Neat work. I hope all Druid subclasses get an extended spell list that is always prepared. Shepherd Druids should have Summon Beast, Summon Fey, and Summon Elemental prepared automatically to make the play style obvious for new players, and free up the remaining spell choices for more situational spells.
i dont know if i would have the elemental summons auto prepared, but that is probably me being weirdly specific on the term Shepard, i would have summon steed here(lesser and greater, but i think those are being wrapped together) as well as some more thematic PBAoE buffs and spells, things like faithful hound, healing spirit, summon familiar, or scatter.
I'd remove the material component for the summon spells for shepherd druid because I can't even use the spells on mine cause I have no gold to make the material components ._.
You're all in the local tavern when a wolf charges through the front door. A few patrons draw weapons, but the wolf shouts "Wait! I need your help! We have to save the Shepherd Druid!"
Why does the wolf know the class name? How did the wolf get to the door without screams or attacks? Why could the wolf open a door? What is love? Baby don't hurt me.
Seems like a clean update! I like this type of video. Also, this highlights the value of flavor text to explain the idea of a feature so that if it gets reworked, that idea can still persist (or be dumped if it was misguided)
I was suprised to see you not change the weird overlap between the hawk totem's advantage on perception checks and the unicorns advantage on detecting creatures within the aura, but super cool video!! I'm playing a Shepherd Druid right now and may ask my DM if most of these changes would be okay to make!
@@ShilquesLimitations are thematically important. You play a Circle of the Shepard to summon beasts and fey, not dragons or elementals. Plus it leaves room to make subclasses that can also focus on summoning, but bring something completely different to the table. For example, you could make a druid subclass where your druid's spell damage can change to match the damage of the summoned elemental, or if your summoned elemental is within a spell's AOE and the elemental is immune to that spell's damage then the spell could simultaneously heal it based on the spell's level. Hell, you could gain a limited use breath weapon or cast spells through the specific summon when you use summon draconic spirit. In my opinion, a good way to design a subclass is to have it change the way you play the game. That is why wizard has my absolute favorite subclasses, and why fighter subclasses like echo knight, rune knight, and battle master are cool subclasses in my book.
All “magical damage” in OneD&D is just becoming force damage. While I agree that it would be more thematic, I think Treantmonk does a good job matching the design choices from WOTC moving forward
I'd say if you took the primal strike feature from elemental fury, you can choose between force, fire, cold, lightning, or thunder damage and add the 1d8 modifier as well.
7:01 Another problem: in the latest playtest, every druid already got Speak with Animals as an automatically prepared spell from level 1 (and since it's a ritual spell, you don't get much benefit from allowing you to cast it at will - other than saving you the extra 10 minutes needed to cast it as a ritual).
to be fair, summon draconic spirit got hit dice so it is safe to assume the updated spells would include hit dice as well. (still not great but its something)
@@kongoaurius I think that most Hexblade features will be added to the base Warlock/Pact of the Blade, turning hexblade kinda of redundant and in need of a complete rework as a concept
@@kedraroth You are absolutely right, the Hexblade's core features have been incorporated into the base class. The charisma attacks are now part of the Pact of the Blade, and medium armor can be obtained with a 1st-level feat. Also, the subclass is gained at 3rd level now so it won't be an obvious multiclass anymore. However, I still think there's room for a new version of the Hexblade that addresses the remaining issues or provides a fresh take on the subclass.
This is some really good stuff. Please allow me to put my 2 cents in. At level 3, since the aura effect is being reduced, we should okay to say a couple things. #1- "You are always under the effects of the Speak with Animals spell." #2- "Once per round, you may activate the aura effect X when you see Y condition." These two changes free up action economy. The spirit is an entity, and it is reasonable that it can act freely according to your will without action economy being spent. These effects aren't as good as a 1st level reaction spell, and thus you'll always be second guessing whether to use this or wait for a far more useful absorb elements. Plus, since we tied it wildshape uses, the power has already been greatly reduced. It may be good to give them a free usage once per long rest, spend wildshape for more uses, and then upgrade it to once per short rest at level 6 or 10. At level 6, "Once per spell when you summon a beast or fey..." makes it absolutely certain that only one summon benefits from this feature. These are my suggestions.
Honestly when One D&D first started, I was hoping that the subclasses in the PHB would be fixing classes like this. I get the 4 themes for each class they were going for, but I feel reprinting some of Tasha's subclasses might be a poor use of their available book space (unless they were fixing the Cleric subclasses from Tasha's).
There are work arounds for the dnd beyond thing. Usually it involves changing the text to not be cut and paste. I had this problem when I rebuilt the clockwork soul sorcerer so that it would allow subclass spells to be changed out as written in the rules. Cut and paste descriptions got it blocked for public use, but my own descriptions worked.
Thanks for the video. I am currently playing this druid in a one pc campaign. Though i like some of the improvements tying the spirit totem to wild shape clashes with wild companion feature, which might not seem as a lot but it does have an important utility role in my case.
I threw a rough draft of an updated Circle of the Shepard together when UA 8 came out using the new Conjure Spells. I posted it the DnD Beyond forums and the only feedback I got was to use the Summon Spells. I didn't touch the totems, but I do like the changes to them here, including them being powered by Wild Shape.
Good work. I don't know how I could improve it myself, while keeping it concise and coherent. Although, it would be nice to support your allies in the same capacity as the old druid. Maybe bear spirit could give temporary hit points to friendly creatures you haven't summoned, and then the reaction? The reaction cost also feels like the natural balancing resource, but even if druids don't usually have as good of use as some other classes, it still is kind of a hard pill to swallow that it costs something it didn't before. I did like that you didn't use a reaction for the other features though (almost as if you have experience with the game xD)
This is a cool re-write of the subclass nice one. :D Also wondered how this would work with the ritual caster feat and making beefy familiars. Could give them a bit more survivability.
I really enjoy these new updates, and have been dying to have a proper summoning class that doesnt slow down everything. Only wish more classes had a summoner archetype as well as more summoning spells. More lower level options to fit flavor and higher level ones too, there should be a summoned spell for levels 6-9 just so it feels like players are getting new options as they level up
I’d love to see your thoughts on helping out the Bannerette / Purple Dragon Knight. I’ve loved the idea, but never played one for obvious reasons. Idk if you’re interested Chris. Just one of my dreams that one day I’ll wake up and suddenly it’s a good subclass ;) Nice work in the Shepherd Druid. Easy to comprehend and looks fun.
Great job. Not necessarily essential to the video but there are a few spots that will additionally need changing other than just the description in D&D Beyond: -Snippets primarily which can be duplicated from the description -Speech of the Woods needs the SotW action deleted and add Speak with Animals (I set Consumes Spell Slot a& Count as Known Spell to NO & Always Prepared to YES) -Spirit Totem needs the Description/Snippet updated in the Action section for the Spirit Totem Action or else when using it, the action page will read the old text. -Faithful Summons: Spells swap to Summon Beast as a known spell
Love these suggestions, using a reaction to fuel the spirit totem really does a good job balancing the 3 options for single target use. I will say I think features that only work when you go to 0hp is in general poor design especially at high levels. Not that i think they should not exist but i think a combination approach of an always useable ability with an on death ability is the better option. To be honest most of the level 14 druid abilities are pretty lack luster in general and could all use some more kick to them. I.e. conjure animal on death at 9th level could be conjure animal on death at 5 level and another buff to your summons like one of the following: Summon gets resistance to a damage type of your choice when summoned. Can add 1d6 damage of an elemental type on attacks Beast can use its reaction to take damage for the caster ofc you would need to write the features in current rules language.
A great reword of the subclass! I do think the detection feature of the unicorn aura should be changed as it has too much overlap with the hawk aura that boosts Perception. Maybe it could give a 10ft movement buff to allies who start in or move through the area? Or when the aura is created, allies within a certain range can teleport to a location within aura as a reaction? Both would be fitting given the abilities of a unicorn.
I will say, having DMed a party with a high-level Shepard Druid, the unicorn spirit feature makes it a very potent healer. These changes make things quite a bit more manageable.
I’d add a 4th totem, one that basically lets you double your summon. (Specifically only works on spells that summon one creature). Basically using a wild shape you could summon two summons. In theory you could use up all your wild shapes to get more than two. It allows some of that former greatness of the Shepard Druid, but manageable & with a large cost.
I imagine a remastered shepherd druid would have a permanent, bespoke pet in the vein of beastmaster, rather than requiring you to cast summon beast. But otherwise, this is a quick, clean update that makes this subclass function in a post-tasha's environment and I can't ask for more
Summoned Swarms (a suggestion to keep the old spells) Similar summoned creatures become swarms when a summoner controls 4 or more of them. Swarms are large groups of monsters merged into a single entity. A character may control a number of swarms equal to their proficiency bonus. When creatures join into a swarm, they retain their statistics except: Creature Size. Hit Points. Strength ability score. Damage Resistances. Damage Vulnerability. Damage taken from sources effecting an area, such as a fireball spell. Condition Immunities. Swarm Trait. Overwhelming Power. The swarm can make one additional attack. Attack. The amount of damage dice rolled is doubled.
The only I will change of the Bear and Unicorn aura of yours is that you can affect a number of creatures equal to your wis mod with the reaction, to preserve the aspect of an "aura"
The one change I would make to your changes would be for faithful summons to summon 4 beasts of CR 2 or lower. Basically keep it the same but not have it tied to the conjure animals spell.
I look forward to a lot of these update to 5.5e. I really hope WotC have their act together for these PHB's in September- darn shame they are not available for Free RPG Day. I'm amazed the stockholders are not suing them for the list of bad calls the management has made these last 2 years.
Not sure how I feel about this. The mass healing I find more appealing than the single target healing. It's more for single target but being able to heal multiple creatures is really nice. Especially if you have more than one ally down or summons approaching death
I haven't watched the video yet, but isn't this one of the best subclasses in the game? even if you remove conjure animals/fey it's still really strong
Unicorn Spirit as a reaction to add 5+ druid level ANY time a creature in the aura regains hit points seems a little abusable due to goodberry. At level 2, you can cast goodberry and set up the aura out of combat and heal 8 HP per berry instead of 1 so long as each of the 10 berries is eaten every 6 seconds. 80 HP at level 2 from a twice per short rest resource combined with a first level spell slot seems a hair over tuned
Since the revisions for one dnd started Im looking forward to see adaptation for all the subclass that will not come up in the 2024 players handbook. Now Im excited for a series of videos for these adaptations
The 14th level feature looks pretty reasonable. The beast is AC 20, 110 hp and has 4 attacks for 1d8+13 (force), pretty close to 4d8. That's approximately a 14th level martial sidekick. I might suggest reminding the player that the 6th level feature presumably strengthens this creature too, otherwise it's only 65 hp. I'd certainly rather have that defending me than 4 bears.
For Guardian Spirit, I would just say "Once during your turn" rather than "At the end of your turn". This would just make turn choices much easier, which ought to allow for for efficient turns. Also, if a bunch of mechanics start using the "at the end of your turn" wording, then it would seem like you could only invoke one end of turn effect. (Otherwise, the effect that preceeded it, technically wouldn't have been "at the end", and thus couldn't trigger).
My problem with the 2nd Level feature Speech of the Woods update; is the ability was a feature, that you could use in beast form. You can't cast spells in beast form, so changing it to be a spell, even if at will, means you can't use it while wildshaped. No ability to talk to anything while scouting. And I lose the feature if I am in an area where magic is suppressed.
@@LightPhoenix7000 Problem is if you allow that, you now need to explain why my beast form can perform the verbal and somatic components of one spell but not the others. It's just a lot easier to make it a default ability. That part was functioning just fine.
I feel it would be easier for the designer to add hit dice equal to the spell level to the tasha summon spells then clarify that fey's short sword could as a natural weapon. The capstone as it is currently should work fine you just don't consider the cr part and you end up with the 2024 conjure animal spell that can move on its own and is casted at 9th level. Your rework shifts the balance a bit imo. Still a very good video as always
I don't like that Unicorn gives advantage on "checks made to detect creatures", since that will most often be Perception anyways and that's just the same as the Hawk. I'm not sure what else it would be though. Persuasion checks? Knowledge checks about creatures?
The changes (nerfs) to spirit totem makes me never want to use this revision even if it means not getting to use any of my other features at level 6, 10, and 14. The AoE effects of the bear and unicorn totems are the best part in keeping your party members alive.
Awesome, but I think it should utilize the new conjure spells as well. Maybe at tenth lvl when you summon a totem you can choose one of the new conjure spells to activate in the same space without concentration? It lasts the same length as the totem?
I reworked it using the new conjure spells instead of the summoning spells and I did +2 damage per spell level because the summoned spirits don't have health and I still wanted the class to empower the Conjure spells. For Guardian Spirit I went with unbreakable concentration.
While I agree with the methodology of adding restricted uses to features through tying it to a resource however the weaker one makes a feature the less restrictions it need and the stronger the more it needs, and I’m not entirely sure the changes you’ve made warrants being restricted to wildshape uses when you simultaneously need the features.
Since Druidic grants Speak with Animals, can we get circle spells instead? And add elementals to beasts and fey? Summon Beast, Fey and Elemental as well as Conjure Animals, Woodland Beings, and Elemental could all work. Not sure what would all round out the 5th, 2nd, and 1st level spells tho.
I like the update Chris, but think it has been weakened a little too much. I would say rather than 1 target you make number of beasts equal to proficiency bonus and remove the reaction elements personally. 😉
ב"ה Bear spirit is powerfull even without conjure animals, and is just better than what celestial warlocks get at level 10. For the 6th level feature, the updated versions of summonings will probably include a number of hit dice equal to the spell level just like summon draconic spirit have (and I would house rule it like that anyway if a player would like to play a sheperd druid with tasha summonings). I am not sure force is the right alternative damage type though, I would probably let them choose between fire, cold and lightning when they cast the spell. For the 14th level, I would use summon fey instead, as it upcast much better to level 9.
I note a strange interaction with your proposed 10th level feature that is probably okay but I want to comment on anyway. The limitation of healing creatures "you summoned or created with a spell" is clearly there with the focus on the summoning spells with acknowledgement that there might be some other ways to make a temporary friend. But technically it would work with non-temporary summoned/created beings as well. If you use a scroll to cast Gate on a fey or beast to summon them to you, they can be healed by this feature forever. Similarly if you use a scroll to cast True Polymorph to make a rock into a beast, that seems like "a spell creating an beast" that can be made permanent by concentrating for an hour. A summoned familiar could be fey, and thus is a fey summoned/created by a spell, so you can heal your familiar this way. I don't think these corner cases are actually a balance problem, but I wonder if anyone could come up with any shenanigans around these sorts of options that aren't "traditional summons"
If conjure animals remains unchanged, the 5 extra hit points per level of the spell that summoned the beast or fey from Mighty Summoner gets nuts. For 1/4 CR creatures, that's 15 hp for 8 creatures or 120 hit points when cast at 3rd level, 25 hp for 16 creatures or 400 hit points at 5th level, 35 hp for 24 creatures or 840 hit points at 7th level, and 45 hp for 32 creatures or 1440 hit points at 5th level. That's as many hit points (hp) as there are horizontal pixels (hp) on my screen. Achievement unlocked! It'd be more bookkeeping, but maybe instead distribute an amount of extra hit points-equal to 5 hit points per level of the spell-as you choose among the creatures summoned?
this does its job well, though I personally am not a fan of the Tasha's summoning spells. but the original ones were also problematic, I kind of want something that falls somewhere in the middle between the originals and the Tasha's ones.
I will have to play it to see if I like it. Just wondering out loud, could any of the features be modified so if a shepherd druid was in an all druid party the shepherd could grant temp HPs to the wildshaped creatures within an aura or bolster the wildshape in any other way?
While that 14th level feature works, the original feels like you don't have a 14th feature if you don't drop to 0. Think completely updating it might be a good idea. Like instead, maybe something as simple as either "whenever you summon a creature with a spell of 1st level or higher, treat the summon as if it were cast with a spell slot 3 levels higher than normal" or "whenever you summon a creature with a spell slot of 1st or higher, you can summon one additional creature". Maybe limit one time per short or long rest? Feel conjuration wizard also suffers greatly with the new changes.
Not a huge fan of your wild shape fuelled Spirit Totems - they just don't seem worth that resource cost in general. Now it it was once per long rest for free, and you may use a wild shape charge or something that would be better - flexibility to use it more than once a day but not eating into your limited resource. Also feels like you really wanted to turn Hawk into the one to pick at later levels - advantage on all the attacks your Monk/Fighter with their huge number of attacks and potential reaction attack makes is really really potent. While having to spend a reaction to add a little temp HP or boost your teams healing on a single target once per round... Either all of them needed to work on PB attacks/ healed creatures or something similar, or the Hawk needs to be the only one that costs your reaction - as it stands it is just stand out the one to pick 99% of the time. Picking something other than Hawk in combat is because you are grappling and want the Bears bonus for that, or some critical character is going to die and needs all the healing you can possibly dump into them... Also I don't think you are really correct on original Hawk Spirit being a runt - gaining advantage on a hit every round of combat for the paltry cost of one PC's reaction is at level 2 good, and it stays pretty good if used on the right attack even up to the higher levels - for instance now your rouge will always always be able to sneak attack, and always doing it at advantage to improve the odds they crit. While the Bear spirit can only give out a heap of temp HP to a tight group on the round it is called forth and that is even at 20th level only giving each target at best one hit of extra survivability - its not a lot of gain really even though the potential total of HP it can add is huge. Plus stuffing all your allies into a tiny radius is asking to loose more HP than you gain from the temporary boost if the NPC's have any AOE effects at all, and will be very hard to pull of in any combat you don't start as your turn may not even come up untill all your allies have had a go and moved away... None of the original options are all that powerful, but they are useful, in and out of combat and not resource intensive. Advantage of Perception checks is pretty darn huge at many tables. Where yours other than Hawk are resource intensive and not all that powerful for it.
Not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand, it fixes the issues with Summons spells compatability wonderfully. But on the other, it eats up all your action economy. You are basically giving up all reaction defenses (which might be needed to maintain concentration) to hand out HP/THP/ADV to an ally. It also now only applies to one creature, so no buffing everyone's THP at the start of a fight. I think i would change the buffing to be a BA, and you could move the totem with the same BA. That would fix the action econemy issue.
@deathpacito8702 personally, i think it's too much of an action sink for a single feature. There is a high likelihood of needing to move it at a minimum of 50% of the rounds, and you will want to use your reaction on it every turn. Then you can't use things like Absorb Elements, or heaven forbid you have multiclassed or taken feats that provide other reactions or Bonus actions. Again, this is all my personal preference. If people think it's great the way Chris presented it, that's great.
While I like what you did I have some small issues- Level 3 features also affected all creatures in your aura and not just those you summoned. Don’t used to affect Ranger companions and other summons. This stops that cold. It would be better if you still allow the Druid to t determine targets with the reaction (and add the cavort that the creature must not be of types that are not creatures) Second- these features require wild shape but before you could wild shape and attack yourself as a Druid (Suboptimal but still has to be supported). Allow the first use to remain free and then subsequent ones using wild shape. (This keeps it in line with Soul knife and Drakewarden/beastmaster designs) It is good overall but still a b tier subclass. But a lot better than the F class it was (and I pointed that out in feedback).
Doesn't the Hawk and the Unicorn passive aura effects seem like they are doing the same job? One is giving advantage on Perception checks, and the other is give advantage on checks to detect hidden or invisible creatures, which would be Perception 99% of the time. Unicorn ends up just doing the same job, just narrower. Nor does it seem to have any thematic through line with unicorns.
I agree, I think the Unicorn should protect against magic somehow as that seems thematic and the healing boost seems less powerful than before (though does have some shenanigan potential with spells like regenerate). Maybe advantage on saves against spells that target mental stats (like the gnome feature) or perhaps adding your WIS modifier to those saves.
@@fla5h83 I think that's a great idea, being able to use your reaction to give advantage on wisdom, intelligence or charisma saves to another creature you can see
I'm not in love with the auras as a whole. They don't really incentivize you to summon creatures, as they're just as good, if not better, to use them on party members.
I don't really like the fact you made the Spirit Totem feature is tied to wildshape uses as i don't feel it necessary & it 's uses are now shared with the capacity of the tasha's additional feature to call for a familiar.
But you have 2 uses of Wild Shape per Short Rest, so you can do both? Regardless, it's the design philosophy of all of the subclasses in Tasha's and the UA playtests for the 2024 PHB (except Moon Druid where Wild Shape is actually useful in combat). Treantmonk is simply sticking to said style.
in 5.5 you get more uses of wild shape as you level, AND can get 1 back / short rest, so you get MANY more uses per adventuring day. His proposed change would simply mean you don't need to short rest to keep using your feature. Which helps the game flow.
So what happens when a level 14 Druid gets knocked out, gains the free non-concentration spell, but is then revived? Can they just cast Summon Beast again and have two of them for the next hour? Is that a problem?
While it may be a fix in the mechanical sense, this is more like the Circle of the Animal Companion now. Before, even if the Shepard wasn't abusing large groups of Conjure Animals, they were at least able to treat the whole party as their "herd" instead of only one creature at a time. Also, as others have said, it's very limiting to what spells can because with the constant action economy tax of the main feature and doesn't address detect creatures/perception redundancy. ...Guess it doesn't really need to be perfect, though, since this is still speculative given how the final printed book might end up changing some of the assumptions made here. While the old conjuring 8 creatures at once was way too clunky, I could maybe see the modern design having room for a Shepard Druid that can double the Summon spells to make 2 creatures instead of only 1? That'd still be relatively manageable. Or, I saw some else mention swarms. I could see making the Summon spells become swarms of one size category larger or the like when the Shepard uses them?
The "Mighty summoner" isn't too hard to work with the 'wrong' summon spells - just assign hit die to the templates. Which being a beast with so many hp you can work backwards assuming they are D10 (or D8) and they have however many HD it would take to get to their HP maximum following the usual HP rules of max on the first average on the rest, or to keep things simpler and smoother just pick a number (probably less generous, but easier) - for me just give them spells casting level +1 HD (so up casting counts too making that small HP bonus for mighty summoner actually feel a bit worthwhile when summoning only one ally)... And I'd say the same for the summoned fey and its weapon is fine, just let them have it if it suits the setting - its really not game breaking,. DM's have to figure out something from incomplete details on the NPC sheets all the time, this really isn't a new problem, and I highly doubt its going away in the new PHB either...
I love this kind of content, I'm not as interested in the optimization videos. I don't demand or expect you to change tough. :) Replacing attack damage with Force damage is good, but should it change additional damage of other types that you do? Thinking mainly of poison damage, but it could also affect fire elementals and maybe others.
So, considering that the newest summoning spell in the line of spells like that, "Summon Draconic Spirit", DOES include hit die in it's stat block, I feel like it's obvious that they've thought of that and are going to add hit die to the new printings of the spells in PHB'24. This is a better solution that specifically allowing the circle of shepherd druid to adjust their hit points, because it allows them to make other subclasses that use summoned creatures hit die as a lever. Looking at Shepherd's other options with Spirit Totem; Bear spirit being weaker sounds like feature, not bug. Which would you rather have; the ability to grant advantage to ONE attack per round, additional healing, or close to 100 extra hit points on the field? Yeah, that sounds like it needs to be reigned in. And finally, there's no reason why you couldn't just cut "Faithful Summons" at "You gain the Benefits of the Conjure Animal Spell" and remove everything about what specific animals it summons. Regarding your changes, though; Yeah, they seem good. I do think that Unicorn Spirit should give a different bonus than bonuses to detect creatures, because that would be in most cases a wisdom (perception) check.
The problem with the conjure animals spell was the sheer number of creatures you could add to the table, thus bogging down gameplay. Tasha's summon spells (despite the expensive material components) are a decent solution but turn the "Wild Hunt" into Pokémon. (Beast of the Land, I choose you!) It also completely nerfs the scouting use for conjure animals. I would have perferred a cap on the number of creatures, to say four. Four wolves or equivalent to use pack tactics, scout, and so on.
… the entire point of the totem is that it impacts multiple people, though? It is literally a totem - a symbol given power through shared belief and meaning. Really would prefer the bonuses just be smaller
the unicorn spirit seems like itd be too strong with goodberry. with a use of wildshape(a short rest resource) you can increase the healing by goodberry from 10 to 50+10*druid lvl which can become quite a lot. like if you are 3rd lvl this grants 80 hp, more than heal, a 6th lvl spell. now granted this can not be used in combat as effectively, and heal has minor secondary effects but still. this should propably scale with the amount of healing granted, as it otherwise becomes hard to make this usefull in battle but not too powerfull outside of battle. worst of all: this is not a spell so with multiple characters expending a wildshape for this it only gets cheaper with regards to spellslots/healing.
You are doing fantastic work over all - deep dives into mechanics and doing a great job of “objectifying” dnd to explain and improve it. You are really talented! Though i think you forget that not every single class, spell action or ability is remotely supposed to be balanced against all others (a pattern i see in your videos) - imagine perfect balance, thats just a straight line.. and youve really missed the mark on spirit Totem 😂 All the rest is great though! Love
I think that the Hawk spirit might be a bit too powerful. It essentially guarantees advantage to your strongest attacking character, no matter the situation. And guaranteed advantage on all attacks just gets absurd, especially with a fighter. This is literally more powerful than reckless attack, since reckless attack has a pretty substantial disadvantage and is restricted to a certain type of attack, while this only costs a reaction, which is basically nothing on a druid, and isn't restricted to what attacks this applies to. I dunno how you can make it more balanced, but I feel like this would be a bit too much. Also, the 14th level feature just generally doesn't jive with me, either the original or this one. Maybe the feature can be made a little more proactive rather than anything else. Maybe something like: "If you have a beast or fey summoned by a spell/feature and are targeted by an attack or effect that would incapacitate you, bring you down to 0 hit points or outright kill you, you can dismiss the summoned creature under your control and negate that attack or effect. For the next 1 minute, the next spell that you use to summon a fey or beast can be cast as if expending a spell slot 1 level higher than expended (you can summon a beast or fey with a spell of a level of 7 or lower without expending a spell slot)." Something like that, I'm just spitballing here. The "incapacitated against your will" thing can make the feature a bit abusable. A party member can incapacitate the druid with a 3rd level spell slot, and in return they get a giga-buffed 9th level concentration-free beast or fey? And all it takes to go around the "willing" part is for the druid to not chose to fail the save automatically. Also, the general passiveness of the feature isn't really that great, either. I know you wanted to preserve the spirit of the class, but I think that's something that could've easily changed. Other than that, the way you've changed it is pretty nifty, and, if I may say, it could be easily used right now as well, even without the new druid. Just replace "use of wild shape" with "once per short/long rest" like it is in the current state. PS: One more thing that just popped into my head - with your change, the distinction between the healing and the THP given from the totem is kind of erased. There's literally no reason to summon the healing totem. The THP one does the exact same thing, but better. At least in combat. The only use I see for the Unicorn totem is outside of combat, to enable characters to use less hit dice. But hit dice are rarely a problem, if at all. The unicorn totem before was one of the ways to get pretty great healing, especially at high levels, without needing to twist yourself into a pretzel to make a strange mish-mash multiclass to get different features. Maybe you can leave Unicorn totem as it was, but just put in a restriction on how many creatures can get healed. For example, make it so that you can heal up to your Wisdom Mod in creatures, and that would kind of fix the problem with summoning 500 beasts, since you can only heal up to 5, and you'd probably wanna prioritize your teammates over the random wolf.
With respect, advantage in the new system is easy to get this is actually not as much of a problem as it appears. Heck they were giving out advantage for getting up in the morning. Once we see the new system, I believe that we will see lots of advantage being given.
@@leodouskyron5671 true, they do give out advantage a lot, but it's usually single instances of advantage, not just general "you have advantage on everything". Or if it's more than a single instance of advantage, it's a limited resource, like the Lucky feat. Having something that doesn't run out, especially in the late game, feels a little too much to me.
I'm not fond of the new design of fueling subclass features with Wild Shape. This means you effectively lose the ability. Lets take Spores as an example. You could Wild Shape into a wolf for 11 hit points and gimp your ability to be a druid, _or_ you could gain 8 temp and retain your full power. Even worse, that imbalance will only increase as you level.
@@guardiantree8879 Only up to four. And it also fuels Wild Companion. It's the Ki Points problem all over again. And many DMs don't offer a short rest between some encounters.
@@salemwildfireYou have a point on wild companion, really should just be a ritual spell all Druids learn lol I see your point, but Moon Druid has been operating like this day one of 5e. Most Druids don’t use wildshape for direct combat. More so exploration or positioning. That said a mechanic to turn spell slots into extra wild shapes would be nice.
This seems highly inappropriate considering you can get wild shapes back with spell slots. 2 1st level spell slots (totem feature + goodberry) full heals the whole party and gives something around 70% of Max HP as temp HP. Absolutely busted.
Personally, I think that the summons in Tasha‘s are a complete joke and I don’t use them. I just pick a monster that has a CR that is the same number as the spell level. It’s a lot less bland and it doesn’t make the spells super powerful.
I dislike the changes to bear and unicorn totem specifically, as I feel it is too big a nerf, and I have points to defend it. As it was, it is arguable that unicorn was too powerful. I don't think it was (perhaps if usable as a wild shape use), but not as bad as people think. I will use two features to compare. Disciple of Life and Starry Form: Chalice. Now, it is fair to say in a group, Unicorn totem is stronger while it is active. That is true. But it is active far less time, and there is a placement variable already there. Life is permanently active, nothing required, no set up or resource needed making it come up more often- in 2014 it also affected more spells than the shepherd but new version has same limits. Chalice is up 10 minutes not 4, and will typically do more healing to a single target. Certainly weaker than the written shepherd- won't argue that, but the starry form has better other options. However, with the proposed edits, I don't think totem is powerful at all, especially comparatively. You make it only affect one target AND require a reaction to do so? At the HIGHEST levels, it may add more healing than a life cleric so long as the totem is up, they are in it, AND you use a reaction? And not by much. But Chalice? It is just better. Lasts longer, location considerations are less, does just as much, or close to, and no reaction. Oh, and at those highest levels when unicorn may do more than chalice? Starry form can swap to and from chalice based on whether they want to heal on that specific turn. As for bear? I just don't see the need to change it like that. I can understand giving the option to re-add with a reaction if desired, but the biggest boon was being able to drop THP, even once, on a group for a resource, and I don't know why we'd remove that when it is a very common ability. Hawk needed a buff, yes, and I appreciate that. However, having everything cost a reaction I feel is unnecessary.
It’s interesting. This feels like a buff and a nerf. The unicorn is a buff to single target healing (by a LOT, even capitalizing on other people’s healing spells. Maybe it would be better if it was only healing spells you casted?… That would align with the original intent of the ability, since it also says “that you cast”. I think just having the healing be Druid level would be good since that also reflects the original more) but it nerfs it by removing the group healing, which was the best part. Interesting. The Bear totem feels fair, but just blatantly better than the unicorn. You don’t even have to have anyone use a resource. Just boom. Temp hp. Feels weird. I would likely never use the unicorn ability. Hawk is cool. Would see use. Advantage is amazing. However, I think I might change it to using a reaction to giving another character a reaction attack with advantage instead. Would be more of a sideways change. Not inherently as good as just all attacks for the round, but could provide some potential higher damage thresholds, especially with rogues. Just food for thought. Nice breakdown.
@@PsyrenXY Only languages you already know, and presumably to other beasts of the same species. You still can't cast spells, so you still lose the most important part of this class feature when you Wild Shape.
Your new version of the unicorn spirit should hardly ever be used when compared to the bear spirit. These are the only real difference between healing and temp HP: - healing can wake a character up at 0, while temp HP can't. but since you have to use your reaction when a creature is healed anyway unicorn spirit cant bring someone up from 0. - Temp HP can go over max. healing cant - Healing can be applied repeatedly until at full, while temp HP can't. However this benefit is negligible because either the target is taking damage (which would eat the TEMP HP anyway) or isn't taking damage (so no need to buff it to keep it up anyway) That, on top of bear spirit's reaction being much easier to trigger I don't see much use in the unicorn spirit, unless the target already has a continual source of temp hp (heroism, twilight sanctuary, artillerists turret, etc)
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Neat work. I hope all Druid subclasses get an extended spell list that is always prepared. Shepherd Druids should have Summon Beast, Summon Fey, and Summon Elemental prepared automatically to make the play style obvious for new players, and free up the remaining spell choices for more situational spells.
this, absolutely this
i dont know if i would have the elemental summons auto prepared, but that is probably me being weirdly specific on the term Shepard, i would have summon steed here(lesser and greater, but i think those are being wrapped together) as well as some more thematic PBAoE buffs and spells, things like faithful hound, healing spirit, summon familiar, or scatter.
@@dogruler543IMO the Find spells are too strong to just give to a Druid subclass like that.
@@Samuel_Kabel yeah they're very much a paladin special
I'd remove the material component for the summon spells for shepherd druid because I can't even use the spells on mine cause I have no gold to make the material components ._.
You're all in the local tavern when a wolf charges through the front door. A few patrons draw weapons, but the wolf shouts "Wait! I need your help! We have to save the Shepherd Druid!"
The wolf who cried druid.
"Druid's fallen down the well again, eh?"
Why does the wolf know the class name? How did the wolf get to the door without screams or attacks? Why could the wolf open a door? What is love? Baby don't hurt me.
@@Samuel_Kabel Ever seen Lassie?
@@Tespri Nope. 🙂
Seems like a clean update! I like this type of video. Also, this highlights the value of flavor text to explain the idea of a feature so that if it gets reworked, that idea can still persist (or be dumped if it was misguided)
Glad you liked it!
I was suprised to see you not change the weird overlap between the hawk totem's advantage on perception checks and the unicorns advantage on detecting creatures within the aura, but super cool video!! I'm playing a Shepherd Druid right now and may ask my DM if most of these changes would be okay to make!
I say, instead of Force, you pick an elemental type of your choice. A little more thematic.
also, let it work with any summon spell
druid get's 4 Summon spells, Beast, Fey, Elemental and Dragon
why The Summon subclass can only use 2 of them?
@@ShilquesLimitations are thematically important. You play a Circle of the Shepard to summon beasts and fey, not dragons or elementals. Plus it leaves room to make subclasses that can also focus on summoning, but bring something completely different to the table. For example, you could make a druid subclass where your druid's spell damage can change to match the damage of the summoned elemental, or if your summoned elemental is within a spell's AOE and the elemental is immune to that spell's damage then the spell could simultaneously heal it based on the spell's level. Hell, you could gain a limited use breath weapon or cast spells through the specific summon when you use summon draconic spirit.
In my opinion, a good way to design a subclass is to have it change the way you play the game. That is why wizard has my absolute favorite subclasses, and why fighter subclasses like echo knight, rune knight, and battle master are cool subclasses in my book.
All “magical damage” in OneD&D is just becoming force damage. While I agree that it would be more thematic, I think Treantmonk does a good job matching the design choices from WOTC moving forward
I'd say if you took the primal strike feature from elemental fury, you can choose between force, fire, cold, lightning, or thunder damage and add the 1d8 modifier as well.
7:01 Another problem: in the latest playtest, every druid already got Speak with Animals as an automatically prepared spell from level 1 (and since it's a ritual spell, you don't get much benefit from allowing you to cast it at will - other than saving you the extra 10 minutes needed to cast it as a ritual).
to be fair, summon draconic spirit got hit dice so it is safe to assume the updated spells would include hit dice as well. (still not great but its something)
I heard he supposedly got an advance copy from WotC, so there is a good chance they just copy pasted the spells from Tasha's.
@@joshuasmith9061
That's disappointing
The should padronize, every summon spell get hit dice
I would love to see more content adapting old material to 2024 rules!
I wanted to see a new Hexblade
@@kongoaurius I think that most Hexblade features will be added to the base Warlock/Pact of the Blade, turning hexblade kinda of redundant and in need of a complete rework as a concept
Agreed! Maybe a look at a similar idea, but the Necromancer wizard instead?
@@kedraroth You are absolutely right, the Hexblade's core features have been incorporated into the base class. The charisma attacks are now part of the Pact of the Blade, and medium armor can be obtained with a 1st-level feat. Also, the subclass is gained at 3rd level now so it won't be an obvious multiclass anymore.
However, I still think there's room for a new version of the Hexblade that addresses the remaining issues or provides a fresh take on the subclass.
This is some really good stuff. Please allow me to put my 2 cents in.
At level 3, since the aura effect is being reduced, we should okay to say a couple things. #1- "You are always under the effects of the Speak with Animals spell." #2- "Once per round, you may activate the aura effect X when you see Y condition." These two changes free up action economy. The spirit is an entity, and it is reasonable that it can act freely according to your will without action economy being spent. These effects aren't as good as a 1st level reaction spell, and thus you'll always be second guessing whether to use this or wait for a far more useful absorb elements. Plus, since we tied it wildshape uses, the power has already been greatly reduced. It may be good to give them a free usage once per long rest, spend wildshape for more uses, and then upgrade it to once per short rest at level 6 or 10.
At level 6, "Once per spell when you summon a beast or fey..." makes it absolutely certain that only one summon benefits from this feature.
These are my suggestions.
Love this style of homebrew, that fixes issues while staying perfectly in line with the original intent!
Honestly when One D&D first started, I was hoping that the subclasses in the PHB would be fixing classes like this. I get the 4 themes for each class they were going for, but I feel reprinting some of Tasha's subclasses might be a poor use of their available book space (unless they were fixing the Cleric subclasses from Tasha's).
There are work arounds for the dnd beyond thing. Usually it involves changing the text to not be cut and paste. I had this problem when I rebuilt the clockwork soul sorcerer so that it would allow subclass spells to be changed out as written in the rules. Cut and paste descriptions got it blocked for public use, but my own descriptions worked.
Love this rework, id also love to see you rework other subclasses
I hope you do more of these subclass updates as the final design of the classes 2024 PHB becomes clear.
Thanks for the video. I am currently playing this druid in a one pc campaign. Though i like some of the improvements tying the spirit totem to wild shape clashes with wild companion feature, which might not seem as a lot but it does have an important utility role in my case.
I threw a rough draft of an updated Circle of the Shepard together when UA 8 came out using the new Conjure Spells. I posted it the DnD Beyond forums and the only feedback I got was to use the Summon Spells. I didn't touch the totems, but I do like the changes to them here, including them being powered by Wild Shape.
Good work.
I don't know how I could improve it myself, while keeping it concise and coherent.
Although, it would be nice to support your allies in the same capacity as the old druid. Maybe bear spirit could give temporary hit points to friendly creatures you haven't summoned, and then the reaction?
The reaction cost also feels like the natural balancing resource, but even if druids don't usually have as good of use as some other classes, it still is kind of a hard pill to swallow that it costs something it didn't before.
I did like that you didn't use a reaction for the other features though (almost as if you have experience with the game xD)
This is a cool re-write of the subclass nice one. :D
Also wondered how this would work with the ritual caster feat and making beefy familiars. Could give them a bit more survivability.
I really enjoy these new updates, and have been dying to have a proper summoning class that doesnt slow down everything. Only wish more classes had a summoner archetype as well as more summoning spells. More lower level options to fit flavor and higher level ones too, there should be a summoned spell for levels 6-9 just so it feels like players are getting new options as they level up
I’d love to see your thoughts on helping out the Bannerette / Purple Dragon Knight.
I’ve loved the idea, but never played one for obvious reasons. Idk if you’re interested Chris. Just one of my dreams that one day I’ll wake up and suddenly it’s a good subclass ;)
Nice work in the Shepherd Druid. Easy to comprehend and looks fun.
Great job.
Not necessarily essential to the video but there are a few spots that will additionally need changing other than just the description in D&D Beyond:
-Snippets primarily which can be duplicated from the description
-Speech of the Woods needs the SotW action deleted and add Speak with Animals (I set Consumes Spell Slot a& Count as Known Spell to NO & Always Prepared to YES)
-Spirit Totem needs the Description/Snippet updated in the Action section for the Spirit Totem Action or else when using it, the action page will read the old text.
-Faithful Summons: Spells swap to Summon Beast as a known spell
Love these suggestions, using a reaction to fuel the spirit totem really does a good job balancing the 3 options for single target use. I will say I think features that only work when you go to 0hp is in general poor design especially at high levels. Not that i think they should not exist but i think a combination approach of an always useable ability with an on death ability is the better option. To be honest most of the level 14 druid abilities are pretty lack luster in general and could all use some more kick to them.
I.e. conjure animal on death at 9th level could be conjure animal on death at 5 level and another buff to your summons like one of the following:
Summon gets resistance to a damage type of your choice when summoned.
Can add 1d6 damage of an elemental type on attacks
Beast can use its reaction to take damage for the caster
ofc you would need to write the features in current rules language.
A great reword of the subclass! I do think the detection feature of the unicorn aura should be changed as it has too much overlap with the hawk aura that boosts Perception. Maybe it could give a 10ft movement buff to allies who start in or move through the area? Or when the aura is created, allies within a certain range can teleport to a location within aura as a reaction? Both would be fitting given the abilities of a unicorn.
I will say, having DMed a party with a high-level Shepard Druid, the unicorn spirit feature makes it a very potent healer. These changes make things quite a bit more manageable.
Nicely done.
I’d add a 4th totem, one that basically lets you double your summon. (Specifically only works on spells that summon one creature).
Basically using a wild shape you could summon two summons. In theory you could use up all your wild shapes to get more than two.
It allows some of that former greatness of the Shepard Druid, but manageable & with a large cost.
Wow, a lot of information
Thank you
Neat! In my table we already fixed the hp for summon beast, but I like also the other changes
I imagine a remastered shepherd druid would have a permanent, bespoke pet in the vein of beastmaster, rather than requiring you to cast summon beast. But otherwise, this is a quick, clean update that makes this subclass function in a post-tasha's environment and I can't ask for more
Summoned Swarms (a suggestion to keep the old spells)
Similar summoned creatures become swarms when a summoner controls 4 or more of them. Swarms are large groups of monsters merged into a single entity. A character may control a number of swarms equal to their proficiency bonus.
When creatures join into a swarm, they retain their statistics except:
Creature Size.
Hit Points.
Strength ability score.
Damage Resistances.
Damage Vulnerability. Damage taken from sources effecting an area, such as a fireball spell.
Condition Immunities.
Swarm Trait.
Overwhelming Power. The swarm can make one additional attack.
Attack. The amount of damage dice rolled is doubled.
The only I will change of the Bear and Unicorn aura of yours is that you can affect a number of creatures equal to your wis mod with the reaction, to preserve the aspect of an "aura"
The one change I would make to your changes would be for faithful summons to summon 4 beasts of CR 2 or lower. Basically keep it the same but not have it tied to the conjure animals spell.
I was wondering where this was going since this is a solid subclass.
This is a great fix. I would actually play a Shepherd Druid now.
Always loved the thematics of Spirit Totem and wished it was a core druid feature.
Ooooo, I've never done a 'solid' for a RUclips creator!
Done and done!
I look forward to a lot of these update to 5.5e. I really hope WotC have their act together for these PHB's in September- darn shame they are not available for Free RPG Day.
I'm amazed the stockholders are not suing them for the list of bad calls the management has made these last 2 years.
GREAT WORK
Good job!
Love this concept! Would watch more subclasses not in the 2024 phb converted to modern design by you!
If you use the unicorn totem with goodberry each berry could heal 9 hit points (at 3rd level) and 26 (at 20 lvl)
Not sure how I feel about this. The mass healing I find more appealing than the single target healing. It's more for single target but being able to heal multiple creatures is really nice. Especially if you have more than one ally down or summons approaching death
I haven't watched the video yet, but isn't this one of the best subclasses in the game? even if you remove conjure animals/fey it's still really strong
Unicorn Spirit as a reaction to add 5+ druid level ANY time a creature in the aura regains hit points seems a little abusable due to goodberry. At level 2, you can cast goodberry and set up the aura out of combat and heal 8 HP per berry instead of 1 so long as each of the 10 berries is eaten every 6 seconds. 80 HP at level 2 from a twice per short rest resource combined with a first level spell slot seems a hair over tuned
Since the revisions for one dnd started Im looking forward to see adaptation for all the subclass that will not come up in the 2024 players handbook. Now Im excited for a series of videos for these adaptations
The 14th level feature looks pretty reasonable. The beast is AC 20, 110 hp and has 4 attacks for 1d8+13 (force), pretty close to 4d8. That's approximately a 14th level martial sidekick. I might suggest reminding the player that the 6th level feature presumably strengthens this creature too, otherwise it's only 65 hp.
I'd certainly rather have that defending me than 4 bears.
nicely done.
For Guardian Spirit, I would just say "Once during your turn" rather than "At the end of your turn". This would just make turn choices much easier, which ought to allow for for efficient turns. Also, if a bunch of mechanics start using the "at the end of your turn" wording, then it would seem like you could only invoke one end of turn effect. (Otherwise, the effect that preceeded it, technically wouldn't have been "at the end", and thus couldn't trigger).
My problem with the 2nd Level feature Speech of the Woods update; is the ability was a feature, that you could use in beast form. You can't cast spells in beast form, so changing it to be a spell, even if at will, means you can't use it while wildshaped. No ability to talk to anything while scouting. And I lose the feature if I am in an area where magic is suppressed.
Good catch, it's an easy fix though, just explicitly state it can be used when wild shaped.
Good catch, it's an easy fix though, just explicitly state it can be used when wild shaped.
@@LightPhoenix7000 Problem is if you allow that, you now need to explain why my beast form can perform the verbal and somatic components of one spell but not the others. It's just a lot easier to make it a default ability. That part was functioning just fine.
I feel it would be easier for the designer to add hit dice equal to the spell level to the tasha summon spells then clarify that fey's short sword could as a natural weapon. The capstone as it is currently should work fine you just don't consider the cr part and you end up with the 2024 conjure animal spell that can move on its own and is casted at 9th level. Your rework shifts the balance a bit imo. Still a very good video as always
Thats great! 👍
I don't like that Unicorn gives advantage on "checks made to detect creatures", since that will most often be Perception anyways and that's just the same as the Hawk. I'm not sure what else it would be though. Persuasion checks? Knowledge checks about creatures?
The changes (nerfs) to spirit totem makes me never want to use this revision even if it means not getting to use any of my other features at level 6, 10, and 14.
The AoE effects of the bear and unicorn totems are the best part in keeping your party members alive.
Most druids would like this video
Shepherd druid gets Charm Sheep as spell prepared.
Awesome video
Watching this after phb 2024 was released... what always prepared spell table would you give them? So they align with the other circles.
I don't love that the spirit totem uses reactions now.
Although, if they re-balance shield so that it's not so mandatory, maybe that will be fine.
Awesome, but I think it should utilize the new conjure spells as well.
Maybe at tenth lvl when you summon a totem you can choose one of the new conjure spells to activate in the same space without concentration? It lasts the same length as the totem?
My DM adds the extra 2 hp per spell level for the tasha spells
I reworked it using the new conjure spells instead of the summoning spells and I did +2 damage per spell level because the summoned spirits don't have health and I still wanted the class to empower the Conjure spells. For Guardian Spirit I went with unbreakable concentration.
I liked this video!
I liked your comment!
If life cleric is abused with Goodberry , wait until unicorn totem is used!
While I agree with the methodology of adding restricted uses to features through tying it to a resource however the weaker one makes a feature the less restrictions it need and the stronger the more it needs, and I’m not entirely sure the changes you’ve made warrants being restricted to wildshape uses when you simultaneously need the features.
Since Druidic grants Speak with Animals, can we get circle spells instead? And add elementals to beasts and fey? Summon Beast, Fey and Elemental as well as Conjure Animals, Woodland Beings, and Elemental could all work. Not sure what would all round out the 5th, 2nd, and 1st level spells tho.
I like the update Chris, but think it has been weakened a little too much. I would say rather than 1 target you make number of beasts equal to proficiency bonus and remove the reaction elements personally. 😉
ב"ה
Bear spirit is powerfull even without conjure animals, and is just better than what celestial warlocks get at level 10.
For the 6th level feature, the updated versions of summonings will probably include a number of hit dice equal to the spell level just like summon draconic spirit have (and I would house rule it like that anyway if a player would like to play a sheperd druid with tasha summonings). I am not sure force is the right alternative damage type though, I would probably let them choose between fire, cold and lightning when they cast the spell.
For the 14th level, I would use summon fey instead, as it upcast much better to level 9.
I note a strange interaction with your proposed 10th level feature that is probably okay but I want to comment on anyway. The limitation of healing creatures "you summoned or created with a spell" is clearly there with the focus on the summoning spells with acknowledgement that there might be some other ways to make a temporary friend. But technically it would work with non-temporary summoned/created beings as well. If you use a scroll to cast Gate on a fey or beast to summon them to you, they can be healed by this feature forever. Similarly if you use a scroll to cast True Polymorph to make a rock into a beast, that seems like "a spell creating an beast" that can be made permanent by concentrating for an hour. A summoned familiar could be fey, and thus is a fey summoned/created by a spell, so you can heal your familiar this way.
I don't think these corner cases are actually a balance problem, but I wonder if anyone could come up with any shenanigans around these sorts of options that aren't "traditional summons"
PERFECT ❤🎉
If conjure animals remains unchanged, the 5 extra hit points per level of the spell that summoned the beast or fey from Mighty Summoner gets nuts. For 1/4 CR creatures, that's 15 hp for 8 creatures or 120 hit points when cast at 3rd level, 25 hp for 16 creatures or 400 hit points at 5th level, 35 hp for 24 creatures or 840 hit points at 7th level, and 45 hp for 32 creatures or 1440 hit points at 5th level. That's as many hit points (hp) as there are horizontal pixels (hp) on my screen. Achievement unlocked! It'd be more bookkeeping, but maybe instead distribute an amount of extra hit points-equal to 5 hit points per level of the spell-as you choose among the creatures summoned?
It only works if you summon a (one) beast or fey with a spell.
this does its job well, though I personally am not a fan of the Tasha's summoning spells. but the original ones were also problematic, I kind of want something that falls somewhere in the middle between the originals and the Tasha's ones.
I will have to play it to see if I like it. Just wondering out loud, could any of the features be modified so if a shepherd druid was in an all druid party the shepherd could grant temp HPs to the wildshaped creatures within an aura or bolster the wildshape in any other way?
Loxodon shepherds druid with a Mouse companion Julius Cheesar.
While that 14th level feature works, the original feels like you don't have a 14th feature if you don't drop to 0. Think completely updating it might be a good idea. Like instead, maybe something as simple as either "whenever you summon a creature with a spell of 1st level or higher, treat the summon as if it were cast with a spell slot 3 levels higher than normal" or "whenever you summon a creature with a spell slot of 1st or higher, you can summon one additional creature". Maybe limit one time per short or long rest?
Feel conjuration wizard also suffers greatly with the new changes.
Not a huge fan of your wild shape fuelled Spirit Totems - they just don't seem worth that resource cost in general. Now it it was once per long rest for free, and you may use a wild shape charge or something that would be better - flexibility to use it more than once a day but not eating into your limited resource.
Also feels like you really wanted to turn Hawk into the one to pick at later levels - advantage on all the attacks your Monk/Fighter with their huge number of attacks and potential reaction attack makes is really really potent. While having to spend a reaction to add a little temp HP or boost your teams healing on a single target once per round... Either all of them needed to work on PB attacks/ healed creatures or something similar, or the Hawk needs to be the only one that costs your reaction - as it stands it is just stand out the one to pick 99% of the time. Picking something other than Hawk in combat is because you are grappling and want the Bears bonus for that, or some critical character is going to die and needs all the healing you can possibly dump into them...
Also I don't think you are really correct on original Hawk Spirit being a runt - gaining advantage on a hit every round of combat for the paltry cost of one PC's reaction is at level 2 good, and it stays pretty good if used on the right attack even up to the higher levels - for instance now your rouge will always always be able to sneak attack, and always doing it at advantage to improve the odds they crit. While the Bear spirit can only give out a heap of temp HP to a tight group on the round it is called forth and that is even at 20th level only giving each target at best one hit of extra survivability - its not a lot of gain really even though the potential total of HP it can add is huge. Plus stuffing all your allies into a tiny radius is asking to loose more HP than you gain from the temporary boost if the NPC's have any AOE effects at all, and will be very hard to pull of in any combat you don't start as your turn may not even come up untill all your allies have had a go and moved away... None of the original options are all that powerful, but they are useful, in and out of combat and not resource intensive. Advantage of Perception checks is pretty darn huge at many tables. Where yours other than Hawk are resource intensive and not all that powerful for it.
Not sure how I feel about this one.
On one hand, it fixes the issues with Summons spells compatability wonderfully.
But on the other, it eats up all your action economy.
You are basically giving up all reaction defenses (which might be needed to maintain concentration) to hand out HP/THP/ADV to an ally.
It also now only applies to one creature, so no buffing everyone's THP at the start of a fight.
I think i would change the buffing to be a BA, and you could move the totem with the same BA. That would fix the action econemy issue.
Is eating up the action economy an issue, though? Not saying it isn't, but at a glance it seems like a fair tradeoff.
@deathpacito8702 personally, i think it's too much of an action sink for a single feature. There is a high likelihood of needing to move it at a minimum of 50% of the rounds, and you will want to use your reaction on it every turn.
Then you can't use things like Absorb Elements, or heaven forbid you have multiclassed or taken feats that provide other reactions or Bonus actions.
Again, this is all my personal preference.
If people think it's great the way Chris presented it, that's great.
While I like what you did I have some small issues-
Level 3 features also affected all creatures in your aura and not just those you summoned. Don’t used to affect Ranger companions and other summons. This stops that cold. It would be better if you still allow the Druid to t determine targets with the reaction (and add the cavort that the creature must not be of types that are not creatures)
Second- these features require wild shape but before you could wild shape and attack yourself as a Druid (Suboptimal but still has to be supported). Allow the first use to remain free and then subsequent ones using wild shape. (This keeps it in line with Soul knife and Drakewarden/beastmaster designs)
It is good overall but still a b tier subclass. But a lot better than the F class it was (and I pointed that out in feedback).
Doesn't the Hawk and the Unicorn passive aura effects seem like they are doing the same job? One is giving advantage on Perception checks, and the other is give advantage on checks to detect hidden or invisible creatures, which would be Perception 99% of the time. Unicorn ends up just doing the same job, just narrower. Nor does it seem to have any thematic through line with unicorns.
Maybe investigation instead?
my suggestion would be one or two of: Persuasion, Performance, Insight or Medicine
I agree, I think the Unicorn should protect against magic somehow as that seems thematic and the healing boost seems less powerful than before (though does have some shenanigan potential with spells like regenerate). Maybe advantage on saves against spells that target mental stats (like the gnome feature) or perhaps adding your WIS modifier to those saves.
@@fla5h83 I think that's a great idea, being able to use your reaction to give advantage on wisdom, intelligence or charisma saves to another creature you can see
I'm not in love with the auras as a whole. They don't really incentivize you to summon creatures, as they're just as good, if not better, to use them on party members.
I don't really like the fact you made the Spirit Totem feature is tied to wildshape uses as i don't feel it necessary & it 's uses are now shared with the capacity of the tasha's additional feature to call for a familiar.
But you have 2 uses of Wild Shape per Short Rest, so you can do both? Regardless, it's the design philosophy of all of the subclasses in Tasha's and the UA playtests for the 2024 PHB (except Moon Druid where Wild Shape is actually useful in combat). Treantmonk is simply sticking to said style.
in 5.5 you get more uses of wild shape as you level, AND can get 1 back / short rest, so you get MANY more uses per adventuring day. His proposed change would simply mean you don't need to short rest to keep using your feature. Which helps the game flow.
My problem is duration, I think that it should be 1 minute per druid level if it uses wild shape.
@@SortKaffe Just because he is sticking to Tasha's style doesn't mean it's balanced. Tasha's isn't perfect.
So what happens when a level 14 Druid gets knocked out, gains the free non-concentration spell, but is then revived? Can they just cast Summon Beast again and have two of them for the next hour? Is that a problem?
I really think WotC should hire you, at least as a consultant.
While it may be a fix in the mechanical sense, this is more like the Circle of the Animal Companion now. Before, even if the Shepard wasn't abusing large groups of Conjure Animals, they were at least able to treat the whole party as their "herd" instead of only one creature at a time. Also, as others have said, it's very limiting to what spells can because with the constant action economy tax of the main feature and doesn't address detect creatures/perception redundancy. ...Guess it doesn't really need to be perfect, though, since this is still speculative given how the final printed book might end up changing some of the assumptions made here.
While the old conjuring 8 creatures at once was way too clunky, I could maybe see the modern design having room for a Shepard Druid that can double the Summon spells to make 2 creatures instead of only 1? That'd still be relatively manageable. Or, I saw some else mention swarms. I could see making the Summon spells become swarms of one size category larger or the like when the Shepard uses them?
The "Mighty summoner" isn't too hard to work with the 'wrong' summon spells - just assign hit die to the templates.
Which being a beast with so many hp you can work backwards assuming they are D10 (or D8) and they have however many HD it would take to get to their HP maximum following the usual HP rules of max on the first average on the rest, or to keep things simpler and smoother just pick a number (probably less generous, but easier) - for me just give them spells casting level +1 HD (so up casting counts too making that small HP bonus for mighty summoner actually feel a bit worthwhile when summoning only one ally)... And I'd say the same for the summoned fey and its weapon is fine, just let them have it if it suits the setting - its really not game breaking,.
DM's have to figure out something from incomplete details on the NPC sheets all the time, this really isn't a new problem, and I highly doubt its going away in the new PHB either...
I love this kind of content, I'm not as interested in the optimization videos. I don't demand or expect you to change tough. :)
Replacing attack damage with Force damage is good, but should it change additional damage of other types that you do? Thinking mainly of poison damage, but it could also affect fire elementals and maybe others.
So, considering that the newest summoning spell in the line of spells like that, "Summon Draconic Spirit", DOES include hit die in it's stat block, I feel like it's obvious that they've thought of that and are going to add hit die to the new printings of the spells in PHB'24. This is a better solution that specifically allowing the circle of shepherd druid to adjust their hit points, because it allows them to make other subclasses that use summoned creatures hit die as a lever.
Looking at Shepherd's other options with Spirit Totem; Bear spirit being weaker sounds like feature, not bug. Which would you rather have; the ability to grant advantage to ONE attack per round, additional healing, or close to 100 extra hit points on the field? Yeah, that sounds like it needs to be reigned in.
And finally, there's no reason why you couldn't just cut "Faithful Summons" at "You gain the Benefits of the Conjure Animal Spell" and remove everything about what specific animals it summons.
Regarding your changes, though; Yeah, they seem good. I do think that Unicorn Spirit should give a different bonus than bonuses to detect creatures, because that would be in most cases a wisdom (perception) check.
Very well-designed, I guess Wotc will pay very attetion to that video❤
I love this. I can finally unban Circle of Shepards lmao
The problem with the conjure animals spell was the sheer number of creatures you could add to the table, thus bogging down gameplay. Tasha's summon spells (despite the expensive material components) are a decent solution but turn the "Wild Hunt" into Pokémon. (Beast of the Land, I choose you!) It also completely nerfs the scouting use for conjure animals. I would have perferred a cap on the number of creatures, to say four. Four wolves or equivalent to use pack tactics, scout, and so on.
… the entire point of the totem is that it impacts multiple people, though? It is literally a totem - a symbol given power through shared belief and meaning. Really would prefer the bonuses just be smaller
the unicorn spirit seems like itd be too strong with goodberry. with a use of wildshape(a short rest resource) you can increase the healing by goodberry from 10 to 50+10*druid lvl which can become quite a lot. like if you are 3rd lvl this grants 80 hp, more than heal, a 6th lvl spell. now granted this can not be used in combat as effectively, and heal has minor secondary effects but still. this should propably scale with the amount of healing granted, as it otherwise becomes hard to make this usefull in battle but not too powerfull outside of battle. worst of all: this is not a spell so with multiple characters expending a wildshape for this it only gets cheaper with regards to spellslots/healing.
You are doing fantastic work over all - deep dives into mechanics and doing a great job of “objectifying” dnd to explain and improve it. You are really talented!
Though i think you forget that not every single class, spell action or ability is remotely supposed to be balanced against all others (a pattern i see in your videos) - imagine perfect balance, thats just a straight line..
and youve really missed the mark on spirit Totem 😂
All the rest is great though!
Love
I think that the Hawk spirit might be a bit too powerful. It essentially guarantees advantage to your strongest attacking character, no matter the situation. And guaranteed advantage on all attacks just gets absurd, especially with a fighter. This is literally more powerful than reckless attack, since reckless attack has a pretty substantial disadvantage and is restricted to a certain type of attack, while this only costs a reaction, which is basically nothing on a druid, and isn't restricted to what attacks this applies to. I dunno how you can make it more balanced, but I feel like this would be a bit too much.
Also, the 14th level feature just generally doesn't jive with me, either the original or this one. Maybe the feature can be made a little more proactive rather than anything else. Maybe something like:
"If you have a beast or fey summoned by a spell/feature and are targeted by an attack or effect that would incapacitate you, bring you down to 0 hit points or outright kill you, you can dismiss the summoned creature under your control and negate that attack or effect. For the next 1 minute, the next spell that you use to summon a fey or beast can be cast as if expending a spell slot 1 level higher than expended (you can summon a beast or fey with a spell of a level of 7 or lower without expending a spell slot)." Something like that, I'm just spitballing here. The "incapacitated against your will" thing can make the feature a bit abusable. A party member can incapacitate the druid with a 3rd level spell slot, and in return they get a giga-buffed 9th level concentration-free beast or fey? And all it takes to go around the "willing" part is for the druid to not chose to fail the save automatically. Also, the general passiveness of the feature isn't really that great, either. I know you wanted to preserve the spirit of the class, but I think that's something that could've easily changed.
Other than that, the way you've changed it is pretty nifty, and, if I may say, it could be easily used right now as well, even without the new druid. Just replace "use of wild shape" with "once per short/long rest" like it is in the current state.
PS: One more thing that just popped into my head - with your change, the distinction between the healing and the THP given from the totem is kind of erased. There's literally no reason to summon the healing totem. The THP one does the exact same thing, but better. At least in combat. The only use I see for the Unicorn totem is outside of combat, to enable characters to use less hit dice. But hit dice are rarely a problem, if at all.
The unicorn totem before was one of the ways to get pretty great healing, especially at high levels, without needing to twist yourself into a pretzel to make a strange mish-mash multiclass to get different features. Maybe you can leave Unicorn totem as it was, but just put in a restriction on how many creatures can get healed. For example, make it so that you can heal up to your Wisdom Mod in creatures, and that would kind of fix the problem with summoning 500 beasts, since you can only heal up to 5, and you'd probably wanna prioritize your teammates over the random wolf.
With respect, advantage in the new system is easy to get this is actually not as much of a problem as it appears. Heck they were giving out advantage for getting up in the morning. Once we see the new system, I believe that we will see lots of advantage being given.
@@leodouskyron5671 true, they do give out advantage a lot, but it's usually single instances of advantage, not just general "you have advantage on everything". Or if it's more than a single instance of advantage, it's a limited resource, like the Lucky feat. Having something that doesn't run out, especially in the late game, feels a little too much to me.
Why do I think Druids will want to find a way to fail against an incapacitate spell everyday to get a free 9th level doggo…
I'm not fond of the new design of fueling subclass features with Wild Shape. This means you effectively lose the ability.
Lets take Spores as an example. You could Wild Shape into a wolf for 11 hit points and gimp your ability to be a druid, _or_ you could gain 8 temp and retain your full power. Even worse, that imbalance will only increase as you level.
It's the problem with Ki points all over again.
The new rules give you more uses of wild shape. Typically one use will also last a full fight as well.
@@guardiantree8879 Only up to four. And it also fuels Wild Companion. It's the Ki Points problem all over again. And many DMs don't offer a short rest between some encounters.
@@salemwildfireYou have a point on wild companion, really should just be a ritual spell all Druids learn lol
I see your point, but Moon Druid has been operating like this day one of 5e.
Most Druids don’t use wildshape for direct combat. More so exploration or positioning.
That said a mechanic to turn spell slots into extra wild shapes would be nice.
@@guardiantree8879 That would be a fine compromise to me.
This seems highly inappropriate considering you can get wild shapes back with spell slots. 2 1st level spell slots (totem feature + goodberry) full heals the whole party and gives something around 70% of Max HP as temp HP. Absolutely busted.
Personally, I think that the summons in Tasha‘s are a complete joke and I don’t use them. I just pick a monster that has a CR that is the same number as the spell level. It’s a lot less bland and it doesn’t make the spells super powerful.
First?! Huzzah!
I dislike the changes to bear and unicorn totem specifically, as I feel it is too big a nerf, and I have points to defend it.
As it was, it is arguable that unicorn was too powerful. I don't think it was (perhaps if usable as a wild shape use), but not as bad as people think.
I will use two features to compare. Disciple of Life and Starry Form: Chalice.
Now, it is fair to say in a group, Unicorn totem is stronger while it is active. That is true. But it is active far less time, and there is a placement variable already there. Life is permanently active, nothing required, no set up or resource needed making it come up more often- in 2014 it also affected more spells than the shepherd but new version has same limits. Chalice is up 10 minutes not 4, and will typically do more healing to a single target. Certainly weaker than the written shepherd- won't argue that, but the starry form has better other options.
However, with the proposed edits, I don't think totem is powerful at all, especially comparatively. You make it only affect one target AND require a reaction to do so? At the HIGHEST levels, it may add more healing than a life cleric so long as the totem is up, they are in it, AND you use a reaction? And not by much. But Chalice? It is just better. Lasts longer, location considerations are less, does just as much, or close to, and no reaction. Oh, and at those highest levels when unicorn may do more than chalice? Starry form can swap to and from chalice based on whether they want to heal on that specific turn.
As for bear? I just don't see the need to change it like that. I can understand giving the option to re-add with a reaction if desired, but the biggest boon was being able to drop THP, even once, on a group for a resource, and I don't know why we'd remove that when it is a very common ability.
Hawk needed a buff, yes, and I appreciate that. However, having everything cost a reaction I feel is unnecessary.
It’s interesting. This feels like a buff and a nerf. The unicorn is a buff to single target healing (by a LOT, even capitalizing on other people’s healing spells. Maybe it would be better if it was only healing spells you casted?… That would align with the original intent of the ability, since it also says “that you cast”. I think just having the healing be Druid level would be good since that also reflects the original more) but it nerfs it by removing the group healing, which was the best part. Interesting. The Bear totem feels fair, but just blatantly better than the unicorn. You don’t even have to have anyone use a resource. Just boom. Temp hp. Feels weird. I would likely never use the unicorn ability. Hawk is cool. Would see use. Advantage is amazing. However, I think I might change it to using a reaction to giving another character a reaction attack with advantage instead. Would be more of a sideways change. Not inherently as good as just all attacks for the round, but could provide some potential higher damage thresholds, especially with rogues. Just food for thought. Nice breakdown.
7:12 the previous speaking with animals ability wouldn't be negated by an antimagic field
Can use the previous version while in beast form as well.
@salemwildfire the new wild shape lets you speak in beast form
@@PsyrenXY Only languages you already know, and presumably to other beasts of the same species. You still can't cast spells, so you still lose the most important part of this class feature when you Wild Shape.
Your new version of the unicorn spirit should hardly ever be used when compared to the bear spirit.
These are the only real difference between healing and temp HP:
- healing can wake a character up at 0, while temp HP can't. but since you have to use your reaction when a creature is healed anyway unicorn spirit cant bring someone up from 0.
- Temp HP can go over max. healing cant
- Healing can be applied repeatedly until at full, while temp HP can't. However this benefit is negligible because either the target is taking damage (which would eat the TEMP HP anyway) or isn't taking damage (so no need to buff it to keep it up anyway)
That, on top of bear spirit's reaction being much easier to trigger I don't see much use in the unicorn spirit, unless the target already has a continual source of temp hp (heroism, twilight sanctuary, artillerists turret, etc)