John Cooper
Explorer
The Quintessential Druid
By Robin O. Duke
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 4010
128 pages, $19.95
The Quintessential Druid is the 10th in Mongoose's popular "Collector Series" of books detailing the standard classes and races of D&D. Written by Robin O. Duke, the author of Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chronomancy, the book attempts to make druids more interesting, more versatile, and (judging from the "Designer's Notes" section) able to gain some more respect.
The Quintessential Druid is laid out as follows:
I've developed somewhat of a reputation as a spelling/punctuation/grammar nitpicker, so let me get that bit out of the way: while the text is riddled with misspelled words (which usually spell entirely different words, so they won't get caught by a spellchecker program), I've seen much worse in Mongoose books. "Soured" should have been "soared" (page 3), "al" should have been "all" (page 8), "with" should have been "will" (page 11), "aid" should have been "aide" (page 50), "bath" should have been "bathe" (page 98), "larva" should have been "lava" (page 112), "mile" should have been "smile" (page 116), "wonder" should have been "wander" (page 117), and so on. Of course, that doesn't explain how the spellchecker missed words like "Ccrcle" (page 14), "duank" (page 48), or "tTiny" (page 68) - again, evidence of a less-than-thorough job on the parts of the editor (Paul Tucker) and proofreader (Lucya Szachnowski).
Typical John Cooper nitpicking aside, Robin O. Duke did a pretty good job writing this book for the most part. I enjoyed the Character Concepts (particularly the Rescued Soul - an evil person exiled into the wilderness and raised by druids, and who has now "turned over a new leaf" - and the Wandering Druid, which is the type of druid I've always played), and the Prestige Classes weren't too bad, although I wish there had been at least one of them a full 10 levels, just for variety if nothing else. My favorites here were the Tree Dancer (a druid who can coax power out of living trees and shape them to her will) and the Vitiate Maiden (a druid with poison-based powers, something not often associated with the "standard" druid). I really liked Robin's concept of "wild clothing," a set of clothes crafted from the hide of a single beast, granting the druid a +4 bonus to Animal Empathy and Handle Animal checks made toward the type of animal the clothing is made of, plus granting the druid an extra (free) use of the wild shape special ability, provided he wild shapes into that animal. It really provides a nice "totem animal" feel for the druid. The section on Ogham was interesting if short. (It would have perhaps been nice to provide an example Ogham alphabet, but I've seen such things elsewhere - old issues of Dragon and Polyhedron magazines, I'm pretty sure - so if I want to use such information, it's already out there, and maybe there wasn't room for it in the book.)
On the other hand, there were a few problems I noted. I like the fact that Robin tried "mixing up" the druid's wild shape abilities somewhat, so that not all druids of the same level would necessarily have the exact same abilities (a good thing), but the attempt got a little bungled. Breaking up the wild shape powers into such things as "Animal Wild Shape," "Beast Wild Shape" (this book came out before the release of the 3.5 rules), "Dragon Wild Shape," etc., was an okay idea (although I seriously doubt that a druid, whose powers are derived from nature, would - or even should - be able to assume an undead form via wild shape). Adding on advanced wild shape powers (usually based on assuming different sizes) was also okay, but the real problem is the prerequisites, as they often end up chasing themselves all over the place. For example, to wild shape into a Colossal form, the druid must be 15th level and already be able to wild shape into a Gargantuan form. Of course, the prerequisites for Gargantuan Wild Shape are: be a 15th-level druid and be able to assume a Huge or Colossal size. Since you can't be Colossal unless you can already be Gargantuan, that really means you've got to be able to become Huge first. This only makes sense, but why are the extraneous (and impossible to gain) prerequisites there? It only confuses the issue (there's a similar problem at the other end of the scale: you need Diminutive to get to Fine, but to get Diminutive you need either Fine - which you can't have yet - or Tiny Wild Shape). The only possible explanation I can come up with is making allowances for nonhumanoid druids of different sizes, say a Gargantuan green dragon druid or something. If this is the case, it should have been explained.
A couple of other problems: the Tree Dancer description says that tree dancers must give up some spellcasting ability, but each level of the prestige class grants a +1 to the druid's spellcasting level. (Other prestige classes have some levels - as many as three - where the druid does not gain a +1 to his spellcasting level.) Which is correct: the verbiage or the chart?
Here is a sentence from the description of the discern true form spell: "The druid casting this spell gains the ability to see through wild shape, polymorph self, and similar shapeshifting abilities." Here's another: "Spells or spell-like abilities that actually change a subject's type, such as wild shape or a true form or shapechange spell completely fool this spell." So which is it: can a discern true form spell see through wild shape or not?
The Grove Defender prestige class has an "Entombed Warrior" special ability listed on the chart, but no such ability is described - it looks like it was renamed "Healing Slumber" but not fixed in the chart. This should probably have been caught by the editor, if not the author.
The whole concept of the Otherworld seems fine, but I was a little surprised that The Quintessential Druid mentions Encyclopaedia Divine: Fey Magic several times without actually using any of the material found therein. Fey Magic describes the Faerie Lands, which could easily be substituted for the Otherworld appearing here. On the one hand, I'm glad that The Quintessential Druid stands on its own and is usable without having to purchase other books, but it would have been nice had the Otherworld been merged a little better with the Faerie Lands. Furthermore, I was a little surprised to see the concept of ley lines cropping up again, since ley line rules (and different ones at that) also appear in both The Quintessential Witch and The Quintessential Sorcerer. I suppose if you have all three books, you can choose the system you like best or try to clump them all together into a working whole. I also found some similarities between druid circles and witches' covens (from The Quintessential Witch), but they are dissimilar enough to warrant being covered separately in both books.
On the other hand, it looks like The Quintessential Druid gives you everything you need to use the new "oakheart fighting style" despite the fact that the full fighting style rules are found in The Quintessential Fighter. That's always good to see: one book building on another without actually requiring you to purchase the other book. I was also pleased to see an Index; any book over 100 pages really needs one, especially when there are all kinds of new spells, feats, weapons, and templates scattered throughout.
All in all, Robin does a pretty good job with the druids - they are much more flexible, one of the book's stated goals. While I think the problems in the book put it right in the middle of the "high 3/low 4" rating, I'll give Robin the benefit of the doubt and make it a "4 - good."
By Robin O. Duke
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 4010
128 pages, $19.95
The Quintessential Druid is the 10th in Mongoose's popular "Collector Series" of books detailing the standard classes and races of D&D. Written by Robin O. Duke, the author of Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chronomancy, the book attempts to make druids more interesting, more versatile, and (judging from the "Designer's Notes" section) able to gain some more respect.
The Quintessential Druid is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: explaining the "Collector Series" and what this book will do for players with druid PCs
- Character Concepts: 8 druid PC concepts, each with an advantage and disadvantage (except for the Wandering Druid, who has neither), and a new fighting style for the Oak Brother (who specializes in fighting with a staff as a weapon)
- The Prestige Druid: 9 prestige classes for druids, all of them with 5 levels
- Tricks of the Trade: druid lifestyles, tracking druids, the bounty of nature, craft and foraging, spoils of the hunt, other spellcasters, wild clothing, and Ogham (the druid language)
- Druid Feats: 14 new feats for druids, plus an "elemental creature" template (this is actually more like four templates, for air, earth, fire, and water elemental creatures)
- Tools of the Trade: druid clothing, armor and shields, tools and kits, attuned foci, and herbal recipes
- Living Magic: potion gardens, scroll flowers, spell-like investitures (granting creatures spell-like abilities replicating a druid spell), invested trees, living items, and 9 new magic items (one of which is a new weapon/armor/shield special quality)
- The Life of a Druid: initiation into the druid order, druid circles, the elders, traditions, archdruids and the inner circles, the archanix, the grand druid, and druid ceremonies
- The Otherworld: the home of the fey, otherworld planar traits, Samhain, the mingling of worlds, passing through the otherworld, spirit guides, inhabitants of the otherworld, the "touched" template (for inhabitants of the otherworld), and death and the otherworld
- Druid Magic: preparing druid spells, weaving spells (how druids research new spells), druid magical writings, and 35 new druid spells
- Paths of the Shapeshifter: personalizing the power of wildshaping, advanced wild shape powers, true forms, partial and combination transformations, and prolonged metamorphosis
- Sacred Groves: anchoring a sacred grove, the ravages of civilization, destroying a sacred grove, sacred grove special powers, seneschals (guardians of a sacred grove), the "grove seneschal" and "seneschal spirit" templates (for the grove guardians while alive and once dead), abdication of a sacred grove, druid circle magic (with 10 circle magic spells), true groves, the ritual for anchoring a true grove, and locked true realms
- Designer's Notes: Robin's views on druids and why writing this book was important
- Index: a handy 3-page index
- Rules Summary: 3 pages of easy-to-reference charts from elsewhere in the book
- Druid Character Sheet: a 4-page character sheet for your druid character
I've developed somewhat of a reputation as a spelling/punctuation/grammar nitpicker, so let me get that bit out of the way: while the text is riddled with misspelled words (which usually spell entirely different words, so they won't get caught by a spellchecker program), I've seen much worse in Mongoose books. "Soured" should have been "soared" (page 3), "al" should have been "all" (page 8), "with" should have been "will" (page 11), "aid" should have been "aide" (page 50), "bath" should have been "bathe" (page 98), "larva" should have been "lava" (page 112), "mile" should have been "smile" (page 116), "wonder" should have been "wander" (page 117), and so on. Of course, that doesn't explain how the spellchecker missed words like "Ccrcle" (page 14), "duank" (page 48), or "tTiny" (page 68) - again, evidence of a less-than-thorough job on the parts of the editor (Paul Tucker) and proofreader (Lucya Szachnowski).
Typical John Cooper nitpicking aside, Robin O. Duke did a pretty good job writing this book for the most part. I enjoyed the Character Concepts (particularly the Rescued Soul - an evil person exiled into the wilderness and raised by druids, and who has now "turned over a new leaf" - and the Wandering Druid, which is the type of druid I've always played), and the Prestige Classes weren't too bad, although I wish there had been at least one of them a full 10 levels, just for variety if nothing else. My favorites here were the Tree Dancer (a druid who can coax power out of living trees and shape them to her will) and the Vitiate Maiden (a druid with poison-based powers, something not often associated with the "standard" druid). I really liked Robin's concept of "wild clothing," a set of clothes crafted from the hide of a single beast, granting the druid a +4 bonus to Animal Empathy and Handle Animal checks made toward the type of animal the clothing is made of, plus granting the druid an extra (free) use of the wild shape special ability, provided he wild shapes into that animal. It really provides a nice "totem animal" feel for the druid. The section on Ogham was interesting if short. (It would have perhaps been nice to provide an example Ogham alphabet, but I've seen such things elsewhere - old issues of Dragon and Polyhedron magazines, I'm pretty sure - so if I want to use such information, it's already out there, and maybe there wasn't room for it in the book.)
On the other hand, there were a few problems I noted. I like the fact that Robin tried "mixing up" the druid's wild shape abilities somewhat, so that not all druids of the same level would necessarily have the exact same abilities (a good thing), but the attempt got a little bungled. Breaking up the wild shape powers into such things as "Animal Wild Shape," "Beast Wild Shape" (this book came out before the release of the 3.5 rules), "Dragon Wild Shape," etc., was an okay idea (although I seriously doubt that a druid, whose powers are derived from nature, would - or even should - be able to assume an undead form via wild shape). Adding on advanced wild shape powers (usually based on assuming different sizes) was also okay, but the real problem is the prerequisites, as they often end up chasing themselves all over the place. For example, to wild shape into a Colossal form, the druid must be 15th level and already be able to wild shape into a Gargantuan form. Of course, the prerequisites for Gargantuan Wild Shape are: be a 15th-level druid and be able to assume a Huge or Colossal size. Since you can't be Colossal unless you can already be Gargantuan, that really means you've got to be able to become Huge first. This only makes sense, but why are the extraneous (and impossible to gain) prerequisites there? It only confuses the issue (there's a similar problem at the other end of the scale: you need Diminutive to get to Fine, but to get Diminutive you need either Fine - which you can't have yet - or Tiny Wild Shape). The only possible explanation I can come up with is making allowances for nonhumanoid druids of different sizes, say a Gargantuan green dragon druid or something. If this is the case, it should have been explained.
A couple of other problems: the Tree Dancer description says that tree dancers must give up some spellcasting ability, but each level of the prestige class grants a +1 to the druid's spellcasting level. (Other prestige classes have some levels - as many as three - where the druid does not gain a +1 to his spellcasting level.) Which is correct: the verbiage or the chart?
Here is a sentence from the description of the discern true form spell: "The druid casting this spell gains the ability to see through wild shape, polymorph self, and similar shapeshifting abilities." Here's another: "Spells or spell-like abilities that actually change a subject's type, such as wild shape or a true form or shapechange spell completely fool this spell." So which is it: can a discern true form spell see through wild shape or not?
The Grove Defender prestige class has an "Entombed Warrior" special ability listed on the chart, but no such ability is described - it looks like it was renamed "Healing Slumber" but not fixed in the chart. This should probably have been caught by the editor, if not the author.
The whole concept of the Otherworld seems fine, but I was a little surprised that The Quintessential Druid mentions Encyclopaedia Divine: Fey Magic several times without actually using any of the material found therein. Fey Magic describes the Faerie Lands, which could easily be substituted for the Otherworld appearing here. On the one hand, I'm glad that The Quintessential Druid stands on its own and is usable without having to purchase other books, but it would have been nice had the Otherworld been merged a little better with the Faerie Lands. Furthermore, I was a little surprised to see the concept of ley lines cropping up again, since ley line rules (and different ones at that) also appear in both The Quintessential Witch and The Quintessential Sorcerer. I suppose if you have all three books, you can choose the system you like best or try to clump them all together into a working whole. I also found some similarities between druid circles and witches' covens (from The Quintessential Witch), but they are dissimilar enough to warrant being covered separately in both books.
On the other hand, it looks like The Quintessential Druid gives you everything you need to use the new "oakheart fighting style" despite the fact that the full fighting style rules are found in The Quintessential Fighter. That's always good to see: one book building on another without actually requiring you to purchase the other book. I was also pleased to see an Index; any book over 100 pages really needs one, especially when there are all kinds of new spells, feats, weapons, and templates scattered throughout.
All in all, Robin does a pretty good job with the druids - they are much more flexible, one of the book's stated goals. While I think the problems in the book put it right in the middle of the "high 3/low 4" rating, I'll give Robin the benefit of the doubt and make it a "4 - good."
