Essentials: Druid Preview Is Up!

[Mengu]

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

I'm sure it will be very flavorful.

"You know how to gather wood, build a fire, and cook. You carry around exotic spices and herbs to make the meals pleasant and flavorful for your companions. You gain a +2 bonus to Nature skill checks."

 

[nbnmare]

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

This was actually true back when Player's Handbook 1 was first released, as healing word and inspiring word are absolutely identical other than the name and fluff. Majestic word simply reduces the die count by 1 in trade for letting you add your Charisma modifier and slide the target 1 square. Ardent surge is again identical to healing word, except you gain an additional effect based on your build (exactly like the Essentials cleric).

The only leader that really does anything different is the artificer.

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.)

We've already had a preview of Wilderness knacks via the hunter preview (DDi subscribers only, unfortunately), as the hunter also gains them. The one they revealed is Ambush Expertise, which grants your allies within 10 squares a +2 bonus to Stealth whenever you make a Stealth check.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I really like the idea of using seasons as the druids equivalent of domains. Very nice.

Like others I'm surprised to see Wolf associated with spring, as it seems much more of a winter predator. Perhaps they will go with wolverine as a winter animal friend?

 

[Klaus]

I really like the idea of using seasons as the druids equivalent of domains. Very nice.

Like others I'm surprised to see Wolf associated with spring, as it seems much more of a winter predator. Perhaps they will go with wolverine as a winter animal friend?

Well, it really is just fluff, isn't it? The way the animal companions are being set up for the sentinel, you could have called "Spring animal companion" and let the player describe it however he feels.

 

[Plane Sailing]

True I suppose. I'm not a big fan of wholesale refluffing personally.

Anyway that isn't to detract from my happiness of the seasonal druids. I've not been so keen on a druid idea since Eberron introduced a set of druid factions very nicely

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

The only leader that really does anything different is the artificer.

I would argue that the Shaman is quite different than the others as well, in that it breaks the healing into 2 parcels (surge and surgeless) that are allocated seperately.

Sure, it LOOKS like the others, but I imagine it plays quite differently.

 

[Klaus]

True I suppose. I'm not a big fan of wholesale refluffing personally.

Anyway that isn't to detract from my happiness of the seasonal druids. I've not been so keen on a druid idea since Eberron introduced a set of druid factions very nicely

Here's another thought:

Instead of writing fluff to reflect the real world, WotC could be showing how the story is in the D&D world. On Earth wolves are symbols of winter (and House Stark), but on the core D&D world, wolves are seen as creatures of spring, possibly due to their social nature and their collective raising of pups. If on Earth we see lions as creatures of the sun, on the D&D world that honor belongs to the bear.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Here's another thought:

Instead of writing fluff to reflect the real world, WotC could be showing how the story is in the D&D world. On Earth wolves are symbols of winter (and House Stark), but on the core D&D world, wolves are seen as creatures of spring, possibly due to their social nature and their collective raising of pups. If on Earth we see lions as creatures of the sun, on the D&D world that honor belongs to the bear.

I'm glad that they have resisted the temptation to do that. I find that there is less 'campaign friction' the more common points of reference there are with our world (as I imagine many people do - hence the prevalence of romanticised pseudo-medieval campaigns over the years).

Mind you, my immediate association with spring is always lambs. I can't quite see a druid with a lamb animal companion (unless it granted combat advantage by everything saying "how cute" or "how edible!" thus distracting foes within its aura!)

 

[Scribble]

IMind you, my immediate association with spring is always lambs. I can't quite see a druid with a lamb animal companion (unless it granted combat advantage by everything saying "how cute" or "how edible!" thus distracting foes within its aura!)

Goats ain't no joke though!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Instead of writing fluff to reflect the real world, WotC could be showing how the story is in the D&D world. On Earth wolves are symbols of winter (and House Stark), but on the core D&D world, wolves are seen as creatures of spring, possibly due to their social nature and their collective raising of pups. If on Earth we see lions as creatures of the sun, on the D&D world that honor belongs to the bear.

Problem with that is that the less the D&D world resembles a sort of idealized fantasy version of the world, the less appealing it is to play in.

The reason wolves are associated with Winter has a reason, and a deeply cool evocative style to it. Wolves are dangerous hunters who lurk on the fringes, only coming to the farm when the depths of winter hit to carry off the eldest and most infirm of the sheep.

If you get rid of that, you either (a) are completely ignorant of it (forgivable, if silly), or (b) have a better idea (it can totally work, but it needs to be a GOOD idea!).

If this is B, I haven't seen how this idea is better.

My usual guess, given Occam's Razor, is A.

For this specifically, I bet they came up with the idea of what animal companions to do first (based on what the iconic fantasy "animal friends" might be), and later came up with linking them to seasons, and didn't pay a whole lot of attention to if the seasons matched up to the critters very well.

Which is fine, it's not a big deal, it doesn't detract from the awesomeness. To me, it is like seeing the words "your annoying" when you mean "you're annoying," though. Kind of...just a silly whoops that I'm sure a little more thought and caution would've caught.

I can't quite see a druid with a lamb animal companion (unless it granted combat advantage by everything saying "how cute" or "how edible!" thus distracting foes within its aura!)

HOWEVER, a druid with a "big herbivore" (a bull, a ram, an antelope, whatever) could preserve that spring feel, AND fill a key archetypal niche!

I'd imagine the aura would push things around.