can you share some thoughts on a druid/rogue multi class? i just started playing a firbolg druid. he used to be a scout before adventuring so sneaky assassin sounds like it could be a fun thing to play with. are there other classes you think would go good with druid? ty!!
So here’s the thing: if you want to do this for story reasons, do what works for the story.
Mechanically, druid kind of works best on its own. The general concept of multiclassing is that you trade depth for breadth - taking a few levels of fighter, for example, so you can attack better, but you don’t advance as quickly in spellcasting. The problem is druids have a huge amount of breadth already so there’s not a whole lot of benefit:
Wild shape is the core of the class, and while in wild shape you retain your mental stats but your attack abilities are those of the wild shape. You can’t spellcast in wild shape until very high levels. I guess sneak attack and cunning action would still apply, so you get those benefits, so actually rogue might work better than most options. But things like extra attacks (which other battle classes have) or spell benefits are all useless while in wildshape.
When you’re not in wild shape, rogue is not particularly useful because you’re a spellcaster and unlike a wizard, you have almost no attack spells. Druid damage spells tend to be area of effect, which means no sneak attack damage. You can do some damage with shillelagh if you have a staff, so you could sneak attack with that, but that’s melee which is less useful for a rogue assassin which works far better with a distance weapon; druids do have access to some distance weapons but they tend to be the lower damage (like d4) ones.
And of course, you set back your spellcasting and wild shape progression. Druids, between wild shape and spellcasting, basically have all the areas covered - wild shape is essentially a way to become a melee fighter and/or a damage tank as needed, spellcasting will do damage at a distance but won’t as mentioned benefit from sneak attack, and you can also heal. Multiclassing is going to typically be weaker, in my opinion, than just taking more levels in druid, because you already have access to the same overarching benefits a few levels in another class would give you - why be a fighter or rogue multiclass when you can turn into a bear with a multi-attack every short rest? Why dip into cleric when you already have healing and radiant damage?
Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, just that in that case it’s going to be driven not by a mechanical advantage but by the story you’re telling, and you’re going to know that far better than I ever will.
One thing I want to plug though is that you can explore story beats without multiclassing! You should explore story beats without multiclassing! Your character can still have a history as a scout and let that inform who they are without multiclassing. This can be mechanical (eg, taking the Alert feat), or it can purely be a story choice. Even the Player’s Handbook says that not every devout person is a cleric or paladin and not every musician is a bard. If you want your druid to be a rogue too that’s fine, but by no means feel that’s the only way to round them out as a character.
