Oh my god, I was JUST looking for a spore druid guide from you 2 hours ago and was disappointed. And now it spawned out of nowhere, you're a magician 😭🙏
0:10 'I was actually astonished to discover that I don't have a guide to the spore druid up on my channel yet...' well, you had the next best thing and it did a marvelous job in my playthrough: _The SWORD DRUID - BG3 Jaheira Honour Mode Build Guide - Support, Tank and Damage!_ the two levels of paladin didn't take away from it being a spore druid build. 😀
Frickin' creepy. I was JUST thinking about doing a new solo run as a spore druid and ... there you are. Best Spore Druid video blam in my feed. Though the number of new runs I dream up and the number of videos you put out I guess the odds were in my favor for this to happen.
Something you may want to consider for your itemization section is that Druids don’t get short sword proficiency naturally. So if that is going to be the go to weapon, multi-classing or selecting a race with that would be the only way.
7:10 torches are a great early game weapon but be careful when walking into places with oil/smoke powder on the ground (zhentarim basement or the storeroom in the shattered sanctum) the torch will light it and you WILL blow up
As mentioned above, he already did. But it really isn't hard to build. Your options are very limited, and it kind of builds itself. There's a few things that can help. Get the paladin level last (because you don't have to worry about your oath getting broken). Get the sorcerer level first (con save proficiency), then follow with the other caster levels (they add up for your caster level). You can learn spells from scrolls once you're a wizard. Use the intellect headband (ogres) to raise intelligence to 17. I just played this for my durge playthrough on honor ruleset, and it's definitely doable and fun. It was my durge and my party face. A hidden bonus is that all your different classes give you fun (and usually useful) extra dialogue options.
Definitely one of the most malleable subclasses! So fun to multiclass spore druid in a variety of ways, and it's still a druid if single so it's by default awesome. My current playthrough is a drow spores/dance bard, using the amazing 2024 phb druid mod (no spores mod) + dance bard mods - she's basically Filro but she's outcast for another reason. :D I haven't decided the full progression other than 3 bard, but definitely mainly spores otherwise and probably either 7/5 or 6/6 for woodlands or 6th bard features respectively. I love making themed rp builds and it's a fun challenge to make do with the stats given, even if I often live on the edge with that con score. Just to champion that above druid mod, the sea druid from the same source is also so cool in a similiar way to spores.
6/6 with Monk and Spores is amazing. Gives more utillity, tankiness, resources across the day and with Club of Hill Giant Strenght you can get a really good Wisdom as well. Any monk works but I’m waiting on the Drunken Master since the extra movement and free disengage should help keeping the temp HP up. Also you can flavour making brews from the mushrooms
Even just one level of Monk (taken at level 2, since Druid has better saving throws) is an amazing multiclass for the Spores Druid, opening up a lot of different gear loadouts in each Act while still letting the character get 6th level spells.
@@cenauge yeah especially as the druid armour are very late game. In tabletop its even better cause I believe it unarmored defence works in wildshape. Shame bears can’t do martial arts since claws are weapon attacks
this is awesome! also, on a sidenote- Jahiera might be the most optimal charecter to do a spore druid with, since her sylvan scimitars lets her use her wis for weapon attacks. ^^
16:37 'Resistance' helps in *dialogue* checks? I would never have made the connection by reading the ingame description. how does it affect dialogues? where?
If you have to make a saving throw during dialogue or a story event (for example, the zai'thisk), then resistance will give you a boost, which can be very useful for some very important rolls!
Bro should have gotten the makeshift bow for that plus 1d10 in act one. It's still possible to get btw by getting the skeleton near the beholder arrested.
Although I personally don’t like playing builds that heavily use summons because of the terrible programming of the summons (have you tried getting them to consistently follow you around?), this is another excellent build. Thank you.
The great thing about the woodland creature and myrmidon summons is they're so strong that even if you just use them for one fight and then dismiss them, they're as good as any other spell slot of that level - which was especially important back before they could jump, so they'd just get stuck *everywhere*
It was briefly touched on in the video, but I personally can't emphasize enough how useful the halo of Spores ability is at Spore Druid level 2. I always hear it described for reactionary healing (which makes this class so good at both fighting and healing early on), but really, it works well with all the grenades too. It is fantastic for setting wet on enemies as a reaction with water bottles or making them bleed with spike bulbs for blessing of booal for easy access to advantage. Void bulbs let you manipulate enemy positioning or using smoke powder bombs for a lot of AOE damage. All this alone gives a character so much more action economy for just 2 Druid levels.
I would take the 1 Fighter for archery. It is safer to maintain your spores, still gives you necro damage, and gives access to the most busted consumables in the game: arrows.
I mean you can still shoot arrows without the fighting style. Jaheira and Halsin even gets acess to longbows. Nor sure why you would though since a single class druid is better off casting a spell; especially with no extra attack. Its good early game though but the fighter levels ruins the spell progression too much I think
@benross9174 it's most impactful early game, yes. But even in act 3, firing a slayer arrow is going to be better than running up and slapping somebody. And the fighting style is for hit chance.
Also a solid option! Though if you're leaning into archery more I'd consider taking fewer levels of druid and focusing more on the martial aspect of the build
The reason I don't usually do this is twofold: first, it's a ton of extra work, and second, people don't watch it. When I've included gameplay sections, viewership for those sections has dropped dramatically - which makes sense when you think about it! By including gameplay, I'm suddenly competing with professionally-edited Let's Plays from studios with entire teams behind their scripting, editing, and mixing - and production lead times of weeks rather than daily videos like I do. On the other hand, when it comes to builds I have world-class knowledge so that's something people can't easily get elsewhere.
I have a build that's druid 9 cleric 3 out there which was mostly spore druid, but hadn't done just a simple guide to the subclass (you can find that one under "so many broken combos")
I have been agonizing over druids lately. They want to be mostly (if not entirely) druid, which is like a three-in-one control/damage/support. It makes it really hard to slot into a team because there are better damage dealers and better controllers out there. So you are either losing damage or you're putting a weaker control out and everything is dying before it can make a difference. Spike growth is cool, but acuity boosted scorch rays and hypnotic patterns are cooler. Spores druid is particularly vexing because it has so much going for it. It has minions, it has spores, it has a reaction based heal, it's a great class. I just need to know where to put it lol
Druids are great because they can do everything. Healing with healing gear, summons (broken in BG3 overall), AoE, Moon druids can tank, with Stars they can be a good blaster, Spores is great both solo and in multiclassing with martials and they have medium armour, shields and Wildshape so they are not squishy at all. They might not be the best at anything (except summons) but the flexibility and utility is unmatched so they also fit in every party as well. Sometimes versatily and being able to adopt to an unplanned situation is more valuable than being good at only one thing
@@benross9174 in the tabletop, having a DM that is able to work with your creative solution is definitely a boon for the class. They kind of underperform in a medium where they only get to throw 1-2 spells per combat. Spores zombies kind of overcome this, but the Moon Druids are probably the best, because you can build around the myrmidon shapes.
Use them wherever you would put your longstrider caster. If you camp cast longstrider, stop that tedious nonsense and put a druid in your party. They make an excellent main caster and do pretty much everything a wizard would do but with a better casting stat.
What about taking dual wielding as feat? In this way you can cast flame blade and it will appear in the off hand. If you also add the pyrokinetyk hat in the act 3 , you can have 2 attack per turn with off hand without getting any penalty. Overall I found lvl 9 land druid + 3 light cleric being the best option for a druid melee caster due to haste, mirror image and the amount of non concentration spell
I completed my 1st playthrough 4 days ago. My dark urge was meddling with multiclasssed variants of a spore druid. 1 fighter, 3 tempest cleric, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid 1 war cleric, 1 wizard, 10 spore druid 3 tempest cleric, 1 GoO warlock, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid 2 white dragon sorcerer, 2 tempest cleric, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid The last one lets me take advantage of the following: 1) Armor of Agathys damage reflection on wet enemies 2) Max lightning damage with wet + Destructive Wrath + crit illythid power 3) Stocking spell slots and sorcery points with potions of angelic reprieve and slumber 4) Wizard spells 5) Summons 6) Dual wielding melee and hand crossbows 7) Cleric for Healing Word, Create Water, Command, Sanctuary, Destructive Wrath, several cantrips such as Guidance and Thaumaturgy, weapon and armor proficiencies 8) 2x cold damage from various sources 9) Symbiotic Entity for damage and to refill Armor of Agathys' temp HP 10) Moonbeam + Sanctuary 11) Distant and Twinned Spell metamagic 12) Water myrmidon does damage, heals, spreads wet condition and doubles its and the Ice mephit damage. 13) Constitution save proficiency if you take Sorcerer at level 1; Otherwise tempest cleric for all weapon and armor proficiencies I let other party members cover Aid and Heroes Feast. In my 3 cleric variants, Aid can be upcasted to heal and raise the max hp of everyone, including constructs and undead.
[Edit: I stand corrected. Also... What the actual *>@]\|] 20:40 Wrong. Confusion does have friendly fire. Undead (except zombies), constructs and doppelgangers are immune, but it forces saves on other party members and your summons.
like your buiilds, wish you would show melee builds more love. Honestly playing ranged is an easy way out and feels like cheating :P Personally i preffer melee a lot more. Also most melee characters can do multiple attacks a turn, where as casters are stuck with 1. Ofcourse if that single atack is a huge one its nice, but otherwise...
For monoclass spore druid, I strongly recommend Drow. Hand crossbows work incredibly well with symbiotic entity and Drow get you proficient with them.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it :D
Woe, Spores be upon thee
Oh my god, I was JUST looking for a spore druid guide from you 2 hours ago and was disappointed. And now it spawned out of nowhere, you're a magician 😭🙏
my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts
@@Cephalopocalypse So you're a mind-flayer, not a magician.
0:10 'I was actually astonished to discover that I don't have a guide to the spore druid up on my channel yet...' well, you had the next best thing and it did a marvelous job in my playthrough: _The SWORD DRUID - BG3 Jaheira Honour Mode Build Guide - Support, Tank and Damage!_ the two levels of paladin didn't take away from it being a spore druid build. 😀
The fact that Vital Conduit Boots can restores Spore Druid temp HP is both broken and awesome.
Frickin' creepy. I was JUST thinking about doing a new solo run as a spore druid and ... there you are. Best Spore Druid video blam in my feed.
Though the number of new runs I dream up and the number of videos you put out I guess the odds were in my favor for this to happen.
True, it could just be statistics - or perhaps I'm simply magic. Who's to say?
Crazy i was just looking through your videos last night looking for a spore druid guide.
I was genuinely surprised I hadn't done one yet!
Something you may want to consider for your itemization section is that Druids don’t get short sword proficiency naturally. So if that is going to be the go to weapon, multi-classing or selecting a race with that would be the only way.
7:10 torches are a great early game weapon but be careful when walking into places with oil/smoke powder on the ground (zhentarim basement or the storeroom in the shattered sanctum) the torch will light it and you WILL blow up
Same with the sword from the nautilus. I found out the hard way. :)
Another amazing monoclass build, soooo ready for a monoclass partty build
NEW BUILD DROP OMG
Hey Cep, would you ever consider trying to make a honor mode "jack of all trades" achievement build? I've always wondered if that was possible to do
Great idea
He already did th-cam.com/video/So4c5WGbXxE/w-d-xo.html
Already done (twice even, once for tactician and once for honour)!
As mentioned above, he already did. But it really isn't hard to build. Your options are very limited, and it kind of builds itself.
There's a few things that can help.
Get the paladin level last (because you don't have to worry about your oath getting broken). Get the sorcerer level first (con save proficiency), then follow with the other caster levels (they add up for your caster level). You can learn spells from scrolls once you're a wizard. Use the intellect headband (ogres) to raise intelligence to 17.
I just played this for my durge playthrough on honor ruleset, and it's definitely doable and fun. It was my durge and my party face. A hidden bonus is that all your different classes give you fun (and usually useful) extra dialogue options.
You can also just get the achievement by getting a Hireling from Withers at level 12 and leveling it up.
Definitely one of the most malleable subclasses! So fun to multiclass spore druid in a variety of ways, and it's still a druid if single so it's by default awesome.
My current playthrough is a drow spores/dance bard, using the amazing 2024 phb druid mod (no spores mod) + dance bard mods - she's basically Filro but she's outcast for another reason. :D I haven't decided the full progression other than 3 bard, but definitely mainly spores otherwise and probably either 7/5 or 6/6 for woodlands or 6th bard features respectively. I love making themed rp builds and it's a fun challenge to make do with the stats given, even if I often live on the edge with that con score.
Just to champion that above druid mod, the sea druid from the same source is also so cool in a similiar way to spores.
point of order, you don't need a level of another class solely to get Con save proficiency, just have a camp Transmuter Wizard give you a stone
Spore druid build! About damn time!
if using Ethel's hair you can reach 20 wisdom while still taking the 16/15/17 split by using Khalid's gift which bumps wisdom by 1
6/6 with Monk and Spores is amazing. Gives more utillity, tankiness, resources across the day and with Club of Hill Giant Strenght you can get a really good Wisdom as well. Any monk works but I’m waiting on the Drunken Master since the extra movement and free disengage should help keeping the temp HP up. Also you can flavour making brews from the mushrooms
I was going to suggest monk as well. My first honor mode win had Halsin with this split, and it was... beastly (groan)
Even just one level of Monk (taken at level 2, since Druid has better saving throws) is an amazing multiclass for the Spores Druid, opening up a lot of different gear loadouts in each Act while still letting the character get 6th level spells.
@@cenauge yeah especially as the druid armour are very late game. In tabletop its even better cause I believe it unarmored defence works in wildshape. Shame bears can’t do martial arts since claws are weapon attacks
I was looking for a 6/6 split with necro for a summoning build. I know they're out there, but the first time I tried, it didn't work out so well.
I like this build twice as much as if you'd used Halsim.
Honestly it's so funny to me how consistent it is
Thank you Ceph.
this is awesome! also, on a sidenote- Jahiera might be the most optimal charecter to do a spore druid with, since her sylvan scimitars lets her use her wis for weapon attacks. ^^
True, but you can give the sylvan scimitar to any character!
Dont forget the rapier from wylls questline as well
@@garyberry3190 fair point, but that one cant be dual weilded, without a feat anyway
16:37 'Resistance' helps in *dialogue* checks? I would never have made the connection by reading the ingame description. how does it affect dialogues? where?
If you have to make a saving throw during dialogue or a story event (for example, the zai'thisk), then resistance will give you a boost, which can be very useful for some very important rolls!
can you do an "oops all druids" party build once patch 8 comes out with a druid from each subclass and a party face?
Bro should have gotten the makeshift bow for that plus 1d10 in act one. It's still possible to get btw by getting the skeleton near the beholder arrested.
You make my least favorite class look fun! I might give this a shot at some point.
This is exactly what I was looking for! I already recently watched your previous 2 videos involving Spores Druid's and love this focused monoclass 🤍
As much as I love Spore Druids and have tried it out a few times, I have never played it all the way through the game yet.
Why play one class all the way through the game when you can instead obsessively respec in act 1 and never actually play at all? Checkmate, atheists.
Love your videos
Thanks!
Do you think you’ll come around to making level 20 builds?
Although I personally don’t like playing builds that heavily use summons because of the terrible programming of the summons (have you tried getting them to consistently follow you around?), this is another excellent build. Thank you.
The great thing about the woodland creature and myrmidon summons is they're so strong that even if you just use them for one fight and then dismiss them, they're as good as any other spell slot of that level - which was especially important back before they could jump, so they'd just get stuck *everywhere*
It was briefly touched on in the video, but I personally can't emphasize enough how useful the halo of Spores ability is at Spore Druid level 2.
I always hear it described for reactionary healing (which makes this class so good at both fighting and healing early on), but really, it works well with all the grenades too. It is fantastic for setting wet on enemies as a reaction with water bottles or making them bleed with spike bulbs for blessing of booal for easy access to advantage. Void bulbs let you manipulate enemy positioning or using smoke powder bombs for a lot of AOE damage. All this alone gives a character so much more action economy for just 2 Druid levels.
Yep! All this and more for sure!
I would take the 1 Fighter for archery. It is safer to maintain your spores, still gives you necro damage, and gives access to the most busted consumables in the game: arrows.
I mean you can still shoot arrows without the fighting style. Jaheira and Halsin even gets acess to longbows. Nor sure why you would though since a single class druid is better off casting a spell; especially with no extra attack. Its good early game though but the fighter levels ruins the spell progression too much I think
@benross9174 it's most impactful early game, yes. But even in act 3, firing a slayer arrow is going to be better than running up and slapping somebody. And the fighting style is for hit chance.
Also a solid option! Though if you're leaning into archery more I'd consider taking fewer levels of druid and focusing more on the martial aspect of the build
can you include game play demonstration with your builds?
The reason I don't usually do this is twofold: first, it's a ton of extra work, and second, people don't watch it. When I've included gameplay sections, viewership for those sections has dropped dramatically - which makes sense when you think about it! By including gameplay, I'm suddenly competing with professionally-edited Let's Plays from studios with entire teams behind their scripting, editing, and mixing - and production lead times of weeks rather than daily videos like I do.
On the other hand, when it comes to builds I have world-class knowledge so that's something people can't easily get elsewhere.
Same, I thought you already made a video about Circle of Spore Druid superbuild
Maybe I confused it with someone else's
I have a build that's druid 9 cleric 3 out there which was mostly spore druid, but hadn't done just a simple guide to the subclass (you can find that one under "so many broken combos")
@Cephalopocalypse time to get enlightened by Moonbeaming myself
Can you make a Paladin of Devotion build?
I have been agonizing over druids lately. They want to be mostly (if not entirely) druid, which is like a three-in-one control/damage/support. It makes it really hard to slot into a team because there are better damage dealers and better controllers out there. So you are either losing damage or you're putting a weaker control out and everything is dying before it can make a difference. Spike growth is cool, but acuity boosted scorch rays and hypnotic patterns are cooler.
Spores druid is particularly vexing because it has so much going for it. It has minions, it has spores, it has a reaction based heal, it's a great class. I just need to know where to put it lol
Druids are great because they can do everything. Healing with healing gear, summons (broken in BG3 overall), AoE, Moon druids can tank, with Stars they can be a good blaster, Spores is great both solo and in multiclassing with martials and they have medium armour, shields and Wildshape so they are not squishy at all.
They might not be the best at anything (except summons) but the flexibility and utility is unmatched so they also fit in every party as well. Sometimes versatily and being able to adopt to an unplanned situation is more valuable than being good at only one thing
@@benross9174 in the tabletop, having a DM that is able to work with your creative solution is definitely a boon for the class. They kind of underperform in a medium where they only get to throw 1-2 spells per combat.
Spores zombies kind of overcome this, but the Moon Druids are probably the best, because you can build around the myrmidon shapes.
Use them wherever you would put your longstrider caster. If you camp cast longstrider, stop that tedious nonsense and put a druid in your party. They make an excellent main caster and do pretty much everything a wizard would do but with a better casting stat.
You should do a "bottom line up front" thing when the build won't include True Strike so we don't waste our time watching it. :)
What about taking dual wielding as feat? In this way you can cast flame blade and it will appear in the off hand. If you also add the pyrokinetyk hat in the act 3 , you can have 2 attack per turn with off hand without getting any penalty.
Overall I found lvl 9 land druid + 3 light cleric being the best option for a druid melee caster due to haste, mirror image and the amount of non concentration spell
Also a good option! Can also let you dual wield staffs to keep powering up with shillelagh in the late game
I completed my 1st playthrough 4 days ago. My dark urge was meddling with multiclasssed variants of a spore druid.
1 fighter, 3 tempest cleric, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid
1 war cleric, 1 wizard, 10 spore druid
3 tempest cleric, 1 GoO warlock, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid
2 white dragon sorcerer, 2 tempest cleric, 1 wizard, 7 spore druid
The last one lets me take advantage of the following:
1) Armor of Agathys damage reflection on wet enemies
2) Max lightning damage with wet + Destructive Wrath + crit illythid power
3) Stocking spell slots and sorcery points with potions of angelic reprieve and slumber
4) Wizard spells
5) Summons
6) Dual wielding melee and hand crossbows
7) Cleric for Healing Word, Create Water, Command, Sanctuary, Destructive Wrath, several cantrips such as Guidance and Thaumaturgy, weapon and armor proficiencies
8) 2x cold damage from various sources
9) Symbiotic Entity for damage and to refill Armor of Agathys' temp HP
10) Moonbeam + Sanctuary
11) Distant and Twinned Spell metamagic
12) Water myrmidon does damage, heals, spreads wet condition and doubles its and the Ice mephit damage.
13) Constitution save proficiency if you take Sorcerer at level 1; Otherwise tempest cleric for all weapon and armor proficiencies
I let other party members cover Aid and Heroes Feast. In my 3 cleric variants, Aid can be upcasted to heal and raise the max hp of everyone, including constructs and undead.
How would you rank Shield vs Off-hand weapon for spore Druid?
I'm surprised you don't have a build for a shadow monk either.
I do! Though it's quite old and probably needs an update - it's under "the best shadow monk in baldur's gate 3"
@@Cephalopocalypse OK. I see it. I swear I looked before, and it didn't pop up. Thanks!
Why not Wizard ?
comment for the algorithm
cheers!
Jaheira cannot use bows though
Kinda wished spore druid had spore summons.
@@TheGlenn8 they do?
Yeah it would be so much cooler if you got Glut's ability
@@Cephalopocalypse
Or controllable little mushroom fellas.
👍🏻
Same
[Edit: I stand corrected. Also... What the actual *>@]\|]
20:40 Wrong. Confusion does have friendly fire. Undead (except zombies), constructs and doppelgangers are immune, but it forces saves on other party members and your summons.
This correction is wrong. Try casting the spell.
Is it Hypnotic Pattern that does friendly fire then?
@@Cephalopocalypse brainfart.
like your buiilds, wish you would show melee builds more love. Honestly playing ranged is an easy way out and feels like cheating :P Personally i preffer melee a lot more. Also most melee characters can do multiple attacks a turn, where as casters are stuck with 1. Ofcourse if that single atack is a huge one its nice, but otherwise...
"Take this [comment], brother, may it serve you well.
Cheers!