Playtest: The Druid (merged)

[Cadfan]

Also, Call of the Beast needs some rewording, in my opinion. It shouldn't require the target to attack one of YOUR allies, it should require the target to attack one of ITS enemies. I've had three way fights going before, and the theme of the power breaks down in those situations due to this minor wording issue.

 

[frankthedm]

Some line by line critique, and then some thoughts at the end to sum up.

This is absolute genius. This is going to be the hidden MVP of the entire Druid class.

If it weren't for this, you'd basically start by casting spells, then shift to beast form for some melee cleanup. But thanks to this one line here, you can switch to beast form, charge into melee, do some damage, shift back and shift back a space to throw down a control spell, then shift to beast form again next round and reenter the fray. This one little line permits the class to function as a sort of dance between beast and human form, instead of just one or the other.

Don't forget "Special: You can use this power once per round."

 

[Cadfan]

Also, for the zero people who care- yeah, this class sort of makes my personal Beastform Shifter redundant. That's the homebrew class I sketched up over the weekend based on conversations with my wife while driving to and from Thanksgiving dinner.

My class was pretty different, as it was intended to be a Defender who gets his power from shifting into a beast form. Each character had just one beast form, with broad traits selected from a menu. These traits provided you with your class abilities. They also opened up access to various powers, with different traits opening up access to different powers. So if your beast form had the trait "Venom," you could pick powers related to poisonous claws or bites. Describing the beast form was still up to you, but the traits provided a guide, and meant that the form you described was relevant to the mechanics of your character.

Things I did that they did: the idea of powers thematically customizing your beast form, the idea of wisdom as the attack statistic for melee powers while in beast form.

Things I did that they didn't: made the specifics of the form relevant.

Things I didn't do that they did and I should have done: noticed that Wis v Ref obviates the need for a proficiency bonus to claw attacks more efficiently than Wis+2 v AC, or any of the other workarounds I considered. Duh.

 

[Cadfan]

Don't forget "Special: You can use this power once per round."

Oh, I know.

Look, basically, if you're willing to alternate between ranged and melee attacks, they just gave the Druid the kobold's "Shifty" power.

 

[Wycen]

I like the Fires of Life, though I expect it is mostly useful against minions.

 

[Hawke]

So I think I'm going to add a druid to an encounter tomorrow night. The players are in a large forest in search (skill challenge) of a green dragon - at some point they run into a heavily themed dragonkin kobold that are associated with the dragon.

I think I'll have the human druid start out with Skittering Sneak and hopefully go unnoticed - or if noticed will scurry away. Then at some point when combat seems to turn to the party's favor, he'll jump in beast form and show up as just some natural monster as far as the players are concerned. Finally, he'll reveal himself, drop some controllery spells until the dragonkin are defeated and then distance himself for some good roleplay.

Afterwards I can say "You just playtested the druid!" Works with in a more unaligned sense and jumping in to help the underdogs... heck, it implores me to make the initial combat harder in case he decides to come in to their aide.

At this point the Druid will be my first PC from PHB2. I could see maybe invoker taking over, but thematically I don't think I can tear myself away from it.

There seems to be so many options it looks like it will win the award for "most prone to retraining for fun" class. Maybe that fits well with the theme - the connection with nature constantly changing the druid's abilities with the seasons...

 

[fba827]

But thanks to this one line here, you can switch to beast form, charge into melee, do some damage, shift back and shift back a space to throw down a control spell, then shift to beast form again next round and reenter the fray. This one little line permits the class to function as a sort of dance between beast and human form, instead of just one or the other.

I am not sure you can do that, exactly, since you can only shift to/from once per round (see last line of the ability). So you'd use the ability once that round to shift to the form. And you're have to wait until next round to use the ability to shift back to humanoid form.
Of course, it is past 1am here and I'm tired so I may be misreading what you said or misreading the power....

 

[Kobold Avenger]

An interesting thing about this Druid is that their wildshape doesn't have to be anything distinct as an animal.

And if it can be a mass of fur or claws, it could even be scales and tentacles and wings. Somehow I could see a few druids being "Aberration" druids with their wildshape being really alien forms.

 

[Cadfan]

An interesting thing about this Druid is that their wildshape doesn't have to be anything distinct as an animal.

And if it can be a mass of fur or claws, it could even be scales and tentacles and wings. Somehow I could see a few druids being "Aberration" druids with their wildshape being really alien forms.

I expect to see options like that as feats, possibly with racial tie ins.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

An interesting thing about this Druid is that their wildshape doesn't have to be anything distinct as an animal.

And if it can be a mass of fur or claws, it could even be scales and tentacles and wings. Somehow I could see a few druids being "Aberration" druids with their wildshape being really alien forms.

*Nods* That is the style I am going for if I played a Druid, it be a weird ever shifting mass of animal parts, which will occasionally (when a Power is used) have part of its body concentrate into a complete whole like a jaw or claws.

You know some of these if you didn't want to make it seem like a full alteration. You could say the Druid keeps its humanoid form, but with the Primal Spirit unleashed he can't concentrate on weather spells and such. But instead his body is shifting and leads to said Powers.