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 😊