The idea I now have is a Wildfire Druid with the Soldier background, who was sent to a foreign shore during a war. He was caught in a battle that ended up burning an entire town to the ground, traumatizing him. But when the town was nothing but ashes, a fire spirit attached itself to him, following him back home. He took to drinking heavily, to drown out the memories of the fire and the horror. But in his dreams, the fire spirit whispered, teaching him the magic of nature and flame. Now something has motivated him towards adventure, so he travels. Struggling with alcoholism, cynicism, and PTSD. Trying despite this to set the natural world aright, and do more with his life than fading away. Even if it means burning out instead.
So, basically, you can get a Fire-type pokemon. Druid: In order to summon my Wildfire Spirit, I must speak its true name and say the summoning incantation. CHARMANDER! I CHOOSE YOU!
I did a one-shot with the Wildfire Druid, and I had a BLAST! I feel the temp HP on the 14th level is too good, but the rest of it is great and balanced. Something I decided to do was make my Wildfire Spirit my wife. She's essentially like a dryad of fire. So my druid had chosen to bind himself to this spirit because they were in love and had many shared goals. He was protective of her and did not summon her carelessly. The Wildfire Spirit has good enough int and other stats to be treated like a person, so I do. She talked, she had her separate opinions, and I got to role play being a passionate man of flames who preserves the circle of life in a unique way. I've also had other gimmick ideas with character types for it: Fire Genasi who has their Wildfire Spirit as their dad, PC and Spirit buttheads a lot due to differences, Firbolg being skeptical of the well intentions of their Wildfire Spirit, PC didn't ask to be bound to this spirit and just has to live with it. There's a lot of unique character pulls that the subclass has, and I absolutely love it.
What's funny is a couple years ago I played a character where his whole premise was that he was a tiefling druid that saw fires as a very large part of natural life. I'm kinda sad that I didn't have this subclass back then.
I honestly love this new subclass. I always somewhat of hesitated to play a druid. I had the feeling that a druid had to be this shapechanging humanoid turning into something like a bear or bird. That changed after I saw a friend play a spore druid, which was quite impressive, he played a frontline tank, raising armies and just doing tones of damage. After that I played a moon druid in the next campaign and was yet impressed once again but felt a bit heartbroken that the true folklore druid never got represented enough. When I saw that the wildfire spirit can have any form combined with all the other features I knew that this had changed. I knee what my next character was going to be. A wildfire druid summoning her lost dachshund as a fire spirit, fighting alongside her. This subclass has really improved my love for the druid even farther. Please keep this outstanding work up. It's so fantastic being a DnD-Fan in this time. A time of improved ideas and unlimited possibilities. Thank you WOTC and of course DnD: Beyond
druid is honestly my favourite class. Your a buff full spell caster and I think people overlook the class a lot. you get such a wide range of spells and you get to know so many that honestly, I don't use wild shape a lot. As a circle of the land druid your basically a front line wizard/sorcerer as you'll have armor and more health. you get to swap out spells and (as a land druid) you get natural recovery that's just the same as the wizard recovery. you can move to any position of a fight; the barbarian/fighter is getting low on health? you can make it to them for cure wounds without going down from one or two attacks then join the front line fight. you can hang back with a lot of good dps concentration spells. It's also such a freeing class to role play as! druids aren't just tree hugging hippies. you can be as calm as stone or as energetic as an animal.
There must be a new Xanathars Guide-like book coming soon!! So many new subclasses popping up, new sidekick rules published but not yet in print, I can’t wait!
I love when Druids can do different things with their Wildshape. My favorite fantasy creatures are elementals so I'm in love with this subclass. I just need to find a DM who allows this in a game...
My only issue with this subclass is that they put it out while "Descent into Avernus" is the new hotness. Jeremy, I love you man but no way am I gonna take a fire-based druid to hell for a playtest :P
Really like this subclass! I've been wanting Druids with elemental themes for a while, even had a couple of homebrew stuff in mind for a Circle related to Fire (I called the Circle of Ashes). I hope there'll be Druid things that are tied to other elements, maybe related to the Elemental Planes
A druid that focused on the unrivaled, cleansing power of storms and tempests? A Druid that harnesses the strength of mountains and the malleability of metal? A druid that has the capacity to adapt and overcome obstacles like a flowing river, or come down like a waterfall? sign me up.
Love the fact they are also covering the fact you can flavour the way your character uses spells or abilities to fit your character's playstyle. I am building a way of the sun soul monk, but reskinned it so instead of ki blasts he makes key constructed guns, so I dubbed it Way of the Gun Soul Monk.
Finally i homebrewed and have been talking about this kind of druid in live streams for every dnd youtuber i could find for the last years or so. Happy to have an almost official one now.
That was a really interesting video. I feel like druids often get stereotyped as the nature-loving hippy, so it was very cool to hear more about druids in real-world folklore, and the different flavors of druid in D&D.
Ey! I'm so glad this is here. This was such an important aspect of nature I didn't feel was represented, so I included this idea when I built the cosmology for my campaign setting. The diety of the wilds is dual natured, one focusing on rebirth, fertility, growth, healing, beasts and the other focused on wrath and destruction; the split between the aspects reflect their distinction as two core identities of the wild, but 1 god representing them was to link them and show their connection. She has aspects of her domain that are present in both, like Beasts, the Wild, the Wood Elves, and that's represented by her 3 main titles; the one that refers to her in general is Yara Stargazer, the growth domain is Yara Grovetender, and the destructive one is Yara Smokebringer.
Agreed - was nice to see a bit more discussion about the class as a whole rather than being limited 100% to the subclass. That said, I'd also rather both these guys be spending their time at work developing D&D and D&DBeyond rather than doing an interview, so there is a balance to be made.
Swap the fire spirit's stats out with a beast of 1/4 challenge or lower, swap the health of the beast for the spirit's health formula, give it the spirit's soul bond ability, and allow attacks from your companion to be bonus actions from you while having other parts of the subclass work normally (level 7, 11, and 15 abilities work normally). WoTC is concerned about giving the animal companions attacks as a bonus action due to the damage being out of control but every other ranger subclass does around the same amount of damage that way aside from gloom stalker that blows its load round 1 (hell, half of the beast master's damage may not even hit if the companion misses).
A follow up to this: I like how WoTC literally did this to the ranger with the new class feature changes, almost to a T. It's almost as if they read this comment and just sort of took it (that's the vain answer) or they finally realized it themselves (probably what happened).
I may not always like the content WoTC put out for D&D but there no question that I respect the passion and zeal Jeremy and the others have for the game. Their excitement to creat makes me excited to play
I'm playing as a Druid for my first campaign & came across this UA.... I can't even explain how happy I was to find this Circle and cheerful I hadn't got to lv 2 yet just so I can choose this subclasse!
I've always been a big fan and proponent of refluffling abilities, so I absolutely love hearing the approval of that idea by one of the primary designers of D&D.
You know I have found that the flavor of druid is a lot better after playing pathfinder, They aren't just nature cleric, nature doesn't give them power, they use an ancient early magic, their magic is PRIMAL
It's a pretty rad option. Started talking with my GM whose prepping to run a Tal'Dorei setting game for letting me play this option as someone born in Emon as a fire genasi, born that way due to the draconic elemental disaster post-Thordak that lingers there.
I've always played with the idea that instead of simply protecting nature, the druid is a force of nature itself and as such things that would be considered natural disasters to civilization such as a flood/tsunami, wildfire, severe thunderstorms, tornados ect all are simply nature taking its course in the druids eyes so this subclass makes a lot of sense in my mind. I like it
i made a circle of the elements, before i realised that this was out. went in very different directions though mine basically made druids a martial class.
Fire is a form of renewal. If you go through a forest a month after a fire you will see growth in trees that were burnt. It clears away detritus and fertilizes the forest renewing it. It also keeps bugs and disease from overtaking the forests, the way they do today. We have Dutch elm disease, pine beetles, and emerald ash bore beetle. I do tree work for a living and understand a lot about this subject and could see this druid as a control and sorcerer of renewal.
I'm imagining a druid flying over a battlefield and dropping from just the right height to trigger Blazing Endurance so they can literally explode into the fight
This subclass could easily be reskinned too to be a subclass representing rot, much like the Circle of Spores but no focus on undeath, you could simply change any mention of fire damage to poison/necrotic/acid damage as appropriate, and have a myconid or swarm of flesh-eating insects instead of a fire spirit. This would better represent the role of fungi and detritivores in turning dead things into new life, I'd maybe give them Vampiric Touch and Life Transference on their spell list to bolster this
I am so excited to eventually play a Wildfire druid. Never got into druid because I was never big on the Wildshape thing since it felt so 'central' that if I didn't use it I would be doing something wrong so I was better off with a wizard or a half-caster. Also I didn't wanna play mushroomancer because I'm more of a skeleton guy. So yeah, gives me a good theme, lots of roleplay flavor to design a character around... and if I do decide I want to change shape for some reason I can do it in a really flamboyant way! Like maybe I can describe my beast form as (appearance-wise) being a flaming bear made of carved wood and flame and fury.
It really feals like this subclass should have the ability to turn into an elemental like the Moon Circle, only exclusively Fire Elemental. I'd love to homebrew a "Werephoenix" form with appropriate CR (Because actual Phoenix is way to strong for Wild Shape), that Wildfire Druid could turn into an higher levels.
Its a retread of thematics already seen elsewhere (Phoenix sorc, life cleric, celestial lock) but it's OK. BUT the poor Beastmaster Ranger is STILL crying in the corner, and this beastie is a HUGE step up from similar critters like familiars and Artificer defenders.
To me, this really fills the gap for I wanted the druid to do. The shape changing was neat; but it wasn't what drew me to the class...they were elementalists to me. Now, with these "baked in" spells (nyeh nyeh), I can select whatever elemental spells I fancy (Entangle, Gust of Wind), and still have decent firepower (oof)...and the Wildshape is more aligned with my elemental flavor. The roleplay aspect for the spirit could decide the whole character...this is my guide, my companion, my god..."Commune With Nature" could be my wildfire spirit scouting the area. Coupled with the Investiture spells, the druid can literally become a force of nature. Perfect thought process for the druid. I can't wait.
I love both the wizard and the druid from this new UA lore wise and can't wait to see it in hopefully the next book like xanathar's, the new artwork for each subclass would be amazing!!
i read you can basically use ur wildfire spirit as a turret (channeling ur spells thru itat its position). would i be able to hold my turn and use a spell after i get the spirit in place during its turn or does the spirit always go after me? Do i need to wait for my next turn or can i increase the range of my fire ball in just one turn is what im mainly asking?
love druid best spellblade class in my opinion. definitely my favorite class, this new circle is also pretty awesome. though no resistance to fire or even immunity like the storm sorc who gets 2 immunities.
ok so the sheer fact he mentions that the one artificer subclass is in the new eberron book tells me that the artificer will become an official thing soon!! So exciting!
I am making a wildfire druid and am really keen to give it a go. I end up always playing a moon druid because I want my Wild Shape to have a purpose outside of being a situational utility. TBF spore made use of Wild Shape in a different way but the play style felt odd, it wasn't terrible but it just felt like it didn't mix well with what the druid had to offer in terms of spells. Been waiting on a subclass that makes very good use of Wild Shape in a different way from what we've seen and even by some possibility I end up hating it I (which I doubt, seems great on paper) I still hope it gets an official release.
I think that the ability shouldn’t use wildshape because wildshape isn’t a combat ability unless you are a moon druid, which frees it up to be a fun roleplay ability. The way it’s written now, I have to choose between being helpful in combat and turning into a mouse and taking a nap in the fighters pocket.
Real Druidic traditions are rooted in the legends that the gods of Ireland were ancient druids that advanced their techniques and powers so far that they acended into gods of nature. Even the Morrigan was connected to the inherent vitality of nature in her own way. So thinking of Druidic traditions as a form of Wizardry (Wizard being a word reffering to Wizened, as in being wise) that sources it's power and knowledge further back than recorded history isn't a bad theme to play with.
I like this subclass so far but I wish the damage the spirits damage scaled better. Since 1d6 plus proficiency at lvl 20 most you can get is 10 damage unless you crit.
I can't remember the name but it's to do with Irish legends relating to the formorians the first creatures to inhabit Ireland being forced out by the pantheon
I love this subclass. speaking of tank druids and saying you can customize things can you guys officially say you are allowed to make heavy/medium armor out nonmetal materials because otherwise that proficiency is going nowhere
Are there rules that say medium and heavy armor have to be made from metal? And what about warforged? Can they just not be druids then? The answer is "of course they can!"
@@zeterzero4356 no it says you can find one of an alternate material but because there are no options stated but dragon scalemail adventurer's league doesn't allow it.
@@zeterzero4356 Yeah, it's pretty much an AL only problem though since its entirely by the book, and theres not any examples in the books except for dragon scale and studded leather as far as i know
@@IShadowStrykerI I knew AL was strict but I didn't know it was THAT strict. Yeesh. My Shield Hero build having a shield with a spell focus incorporated into it suddenly seems a lot more difficult to accomplish. Need to do some research.
This seems tailor-made for a Fire Genasi druid. Additional fire spells...proficiency in scimitars (and Flame Sword)...a wildfire spirit I can flavor as a minor spirit from the Plane of Fire... ...basically, they want to become an Efreeti.
I personally think this should've been the Circle of Disaster or something along that line. Spells that cause flooding, thunderstorms and wildfires based on the most raw aspects of nature.
I do love this concept, but I also want to see wild shape letting you do more of what it is supposed to do: let us turn into cool creatures. That said I do need to remember that druid is more than wildshape. I like the term "protowizard" and will probably use it in the future. Still...the kaiju loving monster collector in me wants to be able to turn into cool creatures before level 17. Maybe a subclass that let's you mix and match various traits to create a unique wildshape form?
So pair this up with phoenix sorcerer and my fire genasi is gonna be a super pyro...tag in wizard level spells for fire and I'm gonna burn the whole world.
My next character is a tortle wildfire druid. Tortles are from a tropical volcanic island, so he's going to be more of an elemental shaman that uses the power of earth, fire, and water instead of the more plant and animal-based spells and abilities druids usually have. Should be a very tanky damaging spellcaster and healer.
This is the back story for my Fire Genasi(he is orc decent) To know me is to know the story of my people. Long ago when the tribe thought itself strong and looked to conquer the lesser tribes. As stranger visited he was Human and seen as frail and week. He offed the tribe greatness and it would know across the land if they lay down their blades and dedicate there lives to him. The grate war chef thought about this challenge and told the week human that if he can kill his way to the top then he earns the right to lead. At this, all-male fighters of the grate tribe took up the call and place the banners on the field. What should have been a quick fight turned into a massacre as the Human killed all the orcs that took the field burning their soul to feed the land. After three days of killing the only banner was the Grate war chefs. The grate chef took to the ash fields of his dead tribe and placed his banner. in the darkness of the night sparks and shouts of pain, glee and death ran out for all to hear. In the morning lit from the fires of the dead stod one figure next to a flaming head. The great war chief had given his life for the honour of the tribe. Now the Human was made the leader of or once grate tribe took his prize. We learned that he was not a human but a Djinn Seeqeha the Vibrant. He did three things for the tribe First, he took his wife a woman of the ways the land He taught us that the flames will make us stronger He left us a Son who will show us the light. I am that son and I now set off to learn the secrets of the flame so that my father will return to find his tribe strong. I will return to my people strong to burn the week and clam my seat at my father's side or not at all. I am the herald of Seeqeha the Vibrant and I will make my people strong.
Wait, were druid's underated? Ive always seen both among my friends and online people talk about how druids are awesome Healers, Spellcasters, and Tanks all in one?
Nah, people just tend to either forgo spellcasting for wildshape (aka not casting long duration or conc spells) or wildshape for spellcasting which means they derp.
Jeohran Alfhir Think it was shelved in a previous iteration. Could be wrong, might show up still. Apparently their internal metrics were luke-warm at best.
@@SilverSeraph379 I meant in a official dnd 5e book. Since the Pyromancer wasn't a sold book like the latest mtg theme book. It can't be used in adventures league its considered playtest material at best.
Can we do this for beast master ranger? Give us X animal companions to choose from and build them like the wild fire. Wildfire> any companion I can pick
That awkward moment when WoTC low key solves the problem with Beast master ranger but puts it on another class. Seriously though, if you make an animal companion's stat block similar to the fire spirit's stat block in scaling then the companion becomes just sturdy enough and just versatile enough to be a pretty good subclass without outputting too much damage. Aside from other issues with ranger, it would be a good start.
DM: Are you really making your Fire spirit a giant buff chicken man?
Me: YES! I AM!
MOHAMED ABDUL!
I've learned that the only way to handle X, is to burn it.
MAGICIAN’S RED
blaziken, lol
It's a funnier concept when you realise the wildfire spirit's statblock says it's small size XD
The idea I now have is a Wildfire Druid with the Soldier background, who was sent to a foreign shore during a war. He was caught in a battle that ended up burning an entire town to the ground, traumatizing him. But when the town was nothing but ashes, a fire spirit attached itself to him, following him back home. He took to drinking heavily, to drown out the memories of the fire and the horror. But in his dreams, the fire spirit whispered, teaching him the magic of nature and flame.
Now something has motivated him towards adventure, so he travels. Struggling with alcoholism, cynicism, and PTSD. Trying despite this to set the natural world aright, and do more with his life than fading away. Even if it means burning out instead.
Very nice lol
So, basically, you can get a Fire-type pokemon.
Druid: In order to summon my Wildfire Spirit, I must speak its true name and say the summoning incantation. CHARMANDER! I CHOOSE YOU!
YES
I love the idea of you
Ex guard druid: Arcanine use flamethrower!
when I read about the wildfire spirit teleportation ability, all I could think was Dumbledore in Order of the Phoenix doing the trick with Fawks.
YES!!! THANK YOU!!! That’s exactly what I thought too. Mines gonna be a red tailed hawk
I did a one-shot with the Wildfire Druid, and I had a BLAST! I feel the temp HP on the 14th level is too good, but the rest of it is great and balanced.
Something I decided to do was make my Wildfire Spirit my wife. She's essentially like a dryad of fire. So my druid had chosen to bind himself to this spirit because they were in love and had many shared goals. He was protective of her and did not summon her carelessly. The Wildfire Spirit has good enough int and other stats to be treated like a person, so I do. She talked, she had her separate opinions, and I got to role play being a passionate man of flames who preserves the circle of life in a unique way.
I've also had other gimmick ideas with character types for it: Fire Genasi who has their Wildfire Spirit as their dad, PC and Spirit buttheads a lot due to differences, Firbolg being skeptical of the well intentions of their Wildfire Spirit, PC didn't ask to be bound to this spirit and just has to live with it. There's a lot of unique character pulls that the subclass has, and I absolutely love it.
Sounds super fun
A Goblin Shaman, who was ritually bound to this spirit in order to draw power from the pretty lights.
This is actually amazing. Hope you don't mind me using this idea ^^" Wont claim it as my own ofc
@@beastoonline1991 Sure, knock yourself out.
What's funny is a couple years ago I played a character where his whole premise was that he was a tiefling druid that saw fires as a very large part of natural life. I'm kinda sad that I didn't have this subclass back then.
I honestly love this new subclass. I always somewhat of hesitated to play a druid. I had the feeling that a druid had to be this shapechanging humanoid turning into something like a bear or bird. That changed after I saw a friend play a spore druid, which was quite impressive, he played a frontline tank, raising armies and just doing tones of damage.
After that I played a moon druid in the next campaign and was yet impressed once again but felt a bit heartbroken that the true folklore druid never got represented enough. When I saw that the wildfire spirit can have any form combined with all the other features I knew that this had changed. I knee what my next character was going to be. A wildfire druid summoning her lost dachshund as a fire spirit, fighting alongside her.
This subclass has really improved my love for the druid even farther. Please keep this outstanding work up. It's so fantastic being a DnD-Fan in this time. A time of improved ideas and unlimited possibilities. Thank you WOTC and of course DnD: Beyond
druid is honestly my favourite class. Your a buff full spell caster and I think people overlook the class a lot. you get such a wide range of spells and you get to know so many that honestly, I don't use wild shape a lot. As a circle of the land druid your basically a front line wizard/sorcerer as you'll have armor and more health. you get to swap out spells and (as a land druid) you get natural recovery that's just the same as the wizard recovery. you can move to any position of a fight; the barbarian/fighter is getting low on health? you can make it to them for cure wounds without going down from one or two attacks then join the front line fight. you can hang back with a lot of good dps concentration spells. It's also such a freeing class to role play as! druids aren't just tree hugging hippies. you can be as calm as stone or as energetic as an animal.
There must be a new Xanathars Guide-like book coming soon!! So many new subclasses popping up, new sidekick rules published but not yet in print, I can’t wait!
I love when Druids can do different things with their Wildshape. My favorite fantasy creatures are elementals so I'm in love with this subclass. I just need to find a DM who allows this in a game...
PLEASE MAKE THIS OFFICIAL CONTENT I LOVE THIS SUBCLASS SO MUCH
My only issue with this subclass is that they put it out while "Descent into Avernus" is the new hotness.
Jeremy, I love you man but no way am I gonna take a fire-based druid to hell for a playtest :P
Be a human and grab elemental adept. That will make it playable
@@dicorockhimself Yeah, the DM said I can grab it for free as a Gold Dragonborn as I'm already shooting myself in the foot with my race choice haha!
@@killianduggan8730 that's what I call dming proper lol. Dragonborne are such a weak race with such an amaizing feel lol. They need the boost
@@dicorockhimself Devils are all immune to fire damage, lol....
@@dicorockhimself EA allows you to ignore resistance, not immunity. Devils are immune to fire, demons are merely resistant.
This subclass is a really hot topic. It's stoked the fires of discussion. I have a burning hope it makes it into a book.
Those puns gave me cancer
@@ryangoepfert9112 hush now
+
Go. Home.
Bro. Please stop.
Really like this subclass! I've been wanting Druids with elemental themes for a while, even had a couple of homebrew stuff in mind for a Circle related to Fire (I called the Circle of Ashes). I hope there'll be Druid things that are tied to other elements, maybe related to the Elemental Planes
A druid that focused on the unrivaled, cleansing power of storms and tempests? A Druid that harnesses the strength of mountains and the malleability of metal? A druid that has the capacity to adapt and overcome obstacles like a flowing river, or come down like a waterfall? sign me up.
@@deadseven3474 You. You get it.
I absolutely love this. I don't really like Wild Shape... so having a Druid that can go without it and have an amazing concept makes me so happy!!
I also love what Jeremy said about customization -- I love reflavoring and making the aesthetic that I want for my characters work for me :)
Yeah, more twists to basically 'pour' Wild Shape into something else would be cool. Oh! Maybe an abomination take, for 'unnatural natures'?
@@tomisabum I remember seeing a homebrew class that had a similar concept called the Circle of Monsters or something?
I just want someone to listen to me like this guy listens to Jeremy Crawford
Love the fact they are also covering the fact you can flavour the way your character uses spells or abilities to fit your character's playstyle. I am building a way of the sun soul monk, but reskinned it so instead of ki blasts he makes key constructed guns, so I dubbed it Way of the Gun Soul Monk.
As a wildland firefighter, (and big D&D nerd) I love this UA. Hope it makes it to a book.
Finally i homebrewed and have been talking about this kind of druid in live streams for every dnd youtuber i could find for the last years or so. Happy to have an almost official one now.
That was a really interesting video. I feel like druids often get stereotyped as the nature-loving hippy, so it was very cool to hear more about druids in real-world folklore, and the different flavors of druid in D&D.
A Gruul Druid would be great with this one
Ey! I'm so glad this is here. This was such an important aspect of nature I didn't feel was represented, so I included this idea when I built the cosmology for my campaign setting. The diety of the wilds is dual natured, one focusing on rebirth, fertility, growth, healing, beasts and the other focused on wrath and destruction; the split between the aspects reflect their distinction as two core identities of the wild, but 1 god representing them was to link them and show their connection. She has aspects of her domain that are present in both, like Beasts, the Wild, the Wood Elves, and that's represented by her 3 main titles; the one that refers to her in general is Yara Stargazer, the growth domain is Yara Grovetender, and the destructive one is Yara Smokebringer.
Absolutely love it, more of these unique and creative subclasses that still fit the original class are what we need.
I love how long this video was, I wouldn't even mind if it was longer.
Agreed - was nice to see a bit more discussion about the class as a whole rather than being limited 100% to the subclass. That said, I'd also rather both these guys be spending their time at work developing D&D and D&DBeyond rather than doing an interview, so there is a balance to be made.
Another better pet having class than the beast master ranger lmao
Yep
Swap the fire spirit's stats out with a beast of 1/4 challenge or lower, swap the health of the beast for the spirit's health formula, give it the spirit's soul bond ability, and allow attacks from your companion to be bonus actions from you while having other parts of the subclass work normally (level 7, 11, and 15 abilities work normally). WoTC is concerned about giving the animal companions attacks as a bonus action due to the damage being out of control but every other ranger subclass does around the same amount of damage that way aside from gloom stalker that blows its load round 1 (hell, half of the beast master's damage may not even hit if the companion misses).
A follow up to this: I like how WoTC literally did this to the ranger with the new class feature changes, almost to a T. It's almost as if they read this comment and just sort of took it (that's the vain answer) or they finally realized it themselves (probably what happened).
@@Vile_Oreo or, they were working on the class enhancements before or around the same time as this subclass, but the subclass was released 1st.
I may not always like the content WoTC put out for D&D but there no question that I respect the passion and zeal Jeremy and the others have for the game.
Their excitement to creat makes me excited to play
My Tortle Druid was given a Eagle familiar and he taught it to play rock, paper, scissors with his Awakened Bonai tree.
That is the most D&D thing I've heard all day.
I want to meet this guy... XD
I'm playing as a Druid for my first campaign & came across this UA.... I can't even explain how happy I was to find this Circle and cheerful I hadn't got to lv 2 yet just so I can choose this subclasse!
I've always been a big fan and proponent of refluffling abilities, so I absolutely love hearing the approval of that idea by one of the primary designers of D&D.
You know I have found that the flavor of druid is a lot better after playing pathfinder, They aren't just nature cleric, nature doesn't give them power, they use an ancient early magic, their magic is PRIMAL
It's a pretty rad option. Started talking with my GM whose prepping to run a Tal'Dorei setting game for letting me play this option as someone born in Emon as a fire genasi, born that way due to the draconic elemental disaster post-Thordak that lingers there.
tomisabum this sounds DOOOOOPE!!!
I absolutely love all this druid's features. I think I want to roll up a Summer Eladrin Wildfire druid! 🔥
MAGICIAN'S RED!!
Got to play test this subclass last week. Makes for some interesting gameplay and roleplay flavor. Loved it!
I've always played with the idea that instead of simply protecting nature, the druid is a force of nature itself and as such things that would be considered natural disasters to civilization such as a flood/tsunami, wildfire, severe thunderstorms, tornados ect all are simply nature taking its course in the druids eyes so this subclass makes a lot of sense in my mind. I like it
I want an Earth themed druid.
This class is a beast, it’s boost makes it hard to keep down and it can heal like a boss.
Literally my favorite class ever.
I can't wait for it to be published this is absolutely amazing have been playing it ever since with my home brew
While the Cleric and Wizard from this UA did not wow me, the Druid really knocked it out of the park.
I have played a Pyro Druid (Circle of Dreams), it was awesome. Now I have an archetype for it. Fantastic.
Someone looked at that one scene in harry potter where dumbledore teleported with a pheonix and they said imma make a subclass outta that.
i made a circle of the elements, before i realised that this was out.
went in very different directions though
mine basically made druids a martial class.
Fire is a form of renewal. If you go through a forest a month after a fire you will see growth in trees that were burnt. It clears away detritus and fertilizes the forest renewing it. It also keeps bugs and disease from overtaking the forests, the way they do today. We have Dutch elm disease, pine beetles, and emerald ash bore beetle. I do tree work for a living and understand a lot about this subject and could see this druid as a control and sorcerer of renewal.
Jeremy, you are such a history geek
I'm imagining a druid flying over a battlefield and dropping from just the right height to trigger Blazing Endurance so they can literally explode into the fight
This subclass could easily be reskinned too to be a subclass representing rot, much like the Circle of Spores but no focus on undeath, you could simply change any mention of fire damage to poison/necrotic/acid damage as appropriate, and have a myconid or swarm of flesh-eating insects instead of a fire spirit. This would better represent the role of fungi and detritivores in turning dead things into new life, I'd maybe give them Vampiric Touch and Life Transference on their spell list to bolster this
Human with Elemental Adept Fire that has the control flames cantrip.
Still think the reliability of the built-in pets vastly exceeds the flexibility of the Beast Master or (non Moon) druids.
I want to play a Grung wildfire druid with the spirit modeled as a frog, which could reflavor the teleport ability as a leap xD
I am so excited to eventually play a Wildfire druid. Never got into druid because I was never big on the Wildshape thing since it felt so 'central' that if I didn't use it I would be doing something wrong so I was better off with a wizard or a half-caster. Also I didn't wanna play mushroomancer because I'm more of a skeleton guy. So yeah, gives me a good theme, lots of roleplay flavor to design a character around... and if I do decide I want to change shape for some reason I can do it in a really flamboyant way! Like maybe I can describe my beast form as (appearance-wise) being a flaming bear made of carved wood and flame and fury.
It really feals like this subclass should have the ability to turn into an elemental like the Moon Circle, only exclusively Fire Elemental. I'd love to homebrew a "Werephoenix" form with appropriate CR (Because actual Phoenix is way to strong for Wild Shape), that Wildfire Druid could turn into an higher levels.
And with Circle of the Shepherd, Druids also fill a portion of Barbarian. I love Druids!
Absolutely LOVE Wildfire!
I'm playing a 98 year old wily human druid trying to get to timeless body and risking his life at every encounter thinking its his last. So much fun.
Its a retread of thematics already seen elsewhere (Phoenix sorc, life cleric, celestial lock) but it's OK.
BUT the poor Beastmaster Ranger is STILL crying in the corner, and this beastie is a HUGE step up from similar critters like familiars and Artificer defenders.
To me, this really fills the gap for I wanted the druid to do.
The shape changing was neat; but it wasn't what drew me to the class...they were elementalists to me.
Now, with these "baked in" spells (nyeh nyeh), I can select whatever elemental spells I fancy (Entangle, Gust of Wind), and still have decent firepower (oof)...and the Wildshape is more aligned with my elemental flavor.
The roleplay aspect for the spirit could decide the whole character...this is my guide, my companion, my god..."Commune With Nature" could be my wildfire spirit scouting the area.
Coupled with the Investiture spells, the druid can literally become a force of nature.
Perfect thought process for the druid. I can't wait.
I love both the wizard and the druid from this new UA lore wise and can't wait to see it in hopefully the next book like xanathar's, the new artwork for each subclass would be amazing!!
I think the wizard needs more time in the oven mechanically
Agreed. I definitely don't think it should be called "true names"
i read you can basically use ur wildfire spirit as a turret (channeling ur spells thru itat its position). would i be able to hold my turn and use a spell after i get the spirit in place during its turn or does the spirit always go after me? Do i need to wait for my next turn or can i increase the range of my fire ball in just one turn is what im mainly asking?
love druid best spellblade class in my opinion. definitely my favorite class, this new circle is also pretty awesome. though no resistance to fire or even immunity like the storm sorc who gets 2 immunities.
I’m making a fire goose. No you’re playing too much untitled goose game
ok so the sheer fact he mentions that the one artificer subclass is in the new eberron book tells me that the artificer will become an official thing soon!! So exciting!
That's already been confirmed. The only subclass that wont be making it into the book is the Archivist. Which was my favorite 😭
@@DCVM93 aw damn im sorry. The good news is since this will be officially implemented theres always the possibility it gets added in the future!
What about mystic?
When you fixing the ranger ??
mastermeany I believe that they have UA material for the ranger and fighter. it will just take time for it to be official. it is online though.
I played a wizard with Fire Bolts that looked like flying rabbits made of flame. Misses flew off in random directions before disappearing.
This is probably the coolest Druid subclass yet! I hope this becomes official!
Druid is my favourite class ever
I am making a wildfire druid and am really keen to give it a go. I end up always playing a moon druid because I want my Wild Shape to have a purpose outside of being a situational utility. TBF spore made use of Wild Shape in a different way but the play style felt odd, it wasn't terrible but it just felt like it didn't mix well with what the druid had to offer in terms of spells. Been waiting on a subclass that makes very good use of Wild Shape in a different way from what we've seen and even by some possibility I end up hating it I (which I doubt, seems great on paper) I still hope it gets an official release.
Big fan of going over the lore influences for the design.
I think that the ability shouldn’t use wildshape because wildshape isn’t a combat ability unless you are a moon druid, which frees it up to be a fun roleplay ability. The way it’s written now, I have to choose between being helpful in combat and turning into a mouse and taking a nap in the fighters pocket.
Depending on your DM, role play only Wildshape is usually free
Cameron I hope to get a dm like that
I LOVE this idea? Can't wait to check this out in a game!
Real Druidic traditions are rooted in the legends that the gods of Ireland were ancient druids that advanced their techniques and powers so far that they acended into gods of nature. Even the Morrigan was connected to the inherent vitality of nature in her own way. So thinking of Druidic traditions as a form of Wizardry (Wizard being a word reffering to Wizened, as in being wise) that sources it's power and knowledge further back than recorded history isn't a bad theme to play with.
they keep remaking the beastmaster ranger but not as a ranger, we've had robo ranger and now a fire spirit ranger
If only we could have a fire spirit ranger. XD
Robo ranger?
@@Truck-kun653 artificer iron defender
Oooh that's a great idea.
I LOVE the druid class, have one but it's my favorite one
I like this subclass so far but I wish the damage the spirits damage scaled better. Since 1d6 plus proficiency at lvl 20 most you can get is 10 damage unless you crit.
1:28 what was the battle he's referencing?
I can't remember the name but it's to do with Irish legends relating to the formorians the first creatures to inhabit Ireland being forced out by the pantheon
I love this subclass. speaking of tank druids and saying you can customize things can you guys officially say you are allowed to make heavy/medium armor out nonmetal materials because otherwise that proficiency is going nowhere
Are there rules that say medium and heavy armor have to be made from metal? And what about warforged? Can they just not be druids then? The answer is "of course they can!"
@@zeterzero4356 no it says you can find one of an alternate material but because there are no options stated but dragon scalemail adventurer's league doesn't allow it.
@@IShadowStrykerI That blows. Even Jeremy said he thinks reflavoring is fine! Why even give them armor proficiency then!? I'm so confused!!!
@@zeterzero4356 Yeah, it's pretty much an AL only problem though since its entirely by the book, and theres not any examples in the books except for dragon scale and studded leather as far as i know
@@IShadowStrykerI I knew AL was strict but I didn't know it was THAT strict. Yeesh. My Shield Hero build having a shield with a spell focus incorporated into it suddenly seems a lot more difficult to accomplish. Need to do some research.
No one:
Todd: Da-roo-id
JC is awesome! Now I want to play a Druid!
This seems tailor-made for a Fire Genasi druid.
Additional fire spells...proficiency in scimitars (and Flame Sword)...a wildfire spirit I can flavor as a minor spirit from the Plane of Fire...
...basically, they want to become an Efreeti.
I personally think this should've been the Circle of Disaster or something along that line. Spells that cause flooding, thunderstorms and wildfires based on the most raw aspects of nature.
Florida Man druid? You have my attention now.
I do love this concept, but I also want to see wild shape letting you do more of what it is supposed to do: let us turn into cool creatures.
That said I do need to remember that druid is more than wildshape. I like the term "protowizard" and will probably use it in the future. Still...the kaiju loving monster collector in me wants to be able to turn into cool creatures before level 17. Maybe a subclass that let's you mix and match various traits to create a unique wildshape form?
I want to homebrew the druid sub class, Circle of the Hurricane.
And now The Scorpions is playing in the back of my head. Thank you. 🎸
@@biancabrooks280 oh you are very welcome wind is my personal favorite element soooo rock on!
Friends and Fireballs , a friend of mine was running a Tal’Dore campaign where I was an Earth Ashari Druid. So I know how to rock. ☄️
y no link to the UA post
I kinda want to play a wildfire druid for the descent into averus campaign I'm starting this week.....
I imagine that the wildfire spirit looks like Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle.
So pair this up with phoenix sorcerer and my fire genasi is gonna be a super pyro...tag in wizard level spells for fire and I'm gonna burn the whole world.
My next character is a tortle wildfire druid. Tortles are from a tropical volcanic island, so he's going to be more of an elemental shaman that uses the power of earth, fire, and water instead of the more plant and animal-based spells and abilities druids usually have.
Should be a very tanky damaging spellcaster and healer.
where will these new subclasses be made available?
This is the back story for my Fire Genasi(he is orc decent)
To know me is to know the story of my people.
Long ago when the tribe thought itself strong and looked to conquer the lesser tribes. As stranger visited he was Human and seen as frail and week. He offed the tribe greatness and it would know across the land if they lay down their blades and dedicate there lives to him. The grate war chef thought about this challenge and told the week human that if he can kill his way to the top then he earns the right to lead. At this, all-male fighters of the grate tribe took up the call and place the banners on the field.
What should have been a quick fight turned into a massacre as the Human killed all the orcs that took the field burning their soul to feed the land. After three days of killing the only banner was the Grate war chefs.
The grate chef took to the ash fields of his dead tribe and placed his banner. in the darkness of the night sparks and shouts of pain, glee and death ran out for all to hear. In the morning lit from the fires of the dead stod one figure next to a flaming head. The great war chief had given his life for the honour of the tribe.
Now the Human was made the leader of or once grate tribe took his prize. We learned that he was not a human but a Djinn Seeqeha the Vibrant.
He did three things for the tribe
First, he took his wife a woman of the ways the land
He taught us that the flames will make us stronger
He left us a Son who will show us the light.
I am that son and I now set off to learn the secrets of the flame so that my father will return to find his tribe strong. I will return to my people strong to burn the week and clam my seat at my father's side or not at all.
I am the herald of Seeqeha the Vibrant and I will make my people strong.
Wait, were druid's underated? Ive always seen both among my friends and online people talk about how druids are awesome Healers, Spellcasters, and Tanks all in one?
The biggest flaw with druids that i've noticed is that they start off very underpowered. Theres definitely a plateau effect when it comes to Druids
there's a bit of high learning curve on that. Lotta things to keep looked up and balanced at once. Def a more advanced class than most.
Agreed. Moon druid is top tier with other subclasses just under IMO.
Nah, people just tend to either forgo spellcasting for wildshape (aka not casting long duration or conc spells) or wildshape for spellcasting which means they derp.
Every 5e campaign or one shot I have played has had a Druid. Every single one without exception.
I want to multiclass this with 2 levels in Grave Cleric.
I hope this doesn't mean phoenix or fire element sorcerer is not coming.
But Phoenix Sorcerer is already a Unearthed arcana thing?
Jeohran Alfhir Think it was shelved in a previous iteration. Could be wrong, might show up still. Apparently their internal metrics were luke-warm at best.
There's already Phoenix and Pyromancy! Personally I'd like to see those properly combined
They have actually already officially released a pyromancer sorcerer pretty sure its part of their MTG releases tho
@@SilverSeraph379 I meant in a official dnd 5e book. Since the Pyromancer wasn't a sold book like the latest mtg theme book. It can't be used in adventures league its considered playtest material at best.
Best of the three for sure
Can we do this for beast master ranger? Give us X animal companions to choose from and build them like the wild fire. Wildfire> any companion I can pick
feels like this druid is more meant for up close fighting with the abilities it has
I know the druid gets op later on, but this subclass seems to come out of the gates fighting to be the most op.
Fiery telelortation:
Will the creatures that are teleported have to make a DEX save too?
No, it works like Thunderstep. Anything in the area described that is still there after the teleport makes the save.
Artificer companion: Motorcycle horse!
That awkward moment when WoTC low key solves the problem with Beast master ranger but puts it on another class. Seriously though, if you make an animal companion's stat block similar to the fire spirit's stat block in scaling then the companion becomes just sturdy enough and just versatile enough to be a pretty good subclass without outputting too much damage. Aside from other issues with ranger, it would be a good start.