Essentials: Druid Preview Is Up!

[TerraDave]

Yay for a lack of ANY ways to customize your character, lol.

Based on the other Hero book, they will get a fair number of at wills, dailies, and utilities to choose from, and (if I understand this correctly) can choose from existing druid dailies and utilities.

I never really understood the animal companion in 3E. Shapeshifting was part of the druid since his first D&D incarnation, not having an animal around.

The 1E druid could get (permanent) animal allies through the animal friendship spell (just like the 3.0 druid). Shapeshifting started at level 7, which was a pretty high level.

 

[MrMyth]

Yay for a lack of ANY ways to customize your character, lol. I mean I get the "less options" theory of Essentials, but this is ridiculous. I also kind of hate the new dumb tactics theory. Who needs to say FLANK anymore?

OTOH at least this guy has some daily powers. Looks like this is a third variation on the theme, one at-will and daily powers only with a fixed encounter power ala martials. I share DS's skepticism about balance WRT to action economy too. 2 full sets of actions is going to make for some sick damage output.

I'm pretty confident the animal companion won't get its own turn here.

Remember, all - this is just an excerpt. Bits and pieces to give a general idea of the class and get attention, but not the full thing. I suspect there will be room for customization - not tons, but a few choices, just like with most Essentials characters.

If you want more than that... well, you've got plenty of options already, and Heroes of Legend or whatever sounds like it will have options on trading out some Essentials elements for other choices as well.

 

[Mengu]

One thing is for sure. They know exactly how to create a buzz by excluding a few critical bits from a preview.

 

[the Jester]

Yay for a lack of ANY ways to customize your character, lol.

Uh, the whole build is a new way to customize your character, yo. Not to mention things like feats, power choice, etc.

I share DS's skepticism about balance WRT to action economy too. 2 full sets of actions is going to make for some sick damage output.

I am very skeptical that the animal companion gets its own actions.

 

[Davachido]

Sorry to repeat myself, but they must share a set of actions, otherwise noone would ever play a striker again.

And WotC will not allow a character to do twice as much damage as anything else. Don´t be silly.

That is true. Anyway here's hoping they don't mess up.

Speaking of strikers though, depending on what you could get for MCing into this druid you could have some funny builds. Such as if the rogue takes the wolf through MC, move action > wolf next to enemy, standard action > charge with sneak attack.

Although that is all speculation because I don't remember any MC feats in hotfl so I don't expect there to be any in the new book. Maybe further down the line.

 

[tuxgeo]

The table lists "Wilderness Knacks" for the druid. These could possibly include something along the lines of "With a minor action, you can command your animal companion to take a standard or move action" or something to that effect.

I'd like to see winter druids with tiger companions and autumn druids with eagle companions.

< snip >
Why a tiger in winter? I would prefer something more winter-like. (Maybe an orc? )
< snip >

WotC got it wrong:
, The wonderful thing about Tiggers
, Is, Tiggers are wonderful things.
, Their tops are made out of rubber,
, Their bottoms are made out of SPRINGS!

So Tiger should represent Spring. It's obvious. (Or maybe it isn't obvious, at all. Maybe it's hidden, lurking and waiting. One of the two.)

And everybody already knows about the "winter-wolf," so that's settled.
Just insert an Eagle for Autumn, and you have it:
Spring=Tiger, Summer=Bear, Autumn=Eagle, Winter=Wolf. Easy.

WotC just plain got it wrong, or should I say "worng."

Edit: There is precedent for using large, feline predators to represent Spring:
, March--in like a Lion and out like a Lamb.

 

[Minifig]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do the companions' defenses not scale? They appear to be fixed at their starting values.

It looks like they scale according to your level.. so if your bloodied value goes up, their base HP goes up.

 

[Spatula]

I find it interesting that this druid gets normal leader HP, and not the higher HP that PHB2 primal characters get.

Also, the chart implies that the druid only gets one at-will power, which would indicate that the character's 2nd at-will is the companion's attack (much like one of a shaman's at-wills is tied to its companion). Which would point to the companion not getting its own actions.

 

[Zaran]

I have to say it looks good. I do have to wonder about the availability of druid powers though. This one being a leader might mean that they can't use druid powers from the phb2. That makes it a totally new class. The eRanger controller didn't have as much issue because they didn't use daily or encounter powers.

 

[TheClone]

Siberian Tiger FTW!

I know. But I don't think of tigers when I think of winter and vice versa.

And everybody already knows about the "winter-wolf," so that's settled.
Just insert an Eagle for Autumn, and you have it:
Spring=Tiger, Summer=Bear, Autumn=Eagle, Winter=Wolf. Easy.

Much better