Devotees of the Gibbous Moon

Devotees of the Gibbous Moon: Secrets of the Beast Form, aside from having an insanely long fucking title, is a focused druid article that contains roughly an equal mix of fluff and crunch pertaining to (what else) wild shape. This is the defining feature for the druid, and I'm hoping to see additional "official" content that allows players to make very thematic characters, since I love me my themes (damnit). I would also like to see added content that lets you take shapes that are not just animals, such as dragons and elementals...

...and if there already are, then let me know, cause I want to make an elemental druid that isnt broken or takes a bajillion fucking levels to do that. >_>;

It does ask some interesting questions of the player, such as how your character regards wild shape, do you retain any animal features in human form, do you have a favorite animal form, do you prefer a beast or human form, etc. Obviously a player can get away without answering shit, and I'm sure many players dont bother, but this is a prime case of a show-not-tell method of delivering character traits and quirks: you can describe your appearance and retain animal features, or you can spend much of your time in beast form to illustrate your preference.

The feats are also really cool, and reinforce a preferred animal theme that I initially saw in Silent7Seven's Favored Forms supplement (which is like, one fucking dollar). Ape's Reach gives you an Athletics bonus, as well as increased Reach when you are bloodied and in beast form (which I assume to be some kind of monkey). Monkey Rush also grants a typed Athletics bonus, but lets you slide instead of push on a bull rush. The only shitter is that they are both feat bonuses...


Aside from that, there's two feats for snakes and then about six others that pertain to their own animal. I particularly like Turtle's Shell, which gives you resistance to all damage types when you take a total defense action or burn your second wind. Logically, each feat demands that you be in beast form (and often bloodied), so that should allay much multiclassing abuses. Hopefully. ^_^;

The last few pages have nine daily evocations ranging from levels 1-9 that let you assume the form of some primeval animal. These are exactly like warden daily attacks mechanically, except you can use wild shape to end them: you get an effect that lasts the entire encounter as well as a one-shot attack form. I think that these are also great for effecting a theme, allowing a player that really likes wolves to just take a bunch of shit that mechanically enforces the flavor.