Druid theory - why the polar bear is what it is

[Soft Lockpick]

Does anyone think Larian, rather than fixing the AI targeting the easiest to hit character every time, saw players death tanking with characters like Gale and Wyll and decided to make it a playstyle?

That seems to be how the polar bear is designed. Maybe they think this is something players desire because people are doing it rather than realizing it's just an exploit of their AI simplicity.

[Nogi Everfree]

Oh, you mean the suicide button on the polar bear?
Sure... I mean, who doesn't want to tank damage from multiple sources while rocking a AC of 11?

I mean, if they hadn't nerfed the wildshape hp and attacks, they might have been viable at the lower levels... But anything more dangerous than a goblin is going to chew through 30 hp pretty quickly.

Heck, even your typical brown bear (which are the stats they are using for this "polar bear"), has 34 hp, and stronger, multiple attacks dealing 2d6+4 and 1d8+4 respectively.

I guess they thought, Hur durr, lets weaken it and and give it a taunt. Now it is a tank, hehe~

[Soft Lockpick]

Originally posted by Nogi Everfree:

Oh, you mean the suicide button on the polar bear?
Sure... I mean, who doesn't want to tank damage from multiple sources while rocking a AC of 11?

I mean, if they hadn't nerfed the wildshape hp and attacks, they might have been viable at the lower levels... But anything more dangerous than a goblin is going to chew through 30 hp pretty quickly.

Heck, even your typical brown bear (which are the stats they are using for this "polar bear"), has 34 hp, and stronger, multiple attacks dealing 2d6+4 and 1d8+4 respectively.

I guess they thought, Hur durr, lets weaken it and and give it a taunt. Now it is a tank, hehe~

Even without his AC is terrible enough to attract all the aggro was more my point.

It seems like they thought the temp hp would make him a temporary damage mitigation for everyone else and the low ac would keep him in focus most of the time with an emergency save for even lower AC characters on the button. And since "death" as a bear reverts you to your character they made him a weak punching bag as a way to emulate the death tanking people already did with Gale.

Not saying its fit for purpose at all, but since the animal form is NOTHING like its stats in pen and paper it's the only explanation I have for what they did.

[Indure]

The stats from table top are very different, but the bear's weakness has always been its low AC. This can be fix somewhat with spells, but it is always going to be a problem.

The part I really don't get is why make the bear the signature moondruid shape, and then design it to be so bad? It was like one of the designers said the wolf is damage and the bear is a tank. When in reality the bear since it is only for moon druids, should just be flat out the best combat form in all categories except for maybe utility.