D&D 5E Dnd Next Pod Cast-info on wildshape and Avenger

[TwoSix]

Whats the theory behind the damage taken in animal form not transferring to the natural form of the druid? I haven't looked at the DDN Druid and am only a little familiar with the 3/4e druids.

I imagine it would flavor more as a spiritual assumption of the form, as opposed to a direct organic transformation. Taking damage disrupts the spiritual link.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I imagine it would flavor more as a spiritual assumption of the form, as opposed to a direct organic transformation. Taking damage disrupts the spiritual link.

Yup, that's a good way of looking at it. Or another way is that the animal form is like a "skin" that layers on top of the druid. So the HP of the animal is like a covering or shield over the natural form of the druid inside. You need to cut away at the animal HP "skin" to get at the druid's true form.

 

[Kinak]

I imagine it would flavor more as a spiritual assumption of the form, as opposed to a direct organic transformation. Taking damage disrupts the spiritual link.

Even if it's an organic transformation, it's not unreasonable that you wouldn't carry injuries back to your original shape. There's some mythological basis for losing limbs and such, but it isn't that weird that superficial (HP) damage would disappear with other superficial features.

Keeping the same HP pool is probably weirder when you're changing between forms of vastly different mass, honestly. Even with abstract HP, it seems natural that a rhino takes more hits to take down than a sparrow.

Edit: I'd tend to agree it's spiritual in nature. It's obviously magical in any case, which gives the flavor a lot of leeway. Just thinking out loud about how I'd describe it if a player wanted to be an actual shapeshifter. I don't think it'd be a problem with these rules.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[fjw70]

Thanks. I was just curious as to the theory there.

 

[TwoSix]

Yup, that's a good way of looking at it. Or another way is that the animal form is like a "skin" that layers on top of the druid. So the HP of the animal is like a covering or shield over the natural form of the druid inside. You need to cut away at the animal HP "skin" to get at the druid's true form.

Yea, that's the way I was thinking of it. It's sort of a spiritual "shell" that surrounds the druid.

 

[Li Shenron]

Seems wonky to me that they have a magic hitpoint shield created by their form, although there was always a healing component to changing forms in previous editions. I guess it depends on the range of hitpoints the different forms have.

Well it's not more wonky that the temporary HP from Rage or from spells.

I do think that one risk is allowing forms with too many HP, but according to the podcast the list of allowed animals will be fixed, so they should be able to avoid problems.

Whats the theory behind the damage taken in animal form not transferring to the natural form of the druid? I haven't looked at the DDN Druid and am only a little familiar with the 3/4e druids.

What's the theory behind the first damage taken by a raging barbarian burning up the temporary HP first, so that possibly he can be still at max HP when the rage ends?

There is no theory, just HP abstraction. Pick your favourite explanation...

The way I see it, the wildshaped Druid does not at all have 2hp when transformed into a mouse. She has all her normal (current) HP plus 2. That's what they said in the podcast, that you do not change your HP to those of the animal form, you gain temporary HP on top of yours. Taking 2 points of damage does not correspond to "killing the mouse" because it's not a normal mouse, and because HP are abstract and not only a measure of physical health. The current suggested description of damage effects to HP even suggests you see no sign of injury until half your max HP and only "signs of wear, such as cuts and bruises" between half HP and 0.

Alternatively, since wildshape has in the past typically bestowed some healing, you can say that in this edition the healing takes place when you revert back.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The easiest way would be to limit access to form by HP or hitdice. This way the number of temporary hp you get is fixed.

 

[gyor]

It will be fixed by the devs not picking any broken forms. Very simple elegent solution.