Druid wild shape

[Kerrick]

I was thinking about various things last night and this morning, and my thoughts wandered across the druid for some reason - specifically, wild shape. Wild shape is so problematic because of the sheer number of forms. Long story short, I looked to see what 4E did with it (I don't have Race/Classes, so I had to refer to the Info page); forms as spells seemed like a really good idea, so here's my take on it for 3.5.


Wild Shape (Su): At 5th level, a druid can turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back again once per day. In order to change into an animal, she must have studied that animal, either alive or dead, for at least 1 minute. Thereafter, she can add that animal to her list. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type.
when the druid gains this ability, she automatically starts with one animal shape of her choice, which must be one she has already seen. She can know up to one animal form per class level; she can "swap" one animal form, if she has reached her maximum, each time she gains a new use of the wild shape ability.

This ability functions like the alternate form special ability, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. Each time the druid uses wild shape, she regains lost hit points as if she had rested for a night.

Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When the druid reverts to her true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on her body that they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items worn in the assumed form fall off and land at the druid's feet.

A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)

A druid can use this ability more times per day at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level, as noted on Table: The Druid. In addition, she gains the ability to take the shape of a Large animal at 8th level, a Tiny animal at 11th level, and a Huge animal at 15th level.

The new form’s Challenge Rating can’t exceed the character’s druid level.

At 12th level, a druid can use wild shape to change into a plant creature with the same size restrictions as for animal forms. (A druid can’t use this ability to take the form of a plant that isn’t a creature.) Each plant form counts against her maximum number of creature forms.

At 16th level, a druid can change into a Small, Medium, or Large elemental (air, earth, fire, or water) once per day. These elemental forms are in addition to her normal wild shape usage. In addition to the normal effects of wild shape, the druid gains all the elemental’s extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities. She also gains the elemental’s feats for as long as she maintains the wild shape, but she retains her own creature type.

At 18th level, a druid can assume elemental form twice per day, and at 20th level she can do so three times per day.

At 20th level, a druid can use this wild shape ability to change into a Huge elemental.

 

[Folly]

I agree that the limitation should be based off of CR instead of off hit die, though there are some issues with your version that are the same as the existing WoTC version (post erratas). These stem from it being based on alternate form and the line "Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional." Because it is based off alternate form, the druid's type does not change. This means that despite being an animal they can not be affect by spells and affects that are based on type. You also do not gain a number of aspects of being an animal because they are included in the animal type and not in the animal description. The second issue stems from a basic concept of dnd, a character's power is represented by their xp plus their gold. By having the caveat that the druid's gear becomes non-functional, a druid that goes into form loses access to a significant amount of power. As it stands the WoTC version limits wildshape to utility forms only.

 

[Li Shenron]

1 form/level is a reasonable limit.

In practice experience, the unlimited number is not really a problem, unless the DM is clumsy enough to allow a player select the form during game time (meaning to stop the game and start browsing every animal in the MM to choose from...). Just requiring the player to have ready stats for a form in order to use it should be enough to avoid practical problems.

Having access to unlimited form is otherwise not really that powerful. Combat-wise animals are very limited in their abilities, so that there is fundamentally not a very large tactical flexibility after all.

The best flexibility you can get by the core rules, is to be able to choose form to:

- deal a lot of damage in combat
- sustain a lot of damage in combat
- travel fast by ground route
- fly
- breathe underwater
- go unnoticed and spy

That's 6 forms you need, so even the 1/level limit isn't that restrictive after all.

You can probably find a couple more (such as carrying a heavy load) but they are less frequently useful, and just as well you can find forms that allow more of those benefits at once (such as travel fast by flying and also go unnoticed).

While I have no balance problems with the core rules, I would instead accept a limitation for style reason. I do not like very much that every single druid in the world gets shapeshifting powers, and I like less that she is unlimited. It would be fine for me if in a certain campaign each druid would be restricted to ONE only form of choice (provided it scales in level with HD advancement), unless belonging to a specialized group of druids, perhaps a PrCl.

 

[Kerrick]

These stem from it being based on alternate form and the line "Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional." Because it is based off alternate form, the druid's type does not change. This means that despite being an animal they can not be affect by spells and affects that are based on type.

I agree - type should change. That's easy to fix, really.

By having the caveat that the druid's gear becomes non-functional, a druid that goes into form loses access to a significant amount of power. As it stands the WoTC version limits wildshape to utility forms only.

The reason they changed it was because it eliminated a huge number of problems - namely, which items still gave their bonuses and which didn't. By ruling that "all items meld into the new form" it makes thing a whole lot easier to adjudicate. A druid can still choose good forms - dire animals, for instance, can deal a huge amount of damage; once he gets elemental form, he'll be a serious powerhouse. Don't forget the Natural Spell feat, which allows them to cast spells in animal form - that's almost a must-have for a druid who spends a good deal of time in other forms.

In practice experience, the unlimited number is not really a problem, unless the DM is clumsy enough to allow a player select the form during game time (meaning to stop the game and start browsing every animal in the MM to choose from...). Just requiring the player to have ready stats for a form in order to use it should be enough to avoid practical problems.

Yeah, good point. My intent behind the 1 form/level was to encourage this without stating it outright - if the player has a limited choice of forms, he'll most likely record those forms on index cards or whatever, so he can pull them out when needed.

I do not like very much that every single druid in the world gets shapeshifting powers, and I like less that she is unlimited. It would be fine for me if in a certain campaign each druid would be restricted to ONE only form of choice (provided it scales in level with HD advancement), unless belonging to a specialized group of druids, perhaps a PrCl.

Like the Shifter? It's an interesting idea, for sure, but what else do druids have going for them? I envision them as priests of nature... I was thinking about giving them favored terrain; maybe they could get abilities based on their terrain type, and the forms they can take are also tied to that.

Thanks for the comments, and the ideas.

 

[Li Shenron]

It's an interesting idea, for sure, but what else do druids have going for them?

Well for me the most attractive feature of the Druid class has actually always been the spells. I think they have a more distinct flavor than the other classes list, and are very versatile, someway between the cleric and the wizard.

 

[Folly]

The reason they changed it was because it eliminated a huge number of problems - namely, which items still gave their bonuses and which didn't. By ruling that "all items meld into the new form" it makes thing a whole lot easier to adjudicate. A druid can still choose good forms - dire animals, for instance, can deal a huge amount of damage; once he gets elemental form, he'll be a serious powerhouse. Don't forget the Natural Spell feat, which allows them to cast spells in animal form - that's almost a must-have for a druid who spends a good deal of time in other forms.

I understand why they changed it. The issue is that it creates as many problems as it fixes. The one I have already mentioned (gold = power) and by the FAQ you lose spells doing this since you wisdom item is no longer functioning. This means that wildshaping not only takes a use of the ability but also any bonus spell you happen to be getting from you wisdom item.

All "fixes" related to the polymorph errata are nothing more than ill-thought attempt to fix something that while problematic did not break the game unless the DM allowed it to get out of control.

 

[Kerrick]

Well for me the most attractive feature of the Druid class has actually always been the spells. I think they have a more distinct flavor than the other classes list, and are very versatile, someway between the cleric and the wizard.

Yeah, druids have one of the best spell lists in the game, along with bards - it definitely helps define who they are and what they do.

The one I have already mentioned (gold = power) and by the FAQ you lose spells doing this since you wisdom item is no longer functioning. This means that wildshaping not only takes a use of the ability but also any bonus spell you happen to be getting from you wisdom item.

Yes, but *my* version is CR = character level, not HD = character level. The druid is changing into a form of the same comparable power level. A straight druid will be more powerful than a multiclass druid, but this is as it should be.

Who actually pays attention to the FAQ? Polymorph (even post-errata) says you retain your mental scores - there's absolutely NO reason a druid should get gimped on his Wis score by changing into an animal, unless he's wearing Wis-boosting items. I could be wrong here, but I'm fairly sure you can't get anything but bonus spells from artificially boosting spellcasting stats, so you wouldn't lose much.

 

[Folly]

I was specifically talking about wisdom boosting items, and you do get bonus spells from wisdom items. The problem with you logic of druid level = cr is that character level = cr assumes NPC gold. PC gold is significantly more than NPC gold. So by negating that difference the druid would in fact be limiting himself. A work around that a druid I play with uses. Is to stay in bear form all day and have his party help him put on items while in bear form.

 

[Kerrick]

I was specifically talking about wisdom boosting items, and you do get bonus spells from wisdom items.

I said that - I just worded it badly.

The problem with you logic of druid level = cr is that character level = cr assumes NPC gold. PC gold is significantly more than NPC gold. So by negating that difference the druid would in fact be limiting himself.

That's NPCs, not monsters (or animals). Monsters' treasure isn't counted in their CR value, and most animals don't have gold at all - their CR is rated strictly on their power.

A work around that a druid I play with uses. Is to stay in bear form all day and have his party help him put on items while in bear form.

I'm really surprised the DM allows that, but hey, if you guys are having fun...

 

[Folly]

That's NPCs, not monsters (or animals). Monsters' treasure isn't counted in their CR value, and most animals don't have gold at all - their CR is rated strictly on their power. [/QOUTE]
Yes, but the CR of the player is significantly greater than their character level. Thus by making druids change into a creature with a CR equal to their character level without retaining any power from their gold they are losing effective character power. I was using the NPC CR since it seemed that you were using the class level = CR as the validation for not allowing druids to retain items.

I'm really surprised the DM allows that, but hey, if you guys are having fun...

This is part of the base rules. Wildshape lasts for hours per level. Animals do have items slots. Thus since you are in the form of an animal, you can use the slots available to the animal you are using. It requires putting on the items after wild shaping but with hour per level it is just an inconvenience.