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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Character Builds  > Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Druid Circles by a Factor of Three
5E D&D druid spells magic druid's wave

Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Druid Circles by a Factor of Three

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Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted circle back to the basics and discuss the druid class for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. In the video they look at all of the 5E D&D books with druid content. There are subclasses in the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica and Dave and Ted look over the character class as a whole plus weigh in with their personal gaming experiences. Outside of official sources there are countless Circles created by players all over the world. We’ve created at least one ourselves and there’s more from the D&D design team included in Unearthed Arcana playtest documents as well as terrific third party products containing new options for druid players. Over at Dungeon Master’s Guild there’s currently 625 products tagged as 5E D&D character options with druid content too. But there is another source of homebrew content I’m looking at today — D&D Beyond, where people have used the homebrew tools there to create 291 Circles for druids. Let’s get into it and look at the best ones from three different perspectives.

Druid Circles at D&D Beyond

Before getting started it’s important to note you can create homebrew content for private use and share your homebrew content publicly at DDB at no cost — there’s no subscription required to access these services. However if you want to add any of the homebrew warlock Otherworldly Patrons mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your collection you must subscribe at the Hero Tier or above. There’s a lot you can do at DDB for free. Check out what you can do here.

The DDB homebrew collection uses several statistics to track entries. Views shows how many eyeballs any particular homebrew creation received, Adds shows the number of times a creation was added to someone’s collection and Rating is an upvote/downvote system. Since there are over 291 druid Circles in the collection I’m going to share the top 10 highest rated, most viewed and most added selections and to see what’s out there along with any crossover between these three lists.

Top 10 highest rating druid Circles

  1. Circle of Evolution. Druids of the Circle of Evolution cater to the fauna and flora around them, watching and observing their growth as well as protecting them.
  2. Blighter. When a druid turns away from the land, the land turns away from her.
  3. Circle of Dragons. Some Dragonborn Druidic circles focus on the ancient power of the material plane of Dragons.
  4. Circle of Thorns. The Circle of Thorns is a collection of martial druids who have an affinity with spiked plants, who gladly throw themselves into the fray without taking an animal’s shape.
  5. Circle of Monsters. The circle of Monsters is a relatively new druid circle, and their beliefs are not widely accepted by most other druids.
  6. Circle of the Elements. Those who follow the Circle of the Elements attempt to gain greater control of the raw power of the elements.
  7. Circle of Death(Necromancer). Circle of Death are not evil, well not all of them.
  8. Circle of the Green Knight. Members of this Druidic Circle may not be as much of a warrior as their Oath of the Ancients Paladin cousins, though many travel together and see eachother as kindred spirits.
  9. Circle of the Monstrosity. Druids of the Circle of the Monstrosity are unorthodox hunters of the unnatural.
  10. Circle of Blossoms. Some druids dedicate themselves to caring for plants, particularly flowering plants.

Top 10 most viewed druid Circles

  1. Circle of Evolution
  2. Circle of Dragons
  3. Blighter
  4. Shaman. Shamans are masters of the cold, fire and lighting types of magic.
  5. Circle of Death(Necromancer)
  6. Circle of Thorns
  7. Circle of the Green Knight
  8. Circle of the Ocean. Where some druids prefer the land, druids of the Circle of the Ocean thrive in the water.
  9. Circle of the Elements
  10. Circle of Monsters

Top 10 most added druid Circles

  1. Circle of Evolution
  2. Blighter
  3. Circle of Dragons
  4. Circle of Thorns
  5. Circle of Death(Necromancer)
  6. Circle of Monsters
  7. Circle of the Green Knight
  8. Circle of the Elements
  9. Witch Doctor. A Druid that has delved into necromantic magic, learning secrets of death to go along with life.
  10. Mythical Beast. “You are a fitting host. You shall be granted power in exchange for being my vessel.”

5E D&D druid spells magic druid's wave circle

Druid Circles rising to the top

Using a highly scientific method taking into account ratings, views and adds here’s all of these DDB homebrew Sacred Oaths in order from highest scoring to lowest.

  1. Circle of Evolution
  2. Blighter
  3. Circle of Dragons
  4. Circle of Thorns
  5. Circle of Death(Necromancer)
  6. Circle of Monsters
  7. Circle of the Green Knight
  8. Circle of the Elements
  9. Shaman
  10. Circle of the Ocean

A perfect score! Circle of Evolution comes in at No. 1 across the board and if I’m honest I’m right there with the 11,107 people who viewed and 1,157 people who added it to their collection. This Circle offers two tracks for characters who love pets. Whether you follow the flora or fauna track your power over nature and natural magic allows you to evolve a beast or plant creature starting at 2nd level. I really dig this Circle! The customization options along the way are fun and I’ve got to say, playing a character whose evolved plant companion gets a Legendary Action sounds thoroughly satisfying.

I’m intrigued by one of the Circles that didn’t make the cut too. The Circle of Mythical Beast evokes images of magical monsters…but at the end of the day falls flat for me as basically a melee combatant with nothing else really going on. For me this is a design flaw I see often in homebrew content. I totally get it — combat in D&D is the exciting crunchy part of the game for the most part. When I see a subclass without any means of interacting with allies and features that really only make the individual better in combat I lose interest. With a name like Mythical Beast I imagined different mythic monsters the druid could emulate like hydras, unicorns and so forth. Sort of like Circle of the Shepherd but with a more monstrous twist. At any rate druids are a popular class and one of my personal favorites to play.

5E D&D druid resources

Here’s a few places for more warlock content to add to your games.

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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