Wild Shape is a Druid's main special ability. What exactly happens when you transform is up to you. Some people pick one animal form that suits their character and stick with it. Some alter their description with every attack ("I assume the form of a black panther and pounce on the lead orc." can also be "I become like a charging buffalo and bear down on the lead orc.")
Some people envision a "were"-style man-beast form and some prefer a more normal looking animal. It doesn't have to be a single definite animal... it can be ever-shifting, or a form that incorporates traits of multiple animals. Druids are tapping into a spirit called "The Primal Beast" that represents all predatory beasts.
The thing is that even in beast form you're still you. You can't change size appreciably or gain special senses or movement modes, except by taking feats that give you bonuses in beast form or higher level utility powers that add to your beast form capabilities in various ways. You can, for roleplaying/flavor reasons, do things like assume your beast form when you have to climb or prowl through bushes or swim a stream, if the form's appropriate for those things, but there's no set bonuses for these things. This might seem unfair or unrealistic, but it's a result of the previous edition where Druids could take on the exact stats of any beast in the Monster Manuals, and as a result ended up making the rest of the party superfluous.
If you want to be a good climber and swimmer and jumper, you have to spend a feat to get Athletics training like everybody else, even if it's because you're an animal sometimes. :)
But the lack of mechanical effects means there's a lack of mechanical limits, as mentioned above.
There's no reason you can't talk in beast form, but a lot of Druids don't, out of principle I suppose. Shifting is a minor action once per round, which in real world terms means you can change every 5-6 seconds. You can eat, sleep, and travel as an animal or as a human. You can treat either form as your "default/main form" or use both of them equally.
With your high Insight, Nature, and Perception scores, you're going to be one of the more alert and perceptive party members. You can probably expect to be the main tracker for the party... a good use of beast form (purely as a roleplay effect, though I think there's a feat that boosts Perception in beast form that you might take later on) would be to shift in order to track better.
Your character is Primal, which means more concerned with spirits of the natural world than gods who look down from other ones. It also means that if you're using your powers to their full effect, you'll come off as kind of savage in combat... charging, pouncing, scattering enemies, throwing and dragging them around. But also remember that you're a Controller, so whenever possible there should be some method to what you're doing. Pounce a tough foe to make them vulnerable. Savage Rend to pull an enemy off a nearby ally. Thorn Whip to get them off a distant one. Call of the Beast to get them to engage with one of your allies. You're a traffic cop. You get the enemies to go where you want them to and out of the places you don't want them.
(Also, Thorn Whip is the kind of power that it pays to think about creative uses of, in combat and out. The raw mechanical description of it is a good description of what it does as an attack in combat: target one enemy within 10 squares, do this much damage and pull 2 squares on a hit. But it's equally valid to think of it in terms of: you conjure a thorny vine out of thin air.)
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ninetydegrees
Part 3: Wild Shape and Being A Druid
on 2010-07-16 07:35 pm (UTC)Some people envision a "were"-style man-beast form and some prefer a more normal looking animal. It doesn't have to be a single definite animal... it can be ever-shifting, or a form that incorporates traits of multiple animals. Druids are tapping into a spirit called "The Primal Beast" that represents all predatory beasts.
The thing is that even in beast form you're still you. You can't change size appreciably or gain special senses or movement modes, except by taking feats that give you bonuses in beast form or higher level utility powers that add to your beast form capabilities in various ways. You can, for roleplaying/flavor reasons, do things like assume your beast form when you have to climb or prowl through bushes or swim a stream, if the form's appropriate for those things, but there's no set bonuses for these things. This might seem unfair or unrealistic, but it's a result of the previous edition where Druids could take on the exact stats of any beast in the Monster Manuals, and as a result ended up making the rest of the party superfluous.
If you want to be a good climber and swimmer and jumper, you have to spend a feat to get Athletics training like everybody else, even if it's because you're an animal sometimes. :)
But the lack of mechanical effects means there's a lack of mechanical limits, as mentioned above.
There's no reason you can't talk in beast form, but a lot of Druids don't, out of principle I suppose. Shifting is a minor action once per round, which in real world terms means you can change every 5-6 seconds. You can eat, sleep, and travel as an animal or as a human. You can treat either form as your "default/main form" or use both of them equally.
With your high Insight, Nature, and Perception scores, you're going to be one of the more alert and perceptive party members. You can probably expect to be the main tracker for the party... a good use of beast form (purely as a roleplay effect, though I think there's a feat that boosts Perception in beast form that you might take later on) would be to shift in order to track better.
Your character is Primal, which means more concerned with spirits of the natural world than gods who look down from other ones. It also means that if you're using your powers to their full effect, you'll come off as kind of savage in combat... charging, pouncing, scattering enemies, throwing and dragging them around. But also remember that you're a Controller, so whenever possible there should be some method to what you're doing. Pounce a tough foe to make them vulnerable. Savage Rend to pull an enemy off a nearby ally. Thorn Whip to get them off a distant one. Call of the Beast to get them to engage with one of your allies. You're a traffic cop. You get the enemies to go where you want them to and out of the places you don't want them.
(Also, Thorn Whip is the kind of power that it pays to think about creative uses of, in combat and out. The raw mechanical description of it is a good description of what it does as an attack in combat: target one enemy within 10 squares, do this much damage and pull 2 squares on a hit. But it's equally valid to think of it in terms of: you conjure a thorny vine out of thin air.)