2024 Druids

In 2014 the Circle of the Moon wildshape beast forms generally started dropping behind other classes from about 5th level. Once of the reasons for this is that beast forms had a set attack number and thus while other characters at 5th level got a bump to their attacks (due to PB increase) the beast form did not. You needed to get more Druid levels and get better beast forms. So while other classes scaled their attacks by character level, beasts did so by druid level. The problem was compounded by the fast that other classes could take ASI to increase their attacks but druids in beast for could not (since the physical stats were replaced).

I was under the impression that 2024 was going to address this and someone had mentioned that they had. However, when I look at the 2024 wild shape ability it seems to be worse than the 2014 version.

Previously the druid got the HP of the beast as effectively extra HP. A 2nd level CoM druid turning into a Brown Bear got an extra 34 hit points. With 2 wild shapes per Short Rest, that is essentially 68 more hit points per Short Rest. That is huge for a 2nd level character. Now that is replaced with only temp hit points equal to the druid level. So that would be 2 temp hit points per wild shape (since the druid keeps his/her hit points).

Previously, you got 2 wild shapes per Short Rest. Now you only regain 1 wild shape after a Short Rest.

Yes, there is the AC = 13+WIS feature that was added. Which can increase AC for some beasts.

However, it looks like neither the PB issues not the ASI issue has been addressed in 2024.

Am I missing something?

The attack bonus thing still hasn't really been addressed, no.

The original Unearthed Arcana version of the 2024 Druid used a radically different approach where instead of using existing beast stat blocks, you used one of three generic stat blocks (terrestrial, aquatic, and flying) with dynamic stats based on your own stats — basically the way the 5.5e Beast Master Ranger stat blocks work. These stat blocks used your spell attack modifier for their attacks, which solved that problem nicely. For whatever reason, they backed off of that change in the published version (probably because there was a lot of backlash against any big changes).

That style of stat block did appear again in the "Villainous Options" Unearthed Arcana where it's how the Circle of the Titan subclass works, which gives me some hope that they've realized that that's a much more sensible way for this to work and they might change it someday.

The thing to keep in mind with the HP change is that while you don't get a huge pool of extra HP, you're also no longer knocked out of Wild Shape when those extra HP are gone. This plus the improved AC means that your durability is no longer really based on the beast form's stats. Your HP and (until you get to a very high level) AC are always the same no matter which beast form you choose. (Also worth pointing out that Moon Druids get triple the temp HP that other Druids do.)

The problem was that the first pass on wild shape in the 2024 playtest used absolutely garbage templates, which everyone hated, so they gave up on the concept.