Fixing One D&D's Wild Shape

 The most recent One D&D playtest document gave us updated versions of the Druid and the Paladin, filling out the set of "Priest" classes and leaving us with the Warriors and Mages to get all twelve of the PHB classes (I'm still bummed the Artificer isn't being put in the PHB, but oh well).

The Paladin's changes were relatively minor, with a slight nerf but an expansion to the versatility of Divine Smite, and a few other tweaks that will need iteration, but leaves the class viable as it was before, if not a little more.

The Druid got a more extensive redesign, specifically regarding Wild Shape. While the Druid can serve as the game's nature-mage, and that's actually the core of the class, the ability to transform into various beasts is arguably its most iconic ability. Druids in other fantasy RPGs tend to also get shapeshifting abilities, making the Druid kind of the "shapeshifter class" when going through classic RPG archetypes.

The revisions to the Druid put this capability front and center, allowing you to use Wild Shape at 1st level through the new "Channel Nature" feature that is basically identical to Channel Divinity for Clerics and Paladins. We've seen "wild shape charges" used as a resource for subclass features, like the Cirlce of Stars, Wildfire, and Spores, and so I suspect that most subclasses will be using this in some other way (Circle of the Moon, our one example subclass, does not, but given that it's the "Wild Shape" subclass, I think that's all right).

So, before we propose any tweaks, we've got to talk about the core concepts we'll be keeping.

One D&D's Wild Shape no longer has the Druid player crack open the Monster Manual and search for Beasts within a certain Challenge Rating range. Instead, you get access to a stat block, and later two others, which cover any transformation you choose - a Wolf, Tiger, Bear, Spider, Elk, or Snake are all covered by the Animal of the Land stat block.

I actually think this is a good change. It is certainly a limitation, but it's a simplification that will free future design to make as many crazy beasts as the designers want. As long as these stat blocks are tuned tightly, I think this is the right direction to go for the ability (I also suspect that Conjuration spells will get a similar rework, as we've seen with Find Familiar and Find Steed). So, I'm happy about this change - it's a question of tuning those stat blocks.

I actually think this is the block we need to focus on the most, as the Sea and Sky animals necessarily sacrifice a bit of power for their alternate mobility modes. You could argue that Sea in particular should not be that much farther behind, which I'd probably agree with, but we'll kind of set them aside and make the assumption that the latter two blocks will receive similar changes.

So, let's look at the Animal of the Land as presented in this first Druid UA:

Animal of the Land

Small, Medium, or Large Terrestrial Animal (Your Creature Type Doesn't Change)

Armor Class: 10 + your Wisdom Modifier

Hit Points: You continue to use your Hit Points and Hit Dice

Speed: 40 ft., Climb 40 ft. (requires 5th+ level)

STR, DEX equal your Wisdom Score

CON, INT, WIS, CHA use your scores

Senses: Darkvision 60 ft.

Languages: the languages you know

Proficiency Bonus: equals your Proficiency Bonus

Keen Senses: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks

Actions:

Bestial Strike: Melee Weapon Attack: your Spell Attack Modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8+your wisdom modifier Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage.

Multiattack (Requires 5th+ level): You make two Bestial Strike attacks.

    So, let's break this down:

First off, you choose your size when you transform. I think that's fine, and can be a strategic choice - being larger makes you harder to push around. What I think is odd is that you don't change creature type. An elf druid who transforms into a Panther will still be a humanoid. This actually removes some of the benefit, as you remain susceptible to spells like Hold Person or Charm Person, and almost makes this seem more like an illusion than a real transformation. I think it'd be fine to just have you turn into a Beast (yes, I realize that this lets you turn into an owlbear and get over the beast/monstrosity divide - maybe you could choose one or the other).

Now, let's talk AC. This one might be a long discussion, as it, along with HP, are kind of at the core of my issues with the new system.

In One D&D, Druids get training with shields and light armor (no weird "medium armor as long as it's not made of metal" stuff). A druid could have a decent Dexterity, but let's assume it never goes up to more than a +2 - say you start at 14 and never touch it again. In Studded Leather (which is cheap enough to be able to get pretty early on) and with a shield, you would thus have an AC of 16.

This stat block is meant to be something of a front-line fighter - you only have melee attacks, after all, and the whole flavor and fantasy of Wild Shape is about turning into a bear or other mighty beast and mixing it up in melee. But until you hit level 20 and get new new Epic Boon feature, or if you get the very rare stat-increasing magic book for Wisdom, you will never have an AC higher than 15 here.

Now, with the old (current) form of Wild Shape, it's true that most beasts you can transform into also have pretty low ACs. A Dire Wolf only has 14, and a Brown Bear only has 11. So, you might look at this and say that that's fair.

But that's because we haven't accounted for HP.

Here, we need to look at the Wild Shape feature itself for clarification: in the old/current version, when you transform, you assume the creature's hit points and hit dice - and that becomes a separate pool from your own. If you're a Dire Wolf and you take 40 damage, the Wolf form absorbs 37 of those, and only 3 are then deducted from your own humanoid form's HP.

Thus, while yes, your AC is certainly lower than a Fighter in full plate with a shield, you can take a lot of punishment because you can absorb a lot of damage.

Now, I will certainly concede that making a Druid in Wild Shape as powerful as a Fighter would be overpowered - the Druid has the massive versatility of being a full spellcaster, after all, while the Fighter only has their martial abilities.

But as this currently functions, one begins to wonder why you would even use this in the first place.

At level 1, a Druid could have the Shillelagh cantrip, and thus use a quarterstaff with their wisdom modifier to deal 1d8+Wis on a hit - which you'll note is the same damage as the Animal's attack. The Druid, as we've seen earlier, likely has a higher AC. The only things they're missing are the increased speed (unless they're a Centaur, though admittedly many aren't) and the Keen Senses. But their damage output is the same, and their survivability is slightly better. (I'll concede that one slight bonus is that, by using Wisdom to determine Dex and Str, it makes their saving throws better - though there are some format issues where technically they lose proficiency with all saving throws here, so...)

At 5, to be fair, things get a little better for the Wild Shape form. Shillelagh doesn't scale up with level, and cantrips that do will do so slower than the damage here - Produce Flame doing 2d8 fire damage is not quite as good as 2(1d8+4).

So, then, how do we fix this?

As it stands, Wild Shape provides no defensive bonus, and actually a defensive penalty, when it should absolutely be providing a bonus to allow a character who is primarily a squishy spellcaster to mix it up on the front lines. (Hey! It's the thesis of the post! We got there!) This, I believe, is the core of the problem with the new design, and fixing it would mean the rest of the changes would be mere polish (like letting you turn Tiny way, way earlier than level 11).

As I see it, there are three ways you can achieve this.

The first, and the one I'm going to actually just reject out of hand, is giving the form resistance to "kinetic" damage. We don't actually know how Rage resistance is going to work in One D&D, but I think this likely steps on the Barbarian's toes a little too much. It's also not very flavorful - why should your Druid's animal form be more resistant to damage than the creature you've transformed into?

The second is buffing HP. This is how the current/old Wild Shape works, with a big pool of HP on top of the Druid's regular HP. It's also kind of imitated in the Spore Druid's Symbiotic Entity, which gives them Temp HP equal to 4 times their Druid level, and grants its benefits as long as those Temp HP are up. Essentially, you deal with the fact that your Druid is going to get hit much more by not really caring so much about the damage they are taking.

The third change would be to increase the base AC of the Animal forms, putting your AC on par with other dedicated melee combatants.

Now, these three aren't mutually exclusive, but I think that if you combine them, you run the risk of making the Druid too powerful - again, we don't want a Druid to be as powerful as a Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, or Monk in melee (we haven't seen the updated Monk yet, but the Monk should absolutely be as powerful as those others in melee).

Let's talk about fixing the AC first because I think it's simpler to do.

Both Heavy and Medium armor-wearers can easily start the game with an AC of 16 - the former simply gets that flat amount from Chain Mail, while the latter only needs to have a +2 to Dexterity to achieve that with Scale Mail. On top of that, a Shield provides 2 additional AC. As such, many such characters can push that up to 18 from the very start if they're willing to sacrifice the ability to use two-handed weapons (or, in the case of my Eldritch Knight, drop their weapon every time they want to cast a spell).

Without looking at magic items, medium-armor wearers can push that up to 17/19 when they upgrade to half-plate, while heavy armor wearers can get to 17/19 with Splint armor. Heavy Armor than caps out with with Plate armor, which allows them to achieve 18/20 AC.

I think it would be reasonable, then, to allow Druids in Wild Shape to match, say, a Hexblade Warlock in terms of AC. A Hexblade can wear medium armor and a shield, meaning they can get up to that 19 level before talking about any kind of magic armor.

And, as it turns out, it's pretty simple to accomplish that. As it stands, the Animal of the Land has an AC equal to 10 + your Wisdom modifier. If we bump that up to 12+Wis, we get an AC that starts at 15 on most Druids and caps out at 17. If we wanted to incorporate the Shield, we simply make it 14 + Wis.

This means that a level 1 Druid could take on a form with a 17 AC (slightly less than someone with scale mail and a shield) but who will eventually get 19 once they max out their Wisdom (and up to 20 when they hit max level and presumably give their Epic Boon ASI to Wisdom).

So... honestly, does that solve it? Have we fixed it just by tweaking this number?

I think this would be a somewhat decent solution, if a bit uninspired. The benefit here is that you absolutely gain a combat benefit here unless your Druid has for some reason maxed out their Dexterity. This would certainly help fulfill the fantasy of Wild Shape better than the current version.

But I'm kind of inclined to go a different way - maybe just out of a sentimental attachment to the current/old version.

What would we need to do to make this worth it even if the AC remains pitifully low? How would we approach the HP situation?

This actually has, potentially, another simple solution, which is to just give the Wild Shape form its own pool of HP. Just as it is on the "live" game, you'd be knocked out of Wild Shape if the form's HP is reduced to zero, but the humanoid underneath is ok. The exact amount of HP each form should have would be sort of open to debate - you probably don't want a whole other Druid's worth of HP, because I think that's the reason for this nerf in the first place.

But what if we take a page out of the Spore Druid's book and say that the HP of your Wild Shape is equal to 4 times your Druid level?

That sounds good until you look at how that would look at level 1: you spend your action to get into your Tiger form, and a Zombie happens to land a hit and rolls a 3 on their d6 and you pop out of that form immediately.

Granted, at level 1 your Druid probably has like 10 HP, so that's still a 40% increase. But it seems kind of weak.

Maybe we need to just tweak the numbers. Six times your Druid level?

That looks a little better at early levels - your Druid having 16 HP and then a Wild Shape with 12 HP seems pretty good - indeed, under current rules, you could take the form of a Wolf at level 2 with 11 HP.

What about much later, though? A level 15 Druid with, say, +3 to Con, will have 123 HP, and their Wild Shape under this form would have 90. That's slightly under-par for a Moon Druid, but of course much better than other Druids whose CR caps out at 1.

Honestly, though, that's not really that bad, actually.

Now, I don't know how important it is to the designers that they rid Wild Shape of the whole "extra HP" thing. If they've identified that as the big problem with the feature, then perhaps this latter solution is too similar to the old version. Certainly, there are builds like the Barbarian/Druid who stretch that extra HP into insane damage absorption.

Still, I think that either the HP buff or the AC buff are necessary (and maybe both) to make Wild Shape fulfill the fantasy it's meant to.

Now, the rest of the issues I think are more about semantics and tweaking. Right now, the way the ability is described causes some weird interactions like losing all your skill proficiencies. I think it's obvious that if you keep your mind when you transform, you should also retain your knowledge about Religion or your ability to have Insights into the people around you.

This is all stuff that I think can be changed with relative ease, though.

We also didn't touch on damage, so I'll address that real quick:

The damage is a little low, but it's sort of in line with a Warlock's Eldritch Blast, at least at low levels. I'm actually kind of fine with the damage being sort of low if you don't take a subclass that focuses on Wild Shape - the Moon Druid in this UA gets to add d6s of elemental damage, which I think is plenty when you put it on top of the powerful full spellcaster a Druid is. This should be a situational option for most Druids, and not have to be the full, most efficient damage-dealing feature for the class.

Again, the key here is making Wild Shape something that grants you enough of a defensive benefit to justify wading into melee - a realm of D&D combat that is way more dangerous than being at ranged (as someone who has played a bunch of melee characters, playing my Wizard now has been a very different experience - in the whole campaign so far I've probably taken less than 50 total damage).