Wild Order Druid Focus Pool

[Michael Hallet]

One thing I am confused by.

A wild order druid has two focus spells, wild shape and wild morph. How many points are in their focus pools, 1 or 2?

[Xenocrat]

One.

[cavernshark]

One, as stated above.

The first focus spell a player gets always grants a focus point regardless of what it says. Subsequent focus spells often grant an extra point but don't always do so, as is the case with wild morph and wild shape.

I think in the case of Wild Druid, this is to give them options at level 1 to fight in an animal form or in a humanoid form with aspects without giving them twice the pool as others.

[Voss]

cavernshark wrote:

One, as stated above.

The first focus spell a player gets always grants a focus point regardless of what it says. Subsequent focus spells often grant an extra point but don't always do so, as is the case with wild morph and wild shape.

I think in the case of Wild Druid, this is to give them options at level 1 to fight in an animal form or in a humanoid form with aspects without giving them twice the pool as others.

Well... not really. Half the druid orders do give a second point.

And in the case of Druids, Druid Order gives the starting focus pool, not the 'first focus spell.'

The odd thing is Wild druid doesn't have any ability get more focus points unless they branch out into other areas (other orders or multiclassing). Pure wild druids are fairly stuck on 1 minute performances and 10 minutes recharge for a long time.

[Fayteri]

How do they get more focus points from other orders?

Order Magic grants the initial spell, but doesn't say anything about granting more focus points.

[Eltacolibre]

Honestly, I read it up and down yesterday and besides getting druid vestment (magic item) to get one focus point...I don't see any way for the wild druid to gain more focus points.

[Xenocrat]

The wild druid has to take 3(!) feats to get focus points from another order. A leaf or storm (but not animal) druid only has to take two feats to get wild shape (but not wild morph) and have two focus points.

[Deadmanwalking]

Xenocrat wrote:

The wild druid has to take 3(!) feats to get focus points from another order. A leaf or storm (but not animal) druid only has to take two feats to get wild shape (but not wild morph) and have two focus points.

I'm not sure how useful extra Focus Points really are for a Wild Order Druid. They transform into an animal once per combat and then...what else do they use them for?

I mean, there are certainly circumstances where they're handy, but over 90% of the time they seem completely unnecessary.

[Eltacolibre]

I guess, a form lasting even 1 minute per fight, you can technically refocus after a battle if you have 10 minutes to spare.

[Deadmanwalking]

Eltacolibre wrote:

I guess, a form lasting even 1 minute per fight, you can technically refocus after a battle if you have 10 minutes to spare.

What's more, since you are only able to Focus once between fights, all a second point does is let you, once per day, do a second fight in animal form without the 10 minute rest.

That's not a bad benefit or anything, but it sure doesn't seem like a very necessary one.

[Xenocrat]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

The wild druid has to take 3(!) feats to get focus points from another order. A leaf or storm (but not animal) druid only has to take two feats to get wild shape (but not wild morph) and have two focus points.

I'm not sure how useful extra Focus Points really are for a Wild Order Druid. They transform into an animal once per combat and then...what else do they use them for?

I mean, there are certainly circumstances where they're handy, but over 90% of the time they seem completely unnecessary.

It's mostly just a problem if you have two fights that aren't separated by 10 minutes of sitting around.

[Deadmanwalking]

Xenocrat wrote:

It's mostly just a problem if you have two fights that aren't separated by 10 minutes of sitting around.

Sure, but having that option available precisely once is not a huge improvement in many ways.

[Knaughts]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

It's mostly just a problem if you have two fights that aren't separated by 10 minutes of sitting around.

Sure, but having that option available precisely once is not a huge improvement in many ways.

It wouldn't be a HUGE improvement, but that just means that for those who want it (for long fights, or consecutive fights), it shouldn't be that hard to get. Three class feats is an absurdly high cost.

I can think of a few solutions:

1. A new General Feat, like so:
Extra Focus
Prerequisites: at least 1 Focus point
You gain an extra Focus point. Note that your Focus Pool cannot have more than 3 points.

2. Simplify Focus Point rules by merging them with Focus Powers. Something like "You have a number of Focus Points equal to your number of Focus Powers." This would make FP slightly easier to get for some classes, but since we can still only Refocus for 1 FP, I don't think it's a big deal.

3. Treat Wild Shape like Rage instead of making it a Focus power. Give it a 1 minute cooldown, and give us feats (like "Second Wind") to get flexibility, and maybe features (like "Quick Rage") that eventually shorten the cooldown.