Using Shillelagh to Maximise Damage in D&D 2024

Sticks and stones to break your bones.

How does shillelagh work?

Below are the rules for the shillelagh spell from the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Cantrip transmutation

Casting Time: bonus action
Range: self
Components: V, S, M (mistletoe)
Duration: 1 minute

A Club or Quarterstaff you are holding is imbued with nature’s power. For the duration, you can use your spellcasting ability instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of melee attacks using that weapon, and the weapon’s damage die becomes a d8. If the attack deals damage, it can be Force damage or the weapon’s normal damage type (your choice).

The spell ends early if you cast it again or if you let go of the weapon.

Cantrip Upgrade. The damage die changes when you reach levels 5 (d10), 11 (d12), and 17 (2d6).

Available for: Druid

PHB 2024, p316

It’s got 3 benefits:

1. Use your spellcasting modifier for attacks with the weapon instead of strength.
2. The damage die increases to d8 (this increases at higher levels to a maximum of 2d6).
3. The weapon can use force damage instead of its normal damage type.

Changes from the 2014 version

There are 2 important differences in the 2014 version of the spell that means it’s less potent:

• Damage doesn’t scale with your level. It’s limited to a d8.
• The weapon doesn’t use force damage, instead it would become magical damage.

This obviously means less damage at higher levels, but force damage is also almost never resisted making it a better damage type than bludgeoning, even as a magical type of damage.

How can I use shillelagh to increase damage?

So there are a few scenarios where shillelagh becomes quite useful:

• When your spellcasting modifier is superior to your strength modifier.
• When you lack proficiency with weapons that have higher damage dice.
• When wielding a shield (which also means using a one handed weapon).
• When enemies are resistant to normal weapon damage.

Handily, shillelagh works with things like extra attack but can’t be used for a second weapon (if you.want to dual wield for instance). And on the note of dual wielding, it doesn’t work on light weapons either.

This makes it a great option for a bunch of different builds. You’ll need to be aware that you’ll have to cast the spell with a bonus action so will lose that in the first round of combat. This might affect classes like paladins or rangers that might be using spells with their bonus action like smite or hunter’s mark.

How to get shillelagh

There are a few ways that any character can get shillelagh in D&D 2024:

• Be a druid: Shillelagh is only on the druid’s spell list and as a cantrip, can be obtained at 1st level.
• Multiclass into druid: If you aren’t already a druid, you could take a 1 level dip into druid to grab the spell.
• Magic initiate origin feat: If you choose from the druid spell list, this will let you take shillelagh.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend taking a whole multiclass dip just for a spell, but grabbing magic initiate can be a much less costly option to take.

This works for almost any class too as you don’t even need a good spellcasting ability to make this work well. The exception here is barbarian which won’t be able to cast spells while raging. Technically, shillelagh can be maintained while you’re raging if you cast it beforehand, but this means delaying your rage for a turn if combat which isn’t ideal.

Shillelagh builds

Below I’ve put together some ideas you can use for builds that utilise shillelagh and some approaches you can take with these builds.

Druid warden

This is primarily for close combat druids. You’ll weave magic with melee. You won’t be as resilient as some melee characters so will want to fight with backup, but I’d go with the following build:

• Class: Druid
• Subclass: Circle of the sea
• Species: Dwarf or Goliath
• Primal order: Warden
• Weapon: Quarterstaff, heavy crossbow
• Armor: Half plate and shield
• Feats: magic initiate (wizard) origin feat at level 1 for true strike, grab war caster at level 4 so you can cast spells with somatic components while wielding a weapon and shield

For this build, we’re going to turn a pure druid into a melee warrior that’s reasonably tough and can pack a decent punch. You only get one attack so you’ll really need to make it count. This means using shillelagh in the first round of combat, wielding a shield for durability and casting true strike (which you can grab with magic initiate (wizard)) in place of your standard attacks. These 2 cantrips will help your damage scale decently and can both be cast on the same turn.

It also means you can focus on wisdom, go for 14 dexterity, dump strength and invest everything else in constitution (as you’ll be able to use your wisdom modifier for attacks).

After the first round, you can continue to use true strike with your action while activating wrath of the sea with your bonus action for extra damage and to keep yourself from getting too overwhelmed with enemies.

An alternative build relies on taking a High Elf for true strike, which frees up your origin feat for another feat, like tough.

Magical enforcer fighter

With this build, we can be a high performing magic wielder while going for high damage and high defence.

With lots of attacks and actions surge to draw on, fighters can benefit from the effects of shillelagh on each of their multiple attacks. Eldritch knights perform even better here, exchanging an attack for a use of true strike each turn for even more damage.

• Class: Fighter
• Subclass: Eldritch knight
• Species: Human (to grab the magic initiate origin feat)
• Weapons: Quarterstaff, javelins
• Armor: Plate armor, shield
• Feats: Magic initiate (druid) origin feat, dueling fighting style feat, war caster at level 4 (for weapon and shield casting)

Because shillelagh allows you to use your intelligence for attack rolls, you can afford to prioritise intelligence and constitution over dexterity or strength. Strength is going to be better as if you can’t cast shillelagh for some reason, then you’ll need to use this for attacks. Plus, you can get better AC with plate armor than any other armor.

You’re compensating for the use of a shield with shillelagh for better one handed weapon damage. Dueling will also compensate here by increasing your damage output.

You’ll need to make sure you also grab true strike from your eldritch knight spell list. You can use this as part of your war magic feature allowing you to make one of your attacks with the greater power true strike provides.

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Shillelagh has seen a solid improvement in D&D 2024. It does need some building into to work, but it gives a solid damage boost for each attack made with it and allows for better defensive builds that can dole out more damage. Do you have any powerful shillelagh builds? Let me know about them in the comments below.

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