And now for a slight left turn. I finished up the last two ranger favored terrain abilities (you can see the finished product
here, if you're interested) and started work on the druid.
I was never really happy with the way the druid turned out - the masteries were a good idea in theory, but they didn't turn out so well in practice. The abilities were hard to create, and they ended up being pretty weak and non-useful overall. I do, however, want to keep them (because they're still a good idea), and I have some ideas.
The main problem with the druid, as I see it, is twofold: Natural Spell and wildshape. Banning the feat eliminates the first; for the second, I changed the rules so that a) you can only choose from a repertoire of forms (kind of like spells, but not nearly as many); and b) no form's ECL can be higher than your class level. This ensures that you don't choose something that's overpowered ("But its HD don't exceed my level!" *snort*), and the player doesn't stop play looking through all the books for a suitably broken form to take - with a set "stable" of forms, most players would be encouraged to simply keep the stats on a file card. And yes, I'm well aware of the problem with the difference in stats. I'm not sure that it would cause that much of a problem with the above fixes.
All the "new size" Wild feats from the ELH get condensed into a single class ability: Expanded Wildshape (see abilities for a full description). Vermin shape will go to the Vermin Lord (PrC); Dragon Shape will probably become a legendary class ability (in the PP meta-setting, dragons were originally formed from the elemental chaos, so they make a good high-level druidic form). Elemental and plant shapes remain the property of their respective masteries, but I changed things around a bit (see below).
The reason I cut wild shape back is that I don't feel this should be the druid's central ability. It should be a major ability, sure - something like the paladin's smite or a cleric's turning - but not their whole schtick. Druids are protectors of nature and all things living, opposed to those who would despoil it, as well as anything that goes against the natural order. The masteries are intended to let the druid focus on different aspects of nature - animals, plants, the earth, or weather - and become a warden, of sorts, for that aspect: Beastlords have ties to animals, Verdant Lords have power over the plant kingdom, Elemental Lords prevent natural disasters like earthquakes and eruptions, and Stormlords control the weather.
I'm leaning toward restricting the druid to one mastery, and each mastery has a pool of abilities to choose from, similar to the fighter. You can change masteries each time you gain a new ability, but you don't gain all the new abilities at once - you gain a new one at each level thereafter until you've hit your max. For example, a L11 druid decides to change his mastery from Elements to Weather; he loses all the Elements abilities and can choose one Weather ability at L11, one at L12, and the last at L13.
And that's it, so far. I'll toss out some abilities later, but I just wanted to get the general framework and comments on it. Favored terrain and one with nature are exactly like the ranger abilities; resist nature's lure and venom immunity are unchanged.
1st: Animal companion
2nd: Favored terrain
3rd: Druidic mastery
4th: One with nature
5th: Wild shape
6th: 2nd FT
7th: Druidic mastery
8th: Resist nature's lure
9th: Expanded wild shape
10th: 3rd FT
11th: Druidic mastery
12th: Venom immunity
13th: Expanded wild shape
14th: 4th FT
15th: Druidic mastery
16th: Speak with nature
17th: Expanded wild shape
18th: 5th FT
19th: Druidic mastery
20th: ??? (a generic druidic ability)
Speak with Nature (Su): All druids can speak to plants, animals, or the earth itself, depending on their chosen mastery. Beastlords can speak with animals, as the spell; Elemental Lords can communicate with stone, as the stone tell spell; Verdant Lords can speak with plants, as the spell; and Stormlords can speak with airborne creatures, as the speak with animals spell. This ability is usable at will.
Wild Shape (Su): 1 + Wis bonus times per day as standard action, a Beastlord can draw upon his ties with the nature and change into any animal and back again. In order to change into an animal, he must have studied any individual of its type, either alive or dead, for at least 3 rounds. Thereafter, he can add that animal to his list of allowed forms (see below). His options for new forms include all creatures with the Animal type.
When the druid gains this ability, he automatically starts with one animal shape of his choice, which must fulfill the above requirements. He can know up to one animal form per two class levels; each time he gains a new level, he can exchange an existing animal form for a new one, if he has reached his maximum.
This ability functions like the polymorph spell, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 10 minutes per druid level, or until he changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. Each time the druid changes form, he regains lost hit points as if he had rested for a night. The new form's ECL can't exceed the druid's class level, and its size can be two sizes smaller or (so a Medium druid could wild shape into a Tiny, Small, or Medium animal).
Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When the druid reverts to his true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on his body that they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items worn in the assumed form fall off and land at the druid's feet.
A druid loses his ability to speak while in animal form because he is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but he can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as his new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)
Expanded Wild Shape: The druid can wildshape into a form one size larger or smaller than those currently allowed to him. Each time he gains this ability, he must choose larger or smaller. At each level he gains this ability, he also gains a new use of wild shape.
Each time the druid gains this ability, he can also choose a new form related to his mastery, of the type or subtype noted below:
Beastlord: Magical beast
Elemental Lord: Earth or Fire subtypes
Stormlord: Air subtype
Verdant Lord: Plant
The form chosen must comply with the restrictions noted under Wild Shape, above, except that the ECL can be equal to the druid's class level +2.
There isn't much else, really... I've already integrated all the feats and skill uses that were worthwhile, and the spell system is beyond salvaging. Oh, and the monsters - they were worth saving, though it required a bit of work in some cases.
