Look to Asia. Thai buddhism is to this day filled with traditional animist beliefs, as are other minor religions and folk traditions. Animism is not gone.
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Druids and Animism in D&D
- Thread starter Hexmage-EN
- Start date
Look to Asia. Thai buddhism is to this day filled with traditional animist beliefs, as are other minor religions and folk traditions. Animism is not gone.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I'm a big fan of Ainu traditional beliefs. Everything has a spirit. Even old tools, clothing, etc. Their lives were filled with rituals for "sending" spirits back. Not only when animals were killed for food, but also when throwing away old tools.
Note they also prayed to gods but believed that gods or their incarnations are found in every phenomenon and object. Not just animals, but celestial bodies, thunder, wind, implements related to human life, and more.
See http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng10.html for a nice summary.
I like this approach because it allows for not only your deep-woods hermit druid but also urban druids. I can see a druid trying to appease the spirits of the rocks and trees used to make the buildings and roads. Who works with authorities to plan urban development in a way that does not offend the spirits.
Note they also prayed to gods but believed that gods or their incarnations are found in every phenomenon and object. Not just animals, but celestial bodies, thunder, wind, implements related to human life, and more.
See http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng10.html for a nice summary.
I like this approach because it allows for not only your deep-woods hermit druid but also urban druids. I can see a druid trying to appease the spirits of the rocks and trees used to make the buildings and roads. Who works with authorities to plan urban development in a way that does not offend the spirits.
Hexmage-EN
Legend
I've incorporated this into my take, as well. The idea is that when an item is made the spiritual energies of its component materials bind together and become stilled, waiting for the item to be used so the new spirit knows what its purpose is. If the item is kept in good condition over generations its spirit becomes so in-tune with its corporeal anchor's purpose that it develops magical traits to aid in its purpose, without any external source of enchantment.
Who knows, maybe when someone creates a brand new magic item they are unknowingly calling forth the spirit of an item that developed the enchantment over time back into a new vessel? That is, they're not so much making a new magic item as reincarnating it in a new form.
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Hexmage-EN
Legend
Further ideas for using primal spirits in D&D 5E:
- Natural or ritualistic environmental features that replicate a druid or ranger spell (a monolith that conjures animals or elementals to help its defenders fight, a pre-existing use of the Druid Grove spell, a single-use item that enables Speak with Plants, etc).
- Listening to the river carefully reveals a message in garbled Primordial about events taking place upstream.
- A farm's crops won't grow because the local earth elemental spirit is bothered by a hidden demon portal nearby. Closing the portal causes it to enact a Plant Growth spell effect.
- Choose appropriate regional effects from the Monster Manual and say the source is a local guardian spirit instead of a creature.
- Maybe the party Beast Master Ranger's animal companion is the reincarnation of the Wolf Morash, his homeland's legendary barbarian hero.
You don't really need to create any new monsters or spells to communicate the idea of a world full of hidden spirits. It's as simple as having your players find out from the local druid that they can say "lend us your aid, Stone Brother" to the boulder near town to have it cast Earthbind at a high DC one time for them on the approaching dragon.
- Natural or ritualistic environmental features that replicate a druid or ranger spell (a monolith that conjures animals or elementals to help its defenders fight, a pre-existing use of the Druid Grove spell, a single-use item that enables Speak with Plants, etc).
- Listening to the river carefully reveals a message in garbled Primordial about events taking place upstream.
- A farm's crops won't grow because the local earth elemental spirit is bothered by a hidden demon portal nearby. Closing the portal causes it to enact a Plant Growth spell effect.
- Choose appropriate regional effects from the Monster Manual and say the source is a local guardian spirit instead of a creature.
- Maybe the party Beast Master Ranger's animal companion is the reincarnation of the Wolf Morash, his homeland's legendary barbarian hero.
You don't really need to create any new monsters or spells to communicate the idea of a world full of hidden spirits. It's as simple as having your players find out from the local druid that they can say "lend us your aid, Stone Brother" to the boulder near town to have it cast Earthbind at a high DC one time for them on the approaching dragon.
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Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Amazonian shamans order their spirits via the great web of the world, with additional material components needed to reduce a summoning delay. When they reach 6th level they get the Prime feature, which causes the spirits to appear quicker and at no cost.
TheCosmicKid
Hero
It took an embarrassingly long time for me to get the joke.
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