then you get a free cast of detect thoughts on top of that! Psioncs are the one system druids normally don’t touch, but this feat lets you slightly dip into that most unlikely of realms.
Now, you won’t need to make any choices right away (unless you picked variant human as your race), so don’t fret too much about it at level 1. For now, just play the game and see what mechanics you like the most. If spellcasting is your favorite part, or shapeshifting, or dice rolls, you can keep that in mind when the time comes to start choosing feats. Have fun!