I don't particularly want to wait for WotC to put out their official Druid splat, so I'm gonna cook 'em up now.
In the meanwhile, what do you think they'll be like? What powers/spells/etc will they have, and how will it be handled in 4th Ed.? What would you want--or not--to see?
-Nature-boy J
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I don't particularly want to wait for WotC to put out their official Druid splat, so I'm gonna cook 'em up now.
In the meanwhile, what do you think they'll be like? What powers/spells/etc will they have, and how will it be handled in 4th Ed.? What would you want--or not--to see?
-Nature-boy J
There was a pretty good homebrew druis posted on the WotC forums...which are of course down now so I can't get to them. It wasn't as good as the same person's bard but was pretty decent.
Personally I think they're going to be primarily casters with less of the 'summon 2 dragons and turn into a third'.
It really depends on where they're positioned though. If leaders I would expect to see them long on buffs, and perhaps regeneration. If controllers it will be entangle and maybe summonings.
From developer chatter I've heard, it sounds like they'll be something of a hybrid in terms of roles (though not a true generalist). Wildshaping will be a big deal (in the late-3.5 mold, acting as specific mechanical buffs with the flavor left up to you), as will weather control and entangle type effects. I'm looking forward to it immensely.
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come on ray think how much we cheated and we gonna cheat again man we gonna cheat this
There was a pretty good homebrew druis posted on the WotC forums...which are of course down now so I can't get to them. It wasn't as good as the same person's bard but was pretty decent.
Personally I think they're going to be primarily casters with less of the 'summon 2 dragons and turn into a third'.
It really depends on where they're positioned though. If leaders I would expect to see them long on buffs, and perhaps regeneration. If controllers it will be entangle and maybe summonings.
I thought the plan was for 4e Druids to focus on shifting abilities. Granted, I don't remember where I read this, so it's probably not true.
I've been working on one myself, actually. I went for a heavy striker/controller hybrid with the striker coming from animal forms and the controller coming from weather and nature effects. They got Channel Nature (working somewhat like Channel Divinity) which powered their different animal forms. You got a free animal form (Predator: +temporary hit points, +attack bonus, +speed) and could purchase additional forms as feats. Their encounter powers often were triggered by the type of form and had additional effects.
My other big idea was stating that they got a +2 proficiency bonus with unarmed attacks and the die was increased to d6, as they could shift their hands into claws at will. THeir unarmed strikes aslo gained the Natural Attack property which other powers keyed off of.
I hope to post it in the next week or two along with an expanded shifter writeup and Eberron goblinoid writeup.
From developer chatter I've heard, it sounds like they'll be something of a hybrid in terms of roles (though not a true generalist). Wildshaping will be a big deal (in the late-3.5 mold, acting as specific mechanical buffs with the flavor left up to you), as will weather control and entangle type effects. I'm looking forward to it immensely.
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From developer chatter I've heard, it sounds like they'll be something of a hybrid in terms of roles (though not a true generalist). Wildshaping will be a big deal (in the late-3.5 mold, acting as specific mechanical buffs with the flavor left up to you), as will weather control and entangle type effects. I'm looking forward to it immensely.
Ooh. It was said before that they'd be mainly about wildshaping, but if the more recent talk involves weather and entangly stuff, I think I'm hopeful again.
I wonder if it's too much to hope for that one will be able to build a druid with no shapeshifting...
__________________
Since most people cannot fathom why someone would give up male privilege and power in order to become a relatively disempowered female, they assume that trans women transition primarily as a way of obtaining the one type of power that women are perceived to have in our society: the ability to express femininity and attract men. This is why trans women like myself, who rarely dress in an overly feminine manner and/or who are not attracted to men, are such an enigma to many people. By assuming that my desire to be female is merely some sort of femininity fetish or sexual perversion, they are essentially making the case that women have no worth beyond the extent to which they can be sexualized.
- Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: a Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Ooh. It was said before that they'd be mainly about wildshaping, but if the more recent talk involves weather and entangly stuff, I think I'm hopeful again.
I wonder if it's too much to hope for that one will be able to build a druid with no shapeshifting...
I doubt it. The spellcasting is from all talk just a reason for you to use human form, but shapeshifting is the most significant chunk of your powers and class abilities.
The classes and races preview mentioned that the true stikh was the ability to shapechange, and this is what they'll be concentrating on as the main power of the druid (both for combat forms like dire bears, and utility forms like hawks and mice). They also mentioned ranged nature based spells when in human form.
I absolutely loved Wildshape in 3.5, by far my favorite special power evor.
Mostly because it allowed me to work out what type of animal would be more effective in given situation, and the sheer variety of mundane opportunities.
It rewarded spontaneous imagination (and zoological knowledge), something very few 3rd ed powers did in my view.
As when doing a long travel montage, the ability of a 6th level druid to turn into a giant eagle for six hours, fly the distance until a good resting point of the party (whilst scouting with amazing eyesight for trouble ahead) and then use my second wildshape to turn into a penguin and play in the snow for a few hours whilst waiting for them to turn up.
I expect of course for 4th ed. to have tighter restrictions on the number of possible shapes that adopted. Looking at current basic mechanics I assume most forms will be Stances that are adopted.
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