Druids: The Invincible 'Elephant' in the Room

On paper, Druids seem to be a particularly powerful class, but upon further inspection I think you may find that this not necessarily the case. Perhaps you have noticed while skimming through the players handbook and looking through the classes, that Druids have a particularly powerful level 20 ability called "Archdruid". This lets them use their wild shape an unlimited amount of times.

Considering the current rules for wild shape, this is potentially an incredibly powerful ability, and may give the appeal that Druids are invincible once they acquire this. So, taking the Circle of the Moon, you have the following traits that attribute to this notion of immortality:

• Use a bonus action to assume the form of a beast of CR as high as 6 (an unlimited number of times per day
• You can cast spells that don't have a material components, up to 9th level
• Heal self as a bonus action each turn (1d8 per spell slot spent, up to 9d8)

Potentially you have a buffer of 126 hit points each round (Mammoth hit points at CR6). Which means that a creature will have to do more than 126 hit points each round to actually damage your character. Otherwise, you can merely transform into an animal each turn, continuing to recharge your buffer zone of health.

However, this is not as powerful as it seems. 

Why this is NOT broken.

Although the pros to the Druid's 'Archdruid' ability are quite apparent, there are big few cons to wild shape that are not laid bare. This makes the ability much weaker than could be perceived as 'invincible'.

Creatures at high levels potentially deal a lot of damage each round. Let us consider an encounter with 3 Erinyes (a CR 12 demon) against your party of 5 level 20s. This is a hard encounter, but quite doable. They decide that the Druid has ticked them off and want to focus their attacks on the Druid, and bring him down, he's currently at full life and in Mammoth form. Each demon deals an average of 105 damage each turn (315 total). This will take out any druid with less than 180 hit points in 1 round.

In wild shape your AC is very low (AC 13 as a Mammoth). Using the average damage does not accurately represent what will happen, but gives an idea of what kind of damage output a creature can do. However, if you are the focus of enemies, having a low AC will mean that almost every time, you're going to be hit. If they can deal a decent number of damage, which most do, they'll be able to take you out of your wild shape very quickly.

Beasts don't normally deal a lot of damage or have fantastic abilities, for something at level 20. Taking the Mammoth as an example dealing 25 damage on average with gore or 29 damage with stomp, to a prone target, with a +10 to hit. Compare that with a regular cantrip at level 20, like thorn whip. Thorn whip deals a bit less damage (16 damage) but has a range of 30ft, and pulls a creature closer 10 feet towards you, with a +11 to hit (20 Wisdom); To compare that to a warlock who can average 44 damage with eldrich blast and the Agonizing Blast invocation, with a range of 120 feet.

Animals with high a high CR are usually very large. As you might find while adventuring, sometimes it's not very effective to have large allies - they get in the way. This might seem minor but it can cause your party's combat strategies to take a big hit, which is a pretty big deal - if you want to be an effective team. It might be more effective in some cases to use something with a lower CR in these cases.

If you're constantly wild shaping, what are you contributing to the group? Its something you should ask while in combat as a druid. And, if you are being damaged constantly, you're effectively healing for that amount of damage which is quite good. This is very effective for as a tank character at lower levels, but is diminished at higher levels. The bottom line is that wild shape is more situational than it might seem, which will likely come more apparent as you level up a druid to higher levels.

Lastly to address the self healing. It will become apparent that the healing is not an effective way to use up spell slots, even though it is only a bonus action to use. Spell slots are a resource that are only replenished after a long rest, making it something you want to use wisely. Powerful abilities use the highest spell slots and usually have more than 1 effect or can be used in more than a few different situations. To compare, would you give up the ability to cast a level 6 spell, like heal that recovers a guaranteed 70 hit points with a range of 60ft and ends disease, blindness, or deafness, so you can recover 6d8 (average of 30 hit points) as a bonus action? The answer is: only if its an emergency.

Thank you again for reading. If you have any suggestions or comments - please don't hesitate to comment.