WotC_Dave: Druid!

[tecnowraith]

My question is what will wildshaping be, at-will, per-encounter or daily power or all of them? It has been mentioned/hinted that the wildshaping will be powers now from Races and Classes.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

I was hoping that you could have a Druid that covers 3 basic paths, based of talent selection. A weather-based Druid, a plant-based druid, and a wildshaping druid. Call the weather based a Druid a Fury (or Fury Talent tree), plant could be the Green path or Green talent tree (or something else appropriate) and then the shapeshifting druid.

You know, that sounds a lot like the Druid from Diablo II, where he had talent trees for shapeshifting, elemental magic (some fire stuff and weather magic) and summoning (animals, yes, but also animated creepers and such).

And that sounds excellent to me.

 

[Riley]

The WoW player base is so big that it could actually mean the common perception of what a druid should be like has changed. If you were to ask people what a druid is, chances are more would remember it's a class in WoW than that it's the name of celtic priests.

Huh. Well, I guess I feel left out by my ignorance of WoW.

Not that I've got anything against shapeshifting warriors, but I guess a houseruled name change is in order for WOTC's druids.

 

[lukelightning]

I like the move away from the classical elements (air, earth, water, fire) towards more strictly "nature" phenomena (plants, animals, weather).

I question the removal of summoning abilities; druids traditionally (in D&D, at least) call upon animals to act as their allies. Without an animal companion or animal summoning, the druid seems to lose out on this.

Now I want to play a spellcasting dinosaur.

A saurceror? Tyrannosaurus Hex?

 

[Klaus]

I like the move away from the classical elements (air, earth, water, fire) towards more strictly "nature" phenomena (plants, animals, weather).

I question the removal of summoning abilities; druids traditionally (in D&D, at least) call upon animals to act as their allies. Without an animal companion or animal summoning, the druid seems to lose out on this.



A saurceror? Tyrannosaurus Hex?

'fess up, all this talk of playing spellcasting dinosaurs is actually a deep seated yearning to play as Darth Rancor:

 

[kigmatzomat]

As someone who hasn't had a chance to play or touch the phb2 book for a while -- In general terms, what were some of the major changes made by the PHB2 to the druid?

The shapeshifting was the big one. You acquire general forms as you advance. Start at a simple medium-sized land-based predator with a bite attack. It might be a panther, big wolf, small dinosaur, whatever. As you level you get more forms (large ground predator, small aerial predator, etc). Some forms have bonus feats or special attacks.

You can't cast in the form (natural spell doesn't work) and all your gear is absorbed. To compensate you get a pretty reasonable boost in natural armor strength, sometimes dex, and saves. Your natural weapons get a magical enhancement bonus of level/4, I think.

Oh, and it's an at-will ability, I think taking a standard action.

In my pre-4e alpha game, I made a quasi-druid by giving shapeshifting and dragon shaman auras & elemental breath weapon to a d8HD/skill:2 class. The logic being the druid is affiliated with an element and can channel the natural magic of the world in his immediate vicinity.

 

[Vysirez]

The shapeshifting was the big one. You acquire general forms as you advance. Start at a simple medium-sized land-based predator with a bite attack. It might be a panther, big wolf, small dinosaur, whatever. As you level you get more forms (large ground predator, small aerial predator, etc). Some forms have bonus feats or special attacks.

You can't cast in the form (natural spell doesn't work) and all your gear is absorbed. To compensate you get a pretty reasonable boost in natural armor strength, sometimes dex, and saves. Your natural weapons get a magical enhancement bonus of level/4, I think.

Oh, and it's an at-will ability, I think taking a standard action.

In my pre-4e alpha game, I made a quasi-druid by giving shapeshifting and dragon shaman auras & elemental breath weapon to a d8HD/skill:2 class. The logic being the druid is affiliated with an element and can channel the natural magic of the world in his immediate vicinity.

PHB2 shifting was actually a swift action and was at-will. So the fact you couldn't use natural spell wasn't a huge loss, but you still have to make some choices. If you were shifted and wanted to cast a spell, you had to spend at least one round in human form since you only get 1 switch action per round.

 

[D.Shaffer]

My question is what will wildshaping be, at-will, per-encounter or daily power or all of them? It has been mentioned/hinted that the wildshaping will be powers now from Races and Classes.

Hmm. Per Encounter for a form shift, with At Will powers for that form, maybe?

 

[HeinorNY]

My question is what will wildshaping be, at-will, per-encounter or daily power or all of them? It has been mentioned/hinted that the wildshaping will be powers now from Races and Classes.

It depends. If the shapeshifted druid is still as powerful as when he is in humanoid form but with distinct roles, it could be easily an at will power that needs a standard action to activate, so the character really needs to plan when it's the right moment to change roles.

If wildshape just makes the druid a lot more powerful for a limited time, pratically working as a buff, it should be an encounter or daily power, depending on the how powerful the buff is. And should probably be a minor action.