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In my current campaign, I introduced a crazy scientist that uses mutagens in order to transform into different monsters. It’s really cool and really creepy. One of the characters in the party recently died and the corresponding player would be interested in playing a character similar to this NPC I introduced. His new character would be the scientist’s apprentice, who realized that his master is an evil psychopath, and now joins the party to do some hero stuff.

Long story short: I would like to offer my player the opportunity to play this kind of character, but I haven’t found a satisfying way to implement this concept with the available/official material and I’m not a fan of inventing a whole new class or subclass. So, I was looking for a simple solution and I came up with a variant of the druid class. Only slight changes are necessary, so I think it should be balanced:

• Armor, weapon and saving throw proficiencies stay the same

• Same skills to choose from

• Alchemist’s supplies instead of herbalism kit

• Wild Shape would function the same, but instead of transforming into beasts, this character would transform into monstrosities

• Spellcasting like a sorcerer (spells known, etc.) with the sorcerer spell list, instead of preparing spells like a druid from the druid spell list. Wisdom would still be the spellcasting modifier.

• Instead of Druidic as language, this character would be able to converse with monstrosities in their own language (e.g. Otyugh, Worg, Umber Hulk)

Obviously, not all druid subclasses would make sense with these changes to the core class, but I trust my player to choose a reasonable one. So right now, it's just about the core class.

Is this Variant Druid balanced, compared to the regular druid class? Or am I overlooking something that will absolutely bite me in the ass?

EDIT: Guybrush McKenzie pointed out, that druids prepare their spells every day, but their spell list is shorter than the sorcerer spell list. It was not my intention to suggest that this Variant Druid should be able to prepare different spells each day from the sorcerer spell list, but that their spellcasting works the same as for sorcerer's, just with Wisdom as spellcasting ability.

In my current campaign, I introduced a crazy scientist that uses mutagens in order to transform into different monsters. It’s really cool and really creepy. One of the characters in the party recently died and the corresponding player would be interested in playing a character similar to this NPC I introduced. His new character would be the scientist’s apprentice, who realized that his master is an evil psychopath, and now joins the party to do some hero stuff.

Long story short: I would like to offer my player the opportunity to play this kind of character, but I haven’t found a satisfying way to implement this concept with the available/official material and I’m not a fan of inventing a whole new class or subclass. So, I was looking for a simple solution and I came up with a variant of the druid class. Only slight changes are necessary, so I think it should be balanced:

• Armor, weapon and saving throw proficiencies stay the same

• Same skills to choose from

• Alchemist’s supplies instead of herbalism kit

• Wild Shape would function the same, but instead of transforming into beasts, this character would transform into monstrosities

• Spellcasting like a sorcerer (spells known, etc.) with the sorcerer spell list, instead of preparing spells like a druid from the druid spell list. Wisdom would still be the spellcasting modifier.

• Instead of Druidic as language, this character would be able to converse with monstrosities in their own language (e.g. Otyugh, Worg, Umber Hulk)

Obviously, not all druid subclasses would make sense with these changes to the core class, but I trust my player to choose a reasonable one. So right now, it's just about the core class.

Is this Variant Druid balanced, compared to the regular druid class? Or am I overlooking something that will absolutely bite me in the ass?

In my current campaign, I introduced a crazy scientist that uses mutagens in order to transform into different monsters. It’s really cool and really creepy. One of the characters in the party recently died and the corresponding player would be interested in playing a character similar to this NPC I introduced. His new character would be the scientist’s apprentice, who realized that his master is an evil psychopath, and now joins the party to do some hero stuff.

Long story short: I would like to offer my player the opportunity to play this kind of character, but I haven’t found a satisfying way to implement this concept with the available/official material and I’m not a fan of inventing a whole new class or subclass. So, I was looking for a simple solution and I came up with a variant of the druid class. Only slight changes are necessary, so I think it should be balanced:

• Armor, weapon and saving throw proficiencies stay the same

• Same skills to choose from

• Alchemist’s supplies instead of herbalism kit

• Wild Shape would function the same, but instead of transforming into beasts, this character would transform into monstrosities

• Sorcerer spell list instead of druid spell list

• Instead of Druidic as language, this character would be able to converse with monstrosities in their own language (e.g. Otyugh, Worg, Umber Hulk)

Obviously, not all druid subclasses would make sense with these changes to the core class, but I trust my player to choose a reasonable one. So right now, it's just about the core class.

Is this Variant Druid balanced, compared to the regular druid class? Or am I overlooking something that will absolutely bite me in the ass?

In my current campaign, I introduced a crazy scientist that uses mutagens in order to transform into different monsters. It’s really cool and really creepy. One of the characters in the party recently died and the corresponding player would be interested in playing a character similar to this NPC I introduced. His new character would be the scientist’s apprentice, who realized that his master is an evil psychopath, and now joins the party to do some hero stuff.

Long story short: I would like to offer my player the opportunity to play this kind of character, but I haven’t found a satisfying way to implement this concept with the available/official material and I’m not a fan of inventing a whole new class or subclass. So, I was looking for a simple solution and I came up with a variant of the druid class. Only slight changes are necessary, so I think it should be balanced:

• Armor, weapon and saving throw proficiencies stay the same

• Same skills to choose from

• Alchemist’s supplies instead of herbalism kit

• Wild Shape would function the same, but instead of transforming into beasts, this character would transform into monstrosities

• Spellcasting like a sorcerer (spells known, etc.) with the sorcerer spell list, instead of preparing spells like a druid from the druid spell list. Wisdom would still be the spellcasting modifier.

• Instead of Druidic as language, this character would be able to converse with monstrosities in their own language (e.g. Otyugh, Worg, Umber Hulk)

Obviously, not all druid subclasses would make sense with these changes to the core class, but I trust my player to choose a reasonable one. So right now, it's just about the core class.

Is this Variant Druid balanced, compared to the regular druid class? Or am I overlooking something that will absolutely bite me in the ass?

EDIT: Guybrush McKenzie pointed out, that druids prepare their spells every day, but their spell list is shorter than the sorcerer spell list. It was not my intention to suggest that this Variant Druid should be able to prepare different spells each day from the sorcerer spell list, but that their spellcasting works the same as for sorcerer's, just with Wisdom as spellcasting ability.