Druids are devotees of nature and followers of the Old Faith, but sometimes a druid wants to branch out from the earthy-crunchy granola world of the wilds. Multiclassing can be a great way for a druid to spread their wings without even having to use Wild Shape. However, not all classes work the same with druids. Here’s a guide to taking other class levels as a druid.
Artificer
A good number of artificer spells overlap with druid ones at low levels, and since the artificer is only a half-caster your spell slots will lag behind. Also, no infusions work especially well for druids, and they disappear while you Wild Shape anyway. This multiclass is only useful for flavor or if you are especially interested in any of the subclass abilities.
Barbarian
This is great for Circle of the Moon druids. Rage and Wild Shape can overlap, so your combat beast forms suddenly become a lot more effective. You can take one level to get the bonuses from rage or take three to get a subclass. Path of the Totem Warrior is great if you take the Bear Totem, which will give you resistance to all damage except psychic. You’ll lose out on some spell levels, but that hardly matters when you can turn into a dinosaur that shrugs off absolutely everything.
Bard
Most of the bard stuff can be categorized as nice, but not your job. Choosing a level or two of bard can be good if you want to fill a support role rather than battlefield control, but only if you have decent Charisma. Since bards are full spellcasters, taking levels won’t hurt your spell slot levels, so all you’re giving up is higher-level druid abilities.
Cleric
Clerics use Wisdom to cast spells, just like druids, and they get strong Divine Domain abilities and Channel Divinity uses at the first and second levels, respectively. While Nature Domain is, ironically, not good for druids, Life Domain is particularly notable because its 1st-level healing bonus applies to every berry in the good berry druid spell, which is a lot of healing for a 1st-level spell. Also, by taking even a single level of cleric, you gain knowledge of all the spells on the cleric spell list as long as you have spell slots to cast them. You can only prepare a few a day, but they’re useful to have.
Fighter
Unless your DM lets you use Unearthed Arcana, there aren’t many Fighting Styles that do much for druids (if they do, Mariner is great). However, 2nd-level Action Surge is great for spellcasters, especially ones that have as many spells that shape a battle long-term like druids do. Druids have a lot of concentration spells though, so make sure when you cast two spells in a turn one doesn’t cancel the other out.
Monk
Taking a single level in monk gives Unarmored Defense, which not only increases your Armor Class based on your (probably substantial) Wisdom modifier, it also boosts the AC of your Wild Shape forms, which makes it great for Circle of the Moon druids. You get diminishing returns past one level of monk.
Paladin
None of the early paladin abilities are bad, but you really only want Divine Smite at 2nd level. As a full caster, you’ll have a lot of spell slots. If you’re playing the Circle of the Moon druid, you can spend some of those spell slots on more damage instead of spells. If you turn into a creature with a multiattack, you can even try to fish for crits, then double your smite damage when you use it.
Ranger
Rangers work very well with druids, but you have to invest more levels in ranger – specifically, five. Then you get a ranger extra attack, which allows you to be a useful weapon-wielding druid. Beast Master and Hunter rangers help augment this. This build works well with the combat buffs provided by the Circle of the Shepard or the versatility from the Circle of the Land.
Rogue
Taking a level of rogue gives you expertise, which is great for anyone, but especially if you like the infiltration aspects of Wild Shape and want a boost to Stealth. Sneak Attack is good if you’re making attacks, but you will often have better stuff to do with your actions, you have to have certain weapons to use it, and the damage doesn’t scale. You also lose spell levels the more levels of rogue you take.
Sorcerer
Metamagic can be good when paired with druid spells, so if you take levels in this class, make sure to plan for at least three. Some sorcerer spells are good for druids, but they are cast using Charisma. None of the subclass abilities are especially good for druids, so pick whichever one you like the most.
Warlock
The Archfey Patron offers a charmed or frightened effect in an area of effect and the Celestial patron gives a good amount of free healing. Eldritch Invocations can get you some utility if you want it. Alternatively, you can pick up Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar to reposition enemies into your area of effect spells using Eldritch Blast.
Wizard
The benefit of wizards comes from their wide and varied spell progression, which makes dipping into the class limited. However, they do gain a spellbook, which they can copy spells into. If your campaign is in a world where spellbooks and scrolls are common, you might want to take a level so you can copy down spells. You can build a fairly substantial spell list this way, but since you only get to prepare a certain amount per day, you’ll get the most use out of ritual spells that you don’t need to prepare. However, if that’s all you want, you can take the Ritual Caster feat and miss out on a druid level.