• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Wild Shape, What's Yours?

Fallen Seraph

First Post
Well I am sure lots of us are churning ideas over in our heads of how we are now going to make a Druid in 4e.

Well one important aspect of the Druid is of course its Wild Shape With the 4e version giving the player complete freedom in choosing what this form takes I thought it be fun too see what some early concepts are. Perhaps if your up for it a bit of character fluff to say why it is like this.

Humanoid: I think that as long as the rules aren't broken a humanoid form could work under Wild Shape and as such this the first of two forms my Druid will take.

The Humanoid form is one that is hard to mask in clothing. It is a churning vortex of Wild Spirits entering and leaving a solid vessel. The druids gait is sloppy and erratic as his nervous system is played with by various spirits. As she walks she leaves behind a lingering trail of ghostly spirit shapes that dissipate into the air. Her eyes, teeth, and fingers constantly flux between that of a human and that of a beast. Her flesh warps and twists as Spirits try to turn his form into their own.

Beast: While the humanoid form was unnerving and eerie the Beast is something from the darkest of nightmares. It stands about as high as a large dog, with a narrow frame but well built musculature. This hidden however under a shifting sea of black flesh and spirits that parade across its surface. It stands on four legs and has a stream of tail like appendages flowing off its back and thighs, its head is vaguely wolf like. However its eyes and mouth and for that matter claws are wherever it wishes to be. A attack is never certain whether from the front, side or behind.

Fluff/Concept wise, I wanted to go with something like what a corrupt Druid be like. What if instead of embracing and working with ordinary nature spirits it found itself working with spirits warped by whatever be it the Far Realm, experiences from when it was alive, magick, etc. As such it has become such a hideous being.
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

I've been toying with creating a serie sof characters and adventures related to the idea of the faerie courts of the seasons (with some nwod Changeling inspiration thrown in there) and the new druid fits that perfectly especially if I can use fey beasts for his beast form. I'm thinking maybe a human "changeling" druid who grew up at the faerie court and was imbued with some of the power of the feywild and the seasons. This gives him weather powers and a wild shape which is not yet clear completely (will have to look through some of the faey beasts to get some more definite ideas), but it should absolurtely be weird in the fey way. Enchanting and elusive, so maybe catlike, a black panther with weirdly illuminating eyes (completely monochrome like those of the eladrin), an oily sheen running through its fur...

Man, I wish I could play it now... :)
 

My Druid comes from the Frozen North and conjures up the cold blizzards and savage storms of the most barren regions of his homeland.

He doesn't have a single shape but shifts between different animals from his homeland depending on what he does. While charging he's a snow leopard, when tanking in battle he is a polar bear, etc. When he uses higher level powers he quickly shapeshifts into slightly larger more fantastic creatures such as giant slithering Frost Eels and Blizzard Wyverns.
 

My shape is never constant changing attack to attack, first a bear slams a paw into to you knocking you back, then the bear becomes a snake lashing out and and poisoning your blood, then it becomes a bird swooping out of your reach to engage another foe becoming a fierce tiger as it lands savaging your ally then in changes again... again... again.
 

My wildshape takes a single animal form, such as a wolf or eagle or bear or cat, using it as a totem-type spirit for my druid. And all attacks/wildshape abilities somehow maniefest from this single totem-animal form.
 


I'm thinking of a fire genasi druid whose "normal" form looks essentially human, just with a ruddy or copper complexion, and whose wildshape is the flame-halo'd ele-man of the WotC illustrations.
 


Free Owlbear Hugs!

Hmph... according to the preview the primal beast is "a formless thing of shadows, fur, feathers, and claws"


Hey! That doesn't sound very formless. When deranged wizards put fur, feathers, and claws together they get an OWLBEAR!
 

Hmph... according to the preview the primal beast is "a formless thing of shadows, fur, feathers, and claws"


Hey! That doesn't sound very formless. When deranged wizards put fur, feathers, and claws together they get an OWLBEAR!
I thought they got a Owl and a bear drunk and played Barry Mannilow or something romantic:
Like the episode on Southpark with Pot Bellied Elephants.
 

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top