Unorthodox Druids

[TheLe]

Written by Jason Black (and a beautiful cover by Brad McDevitt), this book details the following five new Druids:

-The Caller: A fierce druid that lives by animal instincts.
-The Enforcer: A mystical druid living harmoniously with nature.
-The Shaman: A spiritual druid that is often misunderstood.
-The Survivalist: A druid who specializes in surviving the harsh wilderness.
-The Tree Warden: A Druid who lives and dies by the soul of the tree.

This zip file contains a fully illustrated Landscape PDF for easy online reading, Portrait PDF for low-ink printing (your ink cartridge will be happy), and our standard Rich-Text-Format version so that you can cut/copy/paste to your hearts content!

Still not sure? Then come by and download the free demo!

 

[Vanuslux]

Just to get it out up front, I did not pay for this book. It was given to me for purposes of review. Unorthodox Druids by The Le Games is part of series of books with a pretty straight forward goal. Each one gives five alternate versions of one of the standard classes. Obviously Unorthodox Druids gives five alternate versions of the druid class, one of my favorites.

Appearances - The Le Games immediately earns a warm fuzzy place in my heart for having both a landscaped screen version and a portrait version. That aside, there's not much to say about the artwork. The cover piece is kind of ugly in comparison to most of the other covers I've seen for the Unorthodox series though not too bad. The rest of the art is from Mongoose Publishing's Character Portraits: Fantasy Heroes. Nice stuff and it suits the material for the most part.

Content - So let us see how the five classes stack up. Each of them gets the standard druid spell progression, but various special abilities are swapped out for other special abilities to bring each class more in line with a specific druid concept.

* Caller - The Caller is the druid's answer to the summoning specialist. They pretty much lose all druid abilities not directly related to interacting with animals and get some extra abilities, mostly extra uses of spells like Charm Animal and Summon Nature's Ally.

* Enforcer - Who in the forest kicks butt and takes names? The Enforcer, that's who. It reminds me of the way I played my Druid during my short fling with the Everquest MMORPG...like a tank. I love playing with magic, but I also love my combat up close and personal and while the Enforcer isn't going to put the Fighter or Barbarian out of a job it does the trick for a more combat oriented defender of nature.

* Shaman - The Shaman leans more toward the more spiritual end of druidism. Their main abilities are Commune with Nature, Spirit Guide, and Wild Shape. They lean more towards trickery than physic and are a fairly decent envisioning of a shaman without having to resort to a whole bunch of new rules ala The Shaman's Handbook.

* Survivalist - Just what their name says...survivalists are good at surviving. At least in the wild. They're the weakest of the five classes in this book in regards to combat, but probably the best to have along during those times between epic battles. Enduring harsh elements is what they do best and they have a few abilities that their companions will be quite grateful to have around, such as creating "Godberries" which can keep the whole party sufficiently nourished pretty much indefinitely when they're high enough level. Starvation will rarely be an issue with these chaps around.

* Tree Warden - The ultimate tree hugger. Where the Caller gets really involved with the fauna side of nature, Tree Wardens are more interested in the flora. So much so that they are able to turn into trees. Personally I think their abilities are a bit too restrictive in comparison to what they give up for them but not so badly that they're not worth playing for the flavor angle.

In Conclusion - While the classes presented here aren't particularly revolutionary concepts, Unorthodox Druids does do well at what I think their main intention was...bringing five druidic archetypes to the table without going all out to reinvent the wheel. There have been several attempts at a shaman class for the d20 system but none that I've seen are fully playable from only a couple of pages rather than requiring a number of new charts and tables and explanations. My biggest complaint about the book is that it's a bit of a dry read, but the classes work. I'd let them be played in a game I was running. Heck, I think it would be kind of neat to run a game in which each player played a different class from this book.

So, for two bucks you get five perfectly useable classes. I consider that a pretty decent value. There's nothing that really blows me away, but I can think of few things I've spent $2 on that I've been more satisfied by. That's less than most drinks on any given cafe's menu. For delivering goods worth more than the cost of the product, I feel it deserves more than a 3, but there is definite room for improvement too, so it gets less than a 5. Hence I give this product a solid rating of 4.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

I decided to pick this up on a chance (I figured for $2 what the heck) and I am pleased to say I was pleasantly surprised. Unorthodox Druids delivers exactly what the title says: five unorthodox ways of looking at the druid character class for your d20 game.

The five offerings are quite interesting: the Caller takes the animal companion feature of the normal druid to whole new levels; the Enforcer really makes the druid a full guardian of nature; the Shaman presents a spirit-oriented druid variation; the Survivalist is the ultimate druid of the wilderness (and incredibly useful for parties exploring the truly unknown); and the Tree Warden makes the druid an uber-guardian of the forest, transforming him into a pseudo-treant.

While the concepts seem more like AD&D 2nd Edition kits, the fact that they are built from 1st to 20th level like a full-fledged core class means that they get a chance to truly become unique and develop abilities specifically suited for their focus, as opposed to simply substituting standard druid ability A for B.

The writing is good and tight, the mechanics are well-balanced, and no class variation is more powerful than the other or than the standard druid; in specific cases one variation may be more useful (see above about the Survivalist), but it is more a matter of excelling in one's area of expertise.

The artwork is nice, with little snapshots of a member of each class that fit quite well considering they come from a generic art collection. A bonus is that the PDF comes with a landscape screen version, a portrait print version, and an RTF cut-n-paste version; excellent thinking here. The product text is 100% OGC.

For $2 it is hard to beat U. Druids' usefulness. Whether you are a DM or player, U. Druids offers five neat alternatives to the core class that can really refresh an NPC or a PC and shake up all expectations. Of course, if you like druids, this item is a must-own.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

If you have not done so already, stop on by to download a free preview!

Please note that the reviewer made 1 factual mistake. The entire text of this product is not OGC. The background fluff is NOT OGC, but all Game mechanics, stats, class abilities, etc is all OGC. (ie all the crunchy stuff)

HOOAH.

~The Le Games

Coming next month -- Unorthodox Bards!

 

[GameWyrd]

Unorthodox Druids might seem like something of an impulse buy - at US$2.00 it's below the minimum checkout value at RPGNow (or, I imagine, any e-retailer who stocks RPG PDFs). These Unorthodox Druids will have to go into the electronic shopping cart along with something else. Electronic capitalism is required before these druids can help you - that's unorthodox for you!

You get five druids for your $2. What's that? A druid for 40c? Not bad. I'm not talking about NPCs though. You get a complete alternative druid class for 40c - and that's amazing value.

Lots of people whine about the D&D druid. Druids aren't really like that, they say. They're right but I don't think it matters. D&D (or d20, for that matter) isn't about recreating historical figures - it's about fun fantasy classes. My main grumble about the D&D druid is that the druid class, as defined by the game, seems to be an unlikely character to be hanging around with a group of adventures and travelling. Druids tend to get tied to geographical areas and defend their local patch of nature. The Le Games' Unorthodox Druids doesn't really change this and that's a shame.

These classes are targeted at niches. The Caller, Enforcer, Shaman, Survivalist and Tree Warden each have very different class features. They have class features which suit their particular speciality. The Enforcer is tough and has Boneskin abilities, catlike grace and a weed tangle ability. The Tree Warden, on the other hand, has the speak to plants, trackless step and then some new tree abilities - tree fight, tree song and tree shape too.

There are value for money PDFs which do without illustrations. Unorthodox Druids is not one of them. There's a full colour cover from Bradley K McDevitt and each unorthodox druid has an illustrated profile. I'm sure I've seen a picture very similar to the Tree Warden before - but that's not a problem.

Unorthodox Druids suits GMs in a hurry, it suits busy GMs, GMs fishing around for new ideas or suffering writers block. There's nothing amazing about Unorthodox Druids, it doesn't have the wow factor. Unorthodox Druids is easily worth its meagre price tag and I think it represents a possible solution to the oft-tricky question, "What should I do with the Druid class?" There's no reason why Unorthodox Druids should just be an impulse buy, it is worth heading out to the electronic shops to pick this PDF up in its own right.

* This Unorthodox Druids review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Crothian]

Unorthodox Druids

Unorthodox Druids is a class book of sorts. It gives one five optional Druid core classes. There are full twenty level classes. It does not offer other items usually seen in class books like feats, prestige classes, new uses for old skills, equipment, spells, etc.

The PDF arrives in a zip file a little over a meg in size. In the file one will find four files. A read me file identifying the other three files, and then three different version of the PDF. There is one done as a doc file and two PDFs one of which is designed for easy printing. The PDFs are book marked although with only the five different classes marked there really is not a lot in there.

The first class is the Caller. It is a druid that specializes in abilities with animals. They loose the Druids abilities to shape change, walk through the under brush, and other abilities and gain the ability to cast a few Summon Natures Ally’s, speak with animals, and other animal like spells. They retain the full spell ability of the Druid and basically the rest of the Druid class stays the same.

The Enforcer is the next class. They punish people who destroy nature and are very dedicated to nature. They gain abilities that increase their armor class, allow for greater movement, use Bull Strength and Cat’s Grace, and other abilities. Like the Caller they get these abilities instead of the normal Druid abilities but still retain the normal spell abilities, Hit Die, saves, and other class abilities.

The Shaman is a bit of a more spiritual Druid. They gain abilities that allow them to gain information from animal spirits and nature. This class is more like the Druid then the others as it still has some shape change abilities, thousand faces, and a few other standard Druid abilities.

The Survivalist is rather self explanatory. This class excels at surviving in the wilderness. Most of their abilities they gain deal with the Goodberry spell and improving it. They can purify food and water and protect themselves from the elements.

Lastly the Tree Warden is a class that deals with plants. They gain the ability to shape change into trees, speak with plants and bark skin. As like the other ones they remove the more standard druid abilities but retain the spell casting ability of the druids.

The PDF has some good ideas for these variant classes, but did not go far enough. I would have loved to have seen alternate spell lists for instance giving the Tree Warden more spells that deal with plants and giving the Caller more spells that focus on animals. Still, it does offer alternative for people looking for a Druid class with a different focus then the standard Players Handbook version.

 

[The Lost Muse]

Disclaimer: I have received this product free of charge, for the purposes of reviewing it. Every comment made in the review is my own opinion, and should be taken as such.

Unorthodox Druids is a d20 “Pocket Sourcebook,” claiming to be easily dropped into a game with a minimum of fuss, and published by The Le Games. The zip file contains four documents: a readme, an onscreen PDF, a printer-friendly PDF, and a rich text file for easy copying and pasting. The readme file is nice, but the files are appropriately named, making it somewhat unnecessary.

The rich text file and the printer-friendly version of the PDF are essentially the same: standard two column text layout, and none of the page borders or artwork. (The printer-friendly file does have the cover image though.) The text is the same in all three file, but I will be referring only to the on-screen version from here on out.

Speaking of the text, there are quite a few typographical errors for such a short text; however, there are a few. While it does not really get in the way of reading the text, it was enough to make me stop and read over the section a few times. One quick example, “While no single race has put forth more Enforcers then the elves or gnomes, their combine (sic) numbers outnumber the elves and gnomes.” Clearly just an oversight, but still, this could easily be fixed.

The art for the product varies in quality. The cover image is rather cartoony, while the pictures of each class are alright. None of the art is particularly good, but none of it is so bad that you would start reading from the printer-friendly version instead. Each page has a rough black border around the edge. This helps to reemphasize the focus on nature, and is a good effect.

The five alternative classes are: The Caller, The Enforcer, The Shaman, The Survivalist, and the Tree Warden.

The Caller focuses on animals, neglecting civilized companions in favor of animals. Callers apparently are somewhat neutral, but no alignment requirements are specified; however, I could see a Caller being chaotic in relation to society. Callers get along well with clerics and bards, but poorly with wizards and sorcerers. After the description we get to the Class Abilities and my first major gripe with the book.

The caller has several class abilities that are the same as the druids, which is fine. These are supposed to be druids with varying abilities. The problem is that instead of reprinting the actual ability, the book refers you to the Player’s Handbook for the actual information. Every one of the classes in the book has spellcasting, as a druid, but the chart for spellcasting is not printed even once. The Caller’s abilities allow them to speak with, calm, and summon animals. They are also able to cast spells as a druid. None of the class abilities are unbalanced, if anything, they are weaker than a core druid because of the high degree of specialization.

The Enforcer is the militant druid, prepared to punish those who treat nature poorly. The are described as grim and quiet, in stark contrast to the uncaring and anti-social Caller. The Enforcer actually reminds me of Princess Monanokee (spelling?) as far as the class concept is concerned. Enforcers get along well with rangers, and admire paladins; however, they do not like wizards and sorcerers. Unlike the Caller, the Enforcer is limited to Lawful Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Neutral, Neutral Good, and Neutral Evil for alignment choices, but there is no text explaining why.

The Enforcer is a cross between a druid and a barbarian, gaining faster speed, the ability to ignore damage, increase their agility, use weeds to catch their prey, and prevent pursuers from tracking them. Again, none of the abilities are unbalanced, but this class seems more powerful than The Caller, except at level 15 it only gets a +14/10/5 to hit. (I’m assuming that this is also a typo.) I’m not sure how this class would compare against the PHB druid, but it is much more versatile than the Caller.

Next up is the Shaman. Shamans are in tune with nature and spirits, and may have to go on quests if they displease the spirits. Shamans must be neutral in at least one aspect of their alignment. Unlike the Enforcer, specific alignments are not spelled out. Apparently it takes a long time to become a shaman, and the text suggests adding three years on to the starting age. I’m not sure why they would increase the age as suggested, when an adventuring Shaman will quickly be immune to the effects of aging, but they are supposed to be wiser than their people.

The Shaman is the closest to the Druid as far as class abilities are concerned. They gain a Spirit Guide instead of an Animal Companion. In addition, they gain a bonus to Will Saves because they are inwardly peaceful. This extends to their allies when they reach a certain level. The class abilities all seem balanced, and this class does not outshine the druid, although the differences are very small.

The Survivalist is the weakest class concept in the book. Essentially, they are loners who are good at living off the land. The Survivalist Class abilities reinforce this image. They are able to create water, and “godberries” that grant the eaters various boons. I didn’t think this class was very different; it seems like it is just an extension of the abilities granted by Create Water and Goodberry. Despite the fact that the gods are mentioned in several of the class abilites, the Survivalist does not need to actually worship a god. Also, the Survivalist gains a bonus feat, but the text does not mention which feats are eligible, nor if the Survivalist can simply choose any feat they desire.

The Tree Warden is similar in concept to a dryad, only they become one with trees as they gain levels. The Tree Warden gains class abilities that revolve around trees: barkskin, treestride, tree shape healing, tree shape fighting, tree song, and the ability to become a huge sized tree. These abilities seem balanced, and the ability to become huge in size is available to a regular druid as well.

The various concepts presented are supported well enough mechanically, but not all of them are strong enough to warrant a new class. Due to the plug and play nature of this product, this is not a major obstacle to it’s use. If you have a need for a different take on the druid, then this may work well for you. If not, it’s not worth picking up. 3 stars.