D&D 5E Is this power gamey?

[aramis erak]

I'd say that Relentless endurance does not apply, because you cease being in beast form the instant you drop to 0 HP. Both trigger at the same point, and RE is the more general (all half orcs, versus all half-orc druids), so it would be trumped by the smaller affected subset.

But I could see a GM ruling the other way. I wouldn't, but I can understand that some would.

Why would the town watchmen care about a half-orc, or a druid? I assume anyone drenched in blood comes under scrutiny, so most people do the common sense thing and don't walk around town drenched in blood.

In a fantasy world I can even see people not caring about people with bears as pets, I mean in russia on earth the traveling bear show was a thing.

Not just Russia. India and China as well.

 

[Xorne]

I would allow RE to keep the half-orc druid in beast form, and I wouldn't consider it "gamey" at all. I agree that it adds a nice flavor to the half-orc druid, and is definitely doesn't break anything.

 

[drjones]

My only concern would be the corner case of the Big Hit. Normally if you are in bear form with 1 hp and take a crit or something you would lose a lot of your base HP as well because of the overflow, which is one of the balance factors for druids constantly shifting to get new HP pools. This would negate all that extra damage though afterwards you would still be at 1 and ripe for another bad hit. Not hugely imbalancing or anything but I might rule that while you do not shift back the 'overflow' is still subtracted from your normal form HP from the strain.

 

[Eejit]

Relentless Endurance would only affect your normal form, not your wildshape form.

I'd probably agree. Any feature based on your humanoid physiology wouldn't carry over (e.g. Dragonborn breath, Darkvision, Sunlight Sensitivity). Those based on cultural or mental abilties or inherited magic would (e.g. Gnome Cunning, Hellish Resistance, Lucky).

I think Relentless Endurance is probably one of the former. Savage Attacker would fall into the latter catagory.

 

[keterys]

Instead of trying to invent reasons it shouldn't work, the real answer is "No, half-orc isn't power gamey with druid", with the added GM advice of "No, seriously, just say Yes, unless there's a really good reason not to, and because it'd be less fun isn't a good reason"

Now, depending on level range of the campaign, druids themselves are power gamey from about level 2 to level 4, then things return to normal. That's why I frequently campaign to just start campaigns at 4th. Dodges all _kinds_ of issues.

 

[Xorne]

My only concern would be the corner case of the Big Hit. Normally if you are in bear form with 1 hp and take a crit or something you would lose a lot of your base HP as well because of the overflow, which is one of the balance factors for druids constantly shifting to get new HP pools. This would negate all that extra damage though afterwards you would still be at 1 and ripe for another bad hit. Not hugely imbalancing or anything but I might rule that while you do not shift back the 'overflow' is still subtracted from your normal form HP from the strain.

A big hit once per day. Who cares? It's fun.

 

[KarinsDad]

Nevermind.

 

[Wrathamon]

Can you stop Relentless Endurance by Readying an action?

 

[Stop Yelling]

Personally I think the key feature is "if the new form is physically capable of doing so". I think things like, darkvision, speed, dwarven resilience, fey ancestry, trance, mask of the wild, sunlight sensitivity, halfling nimbleness, stout resilience, draconic ancestry, breath weapon, draconic damage resistance, speak with small beasts, tiker (if you have no hands and/or no tools), menacing, relentless endurance, savage attacks, hellish resistance are all physical racial features and thus does not carry over in your wild shape.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Instead of trying to invent reasons it shouldn't work, the real answer is "No, half-orc isn't power gamey with druid", with the added GM advice of "No, seriously, just say Yes, unless there's a really good reason not to, and because it'd be less fun isn't a good reason"

My "good reason" would be that it creates a rather large imbalance in power levels which isn't fun for other players at the table. This means you could be at 2 hitpoints in your wildshape form then get hit for 40 damage from a fireball that rolled really well and only take 1 point of damage.

That is extremely powerful, given you are also still at full hitpoints in your normal form. You might even survive the battle with full hitpoints and require no rest, healing or resources spent(except one wildshape). Part of the problem is Wildshape, in general, is too powerful. But taking an already unbalanced class feature and then relying on a weird quirk in the rules to make that unbalanced class feature even more unbalanced is kind of powergamey. And, for me, that kind of rules manipulation is not very much fun:

"I take the fireball to the face, but I don't drop. Half-Orcs are tough, they can take a big hit and manage to stay standing but just barely."
"You aren't a Half-Orc right now, though. You are a wolf."
"Yeah, but underneath that, I'm still a Half-Orc."
"But you turned into a wolf, magically. You aren't 'being so tough that you refuse to go down'. You are 'being so tough that you refuse to let the magic stop working on you while simultaneously ignoring 39 points of damage'. That's not the same thing at all. Being an Orc doesn't give you the power to will your magic to have a better effect."
"But the rules say that when I'm reduced to 0 hitpoints I can use the power."
"Yeah, now we're discussing the exact wording of a rule in order to determine whether it works in a situation that it doesn't make logical sense to work in...that's my red flag for powergaming."