Generic Moon Druid Form?

[Jeebs]

Has anyone looked at changing the Moon Druid's combat forms to a single form that scales by CR?

I don't get excited about the bookkeeping that goes into playing the Huge forms that the Druid gets later ("Can I fit in this cave in my mammoth form?"). Or the idea of turning in to an elemental.

I'd much rather play as a Moon Druid who transforms into a Dire Wolf, and see the CR of that form slowly increase over time. Basically a magical lycanthrope with a wereform. Maybe it's nice to have a few other forms (Tiny and Flying) as well, but I don't want a ton of options.

Are there any homebrew wizards out there that understand how you could scale the HP, attacks, etc. of an early form to make it equivalent to later, more powerful forms?

I understand that you could just reflavor the forms, but I wasn't sure about things like special attacks and size, and how they'd figure in to CR.

[Arkhios]

You could probably reflavor beasts of similar size but of higher CR as being "improved dire wolf forms". Just replace anything that doesn't fit for a wolf with a feature from Dire Wolf.

[Hrugner]

Do you want something more in depth than just making a cosmetic change to future forms?

If I had a monstrous manual in front of me I could work out a points buy system, but it would take awhile and it would end up being very similar to the simple cosmetic change option.

[Fable Wright]

Are there any homebrew wizards out there that understand how you could scale the HP, attacks, etc. of an early form to make it equivalent to later, more powerful forms?

Sure! Dungeon Master's Guide page 274 has all the information you need.

[Goober4473]

Sure! Dungeon Master's Guide page 274 has all the information you need.

Be careful with that, though. It's not the most precise formula; though it does okay for simple beasts.

[BurgerBeast]

I've played around with the idea of having druids have WOW-inspired tanking, stealth/DPS, and travel/utility forms that improve with level. In the end I think the simple list is better because it provides the same variety of options with more freedom and versatility.

I also considered having different "terrains" provide a different selection of animals and a different selection of spells, so that there would be trends in the terrains (i.e. desert druids have better survival and utility while ??? druids are better tanks, etc. - obviously i haven't put much thought into that one).

[MrStabby]

Yes I did. I had a spider form as a moon druid that improved with level. Stats were based on the DMG monster creation table

I can't decide if it was overpowerd or not. Forcing a spider form was certainly a weak option at the moon druid power levels 2-4 but in the mid levels it got much stronger with more difficult saves on web and poison. What I can say was that it helped develop a more thematic character and i enjoyed it a lot more.

[smcmike]

I like the idea, a lot. Having only one alternate form is a strong archetype, similar to lycanthropy, but without all the baggage. Basically a totem Druid.

Mechanically, the big problem is loss of versatility. The ability to turn into a bird or a fish or a mouse or a bear, depending on the situation, gives Druids so many options. To replace this versatility, maybe develop some carryover abilities, similar to Barbarian totem abilities, depending on the animal.