It should indeed be the same carrying capacity as the druid herself/himself.
It's just silly otherwise, I've realised that I never shapeshift anymore even though I'm a moon druid...
Well, it doesn't help animal forms are underpowered garbage past lv2 without inheriting your higher AC and you even do more damage in humanoid with Shilellagh while having access to healing and ranged utility on top.
The sheer annoyance of being encumbered when you swap to anything but bear/wolf/deep rothe is just the cherry on top of the awful shapeshift design balancing.
The point of animal form is not that they can fight better than humans.
- The bear gives you 60HP extra and you can taunt enemies so your companions can attack them without fear of damage.
- You can reach some places that are hard to reach otherwise.
- You can concentrate on a spell while you (as bird) watch this from miles away.
If animal form had the AC and damage of humans plus the extra health pool, special abilities and mobility they already have, druids would be totally OP and it makes no sense to play another class.
60 HP while sacrificing 2+ turns of being useless. You don't seem to realize that while you're a bear, which lasts maybe one turn of a Redcap or Githyanki patrol attack due to its abysmal AC as opposed to having 19-21 AC and not getting hit at all in humanoid, you hit for about 70% of your humanoid form's Shillelagh attack, or 0 damage in the case you attempt to goad, which barely passes the saving throws of the lv4 enemies. Brilliant idea to Goad, by the way, so you can absorb the fire of 3 Githyanki/Redcaps like an idiot after they 1-2 shot your bear in the next turn.
Won't even mention the damage you're also losing out in terms of Moonbeam readjustment or the access to healing allies and applying blade ward or removing poison with a Healing Word in the same turn you attack, which animal forms don't let you do. I'll take Land druid with 19-21 AC over your useless stalling form and play around Moonbeam and Shillelagh on top of having more spell slots, spell slot restoration, and Misty Step form Coast alignment.
-Reach some places that are "hard to reach". It's called Lazael Jump, with the Jump action tripling her jumping distance she can almost reach any location you want to reach, and for any other you use Wyll's Misty Step. Not to mention said "access hard places" forms are natively available to Land druids without wasting their level up perk on a garbage polar bear form and gaining an extra spell slot and two learned spells, one of them Misty Step to boot which is the superior version of a Badger or equivalent of a Raven, is also restored on short rest, and doesn't require the shifting of forms.
But keep talking about being a useless sponge of a subclass, as if fighters are rushing to play sword and shield with defense specialization instead of 2H greatweapon master because the best defense is killing an opponent off in one turns so you don't have to deal with him the next.
