Friday, July 31, 2015

5e's Deadly Druid

Finally, I'm getting a break from running the game and have a chance to actually play a 5e character! Naturally, I've drawn up a worthless hippie druid named Rolfe N'Dar who never bathes and considers the lives of trees to be more important than those of his comrades. You know, kind of an extension of myself. There are a lot of changes from 3rd edition, most of which make the character more fun to play.

In previous editions, the druid's most notable ability was Wild Shape, which allowed him to shape-shift into various beasts. However, he didn't get this ability until level 7 in 2nd edition or level 5 in 3rd. Further, he only had a small number of uses per day. In keeping with 5e's general philosophy of making every character fun, the druid gets Wild Shape right away, and it can be used twice per 1-hour rest. Strength is also not important for a 5e Druid, as there are a couple combat cantrips available that make us of WIS for the attack.

There are two paths for the Druid, Circle of the Moon and Circle of Nature (which has multiple subdomains). In online chatter, Circle of the Moon tends to be favored due to the more powerful Wild Shape forms available. I'm a maverick who plays by his own rules, so I chose Circle of Nature (forest). Also, it seemed more fitting for the N'Dar character to be a forest druid anyway. However, the Circle of Nature shouldn't be too quickly discounted, as it grants the ability to recharge a limited number of spell slots on a short rest and several extra prepped spells. It really comes down to whether you want to focus more on casting or your Wild Shape.

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