D&D 5E UA Druid Speculation/Wishlists

[Dualazi]

I'll just echo support for the swarm druid, though if people are really hungry for it and wizards doesn't deliver, Kobold Press snuck a swarm variant under the rogue Tosculi entry in one of their race supplements.

I doubt companion druid is in the cards, it's hard enough balancing the pet on the ranger chassis, putting it on a full caster is overkill.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hey everyone. So the cleric domains UA article strongly implies we're getting stuff for every class in alphabetical order, which means the Druid is next. Of all the PHB classes, the Druid has had the least support, with two archetypes. Originally, they were tied with barbarian, ranger, and sorcerer, but these have gained more subclasses (or a complete revision in the case of the Ranger).

While the Land Druid has multiple options for their domain spells, the rest of the entry is identical, so it's really just one archetype with some variety.

Now, I want a complete revision of wild shape, but I'm not holding my breath. What other Druid archetypes do you want to see? Here's mine:

WereDruid: a Druid who embraces lycanthropy and uses partial transformations instead of full wildshape.

Companion Druid: a Druid who uses an animal companion. Simple enough. One with nature. Friend of beasts. Probably with tons of summons. Maybe low level summons instead of a permanent companion to differentiate them from Rangers.

Season Druid: rather than differentiating by connection to the land, have seasonal Druids who focus on life giving spring, harsh summer or winter, or the dying of autumn. The four seasons match easily with the four elements and have tons of evocative and alchemical imagery and associations.

Shaman Druid: Nuff said.

Blighted Druid: everyone loves anti-classes. Fallen druids. Embraces undeath.

What would you like to see?


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Weredruid: I think it will be difficult to provide what a playet wants out of a were, without actually giving the character were-abilities that unbalance the game.

Companion druid: At least in 3E the problem was that the druid got everything: turn into a melee beast, cast spells and have companion. 5E decided to protect the "companion guy" niche for the ranger, and I'm not sure it's wise to reverse that. Any Companion druid build designer needs to ask himself: will there still be ANY reason to play a Ranger after this?

Season Druid: sure why not

Shaman Druid: not so sure "nuff" is enough Do y'all really have exactly the same Shaman in mind? Because if so, you need to explain it to me

Blight Druid: sure why not

 

[CapnZapp]

I'd hope for an animal companion druid, but given the utter shenanigans rangers are going through with regards to their animal companion, I just don't know. I don't know that you can balance having a dang tiger fight alongside you at 2nd level. Even you turning INTO a Tiger is borderline OP at 2nd level, and this would let you do that damage, plus your own.

One of my happiest moments was when I saw the new UA ranger, because they actually listened to us saying "stop trying to make it balanced"

You can't make having a tiger balanced at level 2. Full stop. If you think you've made it work, it's not a real tiger. Guaranteed.

So embrace that. Add a sidebar saying "only play when DM and fellow players are on board".

Rather a cool tiger than a sad tiger. And more to the point: rather no tiger at all than...

 

[CapnZapp]

Man, people want some weird things. "Urban druid"? You want a nature guy, who doesn't do nature?

After the success of soccer mom Sport Utility Vehicles, how can you be surprised?

 

[CapnZapp]

Even if the said Urban Druid ends up being "crazy hobo talks to rats" or "crazy cat lady".

That's Crazy Druid, Kobold. Completely different subclass.

 

[CapnZapp]

Ι would love to see a companion and a blight druid but most of all i would love to see a proper summon druid. I think the time has come to see the first pure summoning subclass in 5e. Shaman is probably the easiest path to follow in order to do this since the team can fudge with the stats/abilities of the spirits whereas to do this with real critters (at least at low levels) could be difficult.

As long as the things you summon have a battlefield presence, things enemies can/need to interact with in some capacity, I'm cool.

(As opposed to all the talk about summoning things ending up as a very verbose way of saying "you've got advantage" I mean. That would suck)

 

[Redthistle]

Circle of Roses?:
The anti-undead druid.
There has got to be a plant associated with warding off undead.

First thing that came to mind was Forget-Me-Nots until realizing that undead keeping one in mind is probably on the Not-A-Good-Thing list.

 

[RCanine]

One of my happiest moments was when I saw the new UA ranger, because they actually listened to us saying "stop trying to make it balanced"

I saw that article completely differently. I feel like it was about them being less afraid of overcomplicating, not of balance. One could argue there was a greater attempt to balance, given the very limited set of allowed companions. My guess is that when they designed the BM ranger, they didn't fully understand how scaling worked, underestimated the importance of the Attack action, and straight-up forgot about some mechanics (like hit dice). I think the design is more indicative of the designers understanding their system well than anything else.

You can't make having a tiger balanced at level 2. Full stop. If you think you've made it work, it's not a real tiger. Guaranteed.

So embrace that. Add a sidebar saying "only play when DM and fellow players are on board".

Completely and utterly disagree with the premise of this statement, and fixing bad design with a sidebar on DM fiat is lazy.

 

[steeldragons]

Plant Druid.
Animal Druid (double as "summoner" type, I guess).
Spirit Druid (Shaman).

That's all we need. I would also like a:

Weather/Climate Druid ("Circle of the Storm" or what have you, castery weather/environmental control guy).

But, with the Storm Sorcerer and the Tempest Cleric, already, this may be redundant/unnecessary.

Think the rest (first 3) are givens.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Given that the college of glamour bard had a fey origin and the fair number of fey in Volo's Guide to Monsters, maybe a circle of the gates druid that focused on the Feywild and/or Shadowfell would be a good fit.

I'd also like to see these. The feywild has only been minimally represented in class options by the warlock and I don't think there has been anything from the Shadowfell. The druid would be a good place to start.