There’s great beauty in communing with nature. You can interact with animals, create food through spells, and turn into animals themselves, allowing you to bite your enemies' faces off and fight like a true predator throughout the adventure. Druids are an iconic class fromDungeons & Dragons,and they’re extremely versatile as well, with subclasses that significantly change how the character fights.
That said, versatility means being careful with your choices during character creation. One crucial choice during this process is choosing your species. Which of these species will be a good match for your druid? While it’s more up to you and your build, we’ll give you a few options to consider.
10Human
It Works When Wild Shaped
The 2024 druid no longer lets you use features from your species when you’re an animal. There used to be a lot of discussion over which traits got a pass and which ones didn’t, so they just removed the concept entirely.
However, wild shape specifies you keep your feats and skill proficiencies when transformed, which makeshumansstand out for getting two origin feats instead of one like the other species, along with an extra skill. They also get Heroic Inspiration, which can be used whenever. Thus, humans are a good pick if your focus is to wild shape often.
9Elf
Free Magic
Elves are resistant to being charmed and magical sleep, only need four hours of sleep, get a free skill proficiency, and get a free cantrip and spells. These spells change depending on your lineage, and you can use each of them once per long rest without requiring a spell slot. You can use them more times with your spell slots, too.
We recommend high elves for their Misty Step, which you can use even if you use another spell with your action because you can use two spells in the same turn as long as only one of them costs you a spell slot.
8Tiefling
More Free Magic
Tieflingshave their own stuff, such as Thaumaturgy and a free resistance to a damage type based on your lineage. Still, they’re here for the same reason elves are: free spells. Each lineage offers you a cantrip and two spells, which work just like the elf spells.
We don’t have a particular lineage to recommend, so it’s more up to which spells you want. Abyssal has Hold Person, which is very powerful, while Infernal has Hellish Rebuke, which is a nice way to cause extra damage outside your turn.
7Dwarf
For Extra Toughness
Druids aren’t the toughest class, and increasing your AC is also challenging, as you only get light armor and shields, and your priority isn’t dexterity. Thus, an extra hit point per level fromdwarvesis great, and it works during wild shape since the health doesn’t change anymore. You can stack it with Tough, too.
The ability to have tremorsense when needed is also fun, though it doesn’t work when transformed. Still, locating hidden and invisible enemies, which you’re able to then hit with spells that cover an area of effect, is very useful.
6Lizardfolk
Armor Is For The Weak
Animal-humanoid species are always suitable for any druid. That said, Lizardfolk gets extra skill proficiencies, a bite that gives you temporary hit points (though granted, it will rely on your strength to hit), swimming speed, and the ability to hold your breath, which is situational, but fun for roleplaying shenanigans.
The fun part here is Natural Armor. We’ve already mentioned how AC can be an issue since dexterity isn’t your primary focus, so having an AC of 13 plus your dexterity instead of the usual ten is already helpful - and you’re able to add a shield to that.
5Eladrin
Dress For The Season
An elf that resembles nature even further is a compelling thematic choice for a druid. They have a better trance feature, which allows them to sleep for only four hours and resist being charmed. But the unique part here is teleporting with your bonus action.
It works like a Misty Step that you can use a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, and the teleport has an extra effect based on your season, like teleporting an ally, frightening people near you before the teleport, and so on. You can also change which of these effects will happen when resting.
4Loxodon
Armor Is For The Weak, Part Two
Loxodons are resistant to the charmed and frightened conditions, can use their trunk to attack, have advantage on Perception, Investigation, and Survival checks that revolve around smell, and carry more weight. But the fun part here is Natural Armor, again.
It doesn’t work like the Lizardfolk, though. As a Loxodon, your AC (when not wearing armor) is 12 plus your constitution bonus. Since constitution is important to help you with concentration, you may have a decent value already.
3Owlin
Fly Anytime
Wings are a big deal if you intend to focus more on spellcasting. Many species have wings, and some even come with extra spells, too, if you want them. But we’ll focus on owlins due to flight and skill proficiencies, which also work when transformed.
Still, feel free to consider aarakocras, winged tieflings, or fairies if any of them feels like a better choice. If your DM doesn’t let you use permanent flight, as some ban these species, then the2024 dragonbornis an interesting pick, too.
2Tortle
Armor Is For The Weak, Part Three
Natural Armor strikes again. Tortles have a fixed AC of 17, with no ability score bonus on it. 17 is a solid number that you can still improve with a shield or by getting inside your shell, meaning you can simply not focus on dexterity and worry about your other abilities.
They also get an extra skill proficiency, the ability to hold their breath underwater for an hour (suck it, Lizardfolk), and claws as unarmed weapons, though these aren’t particularly interesting for a druid aside from maybe the skill.
1Warforged
The Contradiction Alone Makes Them Worth It
Being a machine that embraces nature is already a beautiful narrative concept for your character. You get a free skill and tool proficiency, six hours of ‘sleep’ time, resistance against poison damage and the poisoned condition, and things like not needing to eat or drink.
They also get a bonus for their AC. While you’ll still need to wear armor, they have a natural +1 to their AC, regardless of whether they’re wearing something or not. Thus, all your defenses are slightly more effective.
If you’re playing under 2014 rules still, keep in mind that all damage resistances, condition resistances, Lizardfolk’s bite attack (if you’re an animal that can bite), and Eladrin’s teleportation still apply when wild-shaped.
