3RD LEVEL: CIRCLE FORMS The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms; the maximum Challenge Rating for your Wild Shape is 1.
A brown bear is still very solid damage output at level 3.
That said, once you hit level 5 using wild shape to attack is about as useful as in 2014, which is to say not.
Ah thanks for the correction. I was glazing over at the giant text-block of wild shape. The new baseline Wild Shape is good now, but I'm not interested in this version of Moon druid, some of it's non-WS features are interesting but the core fantasy of transforming in combat isn't fulfilled.
I didnt read every post, but lets imagine for a brief moment of silence a level 14 Totem Barbarian / 6 Moon Druid ... Wildshaping into an Allosaurus ...
With a decent CON you have over 200 HP, dealing 2d10+4 on each Attack, benefitting from all Features, having total resistances (except psychic)... You can Wildshape twice ... increasing your total HP pool to 800 and atlast, you become yourself .. with a 1d12 weapon .. gaining 18 temp HP addititonally each Wildshape .. so youve got a total HP pool of 1272 HP per Short rest.. this number can go as high as 1782 HP per Short Rest (including 20 CON and Tough Feat) Where are my 2 Tarrasque at once to face? i need a new challenge CR 30 simply not enough...
this UA Change is stupididly broken and cant go threw espacially our level 14 feature relies on a second level 2 spell ... please WOTC get rid of this shit noone wants to play 2nd Level Spells if you can cast 5th/6th/7th level concentration spells ... i dont know what they did, but it was under drugs and alcohol at midnight in a party club
Apparently I'm doing something very, very wrong as a DM because I've found my player running a moon druid has been quite effective in combat using WS - there are a lot of beasts with helpful additional traits, attacks, and abilities. I don't agree that WS is somehow useless for combat.
Thinking about this, my suggested fix is tying the number of WS per day to PB, but allowing the moon druid to recover 1 use per short rest (though I'd likely limit the number of short rests per day to 3 or 4, assuming locations and circumstances allow that many.
Apparently I'm doing something very, very wrong as a DM because I've found my player running a moon druid has been quite effective in combat using WS - there are a lot of beasts with helpful additional traits, attacks, and abilities. I don't agree that WS is somehow useless for combat.
Thinking about this, my suggested fix is tying the number of WS per day to PB, but allowing the moon druid to recover 1 use per short rest (though I'd likely limit the number of short rests per day to 3 or 4, assuming locations and circumstances allow that many.
No no no ... the HP buff is very important since they are taking our endlessly wildshaping feature away (which is broken either) instead you go and increase the HP of your wildshapes like +5 per Druid level, so you have around 8+19*5+20*2 (if your con is 14) + 100 equals ~ 260ish HP in each Wildshape.
Tying the Wildshapes to PB may do the same, but each Wildshape may get easily downed against high CR or high DPS monster
If you have two of them for a combat including 9th level Spellcasting and lower ... thats fair and decent and your Barbarian Multiclass is just a bit better but not insanely soling all combat encounters
Except I'd argue that, for all intents and purposes, it hasn't gone away. Moon druids are unlikely to be focused on spellcasting, and giving them the ability to use spell slots for using WS - something that scales as they level up - in effect is giving the moon druid endless WS ability, especially when combined with regaining the ability after a short rest.
My posts upthread deal with this. Even if the moon druid uses only half their available spell slots for WS, that's a huge and generally unmatched HP boost.
I didnt read every post, but lets imagine for a brief moment of silence a level 14 Totem Barbarian / 6 Moon Druid ... Wildshaping into an Allosaurus ...
With a decent CON you have over 200 HP, dealing 2d10+4 on each Attack, benefitting from all Features, having total resistances (except psychic)... You can Wildshape twice ... increasing your total HP pool to 800 and atlast, you become yourself ..
Sorry where are you getting these numbers? With this build, WS into an Allosaurus would net you 18 thp on top of your barbarian hit points. You'd have 1 attack with +6 to hit and deal 2d10+8 damage with that attack, and have an AC of 16-17.
Whereas, as a level 20 Barbarian would have two attacks with a +12 to hit and deal 1d12+10 on a hit, plus have Cleave for a possible 3rd attack. Assuming you don't have a magic weapon, but honestly who makes it to level 20 without a magic weapon?
You'll be facing enemies with ACs of 22 meaning your Barbarian hits on a 9+, and the Allosaurus hits on a 16+ So I'm not getting how this is broken?
I didnt read every post, but lets imagine for a brief moment of silence a level 14 Totem Barbarian / 6 Moon Druid ... Wildshaping into an Allosaurus ...
With a decent CON you have over 200 HP, dealing 2d10+4 on each Attack, benefitting from all Features, having total resistances (except psychic)... You can Wildshape twice ... increasing your total HP pool to 800 and atlast, you become yourself ..
Sorry where are you getting these numbers? With this build, WS into an Allosaurus would net you 18 thp on top of your barbarian hit points. You'd have 1 attack with +6 to hit and deal 2d10+8 damage with that attack, and have an AC of 16-17.
Whereas, as a level 20 Barbarian would have two attacks with a +12 to hit and deal 1d12+10 on a hit, plus have Cleave for a possible 3rd attack. Assuming you don't have a magic weapon, but honestly who makes it to level 20 without a magic weapon?
You'll be facing enemies with ACs of 22 meaning your Barbarian hits on a 9+, and the Allosaurus hits on a 16+ So I'm not getting how this is broken?
No Problem ill answer your questions, since i am doing this ...
Magic Weapons? Go Beast Barbarian .. otherwise deal Radiant damage, your decision on whether full resistance or magical weapons Beast Barbarian Quotes "
Bestial Soul
Beginning at 6th level, the feral power within you increases, causing the natural weapons of your Form of the Beast to count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. (you may argue .. what happens if i rage, and transforms my hands into claws and then wildshape .. do my claws look my my rage-claws or are they overwritten by the wildshapes claws e.g. there are a lot of points to debate later on)
If your DM tells you "only your natural transformed weapons count as your natural weapons" its kinda unlucky .. i would not rule this so specifically ..
The Wild Shapws States "Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the Beast, but you retain your Hit Points; Hit Dice; Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores; class features; species traits; languages; and feats. You also retain your skill and saving throw proficiencies and use your Proficiency Bonus for them, in addition to gaining those of the creature. "
So you can Rage and straight Double your HP pool and reckless Attack ... there we gain our insane HP pool from
How do we get any more to hit? Well if you DM wont give a Magic Item like Insignia of Claws with more than a +1 bonus .. here id go .. if my melees can get a +3 weapon so can the Druid get a +3 Insignia, just for fairness since he is more like a martial than a caster with the Barbarian classes
So we get 19 Str from Allosaurus + 4 + 6 prof + 3 equals +13 to hit always reckless attacking .. (i assume that you are always proficient with your natural weapons and you remain your PB ...so even on your Wildshape forms, this is debatable ... if you go for beast barbarien its no longer debatable, since its quite the same) So far we are just an animalistic fighter equivalent, doing some other cool stuff
If your DM denies you any of the single fair and square stuff above to grant you the equivalent power of a fighter that level ... i would not play Moon Druid at all .. i like to be an animalistic predator ripping enemies with my teeth apart ...
dealing 5d10 + 8 on a crit, if allowed adding my infectious fury for either 2d12 oder 4d12 if the crit doubles, for an insane hit .. just a great fantasy
Sorry but that entire post is just how Beast Barbarian is good. You're getting all of 18 temporary hit points from WS, your Strength is decreasing from 22 (20th level beast barb) to 19, your reckless, rage, critical damage etc... are all coming from beast barbarian. Traditional wisdom is that Animal form attacks are part of their Multiattack and cannot be substituted into Extra Attack nor can they be 'merged' with other types of attacks (e.g. monk unarmed strikes or beast barb weapons), likewise your proficiency bonus does not change the Animal form's to hit modifier. So most of what you assumed you could do, the majority of DMs and RAI say is NOT how it works.
PS doubling 200 hp does not give you 800 hp. So I have to assume your first post was just hysteria.
Apparently I'm doing something very, very wrong as a DM because I've found my player running a moon druid has been quite effective in combat using WS - there are a lot of beasts with helpful additional traits, attacks, and abilities. I don't agree that WS is somehow useless for combat.
WS is good for combat in tier 1. It rapidly falls behind the power curve in tier 2 -- low accuracy, low damage.
I think the variant for moon druid I like best is significantly more spell slot intensive, but also somewhat more potent. Here's my variant
3rd Level: Circle Forms
The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms. You may spend a spell slot to transform into a form with a CR up to the level of the slot you spend. If you do so, you also gain temporary hit points equal to 5x the level of the spell slot spent.
3rd Level: Combat Wild Shape
You may use your spell attack modifier in place of the beast's attack modifier. You may use your spell save DC in place of the beast's save DC (if any). You may use your Wisdom in place of the beast's Dexterity when determining Armor Class.
3rd Level: Focus Merging
If you are holding a druidic focus when you take on wild shape, you may choose to have it merge with your form and still provide its normal benefits, if any. If the focus is a magic weapon, it also applies its bonuses to your natural weapons. You may only merge one focus at a time.
3rd Level: Object Adaptation
When you use wild shape, you may choose to have worn objects reshape themselves for your new form. This does not apply to shields, but does apply to armor (which becomes barding).
3rd Level: Wild Casting
When you gain this feature, choose either Abjuration or Transmutation; you may cast spells from that college in wild shape. In addition, you may cast Moonbeam.
6th Level: Dire Form
You may transform into forms of unusual size and strength. Choose a beast you are familiar with, and modify as follows
Increase size by one type (small to medium, etc)
Add +4 Strength and +2 Constitution. Add +2 to hit
Double damage dice (and adjust for new strength)
Double hit dice (and increase die type to account for new size). Recalculate hit points based on new hit dice.
Adjust CR. CR 1/8 becomes CR 1, CR 1/4 becomes CR 2, for higher new CR = old CR * 2 + 2.
6th Level: Moonlit Form
Your wild shape is imbued with moonlight. You may do radiant damage with your natural weapons, instead of their normal type. You are immune to your own moonbeam spell.
Apparently I'm doing something very, very wrong as a DM because I've found my player running a moon druid has been quite effective in combat using WS - there are a lot of beasts with helpful additional traits, attacks, and abilities. I don't agree that WS is somehow useless for combat.
WS is good for combat in tier 1. It rapidly falls behind the power curve in tier 2 -- low accuracy, low damage.
It could be that I'm also conflating the druid in my group using WS and the multiple casters in the group using polymorph. The latter allows for higher CR critters (like mammoths) which they favor when space allows.
A brown bear is still very solid damage output at level 3.
That said, once you hit level 5 using wild shape to attack is about as useful as in 2014, which is to say not.
Moon Druid could really use an enhanced version of Primal Strike. Ideally, one that improves the form's accuracy and difficulty to escape their special attacks. Making it all based on the druid's spell hit/save would probably be the easiest solution. After all, the Wildshape is using a bunch of the druid's other stats to make it scale. Why shouldn't the form's to hit get to scale too?
Then have it add an extra 1D8 Radiant damage on top of Primal Strike's elemental damage or something.
A while back there was a UA with a prehistoric themed druid that had a dinosaur companion. One thing I liked from that was that the druid could sacrifice spell slots not to just give the pet more HP, but to give it access to powerful, spell-level special attacks like charges and such. Temporarily empowering the pet to dish out high damage in bursts. I think a mechanic like that would suit Moon Druid very well.
There are really a lot of ways Wizards can go with this. Moon Druid's damage just needs to be higher if it can't be an omega tank anymore.
I think to play test this at all, it really needs to be clarified what this means with the AC: "compare the Beast’s AC to your AC (including any armor you’re wearing but not a Shield)." I have a feeling that what they meant is "the AC of your armor", not including random magic bonuses (e.g. Ring of Protection), Dexterity, random class and feat bonuses, and spell bonuses (e.g. Barkskin, Shield), but probably (?) including the magical armor bonus of the armor.... maybe? Or... maybe they do literally mean that whatever your AC is when you Wildshape, that's the AC you go off of? That seems really... problematic.
But, I just don't see how you could playtest this without some clarification on that, since it's such a huge variation in AC.
But at THAT level is 20AC really impressive? I think overall CON+WIS might actually be a little underpowered, but I do think it's a lot more appropriate than using the gear's raw AC from before we shift. It just needs a little more oomph. Maybe half your proficiency bonus added on top? That'd give Mammoth 23AC, Giant Crocodile would be at 20AC, and Giant Scorpion would be sitting at 18AC.
Yeah, proficiency might do the trick. It has to be something that level scales but isn't full of weird potential pitfalls. Another idea that occurred to me is to make it like a free level scaling Barkskin, for example your Wildshape AC is never less than 10+half druid level, so like a level 10 druid's wildshapes all have an AC of at least 15. I'm not sure what the exact appropriate number for the minimum would be (12+1/3 level?, 10+Prof+Wis?), but it has the advantage that the Barkskin lower limit mechanic is pretty well established, and it's got a lot of druidic history.
But at THAT level is 20AC really impressive? I think overall CON+WIS might actually be a little underpowered, but I do think it's a lot more appropriate than using the gear's raw AC from before we shift. It just needs a little more oomph. Maybe half your proficiency bonus added on top? That'd give Mammoth 23AC, Giant Crocodile would be at 20AC, and Giant Scorpion would be sitting at 18AC.
Yeah, proficiency might do the trick. It has to be something that level scales but isn't full of weird potential pitfalls. Another idea that occurred to me is to make it like a free level scaling Barkskin, for example your Wildshape AC is never less than 10+half druid level, so like a level 10 druid's wildshapes all have an AC of at least 15. I'm not sure what the exact appropriate number for the minimum would be (12+1/3 level?, 10+Prof+Wis?), but it has the advantage that the Barkskin lower limit mechanic is pretty well established, and it's got a lot of druidic history.
A5e by enpublishing use something similar for their ac but its 12+1/4 (+ wis mod for their skinchanger which is their version of moon druid) druid level rounded down or the forms ac which ever is higher and 1d4xcr thp (double for skinchanger)
Hm.. the more I look at all these fixes, the more I think Wildshape in combat is unfixable. And that's fine. Druid is a full caster it doesn't need to be able to turn into a melee-combatant competitive with a full martial using Wildshape. Let Wildshape just be a utility feature, which it is great as, and leave druid as a battlefield control / support caster in combat. Make Elemental Fury broadly useful: "When you deal damage to a creature using an attack or a spell, you can deal 1d8 additional damage -. This damage can be fire, acid, cold, lightning, or thunder. You can only deal this damage to one creature once per turn."
And replace finish making Moon druid not be focused on using WS in combat. Druids can always use Polymorph and Shapechange on themselves at higher levels to turn into a beast to rip enemies to pieces. Just add Alter Self to the Primal spell list as well for their Tier 1 combat shapechanging.
Instead they should include the Beast Barbarian in One D&D PHB and it should be the "turn into an animal and rip the enemies to pieces" class/subclass.
Make the AC when in wild shape similar to the Loxodons natural armor
You have thick, leathery skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier.
But make it 12 + wisdom modifier for most Druids and for Moon Druids 12 + wis + con/dex/str modifier (their choice). This only while in wild shape as it represents the hide, scales, feathers or fur, all of which are hard to penetrate.
Moon Druid gets the extra modifier bonus because they are more attuned to the combat nature of the wild shape
Hm.. the more I look at all these fixes, the more I think Wildshape in combat is unfixable.
That's grossly overstating the problem. There's three core problems:
Beasts generally have too low accuracy to be viable at high levels. Fixable by letting the druid use their spell attack modifier.
CR = level/3 starts off too high and scales too slowly. Fixable by using a different formula.
A wild shape that's actually good in combat is too powerful for a subclass feature. Fixable by making it cost an important resource such as spell slots.
Allowing species traits to carry over into Wild Shape creates some interesting possibilities:
Fairy Druid -> wild boar: pigs might fly?
Dhampir Moon Druid -> spider-climbing brontosaurus with a vampiric bite?
Plasmoid -> mammoth that can squeeze through a 1” gap?
Tortle -> spider with AC17?
Tabaxi -> snake with claws?
Am I missing a restriction?
Personally, I like the quirkiness that comes with this ruling. It also helps solve the Wildshape problem, because balancing an ability that makes you lose ALL FEATURES that aren't from the beast's stat block is a nightmare and ruins multiclassing. The more features you lose on transforming the stronger each form needs to be on its own to compensate.
Hm.. the more I look at all these fixes, the more I think Wildshape in combat is unfixable.
That's grossly overstating the problem. There's three core problems:
Beasts generally have too low accuracy to be viable at high levels. Fixable by letting the druid use their spell attack modifier.
CR = level/3 starts off too high and scales too slowly. Fixable by using a different formula.
A wild shape that's actually good in combat is too powerful for a subclass feature. Fixable by making it cost an important resource such as spell slots.
Yah, it's honestly not that hard of a problem. There are a lot of ways Wizards can change things to make combat Wildshape viable. I'm personally most in favor of just letting Moon Druids cast in Wildshape form so the Wildshape acts as a layer of defense, utility, and superior damage output to a cantrip between casts, but doesn't separate the druid entirely from their core class mechanic unless they're willing to expend Wildshape uses.
With Beast Spells coming online much earlier for Moon Druids they'd functionally be similar to Valor/Sword bards or War Clerics. Full casters that can fight in melee between big spells rather than sitting in the backline. At the end of the day, that's all Combat Wildshape needs to be able to do. Let the Druid have a melee subclass. There's no reason ALL of the class' damage, utility, and defense needs to come from the one feature. They can, and should, be falling back on magic too.
But barring Beast Spells being moved to level 6 or so, I do think burning spell slots for offensive power would be a step in the right direction too.
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Ah thanks for the correction. I was glazing over at the giant text-block of wild shape. The new baseline Wild Shape is good now, but I'm not interested in this version of Moon druid, some of it's non-WS features are interesting but the core fantasy of transforming in combat isn't fulfilled.
I didnt read every post, but lets imagine for a brief moment of silence a level 14 Totem Barbarian / 6 Moon Druid ... Wildshaping into an Allosaurus ...
With a decent CON you have over 200 HP, dealing 2d10+4 on each Attack, benefitting from all Features, having total resistances (except psychic)...
You can Wildshape twice ... increasing your total HP pool to 800 and atlast, you become yourself ..
with a 1d12 weapon .. gaining 18 temp HP addititonally each Wildshape .. so youve got a total HP pool of 1272 HP per Short rest.. this number can go as high as 1782 HP per Short Rest (including 20 CON and Tough Feat)
Where are my 2 Tarrasque at once to face? i need a new challenge CR 30 simply not enough...
this UA Change is stupididly broken and cant go threw espacially our level 14 feature relies on a second level 2 spell ... please WOTC get rid of this shit noone wants to play 2nd Level Spells if you can cast 5th/6th/7th level concentration spells ... i dont know what they did, but it was under drugs and alcohol at midnight in a party club
Apparently I'm doing something very, very wrong as a DM because I've found my player running a moon druid has been quite effective in combat using WS - there are a lot of beasts with helpful additional traits, attacks, and abilities. I don't agree that WS is somehow useless for combat.
Thinking about this, my suggested fix is tying the number of WS per day to PB, but allowing the moon druid to recover 1 use per short rest (though I'd likely limit the number of short rests per day to 3 or 4, assuming locations and circumstances allow that many.
No no no ... the HP buff is very important since they are taking our endlessly wildshaping feature away (which is broken either) instead you go and increase the HP of your wildshapes like +5 per Druid level, so you have around 8+19*5+20*2 (if your con is 14) + 100 equals ~ 260ish HP in each Wildshape.
Tying the Wildshapes to PB may do the same, but each Wildshape may get easily downed against high CR or high DPS monster
If you have two of them for a combat including 9th level Spellcasting and lower ... thats fair and decent and your Barbarian Multiclass is just a bit better but not insanely soling all combat encounters
Except I'd argue that, for all intents and purposes, it hasn't gone away. Moon druids are unlikely to be focused on spellcasting, and giving them the ability to use spell slots for using WS - something that scales as they level up - in effect is giving the moon druid endless WS ability, especially when combined with regaining the ability after a short rest.
My posts upthread deal with this. Even if the moon druid uses only half their available spell slots for WS, that's a huge and generally unmatched HP boost.
Sorry where are you getting these numbers? With this build, WS into an Allosaurus would net you 18 thp on top of your barbarian hit points. You'd have 1 attack with +6 to hit and deal 2d10+8 damage with that attack, and have an AC of 16-17.
Whereas, as a level 20 Barbarian would have two attacks with a +12 to hit and deal 1d12+10 on a hit, plus have Cleave for a possible 3rd attack. Assuming you don't have a magic weapon, but honestly who makes it to level 20 without a magic weapon?
You'll be facing enemies with ACs of 22 meaning your Barbarian hits on a 9+, and the Allosaurus hits on a 16+ So I'm not getting how this is broken?
No Problem ill answer your questions, since i am doing this ...
Magic Weapons? Go Beast Barbarian .. otherwise deal Radiant damage, your decision on whether full resistance or magical weapons
Beast Barbarian Quotes "
Bestial Soul
Beginning at 6th level, the feral power within you increases, causing the natural weapons of your Form of the Beast to count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. (you may argue .. what happens if i rage, and transforms my hands into claws and then wildshape .. do my claws look my my rage-claws or are they overwritten by the wildshapes claws e.g. there are a lot of points to debate later on)
If your DM tells you "only your natural transformed weapons count as your natural weapons" its kinda unlucky .. i would not rule this so specifically ..
The Wild Shapws States "Your game statistics are
replaced by the statistics of the Beast, but you
retain your Hit Points; Hit Dice; Intelligence,
Wisdom, and Charisma scores; class features;
species traits; languages; and feats. You also
retain your skill and saving throw
proficiencies and use your Proficiency Bonus
for them, in addition to gaining those of the
creature. "
So you can Rage and straight Double your HP pool and reckless Attack ... there we gain our insane HP pool from
How do we get any more to hit? Well if you DM wont give a Magic Item like Insignia of Claws with more than a +1 bonus .. here id go .. if my melees can get a +3 weapon so can the Druid get a +3 Insignia, just for fairness since he is more like a martial than a caster with the Barbarian classes
So we get 19 Str from Allosaurus + 4 + 6 prof + 3 equals +13 to hit always reckless attacking .. (i assume that you are always proficient with your natural weapons and you remain your PB ...so even on your Wildshape forms, this is debatable ... if you go for beast barbarien its no longer debatable, since its quite the same)
So far we are just an animalistic fighter equivalent, doing some other cool stuff
If your DM denies you any of the single fair and square stuff above to grant you the equivalent power of a fighter that level ... i would not play Moon Druid at all .. i like to be an animalistic predator ripping enemies with my teeth apart ...
dealing 5d10 + 8 on a crit, if allowed adding my infectious fury for either 2d12 oder 4d12 if the crit doubles, for an insane hit .. just a great fantasy
Sorry but that entire post is just how Beast Barbarian is good. You're getting all of 18 temporary hit points from WS, your Strength is decreasing from 22 (20th level beast barb) to 19, your reckless, rage, critical damage etc... are all coming from beast barbarian. Traditional wisdom is that Animal form attacks are part of their Multiattack and cannot be substituted into Extra Attack nor can they be 'merged' with other types of attacks (e.g. monk unarmed strikes or beast barb weapons), likewise your proficiency bonus does not change the Animal form's to hit modifier. So most of what you assumed you could do, the majority of DMs and RAI say is NOT how it works.
PS doubling 200 hp does not give you 800 hp. So I have to assume your first post was just hysteria.
WS is good for combat in tier 1. It rapidly falls behind the power curve in tier 2 -- low accuracy, low damage.
I think the variant for moon druid I like best is significantly more spell slot intensive, but also somewhat more potent. Here's my variant
It could be that I'm also conflating the druid in my group using WS and the multiple casters in the group using polymorph. The latter allows for higher CR critters (like mammoths) which they favor when space allows.
Moon Druid could really use an enhanced version of Primal Strike. Ideally, one that improves the form's accuracy and difficulty to escape their special attacks. Making it all based on the druid's spell hit/save would probably be the easiest solution. After all, the Wildshape is using a bunch of the druid's other stats to make it scale. Why shouldn't the form's to hit get to scale too?
Then have it add an extra 1D8 Radiant damage on top of Primal Strike's elemental damage or something.
A while back there was a UA with a prehistoric themed druid that had a dinosaur companion. One thing I liked from that was that the druid could sacrifice spell slots not to just give the pet more HP, but to give it access to powerful, spell-level special attacks like charges and such. Temporarily empowering the pet to dish out high damage in bursts. I think a mechanic like that would suit Moon Druid very well.
There are really a lot of ways Wizards can go with this. Moon Druid's damage just needs to be higher if it can't be an omega tank anymore.
I think to play test this at all, it really needs to be clarified what this means with the AC: "compare the Beast’s AC to your AC (including any armor you’re wearing but not a Shield)."
I have a feeling that what they meant is "the AC of your armor", not including random magic bonuses (e.g. Ring of Protection), Dexterity, random class and feat bonuses, and spell bonuses (e.g. Barkskin, Shield), but probably (?) including the magical armor bonus of the armor.... maybe? Or... maybe they do literally mean that whatever your AC is when you Wildshape, that's the AC you go off of? That seems really... problematic.
But, I just don't see how you could playtest this without some clarification on that, since it's such a huge variation in AC.
Yeah, proficiency might do the trick. It has to be something that level scales but isn't full of weird potential pitfalls. Another idea that occurred to me is to make it like a free level scaling Barkskin, for example your Wildshape AC is never less than 10+half druid level, so like a level 10 druid's wildshapes all have an AC of at least 15. I'm not sure what the exact appropriate number for the minimum would be (12+1/3 level?, 10+Prof+Wis?), but it has the advantage that the Barkskin lower limit mechanic is pretty well established, and it's got a lot of druidic history.
A5e by enpublishing use something similar for their ac but its 12+1/4 (+ wis mod for their skinchanger which is their version of moon druid) druid level rounded down or the forms ac which ever is higher and 1d4xcr thp (double for skinchanger)
Hm.. the more I look at all these fixes, the more I think Wildshape in combat is unfixable. And that's fine. Druid is a full caster it doesn't need to be able to turn into a melee-combatant competitive with a full martial using Wildshape. Let Wildshape just be a utility feature, which it is great as, and leave druid as a battlefield control / support caster in combat. Make Elemental Fury broadly useful:
"When you deal damage to a creature using an attack or a spell, you can deal 1d8 additional damage -. This damage can be fire, acid, cold, lightning, or thunder. You can only deal this damage to one creature once per turn."
And replace finish making Moon druid not be focused on using WS in combat. Druids can always use Polymorph and Shapechange on themselves at higher levels to turn into a beast to rip enemies to pieces. Just add Alter Self to the Primal spell list as well for their Tier 1 combat shapechanging.
Instead they should include the Beast Barbarian in One D&D PHB and it should be the "turn into an animal and rip the enemies to pieces" class/subclass.
Make the AC when in wild shape similar to the Loxodons natural armor
You have thick, leathery skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier.
But make it 12 + wisdom modifier for most Druids and for Moon Druids 12 + wis + con/dex/str modifier (their choice). This only while in wild shape as it represents the hide, scales, feathers or fur, all of which are hard to penetrate.
Moon Druid gets the extra modifier bonus because they are more attuned to the combat nature of the wild shape
Allowing species traits to carry over into Wild Shape creates some interesting possibilities:
Fairy Druid -> wild boar: pigs might fly?
Dhampir Moon Druid -> spider-climbing brontosaurus with a vampiric bite?
Plasmoid -> mammoth that can squeeze through a 1” gap?
Tortle -> spider with AC17?
Tabaxi -> snake with claws?
Am I missing a restriction?
That's grossly overstating the problem. There's three core problems:
Personally, I like the quirkiness that comes with this ruling. It also helps solve the Wildshape problem, because balancing an ability that makes you lose ALL FEATURES that aren't from the beast's stat block is a nightmare and ruins multiclassing. The more features you lose on transforming the stronger each form needs to be on its own to compensate.
Yah, it's honestly not that hard of a problem. There are a lot of ways Wizards can change things to make combat Wildshape viable. I'm personally most in favor of just letting Moon Druids cast in Wildshape form so the Wildshape acts as a layer of defense, utility, and superior damage output to a cantrip between casts, but doesn't separate the druid entirely from their core class mechanic unless they're willing to expend Wildshape uses.
With Beast Spells coming online much earlier for Moon Druids they'd functionally be similar to Valor/Sword bards or War Clerics. Full casters that can fight in melee between big spells rather than sitting in the backline. At the end of the day, that's all Combat Wildshape needs to be able to do. Let the Druid have a melee subclass. There's no reason ALL of the class' damage, utility, and defense needs to come from the one feature. They can, and should, be falling back on magic too.
But barring Beast Spells being moved to level 6 or so, I do think burning spell slots for offensive power would be a step in the right direction too.