Druid Training?

[meomwt]

My wife is playing a Druid in our newest campaign.

One of her motives for travelling up to the campaign's present base was to find a 'mentor' for additional training.

Her take on a Druid seems (to me) akin to Pratchett's witches (in a way) - wisdom and lore of the land passed down from generation to generation. This would tend to make some of the Druid's INT skills more improtant that the WIS-based ones.

My impression of the class is that the connection to Nature is inherant (one IS a Druid, rather than BECOMING one), and that as one rises in level, more of the land's wisdom is imbued into the person (allowing more spells, better practice in skills, etc.). This gives the predominance to WIS rather than INT.

I'd be interested in what other people think, and what benefits 'training' might provide for a low-level Druid.

 

[Phlebas]

If you really are following up the pratchett theme, a lot of what the witches teach the younger witches is common sense and experience - the skills they learn are almost incidental to the big lessons about people and the world

that would imply Wis being more important than Int to the witches.

the two ideas aren't mutually exclusive either - your connection to the land might be natural but to find a mentor to explain and develop that connection seems reasonable enough

 

[green slime]

No. Obviously you need someone to teach you how to connect with nature in the fashion of the Ancient Ones.

 

[Vorput]

It could go either way, but the game seems to be set up that druids watch out for and teach their own- as illustrated by their secret language.

I'm more inclined to believe one is taught such magic/skill as opposed to just spontaneously learning it from their love of trees.

 

[smootrk]

I had created a class that was modified from the Archivist, that seems more like the kind of Druid your wife has in mind. Check my signature for this nature archivist, the Biosoph. Redesigning her character is probably out of the question, but the learned 'angle' of this class might be helpful in an insightful kind of way.

The class serves my aims better, because I am not too fond of the current shape-shifter class that the druid seems to be. I would rather have wise & learned sages of the natural world.

 

[Treebore]

Just give her some mild XP bonus for seeking out a mentor and learning from him for however long the time. Say 50 XP's per week, up to a maximum of 1 week per level of the mentor.

SO if the mentor is 8th level the PC will have to spend (if they want the full learning experience and XP's) 8 weeks of time and get 400 XP's for what they have learned.

This way your wife gets XP for her desired role play and the XP cost/benefit analysis players you may have in your game realize its much better to spend those 8 weeks adventuring for XP.