I looked around at some wild shapes guides and was very disappointed at the lack of support for non-moon druids but also the focus on combat forms instead of a complete list of options or even recommendations for good forms out of combat. So I had to make my own list. I will caveat, that I only used the Players Hand Book, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual which I would expect at every table. This is to reduce the odds of picking options you don't have stats for and because this how it was restricted at my table.
All available - previous list(s) cumulative
CR ¼ or less Beast (No Swimming, No flying) Axe Beak Baboon Badger Boar Camel Cat Deer Draft Horse Elk Giant Badger Giant Centipede Giant Fire Beetle Giant Lizard Giant Rat Giant Weasel Giant Wolf Spider Goat Hyena Jackal Lizard Mastiff Mule Panther Pony Rat Riding Horse Scorpion Spider Weasel Wolf
CR 1/2 Beast (+Swimming, No flying) Ape Black Bear Constrictor Snake Crab Crocodile Frog Giant Crab Giant Frog Giant Goat Giant Poisonous Snake Giant Sea Horse Octopus Poisonous Snake Quipper Reef Shark Sea Horse War Horse
CR 1 Beast (+Swimming, + flying) Bat Blood Hawk Brown Bear Dire Wolf Eagle Flying Snake Giant Bat Giant Eagle Giant Fly Giant Hyena Giant Octopus Giant Owl Giant Spider Giant Toad Giant Vulture Giant Wasp Hawk Lion Owl Pteranodon Raven Stirge Tiger Vulture
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 2-3, CR1/4 Short list Combat: Giant Badger (Multi-attack vs caster) --> Draft Horse (HP, to hit, damage) --> Giant Wolf Spider (ambush) --> Wolf (allies) Escape: Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape Riding Horse (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies) <-- waiting for allies 5ft behind party, the hold action to hop on Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) --> Giant Wolf Spider (spider climb 40ft) ... up up and out of melee range Exploration/Scout/Spy: Stealthy: Wolf --> Spider (tiny) --> Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) --> Giant Wolf Spider (best stealth and spider climb) Spy: Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) -->Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) -->Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft) Special darkness: Giant Centipede-->Giant Wolf Spider Utility: Giant Fire Beetle (light source) Draft Horse (540lbs carry weight) Baboon (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery) Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard)
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 4-7, CR1/2 and lower swimming Short list Combat: Ape (Multi-attack vs caster) --> War Horse (HP, to hit, damage) --> Giant Wolf Spider (ambush) --> Wolf (allies) *War horse barding can be purchased for 6,000 gp and equipped to raise war horse AC to 18 Water Combat: Giant Poisonous Snake (top of water) = Reef Shark (deep water) = Giant Crab (allies, any water) Escape: Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape War Horse (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies) <-- waiting for allies 5ft behind party, the hold action to hop on Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) -->Giant Wolf Spider (spider climb 40ft) ... up up and out of melee range Octopus Water Escape Exploration/Scout/Spy: Stealthy: Wolf-->Spider (tiny) -->Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) -->Giant Wolf Spider (best stealth and spider climb) Stealthy Water: Octopus Spy: Frog-->Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) -->Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) -->Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft) Special darkness: Giant Centipede-->Giant Wolf Spider Utility: Giant Fire Beetle (light source) War Horse (540lbs carry weight) Baboon/Ape (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery) Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard) Giant Crab (Restraining multiple enemies until there next turn for ally attacks)
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 8+, CR1 and lower Flying Short list Combat: Brown Bear* --> Giant Vulture / (Multi-attack vs caster) --> Giant Octopus (HP, Reach) --> Giant Owl (hit and run) --> Giant Spider (ambush) --> Dire Wolf* (allies) *barding can be purchased for 6,000 gp and equipped to raise AC to 18, Since War bears goblins riding dire wolves are a thing most GMs are likely to allow it for them. Water Combat: Giant Poisonous Snake (top of water) = Reef Shark (deep water) = Giant Crab (allies, any water) Escape: Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action)<-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall)<-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape Giant Owl (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity while flying) Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) --> Giant Spider (spider climb 30ft) ... up up and out of melee range Giant Octopus Water Escape Exploration/Scout/Spy: Stealthy: Spider (tiny) --> Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) --> Giant Spider --> Giant Owl Stealthy Water: Octopus Spy: Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) --> Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) --> Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft) Special darkness: Giant Spider --> Bat Utility: Giant Fire Beetle (light source) War Horse (540lbs carry weight) Baboon/Ape (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery) Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard) Giant Toad (capture and enemy, no save to break restrained once swallowed) Raven (Distract guards etc. from a try by sounding like whispers or a crying baby)
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.
Hi Clayton. Very good analysis. I also Like very much RPGbot’s guide. It is pretty complete."
Thanks!
That's honest the best guide I have seen. It is geared to moon druids which creates 3 problems for all other druids using it. So I would have done this even with that though it would have made it a lot faster with RPGbot list.
Issues created by combining the moon druid wild shape list and non-moon wild shape druid list 1. Its overly comprehensive for non-moon druids and moon druids. The forms non-moon druids can't get they don't need to see and sort thought.
2. Moon druids get access to creatures at different levels but swimming and flying at the same levels. This means you have to list them grouped by CR including flying and swimming so you have to sort through to find which ones you can use for moon druid or not.
- Both of these are fixed by excluding moon druids so quick reference list can be provided by druid level to easily and quickly answer the question "What can I wildshape into?"
3. The other thing is for example RPGBot's post rates the forms from the moon druid's prospective. Case in point: "Giant Hyena: Low AC, but a decent pile of hit points. The Giant Hyena's bite does decent damage, and with Rampage you can chew through groups of weak enemies very quickly, especially at low levels." This is true for a moon when you get it at level 2 but for any other druid you don't get Giant Hyena until level 8 when you get access to swimming and flying creatures. That being the case Giant Owl is a better survival form because you can attack and fly away without opportunity attacks with a 15AC instead of a 13AC, Vulture has multi attack and pack tactics for better damage and better to hit vs enemies engaged with and ally, and Giant Octopus significantly more hit points. RPGbot does break down some forms for non-moon druids like the vulture but over all its rating systems is skewed (slightly) because of how good some things are for moon druids at early levels and how quickly the get replaced by moon druids at higher levels.
- When it comes down to it Moon druid's and Non-Moon druid's have different answers when they ask, "If I want to do X what is a good wildshape to change into?". What's good for most druids (aka non-moon druid's) is not something I see referenced much. The short lists should help (they do me) by taking all the options you have at your level and listing some good options. Hopefully the list provokes ideas of things you could wildshape into when your not sure what to do on your turn. You should only need the short list for your level so it should greatly reduce what you have to look through if your not sure and trying to be quick. I put arrows to the right to imply better forms tears so even if your character has not seen the best form for what you want to do maybe you have the second or third choice. I also listed some caveats in parenthesis that might be important to your goal within that train of thought for use. The complete list is good to have because players can always think of new an interesting ways to use things.
So mostly I just hope this is useful to reduce in game panic and perhaps add some variation in wildshape forms.
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.
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I looked around at some wild shapes guides and was very disappointed at the lack of support for non-moon druids but also the focus on combat forms instead of a complete list of options or even recommendations for good forms out of combat. So I had to make my own list. I will caveat, that I only used the Players Hand Book, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual which I would expect at every table. This is to reduce the odds of picking options you don't have stats for and because this how it was restricted at my table.
All available - previous list(s) cumulative
(No Swimming, No flying)
Axe Beak
Baboon
Badger
Boar
Camel
Cat
Deer
Draft Horse
Elk
Giant Badger
Giant Centipede
Giant Fire Beetle
Giant Lizard
Giant Rat
Giant Weasel
Giant Wolf Spider
Goat
Hyena
Jackal
Lizard
Mastiff
Mule
Panther
Pony
Rat
Riding Horse
Scorpion
Spider
Weasel
Wolf
(+Swimming, No flying)
Ape
Black Bear
Constrictor Snake
Crab
Crocodile
Frog
Giant Crab
Giant Frog
Giant Goat
Giant Poisonous Snake
Giant Sea Horse
Octopus
Poisonous Snake
Quipper
Reef Shark
Sea Horse
War Horse
(+Swimming, + flying)
Bat
Blood Hawk
Brown Bear
Dire Wolf
Eagle
Flying Snake
Giant Bat
Giant Eagle
Giant Fly
Giant Hyena
Giant Octopus
Giant Owl
Giant Spider
Giant Toad
Giant Vulture
Giant Wasp
Hawk
Lion
Owl
Pteranodon
Raven
Stirge
Tiger
Vulture
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 2-3, CR1/4 Short list
Combat: Giant Badger (Multi-attack vs caster) --> Draft Horse (HP, to hit, damage) --> Giant Wolf Spider (ambush) --> Wolf (allies)
Escape:
Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch
Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape
Riding Horse (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies) <-- waiting for allies 5ft behind party, the hold action to hop on
Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) --> Giant Wolf Spider (spider climb 40ft) ... up up and out of melee range
Exploration/Scout/Spy:
Stealthy: Wolf --> Spider (tiny) --> Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) --> Giant Wolf Spider (best stealth and spider climb)
Spy: Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) --> Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) --> Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft)
Special darkness: Giant Centipede --> Giant Wolf Spider
Utility:
Giant Fire Beetle (light source)
Draft Horse (540lbs carry weight)
Baboon (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery)
Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 4-7, CR1/2 and lower swimming Short list
Combat: Ape (Multi-attack vs caster) --> War Horse (HP, to hit, damage) --> Giant Wolf Spider (ambush) --> Wolf (allies)
*War horse barding can be purchased for 6,000 gp and equipped to raise war horse AC to 18
Water Combat: Giant Poisonous Snake (top of water) = Reef Shark (deep water) = Giant Crab (allies, any water)
Escape:
Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch
Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape
War Horse (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies) <-- waiting for allies 5ft behind party, the hold action to hop on
Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) --> Giant Wolf Spider (spider climb 40ft) ... up up and out of melee range
Octopus Water Escape
Exploration/Scout/Spy:
Stealthy: Wolf --> Spider (tiny) --> Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) --> Giant Wolf Spider (best stealth and spider climb)
Stealthy Water: Octopus
Spy: Frog --> Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) --> Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) --> Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft)
Special darkness: Giant Centipede --> Giant Wolf Spider
Utility:
Giant Fire Beetle (light source)
War Horse (540lbs carry weight)
Baboon/Ape (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery)
Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard)
Giant Crab (Restraining multiple enemies until there next turn for ally attacks)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-Moon Druid Wild Shape levels 8+, CR1 and lower Flying Short list
Combat: Brown Bear* --> Giant Vulture / (Multi-attack vs caster) --> Giant Octopus (HP, Reach) --> Giant Owl (hit and run) -->
Giant Spider (ambush) --> Dire Wolf* (allies)
*barding can be purchased for 6,000 gp and equipped to raise AC to 18,
Since War bears goblins riding dire wolves are a thing most GMs are likely to allow it for them.
Water Combat: Giant Poisonous Snake (top of water) = Reef Shark (deep water) = Giant Crab (allies, any water)
Escape:
Boar (2 hit minimum if under 7 damage + 40ft movement + dash action) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape or enemy double move will catch
Badger (Tiny + Burrow 5ft + dash action = dig sideways and up 10ft in a cave wall) <-- can’t do on the same turn as you wild shape
Giant Owl (Large, 60ft movement + carry up to two allies, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity while flying)
Spider (tiny + spider climb 20ft) --> Giant Spider (spider climb 30ft) ... up up and out of melee range
Giant Octopus Water Escape
Exploration/Scout/Spy:
Stealthy: Spider (tiny) --> Weasel (tiny, excellent hearing) --> Giant Spider --> Giant Owl
Stealthy Water: Octopus
Spy: Cat (pet, climb of 30ft) --> Mastiff (pet, excellent hearing) --> Spider (liked for killing bugs, spider climb 20ft)
Special darkness: Giant Spider --> Bat
Utility:
Giant Fire Beetle (light source)
War Horse (540lbs carry weight)
Baboon/Ape (hands, potion/scroll etc delivery)
Badger/Giant Badger (make medium sized hidey hole for sleeping with only one entrance to guard)
Giant Toad (capture and enemy, no save to break restrained once swallowed)
Raven (Distract guards etc. from a try by sounding like whispers or a crying baby)
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.
Hi Clayton. Very good analysis. I also Like very much RPGbot’s guide. It is pretty complete.
Thanks!
That's honest the best guide I have seen. It is geared to moon druids which creates 3 problems for all other druids using it. So I would have done this even with that though it would have made it a lot faster with RPGbot list.
Issues created by combining the moon druid wild shape list and non-moon wild shape druid list
1. Its overly comprehensive for non-moon druids and moon druids. The forms non-moon druids can't get they don't need to see and sort thought.
2. Moon druids get access to creatures at different levels but swimming and flying at the same levels. This means you have to list them grouped by CR including flying and swimming so you have to sort through to find which ones you can use for moon druid or not.
- Both of these are fixed by excluding moon druids so quick reference list can be provided by druid level to easily and quickly answer the question "What can I wildshape into?"
3. The other thing is for example RPGBot's post rates the forms from the moon druid's prospective. Case in point: "Giant Hyena: Low AC, but a decent pile of hit points. The Giant Hyena's bite does decent damage, and with Rampage you can chew through groups of weak enemies very quickly, especially at low levels." This is true for a moon when you get it at level 2 but for any other druid you don't get Giant Hyena until level 8 when you get access to swimming and flying creatures. That being the case Giant Owl is a better survival form because you can attack and fly away without opportunity attacks with a 15AC instead of a 13AC, Vulture has multi attack and pack tactics for better damage and better to hit vs enemies engaged with and ally, and Giant Octopus significantly more hit points. RPGbot does break down some forms for non-moon druids like the vulture but over all its rating systems is skewed (slightly) because of how good some things are for moon druids at early levels and how quickly the get replaced by moon druids at higher levels.
- When it comes down to it Moon druid's and Non-Moon druid's have different answers when they ask, "If I want to do X what is a good wildshape to change into?". What's good for most druids (aka non-moon druid's) is not something I see referenced much. The short lists should help (they do me) by taking all the options you have at your level and listing some good options. Hopefully the list provokes ideas of things you could wildshape into when your not sure what to do on your turn. You should only need the short list for your level so it should greatly reduce what you have to look through if your not sure and trying to be quick. I put arrows to the right to imply better forms tears so even if your character has not seen the best form for what you want to do maybe you have the second or third choice. I also listed some caveats in parenthesis that might be important to your goal within that train of thought for use. The complete list is good to have because players can always think of new an interesting ways to use things.
So mostly I just hope this is useful to reduce in game panic and perhaps add some variation in wildshape forms.
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.