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Hack Your Druid: Alternatives to Wildshape
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8788746" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>I think I'd suggest <em>not</em> losing the ability, but just suggesting to him that he does not need to use it. For non-moon druids it isn't really that much of a combat ability. You can already use the ability to find familiar for a short period if he would like to get away from that idea. If you really want to get away from animals, allow the player to summon a mephit instead. </p><p></p><p>Wildfire druid is one option, as mentioned above. If they like the idea of summoning, but not the fire elements, instead replace their wildshape with 2 'pact magic' slots (like the warlock) that can be used to cast spells that summon the appropriate types of creatures for the theme they like - and for those spells to not require concentration. </p><p></p><p>Alternatively, if you want to get away from animals and summoning, I suggest giving them some 'life and death abilities'. In my homebrew, druids draw power through the spell weave directly from the Positive and Negative Energy Plane. Wizards steal from the weave, and clerics have power sent to them through the weave from divine powers ... but druids pull power directly from the life and death forces of the universe. This is a very evocative different in my setting that took druids from 'true neutral' to a blend of the extremes. It gives them a really cool feel. A simple version of this might be to give them abilities of the Undead or Undying pacts from the warlock instead of wildshape. It would not be overpowered to take away wildshape and give them all benefits of the pact.</p><p></p><p>Finally - reskin is an alternative. Don't give them wildshape, but use it as a model to give them the ability to alter their form in other ways. Maybe they can grow their body, gain bonus temp hit points, etc.... </p><p></p><p>I had a druid a few years back that wanted to get into the evil side of druids in my world, so we replaced wildshape with 'deathform' which essentially allowed him to assume the form of undead humanoids instead of beasts - but we limited him to one use of each form he took once per level to avoid the risk of spamming overpowered options (and I have a lot of hoimebrew undead). The PC did not survive long (scouting is dangerous), but it worked while he did live.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8788746, member: 2629"] I think I'd suggest [I]not[/I] losing the ability, but just suggesting to him that he does not need to use it. For non-moon druids it isn't really that much of a combat ability. You can already use the ability to find familiar for a short period if he would like to get away from that idea. If you really want to get away from animals, allow the player to summon a mephit instead. Wildfire druid is one option, as mentioned above. If they like the idea of summoning, but not the fire elements, instead replace their wildshape with 2 'pact magic' slots (like the warlock) that can be used to cast spells that summon the appropriate types of creatures for the theme they like - and for those spells to not require concentration. Alternatively, if you want to get away from animals and summoning, I suggest giving them some 'life and death abilities'. In my homebrew, druids draw power through the spell weave directly from the Positive and Negative Energy Plane. Wizards steal from the weave, and clerics have power sent to them through the weave from divine powers ... but druids pull power directly from the life and death forces of the universe. This is a very evocative different in my setting that took druids from 'true neutral' to a blend of the extremes. It gives them a really cool feel. A simple version of this might be to give them abilities of the Undead or Undying pacts from the warlock instead of wildshape. It would not be overpowered to take away wildshape and give them all benefits of the pact. Finally - reskin is an alternative. Don't give them wildshape, but use it as a model to give them the ability to alter their form in other ways. Maybe they can grow their body, gain bonus temp hit points, etc.... I had a druid a few years back that wanted to get into the evil side of druids in my world, so we replaced wildshape with 'deathform' which essentially allowed him to assume the form of undead humanoids instead of beasts - but we limited him to one use of each form he took once per level to avoid the risk of spamming overpowered options (and I have a lot of hoimebrew undead). The PC did not survive long (scouting is dangerous), but it worked while he did live. [/QUOTE]
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Hack Your Druid: Alternatives to Wildshape
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