So, this one is a real gamble for me... I am not a fan nor really knowledgeable on Druids, but I wanted to give it a go anyway, as I feel a Druid subclass would fit perfectly my Blood-centered series of classes.
Please be gentile when giving feedback on this one ^^"
Circle of Blood
Circle Spells
Your knowledge and study in the use of the blood of natural beasts grants you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells.
Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier. Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points. You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Beast Gift
Starting at 6th level, as additional material component in the spell casting, you can use the blood of a natural beast to improve your Divination spells. Should the spell grant a bonus to the target (such as the Guidance spell) the die involved is increased by one category (d4 to d6, d6 to d8 etc); Should the spell have a range or area of effect, that range or area of effect is increased by half; Should the spell not have either of the previous components, you can discuss with the DM how the integration of blood into the cast can affect the spell; You can use this feature as aprt of a ritual casting as well, with the same results. Should the blood be fresh (meaning collected less than 5 minutes prior), the above effects are doubled. The blood is consumed as part of the spell casting.
Blood Taste
Starting at 10th level, you are able to gather information on a place or creature by consuming blood. As a bonus action in your turn you can ingest blood taken from a creature up to a small vial. If the blood is from a natural creature, you gain detailed knowledge of the environment the creature lives in, similar to the effects of the Commune with Nature spell. If the blood is from a non-natural or humanoid creature, you gain knowledge on the creature itself, such as resistences, immunities, vulnerabilities, magical capacities (as in if it can/cannot use magic, not the nature of the magic powers), age and a general idea of the environment it lives in. The blood is consumed as part of the bonus action, and you can use this feature only once per creature.
Sentence of the Wild
Starting at 14th level, if you have tasted the blood of a creature with your Blood Taste feature, you can try to affect the creature it belongs to. As an Action afte using Blood Taste you can have the creature make a CON saving throw (with DC equal to your Spell Save DC) if it is within 2 miles of you. On a failed save, if the creature has less than 200 HP max, the creature drops to 0 HP and is incapacitated. On a successful save, or if the creature has more than 200 HP max, the creature suffers 10d10 necrotic damage. You can use this feature only after using Blood Taste with blood from the target, and only within the turn following the use of Blood Taste. You can use this feature once every long rest.
Okay, just some background on me. I've only just started playing 5e recently, but I've been playing DnD since 2000 with a few years break here and there. Currently playing a moon Druid in a homebrew campaign.
What sort of druid is this class for? It feels very witch-ish and a druid is a great archetype for a witch kind of character, but I don't feel the whole 'blood sacrifice' deal fits DnD druids. Blood sacrifice implies that the blood of a target is the only thing of value, and the rest of the creature can be discarded. Druids in DnD are more about the cycle of life and the balance of nature however twisted their take on that may be. Discarding the rest of the carcass just to get the blood seems wasteful in a way that doesn't jive with the rest of the class.
Spells
Why these spells? They feel a bit disconnected to me. You've got some spells that grant 'insight' and some stuff that staves off death. Is the character supposed class supposed to be a better predator, or better at controlling the flow of life? The rest of the abilities seem to imply they're a better predator. Also what is puncture? I can't seem to find it.
Blood of the Wild
It's an interesting concept. Take a bit of something absorb it, and use it's essence to make you stronger.
Except there's really no good mechanism for advancing the CR of an existing creature. The DMG covers ways to 'create' new monsters, but there's no clear path to advancing existing ones. There's been attempts to analyze the process, but there's so many inconsistencies in each creature that it gets difficult and ultimately pretty subjective. This leaves the burden of what 'double the CR' actually means on the player and DM to decide, which can get pretty dicey especially when a character has access to so many forms. No DM likes to have to do that sort of stuff on the fly, and it's a lot of work to do out of the game.
Then there's adding the PCs proficiency to the form. Technically proficiency is already wrapped up in any wild shape. It's all included in their CR and their attack blocks. Adding the PC's proficiency to everything is an odd mechanic and could end up with some weird numbers. Consider changing this to be 'You gain proficiency in that forms skills and attacks' that would scale better I think.
What is the purpose of this ability in regards to the rest of the listed abilities? I get the 'consuming the essence of animals makes you stronger' but given that the class' other abilities all are about some sort of spell-like ability, this one feels out of place as a physical enhancement. Is this ability meant to increase the class' ability to stalk targets? It seems there could be a better mechanic.
Finally, how much blood? How many charges can a druid get from a bear? Or a cat? Or a spider?
Beast Gift
Looks like this could be interesting, but why is limited to divination? I'm not sure how this class got so tied into divination aside from the spell list, this also may come from a lack of context regarding what sort of character is for.. I think you could present these abilities as a choice for any spell. as a, "Choose one of the following," sort of deal. Also where it says to 'talk with the DM' I'd suggest you drop that entirely. Entirely too much paperwork for the DM. Instead change it to 'casts the spell as if it were one level higher' . Then since the divination restriction has gone away consider putting some sort of use per long rest limit, or some other condition for activation. I think the 5 minute bonus should just be dropped altogether. Since essentially the caster will be getting this every combat.
Blood Taste
Initially I failed to notice this is a bonus action, but when I did realized it's pretty cool. Don't really have any problems with this one.
Sentence of the Wild
Way too powerful. Power Word Kill is a 9th level spell that kills a target under 100 hp. You've introduced a similar feature 3 levels early (granted with a save) with very little restriction regarding activation, since blood should be available every boss fight except in the rare occasion of the target not having blood. Then to top it off, it does a truckload of damage if you fail to predict the target's HP accurately or they successfully save. Way too much overkill. Not sure how to fix this.
Okay, just some background on me. I've only just started playing 5e recently, but I've been playing DnD since 2000 with a few years break here and there. Currently playing a moon Druid in a homebrew campaign.
What sort of druid is this class for? It feels very witch-ish and a druid is a great archetype for a witch kind of character, but I don't feel the whole 'blood sacrifice' deal fits DnD druids. Blood sacrifice implies that the blood of a target is the only thing of value, and the rest of the creature can be discarded. Druids in DnD are more about the cycle of life and the balance of nature however twisted their take on that may be. Discarding the rest of the carcass just to get the blood seems wasteful in a way that doesn't jive with the rest of the class.
Hi ckelley717 o/
Thank you for the feedback and insight from the perspective of a Druid user. I'll try to answer your doubts/feedback as best I can.
The idea is taken from the "dark ages" idea that druids and "woodland mages" used blood to divinate, tell the future and get the power of woodland creatures. If you noticed, innocent part of the subclass I talk about the creature you take the blood from needing to be dead, just that you need some of its blood to use the subclasses features. This ties into the spells I chose to be part of the expanded list.
Spells
Why these spells? They feel a bit disconnected to me. You've got some spells that grant 'insight' and some stuff that staves off death. Is the character supposed class supposed to be a better predator, or better at controlling the flow of life? The rest of the abilities seem to imply they're a better predator. Also what is puncture? I can't seem to find it.
The class is supposed to be a protector of life, able to see into the threads of fate and life through its connection with blood. This is why I selected spells both of Divination and Necromancy aimed at preserving life. Puncture is a Homebrew spell I had designed for another Homebrew subclass I made (School of Blood for the Wizard), it is a Necromancy cantrip that deals 1 point of damage and transfers half a small vial of blood to a suitable recipient on the caster's person (the spell name is also a link to its page).
Blood of the Wild
It's an interesting concept. Take a bit of something absorb it, and use it's essence to make you stronger.
Except there's really no good mechanism for advancing the CR of an existing creature. The DMG covers ways to 'create' new monsters, but there's no clear path to advancing existing ones. There's been attempts to analyze the process, but there's so many inconsistencies in each creature that it gets difficult and ultimately pretty subjective. This leaves the burden of what 'double the CR' actually means on the player and DM to decide, which can get pretty dicey especially when a character has access to so many forms. No DM likes to have to do that sort of stuff on the fly, and it's a lot of work to do out of the game.
Then there's adding the PCs proficiency to the form. Technically proficiency is already wrapped up in any wild shape. It's all included in their CR and their attack blocks. Adding the PC's proficiency to everything is an odd mechanic and could end up with some weird numbers. Consider changing this to be 'You gain proficiency in that forms skills and attacks' that would scale better I think.
What is the purpose of this ability in regards to the rest of the listed abilities? I get the 'consuming the essence of animals makes you stronger' but given that the class' other abilities all are about some sort of spell-like ability, this one feels out of place as a physical enhancement. Is this ability meant to increase the class' ability to stalk targets? It seems there could be a better mechanic.
Finally, how much blood? How many charges can a druid get from a bear? Or a cat? Or a spider?
I see how the increased CR in terms of a creature of the same kind can become problematic, I'll probably take that out and rebalance the rest. The proficiency thing was to give some power improvement on top of the rest for the use of fresh blood, but I see how it could not scale well. I'll probably have to review this feature altogether. The "cost" in blood would be a small vial of blood, as stated in the description. Ideally, a creature has blood to fill a small vial for each 2HP it has, following the mechanic of the Puncture cantrip.
Beast Gift
Looks like this could be interesting, but why is limited to divination? I'm not sure how this class got so tied into divination aside from the spell list, this also may come from a lack of context regarding what sort of character is for.. I think you could present these abilities as a choice for any spell. as a, "Choose one of the following," sort of deal. Also where it says to 'talk with the DM' I'd suggest you drop that entirely. Entirely too much paperwork for the DM. Instead change it to 'casts the spell as if it were one level higher' . Then since the divination restriction has gone away consider putting some sort of use per long rest limit, or some other condition for activation. I think the 5 minute bonus should just be dropped altogether. Since essentially the caster will be getting this every combat.
The Divination limitation was intended in order to convey the idea of the woodland diviner as per the initial idea above. The "consult your DM" should not create too many problems, as most often than not it would be basically giving more precise information than what the character would have gotten otherwise. So, I am a bit reticent in expanding this to any spell, to be honest, mostly to give more focus on the Divination aspect.
Blood Taste
Initially I failed to notice this is a bonus action, but when I did realized it's pretty cool. Don't really have any problems with this one.
Glad to see that :)
Sentence of the Wild
Way too powerful. Power Word Kill is a 9th level spell that kills a target under 100 hp. You've introduced a similar feature 3 levels early (granted with a save) with very little restriction regarding activation, since blood should be available every boss fight except in the rare occasion of the target not having blood. Then to top it off, it does a truckload of damage if you fail to predict the target's HP accurately or they successfully save. Way too much overkill. Not sure how to fix this.
Quivering Palm from the Way of th Open Hand Monk has no spacial limitation (other than being in the same plane of existence), no HP limit and can be used just for 3 Ki points, with no daily upper limit other than the amount of Ki, and is a lvl 17 feature. The amount of damage on a successful save is the same. I think that even with the lower level, the limitation I put in this would still make it balanced. I can probably make it so that the HP threshold is in Max HP instead of current.
I look forward to your impressions and further feedback :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier. Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points. You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Also modified Sentence of the Wild HP limitations to 200 HP max.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Thank you for the feedback and insight from the perspective of a Druid user. I'll try to answer your doubts/feedback as best I can.
The idea is taken from the "dark ages" idea that druids and "woodland mages" used blood to divinate, tell the future and get the power of woodland creatures. If you noticed, innocent part of the subclass I talk about the creature you take the blood from needing to be dead, just that you need some of its blood to use the subclasses features. This ties into the spells I chose to be part of the expanded list.
The class is supposed to be a protector of life, able to see into the threads of fate and life through its connection with blood. This is why I selected spells both of Divination and Necromancy aimed at preserving life. Puncture is a Homebrew spell I had designed for another Homebrew subclass I made (School of Blood for the Wizard), it is a Necromancy cantrip that deals 1 point of damage and transfers half a small vial of blood to a suitable recipient on the caster's person (the spell name is also a link to its page).
Got it. I figured you were going for the proper druid vs the DnD druid, but it's helpful to get a clearer expectation of what your goals are. Also, didn't even think to click the puncture link LOL. I've gotten used to the inter-connectivity of the site that when nothing popped up on mouse hover I didn't even think to click the link. Derp. Now that the puncture mechanic is clear this makes this a much lighter class that than I was expecting.
The Divination limitation was intended in order to convey the idea of the woodland diviner as per the initial idea above. The "consult your DM" should not create too many problems, as most often than not it would be basically giving more precise information than what the character would have gotten otherwise. So, I am a bit reticent in expanding this to any spell, to be honest, mostly to give more focus on the Divination aspect.
I worry about the limitations of tying it only to divination. It makes this feature extremely narrow use. This is a good opportunity to tie the life control aspects and the divination aspects of the sub-class together. Consider allowing benefits to both Divination and spell effects that cause healing, or Necromancy spells that grant HP. That said not all sub-class features are always valuable, but it's often disappointing when they aren't.
As far as I can tell, the only ability like Guidance is simply Guidance, no other Druid Divination spell grants a helper die, so the first feature of this ability only applies to one spell.
Range ability is still okay, but I still think you're being optimistic about the relationship between players and their DM.
Sure the DM is always going to be in control and make final decisions, but directly integrating that into a class feature, the one thing in a world that a player directly controls, is going to create some friction. Even the best of campaigns have some rule contention. With an open ended feature like this If the DM doesn't come up with something creative or powerful, the player is going to feel the DM is somehow nerfing their class. If the DM does come up with something awesome every time the DM is going to start to worry about overpowering the player, or alienate the other players at the table. I think you're better off being very specific here.
Quivering Palm from the Way of th Open Hand Monk has no spacial limitation (other than being in the same plane of existence), no HP limit and can be used just for 3 Ki points, with no daily upper limit other than the amount of Ki, and is a lvl 17 feature. The amount of damage on a successful save is the same. I think that even with the lower level, the limitation I put in this would still make it balanced. I can probably make it so that the HP threshold is in Max HP instead of current.
Okay, did a double-check on Quivering Palm. First of all like you point it's a 17th level ability, that's tier III, you're granting the ability at tier II. Haven't gotten that far but it's my understanding there's a huge difference in game play between the tiers. Perhaps I should have been clearer that it's too powerful for the level.
Also, you're forgetting that quivering palm requires a melee attack to apply. It's only triggering the ability that has no range. So effectively there's two layers of defense against it; AC and a save.
Your new wording seems to have made it more powerful.
Blood of the Wild
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier. Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points. You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Wildshape for caster druids mostly becomes a cool RP ability with some pretty good out of combat flexibility ("Climb checks? Hah, I turn into a spider!"). It's got some cool gimicks that can be used in combat, but they're reactionary and very situational ("I turn into a bear before I make my STR check!"). I really like that you're trying to make it more valuable for a caster druids but I don't think you're quite there yet.
The STR change isn't going to help a caster druid in combat except for the couple instances I pointed out above. Druids can wear medium armor, and yes there's a taboo on metal armor but that can be worked around, so the AC increase from the DEX increase is probably going to be a pretty subjective bonus to AC. CON is always number 2 stat for druids after WIS. So odds are that a druid who uses this ability is only going to get a couple HP for the shift (CON isnt a high stat for most beasts).
Melee attacks don't really help out casters so the Natural Attacks aren't terribly helpful and there some additional nuance here that you should probably be aware of. Natural Attacks and Unarmed Attacks are not the same thing and it's not clear from the MM if Natural Attacks are just STR or can DEX be applied. It can be inferred from the stat block of the beast, but it's not always clear. Since this hybrid form can apparently wear magic items this will probably be a point of contention. Do these attacks also include poison from reptiles? If so, would the player also get the trip from a wolf? What about special attack actions? (I'm guessing granting things like multi-attack is not your intent as it's a special attack action, but I think the poison and trip are special descriptors that are always applied to the creatures Natural Attack so it would be valuable to make it crystal clear what you mean here.)
The duration and restriction to level one spells seems pretty limiting for what the character is getting and effectively make this less and less valuable as the character levels. Eventually they would have to be completely out of spells in order to want to trigger this change and if they're in that situation this isn't going to save their bacon.
I was tempted to suggest including the base creature's HP as temp HP, but a hyena has the potential to add 90 HP (2 wild shapes per battle) at 8th level and that seems OP for 8th level for something with the AC a druid can achieve.
I'd like to suggest some changes because I really like the flavor this is adding, but I"m not sure what benefit you would like to give to the caster. Are you hoping to give the caster a little more melee offensive capability, some more durability, an oh crap I"m out of other options ability, or are you just hoping this will lead to some cool RP stuff?
Thank you for your help ckelly :) It is extremely appreciated! As I said and you might have had confirmation, I am not fully familiar with the druid, so your "insider" views are definitely helping me A LOT!
Thank you for the feedback and insight from the perspective of a Druid user. I'll try to answer your doubts/feedback as best I can.
The idea is taken from the "dark ages" idea that druids and "woodland mages" used blood to divinate, tell the future and get the power of woodland creatures. If you noticed, innocent part of the subclass I talk about the creature you take the blood from needing to be dead, just that you need some of its blood to use the subclasses features. This ties into the spells I chose to be part of the expanded list.
The class is supposed to be a protector of life, able to see into the threads of fate and life through its connection with blood. This is why I selected spells both of Divination and Necromancy aimed at preserving life. Puncture is a Homebrew spell I had designed for another Homebrew subclass I made (School of Blood for the Wizard), it is a Necromancy cantrip that deals 1 point of damage and transfers half a small vial of blood to a suitable recipient on the caster's person (the spell name is also a link to its page).
Got it. I figured you were going for the proper druid vs the DnD druid, but it's helpful to get a clearer expectation of what your goals are. Also, didn't even think to click the puncture link LOL. I've gotten used to the inter-connectivity of the site that when nothing popped up on mouse hover I didn't even think to click the link. Derp. Now that the puncture mechanic is clear this makes this a much lighter class that than I was expecting.
You got the idea right ^^ My bad for not conveying it at first shot, but that's why I always post my crazy stuff here for feedback and comments :) Also, I am SO waiting for tooltipping to be available also for homebrew stuff (BadEye said in last month's livestream that they are looking into ways to make it work, with the biggest problem being "duplicate names").
The Divination limitation was intended in order to convey the idea of the woodland diviner as per the initial idea above. The "consult your DM" should not create too many problems, as most often than not it would be basically giving more precise information than what the character would have gotten otherwise. So, I am a bit reticent in expanding this to any spell, to be honest, mostly to give more focus on the Divination aspect.
I worry about the limitations of tying it only to divination. It makes this feature extremely narrow use. This is a good opportunity to tie the life control aspects and the divination aspects of the sub-class together. Consider allowing benefits to both Divination and spell effects that cause healing, or Necromancy spells that grant HP. That said not all sub-class features are always valuable, but it's often disappointing when they aren't.
As far as I can tell, the only ability like Guidance is simply Guidance, no other Druid Divination spell grants a helper die, so the first feature of this ability only applies to one spell.
Range ability is still okay, but I still think you're being optimistic about the relationship between players and their DM.
Sure the DM is always going to be in control and make final decisions, but directly integrating that into a class feature, the one thing in a world that a player directly controls, is going to create some friction. Even the best of campaigns have some rule contention. With an open ended feature like this If the DM doesn't come up with something creative or powerful, the player is going to feel the DM is somehow nerfing their class. If the DM does come up with something awesome every time the DM is going to start to worry about overpowering the player, or alienate the other players at the table. I think you're better off being very specific here.
I like the idea of extending these powers to healing or life-preserving spells as well. The categories of boost should not need change much, I think. As for the third boost point, I see your concerns.Do you have any suggestion on how to make this more useful and less "up-in-the-air"?
Quivering Palm from the Way of th Open Hand Monk has no spacial limitation (other than being in the same plane of existence), no HP limit and can be used just for 3 Ki points, with no daily upper limit other than the amount of Ki, and is a lvl 17 feature. The amount of damage on a successful save is the same. I think that even with the lower level, the limitation I put in this would still make it balanced. I can probably make it so that the HP threshold is in Max HP instead of current.
Okay, did a double-check on Quivering Palm. First of all like you point it's a 17th level ability, that's tier III, you're granting the ability at tier II. Haven't gotten that far but it's my understanding there's a huge difference in game play between the tiers. Perhaps I should have been clearer that it's too powerful for the level.
Also, you're forgetting that quivering palm requires a melee attack to apply. It's only triggering the ability that has no range. So effectively there's two layers of defense against it; AC and a save.
Your new wording seems to have made it more powerful.
I see your point, but I have a question: how does the new wording make this more powerful? Also: do you think lowering the damage and maybe the DC of the save a bit might make it more balanced? (like damage becoming 10d8 and DC becoming 10+WIS?)
Blood of the Wild
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier. Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points. You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Wildshape for caster druids mostly becomes a cool RP ability with some pretty good out of combat flexibility ("Climb checks? Hah, I turn into a spider!"). It's got some cool gimicks that can be used in combat, but they're reactionary and very situational ("I turn into a bear before I make my STR check!"). I really like that you're trying to make it more valuable for a caster druids but I don't think you're quite there yet.
The STR change isn't going to help a caster druid in combat except for the couple instances I pointed out above. Druids can wear medium armor, and yes there's a taboo on metal armor but that can be worked around, so the AC increase from the DEX increase is probably going to be a pretty subjective bonus to AC. CON is always number 2 stat for druids after WIS. So odds are that a druid who uses this ability is only going to get a couple HP for the shift (CON isnt a high stat for most beasts).
Melee attacks don't really help out casters so the Natural Attacks aren't terribly helpful and there some additional nuance here that you should probably be aware of. Natural Attacks and Unarmed Attacks are not the same thing and it's not clear from the MM if Natural Attacks are just STR or can DEX be applied. It can be inferred from the stat block of the beast, but it's not always clear. Since this hybrid form can apparently wear magic items this will probably be a point of contention. Do these attacks also include poison from reptiles? If so, would the player also get the trip from a wolf? What about special attack actions? (I'm guessing granting things like multi-attack is not your intent as it's a special attack action, but I think the poison and trip are special descriptors that are always applied to the creatures Natural Attack so it would be valuable to make it crystal clear what you mean here.)
The duration and restriction to level one spells seems pretty limiting for what the character is getting and effectively make this less and less valuable as the character levels. Eventually they would have to be completely out of spells in order to want to trigger this change and if they're in that situation this isn't going to save their bacon.
I was tempted to suggest including the base creature's HP as temp HP, but a hyena has the potential to add 90 HP (2 wild shapes per battle) at 8th level and that seems OP for 8th level for something with the AC a druid can achieve.
I'd like to suggest some changes because I really like the flavor this is adding, but I"m not sure what benefit you would like to give to the caster. Are you hoping to give the caster a little more melee offensive capability, some more durability, an oh crap I"m out of other options ability, or are you just hoping this will lead to some cool RP stuff?
Here is where I am in a real pickle... The first idea I got was to improve the wildshape itself, but as you pointed out the idea was not really working/was too confusing. I guess what I'd like to do is boost the Druid's versatility and survivability while still retaining spellcasting, albeit limited... Maybe something along the lines of flat bonuses based on the type of animal? Something like:
Bear Blood: +1 HP per level as temporary hit points, +1 to STR and CON skills and saves, some sort of slam attack;
Serpent Blood: +1 AC, +1 to DEX skills and saves, possibly adding 1d4/1d6 poison damage to attacks and damaging spells (it is still a magical effect, in the end);
Feline Blood: +10 feet speed, climbing speed of 25 feet, +1 to DEX skills and saves, claws/pounce attack;
Flying animal Blood: +10 feet high and long jump, +1 to WIS skills and saves, claws/beak attack;
Swimming animal Blood: natural swimming speed = normal speed, +1 CON skills and save, can breath underwater
Or something along those lines... not sure... help? ^^"
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I like the idea of extending these powers to healing or life-preserving spells as well. The categories of boost should not need change much, I think. As for the third boost point, I see your concerns.Do you have any suggestion on how to make this more useful and less "up-in-the-air"?
I like the idea of an over-heal feature. `Should the spell apply healing, some of the healing that would normally be lost due to the target reaching full HP is instead converted to temporary hit points. These Temporary Hit Points last 1 hour and a target can have an amount up to your druid level. This feature can only be applied to a single target per spell cast, even if the spell would normally allow additional targets'
I think that wording would keep any healing spirit or goodberry shenanigans under control.
I see your point, but I have a question: how does the new wording make this more powerful? Also: do you think lowering the damage and maybe the DC of the save a bit might make it more balanced? (like damage becoming 10d8 and DC becoming 10+WIS?)
If I remember correctly the feature could kill any target who's current HP is at or below 100. The current reading doesn't care about current HP and instead only cares about a to a maximum of 200 HP. I haven't reached that level of play, but isn't there a large chunk of encounters that are going to have main targets with less than 200 maximum HP? That opens up more targets to the save or die effect, right at the second round of combat. That seems a bit too powerful. I think looking at current HP like you originally had is the way to go, but instead of 100 hp drop it down to like 50 or something (that way the players are most of the way through the fight and the save or die effect is far less impactful). Leave the save as you had it and reduce the die to d8s and I think you're good. That's seems pretty devastating, but more in the realm of tolerable I think and it forces the player to choose to either save it for later in the fight, or use it early for raw damage.
Here is where I am in a real pickle... The first idea I got was to improve the wildshape itself, but as you pointed out the idea was not really working/was too confusing. I guess what I'd like to do is boost the Druid's versatility and survivability while still retaining spellcasting, albeit limited... Maybe something along the lines of flat bonuses based on the type of animal? Something like:
Bear Blood: +1 HP per level as temporary hit points, +1 to STR and CON skills and saves, some sort of slam attack;
Serpent Blood: +1 AC, +1 to DEX skills and saves, possibly adding 1d4/1d6 poison damage to attacks and damaging spells (it is still a magical effect, in the end);
Feline Blood: +10 feet speed, climbing speed of 25 feet, +1 to DEX skills and saves, claws/pounce attack;
Flying animal Blood: +10 feet high and long jump, +1 to WIS skills and saves, claws/beak attack;
Swimming animal Blood: natural swimming speed = normal speed, +1 CON skills and save, can breath underwater
Or something along those lines... not sure... help? ^^"
Yeah this one is tough. I like where you seem to be going though. Druids already do a lot of paper work so maybe consider reducing the categories of blood to Mammal, Avian, Reptile, and Fish? Then give it a generic set of benefits for using blood, plus a few unique features based on category. Like all of the blood types give a natural attack and a heroism like temp hp mechanic (we're regenerating here!). Then the player gets something like advantage on CON saves and specific skills when they use the mammal blood. Then the fish blood grants the player the ability to breathe under water, a swim speed, and a slimy coating that makes you difficult to grapple...etc go for the most generic impression for the category of animal, don't get too caught up in the specifics 'donor'.
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So, this one is a real gamble for me... I am not a fan nor really knowledgeable on Druids, but I wanted to give it a go anyway, as I feel a Druid subclass would fit perfectly my Blood-centered series of classes.
Please be gentile when giving feedback on this one ^^"
Circle of Blood
Circle Spells
Your knowledge and study in the use of the blood of natural beasts grants you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells.
Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.
3rd
Puncture, False Life, Gentle Repose
5th
Life Transference, Revivify
7th
Divination, Arcane Eye
9th
Raise Dead, Commune
Blood of the Wild
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier.
Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points.
You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Beast Gift
Starting at 6th level, as additional material component in the spell casting, you can use the blood of a natural beast to improve your Divination spells.
Should the spell grant a bonus to the target (such as the Guidance spell) the die involved is increased by one category (d4 to d6, d6 to d8 etc);
Should the spell have a range or area of effect, that range or area of effect is increased by half;
Should the spell not have either of the previous components, you can discuss with the DM how the integration of blood into the cast can affect the spell;
You can use this feature as aprt of a ritual casting as well, with the same results.
Should the blood be fresh (meaning collected less than 5 minutes prior), the above effects are doubled.
The blood is consumed as part of the spell casting.
Blood Taste
Starting at 10th level, you are able to gather information on a place or creature by consuming blood.
As a bonus action in your turn you can ingest blood taken from a creature up to a small vial.
If the blood is from a natural creature, you gain detailed knowledge of the environment the creature lives in, similar to the effects of the Commune with Nature spell.
If the blood is from a non-natural or humanoid creature, you gain knowledge on the creature itself, such as resistences, immunities, vulnerabilities, magical capacities (as in if it can/cannot use magic, not the nature of the magic powers), age and a general idea of the environment it lives in.
The blood is consumed as part of the bonus action, and you can use this feature only once per creature.
Sentence of the Wild
Starting at 14th level, if you have tasted the blood of a creature with your Blood Taste feature, you can try to affect the creature it belongs to.
As an Action afte using Blood Taste you can have the creature make a CON saving throw (with DC equal to your Spell Save DC) if it is within 2 miles of you.
On a failed save, if the creature has less than 200 HP max, the creature drops to 0 HP and is incapacitated.
On a successful save, or if the creature has more than 200 HP max, the creature suffers 10d10 necrotic damage.
You can use this feature only after using Blood Taste with blood from the target, and only within the turn following the use of Blood Taste.
You can use this feature once every long rest.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Okay, just some background on me. I've only just started playing 5e recently, but I've been playing DnD since 2000 with a few years break here and there. Currently playing a moon Druid in a homebrew campaign.
What sort of druid is this class for? It feels very witch-ish and a druid is a great archetype for a witch kind of character, but I don't feel the whole 'blood sacrifice' deal fits DnD druids. Blood sacrifice implies that the blood of a target is the only thing of value, and the rest of the creature can be discarded. Druids in DnD are more about the cycle of life and the balance of nature however twisted their take on that may be. Discarding the rest of the carcass just to get the blood seems wasteful in a way that doesn't jive with the rest of the class.
Spells
Why these spells? They feel a bit disconnected to me. You've got some spells that grant 'insight' and some stuff that staves off death. Is the character supposed class supposed to be a better predator, or better at controlling the flow of life? The rest of the abilities seem to imply they're a better predator. Also what is puncture? I can't seem to find it.
Blood of the Wild
It's an interesting concept. Take a bit of something absorb it, and use it's essence to make you stronger.
Except there's really no good mechanism for advancing the CR of an existing creature. The DMG covers ways to 'create' new monsters, but there's no clear path to advancing existing ones. There's been attempts to analyze the process, but there's so many inconsistencies in each creature that it gets difficult and ultimately pretty subjective. This leaves the burden of what 'double the CR' actually means on the player and DM to decide, which can get pretty dicey especially when a character has access to so many forms. No DM likes to have to do that sort of stuff on the fly, and it's a lot of work to do out of the game.
Then there's adding the PCs proficiency to the form. Technically proficiency is already wrapped up in any wild shape. It's all included in their CR and their attack blocks. Adding the PC's proficiency to everything is an odd mechanic and could end up with some weird numbers. Consider changing this to be 'You gain proficiency in that forms skills and attacks' that would scale better I think.
What is the purpose of this ability in regards to the rest of the listed abilities? I get the 'consuming the essence of animals makes you stronger' but given that the class' other abilities all are about some sort of spell-like ability, this one feels out of place as a physical enhancement. Is this ability meant to increase the class' ability to stalk targets? It seems there could be a better mechanic.
Finally, how much blood? How many charges can a druid get from a bear? Or a cat? Or a spider?
Beast Gift
Looks like this could be interesting, but why is limited to divination? I'm not sure how this class got so tied into divination aside from the spell list, this also may come from a lack of context regarding what sort of character is for.. I think you could present these abilities as a choice for any spell. as a, "Choose one of the following," sort of deal. Also where it says to 'talk with the DM' I'd suggest you drop that entirely. Entirely too much paperwork for the DM. Instead change it to 'casts the spell as if it were one level higher' . Then since the divination restriction has gone away consider putting some sort of use per long rest limit, or some other condition for activation. I think the 5 minute bonus should just be dropped altogether. Since essentially the caster will be getting this every combat.
Blood Taste
Initially I failed to notice this is a bonus action, but when I did realized it's pretty cool. Don't really have any problems with this one.
Sentence of the Wild
Way too powerful. Power Word Kill is a 9th level spell that kills a target under 100 hp. You've introduced a similar feature 3 levels early (granted with a save) with very little restriction regarding activation, since blood should be available every boss fight except in the rare occasion of the target not having blood. Then to top it off, it does a truckload of damage if you fail to predict the target's HP accurately or they successfully save. Way too much overkill. Not sure how to fix this.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Changed Blood of the Wild to:
Blood of the Wild
Starting at 2nd level, you can use the blood of natural creatures to enhance yourself. As bonus action in your turn, if you have access to a small vial of blood from a natural creature (same limitations as your Wildshape form), you can get on the physical characteristics of the creature, as an hybrid form between you and the creature, for a number of turns equal to your WIS modifier.
Your STR, DEX and CON become the same as the creature you used blood of if they are higher than yours, and you gain access to their natural attacks and senses. In this form, you can cast spells, but only up to level 1 spells. The HP increase deriving from a possibly higher CON score count as Temporary Hit points.
You spend one use of your Wildshape to use this feature.The blood is consumed as part of the activation.
Also modified Sentence of the Wild HP limitations to 200 HP max.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Also, you're forgetting that quivering palm requires a melee attack to apply. It's only triggering the ability that has no range. So effectively there's two layers of defense against it; AC and a save.
The duration and restriction to level one spells seems pretty limiting for what the character is getting and effectively make this less and less valuable as the character levels. Eventually they would have to be completely out of spells in order to want to trigger this change and if they're in that situation this isn't going to save their bacon.
I'd like to suggest some changes because I really like the flavor this is adding, but I"m not sure what benefit you would like to give to the caster. Are you hoping to give the caster a little more melee offensive capability, some more durability, an oh crap I"m out of other options ability, or are you just hoping this will lead to some cool RP stuff?
Thank you for your help ckelly :) It is extremely appreciated!
As I said and you might have had confirmation, I am not fully familiar with the druid, so your "insider" views are definitely helping me A LOT!
My bad for not conveying it at first shot, but that's why I always post my crazy stuff here for feedback and comments :) Also, I am SO waiting for tooltipping to be available also for homebrew stuff (BadEye said in last month's livestream that they are looking into ways to make it work, with the biggest problem being "duplicate names").
As for the third boost point, I see your concerns.Do you have any suggestion on how to make this more useful and less "up-in-the-air"?
I see your point, but I have a question: how does the new wording make this more powerful?
Also: do you think lowering the damage and maybe the DC of the save a bit might make it more balanced? (like damage becoming 10d8 and DC becoming 10+WIS?)
Here is where I am in a real pickle... The first idea I got was to improve the wildshape itself, but as you pointed out the idea was not really working/was too confusing.
I guess what I'd like to do is boost the Druid's versatility and survivability while still retaining spellcasting, albeit limited...
Maybe something along the lines of flat bonuses based on the type of animal?
Something like:
Or something along those lines... not sure... help? ^^"
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I like the idea of an over-heal feature.
`Should the spell apply healing, some of the healing that would normally be lost due to the target reaching full HP is instead converted to temporary hit points. These Temporary Hit Points last 1 hour and a target can have an amount up to your druid level. This feature can only be applied to a single target per spell cast, even if the spell would normally allow additional targets'
I think that wording would keep any healing spirit or goodberry shenanigans under control.
If I remember correctly the feature could kill any target who's current HP is at or below 100. The current reading doesn't care about current HP and instead only cares about a to a maximum of 200 HP. I haven't reached that level of play, but isn't there a large chunk of encounters that are going to have main targets with less than 200 maximum HP? That opens up more targets to the save or die effect, right at the second round of combat. That seems a bit too powerful. I think looking at current HP like you originally had is the way to go, but instead of 100 hp drop it down to like 50 or something (that way the players are most of the way through the fight and the save or die effect is far less impactful). Leave the save as you had it and reduce the die to d8s and I think you're good. That's seems pretty devastating, but more in the realm of tolerable I think and it forces the player to choose to either save it for later in the fight, or use it early for raw damage.
Yeah this one is tough. I like where you seem to be going though. Druids already do a lot of paper work so maybe consider reducing the categories of blood to Mammal, Avian, Reptile, and Fish? Then give it a generic set of benefits for using blood, plus a few unique features based on category. Like all of the blood types give a natural attack and a heroism like temp hp mechanic (we're regenerating here!). Then the player gets something like advantage on CON saves and specific skills when they use the mammal blood. Then the fish blood grants the player the ability to breathe under water, a swim speed, and a slimy coating that makes you difficult to grapple...etc go for the most generic impression for the category of animal, don't get too caught up in the specifics 'donor'.