Druid wild shape homebrew

[LVOD]

This is a thread to discuss homebrewed mechanics for wild shape, particularly with regards to a variation on the "twice per short rest" limit.

I (and some others) believe this shoehorns the ability into being used exclusively for combat, so you would rarely (if ever) waste one if your precious uses on things like sneaking, hiding, or scouting.


I propose an alternate method where, rather than a flat 2 uses, its based on CR of the beast. So the value doesn't change from a combat perspective: 2 uses, multiplied by the max CR you can transform into, = your 'pool' of wild shape resource.
So a moon druid (who can turn into a beast with CR=level/3) would have a pool of 4 at level 6 (2uses x 2 max CR). If that moon druid turned into a CR 1/8 camel to trek through the desert, they'd still have 3 7/8 CR worth of transformations left.

Other ideas are welcome!

[dejarnjc]

This is a thread to discuss homebrewed mechanics for wild shape, particularly with regards to a variation on the "twice per short rest" limit.

I (and some others) believe this shoehorns the ability into being used exclusively for combat, so you would rarely (if ever) waste one if your precious uses on things like sneaking, hiding, or scouting.


I propose an alternate method where, rather than a flat 2 uses, its based on CR of the beast. So the value doesn't change from a combat perspective: 2 uses, multiplied by the max CR you can transform into, = your 'pool' of wild shape resource.
So a moon druid (who can turn into a beast with CR=level/3) would have a pool of 4 at level 6 (2uses x 2 max CR). If that moon druid turned into a CR 1/8 camel to trek through the desert, they'd still have 3 7/8 CR worth of transformations left.

Other ideas are welcome!

I think that just gives wild shaped druids even more HP sponge opportunities. A level 9 druid could turn into a giant constrictor 3 times per short rest for example. Also I'm not sure how the elemental forms would work with this.


Honestly, IMO there's no good "fix" for it other than not counting CR 0 shapes or instead calculating a temporary HP pool which is shared across all forms (with the stipulation being that each form still follows its max HP rules, i.e. taking 26 hp of damage as a giant eagle will knock you out of eagle form even if you still have 100+ HP left in you temp HP pool, which also loses 26 hp).

This would make "high" AC forms like the ankylosaurous even better though.