Unleash Your Inner Beast: A Moon Druid Guide (5e)

[Nhym]

I do, but I don't think I can legally distribute it. You can get it here for $5 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/220...the-Jungle-Rot

If price is an issue, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a $5 gift certificate.

Acquired. Much appreciated!

[MaxWilson]

Yes, I definitely think the T-Rex is better. We’re clearly talking past each other, so let me restate what appears to be our disagreement:

You think the Titanosaurus will have a reasonable chance of landing its Tail Thunder AoE on 2 or more PCs more than once during the projected 3 rounds of fighting used to compute CR.

Sort of. If the situation is appropriate for "ideal" T-Rex mobile tactics, it's also ideal for Titanosaurus mobile tactics, which means it's going to be better off using Momentum instead of Tail of Thunder--it's still better than the T-Rex, but in a different way. (More damage/HP/AC.)

I agree that if you could do that, ol’ Thundertail would justify a higher CR than 7. My own experience has been that the low speed and fact that you must choose between mobility or offense for your legendary actions means the T-Saur’s effective DPR is much closer to 45 (for an offensive CR of 7) than 90.

You mention playing dinos with human intelligence, but darting in, grabbing one member of the herd in your jaws, then running off to devour it before you make another pass at the herd seems like standard hunting tactics a T-Rex or Giganotosaurus would use, so that’s how I play them.

I see standard hunting behavior as the exact opposite: dart in, grab a member of the herd, and then all the others run away from you. How often does a cheetah run away from a herd of gazelles? It doesn't. Same would apply to a T-Rex. It doesn't expect to need to retreat--unfortunately, against PCs that is a mistake.

Against PCs a T-Rex ought to peel off and avoid them entirely as soon as they show their teeth (e.g. after inflicting 20+ HP of damage on the T-Rex), but that isn't any fun for the players. If you're a DM determined to play the T-Rex with human level intelligence and a willingness to die in futile combat, then hit-and-run tactics are your best bet, but they are no in way natural for the T-Rex. And again, a Titanosaurus is better than a T-Rex at hit-and-run tactics anyway thanks to Momentum.

At any rate, yes, I think Speed > 30’ and an auto-grapple + restrain on a hit are significantly better than the T-Saur’s legendary actions, enough so that they easily make up the difference in HP and AC.

Effective speed 45'-75' without taking opportunity attacks, plus way better HP and AC and an anti-swarm AoE >> Speed 50' and an auto-grapple + restrain, in a mobile scenario.

If it helps, I consider the T-Saur as dishing out and absorbing damage appropriate to a CR 9ish creature, but then mark it down for being a big sack of HP without any range, speed or tricks/gimmicks worth worrying about. It’s so dang big and loud it’s difficult (for me at least) to imagine it gets to melee range before eating at least one round of missile attacks (this is how it played out at my table).

Huh. It's weird that you consider the T-Saur to be "without speed" when it actually moves faster than a T-Rex under your apparent assumption that its legendary actions will be devoted entirely to Momentum (otherwise its HP/damage is higher than CR 10). 75' movement and reach 20' is considerably better than 50' movement and reach 10'. If that speed isn't worth worrying about then neither are most monsters in the MM. You're going to have to downgrade lots and lots of monsters, e.g. Goristro CR 17 => CR 7ish.

[Zuras]

I see standard hunting behavior as the exact opposite: dart in, grab a member of the herd, and then all the others run away from you. How often does a cheetah run away from a herd of gazelles? It doesn't. Same would apply to a T-Rex. It doesn't expect to need to retreat--unfortunately, against PCs that is a mistake.

Against PCs a T-Rex ought to peel off and avoid them entirely as soon as they show their teeth (e.g. after inflicting 20+ HP of damage on the T-Rex), but that isn't any fun for the players. If you're a DM determined to play the T-Rex with human level intelligence and a willingness to die in futile combat, then hit-and-run tactics are your best bet, but they are no in way natural for the T-Rex. And again, a Titanosaurus is better than a T-Rex at hit-and-run tactics anyway thanks to Momentum.


Effective speed 45'-75' without taking opportunity attacks, plus way better HP and AC and an anti-swarm AoE >> Speed 50' and an auto-grapple + restrain, in a mobile scenario.

T-Rexes might not use hit and run tactics on small theropods, but they also hunt ceratopsian dinos, and they won’t be sticking around to face a bull Triceratops. Whether or not a T-Rex will have learned humans can be dangerous is an open question, but in Chult they would. Plus, when they attack PCs it’s easy to say that they were being possessed by nature spirits or some other contrived reason to bother them.

As far as our CR argument, I checked and the King of Feathers gets no change to its CR after all its modifications, so obviously we are both wrong and nothing matters, since adding 64 hp and a massive mobility upgrade means nothing.

Beasts of the Jungle Rot is awesome, though. My dinosaur Zombies still went out like punks, but they had a lot more variety. If you think the Titanosaurus is in the same league as the Giganotosaurus though, you’re crazy. It’s all about trying to eat the PCs, man!

[MaxWilson]

T-Rexes might not use hit and run tactics on small theropods, but they also hunt ceratopsian dinos, and they won’t be sticking around to face a bull Triceratops.

They sure won't be used to using grapple tactics, then, because a Triceratops is Huge, and the T-Rex's grapple/restrain only works up to size Medium. And again, a T-Rex that takes noticeable damage while hunting should peel off and retreat, not risk death for the sake of a meal. You're selling the notion that hunting tactics translate to PC-killing tactics, and I'm not buying.

Whether or not a T-Rex will have learned humans can be dangerous is an open question, but in Chult they would. Plus, when they attack PCs it’s easy to say that they were being possessed by nature spirits or some other contrived reason to bother them.

Sure. Which is why I don't necessarily object to playing T-Rexes or Titanosaurs with human-level intelligence if you contrive a good reason for it--the game isn't actually challenging if all of the monsters act rationally.

As far as our CR argument, I checked and the King of Feathers gets no change to its CR after all its modifications, so obviously we are both wrong and nothing matters, since adding 64 hp and a massive mobility upgrade means nothing.

I don't know what you're saying here. I don't remember saying anything at all about the King of Feathers--did you?

Beasts of the Jungle Rot is awesome, though. My dinosaur Zombies still went out like punks, but they had a lot more variety. If you think the Titanosaurus is in the same league as the Giganotosaurus though, you’re crazy. It’s all about trying to eat the PCs, man!

Tell you what. Let's auto-generate four 9th level PCs on fastcharacter.com. You come up with a scenario that's ideal for the Giganotosaurus, and specify the tactics it will use, fighting to the death. I'll come up with a scenario that's ideal for the Titanosaurus and specify the tactics it will use, again fighting to the death. If you want we can actually run the fight over chat or something, otherwise we could just crunch the numbers. If the Giganotosaurus does at least 150% as much damage to the PCs before dying than the Titanosaurus does, you win the argument. If not, they are roughly comparable. Agree?

[Zuras]

Tell you what. Let's auto-generate four 9th level PCs on fastcharacter.com. You come up with a scenario that's ideal for the Giganotosaurus, and specify the tactics it will use, fighting to the death. I'll come up with a scenario that's ideal for the Titanosaurus and specify the tactics it will use, again fighting to the death. If you want we can actually run the fight over chat or something, otherwise we could just crunch the numbers. If the Giganotosaurus does at least 150% as much damage to the PCs before dying than the Titanosaurus does, you win the argument. If not, they are roughly comparable. Agree?

Look, we’re clearly talking past each other and derailing this thread, but if you want to start a king of the dinos thread, or even a CR 7-10 brute monster comparison thread, knock yourself out. However, giving either “ideal conditions” elides my whole point that the Titanosaurus suffers from its low speed and will likely eat an entire round of ranged attacks before it can hit the enemy, so you should be able to see my point just running a scenario starting at 60’ apart vs 30’.

[MaxWilson]

Look, we’re clearly talking past each other and derailing this thread, but if you want to start a king of the dinos thread, or even a CR 7-10 brute monster comparison thread, knock yourself out. However, giving either “ideal conditions” elides my whole point that the Titanosaurus suffers from its low speed and will likely eat an entire round of ranged attacks before it can hit the enemy, so you should be able to see my point just running a scenario starting at 60’ apart vs 30’.

My reply is here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...8#post23946028

If you want to respond, feel free, and I'll respond back, but I don't think there's anything to say that hasn't already been said.

[col_impact]

It is great to see some much deserved recognition for Goblins being one of the best races for Moon Druid in this well-researched guide to Moon Druids. For a racial feat they get a lite version of Cunning Action/Mobility which is probably as good as it gets. Suddenly you have a lot more action economy whether wildshaping or not and can net big power ups from all wildshapes but especially charging and stealth forms. All of this without having to dip into levels of Rogue.

What race is the absolute best for Moon Druid? I vote Goblin.

[sambojin]

Really stupid druid trick for "air proning" flying creatures by lvl3 (about the exact same time battlemasters can do it with a bow). Yes, you'll do it better later on, but a nice early option is good to have. From another thread on the Warding Wind spell.

*****
Wondering how well a Warding Wind jump/grapple from a Female Steeder would play out against flyers too. Is this the druid's Trip Attack compared to a battlemaster doing the same with a bow? 10min duration, so if you get the spell up the moment you see a flyer (before actual combat starts), it can't move within 90' of you or you'll drop it out of the air like a stone, just like Trip Attack with a bow from a battlemaster, except you can get double proficiency on grapples :)

You can attack at any point during your movement, grappling turns yours and their movement to zero, you've got a strong wind surrounding you as well, and you really don't care about the fall damage. Lvl3 option for 90' air "proning", kind of. Should work in theory. Maybe even without the grapple attack hitting. Just specify that you're jumping "onto" the dragon, and expect an acrobatics roll at some point, but you've got a grapple attempt as well. If either sticks, the flying lizard drops. You've got a +5 Sticky Leg attack too, if that's better than your grapple attempt would be as well.
*****

Changing out of wildshape doesn't necessarily remove the grappled condition, whether it's from fall damage or by choice (or the restrained condition for that matter, when using other forms). So you can keep them there and use other stupid druid tricks the turn after as well.

There's always options with Moon Druids. Always :)

[Coidzor]

Creature Forms Availability

Spoiler: Requirements

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Existence: The first requirement of Polymorph, Wild Shape and the Conjure spells is that the target form must exist in the game universe. The existence of dinosaurs is typically the primary concern here - dinos are among some of the most powerful and versatile Beasts available, but some DMs exclude them from their world.

AL: If you play in Adventure League (AL), the creatures available are those listed in AL legal sources. These include the MM, most WotC supplements, published WotC Adventures, and content from the Guild Adept program such as BotJR.

All of the creatures I list in this guide are AL legal, except for those in GGtR and WGtE.

Additional restrictions: Beside the existence of the creature, there are some additional restriction on the target form:

• Polymorph: your character must know about the creature.
  
• Wild Shape: your character must have seen the creature before.
  
• Conjure Animals / Minor Elemental / Fey : the creature(s) are selected by the DM.
  
• Conjure Elemental: the elemental is appropriate for the area you choose, and selected by the DM.

Polymorph has the least restrictive requirement: having heard or read about the Beast is sufficient. The DM could reasonably ask for a Nature or History check if the Beast is rare or foreign.

For Wild Shape, observing a polymorphed or conjured Beast may be enough to let you Wild Shape into the form.

With the Conjure spells, you can request specific creature(s), although the DM is free to ignore your suggestions. Some DMs may also be more likely to oblige if your character knows about or has seen the creatures before, or if they are native to the land you are visiting.

DM Courtesy: Not a requirement, but if you wish to use a creature from a source your DM doesn't own, it is common courtesy to show him a picture or printed copy of the relevant stat block.

Spoiler: Awakened Beasts

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Awaken: The Awaken spell (level 5) can "awaken" a Beast of size Huge or smaller, increasing its Intelligence to 10 and allowing it to speak one language.

By RAW, there is nothing preventing a PC from using Wild Shape or Polymorph to turn into an Awakened Beast, or to conjure Awakened Beasts. Of course, some DMs may object to this.

Benefits: Choosing an awakened version of a Beast instead of the regular yields the following benefits

• Wild Shape: you retain the ability to speak while Wild Shaped.
• Polymorph: the target's intelligence becomes 10 (instead of the usual 1-2), and it can understand (but not speak) a language.
• Conjure Animals/Fey: the conjured Beasts obey your orders more intelligently, and can report verbally to you.

Wild Shape Requirement: To Wild Shape into the awakened version of a Beast, you must have seen such awakened Beast before. If you are level 9+, the most straightforward way to do so is to awaken a member of the specie yourself.

The following adventures feature Awakened Beasts:

• Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Giant Crab (Barnacle Bess).
  
• Poisoned Words: Flying Snake (Zsoksia).
  
• Putting the Dead to Rest: Giant Ape.
  
• Tomb of Annihilation: Giant Constructor Snake (Azi Mas).
  
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist: Draft Horse (Maxeene), Giant Shark (Obliteros), & Rat.
  
• Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Brown Bear, Elk, and Giant Wasp.

Polymorph Requirement: I assume you need to know about a specific awakened Beast; knowing that a given beast could be theoretically awakened is not sufficient.

Spoiler: Unique Beasts

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Some Beasts have a name and unique stats. By RAW, these Beasts are legal forms for Wild Shape, Polymorph, and the Conjure Animals / Fey spells.

In practice, the DM is unlikely to conjure these creatures, and some may even prohibit Wild Shaping and Polymorphing into them.

The following adventures feature unique Beasts:

• Curse of Strahd: Sangzor the Giant Goat (p.160).
• Lost Mine of Phandelver: Snarl the Wolf (p.40).
• Out of the Abyss: The Spider King (p.74).
• Tales from the Yawning Portal: Guthash the Giant Rat (p.21), Huge Giant Crab (p.103)

The Spider King is rather problematic here - the form is a greatly buffed Giant Spider yet remains CR 1. Although not RAW, the fluff of the creature suggests to me it should be an Monstrosity instead of a Beast, and thus not a valid target for Wild Shape.

Spoiler: Variant Beasts

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Some Beasts do not have their own stat block, but are instead variants of existing monsters with some changes. By RAW, there is nothing stopping you from using these altered forms for Wild Shape, Polymorph, & conjuring spells.

The MM & VGtM have the following variants:

• Monster Manual: Cave Bear, Diseases Giant Rat, Giant Lizards (Swiming/Climbing), & Satyr (Pipe)
• Volo's Guide to Monsters: Ox, Rothe, & Stench Kow.

Additionally, some easily missed monster variants are described in the middle of an adventure:

• Out of the Abyss: Cave Badger (p.96), Fiendish Giant Spider (p.97), Giant Rocktopus (p.28)
• Storm King's Thunder: Ice Spider (p.127), Ice Spider Queen (p.128)
• Tales from the Yawning Portal: Amphisbaena (p.83), Four-Armed Gargoyle (p.129), Large Subterranean Lizard (p.176)
• Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Flying Spider (p.150)

Spoiler: Excluded Creatures

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While looking for creatures for the summoning spells, I've decided to exclude the following:

• Encounters in Port Nyanzaru: Cursed Water Elemental (p.19, unique).
• Chelimber's Descent: Stone Mephit (p.22, obscure & too powerful).
• Giant Diplomacy: Oblivillish (p.23, unique).
• Szith Morcane Unbound: Azer Acolyte & Priest (pp. 26-27, weak & obscure forms).
• The Iron Baron: Ironmonger (p.41, unique Earth Elemental Myrmidon), Vigorel (p.43, unique).
• Uneasy Lies the Head: Wobbles (p.36, magically enhanced).
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist: Lady Gondafrey (p.152, unique).
• Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Big Xorn (p.51, unique), Haungharassk (p.258, magically enhanced), Poison Weird (p.127, dies out of brew).

Pretty thorough and a well put together guide!

I must admit, though, I'm a little surprised that you went through and even included an excluded forms section but didn't also mention Half-Dragons, if only to say that you were intentionally excluding them.

[Reevh]

Great guide. But why do you say that you can speak as a Giant Elk? The stat block says you understand Common/Elvish/Sylvan but can't speak it.

[Trustypeaches]

Really stupid druid trick for "air proning" flying creatures by lvl3 (about the exact same time battlemasters can do it with a bow). Yes, you'll do it better later on, but a nice early option is good to have. From another thread on the Warding Wind spell.

Fun fact. Prone doesn’t reduce the targets speed to 0. A prone target can still “crawl”, where just expand 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot they travel.

Prone
A prone creature’s only Movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.

So knocking an Airborne target prone doesn’t cause them to plummet out of the air, sorry Battlemasters.

[Daghoulish]

Fun fact. Prone doesn’t reduce the targets speed to 0. A prone target can still “crawl”, where just expand 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot they travel.
So knocking an Airborne target prone doesn’t cause them to plummet out of the air, sorry Battlemasters.

In the combat section of the Player's Handbook.

Spoiler

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Flying Movement
Flying creatures enjoy many benefits of mobility, but they must also deal with the danger of falling. If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.

[Zuras]

Great guide. But why do you say that you can speak as a Giant Elk? The stat block says you understand Common/Elvish/Sylvan but can't speak it.

Since giant elk can speak Giant Elk, they can speak a language, so it is less of a stretch to argue that you can converse, at least haltingly, with the rest of the party.

[NorthernPhoenix]

Great guide! The only mistake that stood out to me instantly is how you criminally underrate Mirage Arcana. It's arguably one of the most broken spells in the game, and recent Sage Advice does nothing but encourage the most powerful interpretation of the spell possible. You could reasonably expect many DMs to ban it if you push your luck, but the same can be said for Woodland Beings, or any of the mass conjure spells, which you still rate extremely high.

[KorvinStarmast]

Unleash Your Inner Beast: A Moon Druid Guide (v1.2)

My guide to the other Druid Circles is available here.

*Applause*
That's a very organized and thorough approach you have taken, and I like how you folded in the adventure specific stuff.

Nice job, thanks for the hard work.

[Zigludo]

I hope I can be forgiven for bumping this very interesting thread despite the fact that it's been inactive for a few months.

Great guide, Merudo. This is a pretty insane amount of detail and really goes over basically everything. My only complaint is that you seem to ignore accuracy when talking about damage output. This is a pretty big deal when comparing the damage output of say, Polar Bear and Quetzalcoatlus. It may be fair to mention that you'll often be able to obtain Advantage or bonuses to hit from magical effects, but you don't always have those.

There's one possible multiclassing path that I think you've overlooked, one which has been a bit of a hobby-horse of mine lately: taking Moon Druid to 6 for CR 2 forms, then going into an Extra Attack class for five levels. This results in a big boost to damage output bonus at 11th level which is the second big break-point after 5th level. I've been running quite a bit of math on it and although it does require you to split your attention, if you choose a proper form (such as Aurochs) your melee damage output in Wild Shape is on-par with optimized 11th characters like GWM + PAM fighters and Barbarians. Not only that, but this build's melee output continues to scale towards 20th level as you unlock beasts with increasing accuracy and stronger attacks. Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Brontosaurus are pretty terrifying with Extra Attack. Obviously, the huge downside is that, should you actually hit 20, you won't have 9th level spells, and you won't have Archdruid. But frankly the infinite HP of Archdruid tends to be kind of overkill. A raging Rhinoceros or and this boosts your damage a lot (although it does rob you of Foresight).

My ideal path would probably be Barbarian to 5 for Fast Movement, Rage resistance and Extra Attack. Rage (especially Bear totem) makes you less likely to be knocked out of Wild Shape in the first round which is probably going to be the biggest threat to your resources / action economy. But Fighter (BM/EK), Monk, Ranger (Gloomstalker) and even Paladin have advantages over the Barbarian.

I would combine it with Mobile to set up turns with multiple charges on Giant Elk or Rhinoceros. Extra Attack also enables Giant Elk to occasionally use Charge and Hooves on the same turn.

Now obviously this is a lot of text to say "Going Barb 5 is nice because Extra Attack is good with Higher CR beasts." But I do think it's worth considering

[Yunru]

I hope I can be forgiven for bumping this very interesting thread despite the fact that it's been inactive for a few months.

Great guide, Merudo. This is a pretty insane amount of detail and really goes over basically everything. My only complaint is that you seem to ignore accuracy when talking about damage output. This is a pretty big deal when comparing the damage output of say, Polar Bear and Quetzalcoatlus. It may be fair to mention that you'll often be able to obtain Advantage or bonuses to hit from magical effects, but you don't always have those.

There's one possible multiclassing path that I think you've overlooked, one which has been a bit of a hobby-horse of mine lately: taking Moon Druid to 6 for CR 2 forms, then going into an Extra Attack class for five levels. This results in a big boost to damage output bonus at 11th level which is the second big break-point after 5th level. I've been running quite a bit of math on it and although it does require you to split your attention, if you choose a proper form (such as Aurochs) your melee damage output in Wild Shape is on-par with optimized 11th characters like GWM + PAM fighters and Barbarians. Not only that, but this build's melee output continues to scale towards 20th level as you unlock beasts with increasing accuracy and stronger attacks. Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Brontosaurus are pretty terrifying with Extra Attack. Obviously, the huge downside is that, should you actually hit 20, you won't have 9th level spells, and you won't have Archdruid. But frankly the infinite HP of Archdruid tends to be kind of overkill. A raging Rhinoceros or and this boosts your damage a lot (although it does rob you of Foresight).

My ideal path would probably be Barbarian to 5 for Fast Movement, Rage resistance and Extra Attack. Rage (especially Bear totem) makes you less likely to be knocked out of Wild Shape in the first round which is probably going to be the biggest threat to your resources / action economy. But Fighter (BM/EK), Monk, Ranger (Gloomstalker) and even Paladin have advantages over the Barbarian.

I would combine it with Mobile to set up turns with multiple charges on Giant Elk or Rhinoceros. Extra Attack also enables Giant Elk to occasionally use Charge and Hooves on the same turn.

Now obviously this is a lot of text to say "Going Barb 5 is nice because Extra Attack is good with Higher CR beasts." But I do think it's worth considering

Going Long Death Monk 5 is also great for the TempHP.

[Zuras]

Obviously, the huge downside is that, should you actually hit 20, you won't have 9th level spells, and you won't have Archdruid. But frankly the infinite HP of Archdruid tends to be kind of overkill. A raging Rhinoceros or and this boosts your damage a lot (although it does rob you of Foresight).

Archdruid isn't just for the infinite forms. Archdruid and Beast Spells letting you cast in wild shape are a huge improvement at high levels.

[ATHATH]

Really stupid druid trick for "air proning" flying creatures by lvl3 (about the exact same time battlemasters can do it with a bow). Yes, you'll do it better later on, but a nice early option is good to have. From another thread on the Warding Wind spell.

*****
Wondering how well a Warding Wind jump/grapple from a Female Steeder would play out against flyers too. Is this the druid's Trip Attack compared to a battlemaster doing the same with a bow? 10min duration, so if you get the spell up the moment you see a flyer (before actual combat starts), it can't move within 90' of you or you'll drop it out of the air like a stone, just like Trip Attack with a bow from a battlemaster, except you can get double proficiency on grapples :)

You can attack at any point during your movement, grappling turns yours and their movement to zero, you've got a strong wind surrounding you as well, and you really don't care about the fall damage. Lvl3 option for 90' air "proning", kind of. Should work in theory. Maybe even without the grapple attack hitting. Just specify that you're jumping "onto" the dragon, and expect an acrobatics roll at some point, but you've got a grapple attempt as well. If either sticks, the flying lizard drops. You've got a +5 Sticky Leg attack too, if that's better than your grapple attempt would be as well.
*****

Changing out of wildshape doesn't necessarily remove the grappled condition, whether it's from fall damage or by choice (or the restrained condition for that matter, when using other forms). So you can keep them there and use other stupid druid tricks the turn after as well.

There's always options with Moon Druids. Always :)

Didn't female steeders get updated to be Monstrosities in a later book?

[ATHATH]

There's one possible multiclassing path that I think you've overlooked, one which has been a bit of a hobby-horse of mine lately: taking Moon Druid to 6 for CR 2 forms, then going into an Extra Attack class for five levels.

Does Extra Attack work with some of the weird Attack options of wild shape forms? I could have sworn that I saw some clarification somewhere that they don't work together, but I could be wrong.

Also, the author of this guide might want to update their description of Contagion to reflect the spell's errata.

[Yunru]

Didn't female steeders get updated to be Monstrosities in a later book?

No. They've been released as both and are, as officially as we know, both depending on where in the realm you are.

[DreadNecromancy]

You never rate the Mosasaur under polymorph forms (but you do under Conjure Fey). How is it for polymorph?

It's in BotJR, CR 8.

[Orc_Lord]

I have probably read hundreds of guides. This might be one of the most in depth ones I have seen.

Great job.

[Zuras]

You never rate the Mosasaur under polymorph forms (but you do under Conjure Fey). How is it for polymorph?

It's in BotJR, CR 8.

It doesn’t have a walking speed, meaning it only helps in fully aquatic situations. Since it only has one attack as well, it’s just an OK emergency combat form. The Sarcosuchus is significantly better in almost every conceivable situation, with its two attacks and ability to move on land.

Also remember that most aquatic encounters involve boats or significant non-combat complications, meaning wildshaping into an Orca or Giant Octopus while concentrating on Control Water or Call Lightning will be more effective.

Mosasaur is basically for letting the fighter distract the Dragon Turtle/Kraken by themselves temporarily. It’s not even much better than the Giant Shark, which does only 2/3 the damage but usually gets advantage and has 60 feet of blindsight.

[Tetrasodium]

Couple things you missed or that should be made more clear First is that you left out the feats from Morgraves misc(MorMisc), eberron druids are pretty different from FR's & it includes a few things to help in that regard Here's one of the less judgement/dm style reliant ones. I expect rising will change a few thing as well because of how different druids are there.

hierophant
Requirements: The ability to cast a druid or ranger spell.
You have strengthened your connection to the beasts of the natural world. You gain the following benefits:
• You gain proficiency in either the Nature or Survival skill.
• You learn the speak with animals spell and can cast it once without expending a spell slot. Once you do, you can’t do so again until you complete a short or long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
• You gain one use of the Wild Shape feature available to the druid class and can use it to shift into any beasts you have seen before with a CR rating 1/8 or below, including those with a swim or fly speed.
• Once you do, you can’t do so again until you complete a short or long rest. If you have the Wild Shape feature from another source, you gain an additional use with the benefits and restrictions of that feature instead.

also you might be underselling warforge as a race to a significant degree

Per crawford in the druid/wildshape podcast... ~1640:"we state in the wildshape rule that this transformation is magical", 20:20:"There's another bit of wildshape that generates a lot of questions, & that is.. we state, that while in wildshape you retain access to your class, your race, and any other source. and you can use them if the new form is capable of doing so. when we say any other source, this also includes stuff like feats. You have access to alk of these things as long as you are physically capable of using them. Now this is very open ended & we were very purposeful in leaving this open ended because there are so may different animals you can turn into , feats, features, racial traits. If we got too specific, we would then wind up being far more restrictive than we intended. Really the message I want to give out to our listeners is that this ruling is written in the spirit of permissiveness, we actually want you to be able to use as many of your of class features, racial traits, feats, etcetera as possible but within a sort of limit based more on narrative than game balance. think about what is your person physically capable of doing, if it's a feature that obviously requires the kind of manual dexterity that needs humanlike hands, your not going to be able to do it in your beast form. If a feature specifically refers to a kind of anatomy that you lack.. hypothetical, lets say you have a racial trait that refers to your wings say an aarakokra & you transform into something that lacks those wings... well you don't have access to that racial trait. Those aren't the combinations that people usually have questions about. They usually have questions about things like... one that comes up a lot is 'im a dragonborn, I transform into a beast, do I get to use my breath weapon?'. Well again, this rule is written in an attitude of permissiveness and also as a DM my attutude is very permissive. The dragonborn racial trait, all it says is you exhale this breath weapon. You don't talk about it tied to a particular organ in your body">"alright basically any creature that has lungs or the ability to exhale something would you say?">I would even be more permissive than that. That as long as the creature has a mouth like orifice I would be fine with the dragonborn using their reath weapon"

That bolded bit is super relevant to the wording of integrated protection

Integrated Protection. Your bodyhas builtin defensive layers, which determine your armor class. You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you apply its bonus as normal.

Every wildshape form has something that would be called "your body", crawford making that bizarre kneejerk tweet about integrated protection that conflicts with both his own guidance from the podcast (linked & quoted above) as well as the rules themselves calls into question if the big important difference is really the fact that dragonborn are a "cool" race "in FR" compared to warforged being a "tragic" race that some consider to be a "cool race" present "in eberron" since the same hand-waiving he applies to "exhale" to dismiss the need for lungs & the ability to actually exhale breath can just as easily be applied to "your body" & "defensive layers".

A GM could choose to ignore both guidance from wotc along with the rules themselves & declare that integrated protection doesn't work in wildshape & then your colors for warforged might be about right. Alternately a prospective moon druid could talk to their GM, mutually agree that the crawford tweet is bunk & decide to follow both guidance on interpreting wildshape interactions, wildshape rules, and the wording for warforged integrated protection. In that case the color code should probably go up a notch or two. Regardless & either way, the need for this discussion should be noted until WotC finishes fully coming to its senses with druids.

[sambojin]

Funny little thing for Firbolgs as a race choice as a Moon. Since Giant Elks/Eagles/Owls and all CR5 Elementals speak a language, and you can talk when wildshaped as one, your "Speech of Beast and Leaf" will kick-in and let all animals and plants understand you as well.

It's a fairly minor thing, but you probably will spend at least a bit of your time as a Giant Elk, Eagle or Elemental as a Moon Druid, so it's a weird little side-bonus you get for lvl6-10+ play. And no, apparently you can't turn it off. Everything that could be considered a beast can understand you, whenever you talk.

Just figured I'd mention it, because there's an entire section on wildshape talky'ness in the guide. Common+Elvish+Primordial (or Sylvan), with mini talk-to-animals isn't a terrible language package in most games as a Moon, even better when you keep beast speech as an Elemental.

It also never really runs out of usefulness to always have Detect Magic and Super Disguise Self prepared, even as 1/sr, even if one of them is a ritual (you just saved one prepared spell slot each day, for a black/blue rated spell!). Being able to look like a Gnomish Wizard or a (Dark?)Elvish Bard or an orc/ goblin/ kobold/ whatever before the wildshaping begins, essentially for free with no concentration, never really gets old either. It doesn't get replaced by your other abilities as a Moon, ever. +1 higher level spell prepared, +Super Disguise Self, done. They're probably still only worth rating as blue as a race choice though (not light blue), due to stats, this is just an extra side-thingo that isn't mentioned in the guide, or where it is implied that the racial abilities don't keep being handy all campaign long. There's also no real reason why "Powerful Build" doesn't carry over into wildshape either, so why not carry 30lbs as a tiny spider? Even just to merge loot into yourself and then disappear. Or thousands of pounds as a Giant Constrictor Snake?


Also, it's another pretty niche thing, but a Fighter dip's "fighting style" does give you +2 to-hit on a wildshape form's ranged attacks with the Archery style. They are still a "Ranged Weapon Attack". So Giant Spiders, Dilophosauri, Frilled Deathspitters, Giant Spitting Lizards, Giant Apes, etc get a tiny bit of a boost from the archery style.

[sambojin]

Simply because this is one of the best guides about, a couple of suggested additions:

When Wildshaping into an Air Elemental, you can use a shield to boost AC (because you're proficient in them and it has a "natural" 10+dexmod AC). So they're mostly 17AC or better.
"17AC with a basic shield, can use a sling/dagger for a backup ranged weapon due to high Dex, anti-flying condition immune" would do it. Let people work out that magic armour resizes, etc from there.
(doesn't change the rating. Earth Elementals can use javelins for a backup ranged option. By RAW, they'd be magical attacks too. But Air Elementals are pretty good. 21AC with a +1 shield/+1 studded leather armour is nice to have).

Tidal Wave probably should be rated as black. It air-prones, and you can make it a lot smaller than 30'x10'x10'. It can be the size of a drop of water and it will still cause magical bludgeoning + potential proning. Great for tightly packed combats (which you tend to make happen with Conjure spells).
It's not a great spell, but being able to cast it both in the air, and at any angle within 120' (around a dungeon corridor corner for example), as well as smaller than its maximum size, gives it added versatility that's not really apparent when you read the spell description for the first time. No concentration damage is rare for a druid, at least this one is highly modifiable in just where/who it will effect.
Probably just a "Can be cast at aerial targets, or made smaller than its maximum size" would do it.

[Zuras]

Simply because this is one of the best guides about, a couple of suggested additions:

When Wildshaping into an Air Elemental, you can use a shield to boost AC (because you're proficient in them and it has a "natural" 10+dexmod AC). So they're mostly 17AC or better.
"17AC with a basic shield, can use a sling/dagger for a backup ranged weapon due to high Dex, anti-flying condition immune" would do it. Let people work out that magic armour resizes, etc from there.
(doesn't change the rating. Earth Elementals can use javelins for a backup ranged option. By RAW, they'd be magical attacks too. But Air Elementals are pretty good. 21AC with a +1 shield/+1 studded leather armour is nice to have).

Tidal Wave probably should be rated as black. It air-prones, and you can make it a lot smaller than 30'x10'x10'. It can be the size of a drop of water and it will still cause magical bludgeoning + potential proning. Great for tightly packed combats (which you tend to make happen with Conjure spells).
It's not a great spell, but being able to cast it both in the air, and at any angle within 120' (around a dungeon corridor corner for example), as well as smaller than its maximum size, gives it added versatility that's not really apparent when you read the spell description for the first time. No concentration damage is rare for a druid, at least this one is highly modifiable in just where/who it will effect.
Probably just a "Can be cast at aerial targets, or made smaller than its maximum size" would do it.

Wearing/wielding items in wild shape is going deep into “ask your DM territory”, but I agree Tidal Wave is underrated. Once you get more 3rd level slots it’s a solid AoE to use if something else is using your concentration. Knocking opponents prone and targeting Dex saves makes it a solid counter for heavily armored foes with low Dex like Fire Giants.

Knocking prone with Tidal Wave also combos with Conjure Animals - suddenly everyone gets advantage, not just those with pack tactics, and all the beasts with special trample or pounce attacks will work without the target needing to fail a low DC strength save. Any creatures with auto grapple attacks can then lock down the enemy and keep them prone, as well.

Since Tidal Wave explicitly leaves water behind and puts out fires, it has clever utility uses as well. I’ve used it to fill a room with a few inches of water to find an invisible foe, and put out wildfires the Wizard started with an ill advised fireball. It’s head and shoulders above Erupting Earth.

[sambojin]

We've always played it that the water disappears immediately after cast (the spell suggests that it's an instant effect), but your way would be handier. RAW, the spell is great though. More like a mini-water-explodey-EMP pop, than a tidal wave. So targetable, so useful, it's just a pity you can't scale damage with higher slots (it's one of those bits of spell research, that if it is ever available, every druid should do).

But yeah. Sort of like an instant-geyser-EMP-grenade-beam or something (modifiable on cast for angle and size, and can be targeted anywhere within 120' LoS), and definitely black rated (if it could scale RAW, it would be dark blue).

[Merudo]

Simply because this is one of the best guides about, a couple of suggested additions:

When Wildshaping into an Air Elemental, you can use a shield to boost AC (because you're proficient in them and it has a "natural" 10+dexmod AC). So they're mostly 17AC or better.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the MM suggesting Air Elementals are capable of using tools. If your DM is fine with it, good for you!

Tidal Wave probably should be rated as black. It air-prones, and you can make it a lot smaller than 30'x10'x10'. It can be the size of a drop of water and it will still cause magical bludgeoning + potential proning. Great for tightly packed combats (which you tend to make happen with Conjure spells).
It's not a great spell, but being able to cast it both in the air, and at any angle within 120' (around a dungeon corridor corner for example), as well as smaller than its maximum size, gives it added versatility that's not really apparent when you read the spell description for the first time. No concentration damage is rare for a druid, at least this one is highly modifiable in just where/who it will effect.
Probably just a "Can be cast at aerial targets, or made smaller than its maximum size" would do it.

Wearing/wielding items in wild shape is going deep into “ask your DM territory”, but I agree Tidal Wave is underrated. Once you get more 3rd level slots it’s a solid AoE to use if something else is using your concentration. Knocking opponents prone and targeting Dex saves makes it a solid counter for heavily armored foes with low Dex like Fire Giants.

Knocking prone with Tidal Wave also combos with Conjure Animals - suddenly everyone gets advantage, not just those with pack tactics, and all the beasts with special trample or pounce attacks will work without the target needing to fail a low DC strength save. Any creatures with auto grapple attacks can then lock down the enemy and keep them prone, as well.

Since Tidal Wave explicitly leaves water behind and puts out fires, it has clever utility uses as well. I’ve used it to fill a room with a few inches of water to find an invisible foe, and put out wildfires the Wizard started with an ill advised fireball. It’s head and shoulders above Erupting Earth.

I agree, ranking Tidal Wave so low was a mistake. It's not very good when you get it at level 5, but it becomes good at higher levels, when you can effort to cast level 3 spells more freely. It's definitely a useful concentration-free damage+debuff, one which pairs nicely with conjured animals.