How many Proficiencies should I have?

Question

I playing am a Shifter (Wildhunt), Druid (Circle of the Shepherd) with a Gruul Anarch background. I am not sure how many Proficiencies I should have. Please help me get the right number.

Answer 1

You should have 7 proficiencies (2 tools, 5 skills)

I'll assume your character is level 2, as you only get to pick your Druid Circle on second level, so you will have no ability score increases yet to buy (optional) feats that could provide additional proficiencies.

The Shifter (Wildhunt) race gives you the Natural Tracker feature that provides a proficiency:

Natural Tracker. You have proficiency in the Survival skill.

Count: 1, running total 1

As a druid (of any subclass) you get the following proficiencies (PHB p. 65):

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)
Weapons: Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears
Tools: Herbalism kit
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival

We'll ignore the weapon and armor proficiencies for this discussion and just focus on tools and skills. If you want to count them, add 3 for armor proficiencies and 10 for weapon proficiencies (although the count there is a bit iffy, as many classes like the fighter have proficiency in "simple weapons" or "martial weapons", which includes a large number of weapons in the core rules. So counting every individual weapon one is unlikely to be that helpful.)

Count: +3 (1 tool, 2 skills), running total 4, assuming you are smart enough to not to pick the Survival proficiency that you already have from your race. Also avoid picking Animal Handling, as you will get that from your background (see below).

The Circle of the Shepard features do not gain you any additional proficiencies when you get them on level 2.

The Gruul background gives you the following proficiencies

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kit
Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Athletics

You already have Herbalism kit from your class, but the rules on backgrounds (PHB p. 125) allow you to change this

In addition, most backgrounds give a character proficiency with one or more tools. Tools and tool proficiencies are detailed in chapter 5. If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead.

So check with your DM if they are OK to replace the tool proficiency for another one. It should not normally be an issue. If you did not pick Animal Handling for your class, you get it added here.

Count: +3 (1 tool, 2 skills), running total 7