D&D 5E Druid 20 = Infinite Hit Points

[daddystabz]

So my Druid I just made last night has an AC of 13. It is 15 when he has equipped his wooden shield he carries. So when I wild form into an animal do I lose use of my shield and it thus isn't calculated into my AC anymore? I am just wondering why Magic Initiate-Mage Armor would be useful while wild shaping because with Mage Armor my AC would be 15, the same as it is with my wooden shield.

 

[SilverfireSage]

So my Druid I just made last night has an AC of 13. It is 15 when he has equipped his wooden shield he carries. So when I wild form into an animal do I lose use of my shield and it thus isn't calculated into my AC anymore? I am just wondering why Magic Initiate-Mage Armor would be useful while wild shaping because with Mage Armor my AC would be 15, the same as it is with my wooden shield.

Your shield either drops to the ground, merges with the new form, or is worn by it. However, most animals do not have the capacity to use a shield meant for a human, so it would not be added to your armor class. Mage Armor would be a decent way to increase AC to 15.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Point of clarification. Your AC would not necessarily be 15 with mage armor+wild shape. It depends on the beast's DEX score. A brown bear's AC with mage armor would be 13, for example.

 

[SilverfireSage]

Point of clarification. Your AC would not necessarily be 15 with mage armor+wild shape. It depends on the beast's DEX score. A brown bear's AC with mage armor would be 13, for example.

And a Hawk's would be 16. Good point.

 

[Korgul79]

I would rule that when the Druid can use wild shape only to transform in a different shape that the one he is currently using (avoiding to reshape every round in an earth elemental just to replenish hit point). A further possible fix is to House rule that the druid cannot use the same form more than once per, let's say, short rest. So he will probably run pretty quickly out of Hit points heavy shapes.

I thing that could solve the most bothering problems (as the terrasque being unable to cut trough the druid shape hp per round) without changing too much the functionality of the class. I think that fix would even make it more interesting to play, stimulating creativity and reinforcing the "Merlin vs Mad Madam Mim" feel of the power.

 

[Korgul79]

The mammoth and the earth elemental both have 126 HP, the air elemental (the druid's best flying form) has 90 HP. So the druid has a 130 HP/round buffer on the ground and 90 in the air.

The ancient red dragon (CR 24) can do about 90 points of damage per round, maybe 100 in its lair. That won't make for a very dramatic fight. I don't necessarily have a problem with a 20th level character single-handedly killing a monster of that caliber, but it should at least pose some level of threat, right?

If my campaign ever got to that point I would probably rule that the druid couldn't return to any form more than once per long rest. (but once per rest let the druid return to only one form a second time, so that the archdruid ability is never worse than the basic wildshape)

For example the druid could go mammoth, mammoth again, earth elemental, air elemental, water elemental, fire elemental, and then on to lower HP forms. (because he already used mammoth twice, he can only use forms once from then on). Naturally I would assume that there would be an infinite number of birds, fish, rodents, etc. that a druid could turn into. I think that's a great solution that still gives the druid the awesome ability that was intended without the oversight of near infinite HP.

Ninj'ed

 

[Nachti]

Stupid dragon.....just knock the druid prone and crit him to death!

Ohh wait....the druid elemental forms have resistance to blunt, piercing and slashing damage and the dragons attacks are not magical!

Earth elemental laughts.

Just fear him then!

Earth elemental changes to druid. "I used Foresight. Try to hit me!" Druid changes back.

Ancient red dragon begins to cast spell of ultimate doom, which will kill the druid.

The earth elemental uses his reaction to make a melee attack and does 14 damage. The dragon has to make a concentration check, but has disadvantage because the elemental is a MAGE SLAYER. He rolls 19 and 1. FAIL!

He casts again and makes the concentration check. The earth elemental rolls a 1 and fails.....but hes a lucky halfling and can just reroll the die! He succeeds.



And the dragon flies away at 80ft speed. The problem is......the druid in air elemental form has fly speed 90ft!

 

[dwayne]

As stated under druid: For example, if you take 10 damage in animal form and have only 1 hit point left, you revert and take 9 damage. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren’t knocked unconscious. This means that if you have 30 normal hit points and your animal form (a wolf has 11 hp) and you take 10 as it states above and you revert back you would take 9 to your base hit points (because you had 1 pint left over for being a wolf so this reduces the damage taken to your base form ) so is why you take only 9 damage to your base.