Ideas to Fix Wildshape for level 9

[Thrasher92]

A new person is joining my campaign and he wants to play a druid. He is starting at level 9 because that's where everyone else is at the table and I don't want him to be very far behind in level and die from 1 hit.

I noticed that at level 9, a moon druid's best form is something like a Giant Scorpion or a Polar bear. These don't have many hit points and I thought I could make wild shapes more "fun".

My idea is to let him choose 9 animals, one for every druid level he is, and he will get a magic tattoo of sorts of it. When he wild shapes into that animal he will have the maximum hit points for that creature. This represents that he is the apex of whichever creature he chose, not just the average.

Also, I was going to give him a magic item, one that I remember from 3.5, the Wild Shape armor. It would give him a small bonus to AC in any wildshape form he is in. I remember it looking like samurai-like armor on a human and then the same on a bear.

Are these bad ideas to give to a new player? He isn't the type to try to break the game or anything, but I don't want the rest of the players to feel like he is way more powerful.

[stoutstien]

A new person is joining my campaign and he wants to play a druid. He is starting at level 9 because that's where everyone else is at the table and I don't want him to be very far behind in level and die from 1 hit.

I noticed that at level 9, a moon druid's best form is something like a Giant Scorpion or a Polar bear. These don't have many hit points and I thought I could make wild shapes more "fun".

My idea is to let him choose 9 animals, one for every druid level he is, and he will get a magic tattoo of sorts of it. When he wild shapes into that animal he will have the maximum hit points for that creature. This represents that he is the apex of whichever creature he chose, not just the average.

Also, I was going to give him a magic item, one that I remember from 3.5, the Wild Shape armor. It would give him a small bonus to AC in any wildshape form he is in. I remember it looking like samurai-like armor on a human and then the same on a bear.

Are these bad ideas to give to a new player? He isn't the type to try to break the game or anything, but I don't want the rest of the players to feel like he is way more powerful.

So what happens at lv 10 where the moon druid gets it next big leap in power?

Anything that will increase a moon druid's staying power will probably be a bad idea.

[nickl_2000]

Honestly I don't think that the Moon druid wildshape needs a "fix." There is nothing wrong with it, it just it as a low point at level 9 (and has a massive and fun increase at level 10). If you want to gave an armor, you can. However, it NEEDS to be attunement and could end up being a substantial increase in power that isn't needed.

If you do want to give more options, you can also get a copy of the Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press, there are about 5 options in that book and some fun ones (I liked and have used to J'Ba Fofi Spider a fair amount at that level).

[Nhorianscum]

Giant scorpion is pretty fantastic at 9th on moon druid as a combat form. Even ignoring that the dude just got 5th level spells and is looking at (as mentioned above) elemental forms in one level.

[Contrast]

Don't rule out the Giant Constrictor Snake - being able to restrain people relatively easily can be pretty powerful.

Depending what other sources you have available there's also a CR3 Giant Snapping Turtle in Tomb of Annihilation (AC17 and 75HP!) and Amphisbaena (a giant two-headed constrictor snake) in the Hidden Shrine Of Tamoachan.

But yeah - remember that this is something the druid can do twice a short rest on top of otherwise being a full caster AND which is about to get a pretty big buff next level.

[Sigreid]

I actually kind of like the tattoo idea. I dont think either of these will break anything. Especially if you specify that the armor only works for anima forms, so it wont apply to the elemental forms.

[Mercurias]

First off, I think it's really cool that you care about your player and want to make sure they have fun in the campaign. I feel like that's the hallmark of every good DM, so kudos to you. I hope your entire table is having a blast!

On the topic at hand, while I appreciate that you want to give your player a boost because their class features are a little weak at that level, but they will be getting a REALLY BIG boost in power at level ten. Rather than giving them the woad tattoos that boost their transformed health, it might be a good idea to give them that level to get used to their spells and character.

If you decide you want to go with the magic ink anyway, maybe talk to your player and let them know in advance that it will only last until they hit level ten, at which point the process of transforming into an Elemental will nullify the magic from his ink, or perhaps the sigils in the tattoo itself were transformed to allow him his next tier of shapeshifting.

[Zuras]

If you are worried about the player getting frustrated by the lack of CR 3 creature options, just make some new creatures. The DMG has rules for calculating the CR of custom creatures. Just take the Cave Bear, Dire Wolf and Giant Constrictor Snake and tweak their AC, HP and damage up to meet the mid-range of CR 3 criteria.

This should give them a little more punch without breaking anything or even changing the text of their features.

I have seen DMs do this before (one DM had a Druid player who only wanted to be Beorn from the Hobbit and turn into bears, so he just up-scaled bears at higher CRs).

[Guy Lombard-O]

A new person is joining my campaign and he wants to play a druid. He is starting at level 9 because that's where everyone else is at the table and I don't want him to be very far behind in level and die from 1 hit.

I noticed that at level 9, a moon druid's best form is something like a Giant Scorpion or a Polar bear. These don't have many hit points and I thought I could make wild shapes more "fun".

My idea is to let him choose 9 animals, one for every druid level he is, and he will get a magic tattoo of sorts of it. When he wild shapes into that animal he will have the maximum hit points for that creature. This represents that he is the apex of whichever creature he chose, not just the average.

Also, I was going to give him a magic item, one that I remember from 3.5, the Wild Shape armor. It would give him a small bonus to AC in any wildshape form he is in. I remember it looking like samurai-like armor on a human and then the same on a bear.

I really like your idea for the magic ink tattoos! But maybe you could make the magic ink the magic item? Have the ink give higher HP and AC for whatever beast form he tattoos onto himself, for that form only.

But I wouldn't just give it to him. I'd make it a boon from a quest or grateful NPC in your game, a nice reward earned from play. I'd also restrict it to just a few, limited forms (3-5), and have the magic of the ink perishable so that he needs to use it immediately (no waiting for higher levels/CRs, and definitely not usable for elemental forms).

The elemental forms at 10 are great, but the player might still want to use those boosted beast forms on occasion, for utility and other reasons (like twice as many uses), if you give him those boosted forms.

[Rukelnikov]

A new person is joining my campaign and he wants to play a druid. He is starting at level 9 because that's where everyone else is at the table and I don't want him to be very far behind in level and die from 1 hit.

I noticed that at level 9, a moon druid's best form is something like a Giant Scorpion or a Polar bear. These don't have many hit points and I thought I could make wild shapes more "fun".

My idea is to let him choose 9 animals, one for every druid level he is, and he will get a magic tattoo of sorts of it. When he wild shapes into that animal he will have the maximum hit points for that creature. This represents that he is the apex of whichever creature he chose, not just the average.

Also, I was going to give him a magic item, one that I remember from 3.5, the Wild Shape armor. It would give him a small bonus to AC in any wildshape form he is in. I remember it looking like samurai-like armor on a human and then the same on a bear.

Are these bad ideas to give to a new player? He isn't the type to try to break the game or anything, but I don't want the rest of the players to feel like he is way more powerful.

The tattoo s sound cool, however HP is already Moon Druids claim to fame, this would be a extremely potent buff, more so as lvls increase. Maybe you could give him something else? Like make his natural attacks +1 in those forms, or letting him use his proficiency bonus to calculate the forms attack bonus(in case you don't normally allow this). It should count as an attunement.

About the armor, there's already an item in game that pretty much does this, Bracers of Armor, you get +2 AC as long as you don't wear armor (or shield I think). You could refluff them as an armor instead of bracers but having the same effect.

[Grod_The_Giant]

His most powerful beast options may only have half the health of the party's Fighter, but... that's not base, "lose 'em all and you're dead" hit points. It's more like a giant stack of temporary hit points. An enemy punches through the ~40 points you got from turning into a bear? Cool; now you're a nearly full-health full caster who can turn back into a bear next turn and get another stack of 40 HP. Moon Druids soak hits like nobody's business.

That said, tattoos that empower certain forms is a very cool idea, and worth pursing as a replacement for magic items. Perhaps they grant +2 Str, Dex, and Con for that animal?