One nerf to Wild Shape worth noting, in 2014 it was being unconscious that knocked you out of your form. Now it’s being incapacitated, which comes up far more often.
Well it was the forms hp that had to reach zero to knock you out, now it goes away only if you are Incapacitated or completely knocked out Plus you can get it back with a 1st level slot now
@Hjortur95 it means you can't take actions, bonus actions or actions, and can't concentrate on spells Basically if any D&D effect makes you *miss your turn*, ie stun, paralyse, unconsious, or dead, then you are Incapacitated
You mean we don’t have to regularly cast suggestion and modify memory spells on our Druid to convince him his breastplate is made of charcoal anymore???
@@insanogeddon The 5.14 PHB only says "druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal". It never even said what the consequences would be if a druid was made to wear it unwillingly. I always assumed the druid would not *willingly* do so, but it would be pretty funny if it was just a rule woven into the very essence of the universe, that any attempt to do so simply fails, like the armor/shield just fly away as if being propelled by electromagnetism. If so, it would be pretty funny to see someone try to weaponize the opposing force to make a railgun, powered by a druid that you try to fit a shield onto. Or maybe you could find a way to put druids and armor into some type of turbine to generate electricity? If nothing else, you could use the druid as a metal detector. Like, have them wild shape into a mouse and try to wield a coin as a shield to see if its actual metal. Fascinating topic! I almost wish they hadn't removed it for 5.24e now.
I’m a huge fan of Stars Druid. Druid isn’t my favourite class by a long shot but Stars is maybe my favourite subclass due to its flexibility - especially after level 10. As a spellcaster that prepares its spell list daily, the Constellations really let you be a Swiss Army Knife for your party. You can do decent dps with Archer, good healing with Chalice, and be a control caster with Dragon. From level 10 you can start as one form then switch as the battle continues. Eg. Start in dragon for the big concentration spell. Mid-battle switch to Chalice to to keep people up and/or go archer just to get some extra damage to finish monsters off. You have multiple useful builds without really having to commit to anything beyond a long rest, and then Weal/Woe and the resistance at lvl 14 are cherries on top. So flexible, so fun, great multiclass options too. At least 4/5. If you haven’t already, I really recommend trying it out.
“great multiclass options” - what would you consider here? I feel like Druid is super strong mono-classed since you have medium armor + shields now, and as usual have a strong spell list.
@@plannedtuna8293 any spellcaster since you get reliable concentration, but specifically Cleric and Life cleric for crazy healing. Then as a Druid you have Shillelagh to let any martial class use Wis for attacks, so you can pump Wis for Guiding Bolts, Archer attacks and spells while being a martial
Love me some Stars Druid, kinda hurt more than Moon, Land and Sea. Well nothing like waiting for an D&D Beyond errata update we physical book users can write down on a post-it and smack it at the appropriate book pages🤔
I've played a Spores Druid who respecced to Stars at around level 7, and then played to level 13. I never looked back, and it wasn't even a close comparison. The only reason I wouldn't play one again is that I have too many other character ideas I'd like to play, including Circles of the Land and Seas 😂 4/5 from me.
In 5e I had a 6 twilight cleric/X star druid and the amount of passive stuff going on was crazy never saw a multiclass more loaded with things to do for free, i'm definitely gonna try it again with new option to see where it can go
Chris, this latest series of videos has been some of the best that you have done. I appreciate all of the hard work you put in. I hope you make your subscription goal, and I wish you the best.
at CR one you get the Lion, in the revised handbook 2024 the lion now has multi attack, and still has pack tactics, so now you can make unconditional 1d8+3 multiattack at advantage with your martials there
@@guardiantree8879 that's my concern as well! The elephant has a decent +8 to hit but it's due to it's impressive 22 Strength compensating for the fact that CR 4 creatures only have a +2 Proficiency Bonus. Even as an elephant, the Moon Druid would lack behind every other PC that has at least a +9 at level 12 and +10 at level 13 - likely more from magic items or the Magic Weapon spell that can now be cast without concentration to increase the chance to hit for weapon users (but not Moon Druids or Monks).
@@SortKaffeIf it is an issue I’m hoping dm’s will allow for a magic ear ring that can boost the to hit chance. Ear ring because I think most DMs would agree a beast could wear a piercing.
With the new spell rules, stars druid can cast two spells in a turn if one of then is a 1st level guiding bolt. It will be very useful at low levels, eg: guiding bolt + healing word with chalice (all at once).
and Land Druids can cast Web/Fireball/Blight/Polymorph/Wall of Stone/Cone of Cold on the same turn they cast another leveled spell as a Bonus Action (once per day).
I actually really like that Land druid is to spellcasting what Moon druid is to Wildshape. I always felt that Land druid was *intended* to be the subclass that goes all in on the spellcasting feature of the druid and their full caster "primal" spell list that ranger wishes it could have. Now you can actually be a very versatile and potent spellcaster with tonnes of resources to back you up. I am very conservative when I play spellcasters to the point I can't remember the last time I ran out of spell slots, but I'm excited to play a 2024 Land druid so I can let loose of the "but what if I need it for later?" anxiety.
Land Druid is great for people who blow all their slots (I'm more this way). They basically have the most slots of any caster. I didn't have any interest in Druid before but now I would like to give it a go.
I have playtested the Druid more than other classes and it's a banger! It's super fun to transform and have the Statblocks in my mind and don't bother my DM.
Cone of Cold is actually a Druid spell, so the only extra you get from Polar Land is Ray of Frost... Arid extras are Blur, Burning Hands, Fire Bolt and Fireball. Temperate extras are Misty Step, Shocking Grasp, Sleep and Lightning Bolt Tropical extras are Acid Splash, Ray of Sickness, Web and Stinking Cloud So none of the level 4 or 5 spells are extras.
@@SortKaffe Well duh, obviously. But one of the advantages of these lists is getting access to spells that usually aren't on the class's spell list. And Treantmonk referred to CoC as one of those spells, wich was incorrect and which I pointed out.
One thing people often ask for is a druid subclass that focuses on plant-based combat. I would say the new Land druid provides that. Multiple features based on vines and thorns, especially if you choose temperate or tropical.
The new Lands Druid has several great spells that don't require concentration, so I am happy. The Druid spell list consists of tons of spells that require concentration, so this was a huge buff.
I have a very simple rule for shopping in the books for monster stat blocks. "Beast Stat blocks exist for the druid and ranger to have cool things to summon and turn into." Anything that falls under the category of "ordinary wild animal" is not exclusively for the DM. Do you know what happens when you smack a wolf or any other wild animal with a sword? It runs away. Beasts stat blocks make no sense when used in the typical "fight to the death" D&D combat scenario. Wolves and bears don't fight to the death. They run away the second the thing they thought was food gives them trouble. I don't use beast stat blocks as they're presented in combat encounters. If my players run into 3d6 wolves, then at least one of those wolves is awakened and a lieutenant of the big bad. Or they all have tiny saddles on their backs and imps or sprites in those saddles. Or they're mutated by whatever regional effect the party is investigating, and they all have breath weapons or spawn giant tentacles. I genuinely don't care if the players memorize the wolf, bear, or t-rex stat blocks. I give monsters magic hp shields and other tricks often enough. Beasts and similar stat blocks are there for the ranger and druid to summon or raise. Hell, if the players get high enough level, I'll swap out the stat block for the wolves or owlbears they adopted for tougher dinosaur or monstrosity stat blocks. That or just give all pets soldier sidekick levels.
I mean wild animals absolutely will fight to the death in quite a few cases although you’re largely correct that they usually just go away. I really like the idea of giving them breath weapons, makes them feel like elementals or some sort of chimera experiment
The problem is not having the beasts in the PHB leaving the player without access to higher level forms unless they buy the MM. Given the wild shape changes why not give a scaling generic animal attack and let the player flavor their appearance as they see fit? The summoning spells shouldn't require a MM either. Probably not the ranger animal companion as that could be handled like wild shape but with a larger HP pool.
@@pheralanpathfinder4897 If given the choice between Rangers and Druids having one of their core features be locked to a weak "one size fits some" stat block in the PHB and giving them options that will grow in power and cool factor each time a third party book full of dinosaurs comes out, I will always tell players to go with the "hunt for stat blocks and then show them to me" option. All the classes with spell casting grow in power each time a book of spells gets printed. Doing the same for wild shape and beast companions keeps those options relevant. As for summoning spells, they no longer exist in the game. Half the Conjuration school has been reduced to re-skins of spirit guardians and spirit shroud. The old conjure spells had problems, but the solutions to those problems were never "fold all of Conjuration into Evocation." 1. Put a CR and spell level chart in each conjure spell. One high CR and one low CR for each spell level. 2. Add the rule that conjured creatures can't cast spells and the player and DM need to agree on stat blocks before game sessions. 3. When conjure spells are cast the player has two options. Summon one creature of the high CR for that spell level. Or summon a number of the same creature of the low CR equal to the number of players in the game session. 4. Single summoned creatures act on the summoner's turn. Group summoned creatures are handed out to each player. Each player can control the movement of their summon on their turn if they are acting as mounts. Otherwise the summons swarm the biggest target. The group of summons attacks together on one turn at the end of the turn order, and each player rolls the main attack/multiattack for the summon they are responsible for. These changes fix the combat slog and time monopolizing of the old conjure spells by basically giving the entire table a group activity and an extra round of attacks right before turn order resets.
I’d like to point out as I have once before that circle of the stars Druid with expertise in Arcana has the potential to be the best Arcana skill master in all of D&D.
*Slowly hides the Mizzium Apparatus item from them, hoping they dont make a Stars Druid with 1 level wizard, 1 level warlock, 1 level cleric, 1 level bard, 1 level sorcerer, 1 level bard or combination theirin...
@@mappybc6097 yeah, true. Saw this. Effort the cleric video I think. Circle or Stars can also get advantage on arcana checks on demand though, so that seems to break the tie just slightly for me.
Druid getting _Aid_ helps the Moon Druid and their whole party, so you can still be tanky without being obnoxious like the old version, and you're being a team player.
As someone that played druid twice, ones as a land and one as a stars. I enjoyed both,but looking at the 2024 land druid, it makes me excited to actually play the fantasy of being this spellcaster that is not just attuned to the land but no matter the terrain, it's the druids domain.
That thumbnail picture.. peak perfection! 😂 Nature.. PRIEST?. Remember under the playtests they wanted some structural categorization of the classes? I remember and liked it, didnt harm anyone. So for recap: - Priests are Druids, Clerics and Paladins - Mages are Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards - Warriors are Barbarian, Fighter and Monk - Experts are Artificer, Ranger and Rogues
@@FromMan2Monkey-nb5fq You are correct about the Artificer but rhere were murmurs it would be an Expert class due to tinkering with mechanical, technical stuff. Im actually unsure about the Bard. But I think remembering the Mages had four classes and Bard was the one fitting. Music is magic too afterall🎵🎶🪄🎺🎻🎸🪗🎷🪕🥁🪘🪇🪈🎹
I hope they make artificer a template that applies to every class. Ie a subclass in every class. Making magic items doesn't make sense as a class feature because the relative power of the class changes if you have low/high volume of magic item world. It is only balanced if you match the world dynamic/economy defined in the dmg.
@aaronjjacquesI totally disagree, the whole idea and design from artificer class, super cool and unique. I think is very bad to the game doing what you say. Its a very well designed class and deserve to be played
@AndreAlbuquerque-uk2oi conversely you could distribute the flavor of the artificer to the different classes Rogue would trap master embuing spells in traps rather then casting them Fighter into into weapons and Armour Ranger animal companion would be like the defender but made of plants Sorcerer would be able to use meta magic on magic item effects or substitute conversion from charges instead of spell slots Etc Each class would get use magical device feature at different levels.
I am excited to hear your take on the ranger. I have been slightly worried, but the community tends to take the worst from things if we’re being honest. Can’t wait for 100k, congratulations!
Chris tends to focus on hard numbers and facts, so I'm guessing he'll point out that the new ranger is far more effective than the 2014 version. Thing is, people aren't saying the ranger is weak, they are saying it's railroading your spellcasting and still lacks a strong defining feature
It worked! You said “please subscribe” and I did. I never do that but you’ve been consistently making such great D&D material that I realized I ought to subscribe. I enjoy all your videos; great work 👍
@@Sweet_Zombie_Cheezuz oh that’s a good call! Yeah gotta keep those setting specific backgrounds and origin feats in mind for character creation, from Strixhaven onwards
Or just take Divinely Favoured, Evil feat (Dragonlance). Used to be an option for Magic Initiate, but they restricted the feat to wiz/cleric/druid lists 2024. Also Dwarf (Mark of warding) - Eberon and Tiefling (Levistus) - Mordikainan's Tome of Foes If either is allowed.
Starry Form did get a very important nerf/buff inasmuch as you get fewer/more uses of Wild Shape (depending on your level). Because of the short duration, you were really feeling the pain of limited wild shapes.
In terms of power, I think Ranger is fine, even great with some builds, but it has failed to make its features feel good to get. The first buff to Hunter's Mark, the main focus of the base class at level 1, comes at 13, and it's your Hunter's Mark concentration cant be broken. Not a damage buff, nor losing the concentration, just if you use a bad spell at this level it won't break. Also, focusing half the base class features around a bonus action spells makes beast master also never want to use it despite it having built in synergy. I love playing Ranger and think it is decent in terms of power, I just really don't like the base class features and this doesn't change that.
I know we're all excited for the 2024 species, but I'm really into the idea of a Githyanki Stars Druid - imagining Laezel's line about her people sailing the stars in BG3.
I think a land druid is the only class that can cast multiple high level spells in the same turn via land druid, including two 9th level spells. Action surge basically.
Not quite, Natural Recovery only allows you to cast one of the spells you get from your Circle Spells which tops out at 5th lvl. All of the 5th lvl Circle Spells are also actions, which means you'll need the other spell to be a bonus action or reaction and Druids do not get any 8th or 9th lvl spells with those casting times (and Draconic Transformation is the only one at 7th lvl, and there aren't any bonus actions or reaction spells at 6th lvl either).
I enjoyed playing a Druid in a long campaign because I like complicated. Was a lot of fun. My DM worked with me too. I like the new Druid as well and will have to play one again!
I ran a short campaign for a group where one player playtested circle of the sea. Wrath of the sea was incredibly strong and was actually the only feature in the playtest the player and I agreed to nerf for the game; we made it damage dice equal to PB instead of Wisdom. I think the change to make it a bonus action was needed, but I don't like that they went with cold damage, there will be a lot more fights where it doesn't do much than before.
Yeah, my immediate thought when I first read that feature was that just about every melee character would be trying to pick up 3 levels in the subclass, to about the same degree as Gloomstalker, except maybe even more.
My party is up to level 13, and I've been using the Wildshape templates you released in that video years ago 😜 I think I'll have to end up tweaking them for 5.24, but that we'll keep using the templates 😝
I would argue elephant is buffed a lot and is a very respectable option even on lvl 12 or 14. The biggest point is - if you move 20 feet before attacking, you automatically make the target prone(no size limit!) and if you do, you make the third “attack”, resulting in around 50+ avg damage(not including spells). It does interfere with moonlight step and transforming though. Of course, +8 is not ideal for those levels, there are a lot of creatures who have flight or are immune to prone condition, but even then, considering all the offence buffs, the impact you can do is quite respectable
There are a couple points to Circle of the Stars Druid being different, as someone that is currently playing one in a 2024 PHB-RAW campaign, that makes them stronger than the Tasha's version. First, the free Guiding Bolts are now able to be stacked with bonus action spells. This does matter when looking at multiclassing, feats, or other bonus action spells. Being able to contribute meaningful damage on the same turn as a healing word is useful for action economy. Second, healing in combat is actually significantly more efficient now, especially at lower levels. Cure wounds with Chalice Form becomes a 3d8+2*Wisdom for a first level slot. That's actually insanely efficient, especially when you deliver it via your Wild Companion familiar. Add in the background Healer feat and you can reroll 1's on all of those d8's, which is an additional increase to efficiency. Third, Wild Resurgence enables you to swap forms in combat by eating slots, allowing you much greater flexibility in the form you take in levels 5-10, which was a major downside for the Stars Druid in the previous edition (being stuck on a form you didn't want when the battle changes). Lastly, Warcaster now allows you to Opportunity Attack Cure Wounds someone, which, as previously stated, is slot-efficient and quite funny. The end result of the above is that you usually start the fight with Archer Form + concentrating on a good spell while throwing out free Guiding Bolts (which you now have more of than before). If you see things going badly, you can swap to Chalice Form (made easier by Wild Resurgence), Cure Wounds, then Opportunity Attack Cure Wounds on an ally's turn for a burst of 6d8+4*Wisdom healing (average of 43 health for 2 1st level slots at level 4 spread among 4 allies). Much of that play pattern is similar to the 2014 PHB, but it is so, so much smoother and the power of the back end healing is through the roof. It's definitely more than a 3.5/5 if you're playing it with those changes in mind.
@@prestonluhman8168 Correct. But it's still easy to have an ally run past you during your turn, especially if you position yourself on their escape route out of danger.
@@paulernst5180I don't think you can actually target allies with attacks of opportunity. People are ignoring a paragraph when they quote the rule that seems to indicate such a possibility.
@@limaTheNoob You can in the new PHB. Quoting the handbook: "You can make an Opportunity Attack when a creature that you can see leaves your reach using its Action, its Bonus Action, its Reaction, or one of its speeds."
What you can do with wild companion is pick something like an elf that can long rest in less than 8 hours and then summon your familiar and take a short rest while everyone carries on sleeping. Lots of tricks like this out there but I figured it's worth mentioning.
TLDR: Moon (and other) druids can be tankier than before. Let's compute their maximum possible HP in one combat at level 5: 2 wild shapes + 9 spell slots that you can trade for 9 wild shapes (no action required), so you can have 11 wild shapes; each gives you 3*5 temporary HP, which means that you can have 3*5*11=165 HP. And what's with the old druid? 2 wild shapes + 16 spell levels, which you can use to heal by 1d8 (average 4.5) while in the form. That means that you can heal yourself by 4.5*16=72 HP on average. You are missing 165-72=93 HP to be equal to the new one, but you still can use your 2 wild shapes to take the form, which will give you 93/2=46.5 HP. I think that the highest HP you can get from a form is 45 with the giant hyena. So your total HP is 45*2+72=162. It's about the same. But remember: your AC in the new edition is 13+WIS, which is probably 13+4=17. It is higher than the AC of most beasts. Maybe it's getting better on higher levels? Let's check it for level 19 druid. New: 4 wild shapes + 21 spell slots, so it's 25 wild shapes. Total HP = 25*3*19=1425 Old: 2 wild shapes + 82 spell levels. You can heal 82*4.5=369 HP with your spell slots. You lack 1425-369=1056 HP. Your 2 wild shapes should give you 1056/2=528 HP, which is not possible. The highest HP beast you can transform is a mammoth with 126 HP. The other option is an earth elemental with the same 126 HP. So your average total HP is 2*126+369=621, and your maximum total HP is 2*126+82*8=902 HP if you always roll 8s while restoring your HP. So, on average, the new moon druid has 1425/621=2.3 times more health than before and probably 13+5=18 AC or even 13+6 AC, while the earth elemental has only 17 AC. And do not forget that your attack deals more damage, too. And let's compare it with a new non-moon druid for the same 19th level: Since level 18, you can cast healing words while in the form with a bonus action, which heals you by 2d4 + 2d4 for every spell slot level higher than level 1 + WIS (probably 5). You still have 4 wild shapes that will give you 4*19=76 HP. Level 1 and 2 healing word will heal you by 10 or 15 damage respectively, so it's better to convert them into wild shapes to get 19 HP, others are better be used to heal with a healing word. You have 72 levels of slots and 14 spell slots, which will heal you by 72*2*2.5+14*5=430 HP. Your number of wild shapes is 4+4+3=11, from your 1st and 2nd-level spell slots and your regular wild shapes. Total HP = 430+11*19=639 HP. Remember that poor moon druid from the 2014th version with his miserable 621 HP? You can laugh at him.
Tbh regardless based on the new rules spore Druid would provide significantly more temp hp without any of the wild shape drawbacks. Plus the activation overlaps much better with armor of ag being a ba now.[bonus action: armor of ag(any lvl), action 4x Druid lvl temp hp]. This doesn’t include the dmg bonus btw. Edit: Plus you didn’t compute short rest at all which would get the old Druid above this one due to the massive increase to wild shape recovery especially at the higher lvls. It’s just hard to even consider actually wildshaping at all given the readily accessible familiar and the spore having much better value per wildshape even comapared to the “tanky” moon Druid.
I've said it before. No one needs to do the monster manual. That's why D&D Beyond exists. You go to the monster page, use the filter function to filter to beasts, click to sort by challenge rating and bam, there's your list for wild shape. Takes about one minute.
@@terryc1538 that's great if you have a D&D beyond subscription. Nobody in my gaming circles does though, and new players almost certainly won't. One MM can be used for a whole table and is only a once-off purchase.
I am happy that the Land Druids were properly considered in the revision, even though the Moon Druids and others are more popular from what I gather (my impression anyhow).
The more I look at this, the more I think Circle of the Sea suits the Warden choice. You won't be as good a weapon user as a Ranger, but you can definitely make use of the medium armor to get up in enemies' faces and hit them with Wrath of the Sea.
Honestly all the fuss about Wild Shape took me back to your excellent Wild Shape Templates video from... *checks upload date* April 2021?! Time sure flies @_@ I feel like WotC could've really learned from that video and had the best of both worlds: have templates to avoid needing to shop stat blocks, while still allowing for customization within the templates. Side note: I'd love to see an "updated" version of those template ideas if you ever think of doing that.
The Sea druid, as written, seems to have to pick whether they damage and push someone in their emanation or their friend's at high levels. The wording is "one creature inside the emanation". I think they should have made it one each with your bonus action, and I think that's how we'll play it.
A couple of small corrections. Cone of Cold is now a druid spell, you don't have to be an Artic Land druid to gain access to it. For Stars druid, Dragon form's concentration benefit applies to all concentration checks, not spells only anymore.
@@peachykeen1973 The old Circle of Stars Dragon form allowed you to treat a roll of 9 or lower as a 10 when making Constitution saving throws to maintain Concentration on a spell. The new version gives the same benefit to non-spell Concentration checks.
Nope. natural weapons are not unarmed strikes. But unarmed strikes don't have to be done by humanoids. You can kick, clothesline, punch, or headbut as a bear just as much as a human, it will just do the standard damage for an unarmed strike, so flat 1+STR modifier (unless you had tavern brawler or monk/dancer/brawler levels).
I think you can start the adventuring day with a familiar and full wild shape uses by doing a short rest immediately after you finish a long rest and use wild companion.
I'm really liking land druid, between all the features they can get half their level in spell slots, another up to level 5 spell, a level 1 spell and an 8th level spell slot back.
I’ve never seen a Druid played at the table that wasn’t nerfed by the DM. For example, last time I saw a Druid at the table the DM said she had to observe an animal for 1 minute in its natural habitat to gain it as a wild shape. Things like that might have hurt its usage rates.
I do like the Android because it does answer the question of how to make a proper plant druid such as Poison ivy from Batman. On a slightly different note, the way they deal with wild shape is probably how I would think the rangers should deal with Hunter's Mark. For example having a pool of it that regenerates on a short rest but can be used more as a replacement for casting spells or gaining a trait or an ability that resembles more what the ranger can do other than mark their target for more damage. I get it, they're trying to make Hunter's Mark more like a paladin smite, where it's a spell which then falls under the spell rules where you can only cast one level spell per turn, but it feels like Hunter's Mark should be more like an ability like wild shape or channel Divinity or rage or something along those lines. But hey, that's just me and I have not yet seen how all of this plays.
Seems to me that all the casters were buffed significantly, except for the Wizard. One might argue that Wizards did not need a buff, and I'd agree with that. However, now it seems that all other casters are either better or have more unique features than the Wizard. Which seems like going a bit overboard. The only two truly unique features that the Wizard has are the rituals and the spell list, with the latter being constantly pilfered by most other casters. Especially the Sorcerer. I dunno, feels like this is unnecessary. Edit: to clarify, my point is not about power, but unique features. Sorcerers have Sorcery Points, Bards have Bardic Inspiration and the ability to take spells from any class, Warlocks have Eldritch Invocations, Druids have Wild Shape and all its alternative uses, Clerics have Channel Divinity and Divine Intervention. These are base class features, not counting subclass features. While the Wizard has... well, nothing truly unique aside from the ability to cast rituals from a book.
A weird interaction of the moon druid spell list is if there's a material component, like with moonbeam, apparently you don't need that, or verbal or somatic components, in wild shape but you DO need them in your normal form. That's definitely strange that the moon druid suddenly needs to make sure he has his focus or components unless he's turned into a bear or something.
They did this with sorcerer too btw, now the prepared spells scale basically with spell slots Ie, after level 2, the number of spells you can prepare each day equals the number of spell slots with which you have to cast them, giving me some 3e vibes
One big change to wildshape I'm not sure I like is by the old rules at least at most tables as long as you were not active, so in effect getting the wild shape back continually on a short rest meant from a very early level you could effectively stay in wildshape indefinitely, as those two uses last long enough for a short rest and still doing some stuff. Which is something you now can't do nearly as easily at the low levels. Perhaps you won't often want to, but you can do many fun things with that, and now you actually cant do more stuff while wildshaped it seems like something more players would like to do.
I’m primarily a Druid player and have played an absurd amount over the last decade. I’m super super happy with (almost) all the changes and love the element of choice in some of the new features. I’m also glad the capstone changed to be a little more balanced and non-moondruid subclass friendly. One change that’s not readily apparent to a lot of non-Druid players is how spells affect Druid. A lot of their spell list is very circumstantial and dependent on your terrain, and despite watching all the treantmonk 2024 spell videos, I will have to wait and see how the spells landed before making a judgment on Druid as a whole. Seemingly still not a lot of movement/defense options but that isn’t a deal breaker by any means. Also death to conjure animals, long live new conjure animals!! I was a template soldier in the trenches of the forums and Reddit during the playtest, and while I’m very sad that it’s not the case I’m okay with what we got. Even though we are stuck with shopping for beasts, I’m very happy with the update to wildshape, I think it made the class the most unfriendly class to new players, and while still not as streamlined as I would like it is 1000% a glow up from 2014. I like playing the niche class with lots of bells and whistles, but despite my “not like the other girls-ing” I hope the simplification helps open up druid to new players. So so excited to try out both land and moon, my first 2024 PC will be one of the above i really wouldn’t be able to choose if not for the lack of beasts for moon - it pains me a little that the choice is made for me because we don’t have the new MM. Again no templates boo hoo but it is what it is. Sea also looks great, third PC on deck. I really hate that stars doesn’t have subclass spells, I will be homebrewing one at the tabes I run and hopefully it will be allowed at the tables I play at. It doesn’t need the extra preparations but you can’t tell me that free guiding bolts make up for less spell options, and with no scaling it’s especially egregious at higher levels - and I hate that it makes it not as standardized with the other subclasses. Also don’t love that weal/woe doesn’t let you pick if it’s a buff or a debuff. As with mercy monk, they should’ve updated dreams or codified and updated spores like with glory instead of just reprinting a subclass that they did not change. Very happy with the new Druid overall, boo stars tomato tomato boo - 9/10 for me Great video though Chris, 10/10 for me
My group needs a tank, so I'm retiring my Druid 7/Monk 1 (started full druid, and at 6th level, needed to rebuild to add the monk level in for survivability). I'll probably make a Barbarian, as my group needs a second tank-type.
At low levels a hunter ranger set up right can get more attacks than a fighter or monk. Like before level 11. STR based, Glaive with Cleave, Polearm master and Horder Breaker. By level 5 that's 5 attacks, albeit cleave and horde breaker attacks HAVE to be on second targets.
That thumbnail. 😂 I've been waiting for this one. I've not played a Druid in ages, because Wild Shape just doesn't interest me very much. This new Druid, free to be a nature priest who primarily casts spells, is much better. I'm finally interested in playing some of these. In fact, I could see playing any but Moon Druid.
With the level 20 feature, 1x wildshape gets you effectively a 2nd level slot. You can trade 1x 1st level for 1 wildshape. This seems like you can effectively double your level 2 spell slots, or get 2x 8th level slots (4 WS becomes 1x 8th, + converting 1st slots into WS to do it again). This is going to be strong, but only really late levels
You can only convert one spell slot into a wild shape if you have none left so you can only retain one extra 8th level but it's still awesome cause you can do that and still wild shape
Circle of the Sea’s nerf is a bummer but it does make it a subclass that fixes that under-appreciated problem of “I don’t have anything to spend my bonus action on this turn which really sucks”. Like on builds using a Shield and a Versatile weapon. Normally you don’t have an offensive use for your bonus action, but this subclass gives you a use that has added utility. It’s a lot like the Wildfire Druid in that way but melee focussed instead.
It’s not a popular class not because it’s not strong but because it takes a lot of responsibility and good understanding of the rules and stat blocks to play the class well. And for most people that is too much effort for a game they just want to play for fun. It’s a veteran class for a reason. It’s arguably the most “difficult” class to play.
Moon druid could become quite a premier tank among spellcasters, 3 times level in temp HP each time you wildshape (can convert any spell slot into a wildshape for no action cost, then gain that hp as only a bonus action) - that is extremely spammable in tough fights. Still has full spellcaster scaling, decent martial ability. Don't really want to multiclass for more spell-slot production (such as warlock 2, or sorcerer) since these detract from your level-scaling value but definitely considerable.
The one downside is that it takes a bonus action to drop wildshape and it doesn’t end when temp hp is burned through, so you can’t instantly refresh temp hp, it takes 2 turns to drop wildshape and then use it again.
@@jackbarman7063 There's no prohibition on using wild shape while wild shaped, you can just go direct from one animal form to another. In fact, it's explicitly allowed since one of the ending conditions is 'use wild Shape again'. That doesn't give you time in human form, but if what you want is the Temp HP, do you care?
I know its not ideal meta or anything but I really want to play a Sea Druid who takes all the Warden options in primal order and channel the woodland spirits spell that lets me do extra elemental damage on hit and cross it with primal strikes and the sea emenation. I could do 4 different damage types in one round!
BEST CLASS IN THE GAME. Always was, still is, but even better. Druid, least played class Reason: skill issue. That's all there is. Skill issue or they hate Nature, more climate change. 55:37 People hate ranger. Yeah, that's just the same reason as above. The new ranger ( especially beast master ) is *BEAUTIFUL* . Not as great as the best class, druid, but close. My favs so far: Druid - *ALL* Beast Master Hunter ( Ranger ) Way of the four Elements Way of Shadow ( first subclass I played in 5e, so happy they changed it and made it awesome ) Trickery Domain Archfey Patron ( more likely *MATRON* huehue ) Thief Rogue Valor Bard ILLUSIONIST WIZARD ( sweet baby Jesus, this one looks so fan too )
for the next edition whenever that is I think templates would likely be the way to go but I think the approach they ended up with is a good change for the type of revision the 2024 core rules seem to be going for
I’m a little bummed that the tankiness of the moon druid has been nerfed dramatically. It is nice that their AC and damage can be increased, however I’m a bit concerned that their to Hit isn’t getting any love. You can increase the damage all you want but if they can’t land an attack it really doesn’t matter. Previous beasts attack bonuses didn’t scale hardly at all. I’m hoping that they change this when the new MM comes out.
Just at earlier levels their tankiness takes a hit. The bonuses to healing, better ac & spell casting in wild shape kinda make up for it. As do additional wild shapes. All that said I do wish the temp hp was 4x like Spores Druid.
A land druid with natural recovery can choose to cast a spell from his circle's spells and than cast barkskin on himself on his first round of combat thanks to the new magic action economy ... The way they design druid mek them use their wild shape in new ways that make every non moon circle subclasses want to use them, from the wild companion to recover a spell slot, plus every sublasses option... I love it
I haven't seen anything in writing yet, but I have pre-order a physical copy of the new PHB. Based on the reviews I have seen so far, I think the new ranger is being forced into a stereotype that it can't live up to. I believe there are solid Ranger builds hiding in the 2024 PHB, and over time, people will take off their blinders and see all the build options that are there.
Most of the high HP critters you were likely to wild shape into also had awful AC's. Brown bear for example has 11AC & 22HP. So the temp 9HP you get alongside an AC buff to 16, 17, or 18 will be better. Try finding critters with an AC of 16 or higher, there aren't too many. As long as you're actually in melee, and not making Dex saves v AOE. That extra AC is going to convert to a lot of HP. You're just going to need to think a little during fights, and not just bullet sponge your way to victory. Plus, there are a fair few AC items that can work whilst in critter form. Or dip one level into fighter, and get a fighting style, and second wind. Take blind fighting, and drop a fog cloud on yourself. Now they have even less chance of hitting/critting you. Pair that with what is effectively a free 2nd level barkskin, without the 1hr duration limit. So it frees up that spell slot for other stuff, now you just get a slightly worse, or better version for free any time you wild shape.
I have mixed feelings on the new Druid. Wildshape is kind of a let down for me, though granted I don’t know how I would have preferred it so that’s maybe unfair. Land Druid seems really great and really highlights what I think is the flexibility inherent within the class. I’ve always thought that Druids should have a feature where you can swap out a spell during a short rest or something to really emphasize the flexibility of the Druid, but I guess that won’t come to pass
Spell flexibility definitely wont be the thing. 2024 its the ONLY thing wizard has going for it. Litterally. I hard disagree on the wildshape though. Old wildshape if you shapeshift around mid level it would probably go something like this: it cost you your action... and before you get to do anything with it, a fireball hits you and you immediately shapechange back from damage. New wildshape you get to shift as a bonus action so at minimum you have one turn to use it, and it doesnt end if you loose your temp HP. I can shapeshift into say... a bird, and one magic missile doesnt make me plumet to my death instantly. I have my higher HP total, and it doesnt matter that they strip my 1 temp HP, I stay a crow until completely out of HP or choose to end it. It is now a feature any subclass of druid can use. The moon druid can use it better and has more numerical, and impressive, options but it remains usuable for a land druid, or a stars druid, etc. Vast improvement IMO.
@@rogerexcell249 I guess my wildshape specific complaint is having a set number of known wildshapes. I like the versatility of having an amount of options negotiated between u and the DM. The other changes to wildshape are good and definitely increase the versatility of the feature
The ranger isn’t necessarily bad… it’s super annoying. When the advertised theme for this book was attempting to open up diversity of play the ranger getting the biggest of pigeonholing into a weaker spell especially now when compared to the likes of conjure minor elementals just feels bad. Let’s even compare it to the other half caster, the paladin. Paladin gets heavy armor, and the vengeance gets advantage on every hit when the vow is out. A feature that occurs on HM way later. Not to mention the concentration free D4 per hit spell stacked with having access to HM.
Just wondering whether you feel the Primal Order choices are equivalent (as well as the Cleric's Divine Order choices ). The martial option (Warden / Protector) effectively gives you the Martial Weapon Training feat and Moderately Armored / (Heavily Armored for Cleric) feats without the stat bonus portion, while the magician option only gives a bonus to 2 skills (but not even giving free Proficiency in them) and +1 cantrip (where the Magic Initiate feat gives 2 cantrips and a level 1 spell)! To me, that is not very balanced. The Magician options really needs at least 1 more thing, IMHO. At first, I considered giving them free Prof in the skills that I mentioned, but that made them seem like the "skills option" rather than the "magician option". But then I hit upon the idea of also giving them +1 Shapeshift or +1 Channel Divinity (Cleric). I like this best because there is no other way to get additional Wild Shape / Channel Divinity uses, and both classes have ways to also use them for other purposes, like more spell slots, which means this is actually increasing the "Magician" side of the class, which is my goal. What do you think about this idea? Do you really think they are equally balanced as is or do you prefer the "magician options" being +1 cantrip, +Wis mod to 2 skills, and +1 use of Wild Shape / Channel Divinity? Do you have any better ideas to balance them than this?
I may be missing something but I think a much more prominent benefit of Moonlight Step than it foregoing spell slots for the casting rules would be that Misty Step is not a Circle of the Moon spell and thus cannot be cast while wildshaped, unlike this feature.
One nerf to Wild Shape worth noting, in 2014 it was being unconscious that knocked you out of your form. Now it’s being incapacitated, which comes up far more often.
ugh.. i legit dont know what incapacitated really means. does it mean you're knocked out? or does that mean your hands are bound?
Well it was the forms hp that had to reach zero to knock you out, now it goes away only if you are Incapacitated or completely knocked out
Plus you can get it back with a 1st level slot now
Ah, Tasha’s hideous laughter, now the bane of druids everywhere XD
@Hjortur95 it means you can't take actions, bonus actions or actions, and can't concentrate on spells
Basically if any D&D effect makes you *miss your turn*, ie stun, paralyse, unconsious, or dead, then you are Incapacitated
@@chriss5599 make the hyena laugh it’s ass off so hard it turns into an elf :)
I have zero idea how I have been watching your videos for years and not subbed. I fixed that today 🎉
Did the same last week. This have been the best week of dnd ever! ❤
@@bouidge did same thing just yesterday xD
It's also worth noting sometimes UA-cam just throws an error and unsubscribes you from something. So that could also be the case.
You mean we don’t have to regularly cast suggestion and modify memory spells on our Druid to convince him his breastplate is made of charcoal anymore???
Nature KNOWS, magic KNOWS .. unless you allow the casters to replace diamonds with coal as material components with the same rort?
@@insanogeddon The 5.14 PHB only says "druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal". It never even said what the consequences would be if a druid was made to wear it unwillingly. I always assumed the druid would not *willingly* do so, but it would be pretty funny if it was just a rule woven into the very essence of the universe, that any attempt to do so simply fails, like the armor/shield just fly away as if being propelled by electromagnetism. If so, it would be pretty funny to see someone try to weaponize the opposing force to make a railgun, powered by a druid that you try to fit a shield onto. Or maybe you could find a way to put druids and armor into some type of turbine to generate electricity? If nothing else, you could use the druid as a metal detector. Like, have them wild shape into a mouse and try to wield a coin as a shield to see if its actual metal. Fascinating topic! I almost wish they hadn't removed it for 5.24e now.
I’m a huge fan of Stars Druid. Druid isn’t my favourite class by a long shot but Stars is maybe my favourite subclass due to its flexibility - especially after level 10.
As a spellcaster that prepares its spell list daily, the Constellations really let you be a Swiss Army Knife for your party. You can do decent dps with Archer, good healing with Chalice, and be a control caster with Dragon.
From level 10 you can start as one form then switch as the battle continues. Eg. Start in dragon for the big concentration spell. Mid-battle switch to Chalice to to keep people up and/or go archer just to get some extra damage to finish monsters off.
You have multiple useful builds without really having to commit to anything beyond a long rest, and then Weal/Woe and the resistance at lvl 14 are cherries on top.
So flexible, so fun, great multiclass options too. At least 4/5. If you haven’t already, I really recommend trying it out.
“great multiclass options” - what would you consider here? I feel like Druid is super strong mono-classed since you have medium armor + shields now, and as usual have a strong spell list.
@@plannedtuna8293 any spellcaster since you get reliable concentration, but specifically Cleric and Life cleric for crazy healing.
Then as a Druid you have Shillelagh to let any martial class use Wis for attacks, so you can pump Wis for Guiding Bolts, Archer attacks and spells while being a martial
Love me some Stars Druid, kinda hurt more than Moon, Land and Sea. Well nothing like waiting for an D&D Beyond errata update we physical book users can write down on a post-it and smack it at the appropriate book pages🤔
I've played a Spores Druid who respecced to Stars at around level 7, and then played to level 13. I never looked back, and it wasn't even a close comparison. The only reason I wouldn't play one again is that I have too many other character ideas I'd like to play, including Circles of the Land and Seas 😂
4/5 from me.
In 5e I had a 6 twilight cleric/X star druid and the amount of passive stuff going on was crazy never saw a multiclass more loaded with things to do for free, i'm definitely gonna try it again with new option to see where it can go
Do I want to pull an enemy archer off a castle or cliff wall with thorn whip from 300 feet away.
Yes. Very much so
Chris, this latest series of videos has been some of the best that you have done. I appreciate all of the hard work you put in. I hope you make your subscription goal, and I wish you the best.
at CR one you get the Lion, in the revised handbook 2024
the lion now has multi attack, and still has pack tactics, so now you can make unconditional 1d8+3 multiattack at advantage with your martials there
it also can trade out one of its attacks for a fear effect aimed at one person! and still gets its attack after it
@@deadku6150that's beast
This was kinda my concern, not how much damage the beasts do (so many ways to make up for it now) but how likely they are to hit.
@@guardiantree8879 that's my concern as well! The elephant has a decent +8 to hit but it's due to it's impressive 22 Strength compensating for the fact that CR 4 creatures only have a +2 Proficiency Bonus. Even as an elephant, the Moon Druid would lack behind every other PC that has at least a +9 at level 12 and +10 at level 13 - likely more from magic items or the Magic Weapon spell that can now be cast without concentration to increase the chance to hit for weapon users (but not Moon Druids or Monks).
@@SortKaffeIf it is an issue I’m hoping dm’s will allow for a magic ear ring that can boost the to hit chance. Ear ring because I think most DMs would agree a beast could wear a piercing.
With the new spell rules, stars druid can cast two spells in a turn if one of then is a 1st level guiding bolt. It will be very useful at low levels, eg: guiding bolt + healing word with chalice (all at once).
and Land Druids can cast Web/Fireball/Blight/Polymorph/Wall of Stone/Cone of Cold on the same turn they cast another leveled spell as a Bonus Action (once per day).
I actually really like that Land druid is to spellcasting what Moon druid is to Wildshape. I always felt that Land druid was *intended* to be the subclass that goes all in on the spellcasting feature of the druid and their full caster "primal" spell list that ranger wishes it could have. Now you can actually be a very versatile and potent spellcaster with tonnes of resources to back you up. I am very conservative when I play spellcasters to the point I can't remember the last time I ran out of spell slots, but I'm excited to play a 2024 Land druid so I can let loose of the "but what if I need it for later?" anxiety.
Land Druid is great for people who blow all their slots (I'm more this way). They basically have the most slots of any caster. I didn't have any interest in Druid before but now I would like to give it a go.
Let's get TM that play button plaque!
Your thumbnails for these PHB videos are all amazing 😂
I have playtested the Druid more than other classes and it's a banger! It's super fun to transform and have the Statblocks in my mind and don't bother my DM.
Thanks to the Patron that got us the sound bite of TM saying "Big Chungus." lol.
That thumbnail is... haunting.
Cone of Cold is actually a Druid spell, so the only extra you get from Polar Land is Ray of Frost...
Arid extras are Blur, Burning Hands, Fire Bolt and Fireball.
Temperate extras are Misty Step, Shocking Grasp, Sleep and Lightning Bolt
Tropical extras are Acid Splash, Ray of Sickness, Web and Stinking Cloud
So none of the level 4 or 5 spells are extras.
They're extra in the term that you don't need to prepare them and can cast one without requiring a spell slot once per long rest
@@SortKaffe Well duh, obviously. But one of the advantages of these lists is getting access to spells that usually aren't on the class's spell list. And Treantmonk referred to CoC as one of those spells, wich was incorrect and which I pointed out.
One thing people often ask for is a druid subclass that focuses on plant-based combat.
I would say the new Land druid provides that. Multiple features based on vines and thorns, especially if you choose temperate or tropical.
The new Lands Druid has several great spells that don't require concentration, so I am happy. The Druid spell list consists of tons of spells that require concentration, so this was a huge buff.
One notable difference between the level 10 feature and Misty Step is that it's not a spell, so a moon druid can use it while Wild Shaped.
And also allow use of the spell in the same round as you use this feature
I have a very simple rule for shopping in the books for monster stat blocks.
"Beast Stat blocks exist for the druid and ranger to have cool things to summon and turn into."
Anything that falls under the category of "ordinary wild animal" is not exclusively for the DM. Do you know what happens when you smack a wolf or any other wild animal with a sword? It runs away.
Beasts stat blocks make no sense when used in the typical "fight to the death" D&D combat scenario. Wolves and bears don't fight to the death. They run away the second the thing they thought was food gives them trouble.
I don't use beast stat blocks as they're presented in combat encounters. If my players run into 3d6 wolves, then at least one of those wolves is awakened and a lieutenant of the big bad. Or they all have tiny saddles on their backs and imps or sprites in those saddles. Or they're mutated by whatever regional effect the party is investigating, and they all have breath weapons or spawn giant tentacles.
I genuinely don't care if the players memorize the wolf, bear, or t-rex stat blocks. I give monsters magic hp shields and other tricks often enough. Beasts and similar stat blocks are there for the ranger and druid to summon or raise. Hell, if the players get high enough level, I'll swap out the stat block for the wolves or owlbears they adopted for tougher dinosaur or monstrosity stat blocks. That or just give all pets soldier sidekick levels.
Dude you're based.
I entirely agree!
There are beasts *in the player’s handbook*! They are clearly intended for players.
I mean wild animals absolutely will fight to the death in quite a few cases although you’re largely correct that they usually just go away. I really like the idea of giving them breath weapons, makes them feel like elementals or some sort of chimera experiment
The problem is not having the beasts in the PHB leaving the player without access to higher level forms unless they buy the MM.
Given the wild shape changes why not give a scaling generic animal attack and let the player flavor their appearance as they see fit?
The summoning spells shouldn't require a MM either. Probably not the ranger animal companion as that could be handled like wild shape but with a larger HP pool.
@@pheralanpathfinder4897
If given the choice between Rangers and Druids having one of their core features be locked to a weak "one size fits some" stat block in the PHB and giving them options that will grow in power and cool factor each time a third party book full of dinosaurs comes out, I will always tell players to go with the "hunt for stat blocks and then show them to me" option.
All the classes with spell casting grow in power each time a book of spells gets printed. Doing the same for wild shape and beast companions keeps those options relevant.
As for summoning spells, they no longer exist in the game. Half the Conjuration school has been reduced to re-skins of spirit guardians and spirit shroud.
The old conjure spells had problems, but the solutions to those problems were never "fold all of Conjuration into Evocation."
1. Put a CR and spell level chart in each conjure spell. One high CR and one low CR for each spell level.
2. Add the rule that conjured creatures can't cast spells and the player and DM need to agree on stat blocks before game sessions.
3. When conjure spells are cast the player has two options. Summon one creature of the high CR for that spell level. Or summon a number of the same creature of the low CR equal to the number of players in the game session.
4. Single summoned creatures act on the summoner's turn. Group summoned creatures are handed out to each player. Each player can control the movement of their summon on their turn if they are acting as mounts. Otherwise the summons swarm the biggest target. The group of summons attacks together on one turn at the end of the turn order, and each player rolls the main attack/multiattack for the summon they are responsible for.
These changes fix the combat slog and time monopolizing of the old conjure spells by basically giving the entire table a group activity and an extra round of attacks right before turn order resets.
I’d like to point out as I have once before that circle of the stars Druid with expertise in Arcana has the potential to be the best Arcana skill master in all of D&D.
*Slowly hides the Mizzium Apparatus item from them, hoping they dont make a Stars Druid with 1 level wizard, 1 level warlock, 1 level cleric, 1 level bard, 1 level sorcerer, 1 level bard or combination theirin...
All clerics can get the exact same feature of adding Wis mod to Arcana and Religion.
But yeah, tied for 1st is not a bad place to be.
@@mappybc6097 yeah, true. Saw this. Effort the cleric video I think.
Circle or Stars can also get advantage on arcana checks on demand though, so that seems to break the tie just slightly for me.
@@purpleniumowlbear2952 Fair enough.
Druid getting _Aid_ helps the Moon Druid and their whole party, so you can still be tanky without being obnoxious like the old version, and you're being a team player.
I like the hit point change! If you get injured while you are Eagle… you are injured after you end being Eagle. Makes more sense!
As someone that played druid twice, ones as a land and one as a stars. I enjoyed both,but looking at the 2024 land druid, it makes me excited to actually play the fantasy of being this spellcaster that is not just attuned to the land but no matter the terrain, it's the druids domain.
That thumbnail picture.. peak perfection! 😂 Nature.. PRIEST?. Remember under the playtests they wanted some structural categorization of the classes? I remember and liked it, didnt harm anyone. So for recap:
- Priests are Druids, Clerics and Paladins
- Mages are Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards
- Warriors are Barbarian, Fighter and Monk
- Experts are Artificer, Ranger and Rogues
I thought Bard was in experts and they didn’t include artificer in the playtest. Maybe I’m misremembering.
@@FromMan2Monkey-nb5fq You are correct about the Artificer but rhere were murmurs it would be an Expert class due to tinkering with mechanical, technical stuff. Im actually unsure about the Bard. But I think remembering the Mages had four classes and Bard was the one fitting. Music is magic too afterall🎵🎶🪄🎺🎻🎸🪗🎷🪕🥁🪘🪇🪈🎹
I hope they make artificer a template that applies to every class. Ie a subclass in every class. Making magic items doesn't make sense as a class feature because the relative power of the class changes if you have low/high volume of magic item world. It is only balanced if you match the world dynamic/economy defined in the dmg.
@aaronjjacquesI totally disagree, the whole idea and design from artificer class, super cool and unique. I think is very bad to the game doing what you say. Its a very well designed class and deserve to be played
@AndreAlbuquerque-uk2oi conversely you could distribute the flavor of the artificer to the different classes
Rogue would trap master embuing spells in traps rather then casting them
Fighter into into weapons and Armour
Ranger animal companion would be like the defender but made of plants
Sorcerer would be able to use meta magic on magic item effects or substitute conversion from charges instead of spell slots
Etc
Each class would get use magical device feature at different levels.
I am excited to hear your take on the ranger. I have been slightly worried, but the community tends to take the worst from things if we’re being honest. Can’t wait for 100k, congratulations!
Chris tends to focus on hard numbers and facts, so I'm guessing he'll point out that the new ranger is far more effective than the 2014 version.
Thing is, people aren't saying the ranger is weak, they are saying it's railroading your spellcasting and still lacks a strong defining feature
It worked! You said “please subscribe” and I did.
I never do that but you’ve been consistently making such great D&D material that I realized I ought to subscribe. I enjoy all your videos; great work 👍
I can’t wait to take a 1 or 2 level warlock dip on my Moon Druid for Armor of Agathys synergy
A Warlock dip is always fun, but don't forget the Rune Carver feat if you want to straight class the Moon Druid but still get Armor of Agathys. 😉
@@Sweet_Zombie_Cheezuz oh that’s a good call! Yeah gotta keep those setting specific backgrounds and origin feats in mind for character creation, from Strixhaven onwards
Or just take Divinely Favoured, Evil feat (Dragonlance). Used to be an option for Magic Initiate, but they restricted the feat to wiz/cleric/druid lists 2024.
Also Dwarf (Mark of warding) - Eberon
and Tiefling (Levistus) - Mordikainan's Tome of Foes
If either is allowed.
Armor of Agaths is cool but you can also use Conjure animals or minor elements for a *similar* emanation AoE.
@@srmillard that’s not what armor of agathys does, and it’s non concentration so it won’t interfere with those either
Starry Form did get a very important nerf/buff inasmuch as you get fewer/more uses of Wild Shape (depending on your level). Because of the short duration, you were really feeling the pain of limited wild shapes.
Oooo I'm quite excited for your ranger video, may level heads prevail!
Ranger is decent, except the capstone.
This is kinda random, but it's funny how level heads sounds (and is) really good, but 'head leveller' sounds very aggressive!
Ranger seems very meh now, comparing to other
In terms of power, I think Ranger is fine, even great with some builds, but it has failed to make its features feel good to get. The first buff to Hunter's Mark, the main focus of the base class at level 1, comes at 13, and it's your Hunter's Mark concentration cant be broken. Not a damage buff, nor losing the concentration, just if you use a bad spell at this level it won't break.
Also, focusing half the base class features around a bonus action spells makes beast master also never want to use it despite it having built in synergy. I love playing Ranger and think it is decent in terms of power, I just really don't like the base class features and this doesn't change that.
@@BronzeDragon0009 they features simply dont synergize, on you cant cast/mark with yout HM and command you beast at same turn
100,000 Subs here we come! Would love to see another one shot collab!
Love the Druid base and subclass refresh, can’t wait to see the Monster Manual and play one.
I know we're all excited for the 2024 species, but I'm really into the idea of a Githyanki Stars Druid - imagining Laezel's line about her people sailing the stars in BG3.
Always appreciate your insights. Thank you for all the research and vids.
I think a land druid is the only class that can cast multiple high level spells in the same turn via land druid, including two 9th level spells. Action surge basically.
Not quite, Natural Recovery only allows you to cast one of the spells you get from your Circle Spells which tops out at 5th lvl. All of the 5th lvl Circle Spells are also actions, which means you'll need the other spell to be a bonus action or reaction and Druids do not get any 8th or 9th lvl spells with those casting times (and Draconic Transformation is the only one at 7th lvl, and there aren't any bonus actions or reaction spells at 6th lvl either).
I enjoyed playing a Druid in a long campaign because I like complicated. Was a lot of fun. My DM worked with me too. I like the new Druid as well and will have to play one again!
Thanks Treantmonk! ❤
I ran a short campaign for a group where one player playtested circle of the sea. Wrath of the sea was incredibly strong and was actually the only feature in the playtest the player and I agreed to nerf for the game; we made it damage dice equal to PB instead of Wisdom.
I think the change to make it a bonus action was needed, but I don't like that they went with cold damage, there will be a lot more fights where it doesn't do much than before.
Yeah, my immediate thought when I first read that feature was that just about every melee character would be trying to pick up 3 levels in the subclass, to about the same degree as Gloomstalker, except maybe even more.
Druid is one of my favorite classes to play. Right up there with wizard and cleric. I can't wait to play a land or moon druid again.
My party is up to level 13, and I've been using the Wildshape templates you released in that video years ago 😜
I think I'll have to end up tweaking them for 5.24, but that we'll keep using the templates 😝
I would argue elephant is buffed a lot and is a very respectable option even on lvl 12 or 14.
The biggest point is - if you move 20 feet before attacking, you automatically make the target prone(no size limit!) and if you do, you make the third “attack”, resulting in around 50+ avg damage(not including spells). It does interfere with moonlight step and transforming though.
Of course, +8 is not ideal for those levels, there are a lot of creatures who have flight or are immune to prone condition, but even then, considering all the offence buffs, the impact you can do is quite respectable
There are a couple points to Circle of the Stars Druid being different, as someone that is currently playing one in a 2024 PHB-RAW campaign, that makes them stronger than the Tasha's version.
First, the free Guiding Bolts are now able to be stacked with bonus action spells. This does matter when looking at multiclassing, feats, or other bonus action spells. Being able to contribute meaningful damage on the same turn as a healing word is useful for action economy.
Second, healing in combat is actually significantly more efficient now, especially at lower levels. Cure wounds with Chalice Form becomes a 3d8+2*Wisdom for a first level slot. That's actually insanely efficient, especially when you deliver it via your Wild Companion familiar. Add in the background Healer feat and you can reroll 1's on all of those d8's, which is an additional increase to efficiency.
Third, Wild Resurgence enables you to swap forms in combat by eating slots, allowing you much greater flexibility in the form you take in levels 5-10, which was a major downside for the Stars Druid in the previous edition (being stuck on a form you didn't want when the battle changes).
Lastly, Warcaster now allows you to Opportunity Attack Cure Wounds someone, which, as previously stated, is slot-efficient and quite funny.
The end result of the above is that you usually start the fight with Archer Form + concentrating on a good spell while throwing out free Guiding Bolts (which you now have more of than before). If you see things going badly, you can swap to Chalice Form (made easier by Wild Resurgence), Cure Wounds, then Opportunity Attack Cure Wounds on an ally's turn for a burst of 6d8+4*Wisdom healing (average of 43 health for 2 1st level slots at level 4 spread among 4 allies).
Much of that play pattern is similar to the 2014 PHB, but it is so, so much smoother and the power of the back end healing is through the roof. It's definitely more than a 3.5/5 if you're playing it with those changes in mind.
A note about War Caster, you have to target the creature that provoked the opportunity attack with the spell.
Insightful 🤙🏾
@@prestonluhman8168 Correct. But it's still easy to have an ally run past you during your turn, especially if you position yourself on their escape route out of danger.
@@paulernst5180I don't think you can actually target allies with attacks of opportunity. People are ignoring a paragraph when they quote the rule that seems to indicate such a possibility.
@@limaTheNoob You can in the new PHB. Quoting the handbook: "You can make an Opportunity Attack when a creature that you can see leaves your reach using its Action, its Bonus Action, its Reaction, or one of its speeds."
What you can do with wild companion is pick something like an elf that can long rest in less than 8 hours and then summon your familiar and take a short rest while everyone carries on sleeping. Lots of tricks like this out there but I figured it's worth mentioning.
TLDR: Moon (and other) druids can be tankier than before.
Let's compute their maximum possible HP in one combat at level 5: 2 wild shapes + 9 spell slots that you can trade for 9 wild shapes (no action required), so you can have 11 wild shapes; each gives you 3*5 temporary HP, which means that you can have 3*5*11=165 HP.
And what's with the old druid? 2 wild shapes + 16 spell levels, which you can use to heal by 1d8 (average 4.5) while in the form. That means that you can heal yourself by 4.5*16=72 HP on average. You are missing 165-72=93 HP to be equal to the new one, but you still can use your 2 wild shapes to take the form, which will give you 93/2=46.5 HP. I think that the highest HP you can get from a form is 45 with the giant hyena. So your total HP is 45*2+72=162.
It's about the same. But remember: your AC in the new edition is 13+WIS, which is probably 13+4=17. It is higher than the AC of most beasts.
Maybe it's getting better on higher levels? Let's check it for level 19 druid.
New: 4 wild shapes + 21 spell slots, so it's 25 wild shapes. Total HP = 25*3*19=1425
Old: 2 wild shapes + 82 spell levels. You can heal 82*4.5=369 HP with your spell slots. You lack 1425-369=1056 HP. Your 2 wild shapes should give you 1056/2=528 HP, which is not possible. The highest HP beast you can transform is a mammoth with 126 HP. The other option is an earth elemental with the same 126 HP. So your average total HP is 2*126+369=621, and your maximum total HP is 2*126+82*8=902 HP if you always roll 8s while restoring your HP.
So, on average, the new moon druid has 1425/621=2.3 times more health than before and probably 13+5=18 AC or even 13+6 AC, while the earth elemental has only 17 AC. And do not forget that your attack deals more damage, too.
And let's compare it with a new non-moon druid for the same 19th level:
Since level 18, you can cast healing words while in the form with a bonus action, which heals you by 2d4 + 2d4 for every spell slot level higher than level 1 + WIS (probably 5). You still have 4 wild shapes that will give you 4*19=76 HP. Level 1 and 2 healing word will heal you by 10 or 15 damage respectively, so it's better to convert them into wild shapes to get 19 HP, others are better be used to heal with a healing word. You have 72 levels of slots and 14 spell slots, which will heal you by 72*2*2.5+14*5=430 HP. Your number of wild shapes is 4+4+3=11, from your 1st and 2nd-level spell slots and your regular wild shapes. Total HP = 430+11*19=639 HP. Remember that poor moon druid from the 2014th version with his miserable 621 HP? You can laugh at him.
Tbh regardless based on the new rules spore Druid would provide significantly more temp hp without any of the wild shape drawbacks. Plus the activation overlaps much better with armor of ag being a ba now.[bonus action: armor of ag(any lvl), action 4x Druid lvl temp hp]. This doesn’t include the dmg bonus btw.
Edit: Plus you didn’t compute short rest at all which would get the old Druid above this one due to the massive increase to wild shape recovery especially at the higher lvls. It’s just hard to even consider actually wildshaping at all given the readily accessible familiar and the spore having much better value per wildshape even comapared to the “tanky” moon Druid.
I've said it before. No one needs to do the monster manual. That's why D&D Beyond exists. You go to the monster page, use the filter function to filter to beasts, click to sort by challenge rating and bam, there's your list for wild shape. Takes about one minute.
@@terryc1538 that's great if you have a D&D beyond subscription. Nobody in my gaming circles does though, and new players almost certainly won't. One MM can be used for a whole table and is only a once-off purchase.
I am happy that the Land Druids were properly considered in the revision, even though the Moon Druids and others are more popular from what I gather (my impression anyhow).
They definitely were, but TBF that was in part cause Land sucked which kind of proved that it needed the buff haha
Best miniature of the channel so far!
The more I look at this, the more I think Circle of the Sea suits the Warden choice. You won't be as good a weapon user as a Ranger, but you can definitely make use of the medium armor to get up in enemies' faces and hit them with Wrath of the Sea.
The dog face was a risk, I respect it lol
Honestly all the fuss about Wild Shape took me back to your excellent Wild Shape Templates video from... *checks upload date* April 2021?! Time sure flies @_@ I feel like WotC could've really learned from that video and had the best of both worlds: have templates to avoid needing to shop stat blocks, while still allowing for customization within the templates. Side note: I'd love to see an "updated" version of those template ideas if you ever think of doing that.
The Sea druid, as written, seems to have to pick whether they damage and push someone in their emanation or their friend's at high levels.
The wording is "one creature inside the emanation". I think they should have made it one each with your bonus action, and I think that's how we'll play it.
Personally, I love the Druid changes. Especially the Circle of the Moon changes. It is my second favorite class now.
A couple of small corrections. Cone of Cold is now a druid spell, you don't have to be an Artic Land druid to gain access to it. For Stars druid, Dragon form's concentration benefit applies to all concentration checks, not spells only anymore.
you mean all constitution checks?
@@peachykeen1973 The old Circle of Stars Dragon form allowed you to treat a roll of 9 or lower as a 10 when making Constitution saving throws to maintain Concentration on a spell. The new version gives the same benefit to non-spell Concentration checks.
I’m hoping the new wildshape options will count as using unarmed strikes to synergize with the grappler feat. Could be a huge boon to moon druids
Nope. natural weapons are not unarmed strikes. But unarmed strikes don't have to be done by humanoids. You can kick, clothesline, punch, or headbut as a bear just as much as a human, it will just do the standard damage for an unarmed strike, so flat 1+STR modifier (unless you had tavern brawler or monk/dancer/brawler levels).
Your thumbnails are getting wild. Love them.
I think you can start the adventuring day with a familiar and full wild shape uses by doing a short rest immediately after you finish a long rest and use wild companion.
Pre rank predictions
Land - 4.5
Sea- 3
Stars- 4
Moon - 4.5
Also let’s go, been waiting for someone to discuss Druids lol.
I'm really liking land druid, between all the features they can get half their level in spell slots, another up to level 5 spell, a level 1 spell and an 8th level spell slot back.
I’ve never seen a Druid played at the table that wasn’t nerfed by the DM. For example, last time I saw a Druid at the table the DM said she had to observe an animal for 1 minute in its natural habitat to gain it as a wild shape. Things like that might have hurt its usage rates.
Druid players know.
I've always like stars druid for summoning. Your basically garunteed concentration checks a good bit of the time.
im so glad that i can now say ive heard treatmont say the words "big chungus" during my lifetime. what a treat!
Limiting shifters to a small list of forms specific to the character protects the GM from a lot of headache.
Maybe home made list based on what we did see in the playtest? Nothing prevent from using that I supose.
I do like the Android because it does answer the question of how to make a proper plant druid such as Poison ivy from Batman.
On a slightly different note, the way they deal with wild shape is probably how I would think the rangers should deal with Hunter's Mark. For example having a pool of it that regenerates on a short rest but can be used more as a replacement for casting spells or gaining a trait or an ability that resembles more what the ranger can do other than mark their target for more damage. I get it, they're trying to make Hunter's Mark more like a paladin smite, where it's a spell which then falls under the spell rules where you can only cast one level spell per turn, but it feels like Hunter's Mark should be more like an ability like wild shape or channel Divinity or rage or something along those lines. But hey, that's just me and I have not yet seen how all of this plays.
Seems to me that all the casters were buffed significantly, except for the Wizard.
One might argue that Wizards did not need a buff, and I'd agree with that. However, now it seems that all other casters are either better or have more unique features than the Wizard. Which seems like going a bit overboard.
The only two truly unique features that the Wizard has are the rituals and the spell list, with the latter being constantly pilfered by most other casters. Especially the Sorcerer.
I dunno, feels like this is unnecessary.
Edit: to clarify, my point is not about power, but unique features. Sorcerers have Sorcery Points, Bards have Bardic Inspiration and the ability to take spells from any class, Warlocks have Eldritch Invocations, Druids have Wild Shape and all its alternative uses, Clerics have Channel Divinity and Divine Intervention. These are base class features, not counting subclass features.
While the Wizard has... well, nothing truly unique aside from the ability to cast rituals from a book.
Really annoyed PHB doesn't have higher CR beasts. The old ones weren't good and it seems the newer ones have unique abilities.
@@donaldrohwer5545 solution: allow non-beasts
A weird interaction of the moon druid spell list is if there's a material component, like with moonbeam, apparently you don't need that, or verbal or somatic components, in wild shape but you DO need them in your normal form. That's definitely strange that the moon druid suddenly needs to make sure he has his focus or components unless he's turned into a bear or something.
Circle of the Sea Druid really feels like what Storm Sorcery should have been if it wasn't aweful 😝
It almost fills like they make the circle of the sea, the tempest cleric!
YEEEAHH BOI
THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR!!
They did this with sorcerer too btw, now the prepared spells scale basically with spell slots
Ie, after level 2, the number of spells you can prepare each day equals the number of spell slots with which you have to cast them, giving me some 3e vibes
One big change to wildshape I'm not sure I like is by the old rules at least at most tables as long as you were not active, so in effect getting the wild shape back continually on a short rest meant from a very early level you could effectively stay in wildshape indefinitely, as those two uses last long enough for a short rest and still doing some stuff. Which is something you now can't do nearly as easily at the low levels. Perhaps you won't often want to, but you can do many fun things with that, and now you actually cant do more stuff while wildshaped it seems like something more players would like to do.
I’m primarily a Druid player and have played an absurd amount over the last decade. I’m super super happy with (almost) all the changes and love the element of choice in some of the new features. I’m also glad the capstone changed to be a little more balanced and non-moondruid subclass friendly.
One change that’s not readily apparent to a lot of non-Druid players is how spells affect Druid. A lot of their spell list is very circumstantial and dependent on your terrain, and despite watching all the treantmonk 2024 spell videos, I will have to wait and see how the spells landed before making a judgment on Druid as a whole. Seemingly still not a lot of movement/defense options but that isn’t a deal breaker by any means. Also death to conjure animals, long live new conjure animals!!
I was a template soldier in the trenches of the forums and Reddit during the playtest, and while I’m very sad that it’s not the case I’m okay with what we got. Even though we are stuck with shopping for beasts, I’m very happy with the update to wildshape, I think it made the class the most unfriendly class to new players, and while still not as streamlined as I would like it is 1000% a glow up from 2014. I like playing the niche class with lots of bells and whistles, but despite my “not like the other girls-ing” I hope the simplification helps open up druid to new players.
So so excited to try out both land and moon, my first 2024 PC will be one of the above i really wouldn’t be able to choose if not for the lack of beasts for moon - it pains me a little that the choice is made for me because we don’t have the new MM. Again no templates boo hoo but it is what it is. Sea also looks great, third PC on deck.
I really hate that stars doesn’t have subclass spells, I will be homebrewing one at the tabes I run and hopefully it will be allowed at the tables I play at. It doesn’t need the extra preparations but you can’t tell me that free guiding bolts make up for less spell options, and with no scaling it’s especially egregious at higher levels - and I hate that it makes it not as standardized with the other subclasses. Also don’t love that weal/woe doesn’t let you pick if it’s a buff or a debuff. As with mercy monk, they should’ve updated dreams or codified and updated spores like with glory instead of just reprinting a subclass that they did not change.
Very happy with the new Druid overall, boo stars tomato tomato boo - 9/10 for me
Great video though Chris, 10/10 for me
My group needs a tank, so I'm retiring my Druid 7/Monk 1 (started full druid, and at 6th level, needed to rebuild to add the monk level in for survivability). I'll probably make a Barbarian, as my group needs a second tank-type.
At low levels a hunter ranger set up right can get more attacks than a fighter or monk. Like before level 11. STR based, Glaive with Cleave, Polearm master and Horder Breaker. By level 5 that's 5 attacks, albeit cleave and horde breaker attacks HAVE to be on second targets.
That thumbnail. 😂
I've been waiting for this one. I've not played a Druid in ages, because Wild Shape just doesn't interest me very much. This new Druid, free to be a nature priest who primarily casts spells, is much better. I'm finally interested in playing some of these. In fact, I could see playing any but Moon Druid.
Love your vids Chris!!!
With the level 20 feature, 1x wildshape gets you effectively a 2nd level slot. You can trade 1x 1st level for 1 wildshape. This seems like you can effectively double your level 2 spell slots, or get 2x 8th level slots (4 WS becomes 1x 8th, + converting 1st slots into WS to do it again). This is going to be strong, but only really late levels
You can only convert ws into slots a limited number of times (1 with each feature)
You can only convert one spell slot into a wild shape if you have none left so you can only retain one extra 8th level but it's still awesome cause you can do that and still wild shape
Circle of the Sea’s nerf is a bummer but it does make it a subclass that fixes that under-appreciated problem of “I don’t have anything to spend my bonus action on this turn which really sucks”.
Like on builds using a Shield and a Versatile weapon. Normally you don’t have an offensive use for your bonus action, but this subclass gives you a use that has added utility.
It’s a lot like the Wildfire Druid in that way but melee focussed instead.
It’s not a popular class not because it’s not strong but because it takes a lot of responsibility and good understanding of the rules and stat blocks to play the class well. And for most people that is too much effort for a game they just want to play for fun. It’s a veteran class for a reason. It’s arguably the most “difficult” class to play.
Moon druid could become quite a premier tank among spellcasters, 3 times level in temp HP each time you wildshape (can convert any spell slot into a wildshape for no action cost, then gain that hp as only a bonus action) - that is extremely spammable in tough fights. Still has full spellcaster scaling, decent martial ability. Don't really want to multiclass for more spell-slot production (such as warlock 2, or sorcerer) since these detract from your level-scaling value but definitely considerable.
The one downside is that it takes a bonus action to drop wildshape and it doesn’t end when temp hp is burned through, so you can’t instantly refresh temp hp, it takes 2 turns to drop wildshape and then use it again.
@@jackbarman7063 There's no prohibition on using wild shape while wild shaped, you can just go direct from one animal form to another. In fact, it's explicitly allowed since one of the ending conditions is 'use wild Shape again'. That doesn't give you time in human form, but if what you want is the Temp HP, do you care?
@@DeadmanwalkingXI good point, I didn’t realize that! That makes it better than I had thought
I know its not ideal meta or anything but I really want to play a Sea Druid who takes all the Warden options in primal order and channel the woodland spirits spell that lets me do extra elemental damage on hit and cross it with primal strikes and the sea emenation. I could do 4 different damage types in one round!
BEST CLASS IN THE GAME. Always was, still is, but even better.
Druid, least played class
Reason: skill issue. That's all there is. Skill issue or they hate Nature, more climate change.
55:37
People hate ranger. Yeah, that's just the same reason as above. The new ranger ( especially beast master ) is *BEAUTIFUL* . Not as great as the best class, druid, but close.
My favs so far:
Druid - *ALL*
Beast Master
Hunter ( Ranger )
Way of the four Elements
Way of Shadow ( first subclass I played in 5e, so happy they changed it and made it awesome )
Trickery Domain
Archfey Patron ( more likely *MATRON* huehue )
Thief Rogue
Valor Bard
ILLUSIONIST WIZARD ( sweet baby Jesus, this one looks so fan too )
dudes got BIG CHUNGUS AS A PATRON?!?!??!!??!?! checks out chris is awesome.
comment for the youtube gods. I keep seeing that number get closer and closer to 100k :D
with epic boons you can get a lot of uses of features relying on your Wis modifier in epic games
I think the stars druid was so popular just bc (almost) all of the other druid subclasses felt jank before.
for the next edition whenever that is I think templates would likely be the way to go but I think the approach they ended up with is a good change for the type of revision the 2024 core rules seem to be going for
I’m a little bummed that the tankiness of the moon druid has been nerfed dramatically. It is nice that their AC and damage can be increased, however I’m a bit concerned that their to Hit isn’t getting any love. You can increase the damage all you want but if they can’t land an attack it really doesn’t matter. Previous beasts attack bonuses didn’t scale hardly at all. I’m hoping that they change this when the new MM comes out.
Just at earlier levels their tankiness takes a hit.
The bonuses to healing, better ac & spell casting in wild shape kinda make up for it. As do additional wild shapes.
All that said I do wish the temp hp was 4x like Spores Druid.
Can't wait to hear your Ranger sell
It's up now
A land druid with natural recovery can choose to cast a spell from his circle's spells and than cast barkskin on himself on his first round of combat thanks to the new magic action economy ...
The way they design druid mek them use their wild shape in new ways that make every non moon circle subclasses want to use them, from the wild companion to recover a spell slot, plus every sublasses option... I love it
I haven't seen anything in writing yet, but I have pre-order a physical copy of the new PHB. Based on the reviews I have seen so far, I think the new ranger is being forced into a stereotype that it can't live up to. I believe there are solid Ranger builds hiding in the 2024 PHB, and over time, people will take off their blinders and see all the build options that are there.
Most of the high HP critters you were likely to wild shape into also had awful AC's. Brown bear for example has 11AC & 22HP. So the temp 9HP you get alongside an AC buff to 16, 17, or 18 will be better. Try finding critters with an AC of 16 or higher, there aren't too many.
As long as you're actually in melee, and not making Dex saves v AOE. That extra AC is going to convert to a lot of HP. You're just going to need to think a little during fights, and not just bullet sponge your way to victory.
Plus, there are a fair few AC items that can work whilst in critter form. Or dip one level into fighter, and get a fighting style, and second wind. Take blind fighting, and drop a fog cloud on yourself. Now they have even less chance of hitting/critting you.
Pair that with what is effectively a free 2nd level barkskin, without the 1hr duration limit. So it frees up that spell slot for other stuff, now you just get a slightly worse, or better version for free any time you wild shape.
The think I missed this time was if the Druid spells had more good changes to concentration. But you gave me nice link for that so there is that. 😂
I knew how Wild Shape worked. You bug the dm with a million questions, then forget the whole feature to everyone's dismay.
I have mixed feelings on the new Druid. Wildshape is kind of a let down for me, though granted I don’t know how I would have preferred it so that’s maybe unfair. Land Druid seems really great and really highlights what I think is the flexibility inherent within the class. I’ve always thought that Druids should have a feature where you can swap out a spell during a short rest or something to really emphasize the flexibility of the Druid, but I guess that won’t come to pass
Spell flexibility definitely wont be the thing. 2024 its the ONLY thing wizard has going for it. Litterally.
I hard disagree on the wildshape though. Old wildshape if you shapeshift around mid level it would probably go something like this: it cost you your action... and before you get to do anything with it, a fireball hits you and you immediately shapechange back from damage. New wildshape you get to shift as a bonus action so at minimum you have one turn to use it, and it doesnt end if you loose your temp HP. I can shapeshift into say... a bird, and one magic missile doesnt make me plumet to my death instantly. I have my higher HP total, and it doesnt matter that they strip my 1 temp HP, I stay a crow until completely out of HP or choose to end it. It is now a feature any subclass of druid can use. The moon druid can use it better and has more numerical, and impressive, options but it remains usuable for a land druid, or a stars druid, etc. Vast improvement IMO.
@@rogerexcell249 I guess my wildshape specific complaint is having a set number of known wildshapes. I like the versatility of having an amount of options negotiated between u and the DM. The other changes to wildshape are good and definitely increase the versatility of the feature
The ranger isn’t necessarily bad… it’s super annoying. When the advertised theme for this book was attempting to open up diversity of play the ranger getting the biggest of pigeonholing into a weaker spell especially now when compared to the likes of conjure minor elementals just feels bad. Let’s even compare it to the other half caster, the paladin. Paladin gets heavy armor, and the vengeance gets advantage on every hit when the vow is out. A feature that occurs on HM way later. Not to mention the concentration free D4 per hit spell stacked with having access to HM.
Just wondering whether you feel the Primal Order choices are equivalent (as well as the Cleric's Divine Order choices ). The martial option (Warden / Protector) effectively gives you the Martial Weapon Training feat and Moderately Armored / (Heavily Armored for Cleric) feats without the stat bonus portion, while the magician option only gives a bonus to 2 skills (but not even giving free Proficiency in them) and +1 cantrip (where the Magic Initiate feat gives 2 cantrips and a level 1 spell)! To me, that is not very balanced. The Magician options really needs at least 1 more thing, IMHO.
At first, I considered giving them free Prof in the skills that I mentioned, but that made them seem like the "skills option" rather than the "magician option". But then I hit upon the idea of also giving them +1 Shapeshift or +1 Channel Divinity (Cleric). I like this best because there is no other way to get additional Wild Shape / Channel Divinity uses, and both classes have ways to also use them for other purposes, like more spell slots, which means this is actually increasing the "Magician" side of the class, which is my goal.
What do you think about this idea? Do you really think they are equally balanced as is or do you prefer the "magician options" being +1 cantrip, +Wis mod to 2 skills, and +1 use of Wild Shape / Channel Divinity? Do you have any better ideas to balance them than this?
44:55 why did you not talk about the loss of elemental wildshape?
That's the most cursed thumbnail I've ever seen.
Moon Druid is bonkers.
2024 gauntlet coming next week showing it in action
I may be missing something but I think a much more prominent benefit of Moonlight Step than it foregoing spell slots for the casting rules would be that Misty Step is not a Circle of the Moon spell and thus cannot be cast while wildshaped, unlike this feature.
Longevity maybe a flavor thing but it is also technically a nerf of timeless body