D&D General Laser Llama's Alternate Druid class

[Corinnguard]

Laser Llama has finally created his own take on the Druid class.

Alternate Druid by laserllama

Alternate Druid by laserllama - Created with GM Binder.

www.gmbinder.com

 

[BookTenTiger]

Who is Laser Llama?

 

[Corinnguard]

Who is Laser Llama?

IMO, a very good homebrewer of 5e D&D. Check out his work.

GM Binder

www.gmbinder.com

 

[BookTenTiger]

IMO, a very good homebrewer of 5e D&D. Check out his work.

GM Binder

www.gmbinder.com

What makes his Druid different?

 

[Steampunkette]

What makes his Druid different?

Primal Surge, firstly.

Rather than gaining Wild Shape they get a battery of choices, and Wild Shape is just one of those choices. That, alone, catapults this into the top position for my favorite Druid since 2nd Edition AD&D. You even get two choices right away and can trade them whenever you level up.

And the other options are, truly, amazing. I'm not even kidding.

1) Do a Ritual spell in one round without expending a slot.
2) Upcast a Spell even if you don't have the slot to do it. (by 1 level)
3) Create a pillar of elemental power for 2d6+Level, and gain more pillars per use with additional levels.
4) Find Familiar on a natural creature with a single action
5) Plants overgrow a scaling radius and create difficult terrain that moves with you.
6) Wild Shape

I am going to mercilessly pillage this design with full credit to LaserLlama because this is just -how- Druids should work, rather than all of them invariably turning into a Bear or whatever to wade into melee.

 

[Bae'zel]

I really like this idea; I was never a fan of D&D's somewhat narrow "Druid is a shapechanger" archetype.

I mean... look at the inspiration from real world cultures (shamans, druids, medicine folk etc.) while yes, embodying animal spirits was a thing, there was so much more going on.

I would like to see a variant of the Druid as a "spirit speaker" or whatever; less about animals and more about conversing with other planes.

 

[TwoSix]

I really like this idea; I was never a fan of D&D's somewhat narrow "Druid is a shapechanger" archetype.

I mean... look at the inspiration from real world cultures (shamans, druids, medicine folk etc.) while yes, embodying animal spirits was a thing, there was so much more going on.

I would like to see a variant of the Druid as a "spirit speaker" or whatever; less about animals and more about conversing with other planes.

Laserllama's Shaman hits a lot of these points, it's a Wisdom-based pact magic class with nature/spirit magic without a Wildshape ability (although some subclasses have similar abilities).

 

[Steampunkette]

I also love that his Circle of the Moon option still gets greater wild shape options... But pays for it.

You get the Wild Shape surge option for free (or if you have it, pick another) and then to do CR 1 or higher beasts you spend spell slots.

On the one hand, this is a brilliant way to add a minor cost to the process. On the other: What a -fantastic- way to allow Druid Multiclassing to be more prominent? No longer do you have to stay Druid for all those levels to get higher Beast Shapes, you just have to use higher level spell slots. It drastically increases the modularity of the class.

Granted, I personally -dislike- multiclassing as a concept, but what an awesome way to handle it!

 

[Weiley31]

Who is Laser Llama?

IMO, a very good homebrewer of 5e D&D. Check out his work.

GM Binder

www.gmbinder.com

If "He's HIM" was a dictionary page in a section about How to Homebrew A Class, then the picture at the top of said section would be a ye olde style portrait of LaserLlama

That is apparently how impressive his legend is in the field of 5E Homebrewing.

 

[Weiley31]

Plants overgrow a scaling radius and create difficult terrain that moves with you.
6) Wild Shape

I am a HUGE fan of Okami and I love the visual of a Druid dashing and all the flowers, vines, and everything following behind em ala Amaterasu.