D&D 3E/3.5 Druids, bows, 3.5 and d20

[WayneLigon]

Unfortunately that would only work in an FR game.

I'd be building this out for a Kalamar game, where I can take from d20 if I can find a balanced approach (which excludes anything FR ).

No, it wouldn't work only in an FR game. If you want the same ability in a Kalamar setting, say 'Kalamar God XX allows druids to have Ranger wpn profs'. There. Done.

 

[Kichwas]

It's from a line where all the humans are listed under Barbarian.
http://www.i-kore.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_12301_12310_32.html

Rather than focus on that title in the miniature ( ), can we see what suggestions people have for making bow wielding druids that don't have to be elves?

I'm considering proposing a variant 'nature druid' that looses the scimitar, dart, and something (still working on this) and gets short and longbows in exchange (but perhaps not composite?)...

The last thing they would lose was originally going to be medium armor, but in rereading the druid I found a problem with that. So if I can find something that seem notable to lose, I'll have a package.

A final option is making the character a Ranger / Druid, or burning a feat on martial weapon proficiency. But I don't like multiclassing (it always seems to seriously hurt casters), and burning a feat to make a Druid what it should be to begin with seems so odd a thing to do.

 

[Staffan]

The reason the druids have proficiency in scimitars apparently lies in the game's misty history. Back in 1e, or possibly in the even earlier supplements where the druid was first added, there was no sickle in the system. However, druids need a sickle. So, they gave them another curved blade to represent the sickle: the scimitar. After that, the scimitar just got grandfathered in.

 

[S'mon]

How about nymph?

I was thinking 'Playboy Bunny' - she even seems to have a button-down collar...

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Are you the DM in this game? If so, just say "Druids here use bows instead of scimitars". Case closed.

If you're not, have you tried just asking the DM? I know, it's a radical idea . As a DM myself, I would rather the player just say to me that they've got a concept character in mind, and let me work it out with them, then have them waste time hunting through D20 splatbooks looking for a bow-firing druid. It's not hideously unbalancing.

Otherwise, just blow a feat. If your DM won't make an exception for you, then you have to respect that they're running a by-the-books game. But there's nothing in the PHB that says you can't use a bow.

I was thinking 'Playboy Bunny' - she even seems to have a button-down collar...

Yeah. I was thinking, "When did they invent spirit gum for those pasties?"

 

[Dinkeldog]

Rules question

 

[Darklone]

I'd go with the elf thing. Actually, we do have an elven shaman in our Kalamar campaign... though she (her miniature) wears a little bit more clothing... sadly.

 

[Wycen]

The first answer that popped into my head was take 1 level of ranger. But you are also correct that multiclassing hurts spell casters, though just one level is not so bad. If you are building her at first level, you have few options.

Other ideas. Wait until you are higher level then find a prestige class that gives you prof. with bows.

Take a level of cleric with the war domain, take Weapon prof. with bow.

Just suck up the penalty?

 

[Kichwas]

Not sure why this got moved to rules question...

In the end I made this character:


Jynko, Dejy Human Druid Level 1
s10 d14 c10 i14 w16 ch10
Align: Neutral HP:8 AC: 12 (10 Flat)
Fort: +2 Ref: +2 Will: +5
SA: Druid stuff
Feats: Martial Prof-longbow, Spellcasting Prodigy

Skills: 24 points
Concentration [1], Craft [Bowmaking] +3[1], Diplomacy [1], Handle
Animal [4], Heal +4[1], Knowledge [nature] +5[3], Listen +5[2],
Profession [Herbalism] +4[1], Ride +3[1], Ritual +3[1], Spellcraft
+3[1], Spot +6[3], Survival +6[3], Swim [1]

Spells: (3/2)
Commonly Memorized:
0- Detect Poison, Dawn (MotW), Shockwave (RR)
1- Hawkeye (MotW), Entangle

Animal Companion: Enshy - Wolf, Trained to defend.

Equipment: Longbow, arrows[40], to be determined...

Languages: Kalamaran, Dejy, Druidic, Sylvan

Background: It's been a long journey for Jynko, walking the world
from north to south. Born in the Deshada mountains near Slen,
Jynko is a Dejy with traces of Fhokki ancestry in her blood,
lightening her hair color. Jynko began her wanderings when the
call of the wild took her from her family farm. The first winter
was the toughest, but she perservered and made her way south.
Jynko stayed to the mountains throughout her journey, only venturing
out in rare moments. Her goal has been a mystery, but it has
something to do with seeing the ocean -facing south. Something
that came in a vision. Along the way Jynko has faced a number
of trials -a year as a slave to a Kalamaran merchant taught her
a new tongue, and a winter with Dryads another. In the last year
she came out of the P'Rorul Mountains to find an imense jungle,
something Jynko had never imagined in her northern youth. She
wandered as a child with open curiosity, a trait which cost her
dearly. Caught by goblins and traded to a small band of hobgoblins
in exchange for three swords and an aging cow, Jynko and her
wolf Enshy were brought into one of the southern cities -bound
for the slave markets and remote lands. When she saw the sea
Jynko knew she had to fight, she was not facing south. In the
night she and Enshy broke free, killed their captures, and set
out once again...

Personality: Jynko is driven by the wilds, and what urges call
to her. She has little time or patience for civilized company,
and does little to understand it. Her time as a slave in Kalamaran
lands has taught her some of the ways of men, and they are not
much to her liking -somewhere in the Kalasali woods a shallow
grave attests to what she will do to win her freedom. It has
recently been matched by the body's of three hobgoblins floating
in the waters off Pagalido. Jynko is wild, feral, like the wolf
at her side. She is a northern tigress -savage and beautiful,
worthy of respect and fear.

Appearance:
See this miniature:
http://www.i-kore.com/site1/images/galleries/celtos/large/12309.jpg
Which is roughly accurate, only imagine a deep golden skin tone.
Jynko is 4'8" 85 lbs, 17 years of age. She left home at 13.


If I find some good angle on bows later, I'll change out the feat...

I may give her the 'Child of the Wild' package from Quintessential
Druid that gives a +2 to Animal Empathy, Handle Animal, and Survival
at the expense of a -4 in social checks with humanoids or other
civilized races. If I do such I'll probably drop diplomacy.

Still thinking on it, now I have to paint the miniature.

 

[Stormrunner]

Well, since the scimitar seems to be included because of its sickle/crescent moon shape, you could point out the bows are also a crescent shape...
Is that your paint job on the pic of the minis? Mighty well done if so...