Written by Dave McTingley

The One D&D Unearthed Arcana train continues to roll as we got a juicy new playtest packet last week, this time giving us a taste of a new design for Druids and Paladins. Sadly, our Winter hibernation caused us to miss our review of the Expert Classes and Cleric Unearthed Arcanas. Don't worry, we’ll get them next time! Today I’m just going to focus on what’s new for our nature lovers, so let’s journey into the wilderness together!

A NOT-SO-QUICK RANT ABOUT SPELLCASTING

Remember when I said I’d only be talking about Druids? I lied, as this applies to all the casters we have seen in the UAs so far, but I need to give some positive and negative thoughts on some of the new general spellcasting rules. One change I like a lot is that all classes can now swap out their cantrips of choice at the end of a long rest. It always felt strange to me that Druids could prepare from all the appropriately leveled spells accessible to their class, choosing between vastly different world-shattering magics with all the difficulty of choosing between coffee and tea in the morning. And yet the most basic spells in your arsenal were locked from the moment you chose them while the theoretically more difficult to attain spells were not. Everyone who has played a Druid knows that Shillelagh is nearly indispensable at lower levels but it’s just a wasted spell choice at the higher levels, so I’m all for this change.

My feelings are far more conflicted when it comes to the amount of spells your character can know and have prepared. The new norm is that you can prepare as many spells per spell level as you have spell slots of that level. For example, having two 1st-level spell slots means that you can prepare two 1st-level spells. I’m very excited by the prospect of how open the spell selection from the arcane, divine, and primal spell lists are, but I don’t love this significant reduction in the number of available options you get to have ready throughout the day. An average level 1 Druid from 5e would be able to prepare four 1st-level spells at the start of the day but now they can only prepare two. It makes that perennial “what spells should I prepare today” struggle all the harder when you are forced to limit your flexibility like that.

I can understand the desire to simplify the process across the board given how inconsistent the 5e system is for this. Sometimes you have to refer to the class table to see how many spells your character could know at a given level, sometimes you prepare a number of spells from the entire class spell list based on your ability modifier and level, sometimes you have to do a combination of the two, etc. It’s a bit of a mess when you’re trying to teach new players and a nightmare to keep track of if you multiclass. I just would prefer to see an expanded number of spells that can be prepared, allowing you to handle more types of challenges without having to take a long rest in between each obstacle. The flexibility of the willow allows it to survive the storm that would blow over the rigid oak.

My rant is now done. I thank you for your time. Back to the tree-huggers with lightning powers.

WILD SHAPING MADE EASY

The name of the game this time around for our favorite goodberries is streamlining, with the biggest changes coming to how Wild Shape functions. Previously, Druids had the ability to change into various types of beasts based on their Druid class level and use the relevant stat block for that particular beast. The only book that any player should need to access in order to play, the Player’s Handbook, had some pretty mundane options that all maxed out at a Challenge Rating of 1. Fine enough at lower levels of play, but there wasn’t any support for higher level play when you needed that extra firepower. Stronger and cooler options certainly existed, but a Druid player would need to either borrow the Monster Manual from their DM or utilize outside reference materials to get to those juicier beast options. Playing a Druid to their full ability then inherently required a lot of page turning and tab flipping. Way too much literal bookkeeping.

This has been replaced with a sleek system that allows you to choose from one of three stat blocks each time you transform that come right at the end of the class description. Many of the stats you will use while in one of these forms are pulled directly from the stats that your Druid already has outside of their beast shape rather than just becoming a beast with your character’s mind inside of it. Sadly for those would-be tanks, this does mean that your hit points carry over between forms. Gone are the days of getting to boost yourself with the HP of a bear twice per day. At least you get some cool new benefits to soften the blow, like Wild Shape at Level 1 rather than at Level 2 and the ability to speak in common while in beast form. Plus, you get the option to quickly toggle between beast form and your normal form at Level 13 instead of having to expend an additional use of Wild Shape each time.

You get one stat block each for land animals, swimmers, and flyers with the swimming and flying options unlocking as you progress up through the Druid levels. The attack and damage modifiers to the beast forms are tied to your spellcasting ability, which further keeps the changing of forms easy to manage. You get to choose your size from small to large and it can look like whatever animal you want. You can even combine animal characteristics into some kind of hybrid monstrosity (in terms of being a horrifying abomination, not the creature type). Imagine being a 10-foot long centipede with the head of a lion, or the cutest 2-foot tall puppy covered in tiger stripes. The options at this point are only really limited by your creativity and we love to see that.

CHANNELING THE NATURAL WORLD

Wild Shape is also now part of a shiny new feature called Channel Nature that you get at Level 1 rather than being a standalone ability. Well, it’s new to Druids, but it functions similarly to the Cleric’s Channel Divinity but it’s for‒ya know‒nature things. This also finally grants you temporary access to a familiar through Wild Companion and gives some great built-in healing with Healing Blossoms, relieving you from using one of your precious few prepared spells choices with Cure Wounds. Tying this to the same pool of resources as Wild Shape might be a little rough for the Druids who want to focus on turning into animals, but Circle of the Land Druids are gonna love it as they weren’t using Wild Shape much anyway.

BRING ON THE ELEMENTAL BEASTS

Once again, the UA only provides one subclass for us to check out as part of the UA and this time it is the Circle of the Moon. A fitting choice to focus on our beast specialists with all the revisions to Wild Shape. It is very cool that we will now get to cast some Abjuration spells while in beast form and attack with our bonus action at Level 3, which is very welcome now that we don’t get those extra hit points, but the 6th level ability is by far the star of the show.

Elemental goddamn Wild Shape, where have you been all my life? Level 6 Moon Druids will now get to apply one of the elemental damage types to their animal form, changing the damage type you deal and it gives you resistance to that same damage type. You could be a lightning wolf, a frost bear, or even an elephant that creates literal thunder by stomping its feet. I realize that I’m basically drooling over the idea of getting to roleplay as an elf that magically cosplays as a Pokemon, but I don’t know why you would have chosen to play a Druid in the first place if that doesn’t appeal to you. It is a little sad to see the option to transform into an actual elemental go away, but this does fall in line with trying to simplify playing the class at the table. Transforming into an elemental was yet another instance where you needed to refer to a stat block from a book that should be reserved for the DM. Besides, you still have access to that through Polymorph if you really want it.

LET’S NIP ALL THIS RAMBLING IN THE BUD

All in all, there are a lot of great changes in the new version of the Druid as presented in this UA and things are looking up for our primal mages. You will only need to refer to your actual class description to know what your character can do. Wild Shape is somehow getting weirder and more creative while still becoming easier to use. And to top it off, you get access to those iconic Druid abilities even earlier than before. The only shortcoming for me, other than those spell preparation rules, is that I want more options for Channel Nature. Maybe we’ll get more of those with the Circle of the Land subclass, but that remains to be seen.

The vibe I’m getting from this and the other UAs is that we are going to see a more cohesive and consistent way that classes will work going forward, for better or worse. Learning the game will be easier and the power difference between classes will take less effort to balance, but I am a bit worried that we could lose the flavor that really distinguishes how each class feels if this goes unchecked. I’m not too worried for now though since Elemental Wild Shape will let me play as an acid goat with a shark tail. If that doesn’t scream Druid then I don’t know what does. The feedback survey opens on March 20th so get your playtesting in while you can. The one thing I truly know is that someone is going to have to come up with some pretty enticing alternative Circle options if I’m going to be convinced to play anything other than a Moon Druid ever again.