Ley Druid option -- replaces features gained at relevant levels
Font of Mana.
At 2nd level, you tap into a wellspring of magic via your mystical connection to the land. This wellspring is represented by mana points, which allow you to cast your spells more reliably.
Mana Points. You have 2 mana points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points Mana Points column of the Druid table. You can never have more mana points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent mana points when you finish a long rest.
Flexible Casting. You can use your mana points to gain additional spell slots. Creating Spell Slots. You can transform unexpended mana points into one spell slot as a bonus action on your turn. The Creating Spell Slots table shows the cost of creating a spell slot of a given level. You can create spell slots no higher in level than 5th. [At 18th level, you do not gain Beast Spells.] Replacement?? Mana Restoration? At 20th level, you regain 4 expended mana points whenever you finish a short rest.
[At 18th level, you do not gain Beast Spells.] Replacement??
Mana Restoration? At 20th level, you regain 4 expended mana points whenever you finish a short rest.
Familiar/Companion Druid option -- replaces all features gained at specified levels
Druid Familiar Starting at 2nd level, you learn the find familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast the spell, you can choose any beast you have seen before, though the familiar is a beast, not a celestial, fey, or fiend. Your druid level determines the beasts you can choose from, as shown in the *Druid Familiar table.
*The Druid Familiar table is identical to the Beast Shapes table, except it does not include restrictions on flying or swimming speeds.
Not Beast Spells!!! Familiar Spells? Starting at 18th level, when you cast any spell, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell.
Not Archdruid!!! Archdruid's Call? At 20th level, when you cast the find familiar spell, its casting time is 30 minutes, or 40 minutes if cast as a ritual.
Circle of the Familiar? -- Alternate Circle of the Moon class option
Familiar Companion. Starting when you choose this circle at 2nd level, add your proficiency bonus to your familiar's AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals its normal maximum or four times your druid level, whichever is higher. When you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own.
Circle Familiar. The rites of your circle grant your familiar the ability to take on more dangerous forms. Starting at 2nd level, your familiar can take the form of a beast with a challenge rating as high as 1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Druid Familiar table). Starting at 6th level, your familiar can take the form of a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.
Primal Strike??? Starting at 6th level, your familiar's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Elemental Familiar. Starting at 10th level, your familiar can take the form of an air elemental, an earth elemental, a fire elemental, or a water elemental.
Not Thousand Forms!!! Bestial Fury??? Starting at 14th level, your familiar can make two attacks when you use the Attack action to allow your familiar to make an attack of its own.
I'd really appreciate any helpful feedback: Is it good? Is it too good? Is it a ways off? Or terrible? Any suggestions on tweaking things to get roughly the same result, or nerf/buff things like how effective a feature is, or even as simple as one is gained at too high a level or too low a level.
Also, if there is one ? at the end of a feature name, it is mostly my uncertainty about the name, so consider it a placeholder name. If there are three ?s at the end of a feature name, then I am uncertain about whether or not the feature itself is appropriate, or fits properly in its placement in the leveling up process.
I feel perhaps "Familiar Spells" and "Archdruid's Call" maybe should be swapped.
The idea of having a Druid focused on an animal companions/familiar is a nice one, but I personally feel that the class festures are either strange or gotten at the incorrect level.
For example the familiar table can be useful, but usually "find familiar" is something that should be cast very few times if not just once (even though there is no real drawback for loosing a familiar in 5th edition) so the animal options based on the level feel a bit redundant to me.
On the other hand, the Familiar spells feature seems strange. The find familiar spell already allows a familiar to deliver a touch spell for his master while within a 100 feet radius. I believe with your wording you mean to have the familiar be the source of whatever spell the master might want, but in that case getting something like this at 18th level feels quite late. I'd grant it sooner, to be honest, in the first 10 levels, I'd say, and/or as part of the Circle of the Familiar features (so 3rd or 6th level). I'd also still keep the 100 feet radius limitation, maybe extending the radius for touch spells to 120/150 feet, just to give some extra utility (albeit the feature would be real powerful already).
Edit: I really like the Circle Familiar feature btw :)
Could there be a more appropriate alternative to Beast Spells and Archdruid where familiars would be concerned? I get the meaning behind not being able to cast spells in bestial form, but a familiar (which in this case, isn't combat ready unless you go for the familiar-equivalent of Circle of the Moon homebrew) shouldn't feel like a thing preventing you from casting, just because Wild Shape does that.
Could there be a more appropriate alternative to Beast Spells and Archdruid where familiars would be concerned? I get the meaning behind not being able to cast spells in bestial form, but a familiar (which in this case, isn't combat ready unless you go for the familiar-equivalent of Circle of the Moon homebrew) shouldn't feel like a thing preventing you from casting, just because Wild Shape does that.
I am a bit unsure on what you mean by "a thing preventing you from casting, just because Wild Shape does that". The familiar does not prevent you from casting spells, I am a bit confused...
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I mean that Beast Spells exists to offset the built-in weakness to Wild Shape, but that weakness should not apply with a familiar, so turning Beast Spells into "Familiar Spells" and just doing something with familiars' usual relationship with spells was all I could think of. If there's a better substitute for Beast Spells than that altogether (and Archdruid, turning the "can use Wild Shape endlessly" into "shorten the long casting time")
Technically, you already can, as you can have your familiar deliver touch-range spells, but I understand your desire better now.
The idea of allowing the familiar being the source of a spell cast by the master is intriguing, but possibly a bit underpowered, as the Druid's spells already are quite far-reaching. Probably a more interesting option could be allowing the Familiar be target of "self only" spells, and transfer them to a willing creature occupying the same space (for small familiars like a cat, a squirrel or the like) and for bigger ones capable of attacks (like a bear, i.e.) they still could only deliver touch-range spells, but they do it by actually performing a damaging attack on the enemy, using the druid's spell attack bonus to hit.
What do you think?
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Maybe, I suppose that does make sense. But I feel like I'm just scratching the surface with Beast Spells and Archdruid substitutes. Only thing already known about them is Beast Spells removes a limitation on the 2nd level feature and involves spellcasting, and Archdruid removes another limitation on the 2nd level feature and involves the actual USE of the feature.
For a druid who uses Wild Shape for a Familiar instead of their own transformation (but virtually the same) all that pops up is Beast Spells changes something about the Wild Shape-Familiar feature in a way to include the use of spellcasting, and Archdruid should simplify its use.
Looking at the new UA, maybe a special Circle subclass with something like "when you use your Wild Shape feature, you can cast find familiar for free, but it can be any beast within x-y CR and doesn't become celestial/fey/fiend and ___ for x minutes after you do this" would be best overall instead of swapping out everything. Though Symbiotic Entity works better with Archdruid (and of course, ignores Beast Spells) than Find Familiar would.
Actually, noticing how UA's Circle of Spores adds an alternate function to Wild Shape uses but skips over Beast Spells casually, I also notice that the Druid has two different 18th level features, and if it wasn't for Wild Shape making you incapable of spellcasting (which makes narrative sense) then Beast Spells wouldn't be one of them. SO, I'm realizing, for campaigns that work for it, I may be better off just adding a house rule in the form of a free feat for druids that says you can use Wild Shape to cast find familiar without a spell slot with the caveat that the familiar is beast and is limited by your choice of beast shapes. Now just gotta figure out how multiple uses would be beneficial, esp with Archdruid.
Ley Druid option -- replaces features gained at relevant levels
Font of Mana.
At 2nd level, you tap into a wellspring of magic via your mystical connection to the land. This wellspring is represented by mana points, which allow you to cast your spells more reliably.
Mana Points. You have 2 mana points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the
Sorcery PointsMana Points column of the Druid table. You can never have more mana points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent mana points when you finish a long rest.Flexible Casting. You can use your mana points to gain additional spell slots. Creating Spell Slots. You can transform unexpended mana points into one spell slot as a bonus action on your turn. The Creating Spell Slots table shows the cost of creating a spell slot of a given level. You can create spell slots no higher in level than 5th. [At 18th level, you do not gain Beast Spells.] Replacement?? Mana Restoration? At 20th level, you regain 4 expended mana points whenever you finish a short rest.
[At 18th level, you do not gain Beast Spells.]
Replacement??
Mana Restoration?
At 20th level, you regain 4 expended mana points whenever you finish a short rest.
Familiar/Companion Druid option -- replaces all features gained at specified levels
Druid Familiar
Starting at 2nd level, you learn the find familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast the spell, you can choose any beast you have seen before, though the familiar is a beast, not a celestial, fey, or fiend. Your druid level determines the beasts you can choose from, as shown in the *Druid Familiar table.
*The Druid Familiar table is identical to the Beast Shapes table, except it does not include restrictions on flying or swimming speeds.
Not Beast Spells!!!
Familiar Spells?
Starting at 18th level, when you cast any spell, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell.
Not Archdruid!!!
Archdruid's Call?
At 20th level, when you cast the find familiar spell, its casting time is 30 minutes, or 40 minutes if cast as a ritual.
Circle of the Familiar? -- Alternate Circle of the Moon class option
Familiar Companion.
Starting when you choose this circle at 2nd level, add your proficiency bonus to your familiar's AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals its normal maximum or four times your druid level, whichever is higher. When you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own.
Circle Familiar.
The rites of your circle grant your familiar the ability to take on more dangerous forms. Starting at 2nd level, your familiar can take the form of a beast with a challenge rating as high as 1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Druid Familiar table). Starting at 6th level, your familiar can take the form of a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.
Primal Strike???
Starting at 6th level, your familiar's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Elemental Familiar.
Starting at 10th level, your familiar can take the form of an air elemental, an earth elemental, a fire elemental, or a water elemental.
Not Thousand Forms!!!
Bestial Fury???
Starting at 14th level, your familiar can make two attacks when you use the Attack action to allow your familiar to make an attack of its own.
I'd really appreciate any helpful feedback: Is it good? Is it too good? Is it a ways off? Or terrible? Any suggestions on tweaking things to get roughly the same result, or nerf/buff things like how effective a feature is, or even as simple as one is gained at too high a level or too low a level.
Also, if there is one ? at the end of a feature name, it is mostly my uncertainty about the name, so consider it a placeholder name. If there are three ?s at the end of a feature name, then I am uncertain about whether or not the feature itself is appropriate, or fits properly in its placement in the leveling up process.
I feel perhaps "Familiar Spells" and "Archdruid's Call" maybe should be swapped.
The idea of having a Druid focused on an animal companions/familiar is a nice one, but I personally feel that the class festures are either strange or gotten at the incorrect level.
For example the familiar table can be useful, but usually "find familiar" is something that should be cast very few times if not just once (even though there is no real drawback for loosing a familiar in 5th edition) so the animal options based on the level feel a bit redundant to me.
On the other hand, the Familiar spells feature seems strange. The find familiar spell already allows a familiar to deliver a touch spell for his master while within a 100 feet radius. I believe with your wording you mean to have the familiar be the source of whatever spell the master might want, but in that case getting something like this at 18th level feels quite late. I'd grant it sooner, to be honest, in the first 10 levels, I'd say, and/or as part of the Circle of the Familiar features (so 3rd or 6th level). I'd also still keep the 100 feet radius limitation, maybe extending the radius for touch spells to 120/150 feet, just to give some extra utility (albeit the feature would be real powerful already).
Edit: I really like the Circle Familiar feature btw :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Could there be a more appropriate alternative to Beast Spells and Archdruid where familiars would be concerned? I get the meaning behind not being able to cast spells in bestial form, but a familiar (which in this case, isn't combat ready unless you go for the familiar-equivalent of Circle of the Moon homebrew) shouldn't feel like a thing preventing you from casting, just because Wild Shape does that.
The familiar does not prevent you from casting spells, I am a bit confused...
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I mean that Beast Spells exists to offset the built-in weakness to Wild Shape, but that weakness should not apply with a familiar, so turning Beast Spells into "Familiar Spells" and just doing something with familiars' usual relationship with spells was all I could think of. If there's a better substitute for Beast Spells than that altogether (and Archdruid, turning the "can use Wild Shape endlessly" into "shorten the long casting time")
Technically, you already can, as you can have your familiar deliver touch-range spells, but I understand your desire better now.
The idea of allowing the familiar being the source of a spell cast by the master is intriguing, but possibly a bit underpowered, as the Druid's spells already are quite far-reaching. Probably a more interesting option could be allowing the Familiar be target of "self only" spells, and transfer them to a willing creature occupying the same space (for small familiars like a cat, a squirrel or the like) and for bigger ones capable of attacks (like a bear, i.e.) they still could only deliver touch-range spells, but they do it by actually performing a damaging attack on the enemy, using the druid's spell attack bonus to hit.
What do you think?
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Maybe, I suppose that does make sense. But I feel like I'm just scratching the surface with Beast Spells and Archdruid substitutes. Only thing already known about them is Beast Spells removes a limitation on the 2nd level feature and involves spellcasting, and Archdruid removes another limitation on the 2nd level feature and involves the actual USE of the feature.
For a druid who uses Wild Shape for a Familiar instead of their own transformation (but virtually the same) all that pops up is Beast Spells changes something about the Wild Shape-Familiar feature in a way to include the use of spellcasting, and Archdruid should simplify its use.
Looking at the new UA, maybe a special Circle subclass with something like "when you use your Wild Shape feature, you can cast find familiar for free, but it can be any beast within x-y CR and doesn't become celestial/fey/fiend and ___ for x minutes after you do this" would be best overall instead of swapping out everything. Though Symbiotic Entity works better with Archdruid (and of course, ignores Beast Spells) than Find Familiar would.
Actually, noticing how UA's Circle of Spores adds an alternate function to Wild Shape uses but skips over Beast Spells casually, I also notice that the Druid has two different 18th level features, and if it wasn't for Wild Shape making you incapable of spellcasting (which makes narrative sense) then Beast Spells wouldn't be one of them. SO, I'm realizing, for campaigns that work for it, I may be better off just adding a house rule in the form of a free feat for druids that says you can use Wild Shape to cast find familiar without a spell slot with the caveat that the familiar is beast and is limited by your choice of beast shapes. Now just gotta figure out how multiple uses would be beneficial, esp with Archdruid.