I haven't been through the whole thread yet but I haven't seen anyone mention the wildshape nerf to scouting and infiltration. A major advantage of wildshape was the ability to transform into a spider or a mouse to pass unnoticed. Now you're stuck with a generic option and its not until level 11 that you can shift into a tiny creature, and only for 10 minutes at that.
For non moon druids wild shape was almost entirely utility/scouting. The new feature removes almost all utility and is so bad at fighting its clearly not meant for fighting. I have no idea what they think the intended role/use of it is. My only guess is they felt wild shape scouting stepped on the toes of the rogues too much as they ended up better scouts than a character built around scouting. And given how they did nothing to improve the rogue in that regard, or in any way at all I guess they wanted to nerf the scouting of other classes.
For non moon druids wild shape was almost entirely utility/scouting. The new feature removes almost all utility and is so bad at fighting its clearly not meant for fighting.
It's sort of better at fighting than a non moon druid; your level 5 damage output is clearly superior to the CR 1/2 forms that other types of druid would have access to at that level. Of course, if you weren't a moon druid you didn't try to use wild shape for combat.
For non moon druids wild shape was almost entirely utility/scouting. The new feature removes almost all utility and is so bad at fighting its clearly not meant for fighting.
It's sort of better at fighting than a non moon druid; your level 5 damage output is clearly superior to the CR 1/2 forms that other types of druid would have access to at that level. Of course, if you weren't a moon druid you didn't try to use wild shape for combat.
Yeah its better than the non moon druids wild shape combat forms but I am not sure its better than just staying in your humanoid form and casting cantrips. A bit better damage since your stat gets added to the d8 but its not at range and you will have a worse AC. Add in giving up casting leveled spells and it just does not seem like a valid combat choice.
I think that the 3 templates is a good idea. And actually, it's much better than having to search through a bunch of stat blocks for the right beast. It is a much more practical and cleaner design solution. Someone argued that before wildshape was "like a toolbox". Well, it still is. Do you want to dig a tunnel? Shape yourself like a mole. Do you want to enter through a small hole? Give yourself the shape of a snake. Etc... You give yourself the shape you want, then you can have different applications.
However, the problem is that the 3 templates give you practically nothing in combat. They are bad for combat indeed. In my opinion they should offer you a list of features that you could choose from. Different attack, defensive options, and options to affect your opponents with statuses or help your allies. And then every time you transform, you choose one of those options (even two at higher levels).
The problem is as designed it does not have any tool box features, you can't tunnel, it wont have blind sight, or tremor sense you can't be tiny until level 11, etc. I guess if a DM lets you make a small size snake shape that can fit through rat holes or something that might be useful, but by the rules its still small and at best would be squeezing into holes like that and relies on a DM call. I get the logic its small due to length but is still snake shaped, but its still entirely in DM call territory as you are a small creature and what a small creature can fit through is defined.
Edit to add, I am not opposed to the 3 template idea, just the execution. I do think it is likely better for the game than a druid rolling with the monster manual open to beasts.
Giant lists of literal Build-A-Bear traits seem unlikely, and would provoke just as much nerdrage as the "over-generic" templates do. Remember - this is a community that has spent three years now being evil to itself over species ASIs going away, and one of the prime complaints is "THEY'LL JUST TURN EVERYTHING INTO A RANDOM GRAB BAG AND LET PEOPLE MAKE WHATEVER UNHOLY ABOMINATION THEY LIKE AND I WON'T HAVE IT!" I don't foresee Build-A-Bear becoming a thing for druids.
And yet all casters are now preparation casters (Build-a-Bear spells), and there are tons of build-a-bear features everywhere in the game: Warlock Invocations, Fighting Styles, Cleric Order, Battlemaster maneuvers, Sorcerer Metamagic, Magic Initiate. WS was always a more build-a-bear feature, you just had to look up the right statblock to get the combo of things you wanted.
I think DPS wise the new moon druid came on top overall. But it just lack sooo much survivability compared to the old druid, that is just not even funny. Also it become much muuuuch more boring, except for the elemental damage that you can chose and the change in and out of wild form early.
What I would do to fix Wild Shape:
Grant 3 x Druid Level Temporary HP when you spend Channel Nature as Wild Shape to change form;
Increase a bit the AC of Animal Shape to 12 + Wisdom Mod Land, 11 + Wisdom Mod Water, 10 + Wisdom Mod Air. So the total AC with 20 Wisdom become - respectively - 17, 16, 15, nothing amazing, but not a downgrade compared to Base form (that should be 16 with 14 Dex + Studded Leather + Shield).
Allow other class/racial features to work, so multiclass can work better and be more fun;
Give some way to give extra abilities to the Wild Shape, could either be like warlock invocations that you 'pick' on level up, or at least give a couple choices for the Land form (burrow speed, charge ability, spider web, etc)
Tiny Critter should come waaay early than level 11, I think level 5 should be fine merged with Might of the land features perhaps, and no restriction on time;
Not related to Wild Shape, but since I suggested Tiny Critter to be merged to level 5, make the level 11 feature related to something else other than Wild shape OR Channel Nature, maybe something related to spell casting. Even something simple similar to Arcane Recovery from the 5e Wizard would be fine;
Sample on how it could be merged.
5TH LEVEL: MIGHT OF THE LAND Your connection to the land deepens, empowering the Animal of the Land form of your Wild Shape; you unlock that form’s Climb Speed and Multiattack.
You also gain the ability to become a Tiny creature. When you transform into a Wild Shape form, you can make it Tiny, the damage you deal in that form is halved.
I think that the 3 templates is a good idea. And actually, it's much better than having to search through a bunch of stat blocks for the right beast. It is a much more practical and cleaner design solution. Someone argued that before wildshape was "like a toolbox". Well, it still is. Do you want to dig a tunnel? Shape yourself like a mole. Do you want to enter through a small hole? Give yourself the shape of a snake. Etc... You give yourself the shape you want, then you can have different applications.
However, the problem is that the 3 templates give you practically nothing in combat. They are bad for combat indeed. In my opinion they should offer you a list of features that you could choose from. Different attack, defensive options, and options to affect your opponents with statuses or help your allies. And then every time you transform, you choose one of those options (even two at higher levels).
I don't get the gripe about "finding stat blocks". If there's no excitement in searching for a beast that suits your scenario, why even play the class? Plus...it's not like you're digging through an entire book. In the Monster Manual, it's literally one small appendix towards the back of the book: Appendix A. It's 24 pages with a few mobs per page, several aren't beasts either, and it's in ABC order. How is that difficult? Does no one have a book mark? You can just as easily type the name into the search bar of DNDBeyond...
Is the beast from a different book? The DM might not even let you use it if you can't explain how your druid has seen it before. I'm playing Spelljammer right now. I did look up the beasts in that book, as it pertains to the active campaign I'm in, but I'm not using a beast from any book, other than that small section in the back of the Monster Manual.
It's not that difficult. These homogenized stat blocks take away character agency. If I wanna burrow, I turn into a badger and burrow. Badgers aren't that great at fighting in D&D for a moon druid, nor should they do the same damage as a bear, but with the stat blocks, now they do, but I can't burrow because I turned into a stat block, not a badger.
I don't need clean. I need fun. Homogenized stat blocks are boring. Doesn't matter if they let you pick options for the stat block. It's still a stat block, not the beast. I don't play druid to be a stat block.
You can be the beast you want. Honestly, I think that the one who is playing a stat block is the one who thinks that WS is less creative because the stat block is always the same.
You can be the beast you want. Honestly, I think that the one who is playing a stat block is the one who thinks that WS is less creative because the stat block is always the same.
I kind like the Stats blocks, I just think they don't need to be so plain and weak as they are presented in the UA, for me keep the blocks, just give some extra survivability and options.
You can be the beast you want. Honestly, I think that the one who is playing a stat block is the one who thinks that WS is less creative because the stat block is always the same.
I kind like the Stats blocks, I just think they don't need to be so plain and weak as they are presented in the UA, for me keep the blocks, just give some extra survivability and options.
Yes, I think exactly the same. The problem is not that you now have three templates. the problem is that these templates are bad, and they offer you very little. That's why I think it would improve by offering features to choose from.
Build-a-shape doesn't really need to be all that hard, as the only real important points of variance are
Size (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge). In practice, you use tiny forms for infiltration, large/huge forms for combat, and small/medium forms are mostly disguise and utility.
Movement type (Ground, Burrow, Climb, Spider Climb, Jump, Fly, Swim). Most critters only have one special movement type, so just offer a list.
Sense type (Blindsight, Darkvision, Acute; some logically should have tremorsense but none actually do that I know of). A lot of creatures have two types, so maybe pick a list. Or just give everything blindsight 10', darkvision 60', acute senses, and don't worry about the difference.
Special Attack Type. The major types are bloodlust (advantage against wounded), charge (extra damage and knockdown if move 20'), grapple, pack tactics, poison, pounce/trample (knockdown if move 20', bonus action attack vs prone), trip (often found with pack tactics), and swallow whole (rare).
As much as I love perusing over the Monster Manual for different wildshape options the build-a-shape idea is probably the best compromise I've seen. It'd at least let us choose beast traits so we can simulate actual variety so that a snake and a bull don't play exactly the same. If movement types are included in it that also frees up slots in our leveling tree for things that aren't wildshape specific.
Maybe let you forsake a sensory type in favor of a second attack option. Everything has a Ground Speed by default, choosing it just makes you move faster. Say 50ft rather than the standard 30.
Want to be a direwolf? Large, Ground Speed, Keen Senses, Pack Tactics.
Want to be a bull? Large, Ground Speed, Trample, Charge.
Want to be a giant snake? Large, Swim Speed, Blindsight, Constrict.
Also, at least give Moon Druids access to Huge size. Then druids could finally shapeshift into a tyrannosaurus rex with Huge, Ground Speed, Keen Senses, and Swallow Whole.
... Then just find a way to make wild-shape combat viable for Moon Druids. Hint: They need to last longer than a single round in melee.
For the current wild shape, with the list of creatures that you can turn into, it feels more natural to unlock more complex forms - swim speeds and flight - at higher class levels. But with the generic templates, it feels to me like your species should be factored in. I never considered what if I was a flying species playing a Druid, but I think the new wild shape would be pretty much a downgrade for a flying pc. Likewise for a pc with any special movement like climb or swim speeds. If you're thematically learning Wildshape (ANYTHING*) rather than Wildshape (Beginner Forms), I think you ought to be able to keep your natural special movement in your Wildshape form.
I hate that we have to say that referencing the Monster Manual is taboo.
I agree with a lot of the ideas and sentiment in this thread, especially two things. The Druid should remain a versatile jack of all trades - a fighter, healer, infiltrator, caster. And this kind of UA where WotC is reducing a class down to a single misguided idea like saying that most Druid players just want to be one specific animal is exhausting.
The new wildshape is similar to what I expected, but is trash. I understand that the 5e version basically made it so they couldn’t make any creative or fun beast stat blocks, because there was a fear that a Druid would use it. The fixes to the onednd WS are simple and some of you have already hit the mark.
You gain temp hp when a expend a use of Channel Nature to use the Wildshape feature. (PB+Druid level)x2 seems fair. Unless you choose a tiny creature which gives you only PB temp hp.
Wildshape should allow tiny creatures at level 1and it shouldn’t limit your time in WS.
At 11th level you should be able to become a huge creature.
Archdruid should also allow you to use alternating forms to switch from one Wildshape form to another Wildshape form or your normal form.
The 5th level Feature should be call Beastial Improvements and allow you to add a number of improvements to your Wildshape form equal to half your pb rounded down. You choose these improvements when you enter their form and you can choose some improvement more than once. Swift +10 to one movement type. Digger +10 burrow speed. Noctunal +20ft darkvision. Spiderclimb +10ft speed Ram if you move 20ft in a straight line before hitting a target you can deal extra damage based on your size: 1d4 tiny, 1d6 small or medium, 1d8 for large, 1d12 for huge Thick hide +1 AC. Ink Splash Climber +20ft climb speed
These are just some quick suggestions I’m sure everyone here and the dnd team can come up with more. I like the direction of the Druid but it missed the mark. It’s not a hard fix.
As a Magic action, you transform into a the form of a tiny, small, or medium (your creature type does not change). At higher level large and huge shape become possible. You stay in that form for a number of hours equal to half your Druid level or until you use Wild Shape again, have the Incapacitated condition, or die. You can also end Wild Shape early as a Bonus Action.
While in Wild Shape, you lose the ability to cast spells, only have the manipulative abilities of your form, and cannot apply your proficiency bonus to weapons or tools even if you would be able to use them. Equipment you cannot wield or wear in your new form either merges with you (losing any special properties) or drops to the ground. Your other abilities are unmodified except as noted below:
Ability Scores
Strength becomes 2 for a Tiny beast, and equal to Wisdom for a Large beast. Dexterity becomes equal to Wisdom for a Tiny, Small, or Medium beast.
Speed
For a Tiny creature, pick one of the following
Speed 30'
Speed 20', Climb 20'
Speed 15', Climb 15', Spider Climb
Speed 20', Burrow 5'
Speed 20', Swim 20'
Speed 10', Fly 60' (requires level 7)
For all other sizes, pick one of the following
Speed 50'
Speed 40', Climb 30'.
Speed 30', Burrow 10'.
Speed 30', Swim 30'.
Senses
Choose two of the following:
Blindsight 10'
Darkvision 60'
Keen Senses
Tremorsense 30'
Natural Weapons
Attack bonus equal to Wisdom bonus, damage varies with size
Tiny: 1 point
Small: 1d6+Wisdom Modifier
Medium: 1d8+Wisdom modifier
Large: 1d10+Wisdom modifier
Huge: 1d12+Wisdom Modifier
Special Attack
Pick one of the following abilities
Bloodlust: you have advantage on attack rolls against enemies that do not have all their hit points.
Brute: If you score a critical hit, roll an extra damage die.
Charger: if you move 20' towards an enemy and hit with your first attack, roll an extra damage die and the target must make a Strength or Dexterity save or be knocked prone.
Constrictor: as a bonus action, you may grapple a foe, or make a natural weapon attack against a grappled foe.
Pack Tactics: you may Help or Trip as a bonus action.
Poisoned Attacks: once per turn when you hit with a natural weapon attack, roll an extra damage die; the target takes that much poison damage, halved if they make a constitution save.
Pouncer/Trampler: if you move 20' towards an enemy and hit with your first attack, the target must make a Strength or Dexterity save or be knocked prone. You may make a natural weapon attack against a prone foe as a bonus action.
Spare the Dying now restores 1hp - and people thought healing word was bad enough!
Who thought healing word was bad? It's arguably the best healing spell in the game; trying to keep allies HP topped up is a waste of time, as there are better ways to do that out of combat, the only healing you be doing in combat is to get allies back up if they go down so you're not losing an entire turn from your party. For that job healing word is fantastic as it's a ranged bonus action you can cast at 1st-level.
Personally I'm not sure about the change to spare the dying, being able to automatically stabilise a dying ally is suitable for a cantrip, but actually raising someone is IMO too powerful for a cantrip. The main problem with spare the dying is that it takes your action and has a range of touch; it's most useful on a grave cleric who can cast it at range as a bonus action.
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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.
Remember a while ago when I made a thread about how I thought the Class Groups were a bad idea from a design perspective, because it would lead to the design in 1D&D focussing too much on making every class in the group fit the group's 'gimmick'?
Yeah, well if you look at Druids and Wildshape in the newest doc, you can (hopefully) see exactly what I mean.
Since the 'Priest' class group design philosophy is all about designing the rest of the features of the classes in the group around Channel Divinity (or Channel Nature, in the Druid's case) and the closest thing Druids had to a 'channel divinity' ability in 5e was Wildshape, the entire class now revolves around Wildshape, where previously Wildshape was a relatively minor feature for Druids, except when they chose the Circle of the Moon sub-class in order to explicitly focus on getting the most out of Wildshape.
And in the process they made Wildshape actively worse too, even for Druids choosing to focus on it through Circle of the Moon. (Being able to case Abjuration spells while in Wildshape is obviously meant to allow Circle of the Moon Druids to continue being the party healer while in Wildshape, since healing spells are Abjuration now... Which is kinda pointless, because back in the early days of 5e, when Circle of the Land and Circle of the Moon were the only options, people who chose Circle of the Moon did so because they wanted to turn into cool animals and explicitly didn't want to be the main healer).
Spare the Dying now restores 1hp - and people thought healing word was bad enough!
Who thought healing word was bad? It's arguably the best healing spell in the game; trying to keep allies HP topped up is a waste of time, as there are better ways to do that out of combat, the only healing you be doing in combat is to get allies back up if they go down so you're not losing an entire turn from your party. For that job healing word is fantastic as it's a ranged bonus action you can cast at 1st-level.
Personally I'm not sure about the change to spare the dying, being able to automatically stabilise a dying ally is suitable for a cantrip, but actually raising someone is IMO too powerful for a cantrip. The main problem with spare the dying is that it takes your action and has a range of touch; it's most useful on a grave cleric who can cast it at range as a bonus action.
I mean people think it is bad that the whack-a-mole situation exists, and usually mention healing word because it is common. But at least healing word takes a resource.
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For non moon druids wild shape was almost entirely utility/scouting. The new feature removes almost all utility and is so bad at fighting its clearly not meant for fighting. I have no idea what they think the intended role/use of it is. My only guess is they felt wild shape scouting stepped on the toes of the rogues too much as they ended up better scouts than a character built around scouting. And given how they did nothing to improve the rogue in that regard, or in any way at all I guess they wanted to nerf the scouting of other classes.
It's sort of better at fighting than a non moon druid; your level 5 damage output is clearly superior to the CR 1/2 forms that other types of druid would have access to at that level. Of course, if you weren't a moon druid you didn't try to use wild shape for combat.
Yeah its better than the non moon druids wild shape combat forms but I am not sure its better than just staying in your humanoid form and casting cantrips. A bit better damage since your stat gets added to the d8 but its not at range and you will have a worse AC. Add in giving up casting leveled spells and it just does not seem like a valid combat choice.
I think that the 3 templates is a good idea. And actually, it's much better than having to search through a bunch of stat blocks for the right beast. It is a much more practical and cleaner design solution.
Someone argued that before wildshape was "like a toolbox". Well, it still is. Do you want to dig a tunnel? Shape yourself like a mole. Do you want to enter through a small hole? Give yourself the shape of a snake. Etc... You give yourself the shape you want, then you can have different applications.
However, the problem is that the 3 templates give you practically nothing in combat. They are bad for combat indeed. In my opinion they should offer you a list of features that you could choose from. Different attack, defensive options, and options to affect your opponents with statuses or help your allies. And then every time you transform, you choose one of those options (even two at higher levels).
The problem is as designed it does not have any tool box features, you can't tunnel, it wont have blind sight, or tremor sense you can't be tiny until level 11, etc. I guess if a DM lets you make a small size snake shape that can fit through rat holes or something that might be useful, but by the rules its still small and at best would be squeezing into holes like that and relies on a DM call. I get the logic its small due to length but is still snake shaped, but its still entirely in DM call territory as you are a small creature and what a small creature can fit through is defined.
Edit to add, I am not opposed to the 3 template idea, just the execution. I do think it is likely better for the game than a druid rolling with the monster manual open to beasts.
And yet all casters are now preparation casters (Build-a-Bear spells), and there are tons of build-a-bear features everywhere in the game: Warlock Invocations, Fighting Styles, Cleric Order, Battlemaster maneuvers, Sorcerer Metamagic, Magic Initiate. WS was always a more build-a-bear feature, you just had to look up the right statblock to get the combo of things you wanted.
I think DPS wise the new moon druid came on top overall. But it just lack sooo much survivability compared to the old druid, that is just not even funny. Also it become much muuuuch more boring, except for the elemental damage that you can chose and the change in and out of wild form early.
What I would do to fix Wild Shape:
Sample on how it could be merged.
I don't get the gripe about "finding stat blocks". If there's no excitement in searching for a beast that suits your scenario, why even play the class? Plus...it's not like you're digging through an entire book. In the Monster Manual, it's literally one small appendix towards the back of the book: Appendix A. It's 24 pages with a few mobs per page, several aren't beasts either, and it's in ABC order. How is that difficult? Does no one have a book mark? You can just as easily type the name into the search bar of DNDBeyond...
Is the beast from a different book? The DM might not even let you use it if you can't explain how your druid has seen it before. I'm playing Spelljammer right now. I did look up the beasts in that book, as it pertains to the active campaign I'm in, but I'm not using a beast from any book, other than that small section in the back of the Monster Manual.
It's not that difficult. These homogenized stat blocks take away character agency. If I wanna burrow, I turn into a badger and burrow. Badgers aren't that great at fighting in D&D for a moon druid, nor should they do the same damage as a bear, but with the stat blocks, now they do, but I can't burrow because I turned into a stat block, not a badger.
I don't need clean. I need fun. Homogenized stat blocks are boring. Doesn't matter if they let you pick options for the stat block. It's still a stat block, not the beast. I don't play druid to be a stat block.
You can be the beast you want.
Honestly, I think that the one who is playing a stat block is the one who thinks that WS is less creative because the stat block is always the same.
I kind like the Stats blocks, I just think they don't need to be so plain and weak as they are presented in the UA, for me keep the blocks, just give some extra survivability and options.
Yes, I think exactly the same. The problem is not that you now have three templates. the problem is that these templates are bad, and they offer you very little. That's why I think it would improve by offering features to choose from.
Build-a-shape doesn't really need to be all that hard, as the only real important points of variance are
As much as I love perusing over the Monster Manual for different wildshape options the build-a-shape idea is probably the best compromise I've seen. It'd at least let us choose beast traits so we can simulate actual variety so that a snake and a bull don't play exactly the same. If movement types are included in it that also frees up slots in our leveling tree for things that aren't wildshape specific.
Maybe let you forsake a sensory type in favor of a second attack option. Everything has a Ground Speed by default, choosing it just makes you move faster. Say 50ft rather than the standard 30.
Want to be a direwolf? Large, Ground Speed, Keen Senses, Pack Tactics.
Want to be a bull? Large, Ground Speed, Trample, Charge.
Want to be a giant snake? Large, Swim Speed, Blindsight, Constrict.
Also, at least give Moon Druids access to Huge size. Then druids could finally shapeshift into a tyrannosaurus rex with Huge, Ground Speed, Keen Senses, and Swallow Whole.
... Then just find a way to make wild-shape combat viable for Moon Druids. Hint: They need to last longer than a single round in melee.
For the current wild shape, with the list of creatures that you can turn into, it feels more natural to unlock more complex forms - swim speeds and flight - at higher class levels. But with the generic templates, it feels to me like your species should be factored in. I never considered what if I was a flying species playing a Druid, but I think the new wild shape would be pretty much a downgrade for a flying pc. Likewise for a pc with any special movement like climb or swim speeds. If you're thematically learning Wildshape (ANYTHING*) rather than Wildshape (Beginner Forms), I think you ought to be able to keep your natural special movement in your Wildshape form.
I hate that we have to say that referencing the Monster Manual is taboo.
I agree with a lot of the ideas and sentiment in this thread, especially two things. The Druid should remain a versatile jack of all trades - a fighter, healer, infiltrator, caster. And this kind of UA where WotC is reducing a class down to a single misguided idea like saying that most Druid players just want to be one specific animal is exhausting.
Spare the Dying now restores 1hp - and people thought healing word was bad enough!
The new wildshape is similar to what I expected, but is trash. I understand that the 5e version basically made it so they couldn’t make any creative or fun beast stat blocks, because there was a fear that a Druid would use it. The fixes to the onednd WS are simple and some of you have already hit the mark.
Swift +10 to one movement type.
Digger +10 burrow speed.
Noctunal +20ft darkvision.
Spiderclimb +10ft speed
Ram if you move 20ft in a straight line before hitting a target you can deal extra damage based on your size: 1d4 tiny, 1d6 small or medium, 1d8 for large, 1d12 for huge
Thick hide +1 AC.
Ink Splash
Climber +20ft climb speed
These are just some quick suggestions I’m sure everyone here and the dnd team can come up with more.
I like the direction of the Druid but it missed the mark. It’s not a hard fix.
Doing an exercise in build-a-shape:
Wild Shape
As a Magic action, you transform into a the form of a tiny, small, or medium (your creature type does not change). At higher level large and huge shape become possible. You stay in that form for a number of hours equal to half your Druid level or until you use Wild Shape again, have the Incapacitated condition, or die. You can also end Wild Shape early as a Bonus Action.
While in Wild Shape, you lose the ability to cast spells, only have the manipulative abilities of your form, and cannot apply your proficiency bonus to weapons or tools even if you would be able to use them. Equipment you cannot wield or wear in your new form either merges with you (losing any special properties) or drops to the ground. Your other abilities are unmodified except as noted below:
Ability Scores
Strength becomes 2 for a Tiny beast, and equal to Wisdom for a Large beast. Dexterity becomes equal to Wisdom for a Tiny, Small, or Medium beast.
Speed
For a Tiny creature, pick one of the following
For all other sizes, pick one of the following
Senses
Choose two of the following:
Natural Weapons
Attack bonus equal to Wisdom bonus, damage varies with size
Special Attack
Pick one of the following abilities
Who thought healing word was bad? It's arguably the best healing spell in the game; trying to keep allies HP topped up is a waste of time, as there are better ways to do that out of combat, the only healing you be doing in combat is to get allies back up if they go down so you're not losing an entire turn from your party. For that job healing word is fantastic as it's a ranged bonus action you can cast at 1st-level.
Personally I'm not sure about the change to spare the dying, being able to automatically stabilise a dying ally is suitable for a cantrip, but actually raising someone is IMO too powerful for a cantrip. The main problem with spare the dying is that it takes your action and has a range of touch; it's most useful on a grave cleric who can cast it at range as a bonus action.
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.
Remember a while ago when I made a thread about how I thought the Class Groups were a bad idea from a design perspective, because it would lead to the design in 1D&D focussing too much on making every class in the group fit the group's 'gimmick'?
Yeah, well if you look at Druids and Wildshape in the newest doc, you can (hopefully) see exactly what I mean.
Since the 'Priest' class group design philosophy is all about designing the rest of the features of the classes in the group around Channel Divinity (or Channel Nature, in the Druid's case) and the closest thing Druids had to a 'channel divinity' ability in 5e was Wildshape, the entire class now revolves around Wildshape, where previously Wildshape was a relatively minor feature for Druids, except when they chose the Circle of the Moon sub-class in order to explicitly focus on getting the most out of Wildshape.
And in the process they made Wildshape actively worse too, even for Druids choosing to focus on it through Circle of the Moon. (Being able to case Abjuration spells while in Wildshape is obviously meant to allow Circle of the Moon Druids to continue being the party healer while in Wildshape, since healing spells are Abjuration now... Which is kinda pointless, because back in the early days of 5e, when Circle of the Land and Circle of the Moon were the only options, people who chose Circle of the Moon did so because they wanted to turn into cool animals and explicitly didn't want to be the main healer).
I mean people think it is bad that the whack-a-mole situation exists, and usually mention healing word because it is common. But at least healing word takes a resource.