D&D 5E Druid wildshape...

[Pickles JG]

I'm much more worried about the moon druid at low levels than I am at 20th level. There is no question that he is extremely overpowered at early levels, that seems to balance out as the druid levels up but I'm not familiar enough with high level characters to judge when or if it evens out.

At the very least I'm probably going to rule that a lvl 2 moon druid only wild shapes into a CR 1/2 creature. I'll probably judge the rest from there, my players are still figuring 5e characters out, I'm hoping nobody makes a druid so I don't have to worry about it.

Me too including the cr1/2 at level 2, except I have a druid & I hope he chooses circle of the land

 

[garydee]

A houserule I would use would be that the hit points of the form you take can't be more than the druid's hp. You could take a brown bear form and have all of it's abilities but the hit points you'd have couldn't be higher than druid's hp. This rule would keep low level moon druids in check but it wouldn't affect them at higher levels.

 

[Boarstorm]

I can't help but think it's a little bit early to be nerfing a class' signature ability.

 

[garydee]

I can't help but think it's a little bit early to be nerfing a class' signature ability.

Not really when common sense tells you the signature ability is too good.

 

[Boarstorm]

We'll have to disagree on that one. I tend not to make sweeping changes without first seeing the long-term effects of what I'm trying to change. Otherwise I find I've made a short-sighted decision that I often have to go back and reverse because of a knee-jerk reaction.

 

[garydee]

Fair enough.

 

[Jer]

Not really when common sense tells you the signature ability is too good.

Common sense would also suggest that the Earth is flat. It takes a lot of measurements and observations before you can come to the conclusion that it's actually round.

I generally wait until something actually becomes a problem before nerfing it. It may turn out that Circle of the Moon druids at low levels really are ridiculously overpowered - it may also be the case that it only looks overpowered at first glance because you're making assumptions about the power levels of other classes that don't actually play out at the table. A whole lot of 4e looked overpowered to me until I saw how it actually played out at the table.

 

[garydee]

Common sense would also suggest that the Earth is flat. It takes a lot of measurements and observations before you can come to the conclusion that it's actually round.

I generally wait until something actually becomes a problem before nerfing it. It may turn out that Circle of the Moon druids at low levels really are ridiculously overpowered - it may also be the case that it only looks overpowered at first glance because you're making assumptions about the power levels of other classes that don't actually play out at the table. A whole lot of 4e looked overpowered to me until I saw how it actually played out at the table.

Some of us have actually tried it. It is overpowered. However, I wouldn't say broken.

 

[Jer]

Some of us have actually tried it. It is overpowered. However, I wouldn't say broken.

Overpowered but not broken. Hmm.

So what kind of behavior did you see with it that lead you to think it was overpowered?

 

[garydee]

Overpowered but not broken. Hmm.

So what kind of behavior did you see with it that lead you to think it was overpowered?

Let's see if I can explain it. Let's say the druid morphs into a brown bear(which he can do at 2nd level). The brown bear and the 2nd level fighter are pretty close to each other in ability although the fighter will probably win. It will be a tough fight. The problem is that even if you win the druid will wild shape into a bear the next round again and then you've had it. If you somehow can beat the bear a second time(not likely) then you have the druid to deal with. It's an uphill struggle because the wild shape serves as a great meatshield. However, at 3rd level the matchup does get much better when you get the battle master subclass. You can really the put the hurt on the bear then.