At this point I don't think the base setting is relevant or even near the most played setting.
I think while moon druid itself is popular, it isn't that much so compared to all the other druid subclasses together.
The 2024 rules make a Quetzel less appealing.
Majority of tables likely only use or have access to the monster manual.
And more importantly it is always a bad idea to assume that your PCs have something, because no matter how essentially you think it is, they probably don't have it.
TBH, I kind of disagree. If you design encounters such that they can always be solved without needing any specific features or abilities it makes it so that character design is irrelevant at which point why even have classes and feats etc...? Encounters should have multiple possible solutions so that there are many possible features or abilities that could be used to solve them so that it is pretty likely someone in the party has a solution, but they should need someone to use some ability derived from their class.
Hence why I keep saying that escaping / fighting in a falling tower is a really fun and interesting encounter because there are lots of possible solutions / lots of ways different character abilities can contribute to solving the problem, but not so simple or hand-hold-y that the players don't need to think or know what their characters can/can't do. Some more examples:
- use Stone Shape / Wall of Stone / Fabricate to make a hand-glider type device to slow your descent - use Levitate / Featherfall to catch you before you hit the ground - use Gust of Wind / Thunderwave to blast yourselves away from the crumbling falling tower - use a flying spell/spell effect - Fly, Draconic Transformation, Polymorph, Bigby's Hand, Summon Beast - use a wall spell (wall of stone, wall of force) to create a ramp to catch your fall - use Rage / Polymorph / Wild Shape / Aid / Stoneskin to buffer your hit points to survive the fall. - use teleportation magic to teleport to the surface without falling - use Malestrom / Wall of Wind / Summon Elemental/Ghost / Control Water / Plant Growth to create a softer landing for yourselves - use muscles / weapons / Shatter to break apart the stone debris falling towards you - use muscles to grab hold of weaker allies to protect them - use Dust Devil / Whirlwind to create a tornado that catches you / the party - use Web to create a net to catch people.
So what happens when no player has any of those things?
A group of 4pcs it's entirely likely they either don't have the solution you proposed or alternatively the solution is so out of box/DM specific that it may never occur to them to even try it.
Show me an actual level 10 party that has none of those things. Because I've been playing on a West Marches server for years and every random grouping of level 10+ characters has at least one of them, often more than one of them. If they've seriously make so defective a party that at Level 10 they can't manage a simply challenge like not falling to their deaths - which comes up all the time in D&D BTW - then let them TPK.
D&D is about creativity, role playing, and being able to do things not listed in the rules. If you want to push buttons to have the predetermined outcome occur play a videogame.
At this point I don't think the base setting is relevant or even near the most played setting.
I think while moon druid itself is popular, it isn't that much so compared to all the other druid subclasses together.
The 2024 rules make a Quetzel less appealing.
Majority of tables likely only use or have access to the monster manual.
And more importantly it is always a bad idea to assume that your PCs have something, because no matter how essentially you think it is, they probably don't have it.
TBH, I kind of disagree. If you design encounters such that they can always be solved without needing any specific features or abilities it makes it so that character design is irrelevant at which point why even have classes and feats etc...? Encounters should have multiple possible solutions so that there are many possible features or abilities that could be used to solve them so that it is pretty likely someone in the party has a solution, but they should need someone to use some ability derived from their class.
Hence why I keep saying that escaping / fighting in a falling tower is a really fun and interesting encounter because there are lots of possible solutions / lots of ways different character abilities can contribute to solving the problem, but not so simple or hand-hold-y that the players don't need to think or know what their characters can/can't do. Some more examples:
- use Stone Shape / Wall of Stone / Fabricate to make a hand-glider type device to slow your descent
- use Levitate / Featherfall to catch you before you hit the ground
- use Gust of Wind / Thunderwave to blast yourselves away from the crumbling falling tower
- use a flying spell/spell effect - Fly, Draconic Transformation, Polymorph, Bigby's Hand, Summon Beast
- use a wall spell (wall of stone, wall of force) to create a ramp to catch your fall
- use Rage / Polymorph / Wild Shape / Aid / Stoneskin to buffer your hit points to survive the fall.
- use teleportation magic to teleport to the surface without falling
- use Malestrom / Wall of Wind / Summon Elemental/Ghost / Control Water / Plant Growth to create a softer landing for yourselves
- use muscles / weapons / Shatter to break apart the stone debris falling towards you
- use muscles to grab hold of weaker allies to protect them
- use Dust Devil / Whirlwind to create a tornado that catches you / the party
- use Web to create a net to catch people.
So what happens when no player has any of those things?
A group of 4pcs it's entirely likely they either don't have the solution you proposed or alternatively the solution is so out of box/DM specific that it may never occur to them to even try it.
Show me an actual level 10 party that has none of those things. Because I've been playing on a West Marches server for years and every random grouping of level 10+ characters has at least one of them, often more than one of them. If they've seriously make so defective a party that at Level 10 they can't manage a simply challenge like not falling to their deaths - which comes up all the time in D&D BTW - then let them TPK.
D&D is about creativity, role playing, and being able to do things not listed in the rules. If you want to push buttons to have the predetermined outcome occur play a videogame.