5e update.

QuoteWhen your druid uses Wild Shape, you simply adopt the stat block of the creature you've chosen to transform into. You retain your own Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, but otherwise use your chosen animal's statistics.

That transformation extends to you using the animal's hit points. If damage reduces you to 0 hit points, your Wild Shape transformation ends. Any excess damage applies to your current hit point total. For example, a druid with 22 hit points transforms into a 5 hit point creature, then takes 10 damage. The animal form takes 5 damage, the druid transforms back to normal, and the remaining 5 damage reduces him to 17 hit points.

Magic items do not extend to your animal form. Magic and mundane gear is subsumed into that form, so you don't have to worry about dropping all your gear to the ground when you change. You do not gain any of the benefits of your items.

Your proficiencies do carry over, and you gain any proficiencies that the animal benefits from.

The animal forms available to a druid are meant to provide creative options for solving problems. You can transform into a bird, a fish, or some other small, mundane animal. The Circle of the Moon druid can take forms that are more ferocious and suitable for battle.

Overall, these changes are meant to simplify and streamline Wild Shape while creating a sense of flexibility for the druid. It's easy to simply switch to a new set of statistics while in animal form, rather than going through the steps of modifying one set of stats or the other. How Wild Shape handles hit points is perhaps the biggest change compared to earlier approaches.

Interesting to note that wild shape effectively gives you temp HP.

I dislike adopting stats, generally.
Interruption by damage is something I like in general.
Hopefully there won't be anything that lets druids cast spells in wild shape.

I dislike that somewhere along the line the druid became all about being a shapeshifter and less about being a priest of nature.

Quote from: Archangel Fascist;6998025e update.



Interesting to note that wild shape effectively gives you temp HP.

Not sure I like that. Hopefully no natural spell shenanigans or unlimited use happens.

Quote from: mhensley;699874I dislike that somewhere along the line the druid became all about being a shapeshifter and less about being a priest of nature.

Effectively a were(whatever) without being a were(whatever). And yeah, sometimes it feels like the focus has shifted towards... er... shifting gradually.

Though It is more a trend to want to hammer down rules more. So the spellcasting side is left mostly as was. But the shapeshifting gets more and more fleshed out. Depending on who's writing what this time.

As for the temp HP. Not much different from the older versions where your animal form damage did not carry over when you changed back.

Quote from: mhensley;699874I dislike that somewhere along the line the druid became all about being a shapeshifter and less about being a priest of nature.

Agree.

I think probably clerics getting more and more versatile is what pushed druids into shapeshifting as their Thing. They share a goodly set of spells with cleric, so differentiating them had to mean using something else.

There are two sub-classes presented: Circle of the Land, which is a spell-casting themed Druid, and Circle of the Moon, which is a shapechange-themed Druid.  Both can shapechange and use spells, but the sub-classes enhance one or the other feature.

Text of the Shapechange rule for both types:

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you have completed a short rest or a long rest. At 8th level, you can use Wild Shape twice between rests.

When you transform, choose one of the shapes available to you. You can transform into a bat, a cat, a deer, a dog, a fish, a hawk, a horse, an owl, a raven, a snake, a toad, or a weasel.

You can stay in a particular shape for a number of hours equal to half your druid level, after which time you revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You can revert to your normal form earlier as part of any action that doesn't involve casting a spell or activating a magic item. And you automatically revert to your normal form if you fall unconscious, are reduced to 0 hit points, or die.

While you are transformed, the following rules apply:

• Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the creature, but you retain your alignment and your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If both you and the creature have the same proficiency, use only the higher bonus.

• When you transform, you assume the creature's hit points. When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. If you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, however, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. For example, if you take 10 damage in animal form and have only 1 hit point left, you revert to your normal form and take 9 damage.

• You cannot speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech. Transforming does not break your concentration on a spell you have already cast, however.

• Your gear is subsumed in the new shape, so you cannot access such equipment to activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from it. (For instance, any magic item, armor, weapon or shield you have is of no benefit to you.)

Here is the first sub-class, Circle of the Land:

Circle of the Land Features
Level Feature
2 Circle Spells
6 Land's Stride
10 Nature's Ward  

Circle Spells Your mystical connection to the land infuses you with additional spells that you can cast and prepare.

Bonus Cantrip. You learn one additional druid cantrip of your choice.

Natural Recovery. Once per day during a short rest, you can regain some of your magical energy by sitting in meditation and communing with nature. You choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is less than or equal to half your druid level (round up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. For example, when you are a 4th-*‐level druid, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-*‐level spell slot or two 1st-*‐level spell slots.

Spells of the Land. Choose the land where you became a druid: coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp or tundra. Your native land forever influences your connection to primal magic, determining spells that you always have prepared once you reach certain druid levels. These spells don't count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If a spell your land grants you doesn't appear on the druid spell list, the spell is, nonetheless, a druid spell for you.

Coast Level Spells 3 augury, mirror image 5 water breathing, water walk 7 freedom of movement, solid fog 9 scrying, true seeing

Desert Level Spells 3 blur, silence 5 create food and water, protection from energy 7 blight, hallucinatory terrain 9 control winds, wall of stone

Forest Level Spells 3 augury, barkskin 5 call lightning, plant growth 7 divination, freedom of movement 9 commune with nature, plant door

Grassland Level Spells 3 augury, pass without trace 5 daylight, haste 7 air walk, divination 9 dream, insect plague

Mountain Level Spells 3 spider climb, spike growth 5 elemental mantle, meld into stone 7 confusion, stoneskin 9 passwall, wall of stone

Swamp Level Spells 3 augury, locate object 5 water walk, stinking cloud 7 freedom of movement, locate creature 9 insect plague, scrying

Tundra Level Spells 3 augury, spike growth 5 sleet storm, slow 7 freedom of movement, ice storm 9 commune with nature, cone of cold

Land's Stride Starting at 6th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plant overgrowth at your normal rate of movement, taking no damage from thorns and similar natural hazards such plants possess. In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell.

Nature's Ward By 10th level, you cannot be charmed or frightened by elemental or fey creatures, and you are immune to poison and disease.

Text of the Circle of the Moon:

Circle of the Moon Features Level Feature  
2 Battle Wild Shape  
6 Mauler Shapes  
10 Monstrous Shapes  

Battle Wild Shape You can use Wild Shape as part of any action that doesn't involve casting a spell or activating a magic item. When you use your Wild Shape, you can choose to transform into an animal form that is dangerous in battle. The first battle forms you can assume are a dire wolf or a panther.

Mauler Shapes Starting at 6th level, you can assume two new battle forms: a brown bear or a tiger.

Monstrous Shapes At 10th level, you can assume two new battle forms: a cave bear or a triceratops.

Quote from: mhensley;699874I dislike that somewhere along the line the druid became all about being a shapeshifter and less about being a priest of nature.

That "somewhere" would be the Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy, published in 1976 and one of the three major influences on the design of the AD&D druid class.

The other two being Caesar's De Bello Gallico and Frazier's The Golden Bough, and their descriptions of "druids" are better fit by a general priest class.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;699889Agree.

I've always associated druids more with Animal companions but whatever.

I've always associated Druids more with human sacrifice, but hey.

JG

Quote from: Piestrio;699945I've always associated druids more with Animal companions but whatever.

So did I. But that was not quite to be. I think their summons spells could be beefed up to get closer to that feel though.

And as is a druid could load up on mostly summons.

Quote from: James Gillen;699970I've always associated Druids more with human sacrifice, but hey.

JG

Considering how many people the average adventuring druid is likely to off in the course of adventuring...

You may be right...

Quote from: mhensley;699874I dislike that somewhere along the line the druid became all about being a shapeshifter and less about being a priest of nature.

You can blame World of Warcraft for that...

I have just found the threshold for how much I give a damn about balance.  And that's where people complain that the Druid's weasel shape is not balanced with the cat shape.

Jesus Christ.