I'm harsh, but seeking to compansate. Any advice?

[Taren Nighteyes]

Brun,

You could also have the druid receive a dream, messenger, or holy representative of the god, which basically charges the druid with the quest to destroy particular leader(s) of that which is killing her. In doing this, maybe a token of the goddess favor (a staff, scimitar, medallion, etc) will grant that druid combat spells, unlike any of the other druids/rangers in the world.

Something like that anyway....

Taren Nighteyes

 

[CTD]

The simple answer is to find a way to give the druids their teeth back. You have taken their muscle for a campaign based reason, give it back for a campaign based reason.

The key point here (as I see it) is story. Your story has taken the druids power. User your story to give it back.

Use your players ire as a motivator. Give his/her character a clue that there is a way to restore his/her full power.

Perhaps killing the outsiders is not only tolerable, but encouraged (as they are not native and steal the life from the Goddess (might be why they are here in the first place) it's ok to send them home with force).?

Perhaps a focus item can be used to take the life force of the dead, trap it, and then give it to the Goddess? This way the killing of evil/bad people/things becomes a Ritual of Life for the Goddess.

Or perhaps you should have her die, and then the druids loose their power entirely, but learn to pull direct from Nature and the Elements instead of the Goddess. It would take a bit of roleplay and working together to move the story this way, but you could compenstate by making the players character the paragon for this new source of druidic power. Great amounts of respect and seeking out by those who wish to learn the New Ways.

You could even allow for a sub-group of them to eternally quest to bring the Goddess back to life (and if it's your player interested in this you could leave the smallest vestige of her alive to encourage him).

To me, things like this sound a lot better than giving new powers to the druid to balance a story twist on the rules. Let him/her (the player) suffer for a bit but give them a reward for trying to find a resolution to the problem that restores the power and rewards him/her for the effort and suffering.

 

[Enkhidu]

Here's a thought,

I like the idea of Mistwell's above about subdual substitution on all damage spells (in fact, I was going to suggest just that, but Mistwell beat me to it). This will make combat a much less deadly option for a druid, but will still let them pack quite a bit of a punch. However, I would also go with a few more things as well:

Druids (for as long as the goddess grants it) will have the clerical ability to spontaneously cast healing spells. This is directly in line with what the goddess would want (the preservation of life).

The goddess only cares about natural life - outsiders and undead are not part of that order, and so they would not receive the protection of subdual damage from druid spells. In fact, I would be tempted to automatically Empower all damage spells when they are used against beings not of the goddess. This would be because the goddess realizes that these beings are the antithesis of her existence, as they can only help destroy her, and add nothing to the chain of life.

So, in a nutshell, Druids spontaneously cast healing spells as a cleric, have automatic and free Subdual Substitution on all damage spells used on beings within the circle of life, and automatic and free Empowerment on all damage spells used on beings outside of that circle.

Talk about the ultimate undead and demon slayer!

 

[Enkhidu]

Dang Double Posts...

 

[brun]

I stated to my player that the goddess is "unconcious", and in no state to differanciate the use her worshipers make of her spells. But, as the player is 13th level (which'd qualify him to be the messenger to other druids, IMO) and actively seeking and destroying demons, even without his damaging spells (and it's real funny: he is old and has strength 8), I'll probably go for the subdual.

And who knows, he might not be able to save her after all....

 

[Tiefling]

Are you trying to compensate for something?

 

[brun]

well...
I stripped the druids of theur ability to cast damaging spells.
I'm seeking a way to compensate for this while staying true to the storyline.

 

[Squire James]

Several questions:

1. How well did you weave this "planet-goddess" thing in? Were there hints that this sort of thing would happen? Did you just surprise your player one day with the fact that half his newly-acquired 7th level spell list just got wiped off the face of your goddess?

I'm asking this because most stories are not as holy to the players as it might be to the DM... from their point of view they may just see the whole issue as punishing elf druid for some reason. Are you? Probably not, but looking at it as the player of that elf druid...

2. Which spells are you taking out? All those fire spells and Creeping Doom are obvious, but animal summoning and buff spells can be just as deadly. Are those going away too? If not, why? Did it simply slip the goddess' notice (very possible IMO)?

3. How did your goddess ever cope with things like humans dying of old age, or insects dropping dead at the end of their one day of life? Is there some difference between "natural" deaths and deaths caused by injury? Is the goddess hurt by a monkey losing his balance and dying from falling damage? How about bears that get struck by lightning?

If any of this is OK by the goddess, well make all the damage spells do that sort of thing. A 5th level Cardiac Arrest spell that functions like Slay Living? A 7th level Gravity Storm that makes all those in the area take 1d6 per level falling damage (the area being strangely similar to Fire Storm's area of effect...)? A 5th level Lightning Strike spell with an effect uncannily similar to Flame Strike, except it's "natural"? A 7th level Sands of Time spell that ages (d6+4) x 100 hp worth of creatures to death (creatures who can't dying of old age are immune)?

4. Finally, if it comes down to it, which is more important: your story or your player? Make that decision ahead of time, because you may someday have to choose between them, no matter what you do!

 

[Squire James]

Hopefully you have accepted my last post as constructive criticism, and not just criticism. As a DM, I've had a bad case of "My Holy Story" before, and my players didn't like it much. It's not quite as bad as "My Holy NPC's" or "My Holy Girlfriend's Character", but it can be a problem just the same!

That being said, it occurs to me that you can beef up the summoning spells. You can increase (1) the number of creatures, (2) the HD of the creatures summoned -- be ready to stat out these animals if you do this, (3) the "level" of animal summoned, and/or (4) the duration of effect -- perhaps long enough for long-term buffs to be useful.

Awakening animals seems to add power to an existing living creature without any corresponding drain on the caster -- does this hurt the planet by draining power from it or help it because stronger life is living on it?

If that elf druid has Empower Spell and/or Maximize Spell that he selected with damage spells in mind, be sure to remind him that such spells work on summoning spells as well (when 1d3 lower-level creatures are summoned via Summon Nature's Ally, for instance)!

 

[brun]

Actually, all my players are finding the game very interresting, even the druid.I'm just worried he'll grow tired of his relative (in regard to other players) inferiority.

Natural deaths hurt the goddess too, but to a lesser extent. And these deaths are compensated by the births and all. It's just that currently, there are way too much killing for the births.