D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal: Shape of "New Druid"

Druid video today. Where will wildshape land?

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We saw three druids in the playtest, and each was meaningfully different. The most recent look at the class was in PT8 (UA Playtest document 8); with the Moon Druid in PT8, and Land Druid and Sea Druid in PT6, with the Stars Druid in Tasha's. What will change? What will be revealed? Will it be feasible to pick an combat animal shape and stick with it through 20 levels? Let's find out!

OVERVIEW

• "there is a ton of new in the druid": but it was all in the playtest materials. Very little to see here. "the final version has elements people didn't get to see" in the playtest, however everything they discuss was in the playtest documents.
• Primal order choice at level 1: Warden or Magician. Warden gives proficiency in Medium armor and martial weapons; Magician gives cantrip and nature checks (and so =PT8). Magician incentivizes not dumping Intelligence.
• no mention of metal armor; presumably any restriction is now gone.
• Druidic includes speak with animals prepared.
• Wildshape (as in PT8): as a bonus action; wild companion option from Tasha's for a familiar; you can speak; spellslot for another wildshift at 5.
• NO MENTION OF BEAST FORMS IN THE PHB.
• At level 7, Elemental Fury choice not determined by level 1 choice; you can mix-and-match. (would you want to?) Improved at level 15 -- extra range option works at range while flying, if you want.
• new cantrips: Starry Wisp (ranged spell attack in PT8) and Elementalism (PT6).

Overall, this is pretty disappointing in terms of a preview for people who have been invested in the playtest. No discussion of the beast forms in the PHB, no mention of distinctive Druid features (metal armor, though the silence is probably revelatory) or adjustements to canonical spells (any adjustments to Reincarnate so it might actually see play?).

Narrator: His questions would not be answered.

SUBCLASSES
Land

• Almost all as in PT6. This is "all about your spellcasting".
• you choose your land type every long rest. Arid, Polar, Temperate, Tropical (as in PT6).
• use wildshape at 3 to create "eruption of nature magic" (harms and heals). Expanded at 14 to include resitances.
• Two damage resistances at 10 (with flexibility: poison plus one determined by land type

Sea

• wanted to "make sure we don't have the Aquaman problem".
• NEW: Water breathing replaces Sleet storm on the subclass spell list.

Moon

• Almost everything exactly as in PT8: AC is "more reliable"; gain in temporary hit points instead of just taking over the creature's hit points. (a nerf, but a needed one). (Crawford ties it to abilities that activate when you get zero hp;
• NEW: subclass spell list given (it is different from PT8):
  • 3: cure wounds, moon beam, starry wisp (unchanged)
  • 5: conjure animals (replacing Vampiric touch)
  • 7: fount of Moonlight (new spell, as in PT8)
  • 9: mass cure wounds (replacing Dawn).

Stars

• like Tasha's, but starting now at level 3. Enhanced by core class, but no specific changes made.

 

[sevenbastard]

The idea that Aquaman is only useful when he's near a body of water. It's been a reoccurring joke with the character.

You just need a DM who plays along

 

[Yaarel]

Hurray for metal wearing Druids!

For as long as I played D&D, it annoyed how on earth an Earth Elementalist would avoid metal.

 

[Azzy]

I think that's actually the picture of Turn Undead in action, because they keep re-using that one.

I thought it was the Daylight spell.

 

[Yaarel]

It seems 2024 is going 3e style with an "icon" who represents a class.

I dislike how reducing a class to one person and one concept is stifling, including overly emphasizing gender.

But at least with each subclass getting its own icon, it helps diversify the class overall.

I dont mind a recurring recognizable figure, who shows up on occasion, but I hope each subclass has various visual possibilities.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I thought it was the Daylight spell.

Why must you hurt me?

Spoiler: Explaining Joke

One of my early character's was a Cleric who used the Daylight spell against a vampire. Surprise, the Daylight spell does not create sunlight and was completely useless against the vampire.

I have raged against that spell ever since.

 

[mellored]

At that point, the scene would be set, showing the party high fiving each and congratulating each other as they managed to vaporize the Half-Orc BBEG as he tried to escape in the form of a cat.

Cue the epilogue cutscene of the campaign

A little kid finds an injured kitty in an alleyway, he picks it up and starts skipping home, carrying it. The camera zooms up to the face of the cat, as one VENGEFUL EYE opens up, as said Half-Orc BBEG, filled with the Spite of a thousand angry cats, glares back at the audience.

But that is a tale for another time.

Let me rephrase that.

BBEG with 500 HP
Turns into a cat, with 5 HP
Gets hit with a disintegrate, for 100 damage.
"If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, it is disintegrate".

Does the BBEG disintegrate or not?

 

[Tonguez]

Hurray for metal wearing Druids!

For as long as I played D&D, it annoyed how on earth an Earth Elementalist would avoid metal.

electron conductivity is one theory postulated for why Earthbenders in Avatar The Last Airbenders have difficulty bending Metals - the theory goes that earth being works by charging the with negative ions, but metal resist this as the electrons quickly find equilibrium. Toph learnt metalbending due to hypersensitivity to impurities in metals.

Anyway perhaps metal also interferes with the flow of Druidic magic no because metal isnt natural but because its properties are naturally 'balanced' - the whole idea of cold iron weakening Fey and Djinn being scared of iron pins and bound by golden seals

 

[Yaarel]

electron conductivity is one theory postulated for why Earthbenders in Avatar The Last Airbenders have difficulty bending Metals - the theory goes that earth being works by charging the with negative ions, but metal resist this as the electrons quickly find equilibrium. Toph learnt metalbending due to hypersensitivity to impurities in metals.

Anyway perhaps metal also interferes with the flow of Druidic magic no because metal isnt natural but because its properties are naturally 'balance' - the whole idea of cold iron weakening Fey and Djinn being scared of iron pins and bound by golden seals

There, Soil and Metal are different Elements, (comparable to Ether and Earth).

But the Druid is any Element ... Soil and Metal and Earth and Ether. The metal allergy makes no sense.

 

[Horwath]

And why not just make wild shape a spell?

please stop!!

not everything more mystical than tying shoelaces needs to be coded as a spell.

 

[Clint_L]

I think WotC really dropped the ball on Moon Druids.

The subclass as designed just doesn't work very well. It's nerfed at certain levels (especially levels 2-4), and the attempts at improving its DPR just don't harmonize with the beast it can actually use to wild shape.

They should have look at the honour Among Thieves and used that as their template.