Druid spell analysis: Part 1 (Cantrips)

I just reviewed his coverage of Druid first level spells, and he gave a Purple rating to Ice Knife because it's good for level one (with a very sharp drop off after that). A concentration cantrip is fine for low levels when you don't have a lot of other concentration interfering with it, and it can be swapped out later. I am just not seeing why it got SUCH a low rating.

Mistwell

You can’t ignore the concentration though, can you? If you are running literally any spell, bonfire immediately falls out of favor in a way that most cantrips don’t. Lvl 1 it’s fine, but anything beyond that sees very steep diminishing returns.

I gotta disagree with your rating on create bonfire, for multiple reasons. 1) Concentration conflicts with other spells: not at low levels it doesn't very often. And yet you rank other cantrips higher which get swapped out at 5th level. 2) Useful with other spells only: you ranked a spell like thorn whip higher only when combined with other spells, and this IS one of the very spells thorn whip combines with! 3) Most importantly - IGNORE THE CONCENTRATION. Even if you just look at it as a single round 60' range 1d8 scalable dex based attack spell, that's still as good as spells you ranked higher! That's right in the pocket of "average" cantrip attack spells, not even assuming a second round of damage (which might be circumstantial but will happen more often than other spells you ranked higher.) This spell is easily at least orange and probably higher than that. I think you got stuck on concentration at higher levels, while ignoring just the normal damage in round, damage at low levels, and combination damage. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess you've never played a lower level Druid with Create Bonfire as one of their primary attack cantrips?

Mistwell

Minor illusion doesn't give cover at all (blocks line of sight only). The drawback of mold earth is simply that this is Dungeons and Dragons, and you probably can't use mold earth at all in a dungeon.

Treantmonk's Temple

Imo, mold earth is more versatile than given credit for here. You can use it to provide cover in battle better than the likes of minor illusion can, dig a moat (especially when paired with shape water) and build a wall around your campsite... Bilbrons has a good short on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFiJ7Pi_Zu8

Well, sort of…. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jFgX6ENk-DU

Glenn Wilson

Those were reviewed previously. Maintenance (updates) is usually an ideal but the bigger the dataset the more costly the time required (which is why most organizations seldom actually achieve it.)

Glenn Wilson

lol

Treantmonk's Temple

So you're rating the druid's cantrips but at the time skipped reviewing the wizard's cantrips? My wizard-PC now is really jealous of my friend's druid-PC! ;)

Amazingly, this video timed out exactly perfect from my driveway to my D&D game 😃 I’m not playing a Druid but my Triton character is the Blessed of the Wildmother 🧜‍♂️💪🏼

Greg Smith