Andy Collins talks about the Revised Druid

[BiggusGeekus]

The bard has sightly slower spell progression than the druid. That said, I agree the bard is often slighted as a healer.

Ultimately it depends on the druid's spell selection. I would argue that "heal over X" spells that were slightly more powerful would encourage druids to heal more and take some pressure off the cleric. It would expand the druid to a true-healer-and-nuker intead of a ... well ... whatever the druid is now.

 

[BVB]

So maybe the nature of dungeon-crawling campaigns should be revised instead of the druid character class?

 

[youspoonybard]

While, in general, true, Bards get access to Cure Moderate before Druids do. Well, a Bard with a decent Cha, anyway.

While the first Regen X Spells are weak, I always thought the higher level ones were insane. 4 HP a round? Wow. Even so, I think Druids aren't good healers. Perhaps if they had some weak drop ability? Like, being able to drop to a Cure spell 1 level below what they lost? But that's probably not going to happen, and I'm not sure it would be the right fit anyway. And even so, you can't cast them "after combat", they wouldn't have any effect, since you're already wounded.

B.G. Thanks! Finally got around to regging.

 

[rounser]

whatever the druid is now.

It's the "mighty morphin shapechanger with a pet" class. Feels more Everquest than Moonshae to me.

Now, that's not to say that druids shouldn't be able to shapechange or have pets...but to balance combat ability on the assumption that you're going to fight shapechanged and with your pet half the time puts meta-game onus on the druid to compromise flavour issues. I don't see druids as shapechanging to fight (it's more a travel or spying thing), and nor do I see them risking their pets in combat, except as a last resort, nor regularly "upgrading" them for metagame reasons.

 

[Fenes 2]

I don't care about druids. Everquest killed my whole interest in them and filled me with loathing for the whole class.

Besides, I'd hate to deal with a druid as a DM - I prefer city adventures to wilderness.

 

[Atticus_of_Amber]

Druids as sorcerers

In my old campaign, Druids cast spontaneously, using the Sorcerer's "spells per day" and "spells known" chart but the druid spell list. They got Animal Friendship as a bonus spell known.

Given that in my campaign, Druids did not have deities but revered and drew their power "nature" and "the world" in the abstract, this made a lot of flavour sense. They didn't pray to anyone to get their spells on a daily basis. They learn how to do certain types of nature magic.

It seemed to work pretty well, though we only ran it for a couple of levels.

What do people think?

 

[Gez]

Good idea. I ruled that druids get spontaneous casting from their whole list while in their own grove. They have something to cast, they get it from the nature spirit of their place.

But when travelling away from her grove, the druid needs to establish a channel to her "totem place", and it's a long and difficult task. Hence, it's better to use that channel only once per day to prepare lots of spells.

In other word, my ruling didn't changed anything for adventuring druids, but increased the power of druidic circles.

 

[Atticus_of_Amber]

I liked the idea that my system made every druid different, but I was worried about that fact that it limited them so much.

I was comming to the conclusion that the best solution was to let the Druids change their "spells known" list every time they levelled up. It would have made levelling a transformative experience...

 

[Sanackranib]

niche

" it wouldn't be encroaching on the cleric's niche because that niche is far too important for only one class to fill it. "

there is a precident already set since the ranger, paladin, bard, witch and druid all have access to healing spells and even mages, sorc's & rogues to a lesser degree ie: the grim feast spell, and wands via UMD. but I would agree that healing is far importent to the game to rely on the priest for it.

 

[cable]

I think the 3.5 druid could just about replace the sorcerer or wizard (if the cleric packed a few dispel magics or other spells that you typically rely on arcane casters for, and maybe if the rogue or bard had UMD and a couple wands), or could just about replace the cleric (if you had other characters, such as a paladin, ranger, or bard, with healing capabilities or some extra wands). In some situations, she might even be able to serve as a front-line fighter.

Great! We have our new Cleric. So much for balance.