Alt. Druid: Anybody got a variant core class?

[ciaran00]

The Druid class in my game is changed to something called the "Arbiter." The arbiter serves as a neutral party in disputes between godly powers. In exchange, the arbiter gains powers to bond himself with the land itself, as well as supreme power over life and death (this is consistent with my Dark Sun campaign since Druids were the only accessible PC class to get Cosmos-- the only priest sphere with Resurrection, Heal, etc; also Druids in Dark Sun had protected domains on which they gained special powers).

Several relevant issues exist:

• The arbiter's judgment need not have any weight with the parties involved. He could easily be executed or rewarded for his decision.
• The dispute may itself be a test of the arbiter's neutrality.
• Arbiters are known to have favoured clients. Common knowledge of this would lead to some creative end to the arbiter's existence.
• Arbiters preside over regions. (Ie: the elemental forces gather at a place called Mt. Acro ruled by four major elemental powers. An arbiter presides over the mountain, arbitrating exclusively between these four powers). This extends to a political heirarchy. Arbiters may attack and thwart each other for control of territories and clients, etc.
• Arbiters are usually fantastic sources of information. Since they traffic in macropolitical issues, they would know things that normal people would not.
• An Arbiter's private alignment can be whatever they choose, but their public alignment is restricted to True Neutral.
• Being personally connected to the land, they would not only seek to protect it, lest damage to it damages them, they would also know its intimate details: its appearance and resources, its flora and fauna, the animalistic languages of its inhabitants, etc. etc. Moreover, a greater connection between the arbiter and the land allows him to assume forms of things that inhabit his domain.

Those are just a few highlights. You wanted Alt.Druid, so that's my two cents.

ciaran