D&D 5E Druids + necromancy: Help me make it make sense!

[neobolts]

Druids are into recycling. Seems legit.

Seriously though, Druids are supposed to be about balance, so an evil Druid doesn't fit too well for me personally, but he could be an outlier, with a twisted logic that as life and death are part of the cycle of nature, death should be no barrier. Upon death, the personality leaves the body, and the body becomes just a bunch of organic material much as rocks and trees are. So, necromancy and Druidism could work, but evil and Druidism is for me, a bit more difficult to square (but then I'm an old school AD&D head so true neutral Druids = the norm for me).

The concept is a breakaway sect of druidic terrorists that revel in the savagery of nature. The traditional druids are horrified by this unbalanced worldview. The necromancy is another layer on top of that to add more undead for the undead hunter.

 

[Kikuras]

I'm going to share with you a realization I came to a while back that helped me understand the druid. The druid is not a druid.

WotC uses the term druid, and to that we bring a lot of preconceived notions of what a druid is, but the D&D druid is not quite the druid of myth, lore, and reality, though there are some overt nods to it. I have come to see the D&D druid as a Shaman - a witchdoctor, a practitioner of voodoo, a spiritual naturalist, the D&D druid is whatever it needs to be in the context of the character. A fighter can be a soldier, a mercenary, a thug, or any number of functional incarnations, why should the druid be conceptually different?

I picture a corrupted druid, drawn in by dark forces, be they spiritual, mental, or whatever. Madness can be a result of trauma, or loss, or even gain. A corrupted druid may no longer share in a druidic circle with others, but may be in a circle of one.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A Magic:The Gathering take on this: the Golgari Swarm.

Basically: death is a part of nature. The process of decay and rot feeds into new life. The soil is made of dead things. Dead are meant to be used - their bodies can be employed for other purposes. Even as minions, if you want.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

"Poison. Carrion-eater. Cordyceps fungus. Mummy rot. All of them are part of nature."

"The druids you know...their so-called balance is only Nature's green face, and sometimes the red. But Nature has three faces. The green of growth. The red of blood. And the black...of death. The dead belong to Nature: from Nature the body is born, and to Nature the body returns. If it is Nature's will that the body continue to serve after its occupant has left, who are you to deny that claim?"

"Some druids wield fire: the cleansing fire that clears away the undergrowth and lets a forest rise again, stronger, healthier. Some druids wield water: the rising tide, the flooding river, that sweeps away the weak, and leaves fresh soil for growth.

We...we wield death. The death of plague, which culls the weak and keeps the strong. The death of decay, by which old strength feeds and protects new strength. And if those who have died can still serve the living, it is no different than the corpse that feeds the worm or the tree."

 

[Ahrimon]

I like the idea of the circle of life druid bringing death and decay wherever he goes to keep the circle going. I can even see them using undead as temporary servants. Bring forth a plague zombie bear to spread death and decay for a few months/years until it falls apart shouldn't be a problem. Even if it lasts until the death of the creator, it'll still go back into the cycle once the creator is dead.

 

[PnPgamer]

* Although I just got an image of shambling zombies covered in mushrooms, dripping rotting ichor and flesh on the ground while spores sporadically puff off from them. I'm sure there is something like that in a supplement somewhere.

Pathfinder had this yellow musk creeper, that seeded up corpses of his fallen victims, which would return to life as plants overwhelmed and controlled the corpses. However these were not actual zombies, their type was plant instead of undead. They used the same stats otherwise.

 

[Ahrimon]

Pathfinder had this yellow musk creeper, that seeded up corpses of his fallen victims, which would return to life as plants overwhelmed and controlled the corpses. However these were not actual zombies, their type was plant instead of undead. They used the same stats otherwise.

Pretty sure that was a 2E thing. 3E at a minimum.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Personally I would add something a little home-brewed to get the desired effect. Best I can think of is as follows:

The druids gained access to an extremely rare vine from the negative energy plane. While it is still a plant, it can be harmed by positive energy and healed by negative energy. As part of the reanimation process, a small cutting of a mature vine is placed in the chest cavity of the corpse. After completing a special ritual, the cutting grows to an immature state, growing through and around the flesh of its vessel. All animated corpses start off like zombies, but as time passes, they eventually become like skeletons. Due to the nature of the ritual, all participants are capable of giving commands that fall in line with your standard zombie/skeleton commands. Downside, this process does not give direct access to higher tier undead. Upside, not only do you now have unique "undead", but after a while it's not that difficult a mental leap from these "undead" to the real thing.

Hell, I'd take the process one step farther and have a fully matured vine destroys its vessel, plant themselves in the ground and provide a desecration aura that affects both the undead and the "undead". In addition, the new mature plant adds another source for the druids to make even more "undead".

 

[Uchawi]

I agree with the ideas that explains the druids step into necromancy as tilting the tables in regards to the circle of life or balance. The druid is eager to accelerate the process of decay. The druid may shy away from intelligent undead with their own agenda, but any mindless version is game.

 

[PnPgamer]

Pretty sure that was a 2E thing. 3E at a minimum.

I know it is pathfinder. Ive made my group destroy one of those creatures and its plant zombies. It may however originate from 2e, but pathfinder definately has its own version of it.