So the other day Mike Mearls mentioned something about the warden, and it got me thinking. From a story-first perspective, the warden's story is somewhere in between the druid and the ranger.
So you could start with the druid, but you'd need to give them martial weapons and bonus hit points (the 4E warden was a big sack of hit points). The druid also has a ton of spellcasting that the warden never did, and with the 5E druid there's a lot of tension between spellcasting and wild shaping.
The ranger, OTOH, already has the warrior chassis, and has spell slots that he's not doing much with (well, he can cast spells with them, but doesn't have a good alternative option the way the paladin does). Ranger also doesn't have much extraneous stuff that warden lacks -- Favored Enemy is not particularly wardeny, but you can pick things like undead and aberrations that are classic warden foes.
I stripped the warden down to its barest, most memorable feature -- the forms. I made transforming cost a spell slot, as the ranger's spell list isn't particularly impressive, but the spell levels follow a useful progression for this sort of thing.
The basis for balance here is the awesome spell armor of agathys. It's a fantastic little spell that gives you 5 temp HP per spell level, and every single time you get hit, deals 5 damage per spell level to the attacker. But it only lasts until the temp HP run out -- and since it only deals damage when you lose temp hp, that's going to happen really fast. I tried to give the warden forms' damage-boosting portions a similar cost, either in actions or reactions or required circumstances, and deal 5 or less damage per spell level. Also I tried to make them melee-focussed and not dish out too many status effects. This keeps the warden a target, which makes it more likely that the temp HP will drain off quickly.
Still, I worry that some of the forms may be overpowered, and that they simultaneously be underpowered if the temp HP runs out too fast. This mechanic may also incentivize the warden to not get hit, which is counter to the tankish nature of the original warden class. The way I imagine this going down is that a warden who means business will burn through spell slots just to stay in guardian form.
So you could start with the druid, but you'd need to give them martial weapons and bonus hit points (the 4E warden was a big sack of hit points). The druid also has a ton of spellcasting that the warden never did, and with the 5E druid there's a lot of tension between spellcasting and wild shaping.
The ranger, OTOH, already has the warrior chassis, and has spell slots that he's not doing much with (well, he can cast spells with them, but doesn't have a good alternative option the way the paladin does). Ranger also doesn't have much extraneous stuff that warden lacks -- Favored Enemy is not particularly wardeny, but you can pick things like undead and aberrations that are classic warden foes.
I stripped the warden down to its barest, most memorable feature -- the forms. I made transforming cost a spell slot, as the ranger's spell list isn't particularly impressive, but the spell levels follow a useful progression for this sort of thing.
The basis for balance here is the awesome spell armor of agathys. It's a fantastic little spell that gives you 5 temp HP per spell level, and every single time you get hit, deals 5 damage per spell level to the attacker. But it only lasts until the temp HP run out -- and since it only deals damage when you lose temp hp, that's going to happen really fast. I tried to give the warden forms' damage-boosting portions a similar cost, either in actions or reactions or required circumstances, and deal 5 or less damage per spell level. Also I tried to make them melee-focussed and not dish out too many status effects. This keeps the warden a target, which makes it more likely that the temp HP will drain off quickly.
Still, I worry that some of the forms may be overpowered, and that they simultaneously be underpowered if the temp HP runs out too fast. This mechanic may also incentivize the warden to not get hit, which is counter to the tankish nature of the original warden class. The way I imagine this going down is that a warden who means business will burn through spell slots just to stay in guardian form.
