Character concept help: making a druid

[Tales and Chronicles]

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to thank TwoSix for its comment. Thank you.

Indeed, he would allow it. The thing is, he's the type of person who has a hard time saying no to someone (the ''too kind'' type). I know I wont abuse it, but from what I know from the rest of the group, some of them are a mix of min-maxer and edgelord who would jump at the occasion to take the cringyest homebrew from dandwikia and play it. I dont want to be the one to open the door to such thing that would make it harder for him to DM.

The best thing would be a sorcerer with the druid's spells list. I'm sure one day we will have such a subclass; I love 3.5 Spirit Shaman who used the sorcerer's spellcasting method with the druid spells.

 

[TwoSix]

The best thing would be a sorcerer with the druid's spells list. I'm sure one day we will have such a subclass; I love 3.5 Spirit Shaman who used the sorcerer's spellcasting method with the druid spells.

That seems pretty balanced to me. Druid list compared to the Sorcerer list is pretty much a push, and Divine Soul gave access to the entire Cleric list as a single level subclass feature. Sorcerer could have access to every spell list in the game with minimal balance issues since the spells known restriction is so stringent.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

I have been running a half orc Druid as a shaman of a Barbarian tribe - (a straight Orc would be good as well). He acts as the spiritual guide for the party does some healing (very little) - he is Circle of the Shepherd and to date (only level 4) have never shaped changed. Its been good and the DM has us on a quest to save the tribal lands so works well with the character concept - as does the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian in the group.

 

[Ancalagon]

2.) The Underdark Druid. 20 years ago I ran a Dwarven Druid from the Underdark. He spent a lot of time talking about how unnatural trees, oceans, etc... were. The DM and I worked out a bunch of Underdark inspired shapes for him to take.

I did a dwarven druid who specialized in underground stuff. We did a lot of dungeoneering in that campaign so it was a good fit. His companion was a dire wolf with crystal spikes sticking out, and his shield was a giant mushroom cap, hard as shoe-sole leather.

I'm not sure what subclass would be best for that, but a few could do - heck the spore druid from unearthed arcana might work (although it needs a bit of tweaking IMO).

 

[Mistwell]

I went simple, starting with race. I play a halfling. A tiny halfling - small even for his small folk. He dreams of being huge - specifically a bear. And so made a nuisance of himself to the mysterious druid in the forest near his village until he learned to shapechange into one. This dichotomy between being small and unnoticed, and being huge and unmistakable, drives much of the character.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Some random ideas:
* A tribal shaman (possible motifs - native-American or African tribal themes possible, for example) seeking to address some problem with larger nations / civilizations on behalf of tribe. Possible goals - spy on larger civilization, try to prevent cultural shifts that threaten the tribe, preserve tribe's food or other resource, promote awareness + recognition of tribe by performing heroic acts, keep some spiritually significant being or area from being damaged, recover relics sacred or important to tribe, prevent supernatural wrongdoing only tribe is aware of.

* An animist priest, seeking to keep memory / adherence to bargains made with local spirits alive amongst populations that have forgotten them.

* Wandering alchemist / naturalist seeking to study rare herbs or just catalogue supernatural places and things found across the land (e.g. Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle). Spells + abilities might be potions brewed with local ingredients.

* Character actually is a fae spirit (changeling) that replaced a child of host species. Goals likely to be inscrutable or secret to most others - and may ultimately be benign or malevolent. Might have weird compulsions or commandments that don't make sense by human standards - such as maybe trying to destroy all purple garments on a particular continent.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Druids seems to be divided a little like in Avatar: the last air bender. They protect the land from elemental planes incursions, but I dont know if they are empowered by that element or use another to fight creatures from the plane they watch (I personally would prefer to have water-druid watch over the fire breach). A major problem I have with this set up is that 2 of the 4 tribes are on other non-described continent, and the remaining 2 are the Wind tribe heavily influenced by the Mercer's campaign (and I dont like to play in someone else's canon) and the Earth tribe, which I find to be the most boring. That's why I had an idea of creating a 5th tribe to give me a little creative space.

Caveat: I don’t play 5Ed, so what follows may be totally irrelevant & nonsensical in its context.

In 4Ed, I played a Dwarven Warlock (multiclassed into Psion) whose clan mission was to fend off incursions from the Far Realms. Because of this, Clan Skyhammer dwelt on mountain peaks where they maintained celestial observatories and many trained in the Psionic arts (following the game fluff that denizens of the Far Realms). They were constantly investigating skyfalls (their term for any “shooting star”) to make sure they were not originally from Far Realms sources. If they were, they were trained to deal with it...

Your Fifth Tribe could have a similar mission. After all, the Far Realms represent a threat to nature by their very existence. Beyond the typical Druidic interests, they’d also focus on things like astronomy/astrology, special minerals like lodestones, platinum family metals, Moldavite, pallasite and other “starmetals”, and be particularly studied in lore about aberrations.

 

[rgoodbb]

Some of mine.

Goblin or any one of the monstrous races as a shaman is an easy and solid play.

I have a Water Genasi Land Druid statted up. Coast or Mountain (underwater ridge) feels right. Defender of a secret within the deep.

Old Halfling Land (Forest) Vine-Witch. Her long grey hair completely covers her face from view. She of course carries a Walking stick and is not afraid to use it.

Lizard-folk dusty Desert Druid wrapped in a large blanket called Scale

Warforged Druid could be Land or Transforme....Moon. Some experiment gone wrong and become sentient.

Hope you enjoy whatever you play.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Thanks everybody for your great suggestions. I think one of my creative obstacle is the generic-ness of Taldorei as a setting. I find it hard to fit a class that as such a specific flavor in a generic setting that assumes that members of this class ''are like this''.

There's also a strange lack of elemental options for druids who would like to specialize in a specific element and a lack of divination/celestial theme in the spell list that was not as marked in older editions.

Augury, speak with dead etc should be, in my opinion, the the druid spell list. In 5e, they have a strong fey or elemental theme, but the animistic/spirit theme is not exploited yet.

 

[Jester David]

One option is to look through the backgrounds and consider how each of those might alter the perceptions of a druid and affect the character.

What does druid with the noble background look like? Were they spoiled until they were marooned in the woods and learned to survive? Did they live a life of isolation in a manor home and spent their days in the grounds?
How about a soldier druid. Did their time fighting battles leave them jaded and longing for a quiet life in nature. Did the battles ravage and despoil the land, and they’re making amends? Was a druid caught in the crossfire and the PC feel guilty, so they’ve taken up their mantle to make up for their death?

Go through the list. Criminal. Scholar. Sailor. Think of how they could be a druid. And then pick the idea that jumps out at you. You’ll know it when you think of it.