[Top 5] D&D Best Druid Race - What's the Best Race for Druids?

The enchanting powers of druid, mixed into the world, sanctifies nature, as does the world bend to the race of the guard

Updated:

03 Aug 2022

What race should you pick when playing a Druid?

Widely regarded as the hardest to play class, many wonder what to play when picking a Druid, feeling they need to pick the best possible choice to play the class to it's best potential. When it comes to Druids, you want tanky, survivable, things that can take a hit so they get the chance to wildshape.

Below is a list of creative choices and many you can flavor to different campaigns of your liking, my personal five reccommendations.

5. Warforged

Starting off swinging, we need to start with one of the best defenses in Dungeons and Dragons, which benefits the Druid’s lackluster bulk, the Warforged. With flexible stats to put towards Wisdom, a pile of resistances, and a bonus to AC, you have one of the many solutions to the Druid’s poor durability. Sadly, it doesn't work in wild shape, so Circle of the Moon is a no-go.

I tend to enjoy building a solid baseline Druid that teeters on the balance of Wildshape and spellcasting. Builds such as Starry Form Dragon or Chalice benefit from the increased durability and leave you with flexibility, but I am also a fan of the full-support Shepard build that lets you work as a moving healer and support for the team, and lets you keep Wildshape for other situations. All around, a solid, flexible race pick for a Druid that can take a few hits and diversify your party role.

Pick Warforged if…

You value versatility over specializing
You want a more durable Druide
You want to lean a support-like build

Warforge Details: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/warforged

4. Shadar-Kai

The Shadar-Kai is an interesting path the Druid can take if you're focusing on being an elusive target that distracts enemies. Having the benefits of Fey Ancestry and solid, short-range teleportation at your fingertips. You have a lot of simple abilities that benefit from working on a kit for moving around and getting to allies or enemies to burst them down. Again, I'm not a big fan of being in melee, so Circle of the Moon is a tough grasp, but you do have the ability to escape situations easily, so it is not impossible to run.

The Shadar-Kai, in my experience, benefits the most from the Circle of Stars or Circle of Wildfire. Working on being an elusive spellcaster while using your wildshape to summon spirits in wildfire is one of the most fun experiences I’ve had with Shadar-Kai as a whole, playing similarly to a sorcerer or mage with no awful familiar. Double this with Animal Forms and similar, and you have an interesting character to build around summoning creatures to work for you, while you act like a summoner straight out of Final Fantasy XIV.

Pick Shadar-Kai if…

You want to play like a Sorcerer/Warlock
You want to fill a ‘summoner-type’ role
You love being elusive in combat with back-up defenses

Shadar-Kai Details: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/lineage:shadar-kai-mmotm

3. Hexblood

Hexblood is a modern-edition major consideration when creating a Druid, period.Hexblood's placement is quite predictable. Having spells that Druid can’t replicate, Ancestral Legacy’s skill selection, and general selection benefits such as a small size, Darkvision, and small-form make Hexblood an all-around natural pick for many different builds under Druid as a whole. Hexblood brings customizability to the character story as well as a great set of abilities to boot.

On-paper, Circle of Spores and Moon find Hex somewhat useful, getting free damage on weapon attacks, but grappling in Wildshape keeps the disadvantage on ability checks, which is wildly beneficial in a team comp. You could also use the choice of Ancestral Legacy for flight, which parses Hexblood with other races that have the feature, but Hexblood is mostly used for its versatility and customizability for Moon Druids at the end of the day.

Pick Shadar-Kai if…

You want broad Versatility and Customizability for Subclasses
You want non-druid magic for Druids
You like mixing character backstory with class

Hexblood Details: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/hexblood

2. Owlin

Flight, Darkvision, and bonus skill proficiencies are the bread and butter for many ranged builds that a druid likes to take on. I might be a little biased as I just hit the halfway point in the Strixhaven book with two Owlin players, but man does this race make Druid look fun. Druid's not being able to use metal armor means nothing is lost with Flight as Light Armor works for Druid’s class well. The limitations of subclasses aren’t really there either, besides Spores being shaky depending on how you run it.

On paper, there is nothing setting Owlin apart from Fairy or even Hexblood with Flight, but Owlin does have an amazing base set of abilities that benefit it. Being small as a size improves your durability when being hit. Silent Feathers makes you good at being stealthy as a Druid, something they’ve never had. Flight is… well Flight and the openness to almost any subclass lets you stay creative and not feel pigeonholed into a specific placement of role, letting you be free to adapt your build to whatever the party needs.

Pick Owlin If…

You like a good foundation race
You want to avoid min-max pigeon-holing
You want to play a stealthy Druid

Owlin Details: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/owlin

1. Loxodon

There is one thing that brings Dungeons and Dragons players together, and that is the fact that, whether using Tasha’s Custom Origins or not, Loxodon was made to be a Druid in every aspect possible. Having base-stats that work perfectly in tandem with the class and having a Constitution-based Natural Armor, you can finally DUMP Dexterity, or at least argue you can. With custom origin, Loxodon can spec into both Wisdom and Constitution freely. Either path also gives you Serenity and the Trunk, making you a frontline tank Druid outright.

If you want to basically never die, take Circle of the Moon and just begin to take every single hit from every single enemy while dealing back a respectable amount of damage. The natural bulkiness avoids stat-shaming your race into a specific role as well, letting you be a ranged healer, a summoner, or any other variant of Druid that can be aggressively upfront in the cases where they need to be. The base set for Loxodon just works too well with the stats Druid wants and works perfectly for front-line offense or defense with natural defenses in Serenity and Natural Armor.