Druid NPC Stat Block 5e: Tactics, Spells and the 2024 Rewrite

This page covers the druid NPC stat block, the creature a DM uses for a grove keeper, a hedge healer or a hermit who has decided the party is the threat. It is not the druid player class. The druid NPC is a CR 2 Medium Humanoid worth 450 XP. In the 2014 rules it has AC 11, 27 hit points and a 4th-level spell list built on Barkskin, Entangle and Thunderwave. The 2024 version keeps the CR but plays like a different creature: 44 hit points, AC 13, two attacks a turn with a poison-laced staff or a 90-foot radiant bolt, and Moonbeam once per day.

Table of Contents

• •Druid Stat Block (2014)
• •The Druid in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Druid Fights
• •Running a Druid Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Druid
• •Druid Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Druid Stat Block (2014)

The 2014 druid (SRD 5.1) is built like a low-level player character: it has spell slots, prepared spells and cantrips instead of a list of monster attacks.

Read the Armor Class line carefully. AC 11 is the druid's real defense. The 16 only applies while Barkskin is running, and Barkskin takes the druid's concentration for up to an hour.

The rest of the block points the same way. 27 hit points is low for CR 2; a level 3 party that reaches it will usually drop it in two rounds. Its spell save DC is 12 and its spell attack is +4, numbers a level 4 player druid would have. Its slots are four 1st-level and three 2nd-level, so it can cast seven leveled spells before it is down to cantrips. Passive Perception 14 and Medicine +4 make it a decent sentry and a better healer of villagers than fighter of adventurers.

The Druid in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 druid (SRD 5.2.1) trades spell slots for a Multiattack and a short list of spells with daily uses.

What changed:

Four of these changes decide how the fight goes:

• •Damage went up about five times. Against AC 16, the 2014 druid's Produce Flame averages about 2 damage a round. The 2024 druid's two Verdant Wisps average about 10.5 (the math is below).
• •Casting a spell is an action. The 2024 Spellcasting entry is an action of its own, separate from Multiattack. Each turn the druid either casts one spell or makes two attacks, never both.
• •No more Barkskin. The 2024 druid's AC is a flat 13, and its concentration is free for Moonbeam or Entangle from the first round.
• •Daily uses replace slots. Thunderwave can't be cast with a higher slot anymore, and the druid gets exactly two Entangles, two Thunderwaves and one Moonbeam per day.

How the Druid Fights

Both versions are controllers first. A druid wants something between it and the party (vines, a wolf, a river), and it uses Thunderwave as its escape button: a 15-foot cube from itself, 2d8 thunder damage and a 10-foot push on a failed Constitution save. The boom carries 300 feet, which makes it a signal to any allies in the woods.

The 2014 druid: choose one concentration spell

The 2014 druid's main problem is that Barkskin and Entangle both need concentration. It has to pick a plan.

Plan A, alone: Barkskin. Cast it before the party arrives (it lasts up to an hour). A party attacking with +5 hits AC 11 on a 6 or higher (75%) and AC 16 on an 11 or higher (50%). That is one-third fewer hits for the whole fight, so the druid lasts about half again as long. It then spends its actions on Thunderwave whenever two characters stand next to it.

Plan B, with allies: Entangle. Drop the vines on the party in round 1. Every creature in the 20-foot square makes a DC 12 Strength save or is restrained until the spell ends. A level 3 fighter with a +5 Strength save fails on a 6 or lower (30%); a wizard with −1 fails on a 12 or lower (60%). Restrained creatures can't move, attack with disadvantage, and give attackers advantage, so the druid's wolves or bear do the damage while the druid stays back.

Its damage options against AC 16, per turn:

Thunderwave is its real damage. It has up to seven casts if it burns every slot, and the push buys it a turn to walk away.

One trap for the DM: Shillelagh is a bonus action, and under the 2014 rules a creature that casts a bonus-action spell can only cast a cantrip with a casting time of one action that turn. A druid that starts Shillelagh can't also Thunderwave on the same turn.

The 2024 druid: one big spell, then attacks

The 2024 druid has a cleaner turn plan.

Round 1: Moonbeam on the chokepoint. The 5-foot-radius cylinder goes where the party has to stand: a doorway, a bridge, the ford of a stream. Each creature in it makes a DC 13 Constitution save, taking 2d10 radiant (average 11) on a failure or half on a success. Creatures make the save again when they enter the beam or end their turn in it. Against a +2 Constitution save the expected damage is about 8 per creature per trigger. Moving the beam later costs a Magic action, which means no Multiattack that turn. Leave it where it does the most work.

Round 2 onward: two Verdant Wisps. At +5 against AC 16, each bolt hits on 11 or higher (50%) for 10.5 average. That is about 10.5 damage a round. Against a caster with AC 13 it hits 65% of the time, about 13.7 a round. Ninety feet of range means the druid can fight from behind the beam and the trees.

When someone reaches it: Thunderwave (2/day) pushes the attacker 10 feet back, often back into the Moonbeam, which triggers another save. If two Thunderwaves are spent, the Vine Staff still hits for 9 (7 bludgeoning plus 2 poison).

Protecting concentration. The druid has Constitution +1 and no save proficiency. A 10-damage hit forces a DC 10 save that it fails on an 8 or lower, 40% of the time. Keep it 60 to 90 feet back, and give it a body in front.

Entangle or Moonbeam? Both use concentration. Entangle is better when the party has a lot of melee and a short approach; it can lock three or four characters in place. Moonbeam is better against a party that bunches up in a corridor, and on a failed save it forces a shape-shifted creature back into its true form, which makes it the right spell against a werewolf.

Outside combat the 2024 druid can cast Speak with Animals at will. Every squirrel, crow and fox in its woods is a possible scout. If the party has been loud on the road, the druid knows they are coming.

Running a Druid Encounter

A druid alone is a short fight. A druid with beasts or plants is a real one. For four characters, using the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1):

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, treat groups more harshly. The druid alone is 450 XP, a Medium fight for four level 2 characters. Add three wolves and four creatures double the adjusted XP to 1,200: past Deadly (800) at level 2 and Hard at level 3. If you run 2014 rules, put druid-and-wolves fights at level 3 or higher.

Where it fits:

• •2014 druid: levels 2 to 4. At level 5 a party kills it before it casts twice.
• •2024 druid: levels 3 to 5 as the leader of a group of beasts. Two 2024 druids firing four Verdant Wisps a round can drop a level 3 character in one round, so use two only with care.

Plants make good partners. An awakened tree has a 10-foot reach and hits for 14. The 2014 version also has False Appearance, so it looks like a normal tree until it moves; the 2024 block drops that trait, but a tree standing still in a forest is still easy to miss. Put it next to the Entangle square.

How Players Beat a Druid

The druid's defense is distance and allies. Remove either and it collapses.

• •Close the gap. The 2014 druid has 27 HP and AC 11 without Barkskin. The 2024 druid has 44 HP and AC 13. A rogue or monk who gets past the beasts deals real damage on every hit.
• •Break concentration. Both versions have Constitution +1 and no proficient saves. Every source of damage forces a save (DC 10, or half the damage if higher). Two cheap hits are better than one big one, because each is a separate save. Ending Barkskin drops the 2014 druid back to AC 11. Ending Entangle frees everyone.
• •Pick the right save. Its weak saves are Strength and Charisma (+0) and Dexterity, Constitution and Intelligence (+1). Wisdom is its best (+2 in 2014, +3 in 2024). Hold Person still works, since the druid is a Humanoid in both editions, but a DC 13 save against +3 lands only 45% of the time.
• •Spread out. Entangle covers a 20-foot square and Thunderwave a 15-foot cube. Five feet of spacing between characters cuts both spells down to one or two targets.
• •Walk out of Moonbeam. The beam is only 5 feet in radius. A character who starts a turn in it should leave first and attack second.
• •Talk. A druid defending a grove has a reason to fight, and reasons can be negotiated. Speak with Animals means it may already know what the party has done in its forest.

Count the 2014 druid's slots. Once it has spent four 1st-level and three 2nd-level slots, it is down to Produce Flame at about 2 damage a round. A party that baits out Thunderwaves with a fast, spread-out approach drains it quickly.

Druid Encounter Ideas

The moonlit ford. A druid holds the only ford across a river and makes every traveler wade through a Moonbeam before crossing. Most locals think it's a cruel toll. The druid is hunting a wererat that has been killing farmhands, and Moonbeam forces a shape-shifted creature back to its true form. The party's friendly guide is the wererat.

The quarry boom. A stone quarry keeps losing wagons to vines and wolves. The foreman hires the party. The druid uses Thunderwave's 300-foot boom as a signal: one boom calls the wolves, two sends them home. If the party learns the code, they can end the fight without a kill. The quarry is cutting into a hillside full of graves, and that is why the druid is fighting.

The village healer. The village's only healer (Medicine +5 in the 2024 block) is wanted by the local lord for poaching deer in his forest. The villagers will not help catch her. She has already sent an Animal Messenger ahead with the party's descriptions, so when they arrive the whole village knows who they are. Arresting her is easy. Leaving with her past every family she has kept alive is not.

Druid NPCs tend to come back as allies, rivals or questgivers. Loreify's session recorder keeps track of which NPCs the party met and what they promised, so the healer the party spared is still in your notes three months later. For quick names, try the druid name generator or roll a full NPC with the NPC generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is the druid NPC in 5e?

The druid NPC stat block is CR 2 (450 XP) in both the 2014 rules (SRD 5.1) and the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1).

Can the druid NPC use Wild Shape?

No. Neither the 2014 nor the 2024 druid stat block has Wild Shape. If you want a druid that turns into a bear, a simple fix is to swap in a brown bear stat block when it changes and return to the druid block when the bear drops to 0 hit points. That is a house rule, not part of the stat block.

What is the druid NPC's AC?

In the 2014 rules the druid has AC 11, or 16 while its Barkskin spell is active (Barkskin needs concentration). In the 2024 rules it has AC 13 from studded leather armor and no Barkskin.

What changed between the 2014 and 2024 druid stat block?

The 2024 druid has 44 HP instead of 27, AC 13, a spell save DC of 13 instead of 12, and a Multiattack with Vine Staff and Verdant Wisp. It lost Barkskin, Produce Flame and Shillelagh, gained Moonbeam, and uses daily spell uses instead of spell slots. CR stays at 2.

Is the druid stat block the same as a druid player character?

No. The NPC stat block is a fixed monster entry with a short spell list, used by the DM. A player druid uses the class rules, with Wild Shape, a full spell list and subclass features. A 2014 druid NPC is roughly as strong as a level 4 player druid without Wild Shape.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.