Druid Deep Dive

 The Druid in the 2024 PHB is going to see some rebalancing. To sum up the biggest takeaway: I think that non-Moon Druids are going to see the changes almost exclusively as buffs, while the Circle of the Moon is going to get some reasonable nerfs - but also some adjustments that are going to help them as well.

Wild Shape remains a staple feature for the class, even if non-Moon druids will primarily be using it for utility rather than combat. One nice change here is that you can still speak while Wild Shaped - Jeremy Crawford emphasized that a Druid who has shifted into a beast form isn't quite the same as just becoming an animal.

You'll still start with two uses, but you will now get additional uses as you level up - I believe a third use at level 6 and a fourth at level 17. However, you'll now only get a single use back on a short rest.

However, lest you worry about going through your forms too quickly, you'll also get a feature that allows you to trade spell slots for uses of Wild Shape. This appears to be limited only by how many spell slots you have to spend (and as of the most recent playtest, this is literally any spell slot, so Wild Shape as, effectively, a 1st level spell is not bad at all - indeed, if you multiclass with Warlock, you could spend Pact Slots on it).

Wild Shaping will also work differently - you no longer get a whole separate pool of hit points when you shift, and instead get temporary hit points. For the base druid, the THP will be equal to your Druid level, while Moon Druids will get more (as of playtest 8, three times your Druid level). These Temp Hit Points are pure gravy, because even if they're burned through, your Wild Shape will only end if you become incapacitated or the duration ends (and that duration is still a number of hours equal to half your druid level). So basically, while it won't be the insane boost to survival that it was, as long as you're still up, your Wild Shape form will be too.

Wild Companion from Tasha's will also now be a baseline feature in case you want a familiar.

Lastly, the Archdruid feature now only grants a free wild shape if you start a fight without a charge of it, rather than fully removing the limit on charges, which... you know, is probably fair. Archdruid also integrates the ribbon feature of Timeless Body, as well as letting you convert more uses of wildshape into spell slots. Notably, Beast Spells has also now gained the Archdruid's material component exemption two levels earlier.

Druids will also get a few new choices - with subclasses being moved from level 2 to 3, you'll get a new choice (similar to what Clerics get) at level 1, which is your Primal Order. Here, you can choose to potentially focus more on spellcasting by getting the Magician option, which lets you learn a bonus Druid cantrip (and there's a new ranged attack cantrip that does radiant damage and is star-themed and will probably be a go-to option) as well as being able to add your Wisdom modifier to Nature checks - finally solving the ironic problem that a Wizard without Nature proficiency might know more about the natural world than a Druid who does have it. Plus, if you have a positive Intelligence modifier, you still benefit from that as well, so it's sort of like demi-expertise. (Spoiler alert: Clerics will get a similar option regarding the Religion skill).

However, if you want to focus more on the militant, martial side of things, you can pick up Warden option instead. While the video only mentions "more armor" and martial weapons, the UA allowed a Warden to get Medium Armor - an option that I think is highly desirable for any character who ever wants to end their turn in melee with a foe (given that a modest dexterity investment gets you nearly on par with heavy armor wearers, while light armor is only really decent if you are pushing hard on Dexterity).

There's a later choice with the Elemental Fury feature - here you can choose between Primal Strikes, which adds a d8 of your choice of cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage to your weapon attacks or with your Beast Form's attacks. This upgrades to 2d8 later on.

If you're really committed to spellcasting, though, you can instead pick potent spellcasting, letting you add your Wisdom modifier to your cantrips' damage, and later extending the range of any cantrip with a range of 10 feet or longer to 300 feet (I think Thorn Whip has a 10-foot range, so this could potentially be nuts).

Again, similar to Primal Order, Clerics will, if this is kept from the playtest, get a similar set of choices, mirroring the Druid in this way.

Ok, let's talk subclasses:

    The Moon Druid got the most changes, largely to reflect how Wild Shape has changed and to actually bring in some true lunar themes to the subclass. While the tankiness of having a full beast's set of HP on top of your own has obviously been nerfed, you'll also be taking fewer hits, because you now can replace the beast's AC with an amount equal to 13 plus your Wisdom modifier. At level 1, you can easily get a +3 to Wisdom, so you should be on par with someone in Scale Mail or Chain Mail (without a shield). If you focus on getting your Wisdom up (admittedly this might go slower given the attractiveness of the new feats) you should be able to keep pace with an unshielded plate-wearer, getting to an AC of 18 by the time your Wisdom is maxed out.

Moon Druids's new version of "your attacks count as magical" will now let you just change the damage to radiant - which will be great against vampires but I suppose could be a problem if facing radiant-resistant monsters (though such things are very rare). They also eventually get to add additional dice of radiant damage to their hits - on top of Primal Strike's extra dice (so you might be rolling three or four dice on a normal hit).

Moon Druids also now get a curated list of spells that they can cast while in Wild Shape, including a few new ones, but also Cure Wounds and Moonbeam. They also get a built-in bonus action teleport.

So, you know, they're going to be pretty good - assuming that the beast stat blocks they have available are going to be decent.

    Now, let's circle (pun only sort of intended) back to the Circle of the Land.

Land Druids are built to be the classic nature-spellcaster, kind of sharing "quintessential druid" with the Moon druid like the Thief and Assassin do with the Rogue. One of the biggest changes is that you now have the option to swap your associated land type every time you finish a long rest. The climates have been simplified to just Arid, Polar, Temperate, and Tropical, and you get a cantrip and one spell per spell level up to 5th with each one (there are some goodies, like Fireball for Arid and Misty Step for Temperate).

Land Druids also get a new way to expend Wild Shape charges (aside from just converting one of them into a spell slot) that lets you create a burst of flora in a 10-foot-radius sphere that will deal necrotic damage to foes and healing to allies, and it gets more powerful as you level up.

You still have Natural Recovery (similar to the Wizard's Arcane Recovery) but which now also includes the ability to cast one of your terrain-based spells for free once per long rest.

You'll also get a damage resistance associated with your current terrain type and immunity to the poisoned condition, and later you can also spend your wild shape charges to raise a little forest around you to provide allies with cover and with that damage resistance.

    The Circle of Stars from Tasha's appears to be largely unchanged, which is fine given that it was a pretty good subclass to start with. I will say that the new Starry Wisp cantrip fits perfectly here (60 foot range, attack roll, does 1d8 damage - scaling up by tier as usual - and makes the target glow and be unable to turn invisible).

    Druids are also one of the classes getting a brand-new subclass: the Circle of the Sea. The primary mechanical theme here is that you can expend Wild Shape charges (notice that all of them have an alternate use of Wild Shape? Almost feels like it could be called "Channel Nature"...) to create a kind of stormcloud around you, which can be used to, at the end of your turn, deal cold damage (in the UA it was thunder) and push foes away from you up to 15 feet.

Sea Druids also get a number of really good storm-themed spells like Thunderwave, Shatter, and Lightning Bolt, etc.

Your Wrath of the Sea (the storm ability) upgrades as you get to higher levels, increasing in size and also conferring certain benefits, like the ability to fly and resistance to cold, thunder, and lightning damage. Naturally, you'll also passively get a swim speed, and you automatically get Water Breathing prepared, and any Wild Shape form you take also get a swim speed.

Finally, you eventually get the option to put the Wrath of the Sea aura on an ally, and you can even have two up at a time if you spend two Wild Shapes to do so.

    For my money, the real proof in the pudding as to whether the Circle of the Moon druid is going to still feel powerful is all about what the beast stat blocks are like. Combing Primal Strikes with Lunar Strikes could be incredible if you have a beast with multiattack - currently, a Dire Wolf only has a single attack per turn, but a Black Bear (which is lower CR) will have two attacks. If the beasts you're turning into only get a single attack per attack action, then your (eventual) 2d8 and 1d10 bonuses to your damage will amount to 14.5 - just barely possibly making up for the lack of a second attack on a really basic martial character. But if we're talking two attacks and thus 29 on top of the, say 12 you'd normally get, plus some decent concentration spell to add into it, you might start doing decently.

However, I'll be honest: I think I'm drawn more to the other kinds of Druids purely on a thematic level. I could imagine Circle of the Sea being a ton of fun (especially when you can put your aura on your Barbarian and basically make a better Storm Herald). I also think a grizzled pirate druid could be freaking awesome, cackling in the middle of a deadly sea-storm. (I'd be tempted to revive my briefly-played Dwarf Tempest Cleric named Thunderin' Merrick Dafoe - a name I came up with even before The Lighthouse came out, but who had kind of Willem Dafoe's character's vibe.)

I think you could very reasonably classify the Wild Shape changes as a nerf, but nerfs are necessary to slow power creep. And this is one of those things that had sort of gotten out of hand.