Wow, there's been some changes. They quadrupled down on druid shapeshifting. I think there's, like, three things in the druid class that don't revolve around shapeshifting. At level 1, you get spellcasting. At level 2, your Channel Nature lets you heal like the cleric's Channel Divinity and summon a day-long familiar. Then nothing else til level 18's Archdruid ability.
Paladin got some quality of life changes - get ready for divine smiting archers and fist brawlers, y'all! - and a few new quirks, like cantrips, every paladin always knows Find Steed at level 5, it feels mostly the same. Just smoothing out some rough spots, feels like.
Epic boons might start feeling epic!
Some spell and action quirks, which seem reasonable at first glance to me!
They've added a ton more feature related to druid shapeshifting but the result is that it is worse than the current version in every single way (except for the 13th level feature that one is good).
At level 2, your Channel Nature lets you heal like the cleric's Channel Divinity and summon a day-long familiar. Then nothing else til level 18's Archdruid ability.
You missed a big change at 13, Alternating Forms, which lets us drop out of and resume our Wild Shape for free at will (provided we're fast enough) and is great for recasting buffs or talking to the party etc.
Also Moon Druid being able to cast abjurations while wild shaped as early as 3rd level is massive!
At level 2, your Channel Nature lets you heal like the cleric's Channel Divinity and summon a day-long familiar. Then nothing else til level 18's Archdruid ability.
You missed a big change at 13, Alternating Forms, which lets us drop out of and resume our Wild Shape for free at will (provided we're fast enough) and is great for recasting buffs or talking to the party etc.
Also Moon Druid being able to cast abjurations while wild shaped as early as 3rd level is massive!
It really isn't there are hardly any abjuration spells on the primal spell list worth casting, you can now talk while in WS which is good I guess. The Alternating Forms is so you can WS to climb through a window, unshape to unlock the door for the rest of the party then reshape to continue exploring without wasting 2 WSs. It's a good feature, but kind of irrelevant at level 13 (are locked doors still a challenge at that point?) It Alternating Forms was a feature at level 6 or lower it would be great, but not at level 13...
i feel that altho there are good parts of the new druid the bad parts out weigh them i like how we now have wildshape templates thats pretty cool and that we can do elemental damage as a moon druid, loosing elemental form is pretty bad but understandable, but apart from the elemental damage our forms no longer do magical damage, equipment now either drops or merges no option to be worn so armour if usable in your form will need to be redonned (im guessing magical tattoos will also be unequipped which is bad). we also dont get to use any class, species or feat features while wildshape so war caster wont work while in wildshape or if you multiclassed into lets say fighter you cant action surge or barbarian wont be able to rage etc. its nice that we get more usages and i get why arch druids no longer have unlimited wildshape did kindda make them almost immortal. with no extra hp and very limited stat boost its hard to say why you would wildshape even as a moon druid and to top it all off we no longer have medium armour proficiency so no more dragon scale mail armours we also loose access to scimitars
At level 2, your Channel Nature lets you heal like the cleric's Channel Divinity and summon a day-long familiar. Then nothing else til level 18's Archdruid ability.
You missed a big change at 13, Alternating Forms, which lets us drop out of and resume our Wild Shape for free at will (provided we're fast enough) and is great for recasting buffs or talking to the party etc.
Also Moon Druid being able to cast abjurations while wild shaped as early as 3rd level is massive!
I... didn't miss it? Right before this, I said, "three things in the druid class that don't revolve around shapeshifting." Alternating forms is another shapeshifting-based ability, as is the one that lets you heal as part of your wild shape action.
I mean, you've got to wonder now what non-Moon druids will look like when a huge chunk of the class is now revolving around Wild Shape in its various forms.
I mean, you've got to wonder now what non-Moon druids will look like when a huge chunk of the class is now revolving around Wild Shape in its various forms.
2014 Druid: No features at all every other level
2024 Druid: Wild Shape-focused features (roughly) every other level
Honestly wild shape just seems bad now. So you transform into a crap form and for what reason so you can't cast spells as a full caster. Before yeah it was some basic utility for non moon druids so I guess its better for the general druid in that sense, but if you use you HP, and its Ac will be 10+wisdom just let them cast spells in the new forms from the get go, it does not need to be a 17th level feature. That made sense back in the day so moon druids would not be insane, now its basically a disguise spell with extra utility for both the moon and normal druid as you level and gain movement modes , let them cast spells from it as the default and redo that level 3 sub class feature.
yh the main changes are for the moon druid and despite more features they still seem worse off the other druids just get boons to their wildshape really
They've definitely nerfed wildshape as it stands by not giving any additional hit-points; this will need to be fixed.
I also don't see the point of having the two other Channel Nature effects at 2nd-level, as this basically makes them a non-feature since they're tied to the same limited resource. That should just be rolled into 1st-level as well. Either that or Wildshape should go back to 2nd-level; I don't see druids mastering shapeshifting the moment they start learning to be a druid, it makes sense for it to not be a 1st-level feature IMO.
The big problem with the updated Druid is that the other Channel Nature features don't scale with Wildshape, so Wildshape is still very much the core feature despite Crawford's claims to want to better support "nature magicians" etc. more. I feel like they should all scale over time, with Find Familiar being cast at a higher level, the healing effect healing more etc. so they're all viable options.
Not sure how best to compensate for the loss of Wildshape HP, except maybe to lower the level at which you get the combined Wildshape and healing effect? With the healing effect scaling more it should still give the Druid the option of a durability boost.
I'm generally positive with the direction they're going for, and paladin definitely needed to be toned down (it should still be a really solid class even with only one smite per turn). Smite spells definitely needed these updates though I noticed some wording tweaks (glimmering smite should suppress Invisible for the duration, otherwise a target can just go Invisible again).
I've no idea what they're going with the wording on the Magic "action"; that needs to be cleaned up.
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Seven of the druid's class features now strictly and solely affect Wild Shape.
If you were one of those druids who played the class despite Wild Shape because you liked doing other things on the druid chassis (Stars, Wildfire), you get to suck one and find a new class.
That is...frustrating.
But hey - somehow, Aura of Protection on the paladin didn't get nerfed! It already didn't stack due to 5e stacking rules (two effects with the same name, the higher magnitude applies), they're just making it crystal clear. Quite possibly the strongest non-spells class feature in all of 5e remained completely untouched. Somehow.
Seven of the druid's class features now strictly and solely affect Wild Shape.
If you were one of those druids who played the class despite Wild Shape because you liked doing other things on the druid chassis (Stars, Wildfire), you get to suck one and find a new class.
The changes are interesting, Divine Smite definitely got it's damage potential nerfed, not the worst change but now Find Steed just looks very overpowered. It's basically an extra normal attack per turn. I think some more of the bonuses to find steed should have been shifted back to Paladin since Cleric now gets this spell, and a free cast doesn't really give it the power to compete, a 5th level paladin find steed vs. a 9th level cleric find steed, obvious which is winning here with over 40 more HP, 4 more hit die, 4 more damage per hit and got flight way earlier (level 7 vs 13).
Sacred Weapon being moved to Bonus Action just makes too much sense, really should have happened sooner for devotion paladin, the smite of protection seems really good, you've now got a bonus action heal that doesn't even need the bonus action, just to land an attack and divine smite. The healing amounts are a little small but given this is a bonus on doing a divine smite (which is significant damage), it's definitely powerful. Smite spells also a lot better now, scaling damage and cast on hit.
Wild shape seems quiet a bit more stable now, before, all the different forms did make things rather... crazy and some forms were just plain broken (Giant Constrictor Snake, I'm looking at you!). Not replacing your HP does have some negative effects for Moon Druid but overall really isn't a big issue for other druid subclasses. Overall wild shape isn't just an RP tool for some subclasses now but serves a specific purpose.
For Moon Druid, I think all it's missing is an increase to Maximum HP and some Temp HP (instead of Current HP) and I think that would actually be preferable to abjuration spells. Give it a bit of the old resilience back, not sure how much HP that should be wisdom modifier*proficiency bonus maybe?
Yes, Wild Shape has been nerfed. But more than crying because he no longer gives you temporary life, I would ask that they give him more options. And don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for the Monster Manual stats to be used again as before. I like the three "blueprints" thing. However, I think it would be nice if within those 3 basic shapes, you were given options to choose from. For example, that you could decide to have a tail attack that has x effect. Or that you could roar to cause fear, or encourage your companions, or whatever. Or other options. I'm not saying you have it all, if not being able to choose one option (maybe two at higher levels), among several options. Especially options that cause status, or help your allies in some way.
Yes, Wild Shape has been nerfed. But more than crying because he no longer gives you temporary life, I would ask that they give him more options. And don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for the Monster Manual stats to be used again as before. I like the three "blueprints" thing. However, I think it would be nice if within those 3 basic shapes, you were given options to choose from. For example, that you could decide to have a tail attack that has x effect. Or that you could roar to cause fear, or encourage your companions, or whatever. Or other options. I'm not saying you have it all, if not being able to choose one option (maybe two at higher levels), among several options. Especially options that cause status, or help your allies in some way.
Yes this. Generic creatures feel like no creature at all. But tiny tailoring makes it better. This design philosophy hurts beasmaster and it hurts druid.
Yeah, I'm really not impressed with the new Druid. I'm struggling to think why I'd even use Wildshape. Like, before L5, you can use Wisdom instead of Strength as your ability modifier for attacking...but you lose spellcasting, armour and so forth. A large perk of wildshaping was to absorb damage, which doesn't happen now. Later on, there's more reason to do it...but I'm much more liking 5e Druids.
Also, I'm concerned by the lack of scaling. After L5, your forms are fixed other than PB. I haven't compared to 5e wildshape forms, but it feels as though it must either be OP at early levels or absolutely pathetic at L20. At least 5e had some scaling.
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It really isn't there are hardly any abjuration spells on the primal spell list worth casting
They moved Healing Word and Cure Wounds to Abjuration, I think that's the main idea. Allowing the Druid, who is most likely going to be the healer unless for some reason you also have a Cleric, to heal without forcing them to break Wildshape. That's probably part of the reason it was moved, and that they chose Abjuration because Evocation (where the spells were before) has many more spells, that obviously you're likely to use more often for obviously other reasons.
For anyone complaining about having few non-Wildshape-related features, remember that the current version in 5e doesn't have many either, and that spellcasting is a pretty big deal, even if it is allegedly only mentioned once at level 1. Druid spells are nothing to make fun of.
Beyond that, I didn't watch the video so perhaps they talked about this matter, whether with the same points I'm about to make or something that disproves them.
Many people are concerned about how Wildshape-oriented the Druid is now, and that makes sense. Maybe you have a different image in your head, maybe you don't like turning into a snake and maybe you just like the Wildfire subclass. Maybe something else. So you're probably asking yourself, what will the other subclasses look like? I imagine, and this is pure speculation, that they're going after something similar to the Barbarian rage. Rather than some feature that is used heavily by one subclass and only situationally by the rest, turn it into a core feature that different subclasses enhance. Hopefully, it won't turn out as the current Barbarian subclasses, most of which differ only by how they deal 3 points of extra damage.
So Moon is obviously battle-oriented, but also (especially from the description), transformation-oriented. That's why we get Swift Transformation and... ah... Alter Self because that's certainly a good spell that actually benefits a character that already can have about 10 different ways to breathe underwater, definitely has no spells better than 1d6+1+STR (and we just love STR on Druid). This feature is there just so you can change your appearance. Thanks. The subclass is otherwise awesome IMO, hope they make the capstone something real.
As for other Subclasses, if they truly go the way I imagine, I guess Land Druids (or something similar, if they keep that at all) will be able to cast more than just Abjuration spells while Wildshaped (perhaps more schools, perhaps all spells and maybe only from a selected expanded list), as well as some of the features they already have. They won't be as battle oriented without some of the benefits of Moon but will allow them to be in Wildshape and do some other cool stuff at the same time. Maybe they'll get a bonus to spellcasting while Wildshaped.
Stars/Wildfire/Shephard/Spores that now use their Wildshape for the features will probably have that feature (maybe in a weaker version, or somehow altered) trigger together with Wildshape, or maybe these will truly be the subclasses for those who really don't want to become a snake. Dreams, I hope, will be either reworked entirely or removed. I like the ability to have my spells not wasted on healing while still making sure my party don't all die, but that's the only useful ability there.
I am a fan that all of these smites can apply on unarmed strikes, not a fan that they can apply to ranged weapon attacks. Also, I find it odd that after opening up Divine Smite and the Smite spells to work with unarmed strikes, Radiant Strikes still only appears to apply to attacks made with weapons. Abjure Foes seems powerful, since you can potentially ruin a large chunk of the enemy's action economy with the Dazed condition even if they make their save. Not sure if theres a balance issue or not, though
Although the damage of the Divine Smite for a pure Paladin seems to have gone down (since it is now limited to once per turn), its potential burst damage for multiclasses may have gotten a huge buff, since there is no longer a spell slot-based cap on the damage that can be done. Also, its a little weird that they removed the stipulation that you can deal more damage against fiends and undead.
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I would posit that R5e Wild Shape, if people are truly seeing it as almost entirely nothing but a spare HP sink, is not a well designed class feature. People like it because they're used to it, not because it's good. The vast majority of legal beast shapes are 100% crotchless-pants useless, and the existence of R5e Wild Shape also severely inhibits monster design because any Beast of appropriate level must also be designed with the fact that it can be a Wild Shape form first and foremost in the developer's brains.
Perhaps the new version isn't there yet, but I'd caution people against clinging too hard to the R5e version.
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The new UA just dropped!
Wow, there's been some changes. They quadrupled down on druid shapeshifting. I think there's, like, three things in the druid class that don't revolve around shapeshifting. At level 1, you get spellcasting. At level 2, your Channel Nature lets you heal like the cleric's Channel Divinity and summon a day-long familiar. Then nothing else til level 18's Archdruid ability.
Paladin got some quality of life changes - get ready for divine smiting archers and fist brawlers, y'all! - and a few new quirks, like cantrips, every paladin always knows Find Steed at level 5, it feels mostly the same. Just smoothing out some rough spots, feels like.
Epic boons might start feeling epic!
Some spell and action quirks, which seem reasonable at first glance to me!
Now to read more in depth!
They've added a ton more feature related to druid shapeshifting but the result is that it is worse than the current version in every single way (except for the 13th level feature that one is good).
Thanks for the heads up!
You missed a big change at 13, Alternating Forms, which lets us drop out of and resume our Wild Shape for free at will (provided we're fast enough) and is great for recasting buffs or talking to the party etc.
Also Moon Druid being able to cast abjurations while wild shaped as early as 3rd level is massive!
It really isn't there are hardly any abjuration spells on the primal spell list worth casting, you can now talk while in WS which is good I guess. The Alternating Forms is so you can WS to climb through a window, unshape to unlock the door for the rest of the party then reshape to continue exploring without wasting 2 WSs. It's a good feature, but kind of irrelevant at level 13 (are locked doors still a challenge at that point?) It Alternating Forms was a feature at level 6 or lower it would be great, but not at level 13...
i feel that altho there are good parts of the new druid the bad parts out weigh them i like how we now have wildshape templates thats pretty cool and that we can do elemental damage as a moon druid, loosing elemental form is pretty bad but understandable, but apart from the elemental damage our forms no longer do magical damage, equipment now either drops or merges no option to be worn so armour if usable in your form will need to be redonned (im guessing magical tattoos will also be unequipped which is bad). we also dont get to use any class, species or feat features while wildshape so war caster wont work while in wildshape or if you multiclassed into lets say fighter you cant action surge or barbarian wont be able to rage etc. its nice that we get more usages and i get why arch druids no longer have unlimited wildshape did kindda make them almost immortal. with no extra hp and very limited stat boost its hard to say why you would wildshape even as a moon druid and to top it all off we no longer have medium armour proficiency so no more dragon scale mail armours we also loose access to scimitars
I... didn't miss it? Right before this, I said, "three things in the druid class that don't revolve around shapeshifting." Alternating forms is another shapeshifting-based ability, as is the one that lets you heal as part of your wild shape action.
I mean, you've got to wonder now what non-Moon druids will look like when a huge chunk of the class is now revolving around Wild Shape in its various forms.
2014 Druid: No features at all every other level
2024 Druid: Wild Shape-focused features (roughly) every other level
Non wildshape druids are no worse off.
Honestly wild shape just seems bad now. So you transform into a crap form and for what reason so you can't cast spells as a full caster. Before yeah it was some basic utility for non moon druids so I guess its better for the general druid in that sense, but if you use you HP, and its Ac will be 10+wisdom just let them cast spells in the new forms from the get go, it does not need to be a 17th level feature. That made sense back in the day so moon druids would not be insane, now its basically a disguise spell with extra utility for both the moon and normal druid as you level and gain movement modes , let them cast spells from it as the default and redo that level 3 sub class feature.
yh the main changes are for the moon druid and despite more features they still seem worse off the other druids just get boons to their wildshape really
They've definitely nerfed wildshape as it stands by not giving any additional hit-points; this will need to be fixed.
I also don't see the point of having the two other Channel Nature effects at 2nd-level, as this basically makes them a non-feature since they're tied to the same limited resource. That should just be rolled into 1st-level as well. Either that or Wildshape should go back to 2nd-level; I don't see druids mastering shapeshifting the moment they start learning to be a druid, it makes sense for it to not be a 1st-level feature IMO.
The big problem with the updated Druid is that the other Channel Nature features don't scale with Wildshape, so Wildshape is still very much the core feature despite Crawford's claims to want to better support "nature magicians" etc. more. I feel like they should all scale over time, with Find Familiar being cast at a higher level, the healing effect healing more etc. so they're all viable options.
Not sure how best to compensate for the loss of Wildshape HP, except maybe to lower the level at which you get the combined Wildshape and healing effect? With the healing effect scaling more it should still give the Druid the option of a durability boost.
I'm generally positive with the direction they're going for, and paladin definitely needed to be toned down (it should still be a really solid class even with only one smite per turn). Smite spells definitely needed these updates though I noticed some wording tweaks (glimmering smite should suppress Invisible for the duration, otherwise a target can just go Invisible again).
I've no idea what they're going with the wording on the Magic "action"; that needs to be cleaned up.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Seven of the druid's class features now strictly and solely affect Wild Shape.
If you were one of those druids who played the class despite Wild Shape because you liked doing other things on the druid chassis (Stars, Wildfire), you get to suck one and find a new class.
That is...frustrating.
But hey - somehow, Aura of Protection on the paladin didn't get nerfed! It already didn't stack due to 5e stacking rules (two effects with the same name, the higher magnitude applies), they're just making it crystal clear. Quite possibly the strongest non-spells class feature in all of 5e remained completely untouched. Somehow.
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Oh, hey, I'm agreeing with Yurei for once! Woot!
The changes are interesting, Divine Smite definitely got it's damage potential nerfed, not the worst change but now Find Steed just looks very overpowered. It's basically an extra normal attack per turn. I think some more of the bonuses to find steed should have been shifted back to Paladin since Cleric now gets this spell, and a free cast doesn't really give it the power to compete, a 5th level paladin find steed vs. a 9th level cleric find steed, obvious which is winning here with over 40 more HP, 4 more hit die, 4 more damage per hit and got flight way earlier (level 7 vs 13).
Sacred Weapon being moved to Bonus Action just makes too much sense, really should have happened sooner for devotion paladin, the smite of protection seems really good, you've now got a bonus action heal that doesn't even need the bonus action, just to land an attack and divine smite. The healing amounts are a little small but given this is a bonus on doing a divine smite (which is significant damage), it's definitely powerful. Smite spells also a lot better now, scaling damage and cast on hit.
Wild shape seems quiet a bit more stable now, before, all the different forms did make things rather... crazy and some forms were just plain broken (Giant Constrictor Snake, I'm looking at you!). Not replacing your HP does have some negative effects for Moon Druid but overall really isn't a big issue for other druid subclasses. Overall wild shape isn't just an RP tool for some subclasses now but serves a specific purpose.
For Moon Druid, I think all it's missing is an increase to Maximum HP and some Temp HP (instead of Current HP) and I think that would actually be preferable to abjuration spells. Give it a bit of the old resilience back, not sure how much HP that should be wisdom modifier*proficiency bonus maybe?
Yes, Wild Shape has been nerfed. But more than crying because he no longer gives you temporary life, I would ask that they give him more options. And don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for the Monster Manual stats to be used again as before. I like the three "blueprints" thing. However, I think it would be nice if within those 3 basic shapes, you were given options to choose from. For example, that you could decide to have a tail attack that has x effect. Or that you could roar to cause fear, or encourage your companions, or whatever. Or other options. I'm not saying you have it all, if not being able to choose one option (maybe two at higher levels), among several options. Especially options that cause status, or help your allies in some way.
Yes this. Generic creatures feel like no creature at all. But tiny tailoring makes it better. This design philosophy hurts beasmaster and it hurts druid.
Yeah, I'm really not impressed with the new Druid. I'm struggling to think why I'd even use Wildshape. Like, before L5, you can use Wisdom instead of Strength as your ability modifier for attacking...but you lose spellcasting, armour and so forth. A large perk of wildshaping was to absorb damage, which doesn't happen now. Later on, there's more reason to do it...but I'm much more liking 5e Druids.
Also, I'm concerned by the lack of scaling. After L5, your forms are fixed other than PB. I haven't compared to 5e wildshape forms, but it feels as though it must either be OP at early levels or absolutely pathetic at L20. At least 5e had some scaling.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
They moved Healing Word and Cure Wounds to Abjuration, I think that's the main idea. Allowing the Druid, who is most likely going to be the healer unless for some reason you also have a Cleric, to heal without forcing them to break Wildshape. That's probably part of the reason it was moved, and that they chose Abjuration because Evocation (where the spells were before) has many more spells, that obviously you're likely to use more often for obviously other reasons.
For anyone complaining about having few non-Wildshape-related features, remember that the current version in 5e doesn't have many either, and that spellcasting is a pretty big deal, even if it is allegedly only mentioned once at level 1. Druid spells are nothing to make fun of.
Beyond that, I didn't watch the video so perhaps they talked about this matter, whether with the same points I'm about to make or something that disproves them.
Many people are concerned about how Wildshape-oriented the Druid is now, and that makes sense. Maybe you have a different image in your head, maybe you don't like turning into a snake and maybe you just like the Wildfire subclass. Maybe something else. So you're probably asking yourself, what will the other subclasses look like? I imagine, and this is pure speculation, that they're going after something similar to the Barbarian rage. Rather than some feature that is used heavily by one subclass and only situationally by the rest, turn it into a core feature that different subclasses enhance. Hopefully, it won't turn out as the current Barbarian subclasses, most of which differ only by how they deal 3 points of extra damage.
So Moon is obviously battle-oriented, but also (especially from the description), transformation-oriented. That's why we get Swift Transformation and... ah... Alter Self because that's certainly a good spell that actually benefits a character that already can have about 10 different ways to breathe underwater, definitely has no spells better than 1d6+1+STR (and we just love STR on Druid). This feature is there just so you can change your appearance. Thanks. The subclass is otherwise awesome IMO, hope they make the capstone something real.
As for other Subclasses, if they truly go the way I imagine, I guess Land Druids (or something similar, if they keep that at all) will be able to cast more than just Abjuration spells while Wildshaped (perhaps more schools, perhaps all spells and maybe only from a selected expanded list), as well as some of the features they already have. They won't be as battle oriented without some of the benefits of Moon but will allow them to be in Wildshape and do some other cool stuff at the same time. Maybe they'll get a bonus to spellcasting while Wildshaped.
Stars/Wildfire/Shephard/Spores that now use their Wildshape for the features will probably have that feature (maybe in a weaker version, or somehow altered) trigger together with Wildshape, or maybe these will truly be the subclasses for those who really don't want to become a snake. Dreams, I hope, will be either reworked entirely or removed. I like the ability to have my spells not wasted on healing while still making sure my party don't all die, but that's the only useful ability there.
Varielky
I am a fan that all of these smites can apply on unarmed strikes, not a fan that they can apply to ranged weapon attacks. Also, I find it odd that after opening up Divine Smite and the Smite spells to work with unarmed strikes, Radiant Strikes still only appears to apply to attacks made with weapons. Abjure Foes seems powerful, since you can potentially ruin a large chunk of the enemy's action economy with the Dazed condition even if they make their save. Not sure if theres a balance issue or not, though
Although the damage of the Divine Smite for a pure Paladin seems to have gone down (since it is now limited to once per turn), its potential burst damage for multiclasses may have gotten a huge buff, since there is no longer a spell slot-based cap on the damage that can be done. Also, its a little weird that they removed the stipulation that you can deal more damage against fiends and undead.
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I would posit that R5e Wild Shape, if people are truly seeing it as almost entirely nothing but a spare HP sink, is not a well designed class feature. People like it because they're used to it, not because it's good. The vast majority of legal beast shapes are 100% crotchless-pants useless, and the existence of R5e Wild Shape also severely inhibits monster design because any Beast of appropriate level must also be designed with the fact that it can be a Wild Shape form first and foremost in the developer's brains.
Perhaps the new version isn't there yet, but I'd caution people against clinging too hard to the R5e version.
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