I hope WOTC is smart enough to do some damage control when they release the druid playtest.
Here's the public relations problem for them. Basically, gamers online are a bunch of obnoxious spazzes.
My money is on this- the 3e druid had three shticks. It was the nature based spellcaster, and the pet owning class, and the shapeshifting combat class.
My educated guess is that each of these shticks will have been given to only one class. The Warden and Shaman will have eaten one shtick each, or, the Ranger will have eaten the pet shtick, and the Warden and Shaman will each take something else. And while there may be minor sharing of shticks, each class will focus solely on one.
This means that we're probably going to see the release of either a Druid who casts a lot of nature magic but barely shapeshifts, or, a Druid who shapeshifts all the time but casts barely any nature magic.
The internetters are going to lose their flippin' minds. Heck, even if they released the Druid, the Warden, and the Shaman all at once, they'd STILL lose their minds. Look at how many people absolutely cannot handle that the Fighter isn't an archer anymore, even though they know that the Ranger has all those powers ready and available for use.
I desparately hope that, alongside the Druid playtest, they release some sort of notice, some sort of comment, to defuse some of the coming rage. Something to let everyone know that just because an ability they liked isn't part of the Druid class anymore, it isn't necessarily gone.
Otherwise, I'm afraid that every thread discussing the Druid for the next few months will, after about the 2nd page, turn into a back and forth: "The druid doesn't even shapeshift now! Its ruined!" "But maybe the Shaman or the Warden shapeshifts." "But the druid doesn't even shapeshift now! Its ruined!" Etc.
)
"
