D&D 5E "Bear Stride"?

[pukunui]

UPDATE: Please skip ahead to post #9.



One of my Tyranny of Dragons players is playing a druid with a bear theme. He only ever wildshapes into bears, he only summons bears with conjure animals, and so on. The other day we were talking, and he mentioned that he was trying to think of some custom spells he could create for his druid. One example was a tree stride-like spell that would allow him to "shift" between his summoned bears while he is in bear form himself.

I honestly have no idea how to make something like that a balanced spell ... but it got me thinking: what if I were to make it a magic item property instead? Perhaps an amulet with bear claws on it, and maybe it has, say, 3 daily charges in it which he can expend to activate a sort of bear stride ability that lasts for, say, 1 minute a pop. While active, the ability would let him teleport to a space within 5 feet of any bear he's summoned with conjure animals, so long as it's not more than, say, 120 feet away or something.

Whadda ya reckon? Yay or nay?

If your player came to you with the above idea, what would you do?


Thanks in advance!
- Jonathan

 

[Fimbria]

I'd suggest a small revision. Give him the amulet of bear striding, but change it so that it never recharges. After those three uses are expended, you and the player will evaluate it. If you like how it turned out, the druid will reverse engineer the spell, and from then on it will part of his normal spell list. If you don't like how the spell works, the object crumbles into dust and that's the end of it. That way you won't have to worry about old mistakes coming back to haunt you later.

 

[pukunui]

That's not a bad idea! Thank you.

 

[The Human Target]

Yeah definitely let the player know its a playtest and will be tinkered with.

I'd say take tree stride, change tree to bear in the text, and drop it down to level 3.

Also, bear stride is a great name.

 

[Prickly]

I would treat it as a magic item reward but make it an inherent ability the player has because he is a "bear savant"

To start off he could do it once per short or long rest, and depending on how it works in play, it could gain more uses per rest.

question: does the player want to move between bear to bear ala tree stride or is he more shifting his mind between bears?

 

[pukunui]

I would treat it as a magic item reward but make it an inherent ability the player has because he is a "bear savant"

So like a supernatural gift?

question: does the player want to move between bear to bear ala tree stride or is he more shifting his mind between bears?

The former. He wants to be able to reposition his PC more easily, I guess.

 

[Prickly]

So like a supernatural gift?

yes, I think the DMG has info for giving boons or blessings as a reward. 4e had a similar thing as well

 

[pukunui]

It does indeed. There are two kinds of examples in the book: blessings and charms. Plus the epic boons.

 

[pukunui]

Reviving this thread because I never actually got around to finalizing anything for my player, who's just reminded me about this. He's now of the mind that he'd like to be able to teleport *into* one of the conjured bears and take it over, even if he's already wildshaped into bear form himself. That's quite a bit different to what I had been imagining before.

He also says that at higher levels, he'd like to be able to "debuff" an enemy as he "blinks" from his character's position into the summoned bear.

I honestly have no idea how to model either of those ideas using the 5e rules. I'm inclined to put them in the "too hard" basket.

Any ideas?


EDIT: He says the idea came about because he feels a lack of mobility when in his bear form. That is, that he tends to get surrounded by the enemies and can't easily move about. I pointed out that's more or less what being a moon druid is all about: he's a big bag of hit points that's meant to stand there and tank.

I suggested maybe a "benign transposition" sort of effect instead - that is, he swaps places with one of his summoned bears instead of taking it over. I'm not sure how that would work, since the bear is technically not a bear but a fey spirit in the shape of bear.

Another possibility might be a magic item that lets him cast misty step even while wildshaped (or perhaps only while wildshaped).

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Maybe a Mirror Image type effect if he wants the confuse-the-enemy idea? When he wildshapes he can use an action to have a Mirror Image of (choose a number of) identical bears appearing within 30' of him.
To make it more blinky, have him roll a d(number of bears inc him) and he is actually in that bears spot. I'm picturing the action as being a big grizzly rear and then stamp forward which triggers the other bears. He may be actually in the same spot or maybe in one of the others. But he won't know which so there's a bit of control there.