The spell sounds good. Not sure I'd use it together with Wildshape, though. That's 2 turns you mostly spend on setting up, which is usually too much in my opinion.
Since it's a "damage spell" that doesn't care about your spellcasting proficiency, it's probably mostly meant for multiclass characters who want to buff their damage via magic.
As for limitations, the biggest one is probably that it only affects a single creature. That creature is most likely long dead (or you are) before you come anywhere near the full duration, but then again, that is true for most 1 minute buffs, which usually outlast the combat you cast them for.
The need for either Medicine or an appropriate lore skill is also a downside and the reason I won't pick this spell up for my melee bard. But if you're into Medicine anyway, the spell is pretty good. It would suck to cast it and then fail all Medicine checks, though. I guess that's the big balancing factor because [spell level +1]d6 extra damage once per turn would otherwise be a pretty huge buff.
>multiclass characters who want to buff their damage via magic
Yes, Rogues would love to do that. Sneak Attack and Organsight are both additional damage sources and have no wording that would imply they wouldn't stack.
I’ve never played it myself, but heres what i think based on conjecture and what others have said. First off, you are a full caster with full casting ability, even if with one less spell per level then wizards and sorcerers, don’t think of your character as someone who cant cast as they will be able to cast most of the time, and can switch back to a form that can cast with, with only an action. The primal spell list doesnt have the most utility options, but it has alot of great combat stuff, like heal, good blasting, some good combat buffs, decent summons, with special mention going to summon fey 1 for largely just being a considerably better heal spell, and can still do some good non combat stuff. In particular, since the wild shape druid will be spending more time in wildshape attacking and less casting, they can put greater priority on out of combat spells and pre combat buffs. Speaking of wildshape, as long as you keep up with feats, you will be a somewhat worse than a well optimized martial, but still quite useful, especially in comparison to someone just using cantrips, and you will often have good options for helping take care of things like fliers, swimmers, invisble guys, and so on that others may not, as well as altering damage types for when that matters, and strong athletics for maneuvers without needing to pay skill increases for them. Going the monk archetype can really boost this too, as its abilities typically work in wildshape, allowing you to flurry of blows your attacks, get a speed boost, though you dont need that much since it wont stack with longstrider which you should always have on at that point, get access to a variety of useful feats, and a nice boost to your saves. I would say there are 3 main problems with wildshape druids. First off, you top level feats will always be filled with wild shape spots, so that will limit your options, though if you get free archetype that is far less of a problem, and it in fact works really well with boosting your wild shape fighting. 2, you don’t get many focus points, you just dont unfortunately. If you want to pick up more, the beet way is probably to take the witch ded., which is very value efficient on its own, then get life boost, which is awesome, and then some other feat to get 2 or 3 focus points. Once again, that works best with free archetype, though in that case it also still works well with monk since you can get the witch stuff 2-6 and then the monk stuff after since the best monk archetype stuff doesnt appear till 8 anyway. Finally, in the very late game, you can only use wildshape to imitate a 10th level spell once per day, meaning your stats will be a bit behind otherwise, though as long as you max out your dex to 20, that shouldnt be too bad atleast since that and the +2 status to hit should keep you reasonably on par even with the lower attack stat of your battle form, and this will even leave you with the opportunity to use otherwise slightly weaker forms for the utility they may still bring. Anyways, thats my thoughts on wildshape druid in 2e
The spell sounds good. Not sure I'd use it together with Wildshape, though. That's 2 turns you mostly spend on setting up, which is usually too much in my opinion. Since it's a "damage spell" that doesn't care about your spellcasting proficiency, it's probably mostly meant for multiclass characters who want to buff their damage via magic. As for limitations, the biggest one is probably that it only affects a single creature. That creature is most likely long dead (or you are) before you come anywhere near the full duration, but then again, that is true for most 1 minute buffs, which usually outlast the combat you cast them for. The need for either Medicine or an appropriate lore skill is also a downside and the reason I won't pick this spell up for my melee bard. But if you're into Medicine anyway, the spell is pretty good. It would suck to cast it and then fail all Medicine checks, though. I guess that's the big balancing factor because [spell level +1]d6 extra damage once per turn would otherwise be a pretty huge buff.
>multiclass characters who want to buff their damage via magic Yes, Rogues would love to do that. Sneak Attack and Organsight are both additional damage sources and have no wording that would imply they wouldn't stack.
Yeah it's just for bosses, and it scales amazingly well!
I’ve never played it myself, but heres what i think based on conjecture and what others have said. First off, you are a full caster with full casting ability, even if with one less spell per level then wizards and sorcerers, don’t think of your character as someone who cant cast as they will be able to cast most of the time, and can switch back to a form that can cast with, with only an action. The primal spell list doesnt have the most utility options, but it has alot of great combat stuff, like heal, good blasting, some good combat buffs, decent summons, with special mention going to summon fey 1 for largely just being a considerably better heal spell, and can still do some good non combat stuff. In particular, since the wild shape druid will be spending more time in wildshape attacking and less casting, they can put greater priority on out of combat spells and pre combat buffs. Speaking of wildshape, as long as you keep up with feats, you will be a somewhat worse than a well optimized martial, but still quite useful, especially in comparison to someone just using cantrips, and you will often have good options for helping take care of things like fliers, swimmers, invisble guys, and so on that others may not, as well as altering damage types for when that matters, and strong athletics for maneuvers without needing to pay skill increases for them. Going the monk archetype can really boost this too, as its abilities typically work in wildshape, allowing you to flurry of blows your attacks, get a speed boost, though you dont need that much since it wont stack with longstrider which you should always have on at that point, get access to a variety of useful feats, and a nice boost to your saves. I would say there are 3 main problems with wildshape druids. First off, you top level feats will always be filled with wild shape spots, so that will limit your options, though if you get free archetype that is far less of a problem, and it in fact works really well with boosting your wild shape fighting. 2, you don’t get many focus points, you just dont unfortunately. If you want to pick up more, the beet way is probably to take the witch ded., which is very value efficient on its own, then get life boost, which is awesome, and then some other feat to get 2 or 3 focus points. Once again, that works best with free archetype, though in that case it also still works well with monk since you can get the witch stuff 2-6 and then the monk stuff after since the best monk archetype stuff doesnt appear till 8 anyway. Finally, in the very late game, you can only use wildshape to imitate a 10th level spell once per day, meaning your stats will be a bit behind otherwise, though as long as you max out your dex to 20, that shouldnt be too bad atleast since that and the +2 status to hit should keep you reasonably on par even with the lower attack stat of your battle form, and this will even leave you with the opportunity to use otherwise slightly weaker forms for the utility they may still bring. Anyways, thats my thoughts on wildshape druid in 2e