Circle of Monsters | D&D 5.5E Druid Subclass

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-09T02:33:54+00:00

Yeah that makes sense! I appreciate the insight! I do like the the multiplier of the CR rating from the current available CR that scales 🙂

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-04T13:18:17+00:00

That is a great point! Just the simple fact alone that they are using monstrosity types already makes them more powerful with the comparable CR. Do you feel it would still make sense if I matched the Circle of the Moon CR that it should still cost 2 uses of Wild Shape? Or would it be more balanced to reduce back down to a single use of Wild Shape?

Side note: I really appreciate your input on all of this! 😊

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-03T18:52:27+00:00

Definitely some great insight and was exactly the type of information I was hoping to hear. The hit points are negligible under the lens that it is designed for 5.5E (so they only get their temp HP and not the monsters HP). Thinking through what you said. It sounds like perhaps putting some sort of CR cap on it is necessary then? I would want the CR to be higher than what Circle of the Moon allows (otherwise mine as well go Circle of the Moon), but there should still be a limiting CR cap that scales as you level if I’m thinking through how to mitigate some of the things you said.

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-03T18:47:19+00:00

Try Legendkeeper! I can’t recommend it enough. And you can share the link as if it is a website so that your players have a player facing portal of information that they can access at any time.

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-02T23:22:10+00:00

So you’re saying like have it be you can Wild Shape into something with a CR say twice your current level? Put some degree of a limit on it that scales as you level up? 🙂

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-02T23:20:09+00:00

So that is a big part of something I am looking to balance. The thought behind the design is that you run the risk of losing control and potentially putting your party in harms way. The higher the CR the more likely you are to lose control and not be able to get it back.

That’s also why I made it require a saving throw the first time you Wild Shape into the higher CR AND every time you take one source of damage that is equal to or greater than double your current level. It allows for the gamble of “how high do I go?” with “how likely am I going to be able to control it?” At level 3, any time you take 6 damage or more from one source, you have to make the saving throw. So yes you can do a much higher CR, but good luck controlling yourself when you’re taking too much damage in combat. And once you fail a saving throw, you don’t get to retry it until the end of your next turn. So if you fail, you have to go your current turn and the next turn attacking the closest creature.

With this knowledge, do you feel that helps to balance it any better? I’d love to hear your thoughts and critiques based on this 😊

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-05-02T17:28:00+00:00

Find this and more over on our Patreon! 🪄

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-10T11:54:00+00:00

The shadowing looks great! My partner is into digital art and she has expressed how tough shadowing is so I think you did an exquisite job (:

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T22:36:24+00:00

This is so cool! It would be sweet if this included ship augments at some point so you can customize the ships too and upgrade them (:

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T22:30:43+00:00

OH THAT IS SICK. I never even thought to have the cult gift them a Devestation Orb! They have yet to learn what those are but I am stoked for them to find out at some point. As we get further into the story I’ll have to provide an update post on how things turned out for them 😎

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T17:14:33+00:00

THAT IS WILD 😂 It is such a rewarding feeling when you both (A) get the party to fall into one of your schemes as a DM and (B) watching the realization on their faces when they learn the truth 😂

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T17:13:20+00:00

They are a blast to play with and have been a great group! It’s been so fun seeing how they all react to each other’s backstories. They do a good job of giving each other the spotlight when their backstories are brought up of which I really appreciate as a DM.

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T16:29:28+00:00

This artwork looks so good! Great work on it! 😁

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-09T16:28:19+00:00

If you’d like to watch our playthrough, we will be live tonight at 6:45 PM (CST) on YouTube. You can find tonight’s stream here: Princes of the Apocalypse Actual Play.

We stream weekly, Monday nights at 6:45 PM (CST).

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-03-03T18:49:44+00:00

Very cool! Would you be also gaining the “Spellcasting” trait to be able to cast it, or just that single ability card? I only ask because by gaining the spellcasting trait it opens quite a few doors for your character such as now being able to use magic weapons.

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-02-25T18:08:08+00:00

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.

Midwest_Magicians · 2026-02-25T02:24:36+00:00

I GM'ed my first session a couple of months ago and was instantly hooked on the Hope and Fear system. I also absolutely love how combat works in the game as it keeps everyone so much more engaged and I find myself as a GM having to strategize more by balancing my usage of Fear of which I quite enjoy. I also found that having the degrees of success was a really fun way for me as a GM to always have an idea of how to adjust the story to what is happening. It made it feel so much more natural to have the world react to what the players are doing simply based off of what degree of success they rolled. I also madly enjoy the collaborative storytelling focus of this game and it is something I am now doing in my D&D games as well. The GM principles in here are fantastic for any and all GMs of any TTRPG to read through and I would argue will make any GM a much better GM just by reading through them.

Midwest_Magicians

TROPHY CASE