Infiniti2000 said:
Wait, there are druid
not spending a lot of time in Wildshape?!
Yes - especially with the various variant druids that lose Wildshape. Any Druid at levels 1, 2, 3, or 4 spends no time at all in Wildshape (as it is simply not available). A Druid in a more social campaign, or one where the DM enforces the communication restrictions inherent in Wildshape (and makes them matter), will likely spend a lot of time in "normal" form.
Plus there's the ones where for RP reasons, the character doesn't want to be an animal all day. Or the ones with players who think it's overpowered if used a lot and only turn it on for specific tasks.
In short, yes, there are Druids who don't spend a lot of time in Wildshape - they're just not looking to maximize their effectiveness.
Infiniti2000 said:
As opposed to nothing, actually. Unless, of course, in your opinion two wrongs make a right.
The point is that, as a granularity issue, it's inherent to the game; there is no real getting around it.
The Barbarian leveling from 1st to 2nd level can potentially double his HP (1 in 12 chance; more likely with a Wizard, as that has a 1 in 4 chance). If it's a gradual increase, shouldn't the barbarian have been able to continue standing just yesterday when he was reduced to -1 HP?
The Druid leveling from 5th to 6th more than doubles the amount of time he can spend in animal shape (goes from 5 hours max to 12 hours max, by way of two uses at 6 hours).
The Sorcerer-7, when leveling up to 8th, is suddenly able to cast four Empowered Scorching rays, when previously unable to cast even a single Empowered Scorching Ray.
The D&D system even has some built-in defenses against most powergaming this way - Con higher when you level? Doesn't matter - your max HP is as variable as your Con is; when the bonus goes away, so do the extra HP. Qualify for the feat by way of a temporary strength boost? You can't use a feat when you no longer meet the prerequisites. Long-term intelligence boosters (except the permanent ones, such as the inherent bonus from a Wish) specify that they don't grant extra skill points.
It's a granularity issue, similar to how a cat has a very good chance of taking down a commoner-1 in a single round - it's fundamentally inherent to any modeling system; there will be oddities if you look at it too closely. It will always be there in some way, shape, or form (offer void if you're using quantum dice that are quite happily giving you random irrational numbers for results) no matter how much you house-rule things. You may not like it, but in order to continue playing the game, you have to accept some degree of it.
As a DM, just draw a line somewhere; you can only qualify for the feat with a round/level buff effect? No; you can't keep that up long enough to practice with it. You can qualify for it by way of an hour/level effect that you can do a couple of times per day (especially if it is one you're routinely using anyway)? Why
not? It's practically always-on anyway.
