I like druids, but my very personal quirk is that shapeshifting into animals has never been my Druid class fantasy. Warden of Souls remixes the Beastform feature, allowing you to summon ethereal versions of animals instead of transforming into them. The benefits of the foundation feature are subtle: members of this warden can leverage being in two places at once, using spells and weapons alongside beastform abilities, and using their spirit beasts to safely scout dangerous areas.

Also, as it turns out, “You summon a beast instead of turning into it” is very simple to describe, but very difficult to write proper rules text for! I wound up realizing that “treat the spirit beast as though it was yourself in beastform” captures 99% of what you need in terms of mechanics. Evasion, damage thresholds, marking HP/Stress: the spirit beast *is* the druid, plain and simple.