I will say I don't have a whole lot of experience with Druids in this game so far; my main playthrough is an Oath of Ancients Paladin and I only recently completed act 2 and got Halsin and
as followers and started seeing what this game's version of Druids could do. I just recently started a Moon Druid after a friend of mine (whose favorite class on tabletop is Moon Druid) finally tried out the game, but has been dissatisfied by his own playthrough as Moon Druid so far. In my short time I've noticed some things that bug me,
-Your character cannot talk to NPCs while Wild Shape'd, you have to switch control to one of your other party members in order to initiate dialogue with anyone. Now this makes sense and is accurate to PHB rules, however this wasn't the way I was informed this would work from my other playthrough where I got to play around with Halsin as a party member. If you talk to Halsin while he is in Wild Shape form, he'll revert to his normal form for the conversation and immediately switch back to animal form afterward, without having to expend an additional Wild Shape charge, which is really nice as you only get two Wild Shapes per short rest. I had assumed that player Druids would get this same consideration, but no, you have to prematurely end your Wild Shape and discard the charge if you want to talk to people with your character.
Even worse, encountering some NPCs and activating certain objects that trigger cutscenes can even end your Wild Shape automatically! When I met Astarian as a bear right after fighting the small bunch of Intellect Devourers on the beach, I was forcibly reverted to normal form so that the cutscene could play out, and the same thing happened upon clicking the button that opens Withers' tomb; the same button that
immediately triggers a combat encounter. Playing Moon Druid means you'll often have to sacrifice your position as the party face for many dialogues, and you run the risk of the game robbing you of the full use of your already limited Wild Shape charges at unexpected intervals if you happen upon certain things while transformed.
This could be less of an annoyance with more Wild Shape charges becoming available as you level up, but in standard 5e rules, Druid does not get a progression similar to something like Barbarians who gain more Rage uses in a consistent manner, or even Warlocks and their limited spell slots. Druid is stuck with two charges of Wild Shape all the way until
level 20 with their capstone ability, Archdruid, and this game's level cap is 12. I think this is an area where people wouldn't mind if Larian deviated from the PHB rules a bit and gave Moon Druids more charges. Alternatively, just let us auto-shift in/out of form for conversations/cutscenes without expending a charge like Halsin can.
-Shapeshifted Druids can't gain the benefits of magical equipment, in a game where the sheer variety of bonuses from magic items are incredibly helpful (and arguably crucial). Again, this is also adherence to PHB Druid rules, however I would argue this should only apply to mundane,
non-magical items, because magical items can adjust their size and shape to fit the wearer, which is the same reason why a dragonborn could wear a magic helmet they take from the head of a slain goblin, or a human could put on Slippers of Spider Climb that previously belonged to a gnome. From the DMG, page 140:
"In most cases, a magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer."
Naturally this would still prevent Wild Shape'd Druids from using weapons and shields, as these are held instead of worn, and they can't get any benefit from early game non-magical armor, but it would mean they should be able to gain the benefits of magic armor with passive abilities/stat boosts. At the very least, it would be nice for Wild Shape forms to be able to gain benefits from their equipped jewelry.
-Bear Form can't shove. Why? Bears can absolutely shove things. The shove action seems to be removed from every form, and while that makes perfect sense for the smaller ones, I think it'd make sense for larger, stronger forms like Bear, Owlbear, Panther, Dilophosaurus, etc to be able to use it.
-Druids sometimes instantly die upon getting knocked out Wild Shape. Less to do with intended mechanics, this is a very troublesome bug that both I and my friend have encountered, and I've read that some other players have been having trouble with this as far back as when BG3 was in early access.
The intended mechanic in tabletop and (I assume) in BG3 is that, when a Druid is reduced to zero HP in Wild Shape, they revert back to normal form, with any damage from the attack remaining being subtracted from their true HP pool. A few times though, I've seen Druids instantly die when they get knocked out of Wild Shape, even if their base form was at full health and the remaining attack damage was nowhere near close enough to down them. And I mean DIE, because the Druid doesn't even get to make death saving throws, they're just instantly dead. This is extremely frustrating when it occurs.
