I am considering tweaking the Wild Shape Feature for Druids, but I want to make sure I'm not "breaking" anything by doing so. The House Rule would read as follows:
Fluid Wild Shape
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of any beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Your druid level determines the beasts you can transform into, as shown in the Beast Shapes table. At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed.
Wild Shape remains active for a number of hours equal to half your druid level (rounded down). You then revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You can fluidly change to any form known (including your normal form) by using a bonus action on your turn. If you take damage from any source, Wild Shape instantly becomes static and you can only revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You automatically revert to your normal form if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.
The Idea is to allow my players plenty of fun opportunity to change forms during role playing (as seen in the D&D Movie) But also protect the balance needed in combat situations where such a feature could (and would) be abused. By treating Wild shape more like an enchantment with a duration I'm hoping I'm not introducing anything into my game that will create an unhealthy imbalance.
This was very cool in the movie and could be a lot of fun, but I could also see it becoming very complicated. All these forms have different hp - how do you track it as you shift from one to another?
Players will immediately use it in ways that circumvent the rules. Grappled as a bear? Just turn into a mouse. Restrained in ice as an owl? Turn into a spider. These shouldn't actually change the situation, but players will want them to.
Swapping back and forth to human form to cast spells without burning through WS uses also seems quite strong. All in all it's quite a buff.
The easy balance here is that you always use your own hit points in the form. This would change the moon druid from a super tanky character to more of a hit-and-run type character constantly swapping between shapes.
I did consider this and played with the idea. It is the simplest and most straight forward way to do it, but I felt that it really interfered with the design of the Moon Druid as a whole.
The modification that I am considering would apply to all druids and in all honesty, I think Moon Druids would benefit the least from this change, since they are most often changing into a form with the INTENT on taking damage, or at least entering into melee combat. Most (non Moon) druids would almost never use wild shape in combat, and so not really be at risk of taking damage.
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I am considering tweaking the Wild Shape Feature for Druids, but I want to make sure I'm not "breaking" anything by doing so. The House Rule would read as follows:
Fluid Wild Shape
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of any beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Your druid level determines the beasts you can transform into, as shown in the Beast Shapes table. At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed.
Wild Shape remains active for a number of hours equal to half your druid level (rounded down). You then revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You can fluidly change to any form known (including your normal form) by using a bonus action on your turn. If you take damage from any source, Wild Shape instantly becomes static and you can only revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You automatically revert to your normal form if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.
The Idea is to allow my players plenty of fun opportunity to change forms during role playing (as seen in the D&D Movie) But also protect the balance needed in combat situations where such a feature could (and would) be abused. By treating Wild shape more like an enchantment with a duration I'm hoping I'm not introducing anything into my game that will create an unhealthy imbalance.
Thoughts?
This was very cool in the movie and could be a lot of fun, but I could also see it becoming very complicated. All these forms have different hp - how do you track it as you shift from one to another?
Players will immediately use it in ways that circumvent the rules. Grappled as a bear? Just turn into a mouse. Restrained in ice as an owl? Turn into a spider. These shouldn't actually change the situation, but players will want them to.
Swapping back and forth to human form to cast spells without burning through WS uses also seems quite strong. All in all it's quite a buff.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The easy balance here is that you always use your own hit points in the form. This would change the moon druid from a super tanky character to more of a hit-and-run type character constantly swapping between shapes.
I did consider this and played with the idea. It is the simplest and most straight forward way to do it, but I felt that it really interfered with the design of the Moon Druid as a whole.
The modification that I am considering would apply to all druids and in all honesty, I think Moon Druids would benefit the least from this change, since they are most often changing into a form with the INTENT on taking damage, or at least entering into melee combat. Most (non Moon) druids would almost never use wild shape in combat, and so not really be at risk of taking damage.