Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General 5e vs homebrew moondruid discussion

Moon druid is well known to be one of the strongest(if not the strongest) level 2 option. But the other classes overtake by level 5 when they get their own multi attacks. This is the way 5e intended it to be and its not a bad thing. Some classes or combos are stronger during certain levels, thats just how it always will be. Just like mages being meh early in the game but becoming one of the strongest classes later on.

Fun things they home brewed that does help the user experience in a game sense:
- Free beast speech in shape shift form
- Unlimited time in Shape shift instead of hours/in game hours
- being able to climb stuff like ladders (arguably should be removed )
- not having to see a creature to learn its shape but having them all ready to go
- bonus shapes invented by Larian

The most important thing we lose for this is multi-attack on bear. Moon druid is supposed to be a dnd slaughterhouse at level 2, instead we get a weakened single attack.

I can understand that fear Larian has for balancing the game, but fact of the matter is there will always be some class combo that will be better than others at certain levels that would make the game easier (fixed by adding different difficulty levels btw one for min maxers one for more casual players just like in divinity )

Do you guys agree with the direction Larion is taking with homebrewing important level spikes/mechanics? Or would people rather prefer a moon druid closer to 5e?

(Please Larian reconsider the current moon druid home brew. Give me my level 2 power fantasy , more 5e less homebrew.)

I don't really know.

I have to admit that the druid is far less powerfull than I thought. On the other hand, whatever we're talking about druids or any other classes you can +- solo the entire game due to all homebrew.
I'm not sure the game difficulty is balanced at all so I don't really know if this would change anything or not.

The druid already has strong PROS and other rules can easily fill it's CONS.

I've only been playing Moon Druid so far. It may not be as powerful as in RAW but I don't think it is weak either.

With the lack of multiattack it remains to be seen how it will compare once warriors start having several attacks and such.

I started a Moon Druid play through but I could see the way it was going and switched to a circle druid which is stronger over all. unless they make significant changes to the Moon Druid (for me anyway) it's not a sub class I would play.

It is possible that my Table Top DnD 5e experiences are colouring my judgement

The little changes are all positive, in my opinion. Free Beast Speech in animal form I like a lot as druids should just be the best at talking to animals. Needing to cast the spell to do it is limiting and annoying when you look over at a warlock who can do it passively if they made the right choices. Climbing ladders isn't really an issue for me either. Just a quality of life gameplay change so I don't have to blow wildshape usages to keep up with the party.

Not needing to see the animal first isn't all that different from campaigns I've played either. I've not met a DM yet that told me I couldn't use wildshape until I see an animal. All of them have more or less allowed me to decide what shapes I have based on background so long as I didn't get too gamey with it.

I am more concerned with giving Land druids access to forms that should be Moon exclusives like dire wolf or giant spider. It robs Moon of some of its best options and makes it more of a side grade in terms of wildshape combat power rather than an upgrade, which is a shame as Land is still an upgrade as far as being a pure caster.

I prefer the spell, just cast & forget. Btw, there is a new [druid] option

Honestly moon druid is overrated even on table top. Sure, it comes with a bang when you get your nice shapes @ level 2 and it can somewhat take a fitting spot in some parties when you get elemental forms to be able to go in the front everytime. But as the levels go up the power of the moon circle decays far too quickly and the versatility which comes so precious to druids and parties overall is lost to just get one more HP pool. Meanwhile land circle druid has access to as many spells as needed, gets it back on short rests, and doesn't feel forced to use its most powerful shapes (which locks the spells away) because it's a sub-class feature.
When BG3 will feature higher level gameplay moon circle will fall behind pretty hard.

Why do some players think that land is more powerfull than moon ? Atm the game allow us to rest everytime so natural recovery is close to useless.

The bird forms give the moon druid an incredible mobility on the battlefield and you can have MANY hp with the bear (60+).
The spells are the same, so are the spells slots.

I just started a new playthrough full solo with a moondruid and it looks really doable. Not sure it would be without the bear that grants a LOT of survivability.

What did I miss about the land circle ?

Well, with land circle: coast you get mirror image and misty step. So a wild elf druid could dual-wield any combination of longsword, club and flaming scimitar, or switch to shield as needed, and buff themselves with mirror image, using misty step as needed. Weapons have the advanatage of having their own magical protperties. Poison I'm not sure about, can you poison your own fangs as a shapeshiffted animal?

But I'm roleplaying my drow druid, so that's just guesswork on my part.

It is the extra spells. Coast gives Misty step as Ash Elemental said, while Grasslands gives Invisibility. Both are solid, versatile spells that druid normally cannot get.

Plus not everyone wants to stop and do a long rest after every fight, so Natural Recovery saves on down time.

I was talking mostly about the tabletop druid. Circle of the land toolkit gets far better as level increase, meanwhile Circle of the Moon starts working against your class mechanics (versatility) by locking you into animal/elemental forms and thus keeping you from casting very powerful spells. Now I don't know how it will go past act 1 in the game here, but if they keep the class design somewhat true to what it is in the PHB, the powerful feeling provided by the circle of the moon will decrease around level 8ish or so.