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Whether it’s the real world or the fantasy realm ofDungeons & Dragons, there’s no greater power than the sea. Wielding the powers of the briney depths offers adventurers near god-like power, and there’s no better class to harness the energy of the ocean than a Circle of the Sea druid.
But creating and playing a Circle of the Sea druid is a lot like trying to sail around the world; you need a lot of skill and luck or a pretty good map. Let this guide be your map to one of the most potent druid subclasses in D&D 2024.
Features Of A Circle Of The Sea Druid
New for D&D 2024, a Circle of the Sea druid is a lot like a Circle of the Land druid, but wetter. You get a selection of water and lightning/thunder spells starting at level three (lightning being the angriest form the ocean takes), and you receive theSea Druid’s signature ability, Wrath of the Sea.
Wrath of the Sea gives the Circle of the Sea druid an interesting flavor. You’re still mostly a magic-casting class, which means you have access to a bunch of spells that can keep you safely outside of melee combat. However,Wrath of the Sea can deal a ton of damage to any creature foolish enough to get close to you.
As you gain more Wisdom, Wrath of the Sea deals more damage, and at level six it extends to ten feet away, butthe overall theme is to keep your enemies close so they can get bombarded by your oceanic emanation.
Eventually, you’ll be able to throw your Wrath of the Sea onto your party’s tank(a barbarian, paladin, or fighter is recommended here) to give yourself some breathing room while maintaining your incredible damage potential. That said, your best bet is to ride the dangerous wave of melee combat for most of your Sea Druid’s career.
Description
Circle of the Sea Spells
Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Ray of Frost, Shatter, Thunderwave, Lightning Bolt, Water Breathing, Control Water, Ice Storm, Conjure Elemental, Hold Monster
Wrath of the Sea
Deal cold damage to nearby enemies based on your wisdom modifier. Can also push enemies up to 15 feet away.
Aquatic Affinity
Wrath of the Sea extends to 10 feet, gain swim speed.
Resistance to cold, lightning, and thunder damage, gain fly speed.
Give your Wrath of the Sea to a friendly creature.
Best Origin Choices For A Circle Of The Sea Druid
The recommended background choices here are going to focus on your game plan of beingtypically good at Druid things(skills like Nature and Animal Handling, as well as spellcasting) while beingequally proficient in your aquatic brand of melee combat.
Background
By far the best choice here is Guide. This background provides you with the choice of increasing your three most important ability scores (Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom), two good skills in Stealth and Survival, and best of all, the Magic Initiate Origin Feat.
With Magic Initiate,you can grab two cantrips and one first-level spellfrom outside the typical Druid spell list, but you can still use your Wisdom modifier to cast them. Depending on the spells you choose (more on that later), this can really help you with wading into melee combat.
Yoursecond best choice of background is Farmer, but it’s not quite as useful. You get Animal Handling and Nature, as well as the Tough feat, but you don’t really need to increase your Strength ability score. It’s not bad, but Guide is the better option here.
Ability Scores
You’re a druid, soyour most important ability score is Wisdom. The more Wisdom you have, the better your spellcasting, and the more damage your Wrath of the Sea ability can deal.
Dexterity and Constitution are your next most important scoresas both will keep you alive while you’re swimming in baddies. Dexterity provides armor class, while Constitution provides hit points and lets you keep concentration on your spells.
8
13
14
12
15
10
With the Guide background, choose toincrease your Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom scores by +1.
Species
With the Guide background, you’ll already have the Magic Initiate Origin Feat. Butyou know what’s better than one Origin Feat?TwoOrigin Feats,which you may get by being a human.
Human is the top pick for a Sea Druid, but here’s a table with all your options from the D&D 2024 Handbook.
Reason
Human
An extra Origin Feat is just too good to pass up. Take Magic Initiate if you didn’t pick Guide as your background, or pick Tough if you did.
Elf
High elf gives you access to another wizard cantrip as well as two great spells. It’s not quite as good as being Human, but it’s close. Plus you get three skill proficiencies, Darkvision, and resistance to being charmed.
Dwarf
Tremorsense isn’t the most useful ability, but it can be handy at times. What really give sdwarf the edge is the extra hit points as resistance to poison.
Tiefling
Combining Hellish Rebuke with Wrath of the Sea makes you hilariously deadly to melee opponents, and Darkvision is always nice to have.
Goliath
Slightly faster than the average species, and Giant Ancestry can provide you with some very useful abilities.
Orc
Temporary hit points and Relentless Endurance will have you running around the battlefield like a waterspout.
Halfling
The sneakiest species doesn’t offer a lot to a Sea Druid, but Luck is always nice to have.
Dragonborn
Flight is unnecessary, and the dragonborn’s breath weapon is largely overshadowed by your Wrath of the Sea. A flavorful choice, but not a mechanically ideal one.
Gnome
You can already Speak with Animals as a druid, so forest gnome doesn’t provide much. The tinkering abilities of a rock gnome would be interesting to combine with the nature-based magic of a Sea Druid, but hardly ideal.
Aasimar
You already get a flight speed at later levels, so two transformations are already less useful. Inner Radiance can combine with Wrath of the Sea for a fun damage boost, though.
Skills
Pick two skills that complement your party but didn’t receive from your background. If you picked Guide as your background,Nature and Perception are probably your best bets.
Perception is the most-rolled skill in any D&D campaign, plus you have the Wisdom score to really boost it through the roof.Be prepared to become your party’s alarm system.
Equipment
The standard equipment you receive from the druid class and the Guide background will give you a pretty good start. Leather armor provides adequate early protection, a shortbow is good ranged damage (when combined with the True Strike cantrip), and a Quarterstaff will be both your melee damage and Druidic Focus.
However, if you want to take the 100 gold pieces to create your own starting kit,here’s a setup that will give you a slight boost to your damage and defenses.
You’ll need to take the Warden option for your Primal Orderat level one to be proficient in medium armor. More on that later.
How To Level Your Circle Of The Sea Druid
With your origins, background, species, and starting equipment settled, it’s time to run througheach choice at each level, along with your spells.
We’ve stuck to the 2024 Player’s Handbook, but if you have access to the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide,Booming Blade is an incredibly good cantrip to pair with Wrath of the Sea. Pushing melee opponents away forces them to move, dealing extra damage every round.
1
Level One Spells:
Warden gives you access to medium armor, which gives you the best armor class with 14 Dexterity. True Strike with a Light Crossbow is the best ranged damage option until later levels, and Shillelagh is your best melee damage option. Guidance and Elementalism are both great cantrips that no druid should be without.
Entangle and Fairie Fire make melee combat easier, Shield gives you a great reaction for extra armor class, and Healing Word a good bonus action to keep yourself and your friends from dying.
2
Your Wild Shape charges are mostly to spend on Wrath of the Sea, but do have a flying form available until you gain your flight speed at level 10. A flying companion is also a good thing to have. Absorb Elements gives you something to cast when Shield won’t protect you.
3
Level Two Spell:
Now you’re a Circle of the Sea druid! You also get second-level spells, which can be Barkskin until you find medium armor that gives you better than 17 AC.
Once you get half-plate armor, feel free to replace this with something like Aid or Dispel Magic.
4
Give yourself +2 Wisdom to improve your spellcasting modifier and do more Wrath of the Sea damage. Lesser Restoration is a useful spell to have on-hand if you ever get debuffed.
5
Level Three Spells:
Aura of Vitality provides you with even more effective hit points to wade into melee combat with, while Summon Fey gives you a friend to help bash heads.
6
Level Three Spell:
Revivify is always good to have when a party member bites the big one.
7
Level Four Spell:
Potent Spellcasting improves your True Strike and Shillelagh damage even further. Combine Conjure Woodland Beings with Wrath of the Sea for some truly awesome damage to everything within a short perimeter of you.
Gain two more Wisdom to bring yourself up to the soft cap of 20, gaining yet more spell and Wrath of the Sea damage for your effort. A tough, powerful, reliable summon to fight alongside.
9
Level Five Spell:
Druids are usually the healers, and Mass Cure Wounds is the best healing spell in the game so long as you can keep the party bunched up for a single turn.
Congratulations! You can fly! And Greater Restoration heals anything that Lesser Restoration doesn’t.
11
Level Six Spell:
The best single-target healing spell, and one that will keep you in the fight even longer than a fighter.
Feat - Speedy
Speedy gives your flying, swimming, and walking speed a 10-foot boost, while also making it easier to disengage from combat when necessary. Choose to increase your Constitution by one here.
Level Seven Spell:
Reverse Gravity can, on occasion, totally trivialize a combat encounter. A fun spell to have in your pocket, but feel free to replace with Regenerate if you really feel like you need more healing.
Level Eight Spell:
A great save-or-suck spell that turns mages off for a good long while.
16
Feat - Resilient
Gain proficiency is Constitution saving throws to make it easier to maintain concentration on spells, and increase your Constitution by one again for more hit points too.
17
Level Nine Spell:
Shapechange is mostly to gain a bunch of temporary hit points, but being able to turn into a giant beast that has a whirling water tornado around it is pretty awesome. Message is a fun cantrip for going undercover or talking underwater.
18
Where Revivify fails, True Resurrection succeeds. Your friends never need to worry about dying again. Plus, you’re able to resurrect your favorite NPCs if they get murdered.
19
For your first Epic Boon, take Boon of Fate to ensure maximum damage on your Wrath of the Sea or to ensure Befuddlement lands. Give yourself +1 to Wisdom in case you manage to find something else that can push your Wisdom score higher than 20.
Foresight provides advantage on attacks you make and disadvantage on attacks made against you. Great all-around spell if you don’t have room to cast Shapechange.
20
You’re an Archdruid now. Tsunami is on-brand, but this can really be anything that you want.
Best Multiclass Options For A Circle Of The Sea Druid
The above build is pretty well self-contained and doesn’t really need any help from other character classes.The only multiclass option worth considering for this build is a level in monk. This would provide you with access to Unarmored Defense, which would encourage you to push your Dexterity to maximize your armor class.
Monk isn’t a bad multiclass option,but it does leave you short a spell slot, and Unarmored Defense isn’t so compelling that the trade feels worth it. Stick with being a pure druid. After all, the sea provides everything you could ever want.
