Spontaneous Druid Caster?

[Remathilis]

Hello.

I'm working on a campagin setting featuring ONLY spontaneous casters. So far, I have the bard (fine), the sorcerer (arcane magic) and a choice of either the favored soul or the the mystic (divine, leaning HEAVILY toward the mystic from DL). Now, I want a naturistic/druid class, but I'm leary on simply giving a druid spells/day and spells known. Both sorcerer/wizards and cleric/mystic suffer from loss of class abilities (bonus feats, extra domains) to become spontaneous casters, what (if anything) should a spontaneous druid keep as class abilities and what should be dropped/changed to give it a distinct flavor?

I'm open to all suggestions.

(PS. I'm using 3.5 for rules system, inc druid spell list and weapons)

 

[johnsemlak]

The Miniatures Handbook has a divine magic class that casts spells spontaniously--The Favored Soul. May be worth checking out.

 

[Michael Tree]

If you leave the Druid's spells/day chart as is, and give them a spells known chart, it would probably be balanced. That way they would have less spells/day than a sorcerer or mystic, but lots of innate abilities.

Druids would also gain new spell levels one level faster than sorcers and mystics, but you can change that by simply removing the "1" at the spell level where standard Druids would gain a new spell level, without changing anything else. For example, a 3rd level Druid wouldn't have any 2nd level spells/day, but a 4th level Druid would have 2 2nd level spells/day, just like the chart says.

You might also want to look at the Shaman's Handbook, Witch's Handbook, and Avatar's Handbook, all by Green Ronin. They all detail new spontaneously casting core classes.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

You might also look at the Arcana Unearthed classes. They're all spontaneous casters.

 

[Remathilis]

Thanks for the tips so far...

Can someone give me a quick lo-down on the abilities of a shaman, witch or avatar (or a greenblood or witch from AU?) I'm a little poor to buy them, but I'd like to use some of the ideas from those classes

 

[Zhure]

Oriental Adventures Shugenja is very druid-like. Well, kinda. They get schools (which are linked to elements) and can spontaneously cast. Have d6 hit dice, simple weapons + wakizashi, a wizard's BAB and no armor proficiency, but don't take arcane spell failure.

Greg

 

[Terraism]

Monte previewed the Greenbond in his Stuff column, so you can get a pretty good idea of it there.

 

[Hardhead]

The Greenbond from AU is a spontaneous-casting druid. And, that just happens to be the class that was featured in the Arcana Unearthed Preview.

It's not quite a normal spontaneous caster, though. Like all AU classes, it "knows" all spells, but must "ready" X number per day, which means they can potentially cast them (but don't have to, like in D&D).

For instance, let's say you can ready three 1st level spells per day, and can cast six 1st level spells per day. You choose three first level spells from your class spells, we'll call them Spell A, Spell B, and Spell C. Now, you can can cast any of them in any amount, six times that day. For instance, you could cast Spell A five times, and Spell B once. Or Spell A, B, and C each twice. Or Spell B three times, Spell A once, and Spell C twice. It's kind of like a normal spontaneous caster being able to re-choose his spells known list every day.

Of course, in AU we have all-new spells, but you could use the Druid spell list if you wanted. The power level of the spells are not really very different. One caveat: Greenbonds are supposed to be channelers of Positive Energy, the force that supplies life to the world. As such, in AU they're the best healers. If I were using the D&D spell list with the Greenbond, I'd: use the Druid spell list, but give them spells like Cure Light Wounds that channel positive energy at the same level clerics get them, but drop the animal affecting spells (Greenbonds are more plant-y than animal-y). Also, Greenbond spells have Spell Failure chances, but they get a spell to make up for it that works like this:

[Name Removed because it's not OGL. I'm sure you can come up with one of your own]
Conjuration (Creation)
[Plant]
Level: 1
Casting Time: Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: One hour/level (D)
You cover your body in conjured sheets of bark, shoots of bamboo, thick plant fiber, and leaves. This plant armor grants you a +4 armor bonus to Armor
Class. This armor is formfitting and astoundingly flexible, so it confers no armor check penalty or spell failure chance, and it has a maximum Dexterity of +6. It does not affect speed; Medium characters should treat it as Light armor that weighs 10 lbs. (Those not proficient in Light armor suffer a –2 armor check
penalty and a 5 percent spell failure chance.) If you cast this spell again while it is already in effect, you conjure a special wooden shield that provides a +2 shield bonus to Armor Class while conferring no armor check penalty, spell failure chance, or maximum Dexterity. It weighs 5 lbs. if you are of Medium size.
Diminished Effects: The Armor Class bonus becomes +1 only, and the duration becomes 1 round per level.
Heightened Effects: The armor gains a +5 Armor Class bonus, and the shield a +3 shield bonus.


Like all AU spells, it has a Diminished and Heightened effect, which means that you can cast it has a spell of one level higher if you want (in this case, 2nd level) to get the Heigtened Effect, or one level lower to get the Diminished. You still ready it as a 1st level spell if you do this (you just *cast* it as a higher level spell).

 

[Michael Tree]

Shamans are spontaneous divine spellcasters who use Charisma to cast spells. They have the spells/day of a druid, and a spells known list that gives them less than a sorcerer. However, they also get two domains at 1st level (spirit, and one of their choice) and an additional domain every 5th level, so they end up knowing more spells than a sorcerer.

Shamans also gain a spirit familiar at 4th level (basically a standard familiar with the ability to become incorporeal, and eventually possess others at 15th level). Shamans also have the ability to Rebuke Spirits, which include all outsiders, elementals, incorporeal undead, and anything else with the incorporeal subtype.

In the Shaman's Handbook there's a PrC called "skin changer" which gives the ability to wild shape like a druid.

The witch is a spontaneous arcane caster which uses Wisdom to cast spells. They're much like sorcerers, except with more skill points, more social and nature class skills, bonus feats every 5 levels, and, eventually, the Thousand Faces and Timeless body abilities. Their spells are less offensive than a sorcerer's, focusing more on charm and transformation spells, with a smattering of low level healing spells.

The avatar is a good-aligned divine spellcaster, with d6 hit dice and sorcerer BAB, who have great summoning abilities. They cast like sorcerers, but with a larger spells known list, and automatically know the "summon monster" spell of every spell level. They also gain some abilities from a menu (like the loremaster's secrets) and the ability to transform themselves into celestials.

 

[Gez]

[Name Removed because it's not OGL. I'm sure you can come up with one of your own]

Dude, you can say it's Plant Armor. It's not like your post was OGL. Was it? I didn't saw the license, definition of Open Content, and definition of Product Identity.

The existence of the OGL don't invalidate Fair Use.