Completely overwhealmed by Wildshape!

[Mulet]

I'm building every class in HeroLab and running them all in a Tournament to better understand Pathfinder (and be a better DM) and the Druid has me confused.

Wildshape III at level 8 lets me take on the form of any Diminunative-Huge animal 3 times a day for up to 8 hours each time. I am also restricted to a mixed bag of abilities like darkvision, scent, web and more.

Um, this is insane. There are three Bestiaries packed full of animals, plus plants, elementals and Magical beasts plus campaign based creatures. The only restriction is that the Druid "Know of" a particular critter, which is an opening for PCs to argue with the DM over dinosaurs or Mastadons.

How the heck do experienced druids players deal with this? Do you spend months studying the books, then build tables for several favourites? Is there a tool online somewhere that would let me refine search creatures?

I'd need to attend university for 2 years full time, and get an Advanced Diploma in Pathfinder to make the optimal decision for each combat!

[Mulet]

If this was like Animorphs, where you get a "Spell book of Creatures" you have touched, then this would make more sense.

[Jeff Merola]

I just use this guide.

[Kryptik]

It's not all that complicated, really. Your choice of wild shape forms is going to be highly dependent on what kind of stats you have; what kind of druid you decided to be. If you are a caster-focused druid, pick one or two mobile forms like a hawk or air elemental. If you're a melee druid, look at forms that have several natural attacks like a tiger.

Start small, and then branch out if you feel inspired to be prepared. It's not hard...you just adjust your stats and write it down in Word or on a notepad or something.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

It's usually enough to have a travel shape, a sneaky shape, and a fighting shape.

A lot of people never use -all- the shapes.

[Jeraa]

I pick a handful of forms that are appropriate to the character, and only use those. My northman/Viking druids only use wolf and bear forms, even if there are better options, as they are more appropriate.

[Dafydd]

Typically, you should pick a few key shapes and stick to them. Since the books do not have a FULL biological reckoning of the entire animal kingdom it is easy enough to grab a basic form and reflavor the markings to fit an environment.

[Orfamay Quest]

Similarly, there's really not that much difference between/among different shapes. Since the modifications are fixed (for a given size) and the movement speeds are generally slower than the animals have naturally, the only real difference between the animals is the presence or absence of a specific special ability. So you simply make a list -- if you need to Trip, use a wolf, if you need Grab, take a bear.

[Mulet]

Wild Shape is simple indeed it seems. The individual forms are just roleplay fodder and what matters is the actual changes. There is a handful of ability modifiers, and the inability to talk and size change.

The Druid is still a Humanoid, and instead of swords and bows, there are claws and bites.

Over on the Wolflair forums, Alientude put in the effort to make some .user files for HeroLab which work very well and demonstrate this brilliantly.

(Check and uncheck it on and off, and see what changes)

[Uwotm8]

Jeff Merola wrote:

I just use this guide.

Jeraa wrote:

I pick a handful of forms that are appropriate to the character, and only use those. My northman/Viking druids only use wolf and bear forms, even if there are better options, as they are more appropriate.

Both of these.