Want to blaze with creative fire? 🔥
Then check out this video about the Circle of Wildfire, a new playtest option for the D&D druid: one of the other new subclasses in ua is
THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcastalso not a departure for druids but it’s
very fascinating you’ve turned a
wildfire into a function of being a
druid which it very much is part of
nature in that cycle so tell me about
this subclass and the story that this
tells the druids magic is about every
aspect of nature this includes the
obvious stuff plants and animals whether
in guild masters guide to Ravnica we
explored so the natural forces of death
and fungus in the form of the circle of
spores here we wanted to explore this
natural phenomenon of fire and
destruction actually being an important
part of the cycle of life
fire is has always been associated with
the druid actually the druid is the
class that has you know the produce
flame spell the the druid has been able
to wield the fiery scimitar so going all
the way back to first edition there have
been fire spells in the druid now i
think part of this and this is
speculation on my part part of it is I
think because in Irish mythology and
other Celtic myth druids are depicted
sometimes as wielding fire in fact in in
a massive battle that they’re involved
and they’re even described as calling
down a rain of fire on the Florian’s
that they are going up against oh yes
so fire being associated with the druid
is very traditional in a way but this
presentation is not traditional where
you have this druid who has who has
connected themselves in a deep mystical
way with this nature spirit that is a
force of destruction end of life and
because of that connection the druid is
able to marshal the same destruct
and also nurturing powers that that
spirit has and so it’s a it’s a fun take
I think for the druid because not only
because of the themes that it delves
into but then also in terms of the play
experience the druid is able to have
this fiery spirit present and it also is
doing something that we experimented
with in the circle of spores and that is
giving the druid something else to do
with their wild shape other than turn
into a beast granted the circle of the
moon also does this by at high enough
level you have the ability to turn into
an elemental and so we like we like
using sometimes wild shape as a currency
and so in this case if the druid wants
to instead of turning into a beast they
can manifest this wild fire spirit which
can you know launch fire as you would
expect would be a Miss on our part if we
say here’s a fire spirit they can’t
shoot fire yeah so yes it shows up and
can shoot fire but you can also use it
to explosively teleport because the one
of the abilities of this spirit is a
fiery teleportation that can move your
whole group from one place to another or
whatever you know that the creatures you
decide to move this spirit also gives
you the ability to do things actually
with bodies on the battlefield we’ve got
something we’re exploring because again
we wanted to show how destruction or
death can give rise to a new phase of
life so again there are these themes
throughout the subclass and I think
people are going to have fun playing
with it another subclass actually that
influenced some of our work on this and
I and I think some fans have noticed it
is how we design the wildfire spirit is
influenced by what we did with the pet
in the battle Smith in the artificer
yeah where we we built this pet with its
stat block
right into the subclass really with the
goal on our part of making it easy to
use this companion rather than having
you go look in the monster manual or
another text for the stats it’s right
there doing that also allows us to give
you a lot of control because we know
exactly what that companion is capable
of doing this is in contrast to regular
wild shape and also how the Beastmaster
Ranger works where those abilities give
you the liberty of essentially looting
the Monster Manual right other books for
any beast that we publish that is of an
eligible challenge rating because we
give you that Liberty that Liberty comes
with a lot of limitations because in a
way we needed to build safeguards in
because there are so many different
variations with so many different
abilities and we could not predict you
know five six years ago when we were
writing the core books what we might be
designing today yeah five years later
but if we design the stat block in the
subclass because we have total certainty
about what that thing can do it means we
can actually be a bit more generous in
how you control that pet what it’s
capable of doing so I’m very interested
to see what people think overall in the
battle Smith people loved it and we’ll
see if people enjoy this very different
kind of companion because the Wildfire
spirit is not at all like the iron
defender that was in the battle Smith
though iron defender now called the
steel defender in a bar on rising from
boots war why the name change the name
changed because in the bestiary section
there is also an iron defender and we
actually needed to distinguish we needed
to distinguish
between the two different creatures am I
allowed to ask is its form always going
to be a hound so the battle Smith is
able to determine what the steel
defender looks like okay just curious
what I very much love just as the circle
of wildfire druid is able to determine
what that spirit looks like we give we
give some suggestions we have Phoenix
you could you could make it look like a
Phoenix you know we say it could really
look like any animal reads and fire it
might also look like you know a vague
humanoid form you know with flames on it
really it’s up to you we always love it
when we can give players the ability to
customize the appearance of something
like this especially when it’s not
crucial to the game that it look a
particular way right and we know that
people love deciding how something you
know sounds and looks and etc when it’s
a part of their character yeah it’s a
very easy thing and I certainly get
caught up in it myself with like the
form that is suggested and you know
sometimes you’ll forget like the indie
is yours you can reflate things any way
you want right it certainly helps when
the creator’s tell you so yes yeah and
we in more recent books we’ve done that
more and more yes with the core books
partly we focused on like the core D&D
aesthetic and so we don’t spend as much
time in those books telling you you know
you can actually make this stuff look
however you want but one of the things
actually we’ve learned over the last
five years looking at play test feedback
is beginning players in particular often
look to us to give them permission to
customize things so in newer material
that’s why we do more often say things
like you get to decide what this looks
like right you know if I if I were to
you know go back in time and and put
some a extra
about spell-casting in the players
handbook for instance I would put a note
in there for all the brand new players
like if you’re casting magic missle you
get to decide what it looks like you’re
not bound by the little bit of flavor
text that’s in the spell because if you
decide you know your your magic missiles
look like a bunch of flying pumpkins and
someone else decides there’s they’re
shooting butterflies that’s great it it
has no effect on what the spell does and
it’s a way for you to express the
personality and history of your
character I’d be I would always throw up
a jack-o’-lantern and have it explode
you know Legend of Sleepy Hollow yeah
this is also very restoration very
healing yes so this is both sides of the
spectrum this is doing some fire damage
but also healing your party at the same
time and that that dichotomy of
destruction and restoration is not only
a big part of the circle of wildfire
it’s actually a core theme of the druid
itself the druid has many of the healing
spells of the cleric there’s some that
the cleric has that the druid lacks but
the grew it also has a larger kit of
destructive magic than the cleric does
and that is also intentional the druid
has always occupied a space that we
imagine as being somewhere in between
the cleric and the wizard that if you
want really if you want to play a
character who is a mix of the two and
you don’t want to multi class and you
also enjoy the sort of ancient primal
feel the druid is the way to go I bring
this up because often people rightly
will be so excited by wild shape the
ability to turn into an animal that it
can be easy to forget the amazing other
abilities that the druid has and that
the druid is this full-fledged spell
caster absolutely with you know able to
hold their own neck
to a cleric and a wizard and also able
to actually fill roles similar to what
the wizard fills ended the cleric fills
so often so often if a glutton filled
the role of it fighter yes tank yeah
like in fact in fact we recently here at
work had a game day had been a while
since we just sat down and all play D&D
together and on that game day I played
druid and my and we were all playing
first level characters and my first
level druid was essentially the
frontline warrior without wild shape it
was just simply because of my ability to
heal myself yeah and have some armor on
and wield the scimitar I was up there
battling it away while many of the other
characters were were in the back and so
the druid has amazing versatility not
just with magic but even with some of
their weapon and armor choices I since
since the beginning I was always so
fascinated by druids I thought they’re
the coolest thing in D&D and I wish they
had more love out there I wish more
people would try play druids because
they are so cool and again primordial
and there’s just something about them
kind of which you know obviously very
druidic yeah yeah cuz they’re druids but
yeah it’s that sense of like there’s
something older than time mm-hmm and
that’s where your magic comes from
that’s both scary or it can be very
inviting at the same time it’s a totally
different flavor from being a wizard or
a cleric yeah and and we’re really
trying to show with subclasses like
circle of wildfire just how interesting
the druid story space is and that you
can again you can dive into that space
even if you have no interest in you know
spending session after session as a bear
or or a panther or whatever your
favorite animal is to turn into I mean
the druid is also fantastic for the
person who wants to play an animal but
again there’s so much more well she is
so evocative
it does have override your brain we have
it although again what’s funny is
historically wild shape was not the
signature feature of the druid back in
first edition now it it yes the Drude
could transform yeah but that was just
sort of one of several of its abilities
and it’s spell casting was was more
formidable than its wild shape abilities
in in real world folklore the druids
ability to transform was actually a kind
of minor almost like party trick yeah
and was and was usually used for
reconnaissance like turned into a little
or travel turn into a bird to cover a
large distance but when the druid really
wanted to throw down like again in Irish
mythology it was with like calling fire
down from the heavens and I might have
mentioned this before in an interview
what’s fascinating is when you look at
old folklore and find out what was
called the druid gift it was not shape
changing it was actually foresight that
you knew that one of the most
distinguishing features of ADRA’s was
that their ability to see the future
because the word druid and means it if
you sort of disentangle it it means wise
right
they were the Wise Ones they were in a
way wizards and that’s kind of what they
are it’s just you can almost almost
imagine them as as as Wizards of a
tradition far older yeah then proto was
yeah then then the the form of academic
wizardry that you know Wizards practice
yeah and also druids in a way they’re
their magic and their practice of it
feels even more ancient than what
clerics practice yeah I love it I I’m
convinced there won’t play through it
[Laughter]
you
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— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 8, 2019