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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RCanine" data-source="post: 6822345" data-attributes="member: 85040">[h=3]4. Races[/h]Although most races would line up directly around ability scores, this isn’t the case for us. The primary driver of your race should be story, and whether the race provides useful features in your beast form.[h=4]Common Races[/h]Dwarf (Hill): Stats you like and bonus HP.Dwarf (Mountain): Nothing you get from taking this subrace is useful.Elf (High): Bows are a nice compliment when you’re not Wild Shaped, some of the Wizard cantrips are interesting out-of-combat, but this subrace doesn’t give you much that Wood Elf doesn’t do better.Elf (Wood): Excellent stats, and all of the subrace abilities are useful. The obvious choice.Elf (Drow): Nothing you get from taking this subrace is useful. The standard elf stuff applies here, but the racial features aren’t useful with Wild Shape. While it’s not a great Druid race, Circle of the Moon Druid is a great option if you’ve got your heart set on playing drow, since their primary drawback does not apply while wild shaped.Halfling (Lightfoot): Although Lucky and Brave are good abilities, Halfling abilities that care about your size aren’t useful since you’ll spend most of your time large or bigger.Halfling (Stout): Slightly better stats and even more resistances makes this an acceptable choice.Human (Standard): You don’t need the stats. They’re fine, but there are better options.Human (Variant): Feats are so powerful early game that this becomes a great choice.[h=4]Uncommon Races[/h]Dragonborn: Uninteresting stats, but the other powers are useful.Gnome: The defensive boost is OK, but that’s all you’ve got going for you with this race. The stats aren’t great and their powers aren’t useful with Wild Shape.Half-Elf: Legit stats and a skill. Not bad.Half-Orc: Although the stats aren’t great, everything else they have is useful in Wild Shape.Tiefling: There’s nothing for you here.[h=4]DMG Races[/h]Aasimar: Stats you’re looking for but otherwise unhelpful features.Elf (Eladrin): High elves seem marginally better, but a teleport could be situationally incredible.[h=4]Elemental Evil Races[/h]Aarakocra: Useful stats, though the flight and talons abilities are not allowed in beast form. Given that your wild shape requires level 8 before it gives you flight, and the CR of flying creatures is never greater than your level 2 forms, it’s safe to say that having resourceless flight from level 1 is absurdly powerful.Gnome (Deep): Nothing wrong with these guys; their darkvision is useful and their saving throw bonus makes up for cruddy stats.Genasi (Air): You can’t actually use the Mingle with the Wind trait while in wild shape, although your ability to recreate Sharknado means there might be some fun RP opportunities.Genasi (Earth): Earthwalk and Pass Without Trace are interesting abilities with some good exploration potential, but they don’t synergize particularly well with anything you’re doing.Genasi (Fire): Meh stats, spells you can’t cast in beast form, but some upside with darkvision and fire resistance.Genasi (Water): Although the spells granted aren’t usable in beast form, they’re not really combat spells either. Water breathing and a swim speed aren’t the most exciting of abilities, but are situationally very useful if you’ve outleveled or just don’t want to expend one of your aquatic forms. And oh, hey, stat compatibility. Bonus.Goliath: Once-per-short-rest damage mitigation is nice, and in mammoth form you could carry back the entire dragon’s horde and the dragon.[h=4]Unearthed Arcana Races[/h]These are experimental rules. Ask your DM if you can use them. But they’re so underpowered that there’s no reason other than story to say no.Changeling: Thought nothing could be worse than a tiefling? You were wrong! Shapechanger could be fun, but it conflicts with wild shape and the stats are both not helpful and underbudget.Minotaur (Krynn): Decent stat bump, but I wouldn't let you use any of the horns-related features in wild shape. Circle of the Land would probably be more fun for a Druid Minotaur.Shifter: I’m not going to go through all of the shifter subraces. They’re terrible. I’m not sure why wizards thought a once-per-short-rest ability was worth shorting this race in stat points. Notable exceptions are below. Whether shifting works with wild shape is up in the air, although if your DM rules that it doesn’t, these all go down to whatever color is worse than red.Shifter (Longstride): You’re not going to have a lot of use for bonus actions, so the ability to run around a lot could have its uses.Shifter (Razorclaw): While useful things to do with bonus actions are nice, the damage is not going to be worth the time you spend rolling the attack at higher levels. Gets a little better if you take a few levels of Monk.Warforged: An AC bonus is useful to beast forms, but probably not so good as to short you of a stat point and all other racial features.[h=4]Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide Races[/h]Dwarf (Grey): Almost exactly the same as Drow. Not much good here unless you’ve got your heart set on playing one.Halfling (Ghostwise): A wisdom bonus and the ability to communicate under beast form turn a meh race into an amazing one.Half-Elf Variants: Since nothing you gain is useful in wild shape, I’m going to rate this as strictly worse than the default option.Tiefling Variants: There’s nothing for you here, unless your DM lets you have wings, but that would be silly.</blockquote>

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