Baphomet
2018-10-02, 10:44 PM
I'm a little disappointed in the way that the Druid's Wild Shape and other class features interact. Being a full spellcaster and turning into animals are both important things for Druids, but they can't cast spells in Wild Shape until level 18. It seems like bad design that these two things are gated off from each other like that. It also seems like higher level Circle of the Moon stuff just...isn't fleshed out. You can sit through 18 levels as a Circle of the Moon Druid, finally get access to CR 6 beast forms and...what does that get you? Mammoth, and...nope, just Mammoth. And you can't even turn into one of those unless you've seen one before, which seems unlikely, sooo...
It seems to me like gaining new, higher-CR forms as you level up is only part of the puzzle. What if you'd rather have a couple of iconic forms instead? You start out your adventure and get a reputation as that guy who can turn into a giant spider and Capri Sun anyone who messes with him. Later on in the adventure...you still want to turn into a giant spider because it's your deal, but you don't, because the giant spider is still CR 1 and doesn't stack up anymore. Wouldn't it be better if the forms you turned into could level up with you?
Beast scaling in general is all kinds of messed up. When you get the ability at level two, you can turn into two CR 1 monsters per short rest. If one character of another class had to fight just one CR 1 monster, they'd have to be level four for it to be a fair fight. Your second level Moon druid can be sitting there on an HP pool with triple digits while everyone else is sitting around 20 HP. That's ridiculous! At the other end, at level 15, you get a CR 5. That's about a fair fight for someone in another class at level 12. And yes, I know that it's boosted and offset by the fact that Wild Shape doesn't exist in a vacuum, because you can cast spells and do other things before you turn into a beast, but that brings me back to my first point. I have to do those two things separately. It's like you're either a nature wizard plus this mostly-irrelevant animal transformation thing, or you're a guy who can transform into animals but is desperately trying to use this otherwise-irrelevant spellcasting thing to keep the animal forms useful.
So, I'm trying to address these problems. I'm nowhere near done yet, but I've sunk a couple hours into it already, and I want to put it in front of people before I go any further in case I'm way off the mark. The document that I'm working on is HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PUS5hUka5qIsEycV5LywS70CmcQ6frG4qmA70b1Ijuo/edit?usp=sharing), but if you want the tl;dr version, here's a rundown of what I'm trying to do:
-Make a unique template called a Skin for every form you might want to turn into. Since these are specifically designed to be a transformation for a Druid, they don't have to be limited to Beasts, but they functionally are until higher levels.
-Make each Skin have multiple levels. You get the higher-leveled versions of each skin automatically as you level up. Some skins aren't available at all until higher levels. Circle of the Moon Skins level up faster. Higher level forms have more HP, more cool powers, and higher ability scores.
-You just know all of the Skins from the start, but you're prevented from turning into the more powerful or weird ones until you're higher level. No more arguing with your DM about what it really means to "see" a Deinonychus.
-Give some of the skins limited access to specific spells relevant to the creature that skin represents. For example, Octopi get Darkness, Bats get Sleep, Spiders get Web. You cast them with your Druid spell slots using your Druid spellcasting ability. Some skins, like the Bear, don't get spells, in exchange for being a general combat monster.
-Consolidate similar creatures into a single Skin. For example, a Black Bear is a lower-level Brown Bear is a lower-level Cave/Polar Bear, and they all fall under the Bear skin. Some skins have specific variants that you choose when you change into them, which have slight effects on what you get out of them. Most common animals are tiny and weak, but higher levels grant access to beefier giant/dire/dimension-hopping variant forms.
-Give all of the skins something unique and cool to do. Apes are like mini-Monks. Bears are like mini-Barbarians. Bats are like mini-vampires.
-Generally nerf the HP. HP levels up partially with Druid level and partially with Skin level, but is never generally as high as it was before. I want to do cooler things with my animal forms than be a big bag of hit points.
Anyway, let me know what you think so far.
It seems to me like gaining new, higher-CR forms as you level up is only part of the puzzle. What if you'd rather have a couple of iconic forms instead? You start out your adventure and get a reputation as that guy who can turn into a giant spider and Capri Sun anyone who messes with him. Later on in the adventure...you still want to turn into a giant spider because it's your deal, but you don't, because the giant spider is still CR 1 and doesn't stack up anymore. Wouldn't it be better if the forms you turned into could level up with you?
Beast scaling in general is all kinds of messed up. When you get the ability at level two, you can turn into two CR 1 monsters per short rest. If one character of another class had to fight just one CR 1 monster, they'd have to be level four for it to be a fair fight. Your second level Moon druid can be sitting there on an HP pool with triple digits while everyone else is sitting around 20 HP. That's ridiculous! At the other end, at level 15, you get a CR 5. That's about a fair fight for someone in another class at level 12. And yes, I know that it's boosted and offset by the fact that Wild Shape doesn't exist in a vacuum, because you can cast spells and do other things before you turn into a beast, but that brings me back to my first point. I have to do those two things separately. It's like you're either a nature wizard plus this mostly-irrelevant animal transformation thing, or you're a guy who can transform into animals but is desperately trying to use this otherwise-irrelevant spellcasting thing to keep the animal forms useful.
So, I'm trying to address these problems. I'm nowhere near done yet, but I've sunk a couple hours into it already, and I want to put it in front of people before I go any further in case I'm way off the mark. The document that I'm working on is HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PUS5hUka5qIsEycV5LywS70CmcQ6frG4qmA70b1Ijuo/edit?usp=sharing), but if you want the tl;dr version, here's a rundown of what I'm trying to do:
-Make a unique template called a Skin for every form you might want to turn into. Since these are specifically designed to be a transformation for a Druid, they don't have to be limited to Beasts, but they functionally are until higher levels.
-Make each Skin have multiple levels. You get the higher-leveled versions of each skin automatically as you level up. Some skins aren't available at all until higher levels. Circle of the Moon Skins level up faster. Higher level forms have more HP, more cool powers, and higher ability scores.
-You just know all of the Skins from the start, but you're prevented from turning into the more powerful or weird ones until you're higher level. No more arguing with your DM about what it really means to "see" a Deinonychus.
-Give some of the skins limited access to specific spells relevant to the creature that skin represents. For example, Octopi get Darkness, Bats get Sleep, Spiders get Web. You cast them with your Druid spell slots using your Druid spellcasting ability. Some skins, like the Bear, don't get spells, in exchange for being a general combat monster.
-Consolidate similar creatures into a single Skin. For example, a Black Bear is a lower-level Brown Bear is a lower-level Cave/Polar Bear, and they all fall under the Bear skin. Some skins have specific variants that you choose when you change into them, which have slight effects on what you get out of them. Most common animals are tiny and weak, but higher levels grant access to beefier giant/dire/dimension-hopping variant forms.
-Give all of the skins something unique and cool to do. Apes are like mini-Monks. Bears are like mini-Barbarians. Bats are like mini-vampires.
-Generally nerf the HP. HP levels up partially with Druid level and partially with Skin level, but is never generally as high as it was before. I want to do cooler things with my animal forms than be a big bag of hit points.
Anyway, let me know what you think so far.