Druids - Likes and Dislikes?

[Vanye]

Dislikes[/u]
"Nature" as a concept did not exist before the Englightenment. Rather than making druids ass-kicking, magic using 20th century hippies, why not make them a little more like rural pagan religious leaders. Druids should gain Know (Religion) as a class skill and should be required to choose a god. They are, fundamentally, a kind of priest and should be treated as such.

This is pretty much how the FR setting handles all divine spellcasters, be they clerics, paladins, druids, or ranger, you have to have a god.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Well sure, but aren't you facing the exact same problem with "weakened" multiple animal companions, which was the offer in the original complaint about not being able to do Beastmaster?

Also note that there's nothing saying you have to stick to training dogs and badgers. You do that when you're low level and your Handle Animal bonus is low. At mid-level your bonus is higher and you can be training dinosaurs and hippogriffs and gorgons. At higher levels you can be training- Well, even regular regular animal companions aren't really that survivable at levels 15+, but I guess if you could find a powerful enough magical beast with a low intelligence score, you could train that.

Subject of course, to availability of such animals and campaign time.

Hit Dice and CR don't correlate. Obviously high HD is associated with high CR, but that's about it. Handle Animal doesn't use the monster's CR into account. Furthermore, it's a skill check. You can roll a 20 and domesticate a very powerful animal, whereas another druid might end up with ... badgers. So, I don't think using Handle Animal is actually balanced.

As for those magical beasts, most have lame AC scores. I'd rather have something that gets more powerful with me and has some basic balance associated with it.

 

[Jdvn1]

Here's an offhand question: Is it really necessary for a "druid" to have spellcasting capabilities?

`Le

Hm.

Is it necessary? No. Does it work nicely? Yes.

There are very few 'necessary' aspects of a druid, but there should be some sort of mystical spell-like aspect to them, I think.

 

[fusangite]

This is pretty much how the FR setting handles all divine spellcasters, be they clerics, paladins, druids, or ranger, you have to have a god.

Thanks for this. Now I'll have something nice to say about FR when people talk to me about the setting.

 

[messy]

like-
spontaneous casting- makes sense and gives druids some flexibility
wild shape (but see below)
mix of offensive, defensive, and utility spells
flavor

dislike-
wild shape (and polymorph, polymorph any object, etc.) needs to be fixed once and for all so that it's balanced and makes "realistic" sense.
woodland stride and trackless step- give flavor, but not much practical use
a thousand faces- why do they get this ability? doesn't seem to fit, IMO.

i like druids cos they can fill many roles, much like a bard. the main difference is that druids don't suck

messy

 

[TheLe]

Pardon me for bringing up an old thread, but a number of people have issues with the Wildshape ability.

How could Wildshape be improved?

`Le

 

[Crothian]

How could Wildshape be improved?

I think it needs rules to determine what forms can be used. As it is now all monster books seem to be completely allowed dispite if the Druid would know of it or not.

 

[Corsair]

I don't allow Druids IMC because they are too complex. I had a druid in my last campaign (the reason why I banned them). This was actually the first druid I'd ever ran in 3rd edition.

He didn't do anything particularly out of the ordinary when he made the class, but it was just obnoxious.

He had a pet wolf that was stronger than the party's fighter - had more hit points, and did more damage. Then he kept summoning stuff every round, so he was constantly having to look up monster stats, most of which were more or less ineffective, so they were just troublesome things that added little value. I dreaded the Druid's turn during initiative, because I knew he was going to take forever by virtue of all the critters surrounding him.

So you don't like an entire class because of an unprepared player? :\

And almost universally, every Druid I've ever seen played was a "lone-wolf" sort of character that almost never agrees nor gets along with the party. They are almost always at odds with a party decision at some point during the campaign. So, for that reason alone, I've made Druids IMC, "NPC-only" because it fits the style better - lone recluse who hangs out in the forest protecting it, not happy-go-lucky go who travels with a party of do-goods into a dungeon to get phat l3wt.

Intriguingly, I am currently playing a happy-go-lucky druid who travels with a party of do-goods into dungeons for phat l3wt (though the l3wt is a means to an end: getting more powerful, so he can beat up more evil, unnatural critters). I kind of have the personality of Miroku from Inuyasha.

 

[Andre]

Pardon me for bringing up an old thread, but a number of people have issues with the Wildshape ability.

How could Wildshape be improved?

`Le

Just off the top of my head:

I'd tie wildshape and spellcasting together, in the sense that using one limits the other. To this end:
*Make the druid a spontaneous spellcaster, but with a limited list of spells known (ala the sorcerer).
*Wildshape forms would be selected in place of an appropriate-level spell known.
*Changing into wildshape would require the expenditure of a spell slot equal to the level of the form assumed.

As for the "level" of a wildshape form, that would take some effort to work out. A field mouse or bird would be zero or 1st level, a dire bear would be much higher. Alternately, simply allow the druid to take on a number of fixed abilities from a list (bonus to a stat, natural attack, flight) based on the spell slot used and select an acceptable form (no becoming a sparrow with a 20 Strength score).

Base duration would be one minute per level of the spell slot used. Allow the druid to use a spell slot to take a lower level form for longer duration (burn a 2nd-level slot to become a bird for 10 minutes per spell level, or a 3rd-level spell slot to become a bird for one hour per spell level).

The general idea is that a druid could be a good caster, but poor shaper, or vice versa, or mediocre at both.

 

[Wik]

God, use the PHB 2 wildshape version. If you could do something similar to that (a streamlined system that just overlays the druid's form), you'd be in the money.