After watching the D&D movie and having a few conversations about the druid character there, it was brought up that she doesn't cast a single spell during the movie, and seems to focus entirely on shapeshifting (of course, she's also shapeshifting into a monstrosity, which wild shape/druids can't do, but we'll let that slide).
After thinking about this, I was curious about trying to come up with a homebrew subclass that actually sacrifices spellcasting ability in favor of focusing entirely on wild shape. I'm wanting people's opinions and suggestions on this.
A few things that I've come up with so far to start:
It'd have to have some of the same passive bonuses as Moon druid, including wild shape becoming a bonus action, and higher combat rating allowance when using wild shape.
I'm thinking you'd still have your spell slots, but instead of using them to cast spells the spell slots could function as additional wild shape charges.
Using spell slots above 1st level to wild shape should have some kind of benefit, either allowing a higher CR form, or somehow improving whatever form you take (Maybe each level above 1st adds a +1 modifier to all stats while shifted, or increase the duration of the wild shape with higher level slots?)
It'd probably also have to have Moon druid's ability to self-heal using spell slots.
I would say this subclass should have an innate/passive form of speak to animals, active at all times.
Perhaps the ability to wild shape directly from one form to another (I'm actually not sure if this is already allowed, tbh).
Unsure whether or not cantrips should still be allowed, but probably not since the idea is to make a druid that doesn't use "spells" in the traditional sense at all, and is purely a beast-form character.
Possibly some form of defensive passive like unarmored defense that also applies while shapeshifted, so that gear isn't as much of an issue.
The concept is super cool, but doesn't work due to some problems that you aren't really capable of fixing as they are from the base class.
1. What happens to any spells the druid already knows? How can they just lose the ability to cast spells when they've been doing it just fine before? That creates too many narrative and gameplay complications to be effective or enticing to play.
2. It would make moon druid feel redundant, which is not good for 2 reasons. The first being that every subclass should have its own niche, and creating another subclass that fills that purpose can leave a salty taste in peoples mouths. The second is that it would be better at wildshape than the moon druid, as it leans on it exclusively and would have more features to help it. Since moon druid is already crazy powerful, this subclass would be crazy broken, and be a ridiculous tank that pumps out damage all the time. The ability to heal back what is effectively temp hp that is constantly in use makes damage a joke for this subclass.
Overall it'd be so cool, but with the way wildshape works and the druid class works as a whole, it isn't feasible. Making it more distinct to the moon druid is necessary to not just make a moon druid v2 but more powerful, and getting rid of spells has some weird implications narratively and gameplay wise.
I think utilising the monstrosity wildshape could be cool instead, maybe making it the sixth level feature, then having the ability to expend spell spots to pump up ability scores in wildshape would be cool as a 2nd level ability. The level of spell spot would increase the scores (so a 1st level spell would increase 1 ability score by 1, a second level spell slot would increase 2 scores by 1 or 1 score by 2 would probably be how it works). Naming it the circle of mutation/adaption would make sense, and have a cool niche in the druid class.
Just my ideas, sorry for the long post.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'd say this idea works, but it warps the base class to a point in which I think WOTC would be hesitant to pull it off. My take is instead of no spells, it would be confined to a more restricted spell list with more martially focused spells to enhance wild shape combat. Maybe something similar to paladin smite could be a main subclass gimmick. --------------------------------------
I think Bramblefoot Druid has some good concerns however, and there's a lot of hoops needed to go through, but the ideas I'm listing under the quote could be potential fixes
The concept is super cool, but doesn't work due to some problems that you aren't really capable of fixing as they are from the base class.
1. What happens to any spells the druid already knows? How can they just lose the ability to cast spells when they've been doing it just fine before? That creates too many narrative and gameplay complications to be effective or enticing to play.
2. It would make moon druid feel redundant, which is not good for 2 reasons. The first being that every subclass should have its own niche, and creating another subclass that fills that purpose can leave a salty taste in peoples mouths. The second is that it would be better at wildshape than the moon druid, as it leans on it exclusively and would have more features to help it. Since moon druid is already crazy powerful, this subclass would be crazy broken, and be a ridiculous tank that pumps out damage all the time. The ability to heal back what is effectively temp hp that is constantly in use makes damage a joke for this subclass.
Overall it'd be so cool, but with the way wildshape works and the druid class works as a whole, it isn't feasible. Making it more distinct to the moon druid is necessary to not just make a moon druid v2 but more powerful, and getting rid of spells has some weird implications narratively and gameplay wise.
I think utilising the monstrosity wildshape could be cool instead, maybe making it the sixth level feature, then having the ability to expend spell spots to pump up ability scores in wildshape would be cool as a 2nd level ability. The level of spell spot would increase the scores (so a 1st level spell would increase 1 ability score by 1, a second level spell slot would increase 2 scores by 1 or 1 score by 2 would probably be how it works). Naming it the circle of mutation/adaption would make sense, and have a cool niche in the druid class.
Just my ideas, sorry for the long post.
1. To address the spells, the subclass wouldn't erase the spells the druid learns at 1st level. Druid gets subclasses at 2nd level, so from 2nd level forward, the spells learnt would be restricted but you could learn more spells still. This gives the new wild shape focused druid some magic while nerfing the spell casting enough to significantly buff wild shape
2. To address moon druid, just have this subclass outright be the new moon druid. Most moon druid players I've seen only use spells for out of combat or on the 1st round of combat to cast a concentration spell before wild shaping. Also, to fix the "overpoweredness" of moon druid, we just need to fix the scaling a bit. Moon druid is only OP at early levels (2-4) and at level 20. Just fix the low levels and you're pretty much good.
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After watching the D&D movie and having a few conversations about the druid character there, it was brought up that she doesn't cast a single spell during the movie, and seems to focus entirely on shapeshifting (of course, she's also shapeshifting into a monstrosity, which wild shape/druids can't do, but we'll let that slide).
After thinking about this, I was curious about trying to come up with a homebrew subclass that actually sacrifices spellcasting ability in favor of focusing entirely on wild shape. I'm wanting people's opinions and suggestions on this.
A few things that I've come up with so far to start:
Any input?
The concept is super cool, but doesn't work due to some problems that you aren't really capable of fixing as they are from the base class.
1. What happens to any spells the druid already knows? How can they just lose the ability to cast spells when they've been doing it just fine before? That creates too many narrative and gameplay complications to be effective or enticing to play.
2. It would make moon druid feel redundant, which is not good for 2 reasons. The first being that every subclass should have its own niche, and creating another subclass that fills that purpose can leave a salty taste in peoples mouths. The second is that it would be better at wildshape than the moon druid, as it leans on it exclusively and would have more features to help it. Since moon druid is already crazy powerful, this subclass would be crazy broken, and be a ridiculous tank that pumps out damage all the time. The ability to heal back what is effectively temp hp that is constantly in use makes damage a joke for this subclass.
Overall it'd be so cool, but with the way wildshape works and the druid class works as a whole, it isn't feasible. Making it more distinct to the moon druid is necessary to not just make a moon druid v2 but more powerful, and getting rid of spells has some weird implications narratively and gameplay wise.
I think utilising the monstrosity wildshape could be cool instead, maybe making it the sixth level feature, then having the ability to expend spell spots to pump up ability scores in wildshape would be cool as a 2nd level ability. The level of spell spot would increase the scores (so a 1st level spell would increase 1 ability score by 1, a second level spell slot would increase 2 scores by 1 or 1 score by 2 would probably be how it works). Naming it the circle of mutation/adaption would make sense, and have a cool niche in the druid class.
Just my ideas, sorry for the long post.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
I'd say this idea works, but it warps the base class to a point in which I think WOTC would be hesitant to pull it off.
My take is instead of no spells, it would be confined to a more restricted spell list with more martially focused spells to enhance wild shape combat. Maybe something similar to paladin smite could be a main subclass gimmick.
--------------------------------------
I think Bramblefoot Druid has some good concerns however, and there's a lot of hoops needed to go through, but the ideas I'm listing under the quote could be potential fixes
1. To address the spells, the subclass wouldn't erase the spells the druid learns at 1st level. Druid gets subclasses at 2nd level, so from 2nd level forward, the spells learnt would be restricted but you could learn more spells still. This gives the new wild shape focused druid some magic while nerfing the spell casting enough to significantly buff wild shape
2. To address moon druid, just have this subclass outright be the new moon druid. Most moon druid players I've seen only use spells for out of combat or on the 1st round of combat to cast a concentration spell before wild shaping. Also, to fix the "overpoweredness" of moon druid, we just need to fix the scaling a bit. Moon druid is only OP at early levels (2-4) and at level 20. Just fix the low levels and you're pretty much good.