Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Druid Circles And Wild Shape

Dreams is right up my alley, and may lead to me creating my first druid character in 5e. Starting to feel like we are getting a lot of Fey and Shadowfell themed options in these. Perhaps that's a clue to where the 2017 Fall supplement is going to focus? Elminster's Journey's across the Planes, a guide.

 

[Leatherhead]

I keep reading here the dispel magic rider on Purifying Light is free, but it specifically says "...using a spell slot..." That can't be an ambiguous way of saying it's free. (Why not "cast at a level equal to the healing spell but does not consume a spell slot"?) It's either poorly designed or exceptionally poorly worded.

If it isn't free then it's horrible and borderline useless. It's very niche to start with, given that it's Dispel Magic only. This particular druid can heal and buff with a bonus action. Meaning they aren't gaining much on the action economy over just casting Dispel Magic (or even better one of the Restoration spells) and using Balm of the Summer Court, a course of action that can also be split between two targets for added versatility. Also you don't get very many high level spell slots, locking it into being used on low level heals. And finally it has it's own unique daily resource to keep track of.

Even if it is free, it isn't very good, and would be better replaced with something like what I suggested above.

 

[OB1]

Then they're not round-tracking. They work for one round and that's it.

Off the top of my head

Sleep - 1 minute (10 rounds) or until awoken
Hold Person - 1 minute, re-save attempt every round, also based on concentration
Fly - 10 minutes (100 rounds) also must keep concentration
Magic Weapon - 1 minute, concentration
Haste - 1 minute, concentration
Enlarge/Reduce - 10 rounds, concentration
Etc, etc, etc....

The only difference with this mechanic is that instead of specifying 6 seconds or 24 seconds or whatever, it's tied to a die roll so that it's between 6 and 24 seconds before you can use it again.

In some ways it's a spin off of a monster recharge mechanic, but flipped so that you know exactly how many rounds it will be before you can use the ability again when you make the first roll. In fact, I might use this as a variant with dragon breath weapons, would be wonderfully descriptive and add some tension to the combat as the party sees the breath weapon slowly recharging.

 

[Grazzt]

There are literally dozens of spells that require round tracking (though none are variable). I really like the 1d4 cool-down mechanic as it gives a nice way to create essentially a once per combat encounter ability (since most combat encounters are 2-5 rounds) without it actually being called that. Sure you will get the odd time where you can use it twice in a combat, but you can't count on it.

I think it's an inspired idea that I hope see's more play in other classes.

Rather than introduce a new mechanic like "1d4 rounds", why not just use the Recharge mechanic? Does, basically the same thing.

 

[Prakriti]

Does anyone actually bother tracking 1-minute duration spells in combat? I'd say 95% of fights don't last that long, and casters usually lose concentration at some point during the fight anyways.

Personally, I treat a 1-minute duration as "Lasts until combat ends." Much easier and less fussy.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Sleep - 1 minute (10 rounds) or until awoken
Hold Person - 1 minute, re-save attempt every round, also based on concentration

And how many combats have you run that have lasted for 10 rounds or longer?

Fly - 10 minutes (100 rounds) also must keep concentration

You don't count rounds for a 10 minute duration...

 

[TwoSix]

But I hate the flavor of immobile "spirits" that grant random bonuses for being near them. So very gamist.

I don't mind them, they remind me of shaman totems in WoW.

I realize that may not help the "gamist" argument.

 

[Parmandur]

I get the distinct feeling that the Circles of Dreams and Twilight are eventually going to be called Greensingers and Children of Winter respectively...
(Really like the overall initial feel to the mechanics, but definitely have to get tweaked).

Good call, the Children of Winter seem to fit better than the UA fluff, Eberron terrorists. Also, fits the hypothesis that the Big Book of Crunch will have setting support of some kind...

 

[Parmandur]

The subclasses were sort of interesting, but a little too niche. At least for me the big thing was the Wild shape ruling...nerfing. Does anyone think this was necessary? I've always felt like wild shape was terrific from levels 2 to 4 (assuming you wanted to be a bear) and then it rapidly fell behind in terms of usefulness compared to spells and summons. But perhaps I missed something?

Is a high level druid stuck using his low level forms until a DM gives him the opportunity to study rarer animals for an hour?

As a variant, definitely helps: see all sorts of stories about DMs and Druids arguing about what they can wildshape into: it is less of a nerf, and more a common ground to retreat to of negotiations fail. Not needed foe a lot of tables, but helpful for some, probably AL organized play especially.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

There are literally dozens of spells that require round tracking (though none are variable). I really like the 1d4 cool-down mechanic as it gives a nice way to create essentially a once per combat encounter ability (since most combat encounters are 2-5 rounds) without it actually being called that. Sure you will get the odd time where you can use it twice in a combat, but you can't count on it.

I think it's an inspired idea that I hope see's more play in other classes.

Monsters with cooldown abilities (mind flayer mind blast) are a form of variable round tracking, expressed as a power law distribution over rounds instead of a uniform distribution.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Does anyone actually bother tracking 1-minute duration spells in combat? I'd say 95% of fights don't last that long, and casters usually lose concentration at some point during the fight anyways.

Personally, I treat a 1-minute duration as "Lasts until combat ends." Much easier and less fussy.

Retroactively, yes. That is, in any large battle, I always have a record of who declared what action on what round and what the results were, so if I need to figure out when a given effect has been going on for ten rounds I can always do that.