It's so immensely dumb how a damn polar bear is getting 1-2 shot at lv4 because of garbage AC and turning bark skin into a concentration spell (another trash mechanic that makes many spells useless) makes it so my humanoid form at lv4 is way more survivable at 17 AC than the polar bear.
With Shillelagh and the Githyanki plate and the Dex bonus from lv4 stat boost, my Tiefling moon druid has seen his forms become basically obsolete and makes Land more attractive if not for the fact that like 95% of druid spells require concentration and make any kind of spell combo play impossible.
It just feels stupid. Built this druid to be some sort of tank frontliner to replace Lazael in party, but all you are is a higher HP sponge but with far less damage output because you are soaking up turns just absorbing attacks in polar bear.
Change AC on forms to carry over from humanoid or implement proper level scaling of AC for forms, and change this awful concentration system.
It should tell you something that basically much of the cheese builds are abusing Lazel or the druid's cheese build is a dual wield melee playstyle because you make spellcasting so awful with spell slot skills having % miss chance and being hamstringed by concentration despite being a limited resource and not hitting any harder than a simple greatsword autoattack that costs no limited resources.
Your post seems to demonstrate that you are not familiar with the 5e ruleset. The low AC is necessary to keep druids in balance with other classes. Like you said, wild shape is a HP meat shield (at early levels). Add AC to that and they would be better tanks than fighters. Concentration is a mechanic created to prevent spellcasters to have a dozen buff spells running at once. Without it, encounter balance becomes difficult and almost necessitates wizards and clerics in a party, again making the fighter more obsolete.
I haven't played the druid class in BG3 yet (I don't care for the class) but what made circle of the moon special was the ability to wild shape using a bonus action. Other druids require a full action. That's a major difference but I have a feeling Larian decided to make wild shape the same for all circles thus making circle of the moon pointless.
The cheese isn't from 5e. It's Larian homebrew. Your frustration should be pointed at Larian and not requesting more deviation from 5e rules.
I don't give a damn about some fanboy obsession with a tabletop's ruleset. I enjoyed DoS 2 caster combat far more than this snoozefest of Eldritch Bolt Warlock and Moonbeam druid.
Imbalanced against fighter? Lazael is hitting for 17-25 damage, while being tankier than my bear, having greater mobility than said bear in between jump and her base battlemaster reach, while doing 12+ damage from a bow, and all her attacks can exploit environmental surfaces with dip not to mention poison coating.
Fighters are BROKEN in this game. They have the most sustainable damage, the greatest baseline safety, and because they have the HP and AC to support backstab chasing, they don't rely on a clutch like Misty Step sucking up a spell slot just so they don't miss half their skills.
You try the Githyanki camp without cheesing barrels and without Lazael in your party and get back to me.
The bear's durability would be balanced by the fact the polar bear does 8-11 damage while Lazael does nearly double that with access to other bonus actions than a mere taunt.
