If you're a Druid and your backstory isn't, "I grew up on Dinosaur Island", you're leaving money on the table.
I mean kind of? But not really. The dinosaur forms are good but there's a non-dinosaur option at pretty much every CR level druids can access that is just as good if not better.
"Forms known" can be a character-defining trait for roleplay as well. Almost all my druids favored different forms at different levels depending on where they are from and their personalities. My half-orc druid mostly turned into forest-dwelling animals like bears and wolves while my current Lizardfolk druid exclusively uses dinosaurs. Another Lizardfolk druid used only animals you'd find in a swamp like giant snakes and spiders.
There are many options in the Monster Manual that might not be "best in slot" but are still viable enough that turning into them isn't a waste of resources. At least in the CR 1-3 range, but by the time you hit a point where your only animal option is the Mammoth you've got elemental forms anyway.
If you're a Druid and your backstory isn't, "I grew up on Dinosaur Island", you're leaving money on the table.
Not really. I have played a Moondruid from level 3-12 with access to all dinosaur forms and the only one I've ever used for WS is Allosaurus, and honestly, it wasn't significantly better than Polar Bear or Giant Constrictor Snake overall. It's actually worse than either of those forms in terms of DPR, it's only advantage being it's high move speed. The only other time I've used dinosaur forms I used for Polymorph and that was a Brontosaurus mainly to try physically keep two party members out of melee range of some enemies by having them perch on it's head.
Some of the issue with using the same Stat as the monster manual is that it does limit options that the designers can use when creating beast creature.
They could allow for some minor tweaks within the current player use stat block. They could be keyworded and have a set value and then limit how many can be applied to a wild shape (potentially with increased limits with level to represent more fearsome forms).
The proposed changes to templates is not bad, it is just a lot of the other things that go along side the changes that are. Templates themselves means it's much more rigidly defined what is/is not allowed which compared to 5E wild shape where you did need to look at every beast form that came out and then would lead to DMs and Players having to discuss what is/isn't allowed, was a bit weak.
The issue too me the are:
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
2. Wildshape forms are too fragile
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
4. There are no differing features for different forms at all.
Some might complain about a drop in utility from wild shape too, but I don't think that is the biggest issue and might also be intended, until we hear more, can't know for certain but the restricted tiny forms part doesn't make sense.
Some of the issue with using the same Stat as the monster manual is that it does limit options that the designers can use when creating beast creature.
I'm not getting this argument, that I've heard a few times now.
If the potential new beast statblock is too powerful to be allowed as a WS, then the CR is too low and it needs to be re-evaluated. That's the entire point of CR - to ensure that creatures are of the right power level in encounters. Seeing as they've given CR limits for WS, assuming that those limits are reasonable (if not, then adjust the limits), then that implies that if a creature is too powerful despite meeting the CR requirements for WS, then the CR is too low. That needs to be adjusted regardless of WS because we use them in setting up encounters involving those creatures.
If they have an ability that is inappropriate for WS at point, introduce restrictions, like they did with flying and swimming speeds. If burrowing is too strong until, say, level 5, then have a limit that you can't WS into a creature with burrowing until level 5.
As I said, I don't get the argument that it restricts designers. It doesn't really, it just puts more pressure on them to actually produce thought out content - which, to be frank, is a good thing, they don't think things out anywhere near good enough, even this UA has (once again) shown that.
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The proposed changes to templates is not bad, it is just a lot of the other things that go along side the changes that are. Templates themselves means it's much more rigidly defined what is/is not allowed which compared to 5E wild shape where you did need to look at every beast form that came out and then would lead to DMs and Players having to discuss what is/isn't allowed, was a bit weak.
The issue too me the are:
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
2. Wildshape forms are too fragile
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
4. There are no differing features for different forms at all.
Some might complain about a drop in utility from wild shape too, but I don't think that is the biggest issue and might also be intended, until we hear more, can't know for certain but the restricted tiny forms part doesn't make sense.
1. I agree with this. Although with the exception of Wild Resurgence most of the “features” in the UA were already baked into WS. They just look like new features but they aren’t really. They just look good on a table so you don’t have a bunch of blank spaces.
2. Actually I’m ok with standard WS being somewhat fragile. It’s Moon Druid where this is the problem. So the subclass should buff the form if it is needed.
3. I agree as well.
4. I do think the drop in utility is a big problem and directly relates to #4. I do think it is the biggest issue for WS in the UA. The rest is just tinkering with some numbers, for the most part
But they don't. If they want to they can, but they don't need to. Players can create their character, say to themselves "my character grew up in a tropical dungeon, they probably have seen monkeys, snakes, panthers, and parrots. Then pull up D&DBeyond Monster reference and search for "monkey", "ape", "snake", "panther", "parrot" and add those to their character sheet. If they then go to the city and say to themselves: there's lots of dogs, cat, horses, and rats in cities - and go search for those in the reference and add them to their character sheet.
What if they were a traveler, though, and went through many different environments? What if the city they were in was unique, what if it had an exotic beast zoo? And what if the characters encountered certain creatures via adventuring, or just odd coincidences through anomalous animals in atypical areas?
All in all, saying "You grew up in a city, so you have obviously seen rats, mice, dogs, and cats but nothing else because not every person in a suburban area might have seen this" fails to account for exceptions in circumstance, situation, and the fact that different cities and different worlds might have a different make up of creatures.
That is why I and most Dungeon Masters I know ignore this poorly defined somewhat arbitrary limitation that has absolutely no rules on how to enforce it. The player should have the job and responsibility of searching through the books and writing down what animals they've seen, according to you. Better hope the person in charge of the game agrees with what your character might have seen via their backstory though, because they are the ones of enforcing this rule should they choose to do so, and your list might be modified appropriately for different worlds and places or every animal might end up being allowed. Either way, you now have to quickly account for and read more stat blocks you didn't prepare for.
But that's no different than a player who wants to min-max looking up every single possible beast to use with Polymorph, or to use with Conjure Elemental, or to use with Conjure Lesser Demon, or to use with Conjure Elemental, etc.. etc....
It's very different. Wild Shape is the core feature of the Druid class, aside from spellcasting. Using it well is not optional but necessary, and it isn't "min-maxing".
On the other hand, you don't even need to pick or prepare a spell like Polymorph or Conjure Animals. If you do choose it, then it's just one spell and using one of your gazillion spell slots decently is far less important than not wasting one of the most important abilities for your class.
Just reflavour a brown bear as a owlbear. Want to transform into a kangaroo? Just use the Elk statblock and say it's a kangaroo. My druid turns into a bandicoot (using the Weasel statblock) on occasion.
An Owlbear without a beak? A kangaroo with antlers?
These features are built into the stat blocks, and the bonuses and abilities are very different. Turning into something to get a higher modifier is not the same as advantage, and it should not be treated as such.
When people to try to invent homebrew systems to make Wild Shape work better, it doesn't exactly go a long way to show that the feature is in the best state it could be right now.
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3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
But at least it’s the Druid doing this and not a familiar. So if there is a reason that a WS tiny Druid could be spotted or run into some kind of blockage or any other situation there is an element of risk.
@BoringBard,
Another thing to consider, which is DM dependent, is if they allow a Druid to be shown certain shapes by more experienced druids in their circle. An Archdruid of your Circle might show the newbies what a velociraptor looks like, etc.
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
Find Familiar is just better though, since it is free 1/day so it doesn't matter if it gets hit by a trap or killed by a guard. The only advantage to WSing into a tiny form would be that you can unshape and grab an item or open a door or set a trap, then reshape and escape. But if you've got a bag of holding, you can put that on a familiar and do the exact same anyway so it's a pretty niche thing.
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
Find Familiar is just better though, since it is free 1/day so it doesn't matter if it gets hit by a trap or killed by a guard. The only advantage to WSing into a tiny form would be that you can unshape and grab an item or open a door or set a trap, then reshape and escape. But if you've got a bag of holding, you can put that on a familiar and do the exact same anyway so it's a pretty niche thing.
And it’s even better in 1D&D because there is no range limit for seeing through their eyes. But that might get changed.
I was thinking one of the issues with no tiny size is getting through small cracks etc and thought in that case maybe an octopus would be good to squeeze. But the standard octopus doesn’t have that feature so I don’t know if any other beast would have this option.
And what if the base Druid had a handful of spells in a supplemental spell list to help with the template issues. Things like you can cast spider climb or bark skin or other spell (maybe even unique to Druid) that helps with the utility issue. With a once per LR for free might be helpful. But it might also cause other issues, I haven’t had a chance to think it through as I just thought about this at work.
The proposed changes to templates is not bad, it is just a lot of the other things that go along side the changes that are. Templates themselves means it's much more rigidly defined what is/is not allowed which compared to 5E wild shape where you did need to look at every beast form that came out and then would lead to DMs and Players having to discuss what is/isn't allowed, was a bit weak.
The issue too me the are:
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
2. Wildshape forms are too fragile
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
4. There are no differing features for different forms at all.
Some might complain about a drop in utility from wild shape too, but I don't think that is the biggest issue and might also be intended, until we hear more, can't know for certain but the restricted tiny forms part doesn't make sense.
I agree with all of these except #1, I have no problem with more of the base class features relating to WS. Recall that the 2014 druid got nothing at these levels at all, those levels were completely dead instead. Even if your druid doesn't plan on using wild shape, you're no worse off than you were before
On the other hand, you don't even need to pick or prepare a spell like Polymorph or Conjure Animals. If you do choose it, then it's just one spell and using one of your gazillion spell slots decently is far less important than not wasting one of the most important abilities for your class.
Yes, yes you do if you want to play a druid well. Conjure Animals and Polymorph are must-take good spells, if you don't prepare them and use them you are kneecapping yourself. With my Moon Druid that I've played for 2 years now. I have cast Conjure Animals I'd guess ~95% of adventuring days since getting access to it. Polymorph is significantly less often, probably around 33% of adventuring days but that is simply because there is someone else in the party who can also cast Polymorph b/c everyone knows it is a must-take and having two people be able to turn the frontliners into Giant Apes is better than one. Every druid I have DMed of a level able to prepare Conjure Animals, prepares Conjure Animals, although a some choose to not use it in combat b/c they hate managing the animals in combat, but they still prepare it in order to use it for utility -> 8 giant badgers to dig a tunnel for you, 8 giant owls to fly the party over obstacles, horses to help the party escape a battle they are losing, or a couple of bears to break down a door.
An Owlbear without a beak? A kangaroo with antlers?
The brown bear Bite attack deals piercing damage, why can't it be a beak?
Kangaroos have claws on their feet, why can't the charge attack be the Kangaroo kicking their opponent prone?
Nothing in the mechanics dictates how something looks. When a PC casts Ray of Frost it doesn't have to look like a white ray of magic hitting the enemy, it could look like them conjuring a giant icicle and throwing it at the enemy, it could look like them chanting to create an area of cold air in front of them and then squeezing a jet of water out of a large waterskin through it causing it to instantly turn into snow before hitting the enemy, it could look like the wizard holding up piece of wood carved to look like a gun and shooting a ray of magic out of it.... etc... same goes for monster statblocks. I've have a bard with a winged panther as their "griffon" Find Greater Steed, I've had a paladin with a "pegasus" steed that looked like a unicorn and 'flew' by running along conjured rainbows, and owl familiars reflavoured as hawks, butterflies, flying monkeys, even as a rat inside a flying hamsterball etc...
PS This is NOT HB, the rules literally say that they didn't publish a statblock for every animal that exists in the world and you should reuse the ones they did provide for similar animals.
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
Find Familiar is just better though, since it is free 1/day so it doesn't matter if it gets hit by a trap or killed by a guard. The only advantage to WSing into a tiny form would be that you can unshape and grab an item or open a door or set a trap, then reshape and escape. But if you've got a bag of holding, you can put that on a familiar and do the exact same anyway so it's a pretty niche thing.
^ mostly this, why restrict tiny forms when you're getting a free find familiar which is less risk and gets basically all the same scouting benefits as a tiny form anyway?
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
I agree with all of these except #1, I have no problem with more of the base class features relating to WS. Recall that the 2014 druid got nothing at these levels at all, those levels were completely dead instead. Even if your druid doesn't plan on using wild shape, you're no worse off than you were before
well all they have done is split up the level 2 feature from 5E and put two parts of that in at levels 7 and 9... it really hasn't changed much other than being filler text for those levels. Dealing with Druid not having been as popular as it should be partly comes down to other spell casters actually getting spell casting features, even Ranger in the Expert Classes UA got more than Druid gets here. Druid gets two features directly related to spellcasting, that is spellcasting and Beast Spells...
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
Find Familiar is just better though, since it is free 1/day so it doesn't matter if it gets hit by a trap or killed by a guard. The only advantage to WSing into a tiny form would be that you can unshape and grab an item or open a door or set a trap, then reshape and escape. But if you've got a bag of holding, you can put that on a familiar and do the exact same anyway so it's a pretty niche thing.
^ mostly this, why restrict tiny forms when you're getting a free find familiar which is less risk and gets basically all the same scouting benefits as a tiny form anyway?
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
I agree with all of these except #1, I have no problem with more of the base class features relating to WS. Recall that the 2014 druid got nothing at these levels at all, those levels were completely dead instead. Even if your druid doesn't plan on using wild shape, you're no worse off than you were before
well all they have done is split up the level 2 feature from 5E and put two parts of that in at levels 7 and 9... it really hasn't changed much other than being filler text for those levels.
That's not all they did. Alternating Forms, Wild Resurgence, and the material component portion of Beast Spells are all net new vs. 2014.
Every druid I have DMed of a level able to prepare Conjure Animals, prepares Conjure Animals, although a some choose to not use it in combat b/c they hate managing the animals in combat, but they still prepare it in order to use it for utility -> 8 giant badgers to dig a tunnel for you, 8 giant owls to fly the party over obstacles, horses to help the party escape a battle they are losing, or a couple of bears to break down a door.
FYI, the player/druid does not get to pick the creatures that are summoned. If your DM is letting you pick the specific creatures, then yes, Conjure Animals would be a must have spell.
If instead, the DM picks the creatures (either by random or by whim) as Sage Advice indicates, then Conjure Animals has a lot less utility because you never know if what you summon will actually have the ability to fly over obstacles or dig a tunnel.
Asking for CR 1/4 and hoping for Giant Badger or Giant Owls, yet getting Draft Horses is a distinct possibility.
I only used conjure animals a handful of times when I first got access to it. I knew there could be some issues with summoning too many creatures slowing down combat so I checked with my DM and offered to just summon two dire wolves, and he agreed, so that was that. But I haven’t used it for quite a while, used summon elemental from Tasha’s more frequently since it’s only one creature to fight with.
Sure, Conjure Animals is a “must have” but not without its problems. And I’m sure it will get some changes in 1D&D. I’m surprised it wasn’t in this UA as a popular Druid spell.
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
I agree with all of these except #1, I have no problem with more of the base class features relating to WS. Recall that the 2014 druid got nothing at these levels at all, those levels were completely dead instead. Even if your druid doesn't plan on using wild shape, you're no worse off than you were before
well all they have done is split up the level 2 feature from 5E and put two parts of that in at levels 7 and 9... it really hasn't changed much other than being filler text for those levels.
That's not all they did. Alternating Forms, Wild Resurgence, and the material component portion of Beast Spells are all net new vs. 2014.
Well I did say for those levels, as in levels 7 and 9, pointing out that it really changed nothing by making those features but would be remiss to point out that Beast spells is not new, that was in 2014, it just changed from level 18 to level 17.
As for the new features... Alternating Forms and Wild Resurgence are new but they're pointless. Healing Blossoms heals so little health it makes really no difference (average 12.5 HP at +5 WIS modifier), so getting something that gives that at level 15, is kind of just a joke for a feature. Let's remember that Oath of Devotion Paladin gets the ability to basically do a free healing word every time they divine smite... from level 6! Sure it doesn't heal as much but it will come up far more often and is temp HP, so can buff those already fully healed characters up.
Alternating Forms conflicts with Healing Blossom and becomes truly questionable by the time beast spells comes along, it's really only useful for temp exit from wildshape when wildshaping for RP but that is an issue that could be fixed in other ways and also becomes irrelevant when beast spells comes along, you only need to exit wildshape for higher AC by that point.
I mean kind of? But not really. The dinosaur forms are good but there's a non-dinosaur option at pretty much every CR level druids can access that is just as good if not better.
"Forms known" can be a character-defining trait for roleplay as well. Almost all my druids favored different forms at different levels depending on where they are from and their personalities. My half-orc druid mostly turned into forest-dwelling animals like bears and wolves while my current Lizardfolk druid exclusively uses dinosaurs. Another Lizardfolk druid used only animals you'd find in a swamp like giant snakes and spiders.
There are many options in the Monster Manual that might not be "best in slot" but are still viable enough that turning into them isn't a waste of resources. At least in the CR 1-3 range, but by the time you hit a point where your only animal option is the Mammoth you've got elemental forms anyway.
Not really. I have played a Moondruid from level 3-12 with access to all dinosaur forms and the only one I've ever used for WS is Allosaurus, and honestly, it wasn't significantly better than Polar Bear or Giant Constrictor Snake overall. It's actually worse than either of those forms in terms of DPR, it's only advantage being it's high move speed. The only other time I've used dinosaur forms I used for Polymorph and that was a Brontosaurus mainly to try physically keep two party members out of melee range of some enemies by having them perch on it's head.
Some of the issue with using the same Stat as the monster manual is that it does limit options that the designers can use when creating beast creature.
They could allow for some minor tweaks within the current player use stat block. They could be keyworded and have a set value and then limit how many can be applied to a wild shape (potentially with increased limits with level to represent more fearsome forms).
The proposed changes to templates is not bad, it is just a lot of the other things that go along side the changes that are. Templates themselves means it's much more rigidly defined what is/is not allowed which compared to 5E wild shape where you did need to look at every beast form that came out and then would lead to DMs and Players having to discuss what is/isn't allowed, was a bit weak.
The issue too me the are:
1. Wildshape consumes too many of Druid's features, should at least be 1, if not two more for magic related activities.
2. Wildshape forms are too fragile
3. The restriction on tiny forms makes no sense, should just have an alternate template for tiny creatures at level 1.
4. There are no differing features for different forms at all.
Some might complain about a drop in utility from wild shape too, but I don't think that is the biggest issue and might also be intended, until we hear more, can't know for certain but the restricted tiny forms part doesn't make sense.
I'm not getting this argument, that I've heard a few times now.
If the potential new beast statblock is too powerful to be allowed as a WS, then the CR is too low and it needs to be re-evaluated. That's the entire point of CR - to ensure that creatures are of the right power level in encounters. Seeing as they've given CR limits for WS, assuming that those limits are reasonable (if not, then adjust the limits), then that implies that if a creature is too powerful despite meeting the CR requirements for WS, then the CR is too low. That needs to be adjusted regardless of WS because we use them in setting up encounters involving those creatures.
If they have an ability that is inappropriate for WS at point, introduce restrictions, like they did with flying and swimming speeds. If burrowing is too strong until, say, level 5, then have a limit that you can't WS into a creature with burrowing until level 5.
As I said, I don't get the argument that it restricts designers. It doesn't really, it just puts more pressure on them to actually produce thought out content - which, to be frank, is a good thing, they don't think things out anywhere near good enough, even this UA has (once again) shown that.
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1. I agree with this. Although with the exception of Wild Resurgence most of the “features” in the UA were already baked into WS. They just look like new features but they aren’t really. They just look good on a table so you don’t have a bunch of blank spaces.
2. Actually I’m ok with standard WS being somewhat fragile. It’s Moon Druid where this is the problem. So the subclass should buff the form if it is needed.
3. I agree as well.
4. I do think the drop in utility is a big problem and directly relates to #4. I do think it is the biggest issue for WS in the UA. The rest is just tinkering with some numbers, for the most part
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I'm kind of surprised at how many people took a post about "dinosaur island" seriously.
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What if they were a traveler, though, and went through many different environments? What if the city they were in was unique, what if it had an exotic beast zoo? And what if the characters encountered certain creatures via adventuring, or just odd coincidences through anomalous animals in atypical areas?
All in all, saying "You grew up in a city, so you have obviously seen rats, mice, dogs, and cats but nothing else because not every person in a suburban area might have seen this" fails to account for exceptions in circumstance, situation, and the fact that different cities and different worlds might have a different make up of creatures.
That is why I and most Dungeon Masters I know ignore this poorly defined somewhat arbitrary limitation that has absolutely no rules on how to enforce it. The player should have the job and responsibility of searching through the books and writing down what animals they've seen, according to you. Better hope the person in charge of the game agrees with what your character might have seen via their backstory though, because they are the ones of enforcing this rule should they choose to do so, and your list might be modified appropriately for different worlds and places or every animal might end up being allowed. Either way, you now have to quickly account for and read more stat blocks you didn't prepare for.
It's very different. Wild Shape is the core feature of the Druid class, aside from spellcasting. Using it well is not optional but necessary, and it isn't "min-maxing".
On the other hand, you don't even need to pick or prepare a spell like Polymorph or Conjure Animals. If you do choose it, then it's just one spell and using one of your gazillion spell slots decently is far less important than not wasting one of the most important abilities for your class.
An Owlbear without a beak? A kangaroo with antlers?
These features are built into the stat blocks, and the bonuses and abilities are very different. Turning into something to get a higher modifier is not the same as advantage, and it should not be treated as such.
When people to try to invent homebrew systems to make Wild Shape work better, it doesn't exactly go a long way to show that the feature is in the best state it could be right now.
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HERE.Just out of curiosity, why does it make no sense to you? As far as I'm aware, Tiny size is a pretty powerful exploration tool.
I thought it was funny
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But at least it’s the Druid doing this and not a familiar. So if there is a reason that a WS tiny Druid could be spotted or run into some kind of blockage or any other situation there is an element of risk.
@BoringBard,
Another thing to consider, which is DM dependent, is if they allow a Druid to be shown certain shapes by more experienced druids in their circle. An Archdruid of your Circle might show the newbies what a velociraptor looks like, etc.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
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Find Familiar is just better though, since it is free 1/day so it doesn't matter if it gets hit by a trap or killed by a guard. The only advantage to WSing into a tiny form would be that you can unshape and grab an item or open a door or set a trap, then reshape and escape. But if you've got a bag of holding, you can put that on a familiar and do the exact same anyway so it's a pretty niche thing.
And it’s even better in 1D&D because there is no range limit for seeing through their eyes. But that might get changed.
I was thinking one of the issues with no tiny size is getting through small cracks etc and thought in that case maybe an octopus would be good to squeeze. But the standard octopus doesn’t have that feature so I don’t know if any other beast would have this option.
And what if the base Druid had a handful of spells in a supplemental spell list to help with the template issues. Things like you can cast spider climb or bark skin or other spell (maybe even unique to Druid) that helps with the utility issue. With a once per LR for free might be helpful. But it might also cause other issues, I haven’t had a chance to think it through as I just thought about this at work.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I agree with all of these except #1, I have no problem with more of the base class features relating to WS. Recall that the 2014 druid got nothing at these levels at all, those levels were completely dead instead. Even if your druid doesn't plan on using wild shape, you're no worse off than you were before
Yes, yes you do if you want to play a druid well. Conjure Animals and Polymorph are must-take good spells, if you don't prepare them and use them you are kneecapping yourself. With my Moon Druid that I've played for 2 years now. I have cast Conjure Animals I'd guess ~95% of adventuring days since getting access to it. Polymorph is significantly less often, probably around 33% of adventuring days but that is simply because there is someone else in the party who can also cast Polymorph b/c everyone knows it is a must-take and having two people be able to turn the frontliners into Giant Apes is better than one. Every druid I have DMed of a level able to prepare Conjure Animals, prepares Conjure Animals, although a some choose to not use it in combat b/c they hate managing the animals in combat, but they still prepare it in order to use it for utility -> 8 giant badgers to dig a tunnel for you, 8 giant owls to fly the party over obstacles, horses to help the party escape a battle they are losing, or a couple of bears to break down a door.
The brown bear Bite attack deals piercing damage, why can't it be a beak?
Kangaroos have claws on their feet, why can't the charge attack be the Kangaroo kicking their opponent prone?
Nothing in the mechanics dictates how something looks. When a PC casts Ray of Frost it doesn't have to look like a white ray of magic hitting the enemy, it could look like them conjuring a giant icicle and throwing it at the enemy, it could look like them chanting to create an area of cold air in front of them and then squeezing a jet of water out of a large waterskin through it causing it to instantly turn into snow before hitting the enemy, it could look like the wizard holding up piece of wood carved to look like a gun and shooting a ray of magic out of it.... etc... same goes for monster statblocks. I've have a bard with a winged panther as their "griffon" Find Greater Steed, I've had a paladin with a "pegasus" steed that looked like a unicorn and 'flew' by running along conjured rainbows, and owl familiars reflavoured as hawks, butterflies, flying monkeys, even as a rat inside a flying hamsterball etc...
PS This is NOT HB, the rules literally say that they didn't publish a statblock for every animal that exists in the world and you should reuse the ones they did provide for similar animals.
^ mostly this, why restrict tiny forms when you're getting a free find familiar which is less risk and gets basically all the same scouting benefits as a tiny form anyway?
EDIT: missed this...
well all they have done is split up the level 2 feature from 5E and put two parts of that in at levels 7 and 9... it really hasn't changed much other than being filler text for those levels. Dealing with Druid not having been as popular as it should be partly comes down to other spell casters actually getting spell casting features, even Ranger in the Expert Classes UA got more than Druid gets here. Druid gets two features directly related to spellcasting, that is spellcasting and Beast Spells...
That's not all they did. Alternating Forms, Wild Resurgence, and the material component portion of Beast Spells are all net new vs. 2014.
FYI, the player/druid does not get to pick the creatures that are summoned. If your DM is letting you pick the specific creatures, then yes, Conjure Animals would be a must have spell.
If instead, the DM picks the creatures (either by random or by whim) as Sage Advice indicates, then Conjure Animals has a lot less utility because you never know if what you summon will actually have the ability to fly over obstacles or dig a tunnel.
Asking for CR 1/4 and hoping for Giant Badger or Giant Owls, yet getting Draft Horses is a distinct possibility.
I only used conjure animals a handful of times when I first got access to it. I knew there could be some issues with summoning too many creatures slowing down combat so I checked with my DM and offered to just summon two dire wolves, and he agreed, so that was that. But I haven’t used it for quite a while, used summon elemental from Tasha’s more frequently since it’s only one creature to fight with.
Sure, Conjure Animals is a “must have” but not without its problems. And I’m sure it will get some changes in 1D&D. I’m surprised it wasn’t in this UA as a popular Druid spell.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Well I did say for those levels, as in levels 7 and 9, pointing out that it really changed nothing by making those features but would be remiss to point out that Beast spells is not new, that was in 2014, it just changed from level 18 to level 17.
As for the new features... Alternating Forms and Wild Resurgence are new but they're pointless. Healing Blossoms heals so little health it makes really no difference (average 12.5 HP at +5 WIS modifier), so getting something that gives that at level 15, is kind of just a joke for a feature. Let's remember that Oath of Devotion Paladin gets the ability to basically do a free healing word every time they divine smite... from level 6! Sure it doesn't heal as much but it will come up far more often and is temp HP, so can buff those already fully healed characters up.
Alternating Forms conflicts with Healing Blossom and becomes truly questionable by the time beast spells comes along, it's really only useful for temp exit from wildshape when wildshaping for RP but that is an issue that could be fixed in other ways and also becomes irrelevant when beast spells comes along, you only need to exit wildshape for higher AC by that point.