Titan Druid (v2) vs Wyvern

 Well, like we did with the Hollow Warden while it was still in UA, we're going to try out the subclass from the most recent UA that I'd be most excited to play. Bringing back the idea of Wild Shape using Templates from the One D&D playtest, the Circle of Titans provides, I'd think, a more consistent shape-shifting druid experience. And on top of that, you can eventually become Gargantuan.

Of all Druid subclasses, this is the one that I think I'd be most excited to play in a real game, especially thanks to the fixes in the recent UA. But how do they do, damage-wise? Well, now that we've designated a Wyvern as our default monster to attack (rather than a Death Knight, which is too unusual of a monster for these purposes) we can try it out.

So, how do we build this?

    Stats and Feats

Naturally, we'll want to maximize our Wisdom, because it will increase our AC, our attack bonus, our Rend damage, not to mention our spell modifiers. Thus, we'll aim to start with a Wisdom of 17. The question, then, is whether we want to try to just cap it at level 8 or pick up general feats.

As a Druid, we are still a full spellcaster, so we'll have plenty we can do when we're not transformed, and that might encourage us to take feats that aid in spellcasting or allow additional spells. Fey Touched is a classic choice, letting us get a free Misty Step and then have it prepared, along with other spells (though I don't think we'll need Hunter's Mark, at least by level 10).

Given that our Titan Forms are pretty solidly "SAD" (single-ability-dependent,) I'm inclined to say that we can slow-play our Wisdom in order to cram as many General Feats in there as possible. At level 4, as always, we grab War Caster, but for level 8, we have a few options. Inspiring Leader is a very solid feat that works great on both Charisma and Wisdom characters in 5.5, though you won't benefit as much from the Temp HP.

While we will be primarily a melee combatant, none of the melee feats are likely to do much for us given that we're using natural weapons. We might get something like Sentinel later on, but probably not until we cap Wisdom. So, we'll assume we've got a 19 Wisdom by level 10, and thus a +4.

As for our other stats, I think basically we want to get a decent Con more than anything. We'll want decent Dex as well, both for Initiative and for our AC while out of combat. That said, I'm going to suggest going Magician rather than Warden for our Primal Order, because the bonuses from the latter stop being relevant when we Wild Shape. It does leave us pretty squishy when we aren't shifted, and unlike a Moon Druid, we can only be shifted for 10 minutes at a time, so we need to really make sure we save our spell slots to refresh Wild Shape if we run out of charges. Luckily, any spell slot will do, and for sure taking on our Titan Form is going to be the best use of a 1st level spell slot.

    As a side note: if we want a magic item to boost our Rend attacks, in theory a Wand of the War Mage could help, but it's a matter of interpretation. Technically you get the bonus to spell attack rolls "while holding the wand." And thus, does it actually raise your spell attack bonus or is it a bonus to the spells you cast while holding it? As a DM, I'd for sure interpret it in the former way, as otherwise there'd be no way for you to increase your attack bonus in this form (this is a big problem I have with the Moon Druid). If you're attuned, I'd say you get the bonus.

But we're not taking magic items into account here.

    Spells:

So, we have a lot of spells and spell-like effects from our Titan Forms.

We can only cast our Circle Spells while shifted, but if we spend our first turn casting a good concentration spell, we can keep that up.

Naturally, Druids are one of the two classes that gets Conjure Minor Elementals, so it's going to be hard to consider any other. We can upcast it to 5th level to get 3d8 extra damage on each attack. While we only get two attacks, that's still pretty significant damage, even if it's not like what we'd do with Scorching Ray. Note that we will really want to do our best to protect our Concentration. We might even spend our level 8 feat on Resilient Con and just worry about getting Wisdom capped later on. War Caster will help, but even if we have a +3 to Con, that still makes it somewhat easy to drop concentration.

So, if CME is adding potentially 6d8 damage per turn for us (27 average,) are there other options? We could do Summon Fey. Cast at 4th level (saving us some higher-level spell slots and only having two less damage than a 5th level version) it'd hit twice for 2d6+7. That's actually 28 average if they both hit. Now, CME will do more on a crit, so the truth is that CME is probably doing more damage overall. And the Fey is endangered both by our losing concentration as well as just taking too much damage. That said, it also has some utility.

I would say both are very worthy concentration spells, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll assume we're going CME. CME lasts 10 minutes while Summon Fey lasts an hour, which means both could plausibly be cast before combat starts, but I'm also going to just assume combat is something of a surprise, so we'll need our action on turn 1 to cast it.

    Titan Form:

I actually think our form doesn't really change our damage output much, but the Insectoid form will have Flyby at this level, meaning we can go in and out and potentially avoid getting hit. That said, it's only a 40-foot fly speed, so even if we fly in and out, we're probably only 20 feet away, and a Wyvern at least has 80 feet of fly speed, so unless we have a friend locking them down, they can still come after us.

I think the best damage ability for a form is the Behemoth's, giving them that Godzilla breath weapon, so I'd probably default to that unless we need the Insectoid's healing (Leviathan is going to probably only be useful if we need to fight in the water).

That said, for single target situations, we probably want to save our spell slots - if we needed to really burn something down, the breath weapon is great, but we'll be doing tons with our Rends anyway.

    Game Plan:

All right, so, when combat begins, we're going to start off by casting Conjure Minor Elementals at 5th level. This will add 3d8 damage to our Rend Attacks if the target is within 15 feet (and our Rends have a 10-foot reach, so that should be fine). We then go into our chosen Titan Form.

This gives us an AC of 17, and our Rend attacks will have a +8 to hit. At this level, they'll do 2d8+4 damage on their own, but CME adds 3d8, meaning each of our two hits will impact for 5d8+4. We can't attack yet this turn. We can be Huge sized by level 10. If we're worried about getting hit, we can expend a spell slot to get bigger. It's most efficient to use an odd-numbered spell slot - a 1st will get us to AC 18, a 3rd will get us to AC 19, and if we burn our other 5th level slot, we'll get AC 20. I think this is dubiously helpful - maybe if we're drowning in 1st levels we can get that little bump.

Next, we'll use 20 or more movement to activate Shock Wave. If we're running to our target, that's easy, but if we're already within melee range, we'll want to run around them (if there are multiple foes, this can be tough, as circling a target will probably draw an opportunity attack from one of its friends). If we can manage this, we can send our shockwave to knock the target prone. (Great if we're fighting non-hovering flying enemies like a Wyvern). Our saving throw DC will be 16 at this point, and a Wyvern has a +3, meaning that they fall on a roll of 12 or lower, or 60% of the time.

On turn two, we'll be able to attack. However, given that the Wyvern probably stood up on their turn, we'll need to run around them again to try to do Shock Wave.

With a +8 to hit, we'll hit on a 6 or higher, meaning a 75% hit chance. But we'll have advantage 60% of the time.

So, without advantage (40% of the time0 we'll hit for 5d8+4, or 26.5, and crit for 22.5 extra. Thus, 26.5x75% is 19.875 and 22.5x5% is 1.125, so this is 21 on average. Happening 40% of the time, that gives us 8.4.

With advantage, we have a 93.75% chance to hit, and the usual 9.75% chance to crit. 93.75%x26.5 is about 24.8, and 9.75%x22.5 is about 2.2, so we get about 27 here. Happening 60% of the time, that's 16.2.

Thus, each hit is going to do an average of 24.6. Across two hits, that's 49.2 damage per round.

That's pretty good, if not staggeringly so. But it's certainly very solid and comparable to a lot of other builds we've done. There are fewer moving parts, like our somewhat complex Eldritch Knight Booming-Blade-Push build.

Just out of curiosity, if we were willing to empty the tank, I'm wondering what the Behemoth's breath attack would do. If we spend a 5th level spell slot, it does 10d10 radiant damage and half as much on a success. Our DC is 16, and the Wyvern has a +0 to Dex (ok, this is one area where they may be atypical). So, if they roll a 15 or lower (75% of the time) we do full damage (55) and if they succeed, it's half (27.5). So, 55x75% is 41.25 and 27.5x25% is 6.875, so we'd be doing 48.125. That's less than we'd do with our attacks and CME.

However, there are some caveats: we get to do this on turn one, for one thing. So, if we imagine averaged out across a 3-round encounter, our CME version does 49.2 on turns two and three, but nothing on turn 1, so it's really more like 32.8. At this level we can't do three 5th-level breath weapons, but if we drop the third one to a 4th level spell slot, it just means it'll do 80% of the others, so that becomes 38.5. Thus, our average damage over three rounds is about 44.9 damage.

The other caveat is this: if we can hit more than one target with that breath, the overall damage we do becomes insane. While AoE doesn't kill any one target faster (though evidently it might if we're willing to burn out all our spell slots) it does wind up doing far more damage overall, and in a fight to the death, that's all relevant, even if, for your own safety, it's better to knock down monsters one at a time if you can do it faster.

Truly, given that it scales better than Lightning Bolt, I'm actually expecting that the breath weapon will get nerfed at some point, but I think this subclass, played pretty straightforwardly, will do just fine.

Circle of Titans (v2)

 The previous Unearthed Arcana gave us several "villainous" subclasses and character options. They've now come back with a revision to a few of these.

We'll start with the Druid's Circle of Titans. In the "One D&D" playtest, they briefly experimented with the idea of having the Circle of the Moon use three broad templates (similar to the stat blocks for the Beast Master Ranger's pets) rather than having you search through beast stat blocks. I actually far preferred this as a design idea, because it made the subclass more consistent, but the problem was that the templates sucked. A lot of people also didn't like the lack of versatility. But I think they abandoned the idea too quickly. Thankfully, the Circle of Titans revisits this concept. And while the previous UA version of it replicated some of the same mistakes (the Insectoid form more or less capped its AC at 13) the new one seems poised to fix these problems and then some.

Indeed, on first glance, I'm excited for this version of the subclass, but is it too powerful?

Let's do a full preview.

Circle Spells:

Cantrip: Thaumaturgy

1st: Thunderwave

2nd: Enlarge/Reduce

3rd: Fear

4th: Fire Shield

5th: Destructive Wave

    Notably, you can cast these spells while in your Titan Form. I think these are pretty solid spell options - Fear is a great crowd control spell, and while you can buff your own attacks with Enlarge/Reduce, you might start getting absurdly big.

Level 3:

Titan Form:

When you use Wild Shape, you can adopt a Titan Form, choosing from Behemoth, Leviathan, or Insectoid stat blocks. You can only stay in a Titan Form for up to 10 minutes.

Each Titan Form gains new abilities and features as you gain Druid levels. Broadly, each one uses your spell attack modifier for its attack rolls, gets Extra Attack at level 5, has Strength and Dexterity equal to your Wisdom scores (other stats remain the same,) has a 40 foot speed and a 40-foot alternate speed depending on the form. Each has an AC equal to 13+ your Wisdom modifier, Darkvision out to 60 feet, and grants Temp HP equal to 4 times your Druid level. Also, each form is a Siege Monster, dealing double damage to objects and structures.

    Notably, that's now more temp HP than Moon Druids get, but the form is also, of course, much more limited in duration. Basically, it'll be like a Barbarian's Rage, certainly usable in a whole combat, but maybe not two fights.

Lastly, each form's Rend attack (its primary melee attack) deals 1d8+Wisdom damage - slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage for the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Insectoid respectively. This damage scales up as you level up, going to 2d8 at level 6 and 3d8 at level 12. (Also, Rend has a 10-foot reach.)

    That's actually a pretty big deal - you effectively have a somewhat better Vicious weapon (adding 2d8 rather than 2d6) automatically by level 12, and you can still benefit from magic items that boost your spell attack modifier.

Here are specific things each form gets:

Behemoth:

This one gets a climb speed. Incandescent Breath lets you, as an action, expend a spell slot to do a big 60-foot line breath weapon attack. This deals 2d10 radiant damage per spell level, with a Dex save for half. As a bonus action, Rampager (which requires level 10) lets you expend a spell slot to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. When you enter the space of an enemy at least two sizes smaller than you for the first time on a turn, that creature has to make a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone, and if they're already prone, they take 1d10 bludgeoning per spell level expended.

    Compared to, say, a Lightning Bolt, a 3rd level Incandescent Breath would deal 6d10, or about 33 damage, which is more than the 28 you get on average for Lightning Bolt (though a shorter line). And it scales better with upcasting. Rampager is one I suspect I'd rarely upcast, as I'd mainly want it to knock targets prone.

Leviathan:

This one has a swim speed and Amphibious, to let you breathe underwater. Toxic Deluge (requires level 10) lets you expend a spell slot as a bonus action, forcing each creature of your choice in a 10-foot emanation to make a Con save, taking 2d4 poison damage per spell level and becoming Poisoned until the start of your next turn on a failure.

    The emanation does get bigger the bigger you get, but I'm less excited by this - 5 average damage per spell level and save for none. Still, in a crowd it could do a lot, and given how big we get, we can often occupy the same spaces as other creatures. Once again, though, I think that the aquatic form is probably only going to be used when you're fighting underwater.

Insectoid:

This one has a fly speed. At level 10, it get Flyby. Energizing Pollen lets you, as an action, expend a spell slot to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, and when you move within 5 feet of a creature during this movement, you can restore HP to them equal to 2d6 per spell slot expended. (They can only receive this once per use of this feature).

    So, Flyby is going to be pretty helpful given that you can still only attack in melee. Energizing Pollen isn't going to keep pace with a Cure Wounds, but it can potentially hit a few of your allies, so the better point of comparison is something like Mass Cure Wounds. At 5th level, Mass Cure Wounds heals for 5d8+Wisdom (we'd guess 4 if you're 9th level) so around 27.5. This would do 10d6 when used at 5th level, so 35 average - but it'd be harder to hit your entire party with it.

Level 6:

Oh right, there are more features.

Dire Impact:

You gain the following benefits:

Elemental Rend: When you hit with your Titan Form's Rend, you can cause it to deal Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type.

    This is a standard level 6 feature for any subclass that has special/built-in weapons. Less important with the reduction in resistance/immunity to physical damage, but not a bad thing to have.

Shock Wave: Once per turn, immediately after you move at least half your speed, youc an create a shockwave in a 10 foot emanation around you. Each creature in the emanation makes a Con save, falling prone on a failure.

    My first thought was that this was redundant with a Behemoth's Rampager, but it's actually more synergistic with it. Indeed, this is actually kind of crazy, because this just happens if you happen to move on your turn, requiring nothing like a bonus action or anything like that.

Level 10:

Primal Havoc:

You gain the following benefits:

Huge Size: You can choose to become Huge when assuming your Titan Form if there's enough space.

    The reasons to do this (other than because it's freaking awesome) are that it can increase the size of your emanations, and also you can potentially grapple Gargantuan monsters.

Toughened Hide: Immediately after you assume a Huge or larger Titan Form, you can expend a spell slot. While in the form, you gain a bonus to your AC equal to half the expended spell slot's level (rounded up).

    Ok, so this is interesting. By 10 I figure you either have a +4 or +5 to Wisdom, meaning you're at a 17 or 18 AC. If you want to go whole-hog, you could expend a 5th level spell slot to add 3 to that. I'm not sure what, exactly, the ideal expenditure here is, but certainly when you hit a point where you're barely ever using your lower-level spell slots, getting a +1 bonus from a 1st level slot or a +2 bonus from a 3rd level slot is... decent, I guess? Depends a bit on what you're expecting to fight. Probably always want to use an odd-numbered slot for this, thanks to the way it rounds.

Above It All: When you are Huge or larger in your Titan form, difficult terrain caused by heavy snow, ice, rubble, or undergrowth doesn't cost you extra movement.

    Weirdly specific, but there's a logic to it.

Level 14:

Monstrous Appetite:

You gain the following:

Gargantuan Size: You can choose to become Gargantuan when you assume your Titan form if there's space.

    Mainly this is just very cool, fulfilling the promise of the subclass.

Grappling Rend: Once per turn, when you are Huge or larger and hit a creature with your Rend attack, you can grapple the target (escape DC is your spell save DC). You can only have one creature grappled this way at a time.

    Notably, this is a way for a player to get a no-save Grapple on a target. Lots of monsters do this, but typically if a PC wants to do this, the target gets a saving throw even when the grapple is initiated.

Swallow: As a bonus action when you are Gargantuan, you can choose a Large or smaller creature you are grappling. The target makes a Strength saving throw. On a failure, the creature is no longer Grappled but is instead Restrained and Blinded, has total cover against attacks outside your stomach, and takes Acid damage at the start of each of your turns - the damage is a number of d12s equal to your Wisdom modifier.

You can have a number of creatures swallowed up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) at a time. You must maintain concentration to hold a swallowed creature in your stomach. If you lose concentration, you regurgitate all swallowed creatures in a space within 10 feet of you, and each has the prone condition.

    Ok, so let's consider this: While there are two d20 tests that need to go your way for this to work, this is pretty powerful crowd control and damage over time. At this level, it's probably 5d12 damage per turn (or around 33.5) to up to 5 creatures. Sure, you'll really need to protect your concentration somehow. But there's no resource expenditure (other than Wild Shape,) and just takes a bonus action.

Overall Thoughts:

    I want to play this subclass. This fulfills such a great fantasy. Is it too powerful? It might be. I think some of the scaling on the spell-like effects the forms get might be too high. But I think this could just be insanely cool to play.

I think that this is something people would eagerly pick as their subclass, and so the only real problem I could see arising is that people might not want to do Circle of the Moon anymore. That is a problem - power creep isn't good for modular games.

But broadly, I think that the design here has the right idea, and now it's just a matter of trimming things back without breaking the thing. Truly, the Druid subclass I'd be most eager to play.

UA: Circle of the Titan

 When "One D&D" was in testing before it became 2024 D&D and then 5.5, there was a controversial initial redesign for the Circle of the Moon Druid. Instead of picking existing creatures from the Monster Manual, the Moon Druids would take one of three template stat blocks that scaled with their level.

There were two problems: the stat blocks were limited to just a Land, Sea, and Air version, lacking the nuance of special creature abilities that would make a Wolf and a Bear, for example, distinct from the other, and, more crucially, the stat blocks sucked - their AC was lower than a Druid was likely to have just in their humanoid form, among other ideas.

However, when the next playtest reverted it to picking stat blocks, even if there was some relief from those who liked to keep things as they were, I was among several people who lamented this backpeddling - template stat blocks (like the various Summon spells) are actually great, and solve a lot of problems with level scaling and keeping things relevant.

When Honor Among Thieves came out and nerds pointed out that the party's druid ought not to be able to turn into an Owlbear (being a Monstrosity rather than a Beast) I actually did some homebrewing to create a Circle of Monsters subclass that used templates to transform the Druid into monstrosities that could be anything from Sorrowsworn to Owlbears to Mimics, borrowing that earlier design but making stat blocks that I felt, at least, were far better.

It looks like WotC is doing something similar.

While the other three stat blocks here are pretty firmly evil-coded, there's something a little less moral about the Druid subclass. This is basically the "wild shape into the Tarrasque" subclass, and like the Tarrasque, its outlook is more neutral - perhaps opposed to the excesses of civilization encroaching on the natural world, but aligned more with chaotic destruction than evil brutality.

This is the only subclass I'm aware of that allows you to eventually become Gargantuan without some spell shenanigans. Let's get into it:

Circle Spells:

Cantrip: Thaumaturgy

1st: Cure Wounds, Longstrider

2nd: (Actually none)

3rd: Fear

4th: Stoneskin

5th: Destructive Wave

    Interestingly, you get two first level spells and no second level. Is this just that there wasn't a good 2nd level option, or an error? Unlike Moon druids, I don't think we get any special exception that allows us to cast our Circle spells while in our Titan forms. Still, Fear is a solid crowd control spell, Cure Wounds is very good in 5.5, and I've seen Destructive Wave used a lot in my Ravnica campaign because it's a friendly-fire-free AoE spell. Stoneskin would be a great spell to have running if you can afford the costly component each time.

Level 3:

Titan Form:

When you Wild Shape, you can adopt the Behemoth, Leviathan, or Insectoid stat blocks instead of the usual beasts. You determine its appearance (there's a table with some suggestions). The stat blocks scale with your Druid level, and gain new features at levels 5, 10, and 14. Each grants twice your Druid level in Temporary Hit Points, 60 feet of darkvision, and is Large size, but you can choose to make them Huge at level 10 or higher, and Gargantuan at level 14 or higher. They are also all monstrosities. Each gets Multiattack at level 5 (basically Extra Attack). Their Rend attacks all use your spell attack bonus and deal 1d8+Wis in, depending on the form, bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, and have a 10 foot reach.

Behemoth:

This stat block has an AC of 11+ your Wisdom. You also have Strength and Dexterity equal to your Wisdom score (your Con and mental stats remain as they normally are). You gain a speed and climb speed of 40 feet.

In addition to the Rend attack, you have Incandescent Breath, which allows you to expend a spell slot of 1st or higher level. Creatures in a 5x60 foot line make a dex save against your spell save DC, taking 2d8 radiant damage per level of the spell slot expended plus your Wisdom modifier on a failure or half as much on a success.

    So, if you do this with a 3rd level spell slot, assuming a +4 to Wisdom, you're doing 6d8+4, or 31 damage, which is better than a Lightning Bolt (though the line is shorter). Honestly, not bad.

The Behemoth also has Siege Monster, doubling its damage dealt to objects and structures.

At 10th level, the Behemoth gets Rampager: When you enter the space of an enemy that is at least one size smaller than you for the first time on a turn, the creature must make a Strength save, falling prone on a failure. If the creature is already prone, they take 2d6 bludgeoning damage.

    Remember that enemies' space is now just difficult terrain, and if you're two sizes larger or smaller than the target, you can end your turn in the same space. We'll be Huge (or at least we can be) by the time we get this, so we can potentially just sit on a target.

    My sense is that this is probably going to be your default titan transformation, but let's see how the others work.

Leviathan:

This stat block has an AC of 10+ your wisdom, and has a speed of 40 and a swim speed of 40. Once again, your Strength and Dex are equal to your Wisdom, and the other stats don't change.

You are Amphibious, so you can breathe both air and water.

In addition to your Rend, you have a Reaction called Ink Cloud: When you take damage, you can use a reaction to expend a 1st or higher level spell slot and release an inky cloud in a 15-foot radius cube centered on yourself, and then you can move up to your speed. The cube is heavily obscured, and lasts 1 minute or until a strong current or wind disperses it.

    This is a decent escape maneuver, though it doesn't scale like the Behemoth's breath attack. We don't have blindsight, so it won't help us to attack our attacker.

At level 10, we get Toxic Stench: each creature that starts its turn within a 10 foot emanation of you that you choose must make a Con save, taking 2d4 poison damage and becoming poisoned until the start of its next turn on a failure.

    Against targets that can be poisoned, this can be pretty good, but it's very campaign-dependent.

    Naturally, in any underwater adventure, this has got to be your choice, but I think it's not as good as the Behemoth (not sure it needs to have a lower AC).

Insectoid:

This stat block has an AC of 8 + your wisdom modifier. It's much like the other stat blocks except that you get a 40 foot speed and 40 foot fly speed.

You have the flyby feature, and thus don't provoke Opportunity Attacks if you fly out of an enemy's reach.

In addition to your Rend, you have Energizing Pollen: you can expend a 1st level spell slot as an action and emit a cloud of healing pollen. Choose any number of creatures within 15 feet of yourself. You heal a total of 2d8 plus 5 times the spell slot's level, and divide the HP between the creatures chosen.

    So, this is an AoE heal, but not multiplicative. With a 1st level spell slot, this would be an average of 14 healing (Cure Wounds would be around 9+Wis, so from 12 to 14). The scaling is probably not as good (at 3rd level, we're looking at 24 healing compared to a Cure Wounds that does like 31) but the ability to divide it up is really good - fantastic if you need to get multiple allies up from being unconscious.

At level 10, you gain Hive Mind, which allows you to forge a telepathic link with a number of creatures up to your Druid level that you can see and can speak any language. You can telepathically communicate with each other regardless of whether you share a language as long as you're on the same plane of existence.

    I assume this ends when your Wild Shape ends, but this is a pretty strong telepathy ability. Perhaps not obvious in terms of combat utility, but it could be very helpful.

    The downside here, I think, is that the Insectoid has a pitiful AC - at 20 Wisdom, it's a measly 13, which is awful. And while Flyby is good, you don't have the speed necessarily to get very far away from a foe after striking them. Better hope your foes cannot fly.

Level 6:

Dire Impact:

You gain two benefits:

Elemental Rend: When you hit with your Titan form's Rend attack, you can cause it to deal Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage instead of its normal type.

    Less important with the removal of so much resistance and immunity to those types, but this does give you lots of opportunities to deal specific damage types, like fire to shut down a Troll's health regeneration.

Shockwave: Immediately after you assume your Titan form or as a bonus action on subsequent turns, you can expend a 1st or higher level spell slot to create a shockwave in a 15-foot emanation. Each creature in the emanation must make a Con save against your spell save DC or be knocked prone.

    Couple notes: first, this does not prevent friendly fire, though it's not damage, at least. Also, as you get larger, the area of a 15-foot emanation gets bigger. Really, the true 6th level feature is our Multiattack, except that it comes a level earlier.

Level 10:

Primal Havoc:

You gain two features:

Improve Titan Form: You can choose to become Huge when you take on your Titan Form, and you get the aforementioned level 10 features.

Above it All: While huge or larger in your titan form, Difficult Terrain caused by heavy snow, ice, rubble, or undergrowth doesn't cost you extra movement.

    I think there's a chance that players will quibble with DMs over this: are stalagmites in a cave the same as rubble? Does magical plant growth like from the... Plant Growth spell count as undergrowth?

Level 14:

Monstrous Appetite:

You gain the following benefits:

Gargantuan Size: Your titan form can now be Gargantuan.

Grappling Rend: Once per turn when you are huge or larger and hit a creature with your Rend attack in Titan form, you can make them grappled (escape DC equal to your spell save). You can only have one target grappled this way at a time.

    A saving-throw-free grapple as part of an attack is pretty good, and note that the target's size doesn't come into play here, so you could actually grapple a fellow gargantuan creature.

Swallow: As a bonus action while you are Gargantuan, choose one large or smaller creature you are grappling. The target makes a strength save against your spell save DC. On a failure, the target is no longer grappled but is now restrained within your stomach and is swallowed. A swallwoed creatuer is blinded and restrained, has total cover against attacks and other effects outside your stomach, and takes 2d8 acid damage at the start of each of your turns. You can have a number of creature swallowed equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you must maintain concentration on keeping the creatures swallowed. If you lose concentration or leave your Titan form, you regurgitate the creatures, who fall prone in a space within 10 feet of you.

    This is awesome. It's not quite the 16d6 acid damage that the Tarrasque does to a swallowed creature, but it's actually kind of just solid crowd control. You both need to hit the target and they need to fail a save, so it's not super-reliable, but if you can protect your concentration with things like War Caster and maybe Resilient: Con, this could be a great way to keep foes out of the fight for a bit.

Overall Thoughts:

    I love this subclass conceptually, and I really like it mechanically. I'm a little concerned that the AC is too low (a Moon Druid by the time they cap their Wisdom has an 18 AC in Wild Shape) and the Temp HP is also lower than a Moon Druid's, so while these scale better for attacks (rather than having flat attack bonuses, this goes up with your spell attack) I worry that these Titans will be surprisingly squishy.

    Still, I'm sort of jumping for joy that WotC has presented a Wild Shape-centric alternative to the Moon Druid that uses templates, and the flavor here is top-notch. I'd be really tempted to play this, which is a pretty solid endorsement.

Maximizing CME as a Druid or Wizard

 So, I'm in a kind of middle ground between power-gaming min-maxxers and "vibes, man" character building in D&D. I like my characters to be powerful, because that's the fantasy of the game as far as I'm concerned. I don't do enough one-shots to actually get a chance to try out every whacky out-there build or joke character, so for a long campaign, I want a fleshed out character whom my fellow players will learn to love (or fear, as was the case with by Warlock in Descent into Avernus - very much a "glad he's on our side" kind of character) but who is also just mechanically working within expected parameters.

Broadly, the primary thing that I'm really skeptical toward is multiclassing. I think that there are for sure cases where a multiclass build makes sense for a character. In our Wildemount game, one of the two Paladins multiclassed into Warlock and it made perfect sense - the entire campaign, he's been haunted by the charred ghosts of his former comrades who were all killed in a magical firestorm at Blightshore (one of the major "don't go here" places in the Exandria setting,) and by accepting their direct aid, he's basically made a pact with them (though curiously, it seems to be a Great Old One patron, rather than Undead, as I'd have assumed. I don't really know what is going on with them, so all I do is mutter "got a light?" when the ghosts appear to the rest of the table).

Still, I generally try to build characters along a single class track unless there's a really compelling story reason. The only truly mechanical reason I'd do it is if I wanted to play a Pact of the Blade Warlock, because I think they get so, so many of their problems solved by just starting as a Fighter for their first level.

In that campaign, I've been playing a Wizard. I really can't complain at all about the class, as I've felt plenty powerful with the spells I've picked. Fireball is great unless you roll really awfully low, and even then, even if you're only getting like 14 damage out of it (which is only half of its average damage) it's still over a big enough area that that feels pretty significant if you're in a target-rich environment.

My usual go-to concentration spell is Summon Undead (while my character is a very classically heroic, quite naive young wizard who was basically just out of wizard school at the start of the campaign, his favorite professor was the Necromancy one, and so he likes summoning forth undead spirits to help,) which I think is a very worthwhile option, and if you can maintain concentration, a pretty spell-slot efficient one at that. It's also fairly versatile, with various forms of crowd control or just straight, safe ranged damage (in a fight against a bunch of humans working with a succubus, I was using Drow Poison on a Light Crossbow with True Strike, which was often setting up my Putrid Spirit to paralyze them - after I had knocked the fiend unconscious with the poison on the first turn of the entire combat, which he remained for like three rounds).

But while the Summon spells are great for sustained single target damage, I think it's pretty clear that there are ways to do bigger bursts of damage.

Conjure Minor Elementals, which in 2014 was mainly there to let you summon a bunch of Mephits or maybe an Azer or two, is profoundly different than it used to be. I've written about this spell many times before.

The "obvious" path to getting a lot of power with this spell is to use it on a character who is a melee/martial hybrid - someone who can get a lot of attacks in and thus multiply the 2d8 bonus the spell grants to your attacks as much as possible.

While I think that it's plenty powerful on a tier 4 Eldritch Knight, who get 4th level spells at level 17 and will eventually get four attacks per attack action at level 20, I think the damage winds up scaling up better with pure spellcasters. Bladesingers and Valor Bards are going to naturally want to use this (Dance Bards too, I guess). Bards, of course, will need to wait to get Magical Secrets to get this spell, as it's not natively on their list. The spell is actually only on the Druid and Wizard spell lists, though there are some subclasses (and I know for sure one or two of the Eberron Dragonmark spells of the mark) that will get it as well.

An Eldritch Knight will be able to make more attacks than a Bladesinger using this spell, but won't be able to upcast it. And with just one or two levels of upcasting, that benefit begins to fall off.

Druids, of course, can also build around weapon attacks - you can get martial weapon proficiency with the Warden Primal Order option, or you can just shape-shift, with Moon Druids in particular getting some forms that will be able to attack three times a turn.

But let's say that you really just want to stick to spells? What are the best options?

Well, the answer is pretty clear: you want non-concentration spells in which you (not a pet) are making lots of attacks. These attacks do need to be within a 10-foot range (though because my Wizard is a Scribes Wizard, I think I should be able to use my Manifest Mind to cast CME and move my floating book-spirit around while I pelt away from a safe distance and still get the damage bonus.

So, what spells?

The only cantrip I'm aware of that does multiple attacks is Eldritch Blast, so if you can get this spell on a Warlock, it'll be very good. But we're looking at the classes that get this spell natively. An attack cantrip will certainly benefit from the spell, but you're only really adding 9 damage a turn on a hit. Not really what you want for a fourth level spell (the skeletal spirit from Summon Undead is going to be hitting for like 12 twice a turn cast at 4th level).

The only Druid spells I could find that aren't concentration but call for attack rolls are Elminster's Effulgent Spheres and Syluné's Viper, each of which only allow one attack as a bonus action. This could mean, coupled with a cantrip like Starry Wisp, you could get two attacks out of this, but that doesn't seem all that exciting.

Wizards, however, I think, will feast on this:

Chromatic Orb could hit multiple times, though you'd need to have all your enemies packed tightly within your 10-foot emanation to get the benefit of the CME.

Scorching Ray is probably your first, easily accessible, really powerful option here. At its base 2nd level, Scorching Ray shoots three bolts that each do 2d6 damage, meaning that with the 2d8 bonus from CME, you're already more than doubling the damage you do with the spell. Upcasting Scorching Ray is going to add additional bolts, rather than making each bolt more powerful, which is great, because it's a further multiplier of your damage. Casting CME at 4th level and Scorching Ray at 3rd, you'll be getting 4 bolts that are each hitting for about 16 damage apiece. If they all hit, that's 64 damage.

Steel Wind Strike is the next option. This will effectively extend the range of your CME because you'll be teleporting around for each strike, and your emanation travels with you. The trick is that this only gets full damage if you can hit all five targets - it has to be spread out, not concentrated on one target like Scorching Ray can. Still, each hit will land for 6d10 (33 on average). With 2d8 added to each of those, you'll be hitting for an average of 41 each. If you can somehow also get advantage, that'll be great, because all the damage is doubled on a crit. To compare, if we were casting Scorching Ray at 5th level with a 4th level CME, we'd be getting 6 rays each dealing 2d6+2d8 (again, 16 average) and so in theory we could do 96 damage total. Against 5 targets, of course, Steel Wind Strike is doing a total of 205, but we can't concentrate it on a single target. (Also, SWS doesn't upcast). Incidentally, if were were to flip that Scorching Ray option, casting CME at 5th and SR at 4th, we're looking at 5 rays, but each is now dealing 2d6+3d8, or about 20.5 on average, for 102.5 total. So, yeah, I think if you want to build around this, you probably want to use an upcast Scorching Ray for single targets and Steel Wind Strike for situations with 3-5 targets.

One spell that you might not initially think of (I have to credit Colby over a D4: D&D Deep Dive for this one) as working with these is Contingency. This 6th level spell lets you effectively pre-cast a 1st-to-5th level spell at an earlier point that will take effect when its trigger occurs. This could be something like casting Water Breathing when you're fully submerged (not necessary for my Triton, but I get it) but in this case, it's less of an emergency than an opportunity to cheat the action economy: if you come up with a special word or phrase as the trigger, you can cast this the night (or some days) before you need it so that you can get CME running and still have your action and the ability to cast a spell with a spell slot on your first turn. For as insane as the damage of CME is, you always need to put a little asterisk there that you still typically wind up doing no damage on the first round of a fight, and so if the fight only goes two rounds, the insane damage output of these spell is effectively halved. But if you set up a contingency, you will (at least for one major fight) be able to hit the ground running.

Like Druids, Wizards get access to the aforementioned Elminster's Effulgent Spheres and Syluné's Viper, but these aren't going to be really maximal, damage-wise.

Spellfire Flare (also from Heroes of Faerun,) however, works great with this. Like Scorching Ray, it's a low level spell that adds additional bolts when upcast rather than just adding damage to the attack. Each attack does 2d10 Radiant damage, and at base 1st level, it does just one bolt. Targets won't benefit from half or three-quarters cover against it.

    Ok, so how is it, damage-wise? Do we replace Scorching Ray with this?

    The problem is that it does fewer bolts - when upcast to 2nd level (Scorching Ray's base level) it will do 2 bolts, which means that it's always one fewer shot than Scorching Ray. On the other hand, the actual bolts hit harder, for 2d10 (11) rather than 2d6 (7). At 2nd level, in fact, without CME, it's already slightly outpacing Scorching Ray with 22 average damage compared to 21.

    But Scorching Ray has an edge on number of bolts. So, if we toss in a base level CME, and then cast, say, a 4th level version of each of these, what are we looking at? Scorching Ray is doing 5 bolts for 2d6+2d8 each, so 80 damage. Spellfire Flare is doing 4 bolts for 2d10+2d8 each (20 apiece) so... 80 damage. Huh. Didn't expect to hit the level at which they were totally equal. And I guess further upcasting favors Spellfire Flare because Scorching Ray is adding 16 while Spellfire Flare is adding 20 with each further upcast.

    However, if we upcast CME as well, the balance tilts toward Scorching Ray. With a 5th level CME and 4th level attack spells, we're looking at 2d6+3d8 with 5 bolts at 4th level (102.5 total) versus just 4 bolts of 2d10+3d8 (24.5 each) for a total of 98.

    Honestly, I think the choice between Spellfire Flare and Scorching Ray is really a bit of a judgment call. If you're upcasting CME, Scorching Ray does better, and likewise if you're not upcasting Scorching Ray or Spellfire Flare very high.

    However, Spellfire Flare has two other factors that really help it: it's Radiant damage, which is far less often resisted than Fire damage (and lots of monsters are fully immune - again, as a Scribes wizard this is less important to me) but also, the ability to ignore partial cover means, situationally, you're going to be hitting more often. Truly, both are strong options, and I think it mainly depends on how much upcasting you're doing and with which spells.

Crown of Stars has the same issue as the Effulgent Spheres and Viper spells - while sustainable, you only get one attack per turn. That attack does do 4d12, but you're only increasing that 26 average by 9 with CME each turn.

And yeah, that's about it, as far as I can tell.

To review:

I think your best options for maximizing the power of Conjure Minor Elementals with spells alone are Scorching Ray, Spellfire Flare, and Steel Wind Strike.

The latter does a lot of damage on its own, but must be treated as an AoE option - you can't concentrate its power on a single target. Scorching Ray and Spellfire Flare are both really solid options, but you might need a spreadsheet to figure out which is optimal in which circumstance, as the sliding scale of upcasting will change which comes out on top. You can, of course, pick and prepare both, but I think you'll probably just want to pick one or the other.

Remember that this is for burst damage - to maintain this amount of damage round after round, you're going to need to expend a lot of spell slots. But if you really want to melt a boss quickly, it's a good way to go.

Which Subclasses Should Get a Revision: Druid

 The Druid is among the most versatile classes in D&D, with a spell list that is concerned less with doing any one particular mechanical thing best, but more on adhering to the theme of being the "nature spellcaster."

In some ways, this makes them a Jack of All Trades (though not quite like the Bard).

Interestingly, in testing for "One D&D" (5.5e, D&D 2024, whatever you want to call it) they actually toyed with turning Wild Shape into "Channel Nature," aligning it more clearly with the Cleric and Paladin, with Wild Shape being one of the default options to use with it. In practice, this is actually still pretty much the case, but they just went back on this change. Most subclasses, and all the non-Moon subclasses in the new PHB, have some use for your Wild Shape charges other than turning into an animal. This was true for all three subclasses printed in Tasha's, but that idea had evidently not quite dawned on the designers in earlier subclasses.

There aren't a ton to go through here, as Druids have generally had among the fewest subclasses. We have the Circles of Dreams, of the Shepherd, of Spores, and of Wildfire (as Stars was reprinted in the PHB.)

Dreams: Yes

    This might be controversial, as the concept here is admittedly a little vague. The Fey are often associated with nature, but they're also kind of the most "unnatural" part of nature, and I often picture some Fey as being in grand marble halls with some kind of chess motif (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are strong reference points for me regarding the Fey). This is also a subclass that had a pretty scattershot mechanical identity. But I really like the idea of a Druid subclass that leans hard into the surreal. That might mean a mechanical overhaul, but I'd be curious to see what they did with it.

Shepherd: Yes

    This has actually been a pretty popular subclass, but given the profound redesign of summoning spells, some of its features are either not as powerful as they used to be or just kind of don't make sense - the 2024 rules don't care about "magical" bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, for example, which was a pretty potent feature for this subclass. The fact that we're not summoning, generally, more than one creature at a time also really devalues things like the Bear totem (which I think of as the Juicy Cockroach thanks to Dimension 20's Unsleeping City). I think we could stand to have some more summoner subclasses like Conjurers and this in the new paradigm.

Spores: No

    Now, I kind of hate to say this, as I've made it very clear in my previous posts that I really love a dark subclass. This made a ton of sense as the "Golgari Druid" subclass for Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. But I think outside of that context, it doesn't totally seem replicable, and I think we could go a different route for dark druids (personally, I'd love it if they made an alternative shapeshifting subclass to Moon druids that used bespoke stat blocks. I created a "Circle of Monsters" subclass as homebrew that did that.) There is some mechanical awkwardness to it - making the Halo of Spores use a reaction to deal damage is very odd, and it'd be nice if Symbiotic Entity were a bonus action. But I think maybe we can move on from this already twice-published subclass.

Wildfire: No

    Don't get me wrong: I actually really love this subclass. But I think that it probably doesn't need much of an update. I wouldn't hate it if we got some little tweaks (summoning the Wildfire spirit as a bonus action would be nice, but it's in line with something like the Artillerist Artificer).

And holy crap, are we done? Yeah, it turns out that in all of 5E, there are only 8 Druid subclasses WotC has published. That might incline me to be more open to more reprints, but perhaps it actually means they really need to come up with some new ones!

UA: Circle of Preservation Druid

 In a devastated post-apocalyptic world, having Druids who can restore some vitality to the planet is a real asset. The Preservation druid seems to focus on healing and protecting the party while conjuring forth life from the devastated ground.

Before I get into the mechanics, I think this is a clearly desirable hero for a setting like Dark Sun, though in a way I wonder if that might clash with the setting's themes. We'll have to see how they present them.

Circle Spells:

1st: Bless, Sanctuary

2nd: Lesser Restoration, Protection from Poison

3rd: Beacon of Hope, Plant Growth

4th: Aura of Life, Death Ward

5th: Greater Restoration, Hallow

    This has some bangers in it - Bless is a solid workhorse, and Death Ward can be a nice insurance policy. Plant Growth is one of those spells I've heard is very useful, but I don't think I've ever seen it in play (which is likely because I haven't been in a lot of campaigns with druids. I had one in my Ravnica game before the player stepped away, but she was very conservative with spell slots, sticking largely to cantrips).

Level 3:

Preserved Land:

As a bonus action, you can expend a Wild Shape charge to create a 15-foot cube (haha, been reading so much Draw Steel that I almost wanted to say a 3-cube) originating on a point within 120 feet. It lasts a minute, and ends if you're incapacitated or die, or if you move more than 120 feet away from it. You can move the cube as a bonus action up to 30 feet.

Within the cube, nonmagical vegetation sprouts from the ground. If a creature its turn in the cube, you can give them one of the following benefits: They gain 1d4 plus your Druid Level's worth of Temp HP, or you can end a Frightened or Poisoned effect on them. (This is your choice and doesn't require any action - if a foe is there, you don't have to give them anything in it.)

    Naturally, you'll want to maintain this in most fights, and probably use it primarily to bolster allies with the Temp HP. The amount of Temp HP isn't enormous, but it's a nice little buffer to keep them safe.

Student of Preservation:

You gain multiple benefits:

Frugal Casting lets you ignore material components to spells, except those that cost money or are consumed. However, if a material component is consumed, there's a 10% chance that the component isn't consumed.

    This is cool, but I also wonder how often it's likely to come up: how often to people cast spells with consumed components? I doubt it happens often enough to make a 10% chance at a refund feel that impactful.

Tool Proficiency gives you, you guessed it, proficiency in a type of Artisan's Tools.

    Great. Nothing huge, but nice.

Level 6:

Improved Preservation:

You gain two benefits:

Fortify Protectors gives you and allies in the Preserved Land cube a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +1).

    This is really nice: Con saves are very common (and include concentration saves). Couple this with a Paladin's aura of protection and you could have some massive bonuses to Con saves.

Reject Desecrators gives your Preserved Land an offensive option. When the cube enters an enemy's space, and when an enemy enters the cube or ends their turn there, the enemy makes a Wisdom saving throw, taking 2d10 radiant damage on a failure and getting their speed halved until the end of their next turn, or half damage only on a success. An enemy only has to make this save once per turn.

    Naturally, moving the cube to encompass your melee characters as well as the monsters they're fighting is a pretty strong move here. Also, because this can deal damage multiple times per round (just not on the same turn,) you could move this into an enemy, and then if they move out of it, have an ally with a Push weapon knock them back into it. It's decent damage at this level, though it might start to feel a bit underwhelming at higher levels.

Level 10:

Facilitated Restoration lets you cast Lesser Restoration or Greater Restoration without expending a spell slot or any spell components. You can do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) per long rest.

    This. Is. Freaking. Good. Greater Restoration is one of those spells that always feels like it prevents classes who don't have it from truly being a party's healer (even if it doesn't actually restore HP). Getting 5 of these for free every day, with no gold cost, is amazing. Will it come up all the time? Maybe not. But boy is this going to be fantastic for dealing with foes who might, say, inflict Exhaustion (which I'd bet a lot of Dark Sun monsters could do).

Level 14:

Sacrosanct Land expands your Preserved Land cube to 30 feet. Also, when a creature you can see in the area of it is hit with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to halve the attack's damage.

    So, a conditional but targeted Uncanny Dodge. This is actually the kind of thing that starts to be really useful at high levels. Did the Fighter just get crit by that Colossus? This will help a whole lot.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think this is probably a pretty solid healing subclass. I'm actually really happy that they're making Druids more capable healers to give an alternative to Clerics, and these features are solid. Is this the most exciting subclass? Perhaps not. But it's going to be a real solid utility player.

Moon Druid Animal Options in the New Monster Manual

 The Circle of the Moon Druid got some major adjustments in the 2024 PHB, but while I might have liked to see the use of animal form templates like we had in an early playtest (albeit with far higher AC, generally) the ultimate design landed somewhat closer to the 2014 version, which requires the Druid to pick wild shape forms based on existing stat blocks.

Now, it's not precisely the same - the HP and AC of these stat blocks is actually somewhat irrelevant, as Moon Druids will simply get Temp HP equal to three times their Druid level (so, 9 at level 3 and 60 at level 20) and they can swap in an AC equal to 13 + their Wisdom modifier if that would be higher than the beast's - which it almost always will be.

Still, there are a couple of things to consider:

Naturally, for utility, you'll be looking out for things like alternate movement speeds, as well as things like Flyby.

However, if we want to maximize our ability as a combatant, the primary thing we want to look at is attack bonus and damage dealt. While I'd have loved for you to be able to swap in your Spell Attack modifier if it's better than the beast (which would ensure smooth scaling,) we'll have to take this into consideration.

Another major consideration for damage, though, is the number of attacks we get. The main reason for this: at level 14, we get to add 2d10 radiant damage when we hit with one of our Wild Shape's attacks. Thus, a creature that has more than one attack multiplies this damage. Druids also have a number of spells that allow them to deal extra damage on attacks, like Fount of Moonlight and Conjure Minor Elementals. Primal Strike, in fairness, is limited to one instance of damage per turn, so the only real benefit of multiattack for that feature is that you have multiple chances to set it off - though as we know from Rogues, this can actually be a pretty big deal.

So, what I want to do is look at beast options for each CR we'll care about - Moon Druids start with CR 1 beasts, and get up to CR 6 at level 18.

Generally, I'm going to look for creatures with two or more attacks. Also, we'll exclude the animals that are now Celestials, like Giant Eagles, as these are no longer eligible. There are creatures with a single attack that are still worth looking at, like a Giant Toad or Giant Octopus, but I'm really focusing on the multiattack.

CR 1: (Levels 3-5)

Brown Bears have a +5 to hit, dealing an average of 12 damage and knocking creatures prone with their Claws (no save).

Lions also have a +5 to hit, dealing an average of 14 damage, and can replace one of these attacks with a Roar that can frighten foes. It also has Pack Tactics.

    I'd say this is a bit of a toss-up, but the Lion might get the edge with slightly more damage.

CR 2: (Levels 6-8)

Saber-Toothed Tigers have a +6 to hit, dealing an average of 22 damage, and also have a bonus action to disengage or hide.

Polar Bears have a +7 to hit, dealing an average of 18 damage. They also have cold resistance, so this is an obvious option when facing cold-based monsters or being in a cold environment.

    I might have to do complex math on whether the bonus to hit is better than the four extra damage, but I'm inclined to think that the hit bonus is worth it, especially when we consider spells like Fount of Moonlight.) So I'd go Polar Bear in most cases.

CR 3: (Levels 9-11)

Ankylosauruses have a +6 to hit, but with a 10 foot reach, and deal an average of 18 damage, with each hit knocking Huge or smaller creatures prone. (This is also a Huge beast).

Giant Scorpions actually get three attacks, though with only a +5 to hit, dealing an average of 30 damage and grappling targets.

    This one's tricky - I'd almost be inclined to stick to the Polar Bear, except the Giant Scorpion's own baseline damage is higher and the third attack is a huge multiplier. Frankly, actually, that's the real tiebreaker. Again, the math is more complex than I want to do right now, but taking a -2 penalty to your attack bonus to get an additional attack is probably worth it before you even factor in the Scorpion's massive Stinger damage (assuming that your target takes poison damage).

CR 4: (Level 12-14)

Hippopotamuses have a +7 to hit, dealing an average of 32 damage.

Elephants have a +8 to hit, dealing 30 damage on average with those attacks, as well as a bonus action that can add extra damage if they charge and knock an enemy prone (though this is a saving throw, so you won't get the benefit of bonus damage to attacks). Also, this is another huge beast.

Archelons (a huge dinosaur turtle) has a +6 to hit and deals an average of 28 damage - the main benefit here, I think, is that they swim.

    Elephants are probably the right call here. If you're in an underwater fight, the Hippo just has 30 feet of swim speed while the Archelon has 80, but if you don't need to get across the battlefield too much, the Hippo's better base damage and hit chance probably make it the better call. The Archelon does have a 17 AC, but by this level you likely have an 18 with your Circle Forms.

CR 5: (Levels 15-17)

Giant Crocodiles have a +8 to hit, dealing an average of 39 damage, though notably if the use their Bite first and hit, they'll be unable to target the creature that they have grappled and restrained by it with their tail (though my interpretation is that the multiattack doesn't force you to do things in a specific order). The tail also knocks the target prone automatically if it's Large or smaller. Again, this is a Huge creature.

Triceratopses have a +9 to hit, and deal an average of 38 damage, with a chance to get an extra 9 if they charge the target up to 20 feet (and knock them prone. Once again, we have a huge creature.

Giant Sharks have a +9 to hit, usually getting advantage because they get this if a target doesn't have all of its hit points, and deal an average of 44 damage. Naturally, they're better in the water.

    The Giant Crocodile is probably the general best option. In an underwater fight I think the near-universal advantage of the Giant Shark, not to mention its base damage, is a really strong choice. On land, the restraint from the Crocodile might beat out the Triceratops' charge attack - oh, yeah, and especially given that the Croc's tail knocks targets prone anyway (and doesn't require that charge).

CR 6: (Levels 18-20)

Mammoths have a +10 to hit, dealing an average of 36 damage, with both a charge to knock targets prone and a bonus action trample that can add 29 to that (like the elephant, this isn't an attack, so won't benefit from our various buffs).

Giant Squids have a +9 to hit, dealing an average of 47 damage, along with a grapple. Naturally, they move faster in water. They also have a 1/day escape reaction in their Ink Cloud.

    Well, this one's a bit of a no-brainer. Giant Squids in water and Mammoths on land.

As a reminder, I deliberately left out any creature that didn't have a multiattack. Some of these might still hit quite hard, but you'll be losing out on those multiplicative elements.

I will say, of course, that the scaling of attack bonuses is a bit pathetic compared with what a player character's own statistics should be doing - by level 17, even if you only have a +4 to your primary stat for some reason, you'll still have a +10 to hit without anything magical boosting it. That is the absolute highest attack bonus of any of these creatures, and only ones you can pick up at level 18 or higher.

Still, at the very least, you're probably going to have a reasonable AC (equivalent to someone in nonmagical heavy armor). By giving yourself 3 temp HP per Druid level, you're effectively raising your hit die by 3 slots - as if you had a d14. Multiclassing with Barbarian is still probably an option, but I'd recommend against it as you'll probably want to have a good Concentration spell running to boost that damage.

There are a couple of Beasts that are higher CR, which you'll only be able to use with a spell like Polymorph - which of course prevents you from using those nice Concentration spells (unless someone else casts it on you) and will also not function with Primal Strike.

I do think it's notable that there are at least two options for each CR a Moon Druid is going to be looking at. And again, if you are ok with losing Multiattack, there can be even more at many of these levels.

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.

Playtest 8: Druids

 The most recent Druid playtest was, I think, pretty well received, though I'll once again throw my two cents in there as someone who liked the idea of Wild Shape templates rather than using existing stat blocks. This playtest version addresses some of my concerns about those stat blocks, with most of the changes here focused on getting Wild Shape right and tweaking Circle of the Moon.

Rather than going level-by-level, we're going to really zero in on Wild Shape and how it's changing in this test, as most of the class is the same as the previous playtest, I believe.

As in the last playtest, you have a limited number of "Known Forms," from which to choose your Wild Shapes. The number of forms you know is equal to 2 plus half your Druid level (rounded up) - so when you get this feature at level 2, you'll be able to learn 3 different animal forms, and at level 19, you'll cap out at 12. You can swap out a known form on a long rest. The forms must be from the Player's Handbook.

    This is a big boost to Known Forms from the previous playtest - in Playtest 6, you started with 3 forms, but only went up to 4 at 4th level and 5 at 8th level. So, greater flexibility here. However, there's a subtle nerf here as well: you're limited to forms that are in the PHB. Granted, I could imagine that in the future, if we get another Tasha's or Xanathar's-like book we might see "additional Druid forms" added, but this will put a limit on what you can grab. Indeed, with Beast Master Rangers now using standard templates, and changes to Conjure spells (which we'll get to in a later post,) the only real reason for these stat blocks will be for Wild Shape, so I'll be curious to see how they're curated.

Wild Shape no longer allows you to preserve Species (formerly Racial) features, so, for example, a Fairy Druid who turns into a Wolf cannot fly. That said, you retain skill proficiencies, so I would think skills granted by your Species would still be retained (which makes sense).

Any Druid who uses Wild Shape gains Temp HP equal to your Druid level.

    This is nice in that it allows any Druid to get some defensive benefit from using Wild Shape. We'll see how Circle of the Moon gains other benefits.

    Overall, I think the curated list here could be enough to keep Wild Shape functioning effectively, but we'll need to see what that looks like.

Now, naturally the subclass to test here is Circle of the Moon. This has seen enough of an overhaul compared to the 2014 version that I'm going to go feature-by-feature.

3rd level:

Circle Spells:

Moon Druids now get additional spells prepared at all times. But on top of that, rather than broadly "Abjuration" spells, it's just these spells that a Moon Druid can cast in beast form. The spells are:

Cantrip: Starry Wisp (which we'll touch on in the "Spells" post, but is a new ranged damage cantrip)

1st level: Cure Wounds (which got buffed)

2nd level: Moonbeam

3rd level: Vampiric Touch

4th level: Fount of Moonlight (another new spell that's a little like Spirt Shroud)

5th level: Dawn

    So, there's a theme here (even if Dawn might be better flavored as "Moonrise"). Jeremy Crawford pointed out that really only Wizards tend to care about a spell's school, so for ease of use and to get the intended functionality, they're going to just make it this curated list of spells that you can cast while shifted.

Circle Forms:

The real headlining feature, this gives you access to more powerful beast forms and also improves survivability in a number of ways:

First off, as before, the max CR for your beast forms is your Druid level divided by 3 (rounded down,) so starting at CR 1 when you get this subclass at level 3 and then capping at CR 6 when you get to 18th level.

Next, your AC in Wild Shape is equal to 13 plus your Wisdom modifier.

    This one's huge. Beast stat blocks usually have really low AC - often 11 or 12. The fix in the previous playtest was to have a Moon Druid take the Warden Primal Order at level 1 and then swap in their AC for the Beast's, but this will open up your Primal Order option along with giving you likely better AC (hitting 18 with relative ease - just as good as someone in full plate).

Finally, the Temp HP you gain when you Wild Shape is equal to three times your Druid level (presumably replacing the ones you get as part of the main class feature because Temp HP doesn't stack).

    While not the enormous boatload of HP you get with the 2014 Druid, this is at least still giving you a nice and beefy amount of HP on top of your animal form (and remember that losing this does not shift you out of that form).

    Overall, the only concern I have about Circle Forms is that I worry the attack bonuses on these creatures won't keep up with other melee classes. We'll see if items built for Monks to improve unarmed strikes might also enhance the attacks a Druid makes.

6th level:

Improved Circle Forms:

You get two benefits in Wild Shape:

Lunar Radiance allows you to replace the normal damage of your attacks in Wild Shape with radiant damage (your choice, so if you come across something resistant or immune to radiant damage but not bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, you can revert). Increased Toughness lets you get to add your Wisdom modifier to any Con saves.

    The latter half of this is actually quite good - it makes it far easier to maintain concentration on spells while in beast form, which is something you're encouraged to be doing.

10th level:

Moonlight Step allows you, as a bonus action, to teleport 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see and gain advantage on your next attack roll before the end of the turn. You get to do this for free a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per long rest, but you can also expend a 2nd level spell slot to restore uses of it (no action require to spend the spell slot).

    Misty Step is one of the most universally useful spell in the game, and so this gives you a bunch of free uses of a similar effect with a bonus, and then lets you spend the same level spell slot to use it. So... yeah, this is great.

14th level:

Lunar Form does two things:

Improved Lunar Radiance adds 1d10 radiant damage when you hit a target with an attack in Wild Shape form (this is on top of the potential 1d8 and later 2d8 of Primal Strike, though that is only once per turn).

Shared Moonlight lets you teleport one willing creature within 10 feet of you when you use Moonlight Step.

    Nothing super complicated here, but both of these are surely welcome bonuses.

    The thing about this is that the real proof in the pudding is going to be what kind of stat blocks we see. For example, Improved Lunar Radiance is going to be much more effective if we can get a Wild Shape form with lots of attacks - but as it stands, the only CR 6 Beast in the 2014 Monster Manual is the Mammoth, who gets only a single attack per action, which makes a bonus like Improved Lunar Radiance pretty lackluster. But if we go down to the highest CR beast that does have multiple attacks, the Giant Crocodile, the bonus to hit is only +8, which seems kind of low for a level 15 or higher Druid (the creature is CR 5).

    If we get cleaner, more consistently powerful Beasts, I'll have fewer concerns, but this is why I really liked the idea of using creature templates. These stat blocks are meant to be used by DMs.

PHB 6 Class Review: Druid

 So, we already looked at the changes to Wild Shape, which would surely be the most controversial change to the class (to sum it up, it's more similar to the old version, though nerfed as expected). But let's look at the class as a whole.

Level 1:

Druidic now includes not just the special language, but also gives you Speak with Animals always prepared. Weirdly, non-Druids now use Intelligence (Investigation) checks to spot messages left with it, rather than Wisdom (Perception).

    So, that's a fun buff, and gives you access to a spell you'll probably not be preparing very often.

Primal Order is a new feature that is similar to Divine Order for Clerics. At level 1, you pick between Warden or Magician.

Wardens get training in Medium Armor and Martial Weapons.

Magicians get an extra Primal cantrip, and they can add their wisdom modifier to Intelligence (Nature) checks.

    So, on the Magician side of things, like with the Cleric, I like that this allows you to get a decent bonus to your Nature checks - something that a Druid should in theory be good at, but usually isn't as good as an Intelligence-based class.

    Warden I think is actually more appealing than the Cleric's Protector, because Medium Armor makes it far easier for classes that don't prioritize Dexterity to get a decent AC - you'll only need 14 Dex to wind up with an AC of 18 in Scale Mail and a Shield - the Cleric is upgrading from Medium to Heavy, which is not as noticeable. On top of that, Moon Druids are almost sure to pick Warden thanks to their ability to use their own AC in Wild Shape.

Spellcasting works more or less the same as it always did, though you're using the Primal spell list rather than the Druid one - which are more or less the same. Like the Cleric, though, your max prepared spells is now a flat amount, rather than your Wisdom modifier plus Druid level. This winds up likely nerfing the number of spells you can prepare - at level 20, you get 22, when current Druids will probably get 25.

2nd level:

So, first off, Channel Nature is gone - instead we're back to expending "uses of Wild Shape" for alternate features. Mark me down as finding this disappointing, as I found Channel Nature to be a more elegant solution, but oh well. Thanks to alphabetical order, we also see a feature that uses these charges before we define them.

Wild Companion lets you expend a spell slot or a use of Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar without material components. Casting the spell this way causes the familiar to be Fey and it will disappear when you finish a long rest.

    So, this does allow you to get a temporary familiar even if you want to hold onto your Wild Shapes. So this is a buff.

Wild Shape is a lot more similar to its original version, but there are some changes.

First off, all Druids now Wild Shape as a bonus action, rather than an action.

Rather than picking from any eligible Wild Shape form, though, you prepare a certain number of potential shapes when you finish a long rest, similar to your spells. You start with three forms of CR 1/4 or lower that are Beasts and lack a fly speed. (There's no limit on swim speeds anymore). You can swap out one of your prepared forms on each Long Rest.

At 4th level, you can have a 4th form prepared, and the max CR goes up to 1/2. At level 8, you get a 5th prepared form, the max CR goes up to 1, and you can now choose forms with a fly speed.

You start with 2 uses per short or long rest, but at higher levels you get more - 3 at level 6 and 4 at level 17.

While transformed, you take on the Beast's statistics, but you retain your Hit Points, Hit Dice, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as your class features, species traits, languages, and feats, as well as your skill and saving throw proficiencies, while also gaining those of the creature (you can use the beast's proficiencies if they're better than yours). As before, you don't get legendary or lair actions.

You can't cast spells while in Wild Shape, but you can maintain Concentration on spells you've already cast and you can perform actions that are part of a spell after it's cast, like using Call Lightning.

Finally, your ability to handle objects is based on the form you pick. As before, you choose whether your equipment falls off when you shift or if it merges into your form. The DM gets the final word on whether a piece of equipment can be worn in your new form. Equipment that merges with your form doesn't have an effect on your until you leave the form (I might need to read how this interacts with Moon Druids a bit closer, but I think this is a "specific trumps general" kind of situation).

    Phew, ok - so obviously this nerfs the survival effect of having the giant pool of HP (something Moon Druids get a little compensation for) but there is one benefit that you might not notice - if you turn into a Spider to sneak into some enemy base, getting stepped on is probably not going to knock you out of the form, as you stay transformed as long as you're still above 0 HP - that'll be a really tough spider.

I'll confess I liked the idea of template stat blocks for this feature, even if the ones in the previous test left something to be desired (in particular, I liked using your spell attack bonus as the attack bonus for your beast form) but I think this manages to strike a decent compromise, and the limit on how many forms you can prepare will also rein it in a little bit.

Still, I think that any non-Moon Druid is basically going to only use this for utility, and will likely not make use of it much as a combat tactic (except perhaps shifting into a fast form to cross the battlefield). That might be fine, though.

3rd level:

This is when you now pick up your subclass.

4th level:

ASI/Feat

5th level:

Wild Resurgence is a new feature. If you're out of Wild Shape uses, you can expend a spell slot of any level once per turn (no action required) to get one. Alternatively, once per Long Rest, you can expend a Wild Shape charge to get a 1st level spell slot.

    Naturally, if you use these charges a lot, getting a way to get them back is very welcome. And if you never use it, you'll be able to get another spell slot back (Land Druids might have some weird ways to game this with their Recovery feature).

    I think the Long Rest restriction for getting spell slots is likely to prevent some weird Coffee-Lock-like gameplay. Because you could get a spell slot back right before a short rest, then rest and get back all your Wild Shape charges.

    Overall, this is a nice flexibility feature, and I imagine the theorycrafters are going to find some way to exploit the shit out of it.

6th level:

Subclass feature.

7th level:

Elemental Fury is very similar to the Cleric's Blessed Strikes. You can choose between Potent Spellcasting or Primal Strike.

Potent Spellcasting works the same as it does for the Cleric - you add your Wisdom modifier when you deal damage with a Primal cantrip.

Primal Strike lets you add damage once a turn when you hit a creature within a weapon or a Beast form's attack in Wild Shape. The damage is equal to 1d8 Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage (your choice when you hit).

    So, with Druids more often focusing on melee attacks, I think the Primal Strike option might be better than the Divine Strike. What I'm noticing here is a lot of parallels with the Cleric (and this won't be the last). In terms of strict damage, we're looking at probably 5 more damage once you hit level 8 with Potent Spellcasting or 4.5 damage on average with Primal Strike (doubled on crits).

8th level:

ASI/Feat

9th level:

Druids now automatically get Commune with Nature prepared. Which, you know, is similar to how a Cleric gets Commune.

    It's thematic, but boy it's really crazy how much they're doing to align the Druid and Cleric. Still, I feel the same as I do about the Cleric's Commune - this is a spell you will probably not think to prepare, and always having access to it means you're more likely to actually use it, so I like it.

10th level:

Subclass feature.

11th level:

Just 6th level spells.

12th level:

ASI/Feat

13th level:

Just 7th level spells.

14th level:

Subclass feature.

15th level:

Improved Elemental Fury (again, kind of like Improved Blessed Strikes) improves you choice at level 7.

Potent Spellcasting increases the range of any Primal cantrip that has a range of 10 feet or greater by 300 feet.

Primal Strike's damage bonus goes up to 2d8.

    So, your Thorn Whip just became a sniper's tool. I don't think this is going to be as amazing as the temp hit points the Cleric gets to toss around, but the Druid is positioned as less of a dedicated healer. You certainly won't say no to this bonus. Meanwhile the Primal Strike damage is probably very welcome for anyone who uses melee attacks (actually, if you use a ranged weapon I think you still get this).

16th level:

ASI/Feat

17th level:

Just 9th level spells.

18th level:

Beast Spells is worded a little differently (you can speak in the new Wild Shape, so it's not about verbal components specifically anymore) but basically this works the same - you can now cast spells in Beast form as long as they don't have a material component that is consumed or costs a certain amount - essentially, your Beast Form is your spell focus.

19th level:

ASI/Feat.

20th level:

Archdruid has received some changes.

First off, rather than simply having unlimited Wild Shape charges, you now regain one if you're out and your roll Initiative. 

    Given that most Druids don't get extra HP from Wild Shape anymore, and you can't be knocked out of it as easily, I think this change shouldn't be too problematic.

You can also now convert uses of Wild Shape into a spell slot (no action required,) and you can choose a number of unexpended uses and get 2 levels per use expended. So, for example, you can expend 2 uses to get a 4th-level slot. You can only do this once per Long Rest.

    This aspect more or less acts as a buff to Wild Resurgence, letting you get higher-level slots. That said, as separate features, this means you can now expend some number of uses to get one spell slot with this feature, and then another use with Wild Resurgence, getting two spell slots out of your Wild Shapes.

Finally, you now age slower, aging only 1 year for each 10 years that pass.

    This of course was the 18th level feature, Timeless Body, pushed back here. And it's basically flavor.

Ok, so let's sum up our analysis:

The Druid doesn't really lose any features from its 2014 incarnation, though there's some shuffling around. We will, of course, be seeing a different version of Wild Shape, but this one, compared to the one seen in the previous playtest, is a lot more similar to the 2014 version.

I wouldn't mind another crack at this - perhaps more ways to alter the combat statistic of the beasts you choose - but I think this version is likely to leave more people happy than the previous version. Once again, though, it does place some limitations on the power level of Beasts in future D&D design, but in fairness, the CR limitations are there (and Polymorph is just as if not more guilty).

Ultimately, I think we'll have to go through the Primal spell list to really come to a verdict on the Druid as a whole - I think after I go through the classes, I'll have to look at those lists.

Still, I think the Druid is standing on solid ground now.