1/day equal level transformation

[stewstew5]

Suppose I wanted to give a player that allowed them to take the form of a beast (and nothing else) of a CR equal to or less than their level, functioning similarly to a druid's wild shape, for one minute, resetting on a long rest. What about if this beast was chosen at the start of the campaign and it was limited to just that beast?

If this were to replace a racial feature on one of the mordenkainen's tome tiefling subraces, what would it need to replace?

EDIT: This is the feature, as it stands now
You have a spirit animal. Choose one creature with the beast tag. You can speak to creatures of this type, and have advantage on all charisma checks to interact with these beasts.

As well, You can use a bonus action on your turn to take the shape of that creature. You gain any movement speeds it has and it's size class, as well as any features that affect its movement, such as a *frog's standing leap*, or give it advantage on a skill check, such as a cat's *keen smell*, but otherwise your statistics remain unchanged. this transformation last for one minute, until you use a bonus action to end it, you fall Unconscious, drop to 0 Hit Points, or die.

After using this feature you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest

It is currently replacing a +1 to any ability score as a racial feature

[airless_wing]

It seems like a free, self-only Polymorph once per long rest. That's pretty powerful, and would make any low level druid (moon or otherwise) feel like their Wild Shape talent is being subverted, as it's generally inferior and only gets a single extra use.

[MagneticKitty]

If the beast was chosen at the start, how is the cr scaling?


Edit:
Honestly if they want this feature for flavor I would either have it be:
A single specific cr 0 creature, once the creature "dies" for the day they can't use it until it rests up. (Long rest)

Or a creature of any cr that does not change the stats of the player. They do not gain any special mobement, cannot speak, or perform components for spells, and cannot pick something larger than size large

[stewstew5]

It seems like a free, self-only Polymorph once per long rest. That's pretty powerful, and would make any low level druid (moon or otherwise) feel like their Wild Shape talent is being subverted, as it's generally inferior and only gets a single extra use.

that was a concern, remembering this would only last a minute, while a wild shape can last for hours. What if the level at which you could use it was thrice the CR?


If the beast was chosen at the start, how is the cr scaling?
Edit:
Honestly if they want this feature for flavor I would either have it be:
A single specific cr 0 creature, once the creature "dies" for the day they can't use it until it rests up. (Long rest)

Or a creature of any cr that does not change the stats of the player. They do not gain any special mobement, cannot speak, or perform components for spells, and cannot pick something larger than size large

If you choose a frog, you can transform whenever. If you chose a killer whale, you can't transform until level three. Of course, This would probably change to three times the beasts CR instead of just equal to

edit: honestly that second one is a good idea and pretty much on target with what I want

[PhantomSoul]

Another spot to look at a similar feature is Transmuters:


Shapechanger
At 10th level, you add the polymorph spell to your
spellbook, if it is not there already. You can cast
polymorph without expending a spell slot. When you
do so, you can target only yourself and transform into a
beast w hose challenge rating is 1 or lower.
Once you cast polymorph in this way, you can’t do so
again until you finish a short or long rest, though you
can still cast it normally using an available spell slot.

- Once per short rest instead of long rest, so more often depending on how your group runs adventure days
- Maximum CR is 1, not equal to level (and that's at level 10)
- It still requires an Action, rather than a Bonus Action
- Wild Shape is far more powerful than Polymorph, which will only be twice as common and provides a much lower CR (so it outcompetes even Moon Druids, and gives the same Action Economy)

The edited feature helps in that maybe it's a specific creature, but in that case the CR scaling with your level seems surprising; the CR is effectively capped at the level when you got the feature if the fluff (?) is accurate. Are you levelling the beast to match their level? If so, that's another advantage over both Wild Shape and Polymorph, though Wild Shape and Polymorph would compensate with versatility from multiple forms.

[stewstew5]

Another spot to look at a similar feature is Transmuters:



- Once per short rest instead of long rest, so more often depending on how your group runs adventure days
- Maximum CR is 1, not equal to level (and that's at level 10)
- It still requires an Action, rather than a Bonus Action
- Wild Shape is far more powerful than Polymorph, which will only be twice as common and provides a much lower CR (so it outcompetes even Moon Druids, and gives the same Action Economy)

The edited feature helps in that maybe it's a specific creature, but in that case the CR scaling with your level seems surprising; the CR is effectively capped at the level when you got the feature if the fluff (?) is accurate. Are you levelling the beast to match their level? If so, that's another advantage over both Wild Shape and Polymorph, though Wild Shape and Polymorph would compensate with versatility from multiple forms.

The CR scaling is for those who wanted a killer whale or rhino instead of an elk or tiger. It's more powerful but only available at later levels

[Wuzza]

As a Moon Druid, (what I'm playing at the moment) I'd be pretty pissed if a party member could turn into an equal level beast. Even only for 1 minute. I would guess in most games, that would be a full combat, that's HUGE! Especially at low levels.

I would limit it to the same as a standard Druids CR options at most, or for fluff limit it to CR 1/4. Being able to communicate needs to be restricted to basic communication, as per Speak with Animals. I wouldn't give advantage and needs to be per long rest.

My Druid bias aside, I'm sure the level 3 melee players in the group will be envious of a Giant Scorpions triple attacks, for example. (32 + 40 poison damage max, obviously this will rarely happen though)

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

If you wanted to keep it, I'd make it an action they can do once a day and have it require concentration to maintain the form.

Or, if you don't have a druid, go nuts.

[Damon_Tor]

This is the feature, as it stands now
You have a spirit animal. Choose one creature with the beast tag. You can speak to creatures of this type, and have advantage on all charisma checks to interact with these beasts.

As well, You can use a bonus action on your turn to take the shape of that creature. You gain any movement speeds it has and it's size class, as well as any features that affect its movement, such as a *frog's standing leap*, or give it advantage on a skill check, such as a cat's *keen smell*, but otherwise your statistics remain unchanged. this transformation last for one minute, until you use a bonus action to end it, you fall Unconscious, drop to 0 Hit Points, or die.

After using this feature you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest

It is currently replacing a +1 to any ability score as a racial feature

Looks okay to me, though you need to be explicit about what happens to your gear, and whether or not you retain your class features. Not gaining access to the creatures hp and attacks make this a way to get some better movement speed and a larger size. Whether that's worth it or not depends on what happens to your class features and equipment.

[MaxWilson]

Suppose I wanted to give a player that allowed them to take the form of a beast (and nothing else) of a CR equal to or less than their level, functioning similarly to a druid's wild shape, for one minute, resetting on a long rest. What about if this beast was chosen at the start of the campaign and it was limited to just that beast?

It's potentially brokenly strong (lots of free HP, probably extra damage), but it's broken in a way that 5E is already broken (thanks to Polymorph) so this is really just one free 4th level spell per day with no concentration requirement but a lot of extra constraints (self-only, only a specific beast). So, if your game isn't already broken this won't break it any more, assuming you charge an appropriate tax for it: judging by Svirfneblins and Drow magic, gating this ability behind a feat might be appropriate.

To Moon Druids who want to get offended: chill. You get Polymorph AND wildshape and you don't have to spend a feat for either one.


After using this feature you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest

It is currently replacing a +1 to any ability score as a racial feature

Oh wait, you're making it 1/short rest instead of 1/day, and it doesn't cost anything but +1 to an ability, like a half-feat? AND it's a bonus action? No, that's inappropriately cheap.

Edit: wait, <<but otherwise your statistics remain unchanged>>. So it's NOT like wildshape or Polymorph? No free HP, no extra attacks? In that case I guess it's fine as is, but if so then the thread title + first few sentences of the OP are very misleading. Why even mention CR = level if the PC isn't gaining any CR-related features?

[Wuzza]

To Moon Druids who want to get offended: chill. You get Polymorph AND wildshape and you don't have to spend a feat for either one.


Don't worry, I'm chilled. :smallwink:

Obviously it's your game, and it's up to you. But you also have to take into account how this can affect the other players in the group. (not just droods :smallsmile:)

The power will tail off at higher levels, purely because the amount of high CR beasts is low, but I still maintain you'll have to be careful that it doesn't overshadow the rest of the party.

[MaxWilson]

Don't worry, I'm chilled. :smallwink:

Obviously it's your game, and it's up to you. But you also have to take into account how this can affect the other players in the group. (not just droods :smallsmile:)

The power will tail off at higher levels, purely because the amount of high CR beasts is low, but I still maintain you'll have to be careful that it doesn't overshadow the rest of the party.

I agree, but I think that is also true of Polymorph and Conjure Animals and wildshape and Planar Binding and Wall of Force and Animate Dead and Simulacrum and all of the other ways to break the game in half. If you have a group of players who can handle those things amicably, they can probably handle this one too. But only if it's costed appropriately: getting constrained no-concentration self-Polymorph 1/short rest essentially for a half-feat is not appropriate, but I think getting it 1/day for a feat would be.

[Yunru]

I'm confused.
The title clearly states that it's intended to be once per day, but the feature is written such that it's once per rest.