D&D (2024) New Wild Shape

[Minigiant]

If they go templates, what's a good list of forms?

Here's mine

• Base Druid
  • Hunter Form (for canines and lizards)
  • Stalker Form (for feline and snakes)
  • Raptor Form (for birds of prey)
  • Crawler Form (for rodents, bugs and small animals)
  • Steed Form
• Circle of the Land
  • Fey Beast Augment
• Circle of the Moon
  • Bear Form
  • Behemoth Form (bulls, rhino, and elephants)
  • Dire Beast Augment
• Circle of the Spores
  • Symbiote Form
  • Spore Beast Augment
• Circle Of the Sun
  • Elemental Form
  • Elemental Beast Augment

 

[mellored]

1) Keep the basic template idea.

2) Get rid of the restriction on wildshapes per day.

3) Add a "metamagic" feature for Wild Shape.

Hmmm... make sure hou can use them for non-shape shifting stuff.

I.e.
You get 1 nature points per level.

-Adding swimming to wild shape takes 3 points.
-Adding flying in wild shape takes 5 points.
-Adding speach to your familiar takes 3 points.
-Healing blossom makes a zone. Allies in the zone gain temporary hit points equal to the number of nature points you spent.

...
Might be too complicated to add on to full caster.

Would work good for a Shifter class.

 

[mellored]

2. Scaled-back spellcasting.

IMO, if your not a full caster, your not a "druid". Spells being more iconic "druid" than wild shape, at least for DnD.

A shifter class would be cool though.

 

[Bill Zebub]

IMO, if your not a full caster, your not a "druid". Spells being more iconic "druid" than wild shape, at least for DnD.

Do you feel the same way about the no-metal-armor restriction?




OMG...it just occurred to me: change the "Druids can't wear metal armor" to "Druids can't shapechange while wearing metal armor."

 

[mellored]

You only have so many "sorcery" points to spend each day, and the number and types of traits you can add would be gated per level,

Actually, just use spell slots.

A level 1 slot lets you jump.
A level 2 slot let's you web, or advantage on a particular ability.
A level 3 slot gives you flight.

 

[mellored]

Do you feel the same way about the no-metal-armor restriction?

No. Not without having lots of different types of armor anyways. And I never found armor choice to be very interesting.

And to be clear. I like the idea of a shifter class. And I also know how they seem to hate adding classes. But "druid" who can't cast wall of thorns doesn't seem like one.

Also, I'm not too hung up on semantics. If the class is fun, it doesn't matter what it is called.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Actually, just use spell slots.

A level 1 slot lets you jump.
A level 2 slot let's you web, or advantage on a particular ability.
A level 3 slot gives you flight.

Interesting. Nice symmetry.

 

[Mecheon]

And to be clear. I like the idea of a shifter class. And I also know how they seem to hate adding classes. But "druid" who can't cast wall of thorns doesn't seem like one.

While I agree with you on armoured (why so people get worked up about druids not being able to wear metal again? Is it a cleric thing?), I will say that due to outside video games, the shape shifting druid is probably the more iconic over the caster. WoW’s caster spec druids even shape change for maximum boomkin action

 

[Bill Zebub]

But "druid" who can't cast wall of thorns doesn't seem like one.

But does it need to be full caster to do that?

What if it's the invocation model, and one of the choices is "Cast Wall of Thorns Once Per Short Rest" (or whatever the frequency is)?

 

[Kinematics]

Actually, just use spell slots.

A level 1 slot lets you jump.
A level 2 slot let's you web, or advantage on a particular ability.
A level 3 slot gives you flight.

I was pondering how the mechanics of the "metamagic" would work, and realized that in a lot of ways it could literally be the same thing as sorcerer's metamagic, at least at the conceptual level. Druid magic is as unexplained as sorcerer magic (compared to the other magic classes), though there seems to be something intrinsic in the user (as opposed to an external power source) in both cases.

Though it also made me think of Font of Magic, and now this post reminds me that this is essentially the same thing. Font of Magic turns a spell slot into its equivalent level in sorcery points — so a level 1 slot gives you 1 point, a level 2 slot gives you 2 points, etc — so trading spell slots for traits is basically the same as turning them into sorcery points and using that same number of points on a trait.

It would just be a question of whether it would be necessary to have a surplus of "sorcery" points on top of the normal spell slot points available. For sorcerer, that's kind of mandatory since the metamagic effects are being applied to the spells being cast. For druid, that may not be the case. It depends on how much you'd want to use all your spell slots to completely support the shapeshifting side of things.

I'd probably give a few "sorcery" points as a base pool, maybe equal to your proficiency bonus, so that a full caster druid can still do a few things with Wild Shape.