Dungeons & Dragons has presented players with a new Druid class, that comes with a revamped Wild Shape feature. Today, Wizards of the Coast continued its preview of upcoming changes to Dungeons & Dragons’ core rules with a new video feature on the Druid, one of the 12 classes that appears in the new Player’s Handbook. The Druid is a popular class with players and the new ruleset overhauls the class’s core Wild Shape ability to improve action economy and also improve the longevity of animal forms in combat. The Wild Shape changes also impact the iconic Circle of the Moon subclass, with several other subclasses also receiving upgrades.
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Almost every aspect of the Druid’s Wild Shape ability has been upgraded or tweaked. A full breakdown of those changes can be found here, but to summarize, the Druid can now Wild Shape as a Bonus Action instead of an Action and the Druid continues to use their Hit Point pool instead of the beast shape’s hit points. When a Druid Wild Shapes, they immediately gain a temporary hit point pool equal to their druid level. Druids can also now talk while in Wild Shape and the rules defining what forms the Druid can take when using Wild Shape has also been better defined.
In addition to the overhauled Wild Shape, the Druid also gains several new abilities. At 1st Level, the Druid player decides whether to be a Warren or a Magician, with the former providing proficiency to martial weapons and medium armor and the latter granting an extra cantrip and allows the Druid to use their Wisdom modifier on Arcana and Nature checks. At 2nd Level, the Druid gains a Wild Companion that they can summon by using a Wild Shape slot instead of a spell slot.
At 7th Level, the Druid gains the Elemental Fury ability that allows Druids to either deal additional damage on attacks or adds a Druid’s Wisdom modifier to damage dealt by a cantrip. The latter option also increases the range of cantrips to 300 feet. At 18th Level, Druids gain the ability to cast spells while in beast form, which can be combined with Elemental Fury to snipe from the sky as a hawk or owl.
The Druid’s subclasses have also received upgrades. For instance, the Circle of the Moon druid now allows players to use either their beast form’s default AC or an AC of 13 plus the Druid’s Wisdom modifier. Circle of the Moon druids also gain additional temporary hit points when in Wild Shape and also can cast spells from their subclass list at 3rd Level while in Wild Shape, meaning a Druid can remain in Wild Shape and still heal companions. The Circle of the Land subclass allows a druid to change their land type every long rest instead of being locked into one for the entire campaign, and they can now use an ability called Land’s Aid to create blasts of nature magic to either heal or hurt those nearby by using Wild Shape charges. The new Circle of the Sea subclass is an ocean-themed subclass with access to a swirling ocean spray that surrounds the Druid (even when away from the ocean) and eventually grants the Druid a Fly speed. The Circle of the Stars subclass from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything also is in the Player’s Handbook, with some adjustments to class features to match the new level progressions.
The new Player’s Handbook will be released on September 17th. You can keep track of all of the changes to Dungeons & Dragons here.
