Character(s) I love and 5 mutuals to do the same! 💗 @djstormageddon.com @kimota1977.bsky.social @jay-5.bsky.social @williamjay87.bsky.social @nikahoward.bsky.social
I mocked these up years ago. I'm seeing lots of hoodie designs, but I would really love to see these Invincible looks in a quarter zip.
Y'all! Been researching phones for an article on my patreon and came across the HTC Blue Angel. No idea this existed and now I desperately wish I had owned one in its day! Look at this thing! (Shout out to @captain2phones.bsky.social for his "When Phones Were Fun" series prompting the research)
But with that, I am done talking about the Druid and I'm ready to move on to the last class in this series and that is the Wizard! So join me next time!
Lastly we have the closest thing to a pet subclass that they Druid actually gets, the Circle of the Wildfire! This is a blasty druid that as the name implies loves to burn things! But controlled Burns can lead to growth and that is where the theme truly lies!
Hailing from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and then republished in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Circle of Spores provides a fungal themed druid. First up, wonder of wonders they get Circle spells. This is several on brand options that amplify the Druid's spell casting powers.
Oh, that brings us to the Circle of the Shepherd. Unlike the Circle of Dreams, I rather like the subclass and think it did its job pretty well, unfortunately the changes to spells in 2024 have made almost all of its features no longer work.
So looking at the Circle of Dreams, the first thing that stands out is there's no supplemental to the Druid spell casting such as with all of the 2024 subclasses. There are no Circle spells and no other bonuses. They get exactly one feature when the subclass kicks in.
Last up for the 2024 PHB subclasses is The Circle of the Stars. This subclass was introduced in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and made it to the 2024 revision pretty much unchanged. This is a solid generalist, capable of providing support for the team or suring up weaknesses in the base Druid.
Next up is the new entry in the 2024 PHB, the Circle of the Sea! Designed with modern meta in mind, the Circle of the Sea is a dynamic watery themed caster archetype.
Level 14 is an improvement to abilities you already possess. Your attacks now do extra radiant damage once per turn, and your moonlight step allows you to teleport an ally with you. These are generally nice to have features.
Next up is probably the most archetypal druid, at least in fantasy role playing games, which is the Circle of the Moon. As I noted before this is the shapeshifter subclass and was kind of the default in the 2014 PHB. Fortunately, more subclasses followed and rounded out the options for the class.
So let's start with the Circle of the Land, which I described as basically being a Druid without a subclass in 2014. Well, the 2024 Circle of the Land is quite good. For starters, the terrain ability which used to be a hard selection when they took the subclass now can be changed daily!
This is all to make up for their subclass being pushed to 3rd level, much as the other classes. On that note, Wild Shape is different too. Previously the Druid had some parameters but now they have a limited number of forms known. These forms however are just for utility unless you're a Moon Druid.
In 2014, the Druid had a weird provision against using metal armor but that's been removed in 2024. Now the Druid by default has light armor proficiency to go with a d8 hd on a 9th level caster. This pairs with unimpressive skills and saving throws to produce a fairly sturdy caster.
Now in 5e, Druids don't get an animal companion (at least not until Tasha's gave them the ability to summon a familiar) and the combat aspect of Wild Shape is locked behind one subclass, and this was amplified in the 2024 revision. So let's take a look at the base chassis.
Another aspect is my introduction to them in D&D which was in 3rd edition and in that edition they were considered top tier in all situations because not only were they a full caster, but they got the most powerful animal companion as well as a powerful combat wild shape. They were beasts!
Part of my reluctance is due to my introduction to the class: World of Warcraft, where their niche was shape shifting into different combat forms. As a result, I tend to think of that archetype as the default.
Alright! Alright! I'll talk about the 2024 Druid and compare it with their remaining subclasses from 2014 that weren't updated. I was holding off a bit because this is one of the more radically changed classes in 2024 D&D and I didn't feel that comfortable with the class beforehand, but here we go
Next time we're going to widdle down our remaining class offerings when we talk about the Druid!
Lastly, we have another entry from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the attempt at turning the Bard into a Rouge with really good spellcasting: the College of Whispers!
Next up, hailing from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, we have the College of Swords! When it was introduced, it was widely seen as a soft reboot of the Valor Bard, but really it's more of a Battle master... but a Bard!
Next up is another we've seen in Unearthed Arcana, but we'll be focusing on their 5e version, the College of Spirits!
Next up is the College of Eloquence, coming from the Classical themed Mythic Odyssey of Theros and then reprinted in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. This one is objectively a host of good features and a theme I love but I can't help but feel like it comes up lacking.
So let's start our tour through the unupdated subclasses with one we've seen in Unearthed Arcana, the College of Creation. I'll be focusing on it's original version, especially since it wasn't wildly different. The point of these is to compare the 2024 PHB to the preexisting subclasses.
Next up is a Bard that definitely scratches the itch to gish, the College of Valor! This is the attempt at doing something kind of skaldic and is definitely the most "Red Mage like" of the Bards. It's a martial subclass stapled onto a support class.