Minor Animal Form Issue

[Inquisitive Tiefling]

I realize there are much bigger things going on right now with the playtest and what have you, but idly reading through the list of spells (side note, please do not leave them in alphabetical order. List them by level and Arcane/Divine/Primal/Occult, please), I noticed something about the spell Animal Form:

Bull Speed 30 feet; scent; horn, Damage 2d8 piercing.
Canine Speed 40 feet; scent; jaws, Damage 2d8 piercing.

The bull and canine do the same amount of damage, same type of damage, and both gain the scent sensory trait. But the bull has only a movement speed of 30, while the canine has a whopping movement speed of 40, keeping in mind that most PCs only get a movement speed of 25.

Amongst all the bigger and more glaring issues of the game it would be easy for this to go by the wayside, but as it stands there is no mechanical reason to ever pick the bull form over the canine one, as the canine one is equal or better in every way. Maybe worth looking into and fixing, perhaps?

[Brew Bird]

The Barbarian's animal totem runs into this same problem. They could really use some additional abilities to make different animal forms a little more distinct. Certain forms being more niche than others is expected, but having some that are strictly better than others is no fun.

There's also the issue of the scent ability not having a listed range. This applies to most spells that grant it, though. Is there a default range that scent is assumed to have if no range is listed?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Brew Bird wrote:

There's also the issue of the scent ability not having a listed range. This applies to most spells that grant it, though. Is there a default range that scent is assumed to have if no range is listed?

There is not. That's a serious problem, which I have just reported in my favorite errata thread (which the devs are known to look at).

I suggest going with 30' until it is fixed, because it is overwhelmingly the most common range among those specified in the Bestiary (though quite a few critters don't specify).

[thenobledrake]

Oh GODS no, please leave spell descriptions in pure alphabetical order... just maybe add some helpful information to spell lists like page numbers and any traits that someone might have an ability that cues off of (i.e. the spell schools).

But whatever you do, don't make it harder to look up a spell at the moment it is about to be cast during play - which means don't make anyone need to know more than the name of the spell to be able to get to the right page.