FeatsObviously a WIS ASI wouldn't go amiss for a druid, but I actually took Skilled given that my druid was decent with all non-physical stats, to boost her still further. Given she was the one usually talking to NPCs, this definitely helped in conversation though obviously not combat.
I was disappointed not to see any feats that looked as though they might boost my beasts. I thought Toughness might give them extra HP, but it doesn't look like it.
If there had been a wildshape boosting feat at level 4 I'd have been very tempted. I'm not sure if there are such things in the full 5e ruleset.
EDIT: After a comment from @Silver/ in this thread, I have confirmed that the Heavily Armoured feat gives your wildshapes, as well as your druid, +1 STR. This benefits the bear and wolf, raising their STR to 20 and 18 respectively with a resultant +1 to attack and damage. There is no non-metal armour in EA (though I assume that, as with medium armour, the game currently doesn't prevent druids using metal armour if they want), but with the right armour this feat could also provide survivability in non-animal form so may be a good choice. It is not clear whether the +1 STR to wildshapes is intended or a bug. If intended, then it would be good if the description made this effect of the feat clear.
EDIT2: Someone has also posted on the BG3 reddit that some other feats do have an affect - see
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat..._testing_of_wildshapes_figured_id_share/WildshapesI'm not going to go into the details of the different wildshapes and their shortcomings in combat, given that's already been done elsewhere far better than I could manage it.
But I'll give some general observations about my experience with wildshaping as a learner druid.
- While I can't see any way to change this that isn't cheesable to break balance, I didn't really feel like the mutable, shapechanging druid I expected to be with only two wildshape charges per short rest. I found myself hoarding my charges for combat, while a land druid would probably be more willing to spend them on exploration. Of course this was a self imposed limitation as there's no true restriction on resting.
- Encumbrance was a pain. I loved turning into a Dire Raven and swooping down by the big mushrooms (?) behind Yrre's forge through the dark and silent Underdark, then transforming into a sneaky cat to squeeze through the pipe into the basement to activate the tower and let in my party. But the experience was rather marred by the fact that what actually happened was that I turned into a Raven, spent a minute shuffling things out of my inventory so I wasn't encumbered, swooped down through the Underdark, turned into a cat, then spent another minute lightening the load still further before I could sneak into the tower. I don't know how 5e handles this, but I found myself wishing my human weight allowance was used for wildshapes too (or at least a minimum of my human weight allowance, as I can sort of understand wanting to load down a bear to lug something heavy). Or perhaps I just need to learn to travel lighter.
- I also loved swooping (swooping is good!) down into the decrepit village in raven form from up on the ridge along from Myrna's grave to scout for the duergar raiders, and landing behind Gekh Kohl ready to give him what for with a Deep Rothe in the back. But again the drama turned to farce when Glut came galumphing into the village in search of my druid to whom he was attached as a sort of summon. We really need to be able to select characters separately from their summons/tagalongs, or am I just missing something obvious here?
- There were only three times the game forced me back into human form in my playthrough. The first was when I was sneaking into the goblin camp in raven form, and I was a bit worried when the game turned me into a human for the voice of the Absolute cutscene, but it correctly turned me back into a raven at the end without costing me any wildshape charges. The next time was after using my Deep Rothe form to clear the cave-in to free Nere, and this time the game just turned me human and left me with one less wildshape charge without even triggering a cutscene. It could have just left me as a Rothe and let me decide whether to turn back and speak to him or get one of my companions to do it. The next time was once Nere and his allies were dead, and I'd allied with Elder Brithvar so he wanted to speak with me. This time dialogue did auto trigger after I transformed, and fortunately I persuaded him to leave without the gnomes. My wildshape charges weren't refunded, so had it come to a fight I'd have been going into it with no wildshape charges. This needs to change either to leave my druid in wildshape and let me to trigger the conversation with my chosen party member, auto transform my character for the cutscene then turn them back afterwards like the Absolute scene, or just refund me the wildshape charge if the game forces me to turn human when I don't need to.
- And speaking of the fight with Nere, the fact that the gnomes and my duergar allies would turn hostile at the drop of a hat really scuppered my usual battlefield tactics. Not that it's not fun to turn into a Deep Rothe and just try to charge folk into lava every now and again.
- When you click on the wildshape charge paw icon next to the bonus action triangle, it filters for actions that use these charges and just gives ... wildshape. Unless there are going to be more abilities using these charges later that have a different class action, it would be better if it just listed the forms I could turn into and saved me a click.
ConclusionFirst, my apologies to anyone who read even a quarter of that!
And, at long last and in conclusion ... I found the moon druid a fascinating class to play and loved working out spells, items and strategies that would work with my character. I'm sure I didn't find the best ones, but I had great fun trying. But there's no getting round the fact that moon druids need to be able to activate or manipulate the concentration spells that they should be able to, in order to balance the relative weakness of their animal forms compared to other melee classes. If moon druid is going to be a satisfying class to play in the full release, and it really really should be, then either the spells I've mentioned need to be fixed or the wildshape creatures need to be improved by (I'd say) level 4. Or perhaps a bit of both
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