Someone
Adventurer
In my latest train trip I tried to kill some time deciding what character could I make as my 3rd option in both Living campaings. A druid always came to my mind, especially for the Eberron campaing, where druids' reason for existence and goals are very well treated. But it's always discarded.
The reason is that I don't feel comfortable with the Wild shape rules. First, they are based on polymorph, one of the clumsiest and poorly balanced rules on the book and which have been errataed an changed so many times that I can't even tell how they work (I even encourage my players not to take anything related to it). The second is that you get it at 5th level.
In a campaing where you're supposed to reach mid or high levels, spending 4 without your most distinctive class ability isn't much. But in the Living campaings, where 8th level PCs are high level, 4 levels is a very large amount or time being worse than a cleric with the plant and animal domains.
Shapeshifting variant druid solves this nicely. Everyone I've read that uses it thinks greatly of the rule, and is simple enough for DMs who don't have PHB II to adjudicate if the player has the variant shapes detailed in his sheet (the DM only has to know that the PC can change into these forms and back as a swift action, without daily limit.)
The reason is that I don't feel comfortable with the Wild shape rules. First, they are based on polymorph, one of the clumsiest and poorly balanced rules on the book and which have been errataed an changed so many times that I can't even tell how they work (I even encourage my players not to take anything related to it). The second is that you get it at 5th level.
In a campaing where you're supposed to reach mid or high levels, spending 4 without your most distinctive class ability isn't much. But in the Living campaings, where 8th level PCs are high level, 4 levels is a very large amount or time being worse than a cleric with the plant and animal domains.
Shapeshifting variant druid solves this nicely. Everyone I've read that uses it thinks greatly of the rule, and is simple enough for DMs who don't have PHB II to adjudicate if the player has the variant shapes detailed in his sheet (the DM only has to know that the PC can change into these forms and back as a swift action, without daily limit.)
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