The druid has always been a finnicky class for me.
I like their perspective when it comes to roleplaying...the sort of outsider, the sage, the hermit, or just sheer force of nature...but I wasn't the biggest fan of the Wild Shape.
Not to say that the "Wild Shape" wasn't useful...obviously, the ability to become an animal has its own immense utility when the time is right...but for combat, it was a lot to keep track of...knowing your animal stats, Challenge Ratings, the awkward pauses in combat as you figure out these factors...
...and it simply wasn't what I pictured when wanting to play a druid. I saw druids as these embodiments of nature...elementalists who beckoned forth the powers of storms, plants, and other elemental spells.
Needless to say, I was impressed with the new Circle of the Wildfire druid...it allows me to play the druid as a warrior-champion of nature.
The "Wildfire Spirit" mechanic is an appealing alternative to Wildshape...summoning a companion (which is just a delightful roleplaying mechanic), to help enhance combat and the druid's own spellcasting...and the sheer battlefield utility this brings is staggering.
Teleporting your allies while also damaging your enemies in a fiery blaze is like a beautiful merging of "Misty Step" and "Thunder Step"...being able to cast your spells through the Wildfire Spirit...turning your enemy corpses into bombs...shrugging off a fatal blow AND bursting into flame like a phoenix rising...it is most formidable.
And balancing the fact that, yes, most enemies at higher level will have fire resistance or immunity, you have the option of bolstering your healing capability...so in short, the WIldfire druid is both a battlefield blaster AND decent healer.
Not to mention, the fire spells the druid gains completes the image of an elementalist...with the damaging fire spells, the druid is free to prepare whatever other elements they may need..."Call Lightning", "Gust of Wind", "Water Sphere", "Entangle"...
The roleplaying allows for certain characters I might not have otherwise created...a Fire Genasi who dreams of embracing their full Efreeti heritage, complete with scimitar and fiery power...an Entertainer who delights audiences with their fire-dancing, as they teleport around the stage with their animal companion...an anarchist druid who decides that civilization needs a little "balance" and decides to raze a town or city to the ground in flames, so that new nature can grow from the ashes...
What are some thoughts about this new Circle of Wildfire druid?
What are some character concepts you'll be creating with it?
You can always tell who learned what a druid was from D&D and who learned what a druid was from other sources.
Other Sources: "Druids? oh yeah! Those forest mystics and spiritualists who commune with nature and command primal forces and stuff!" D&D: "Druids? Oh yeah! Those warrior hippie guys who turn into bears!"
The Wild Shape has always seemed super weird to me, and the class as a whole has suffered for it. Wildfire's caught a lot of attention amongst our group for being a new take that lets you play up the whole animist/mystic idea without feeling like you're wasting your Wild Shape feature by deciding turning into bears isn't your bag. Using that feature to instead summon a primal spirit that acts on your behalf is such a cool and interesting idea that half my group is building Wildfire druids as part of their Backup Character Pool.
I'm hoping Wizards sits up and takes notice. As useful as Wild Shape can be, not every druid is a closet furry.
I love the idea and most of the abilities. It has flare, it can be flavored well, it has cool mechanics. I have one large problem with them. Their level 14 ability can give them waaaay to many temporary hit points, and deal damage, all while resisting death. I've made a post to a thread about this before, but it is stronger for them than other classes which can do this. The celestial warlock's Searing Vengeance is strong, but not THIS over powered. It can blind people, yes, do damage, yes, and heals them to half health, yes. With the wild fire druid, they get 70 temporary hit points at level 14, compared to a warlock getting only half of their max, which isn't to high, because they are a full caster. It may not be a d6, but still. The druid can still get to level 20, so 100 temporary hit points. While it doesn't blind people with the druid's power, it does more damage, I see it as significantly more compared to Searing Vengeance.
Another thing about the ability, is druids can actually heal themselves. Warlocks cannot heal nearly as well, although they do get cure wounds with celestial. This can still only be upcasted to level 5, and all their class features that heal are taking up their features, while the wildfire druid gets good features, and can heal normally. Even with the warlock's class feature, they can only heal 5d6 at a time, up to 5 times in very ideal conditions.
The druid also can wildshape, and the hit points are temporary, letting their wild shape last that much longer, with 100 extra health.
I think this is just a way overpowered ability for the class in particular. Something like this would be fitting for something that can't heal themselves and make more health.
One of the thinks I like most about this is that it opens up the option for elemental, interplanar druids. - or at least non-fey druids. Not too many trees to hug on the plane of fire, but a genasi wildfire Druid is right at home (and then, very confused about being pulled onto the material plane)
I’m still looking at builds, but I wonder if it’s a little unbalanced - while the wildfire spirit is a brilliant idea, it’s actions seem a little off - is it effectively acting as an chainlock’s familiar, with bonus tele-boom-portation? It swaps out telepathic communication for the battle-only skill of forming healing spots where and when something dies (better hope something dies in easy reach of your arrow-catching wizard), and only does ranged damage. Whereas the power of blazing endurance does need to be dialled back a bit. It’s also notable that the elemental adept feat is more or less obligatory, given the commonness of fire resistances. I kind of wish it has some non-combat utility.
I would switch Flame Strike for Immolation. Flame Strike has that divine ring to it, which doesn't go well with the theme of wildfire, while Immolation is more elemental.
On the one hand, flame strike is a 10ft radius cylinder, good for fireballing both ground and air targets in the same move, whereas immolation is single-target and concentration. On the other hand, immolation is both more fun and absolutely more thematic.
The non-combat utility comes from the "is a druid" part. Frankly, Wildfire handles your combat needs so cleanly that when selecting the rest of your spells and abilities you can freely focus on utility selections and let your subclass carry fights for you.
One of the thinks I like most about this is that it opens up the option for elemental, interplanar druids. - or at least non-fey druids. Not too many trees to hug on the plane of fire, but a genasi wildfire Druid is right at home (and then, very confused about being pulled onto the material plane)
I’m still looking at builds, but I wonder if it’s a little unbalanced - while the wildfire spirit is a brilliant idea, it’s actions seem a little off - is it effectively acting as an chainlock’s familiar, with bonus tele-boom-portation? It swaps out telepathic communication for the battle-only skill of forming healing spots where and when something dies (better hope something dies in easy reach of your arrow-catching wizard), and only does ranged damage. Whereas the power of blazing endurance does need to be dialled back a bit. It’s also notable that the elemental adept feat is more or less obligatory, given the commonness of fire resistances. I kind of wish it has some non-combat utility.
A bonus action teleport has great utility (and can be good in a quick escape plan with your group), but it is also that the druid can cast their own spells THROUGH that wildfire spirit, too.
Honestly, if anything needs a slight adjustment, it's that those temporary hit point should be downgraded to about, say, "three times the druid level".
It is a high-level ability, and at 14th level 70THP can disappear surprisingly fast. I get the feeling they were aiming for a Fiery Last Stand thing, especially since it's temporary HP and not 'real' healing; the druid is still on the ragged edge of death, he's basically going on sheer chutzpah and stubborn. Which seems apropos for a druid that's all about the cycle of destruction and creation.
It is a high-level ability, and at 14th level 70THP can disappear surprisingly fast. I get the feeling they were aiming for a Fiery Last Stand thing, especially since it's temporary HP and not 'real' healing; the druid is still on the ragged edge of death, he's basically going on sheer chutzpah and stubborn. Which seems apropos for a druid that's all about the cycle of destruction and creation.
You make it sound so reasonable! : ]
And considering my sturdy barbarian was nearly decimated by a six-armed warrior demoness...well, perhaps those hit points are justified.
I dont think that the 14th level ability is overpowered BECAUSE if you are summoning your Spirit, then you cannot also wildshape, it is one or the other. So to give this class an ability to use your spirit and also maintain some of the sustainability that a general druid has is a perfectly valid option IMO.
I truly love this subclass, i like the new direction they are going with druid where wild shape does just mean "Animorph" even if it does highlight the fact that until you are 20th level you can only use it twice which is pretty lame but oh well. This class very specifically adds a lot of duality potential on the roleplay side of things, which is most important tom me usually
As a Wildfire (or even spores) druid, you have the ability to play more like a wizard, a spellslinger of sorts while still being a elemental and nature based. I have an idea for an Archfey Warlock/Wildfire druid with an interesting backstory that i wont share here for texts sake but it just opens a new doorway down a typically streamlined class, from a roleplay perspective
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
Thankfully, the healing aspects of the Wildfire Druid help to give you purpose beyond dealing damage...and the "Fire Shield" spell gives you fire resistance. That's bound to help in Hell, a bit.
Having a Light Cleric currently in Avernus, I realized my "Fireball" spell has limited use...but I've made it somewhat fun. He spitefully uses the fire spells in the vain hope it works.
"Y'all will FEAR my WRATH, hellspawn...godammit, why aren't y'all burning in agony? Y'all embarrassing me in front o' my deity!"
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
Thankfully, the healing aspects of the Wildfire Druid help to give you purpose beyond dealing damage...and the "Fire Shield" spell gives you fire resistance. That's bound to help in Hell, a bit.
Having a Light Cleric currently in Avernus, I realized my "Fireball" spell has limited use...but I've made it somewhat fun. He spitefully uses the fire spells in the vain hope it works.
"Y'all will FEAR my WRATH, hellspawn...godammit, why aren't y'all burning in agony? Y'all embarrassing me in front o' my deity!"
I love this, even if it is useless, making a fireball always is fun. I would like more druid subclasses like this, possibly summoning a fey-ghost thing that can possess people, called Circle of Midnight possibly? I love druids and they are the most powerful class at level 20 as Circle of the Moon, but they are super hard to play.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
Thankfully, the healing aspects of the Wildfire Druid help to give you purpose beyond dealing damage...and the "Fire Shield" spell gives you fire resistance. That's bound to help in Hell, a bit.
Having a Light Cleric currently in Avernus, I realized my "Fireball" spell has limited use...but I've made it somewhat fun. He spitefully uses the fire spells in the vain hope it works.
"Y'all will FEAR my WRATH, hellspawn...godammit, why aren't y'all burning in agony? Y'all embarrassing me in front o' my deity!"
I love this, even if it is useless, making a fireball always is fun. I would like more druid subclasses like this, possibly summoning a fey-ghost thing that can possess people, called Circle of Midnight possibly? I love druids and they are the most powerful class at level 20 as Circle of the Moon, but they are super hard to play.
Circle of Midnight sounds VERY interesting...seems like it would pair well with a multiclass into the new "Twilight Domain" cleric that released, being a Wisdom class.
Druids did at one point have a "Circle of Twilight" Unearthed Arcana, which involved druids who travelled to grim, dark places to rid them of hostile undead and evil...they were "spooky" druids, who could imbue attacks with necrotic damage, "Speak with Dead" and become ethereal once per long rest. I believe they also got necrotic resistance, or some such bonus.
It was amazingly cool flavor...but the features seemed a bit weak, so I suppose it never moved forward.
Your fey-ghost concept seems like an interesting way to bring that Circle back...and "Circle of Midnight" is a nice name for it.
"Circle of Dreams" was fey-themed, and had that nifty teleportation feature for allies and the druid...that fits the ghostly aesthetic, and might have made for a cool feature.
Perhaps...an option to use Wildshape to become ethereal? Similar to using "Blink" or "Etherealness", yet only temporarily?
Kind of like a Phase Spider, you can call it "Ethereal Jaunt"...the druid alters their form to become intangible, temporarily slipping into the Ethereal Plane. The druid may use their bonus action on their turn to re-enter the Material Plane, and continue to use their bonus action to shift between both planes for up to one minutes, provided they do not become incapacitated.
This sort of feature is strong, because it allows the druid to temporarily evade damage, and maintain concentration on a particular spell without fear of interruption...but if they return to the Material Plane, they become exposed again. It creates a cat-and-mouse playstyle. It also fits the Wildshape theme of the druid altering their form.
Huh...I might have to homebrew this. Create a background about druids who extend their protection of the natural order to realms beyond the planes, similar to the "Horizon Walker" rangers.
"Circle of Stars", maybe.
Perhaps give them some divination features, too...make them stargazers, navigators, and planeswalkers...and the mortal enemies of aberrations and Far Realm-entities that destabilize the order of the planes.
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
Thankfully, the healing aspects of the Wildfire Druid help to give you purpose beyond dealing damage...and the "Fire Shield" spell gives you fire resistance. That's bound to help in Hell, a bit.
Having a Light Cleric currently in Avernus, I realized my "Fireball" spell has limited use...but I've made it somewhat fun. He spitefully uses the fire spells in the vain hope it works.
"Y'all will FEAR my WRATH, hellspawn...godammit, why aren't y'all burning in agony? Y'all embarrassing me in front o' my deity!"
I love this, even if it is useless, making a fireball always is fun. I would like more druid subclasses like this, possibly summoning a fey-ghost thing that can possess people, called Circle of Midnight possibly? I love druids and they are the most powerful class at level 20 as Circle of the Moon, but they are super hard to play.
Circle of Midnight sounds VERY interesting...seems like it would pair well with a multiclass into the new "Twilight Domain" cleric that released, being a Wisdom class.
Druids did at one point have a "Circle of Twilight" Unearthed Arcana, which involved druids who travelled to grim, dark places to rid them of hostile undead and evil...they were "spooky" druids, who could imbue attacks with necrotic damage, "Speak with Dead" and become ethereal once per long rest. I believe they also got necrotic resistance, or some such bonus.
It was amazingly cool flavor...but the features seemed a bit weak, so I suppose it never moved forward.
Your fey-ghost concept seems like an interesting way to bring that Circle back...and "Circle of Midnight" is a nice name for it.
"Circle of Dreams" was fey-themed, and had that nifty teleportation feature for allies and the druid...that fits the ghostly aesthetic, and might have made for a cool feature.
Perhaps...an option to use Wildshape to become ethereal? Similar to using "Blink" or "Etherealness", yet only temporarily?
Kind of like a Phase Spider, you can call it "Ethereal Jaunt"...the druid alters their form to become intangible, temporarily slipping into the Ethereal Plane. The druid may use their bonus action on their turn to re-enter the Material Plane, and continue to use their bonus action to shift between both planes for up to one minutes, provided they do not become incapacitated.
This sort of feature is strong, because it allows the druid to temporarily evade damage, and maintain concentration on a particular spell without fear of interruption...but if they return to the Material Plane, they become exposed again. It creates a cat-and-mouse playstyle. It also fits the Wildshape theme of the druid altering their form.
Huh...I might have to homebrew this. Create a background about druids who extend their protection of the natural order to realms beyond the planes, similar to the "Horizon Walker" rangers.
"Circle of Stars", maybe.
Perhaps give them some divination features, too...make them stargazers, navigators, and planeswalkers...and the mortal enemies of aberrations and Far Realm-entities that destabilize the order of the planes.
I might go as far as making this Circle of Midnight use a Wild Shape to permanently travel from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane, or vice versa if they are in the Ethereal Plane to come back to the Material Plane. I'm definitely going to make a subclass of this in the near future, I'd love to see this in the game.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
The druid has always been a finnicky class for me.
I like their perspective when it comes to roleplaying...the sort of outsider, the sage, the hermit, or just sheer force of nature...but I wasn't the biggest fan of the Wild Shape.
Not to say that the "Wild Shape" wasn't useful...obviously, the ability to become an animal has its own immense utility when the time is right...but for combat, it was a lot to keep track of...knowing your animal stats, Challenge Ratings, the awkward pauses in combat as you figure out these factors...
...and it simply wasn't what I pictured when wanting to play a druid. I saw druids as these embodiments of nature...elementalists who beckoned forth the powers of storms, plants, and other elemental spells.
Needless to say, I was impressed with the new Circle of the Wildfire druid...it allows me to play the druid as a warrior-champion of nature.
The "Wildfire Spirit" mechanic is an appealing alternative to Wildshape...summoning a companion (which is just a delightful roleplaying mechanic), to help enhance combat and the druid's own spellcasting...and the sheer battlefield utility this brings is staggering.
Teleporting your allies while also damaging your enemies in a fiery blaze is like a beautiful merging of "Misty Step" and "Thunder Step"...being able to cast your spells through the Wildfire Spirit...turning your enemy corpses into bombs...shrugging off a fatal blow AND bursting into flame like a phoenix rising...it is most formidable.
And balancing the fact that, yes, most enemies at higher level will have fire resistance or immunity, you have the option of bolstering your healing capability...so in short, the WIldfire druid is both a battlefield blaster AND decent healer.
Not to mention, the fire spells the druid gains completes the image of an elementalist...with the damaging fire spells, the druid is free to prepare whatever other elements they may need..."Call Lightning", "Gust of Wind", "Water Sphere", "Entangle"...
The roleplaying allows for certain characters I might not have otherwise created...a Fire Genasi who dreams of embracing their full Efreeti heritage, complete with scimitar and fiery power...an Entertainer who delights audiences with their fire-dancing, as they teleport around the stage with their animal companion...an anarchist druid who decides that civilization needs a little "balance" and decides to raze a town or city to the ground in flames, so that new nature can grow from the ashes...
What are some thoughts about this new Circle of Wildfire druid?
What are some character concepts you'll be creating with it?
Share below!
You can always tell who learned what a druid was from D&D and who learned what a druid was from other sources.
Other Sources: "Druids? oh yeah! Those forest mystics and spiritualists who commune with nature and command primal forces and stuff!"
D&D: "Druids? Oh yeah! Those warrior hippie guys who turn into bears!"
The Wild Shape has always seemed super weird to me, and the class as a whole has suffered for it. Wildfire's caught a lot of attention amongst our group for being a new take that lets you play up the whole animist/mystic idea without feeling like you're wasting your Wild Shape feature by deciding turning into bears isn't your bag. Using that feature to instead summon a primal spirit that acts on your behalf is such a cool and interesting idea that half my group is building Wildfire druids as part of their Backup Character Pool.
I'm hoping Wizards sits up and takes notice. As useful as Wild Shape can be, not every druid is a closet furry.
Please do not contact or message me.
I love the idea and most of the abilities. It has flare, it can be flavored well, it has cool mechanics. I have one large problem with them. Their level 14 ability can give them waaaay to many temporary hit points, and deal damage, all while resisting death. I've made a post to a thread about this before, but it is stronger for them than other classes which can do this. The celestial warlock's Searing Vengeance is strong, but not THIS over powered. It can blind people, yes, do damage, yes, and heals them to half health, yes. With the wild fire druid, they get 70 temporary hit points at level 14, compared to a warlock getting only half of their max, which isn't to high, because they are a full caster. It may not be a d6, but still. The druid can still get to level 20, so 100 temporary hit points. While it doesn't blind people with the druid's power, it does more damage, I see it as significantly more compared to Searing Vengeance.
Another thing about the ability, is druids can actually heal themselves. Warlocks cannot heal nearly as well, although they do get cure wounds with celestial. This can still only be upcasted to level 5, and all their class features that heal are taking up their features, while the wildfire druid gets good features, and can heal normally. Even with the warlock's class feature, they can only heal 5d6 at a time, up to 5 times in very ideal conditions.
The druid also can wildshape, and the hit points are temporary, letting their wild shape last that much longer, with 100 extra health.
I think this is just a way overpowered ability for the class in particular. Something like this would be fitting for something that can't heal themselves and make more health.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
One of the thinks I like most about this is that it opens up the option for elemental, interplanar druids. - or at least non-fey druids. Not too many trees to hug on the plane of fire, but a genasi wildfire Druid is right at home (and then, very confused about being pulled onto the material plane)
I’m still looking at builds, but I wonder if it’s a little unbalanced - while the wildfire spirit is a brilliant idea, it’s actions seem a little off - is it effectively acting as an chainlock’s familiar, with bonus tele-boom-portation? It swaps out telepathic communication for the battle-only skill of forming healing spots where and when something dies (better hope something dies in easy reach of your arrow-catching wizard), and only does ranged damage. Whereas the power of blazing endurance does need to be dialled back a bit. It’s also notable that the elemental adept feat is more or less obligatory, given the commonness of fire resistances. I kind of wish it has some non-combat utility.
I would switch Flame Strike for Immolation. Flame Strike has that divine ring to it, which doesn't go well with the theme of wildfire, while Immolation is more elemental.
On the one hand, flame strike is a 10ft radius cylinder, good for fireballing both ground and air targets in the same move, whereas immolation is single-target and concentration. On the other hand, immolation is both more fun and absolutely more thematic.
The non-combat utility comes from the "is a druid" part. Frankly, Wildfire handles your combat needs so cleanly that when selecting the rest of your spells and abilities you can freely focus on utility selections and let your subclass carry fights for you.
Please do not contact or message me.
Slightly off topic, but it always narks me when I see texts referring to druids reading books.
A bonus action teleport has great utility (and can be good in a quick escape plan with your group), but it is also that the druid can cast their own spells THROUGH that wildfire spirit, too.
Honestly, if anything needs a slight adjustment, it's that those temporary hit point should be downgraded to about, say, "three times the druid level".
Maybe only two. That's a lot of temporary HP.
It is a high-level ability, and at 14th level 70THP can disappear surprisingly fast. I get the feeling they were aiming for a Fiery Last Stand thing, especially since it's temporary HP and not 'real' healing; the druid is still on the ragged edge of death, he's basically going on sheer chutzpah and stubborn. Which seems apropos for a druid that's all about the cycle of destruction and creation.
Please do not contact or message me.
You make it sound so reasonable! : ]
And considering my sturdy barbarian was nearly decimated by a six-armed warrior demoness...well, perhaps those hit points are justified.
I dont think that the 14th level ability is overpowered BECAUSE if you are summoning your Spirit, then you cannot also wildshape, it is one or the other. So to give this class an ability to use your spirit and also maintain some of the sustainability that a general druid has is a perfectly valid option IMO.
I truly love this subclass, i like the new direction they are going with druid where wild shape does just mean "Animorph" even if it does highlight the fact that until you are 20th level you can only use it twice which is pretty lame but oh well. This class very specifically adds a lot of duality potential on the roleplay side of things, which is most important tom me usually
As a Wildfire (or even spores) druid, you have the ability to play more like a wizard, a spellslinger of sorts while still being a elemental and nature based. I have an idea for an Archfey Warlock/Wildfire druid with an interesting backstory that i wont share here for texts sake but it just opens a new doorway down a typically streamlined class, from a roleplay perspective
I love most of the mechanics of the spirit and the idea of mixing destruction with healing (somewhat like the twilight cleric), but the real problem I'm having with the wildfire druid is that I don't have any affinity for fire magic in any game. In particular, 5E makes fire almost the worst choice (probably only behind mundane weapon damage). Making a subclass that has quite heavy theme without any built in method to overcome the shortcomings of that theming seems problematic to me.
For example, I'm playing a druid in a Descent into Avernus campaign where I think that almost none of the fire spells and abilities would be particularly effective. I haven't read the adventure (since I'm playing in it), but I have peeked at the lists of Fiends here on DDB. I have noticed that nearly all of the Fiends are fire resistant or immune (mostly devils are immune). Granted, I'm not sure how much of the adventure is against demons and devils, but I'd imagine a significant portion. Choosing this subclass for my current campaign seems quite suboptimal.
Thankfully, the healing aspects of the Wildfire Druid help to give you purpose beyond dealing damage...and the "Fire Shield" spell gives you fire resistance. That's bound to help in Hell, a bit.
Having a Light Cleric currently in Avernus, I realized my "Fireball" spell has limited use...but I've made it somewhat fun. He spitefully uses the fire spells in the vain hope it works.
"Y'all will FEAR my WRATH, hellspawn...godammit, why aren't y'all burning in agony? Y'all embarrassing me in front o' my deity!"
I love this, even if it is useless, making a fireball always is fun. I would like more druid subclasses like this, possibly summoning a fey-ghost thing that can possess people, called Circle of Midnight possibly? I love druids and they are the most powerful class at level 20 as Circle of the Moon, but they are super hard to play.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Circle of Midnight sounds VERY interesting...seems like it would pair well with a multiclass into the new "Twilight Domain" cleric that released, being a Wisdom class.
Druids did at one point have a "Circle of Twilight" Unearthed Arcana, which involved druids who travelled to grim, dark places to rid them of hostile undead and evil...they were "spooky" druids, who could imbue attacks with necrotic damage, "Speak with Dead" and become ethereal once per long rest. I believe they also got necrotic resistance, or some such bonus.
It was amazingly cool flavor...but the features seemed a bit weak, so I suppose it never moved forward.
Your fey-ghost concept seems like an interesting way to bring that Circle back...and "Circle of Midnight" is a nice name for it.
"Circle of Dreams" was fey-themed, and had that nifty teleportation feature for allies and the druid...that fits the ghostly aesthetic, and might have made for a cool feature.
Perhaps...an option to use Wildshape to become ethereal? Similar to using "Blink" or "Etherealness", yet only temporarily?
Kind of like a Phase Spider, you can call it "Ethereal Jaunt"...the druid alters their form to become intangible, temporarily slipping into the Ethereal Plane. The druid may use their bonus action on their turn to re-enter the Material Plane, and continue to use their bonus action to shift between both planes for up to one minutes, provided they do not become incapacitated.
This sort of feature is strong, because it allows the druid to temporarily evade damage, and maintain concentration on a particular spell without fear of interruption...but if they return to the Material Plane, they become exposed again. It creates a cat-and-mouse playstyle. It also fits the Wildshape theme of the druid altering their form.
Huh...I might have to homebrew this. Create a background about druids who extend their protection of the natural order to realms beyond the planes, similar to the "Horizon Walker" rangers.
"Circle of Stars", maybe.
Perhaps give them some divination features, too...make them stargazers, navigators, and planeswalkers...and the mortal enemies of aberrations and Far Realm-entities that destabilize the order of the planes.
I might go as far as making this Circle of Midnight use a Wild Shape to permanently travel from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane, or vice versa if they are in the Ethereal Plane to come back to the Material Plane. I'm definitely going to make a subclass of this in the near future, I'd love to see this in the game.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms