Dungeons & Dragons Will Tweak Controversial Playtest Mechanic

By Christian Hoffer

It appears that Wizards of the Coast is going back to the drawing board to solve Dungeons & Dragons' Druid problem. In a video posted to the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube account today, D&D lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford confirmed that plans to utilize generic statblocks for the Druid's signature Wild Shape feature were met with a high amount of negative feedback. "We are seeing in the feedback for Wild Shape, there are basically two camps," Crawford said in the video. "There are people who have written in the comments...saying this is their favorite version of Wild Shape they've ever seen. This is paired with people in contrast who said they never want this version of Wild Shape to appear in print." 

The current Fifth Edition ruleset allows Druid characters to Wild Shape into any animal classified as a "Beast," provided it meets certain limitations as dictated by their Druid subclass and level. A recent Unearthed Arcana playtest released ahead of a planned rewrite of the Fifth Edition rules opted to replace these options with generic stat blocks with stats and abilities defined by a character's proficiency bonus and ability scores. 

Crawford noted that a "simple majority" of respondents disliked the generic statblocks, which will necessitate more tweaks in a future playtest. "The next time the Druid appears in Unearthed Arcana, everyone will get to see an entirely different take when it comes to Wild Shape that addresses the feedback we got," Crawford said. 

However, the D&D design team's goal remains the same – to streamline the number of choices a Druid player has when choosing to Wild Shape. "People love the texture and differences that are present in the different options in the 2014 version of Wild Shape," Crawford said. "But even the people who like that form of Wild Shape are open to the feature being a bit easier to use....We aren't wedded to a specific implementation [of Wild Shape.]Our goal is to no longer have to ask a brand new player or even a veteran to ponder 100 stat blocks and decide which one they're going to turn into."

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Crawford noted that not all of the feedback about the Druid was negative – for instance, people really liked the Channel Nature ability and wanted to see the design team do more with that concept than what was presented in the Unearthed Arcana. Additionally, players asked for the Circle of the Moon subclass to be more "internally coherent" and to still have some resilience when it comes to melee combat when in Wild Shape form. 

You can check out the full video down below: 

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