I’m playing my homebrew Druid subclass that has the following improvements with Wildshape:
The beast regains hit points at the start of its turn equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded up).
The beast has extra maximum hit points equal to twice your druid level.
(6th Level) Extra Attack
(10th Level) You use your spell attack bonus instead of the beast’s attack bonus for any of its attacks, and if the beast has a trait or action that forces a creature to make a saving throw, it uses your spell save DC instead of the beast’s original save DC.
(10th Level) When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you gain a bonus to the damage roll. This bonus equals your Wisdom modifier.
The Druid still has the normal CR progression, but these improvements make it pretty strong. Does anyone have any suggestions for what animals I should use? I’m planning on mostly using a Warhorse and eventually a Giant Eagle/Vulture and sometimes being a mount for the Barbarian.
You should look at the wild shape rework Treantmonk recently did. Slapping things like extra attack onto beast stat blocks isn't really a good way to do wild shape improvements. You'd be better off making a generic wild shape stat block that can bake in different options/upgrades.
Is this for a specific wild-shape focused subclass or something all druids get?
BTW giant poisonous snake with multi-attack at level 6 would be flat out broken if this is not a moon-druid replacement. 2 hits, each doing average 16 damage... probably a bit less overall factoring in saves against the poison, but still... I'm sure the fighters/barbarians/rogues will love being outdamaged in melee by a caster druid with an broken wild shape homebrew.
This is a subclass, and these are the abilities it gets, alongside heavy armor and thrown weapon fighting style. You can spend both Wildshape uses to get the improved Wildshape (shown above). The reasoning for Extra Attack instead of a special Wildshape block is so that it helps both in and out of Wildshape.
Also doesn’t a standard level 6 Greatsword fighter (without GWM) hit for (13.32)x2 at +8 to hit, ignoring resource usage? Seems like the Fighter is still even, and surpasses by using anything, such as a superiority die.
(I do agree that the subclass is probably a little overtuned, but I don’t think damage is the problem)
Fighters get an ASI at level 6, allowing them an additional +2 to a stat. This is the method I used for the example.
Other classes can get a 20 by level 6 by either using Custom Lineage and a Half-Feat (kind of cheese), or by starting with at least a 16, which is easily doable (in groups that roll for stats).
oh sorry yea i forgot the fighter early feat. So that's valid. Still, the giant poisonous snake matches the DPR of that level 6 fighter (assuming 50% save rate vs the poison).
If this is a subclass feature, then sure. My point was if you were just making the base wild shape like this, it would be pretty broken.
Oh yeah this would be horribly broken if it was free lol. It’s got almost the whole subclass dedicated to those improvements, and it takes both uses to get the improved version.
Correct. This is a subclass which intentionally does not grant any increased CR improvements AT ALL. With this subclass, you can spend both uses of Wildshape to get the improvements listed above (with the ones with levels listed being locked behind those levels).
Is there a stat block for an individual rot grub? I can only find the swarm of rot grubs. Remember that you can only wild shape into a (singular) beast.
“A single rot grub has no stat block. Any creature that comes into contact with it must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the rot grub burrows into the creature’s flesh and deals 3 (1d6)piercing damage at the start of each of the host creature’s turns. Applying fire to the wound before the end of the host creature’s next turn deals 1 fire damage to the host and kills the infesting rot grub. After this time, the rot grub is too far under the host creature’s skin to be burned. If a creature infested by one or more rot grubs ends its turn with 0 hit points, it dies as the grubs burrow into its heart and kill it. Any effect that cures disease kills all rot grubs infesting the target. Burning a body kills any rot grubs infesting it.”
The rules are a bit weird, but because there is no stat block it might technically not be a creature, or at least not a beast. A bit of a weird edge-case, that certainly wasn’t intended to be Wildshaped into.
If you're allowed to dip into Wildemount then the Moorbounder is pretty vicious when combined with your version of improved wildshape. 4d4 claw attack without a natural source of multiattack. 18 strength. 70 foot movement speed and large size makes for an excellent mount to when you're teaming up with the Barb.
I respect that. Keeping it in your back pocket for some epic moments has the potential to be very satisfying. Some kind of final form beast to change into. I could even see roleplaying it such that assuming the form of the moorbounder is more taxing for you and so you're simply not able to do it as often. I like when players have powerful options built into their characters but self-limit to heighten the drama.
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I’m playing my homebrew Druid subclass that has the following improvements with Wildshape:
The Druid still has the normal CR progression, but these improvements make it pretty strong. Does anyone have any suggestions for what animals I should use? I’m planning on mostly using a Warhorse and eventually a Giant Eagle/Vulture and sometimes being a mount for the Barbarian.
You should look at the wild shape rework Treantmonk recently did. Slapping things like extra attack onto beast stat blocks isn't really a good way to do wild shape improvements. You'd be better off making a generic wild shape stat block that can bake in different options/upgrades.
Is this for a specific wild-shape focused subclass or something all druids get?
BTW giant poisonous snake with multi-attack at level 6 would be flat out broken if this is not a moon-druid replacement. 2 hits, each doing average 16 damage... probably a bit less overall factoring in saves against the poison, but still... I'm sure the fighters/barbarians/rogues will love being outdamaged in melee by a caster druid with an broken wild shape homebrew.
This is a subclass, and these are the abilities it gets, alongside heavy armor and thrown weapon fighting style. You can spend both Wildshape uses to get the improved Wildshape (shown above). The reasoning for Extra Attack instead of a special Wildshape block is so that it helps both in and out of Wildshape.
Also doesn’t a standard level 6 Greatsword fighter (without GWM) hit for (13.32)x2 at +8 to hit, ignoring resource usage? Seems like the Fighter is still even, and surpasses by using anything, such as a superiority die.
(I do agree that the subclass is probably a little overtuned, but I don’t think damage is the problem)
20 str isn't standard for a level 6.
Fighters get an ASI at level 6, allowing them an additional +2 to a stat. This is the method I used for the example.
Other classes can get a 20 by level 6 by either using Custom Lineage and a Half-Feat (kind of cheese), or by starting with at least a 16, which is easily doable (in groups that roll for stats).
oh sorry yea i forgot the fighter early feat. So that's valid. Still, the giant poisonous snake matches the DPR of that level 6 fighter (assuming 50% save rate vs the poison).
If this is a subclass feature, then sure. My point was if you were just making the base wild shape like this, it would be pretty broken.
Oh yeah this would be horribly broken if it was free lol. It’s got almost the whole subclass dedicated to those improvements, and it takes both uses to get the improved version.
“Normal CR progression” means that this is capped at CR 1 beasts? Because otherwise, this looks oddly out of balance.
Correct. This is a subclass which intentionally does not grant any increased CR improvements AT ALL. With this subclass, you can spend both uses of Wildshape to get the improvements listed above (with the ones with levels listed being locked behind those levels).
It's the same best choice as regular WS. Rot grub 😁
Is there a stat block for an individual rot grub? I can only find the swarm of rot grubs. Remember that you can only wild shape into a (singular) beast.
“A single rot grub has no stat block. Any creature that comes into contact with it must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the rot grub burrows into the creature’s flesh and deals 3 (1d6)piercing damage at the start of each of the host creature’s turns. Applying fire to the wound before the end of the host creature’s next turn deals 1 fire damage to the host and kills the infesting rot grub. After this time, the rot grub is too far under the host creature’s skin to be burned. If a creature infested by one or more rot grubs ends its turn with 0 hit points, it dies as the grubs burrow into its heart and kill it. Any effect that cures disease kills all rot grubs infesting the target. Burning a body kills any rot grubs infesting it.”
The rules are a bit weird, but because there is no stat block it might technically not be a creature, or at least not a beast. A bit of a weird edge-case, that certainly wasn’t intended to be Wildshaped into.
If you're allowed to dip into Wildemount then the Moorbounder is pretty vicious when combined with your version of improved wildshape. 4d4 claw attack without a natural source of multiattack. 18 strength. 70 foot movement speed and large size makes for an excellent mount to when you're teaming up with the Barb.
Wow that’s a powerful beast. I’ll keep it in reserve, but I’m going to avoid using it too often.
We are in homebrew setting, which is set on a bunch of various planets. I’m pretty sure any official beast is fair game.
I respect that. Keeping it in your back pocket for some epic moments has the potential to be very satisfying. Some kind of final form beast to change into. I could even see roleplaying it such that assuming the form of the moorbounder is more taxing for you and so you're simply not able to do it as often. I like when players have powerful options built into their characters but self-limit to heighten the drama.