The Druid has the potential to be one of the best classes in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. It combines a vast prepared spell list, flexible base abilities, and some of D&D 5e‘s best subclasses.
However, Druids are also hard to build in D&D 5e. They have class-specific restrictions, a spell list that spans multiple different roles, and features that come with significant upsides and drawbacks. All things considered, it can be a lot for a newcomer to build effectively.
One of the best ways to make the best D&D 5e Druid build is to pick a race that doubles down on the class’s strengths or helps patch up some of its biggest weaknesses. In particular, ability score boosts or durability increases are invaluable.
I want to note here: this guide does not cover the (hint: this link does). None of the options presented are bad for the subclass, but its unique Combat Wild Shape opens up doors that would be ill-advised for other Druids. As such, I’ve done a separate guide for D&D 5e Druid Wild Shape builds that you can find above.
Updated September 14th by Artificial Twenty: I’m sure many people will keep playing D&D 5e after the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook. As a result, I want to keep my D&D 5e articles as high-quality as possible. I’m updating this list to bring it in line with current content and to do some boring technical tweaks.
Unsurprisingly, Variant Human and Custom Lineage Make Good Druids
This blog has spilt plenty of digital ink on why the Variant Human and Custom Lineage are two of the best races in D&D 5e for any class. This applies especially to the Druid, given how much a free feat can ease its troubles.
It’s the free feat. It’s always the free feat.
A D&D 5e Druid build needs to juggle multiple ability scores. Wisdom dictates the spellcasting that they live and die by, whilst their unique armour restrictions (none made of metal unless your DM says otherwise) make Dexterity vital. At the same time, they can’t neglect Constitution, especially melee Druid builds in D&D 5e.
There’s not much room for feats in this without neglecting one or more ability scores. Paradoxically, feats solve many of the D&D 5e Druid’s issues.
Resilient: Constitution is a godsend for any Druid character in D&D, helping to maintain their game-changing Concentration spells and (if you pick your ability scores well) providing bonus hit points. Circle of Spores Druids may prefer War Caster for magic opportunity attacks.
Magic Initiate, Fey Touched, or even Tough are other valuable choices to help bulk out a Druid.
Variant Human might be the single best Druid race in D&D 5e because Wild Shape negates a lack of Darkvision. You can get a free skill on top for even more flexibility.
Tortle Overcomes a Druid’s Armor Class Issues
This is going to be a persistent theme throughout this guide to the best Druid races in D&D 5e. Druids generally have terrible Armour Class, even with a shield. Their metal armour ban limits them to the worst medium armour or forces them to pump Dexterity at the expense of other stats.
Alternatively, you can play a Tortle. With absolutely no ability score investment whatsoever, a Tortle gets you 17 AC. This is more than hide armour can provide ever, and significantly better than light armour until high levels.
You get more than passable Armor Class out the gate as a Tortle Druid in D&D 5e. This also allows a Druid to pump other stats without worrying about frailty. In particular, a Circle of Spores Druid can worry about their Wisdom and Constitution while being well-protected in melee.
Shell Defense boosts AC even further, at the cost of limiting actions. However, this can be the best race for a D&D 5e Druid who wants to drop a devastating Concentration spell and maintain it throughout the fight. Cast it, become almost impervious to harm, and let the enemy suffer.
Other Tortle lineage features are valuable for a Druid in D&D 5e. Claws are largely useless, and Hold Breath becomes redundant with Wild Shape. However, Nature’s Intuition gives another skill proficiency of exactly the sort Druids want to excel at.
Fairy Gets Flight and Wisdom Spellcasting
Druids in D&D 5e eventually get flight almost at will through Wild Shape. However, this comes online at higher levels, disables spellcasting for the duration, and cuts into Wild Shape’s combat uses.
Fairy is one of the best D&D 5e Druid races because it provides this with none of the drawbacks. Its only restriction is that the creature cannot wear medium or heavy armour. Given all the Druid’s medium armour is terrible, this is not a hard sacrifice to make. It’s not like it restricts shields.
Aside from its immense utility value, flight is an invaluable combat tool for a D&D 5e Druid. They can avoid melee enemies, bypass hazards (whether natural or self-created), and maintain Concentration spells from a safe range.
Using Thorn Whip to pull enemies upward while flying is a particularly evil combat trick. Not only do you deal the attack’s regular damage, but there’s a good chance they take falling damage and land prone. However, not all DMs allow this effect from ten mere feet of falling, so check first.
Both ranged spellcaster Druids and more melee D&D 5e Druid subclasses like the Circle of Spores benefit from the flexibility of flight in and out of combat.
On top of that, the . Both Faerie Fire and Enlarge/Reduce are available to Druids, but it’s great to not have to prepare them. You could take almost anything else in those slots.
Enlarge/Reduce is situational (although Tiny size and flight replicate much of Wild Shape’s utility), whilst Faerie Fire is one of the best low-level debuff spells. Fly above the battlefield, use your high Wisdom to give advantage to all attacks, and profit.
Githzerai Provides Wide-Ranging Utility and Defenses
Druids are best-associated with the natural world, whilst D&D 5e Githzerai are inhabitants of the Astral Plane (which lacks trees). Nonetheless, the race’s association with monastic lifestyles and intense force of will suits the Wisdom-heavy Druid well.
On top of the tenuous thematic connections, the Githzerai is an excellent race for a D&D 5e Druid build mechanically. Rather than one standout feature that covers the Druid’s bases, it offers several useful abilities that are always welcome.
Githzeri Psionic’s spellcasting provides three spells that Druids normally lack access to. Mage Hand is one of D&D 5e‘s best utility cantrips. Shield, although clashing with some reaction spells, is a perfect durability boost. Detect Thoughts provides aid in social situations where Druids are often less useful.
Druids have more than enough spell slots to make regular use of these without missing out on their innate Druid D&D 5e spells. None of them are redundant and useless, and they all make one of D&D‘s best spellcasting builds even more versatile.
The Githzerai’s defensive features also make it a good D&D 5e Druid race. Their advantage against fear and charm effects synergises well with high Wisdom saving throws. Resistance to Psychic damage is very situational until it saves your life.
Eladrin Plugs a Gap in the Most Versatile Way
Despite their wide-ranging spell list in D&D 5e, Druids lack easy, universal teleportation. It’s one of the best abilities in D&D 5e, but Druids need to rely on the natural environment or high-level spells for teleportation.
Eladrin fills the Misty Step-shaped gap in the Druid’s arsenal. This alone would earn it a spot as one of the best D&D 5e races for Druid. However, the Eladrin’s Fey Step is even better than that.
Fey Step comes with four different abilities, determined by the Eladrin’s season, each of which is invaluable in a fight. A high Wisdom modifier makes all of them more effective, perfect for the Druid. Furthermore, its flexibility complements the Druid’s vast spell list well, letting the player trade off between effects.
The Eladrin, being one of D&D 5e‘s best races, gets even more. Keen Senses gives one of the for free. Perception is even better on a Druid than most characters due to high Wisdom.
Fey Ancestry boosts vital saving throws that often use Wisdom and can put the entire party at risk if failed. Trance gives potential tool proficiencies Druids can try to make use of.
Fey Step is the core reason that Eladrin is one of the best Druid races in D&D 5e, but the other features really help hammer that home.
Mountain Dwarf Can Turbocharge Two Ability Scores
Mountain Dwarf is another lineage that excels as one of the best D&D 5e Druid races because of its unusual ability score spread.
Rather than the Half-Elf’s more general bonuses, the Mountain Dwarf can take +2 to any two ability scores of the player’s choice.
This is massively beneficial for more spellcasting-oriented Druids, who can simply pump their Wisdom and Constitution, leaving other stats as lower priorities.
With dice rolls or standard array, this won’t have much effect early on. It does let you experiment more with feats at lower levels, or have a great number of boosted stats for your high-level D&D 5e Druid build.
Alternatively, D&D 5e players who use point buy can save on some points to spend elsewhere. More generally, this also allows two high stats with room for a half-feat early on without falling behind the curve.
Melee Druids, or those who want to build around AC, won’t find a Mountain Dwarf to be the best Druid race in D&D 5e. However, that is a relatively narrow niche.
Dwarven Resilience is another durability-boosting feature, providing resistance to a very common damage type. Stonecunning and tool use are both situational, but also stand a good chance of coming up in a Druid’s most natural environments.
Really, only Dwarven Armour Training is useless for a D&D 5e Druid. It gives the same armour they’re already proficient in and can’t use anyway. Even so, one dud feature is a small trade-off for turbocharging your best ability scores.
Autognome is Resilient, Silly-Looking, and Powerful
I will never not rag on the Autognome’s appearance (and name) on this blog. However, there’s no denying that it’s a top-tier D&D 5e race, especially for the Druid.
Armored Casing automatically provides better Armor Class than any option available for the Druid – even if it does still require investment in Dexterity.
Healing Machine lets the Druid heal themselves with a cantrip (even if Short Rests are still a good idea for Wild Shape). Mechanical Nature provides a bevvy of resistances and immunities, including one of D&D 5e‘s most common damage types.
Built for Success is the main reason the Autognome is one of the best Druid races in D&D 5e, however. A d4 can mean the difference between success and failure on any number of rolls.
For crucial ability checks, Built for Success stacks with Guidance to provide the Druid with a significant edge. One of its best uses is to push the Druid over the line with Concentration saving throws to protect the Druid’s best spells.
There isn’t a single Autognome feature that a D&D 5e Druid doesn’t benefit from in some way. Plus, you can look like a small version of those robots from Castle in the Sky.
Half-Elf Can Juggle Many Stats at Once
The main reason that Half-Elf is one of the best D&D 5e races for the Druid and many other classes is its unique ability score spread. Unlike any other race in the game, Half-Elf adds a +2 to one stat and +1 to two others.
This is good for any character, but it’s especially good for a D&D 5e Druid who desperately needs Wisdom, Dexterity, and Constitution to remain viable. Melee Circle of Spores Druids especially benefit from boosting their offensive and defensive stats.
Half-Elf is the only way, with standard array, to have both Wisdom and Constitution at 16 and Dexterity at 14 (you could also switch the Dex and Con) at first-level. Druids with less of a pressing need for Armour Class might instead boost other ability scores.
Fey Ancestry is as good on the Half-Elf as it is any other D&D 5e Druid race, working with their high Wisdom to make it almost impossible to fail certain saving throws.
As with most Half-Elf builds in D&D 5e, Skill Versatility is an excellent choice. Druids benefit from skills as much as anyone else. Two free skill proficiencies can let them lean into their high Wisdom in every way possible or provide them with more out-of-combat flexibility.
These have been eight of the best Druid races in D&D 5e. Whether they boost durability, magic, versatility, or all three, they go above and beyond the other options. If you’ve enjoyed this, please do leave a like, share it with your friends, and check out other content like the suggestions below. Thank you!
For more race build guides, please check out this article on the or this one for .
If you want to dive deeper into D&D 5e character creation, instead read ‘How Every DnD 5e Class Does A Support Build‘.
