One D&D Playtest Review: Paladin & Druid

I feel like the solutions presented in this vido boil down to "give every class eldritch invocations" and I love it

Honestly, I want more classes to get tons of options, like Warlock getting Eldritch Invocations, or battlemaster fighters getting maneuvers. Paladins getting to choose between a handful of flavors of smites without using the smite spells would be super cool, and provides a nice degree of flexibility in flavoring your character. Edit: Can't believe y'all missed Smites getting opened up for ranged and unarmed attacks, which is huge and I love it.

Honestly the idea of roughly 12 templates to cover the bases seems really solid.

Monty’s idea of multiple wild shape forms and ones you have prepared is EXCELLENT

Expanding on Monty's idea of a limited number of wild shapes know, I propose a flora form. You could have vines that could suck out nutrients if you're grappling an enemy, healing you for 1d4 damage, you'd get an innate speak with plants while transformed and you could get a bonus to stealth if you don't move.

I agree with what u said. I understand balancing the Druid health bar but the fun part for Druid was the adaptability of nature and losing that would hurt greatly

What you’re saying is exactly how I feel about bard and their special spells like viscous mockery. The fact it’s just a spell on the arcane list means you’ll get wizard, sorcerer, etc. getting those spells too. Makes the Bard feel less special because the wizard already does literally everything

I like the idea of the smite spells being tied to your Paladin Oath, with new ones for your Oath being unlocked at higher levels. That way you'd be adding another feature to make each Oath stand out, and would give options of different smites to use. It'd also solve the problem of the Cleric being better at smite spells than the Paladin, by tying it to a class feature.

I'm so glad you addressed this. I have been a druid main for a long long time and it pains me to say: With the wildshape changes as they are *at this moment*, I daresay there is little to no reason for a druid player to ever use the wildshape feature.

I was surprised you didn't speak to the other Wildshape nerfing they did. You don't carry over anything from your classes, race, feats, or skills. That's great for preventing weird interactions, except that everything you turn into is worse than the Druid you just were unless you need to flee via climbing, swimming, or flying. Wildshape has been reduced to Flee Speed.

I'd just like to say that Kelly has really found his stride in the last few months, and seems more confident, happy, and comfortable showing his silly side and I love that!!!

I LOVE your Druid idea in so many ways. Makes druid more approachable for new players. Plays into druids having a "go-to"s. No just picking a form just for hp. Keeps the different speed forms level locked. Having druid sub classes with unique transformations, like the wildfire or stars druid.

Really wish they would get The true essence of The moon druid without The Wonky scaling.

I would love to see druid environments be incorporated into wild shape abilities like Eldritch Invocations modify Eldritch Blast. You’re a tundra or desert druid, so you can modify your wild shapes to have cold or fire resistance. You’re an Underdark druid, so all of your wild shapes have tremorsense or blindsight. You’re a savannah druid, your wild shapes get extra movement. I think it would be a great way to incorporate backstory into a druid’s powers, which often just feel nebulous in how they relate to nature as a whole.

I really like your approach of a range of forms to choose from with premade state blocks and variety of skills. So long as I could choose the size that would work great for me. The part I don't want to lose is all of the exploration aspects of wild shape. That is a part I really love in the game.

re: Druids, I think it was a holdover from having played in 4e, but our table generally limits druid wild shape forms to "beasts you've seen". So if you're in say, Eberron, a dinosaur might not be too unbelievable, but in Faerun, maybe not. This helps balance it at least at our table.

The idea for selecting different wild shape forms to master is really cool. There are so many possibilities with just that feature that it should honestly be its own class. Picture it: a shapeshifter class that masters different forms as they progress and maybe can modify them in different ways based on what subclass was chosen.

I love your druid idea - Current one D&D druid does not look fun, but your idea looks so much better!

I also enjoy the idea of druids only being able to turn into things they themselves have observed. Make it a check the druid has to roll in order to "catch" or "learn" that wild shape. It makes the forms the druid knows feel earned and reflect the narrative of the campaign. Just feels weird that a druid can randomly become an angel or dragon when they've probably never even seen one beyond pictures in a book. A set number of forms also works and maybe even adding a penalty/risk to trying advanced forms can be included. Maybe a level 3 druid trying to become a t rex results in the druid changing their form but not maintaining control so there's just a t rex who doesn't realize the food surrounding is actually their party.

I appreciate you guys having a back and forth with the one dnd material. I do believe it is ultimately for the best that spellcasting classes get nerfed in each their way, and martials get buffed in each their own way. However, no class should lose its identity. I have to respect one dnd for actually trying, and I'm glad you guys are too.