Essentials: Druid Preview Is Up!

[Korgoth]

That sounds like a reasonable approach.

Although Athas does have bears.

They are horribly mutated, ferocious and psionic, but they are called bears.

Well, now I know what it's like to fail a Bear Lore check.

 

[TheClone]

There's no mention of action economy or any callout on that at all.

It is a preview and thinking about the thief preview and what was in HotFL, there is room for much more. So there may be any mention missing know but it might be there in the book.

I so much prefer where they are going with essentials. Simple classes with elegant mechanics. Now all they needs if *published* rule subsets for feats and powers in the DDI so we can filter out non-essentials dross and get back to a nice, controlled set of rules where we dont have to spend an hour digging through bloated feat lists.

In the character builder you have a tab "campaign settings" (I think it's named like this). There you may specify which books are allowed in your campaign. you can easily select the essentials book and that's it. And you may export those settings and send them to your players. You may even add custom feats, powers and stuff, although that seems to work pretty badly.

 

[tentfox]

In 3rd ed the druid got shapeshifting at level 7, it might be possible that shapeshifting is the sentinel druid's paragon path. It just seems odd that these classes try and capture the theme of the previous edition versions of the class and then completely neglect shapeshifting.

Also I find it a bit boring that leaders are sharing healing powers, even if they do add their own additional effects to it.

 

[Jack99]

I wish druids could cast Sow, kite+snare+nuke, then TP

Might make for some boring sessions

 

[WalterKovacs]

I still think. Maybe not in terms of balancing, but you could balance it if you wanted to. I never played a beastmaster, but having two living and thinking creatures tying their actions together does feel strange. But that is just seeing it from the simulationists view.

The "reason" that the beastmaster ranger worked that way was that the animal companion would basically respect it's masters wishes unless commanded otherwise. With the various attack powers it was possible for them to do a few things at the same time. The entire concept of 'one minor, one move, one standard' is a very gamist concept in the first place. Yes, it's realistic that you can only do so many things in a certain ammount of time, but the actual break down is to make the game work more so than to make it work well as a simulation. You have an animal fighting with you, it does make sense you have to do something to command it. You can both move with the same move action, and you have a number of powers that allow you to both attack together (or attack whlie allowing the beast to move, etc) Perhaps it should have had something like the primal summons where it does something on it's own if it isn't commanded. [It is actually capable of independent action. If you are out of the fight, as in dead or no there at all or unconcious, the beast gets to use the three actions, with the only restriction that, if you are present, the beast will first try to move as far as it can towards your character by the safest route each turn].

In the case of all other "companions" like summons, the psion paragon path that gives a thrall, spirit companion, familiars and the animal companion for the new druid are all explicitly tied to being a magical controlling effect. The new animal companion disappears like a spirit companion/summon/familiar if dropped to zero hit points or the druid is knocked unconcious. Since it's basically an extension of the druid itself instead of being a seperate living breathing creature, the economy of actions makes sense.

 

[brehobit]

wilderness knacks

I'm betting Wilderness knacks are skill boosters or options for use in the wilderness. Things like tracking, direction sense, finding water, etc. Might even steal some stuff from rituals (make a camp hard to find, etc.)

So mostly (entirely?) non-combat stuff that helps in skill challenges, keeping the party safe in the wilderness (food, hiding, shelter), and advancing the plot (tracking etc.)

 

[TheClone]

I'm betting Wilderness knacks are skill boosters or options for use in the wilderness. Things like tracking, direction sense, finding water, etc. Might even steal some stuff from rituals (make a camp hard to find, etc.)

So mostly (entirely?) non-combat stuff that helps in skill challenges, keeping the party safe in the wilderness (food, hiding, shelter), and advancing the plot (tracking etc.)

So it's just a +2 to Nature and that's it? At least that's how 4e did such things in the past.

 

[brehobit]

So it's just a +2 to Nature and that's it? At least that's how 4e did such things in the past.

I'm hoping for a bit more flavorish stuff. We'll see

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I figured the knacks would be druid cantrips... and since they were a leader, maybe something like goodberry's

 

[yesnomu]

Apples and oranges. Different things are different. It's not like the beastform druid has gone away. Now there's another kind of druid.

I know that, of course. But it does mean there's no support for Wild shape druids in Essentials at all, and they really need it. (With the Rules Compendium changes to the way powers are labeled, BF druids can't actually make OAs anymore by the rules.) I'm not angry this exists, just sad that it's not apparently for me.

When your power sets an aura next to what you're attacking that affects defenses or combat advantage, yes, that is in fact a leader power. Animal companions have more to do than simply attack things.

Except you could have put it there anyway, however the companions move. That's like saying that a 4W runepriest power isn't a Striker power, just because the runepriest has an aura and moves next to an enemy. The only thing you get out of Combined Attack that you couldn't otherwise is the damage.

Again, the positioning of your companion makes a rather notable effect on the battlefield. It isn't that your companion attacks... that's just gravy. It's that the companion attacks and buff/debuffs even if it misses. Their auras are the real meat of their stats, from a leader point of view. Your bear hands out defense bonuses just for standing there looking tough. (Note: As you are the bear's ally, it also can apply to you.) The wolf forces combat advantage just by standing there. Hey, that means anything he's attacking grants HIM combat advantage!

OK, then the choice is where to put your useful aura, and then which of your three total non-daily powers (two of which are damage-only) to use. That's still a paucity of options and tactics. Compare it to the Shaman, whose spirit also has aura-like abilities, and whose at-will and encounter powers add extra effects to the spirit from round to round.

Obviously more options don't remove old ones, yadda yadda. That doesn't change the fact that the druid is my favorite class, and I'm disappointed that this iteration seems like it's incredibly boring.