Ýou can't cast spells in bird form.frankthedm said:Turning into a bird is going to have the same effect as a fly spell, so don’t expect that for many levels.
Ýou can't cast spells in bird form.frankthedm said:Turning into a bird is going to have the same effect as a fly spell, so don’t expect that for many levels.
ferratus said:Not sure what type of abilities a autumn hierophant would have though.
Part of that is a problem with the leadership feat, and that's probably the most egregious example. I'm not personally a big fan of leadership. Also, a slow player can bring the game to a halt regardless. I've had an experienced player who was a barbarian be paralyzed with his option of raging or not raging. If the stats are all prepared and the critters are held to what they can reasonably be directed to do without speak with animals up, it's not that hard. I don't think there should be any problem with some classes being harder to play than others, especially if it's not in the main PHB.Doug McCrae said:4e already balances 'lopsided' actions in the form of minions, elites and boss monsters. Though to some extent a boss is balanced by giving it more actions.
The issue with summoning (and animal companions and the leadership feat) is not so much balancing actions, it's one player getting more table time. Much, much more in the case of a 3e druid. A 3e druid with the leadership feat and his cohort is also a druid? My God, his turns are going to take half an hour each.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but the most memorable druid moments I recall from my second edition games years ago involve summoned things like dust devils. Though, admittedly, we never played with a high level druid. But going further than that, major wild shaping seems out of place when I think of a nature priest who can unleash the fury of nature on you. I think of gale force winds and driving rain, lightning strikes, grasping plants, and the creatures of the forest turning against his enemies, red in tooth and claw. And when all is finished and calm, he turns into a hawk and flies away, leaving the corpse for nature to dispose of.Andor said:See I don't get these comments at all. Wildshape was always the Druids signature ability. Summoning was never his emphasis until 3ed. He was the old ways sort of priest/mage with weather and nature magic.
I'll grant you I'd hate to see him stop being a spell caster but I'd much rather see them lose summoning than Wildshape.
When I think of the Druid signature abilities and spells?
Wildshape
Call lightning
Control weather
Creeping doom
produce flame
good berry
Entangle
Reincarnation
Cool, whenever Necromancer's Advanced Player's Guide release will be imminent, drop a line on the board please.Mouseferatu said:Going to toot my own horn just a little here...
Precisely because we'd heard that WotC was designing the druid to be primarily a shapeshifter (as per Races and Classes), I designed the version of the druid to be included in Necromancer Games' Advanced Player's Guide to be much more of a nature-oriented spellcaster, with minimal shifting.
This was done partly because, well, to be honest the system's too new for me to be confident in how to balance shapeshifting abilities. But it was also done in order to
A) Make Necromancer's druid feel more like its early edition counterparts (that is the company's schtick, after all), and
B) To design a class that would be usable even after WotC's own version came out; one that would complement, rather than compete. I'd be overjoyed to see campaigns including both versions of the druid (or the other classes) long after both books are out.
So, bottom line? Even if the "official" druid is less of a pure caster than you want, you're covered.
CoDzilla Lives!ZombieRoboNinja said:This is why I'm thinking a striker/controller hybrid is likely. Controllers are probably the most expendable role in 4e (at least judging by the fact that WOTC saw fit to only include one in the first PHB, thus ensuring that a lot of parties don't have 'em), and more strikers are always nice, so it makes sense to have a controller who can lay down the damage in melee when necessary. (After all, let's face it; even the wizard ends up doing single-target damage like a striker a lot of the time. He's just not as good at it.)
Yes, this is one aspect of the druid I liked very much. I'm pretty sure that animal companion and Druids will be in the PHB II, but will they still be linked together? That I'm less sure.Olgar Shiverstone said:Personally, I hope some mechanic for animal companions makes it back in the druid. That was one of the things when opening the 3.0 PHB that made me go *cool* was the druid having a companion at 1st level. They need to revise the mechanics, obviously, so it isn't as if the player suddenly has 2 PCs (maybe a mechanic where the druid can split his normal actions between the main character and companion), but I'd still like an option for a beastmaster-type druid (with or without wild shape).
TerraDave said:• If you like what the 3.5 Player’s Handbook II did to the 3.5 druid, then you’ll probably like this guy, too.[/COLOR]
Well, unless he took the natural spell feat... But perhaps in 4th edition, this feat won't exist at all, hopefully...ainatan said:Ýou can't cast spells in bird form.
I agree with this. It's why I really wanted the druid to get split up into shapeshifter (defender or striker) and caster (controller or leader) classes; and of the problems people have with 3e, CoDzilla is high up there (plus it's one I agree with) so I'm irritated with this initial peek into the druid, and hope it changes somewhere down the line.CleverNickName said:CoDzilla Lives!
Okay, maybe not...but all this talk about the hybridization of the roles, and striker/controller combos getting thrown around, is starting to worry me. From what I've seen, blurring the lines between roles only leads to (a) boring characters, or (b) overpowered characters. I'd much rather see a pure striker, or a pure controller, or even a pure leader, than some sort of cocktail.
Also with summoning, I didn't read anything that said out-right not summoning, it was simply; "Not a lot of animal summoning. Plenty of wild shape." Which to says there may be some but it isn't the focus of the Druid.