Alright, let me start this by stating that the trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves does look pretty interesting. Just watching the trailer below will show you multiple scenes of great combat moments, an all-out war section, and so much more. We even get to meet our cast and their classes which consists of Chris Pine as the Bard, Michelle Rodriguez as the Barbarian, Regé-Jean Page as the Paladin, Justice Smith as the Sorcerer, Sophia Lillis as the Druid, and Hugh Grant as the Rogue. You can check out more info on the official movies IMDB page.
However, after watching the trailer I couldn’t help but notice a huge conflicting issue that they showed off in two separate scenes of the trailer. This means that they have really gone with this idea and plan to include it in multiple parts of the movie. There is, of course, time for them to change it as there are plenty of options to work with, but it comes down to their Druid’s use of Wild Shape.
As a Druid main player and a Dungeon Master myself, I am quite fluent in multiple classes but especially in the specifics of what the Druid is capable of. Even if they were to follow the Circle of the Moon, giving them top-tier quality animal Wild Shape forms, you can NOT turn into an Owl Bear! It is very clearly stated that Wild Shape is into any animal beast form of a creature that you have seen before. An Owl Bear is listed as a monstrosity, not a creature nor a beast. You can check the official listing on DnDBeyond.
In this trailer, there is a scene in a forest where the Druid turns into an Owl Bear and pummels multiple enemies before turning back as she jumps onto her horse. Then there is a scene a little later of the Owl Bear form being used in an arena-like area against the one who is presumed to be our big bad evil guy (BBEG). If this movie is being written with hands in from Wizards of the Coast, or even if it is just based on their official D&D work, then why are they allowing the rules to be broken to include this? Of course, it looks cool, but it’s against their own rules and is sure to be an issue in campaigns for many moving forward!
Again, the movie overall does look pretty interesting and I have hopes of enjoying it when it is released in March 2023. But I sincerely hope they reconsider the use of the Owl Bear form for the Druid as that is not within the rulebook. Besides, this is only the easy-to-catch mistake in the trailer… who knows what other rules they will let slide for the sake of a cool cinematic moment when you can have amazing cinematic and dramatic moments while following the rules as they are set in place?
