Level Up (A5E) A5E Druid wild shape change - equipment worn/wielded always merges

[Tessarael]

Reading through A5E, 5E, and D&D 2024 carefully, I noticed the following difference between A5E vs. 5E and D&D 2024:

In A5E, "Any equipment you are wearing or wielding merges into your new form. Equipment that merges with your form has no effect until you leave the form."

5E and D&D 2024 both have, "You choose whether your equipment falls in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the OM decides whether it's practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment based on the creature's size and shape. Your equipment doesn't change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can't wear must either fall to the ground or merge with the form. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect while you're in that form."

This is a significant difference. It means that if my A5E Druid wild shapes into say Ape or Vegepygmy form, they cannot just keep wielding say their club and shield. Instead if they want to keep using them, they need to: drop the items (action to doff a shield), wild shape (bonus action as a Druid with the Skinchanger archetype), pick them up, then wield them (action to don a shield). This takes at least 2 rounds in A5E, so generally will not be practical in battle. In 5E and D&D 2024, it is just the bonus action to change shape, so quite viable in battle.

I assume that this A5E change was intentional for simplicity and to limit potential abuse of equipped items while in wild shape. It makes magic items and other equipment less useful for a wild shaped Druid. I expect that some A5E DMs would house rule it to use the 5E / D&D 2024 rules.

Thoughts? How do you handle this in your A5E campaign for wild shaping Druids? Any issues either way in practice during play?

 

[lichmaster]

I'd go for simplicity and rule of cool, so stuff that is wielded can be carried over, while stuff that is worn (including shields) cannot.
Also I'd rule that dropping an item is not even an "object interaction" (like opening a door), so you could obtain the same effect RAW: drop item (free), shapeshift (bonus action), pick up item (object interaction).
A shield would require more work because it's worn on the arm, not wielded, but as a generous DM I'd also create an accessible enchantment (or even just enhancement) that permits to don/doff shields for free (magically magnetized wrap on the forearm carrying the shield).
Also shapeshifting lasts quite a while even at low levels, so in dangerous areas it makes sense to first shapeshift and then eventually wear armors on top (assuming the new form is comparable in shape and size), instead of just doing it as soon as combat happens.

 

[Tessarael]

Thanks Lichmaster.

Yes, my A5E level 5 Druid with the Skinchanger archetype now spends much of the time wild shaped. With better magical equipment found and purchased at level 5, her original form has higher AC and does more damage. At level 6, with CR 2 wild shapes + Nature's Wrath for +d6 acid damage per attack when wild shaped, the wild shape damage output will be higher, though AC will be lower without the shield.

I have utilized Vegepygmy wild shape form to be able to use gear while wild shaped, at the cost of not being able to cast ranged spells. Seems a decent trade-off and not unbalanced mechanically. Bravo to the A5E designers for hitting a mechanically balanced sweet spot when permitting wild-shaped Druids to cast range self and touch spells, improving the utility of wild shape as some spells can still be cast while in it.

There's actually little to no need to wear armor when wild-shaped as a Skinchanger, due to the Wisdom modifier bonus to the wild shape AC. Note: I assume Wisdom modifier bonus to AC doesn't stack with Dexterity + armor while in wild-shape, for game mech balance reasons. So house-ruled as the following for a Skinchanger Druid wearing armor in wild shape, "AC modifier if using a shield + Armor/barding AC + Dexterity or Wisdom modifier - capped by the maximum Dexterity modifier of the armor."

Mechanically, this results in the following trade-offs for my character:

• Use of barding, armor, or shield, requires that the Druid is proficiency in the armor (or barding equivalent type) and shield. And as a Druid, it must be non-metallic.
• Without shield, this limits her barding armored wild shape AC to what she could have in her original humanoid form, AC 18 = 16 (Hide Armor +3) + 2 Dexterity modifier.
• Without armor at level 4, she has a minimum wild shape Druid AC 17 = 12 base + 1 (from level/4 round down) + 4 Wisdom modifier.
• For wild shape forms with higher base AC than 13, she still gets the +4 Wisdom modifier to AC.
• So there’s at most only +1 AC benefit from armor when wild-shaped.
• She does still benefit from using a shield. As she has a +1 shield, that's +3 AC in a form like Vegepygmy to use it, with AC 20 in total. It is very good for defense, but reduces her offensive capability due to the choice of form.