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/Podcast

also 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