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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9144001" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 147: July 2001part 3/6Taking Revenge on Civilisation: Being a druid isn’t all musical numbers with happy woodland animals and easily defeating any despoilers of nature with a smile like Captain Planet. In many worlds, including our own, they’re fighting a losing battle. Under these circumstances, you can’t just keep on using the same old tactics and hope that somehow the balance will restore itself in time.  Fortunately, druids are pretty widely accepted to be the strongest core class in 3e, plus there’s plenty of tricks you can use to customise both yourself and others, so while they might lose eventually, it won’t be under this ruleset. Deepwood Avengers are unsurprisingly a prestige class for anyone who’s lands were destroyed or urbanised. (same difference, in their eyes) They gain both full BAB and spellcasting progression every level, making them very powerful indeed, although not advancing wild shape at all means they still might not stack up to a regular druid in hand to hand combat. On top of that they gain ranger style favored enemy bonuses against civilised creatures, bard style ability to sing a song that buffs all the wilderness creatures on your side when they attack civilised things, a natural armor bonus, and at 10th level, an instadeath effect that turns the victim straight into compost so at least they can give something back to the earth. They don’t seem like a complete waste of time vs sticking with straight druid, even if their effectiveness will vary quite a bit depending on what you’re fighting. Arborror are tree zombies animated from fallen trunks and stumps. Weapons break on them and their breath weapon infects you with a wasting disease, making them the kind of battle that may permanently deplete your resources even if you win. If only they were a bit faster so they could engage in hit and run tactics effectively. Cinciut are a particularly sneaky variety of redcap, specialising in gleefully sadistic assassinations rather than straightforward combat and eating nearly anything. Just the kind of dubious ally you only turn to when conventional methods of protecting nature are getting you nowhere and you need someone that’s really good at asymmetrical warfare.Companions of Flame and Hate are also only going to be used in the worst situations, as they’re a template that involves bonding an animal with a fire elemental to turn them into a short-lived engine of burning destruction. If they’re resorting to things like that, they’ve probably already lost the war and are just trying to make sure it’s as pyrrhic (as in pyre, reminding us of the root of the word) for the victor as possible. Plague Winds are a construct fusing an air elemental with very earthly muck. Another one that’s designed to leave the opponents suffering long after they win the fight, making them easy prey for whatever comes next unless they have plenty of clerics on their side. Another reminder that the early 3e era still had a good deal more persistent conditions and things that inflict permanent ability drain than 3.5, let alone subsequent editions where you completely heal with a long rest. Whatever happened to the worries about logistics and attrition of yesteryear?</blockquote>

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