Vermin-Based Druid?

[Nazhkandrias]

Hey, all, the time has come for my character creation process once again, and this time, my party is short a full divine caster. We have a Paladin, so I was thinking about going down the Druidic route. Still, being the crazy one that I am, a "normal" Druid just won't cut it for me. After looking around for variants (none of them caught my eye), I stumbled across the Vermin Keeper PrC, in that Underdark book. Cool and all, but is there a BASE class (probably a variant to the Druid) that gives all of those verminous abilities as a replacement for animal abilities, instead of just tacking them on at a later time? I don't want to even have the option of summoning up or transforming into some cute, furry creature - I want the chitinous armor, all the way. Is there a variant class that does just this?

Now, if there isn't a class for this - would it be acceptable (to all you DMs out there) to simply sub out a few class features for more verminous counterparts? The Druid would still be nature-focused (since vermin are, in fact, a HUGE part of nature), just not Animal-focused. A few variations that come to mind would be putting vermin into the Summon Nature's Ally lists, allowing Wild Shape, Wild Empathy, and the Animal Companion to all become vermin-based (a la the Vermin Keeper), and maybe subbing out Diplomacy for Intimidate. Basically, it's turning the Vermin Keeper into a variant base class, rather than a PrC. So, opinions?

 

[Zurai]

The Children of Winter in Eberron are vermin-based druids. There's a feat called (appropriately enough) "Child of Winter" that lets you treat vermin as animals for wild empathy and so on, and adds vermin to the SNA list. There are follow-up feats for it (Vermin Companion and Vermin Shape) that let you take a vermin animal companion and take vermin forms in wild shape.

 

[blargney the second]

Child of Winter is a feat in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

Doh, ninja'd.

 

[Nazhkandrias]

Hmmm, in that case, I might just check with my DM to see if those feats are acceptable. But, you say that it "adds" vermin to all of these lists - that's probably why it requires multiple feats, it gives a VERY wide range of options. This gives me something to go off of though, so thanks! Still, I'm going to keep pushing for a total substitution, rather than an addition.

 

[Zurai]

A caution with the follow-up feats: Vermin ACs get no feats from HD, and Vermin Wild Shape replaces animal wild shapes. The initial feat is decent though.

 

[Nazhkandrias]

Oh, wow, if these were to be subbed in, there would actually be an overall weakening for the Animal Companion - a great bargaining chip with my DM. Thanks!

 

[Snowy]

if you have a look on the wotc website in the past articles there's a vermin druid alternate on there, nice and easy to use. I've been fancying it for a while.

Also vermin were creatures, which are pretty cool too.

 

[MythMage]

You might be able to use some of the alternate druid class features I'm developing for my work at Dicefreaks. The mechanics could probably use a little fine-tuning, but I think they should be workable.

MORTAL WILD SHAPE
Some druids focus on gaining a variety of natural forms at the cost of uses of the ability and forgoing the study of extraplanar forms.
Class: Druid.
Level: 5th.
Replaces: Wild shape.
You gain most aspects of wild shape, but certain aspects of it are different.
At 6th level, instead of gaining an additional daily use of wild shape, the druid gains the ability to become a vermin. From this point onward, the number of uses per day is one less than that noted on Table 3-8: The Druid (PH 35).
At 16th level, instead of gaining the ability to become an elemental, the druid gains the ability to become a Diminutive animal, vermin, or plant.
At 20th level, the druid gains the ability to become a Gargantuan animal, vermin, or plant.
Special: The Natural Spell feat functions with mortal wild shape just as it does standard wild shape.


VERMIN COMPANION
Some druids feel a stronger connection with vermin than animals, and may acquire a vermin companion instead of an animal.
Class: Druid or ranger.
Level: 1st (druid) or 4th (ranger).
Replaces: Animal companion.
This alternate class feature functions identically to animal companion, except that you must choose a vermin instead. Even though your companion is a vermin, you may affect it with spells as if it were an animal. You may train it as if it were an animal with Intelligence 1. Choose your vermin from the following list.

Vermin Companions
1st-Level or Higher (Level -0)
Giant ant, worker
Giant bee
Giant fire beetle
Giant termite, worker (Sand)
Monstrous centipede, Medium
Monstrous scorpion, Small
Monstrous spider, Small web-spinner
Monstrous spider, Medium hunter
4th-Level or Higher (Level -3)
Giant ant, soldier
Giant bombardier beetle
Giant praying mantis
Giant termite, soldier (Sand)
Giant wasp
Monstrous centipede, Large
Monstrous scorpion, Medium
Monstrous spider, Large hunter
Monstrous spider, Medium web-spinner
7th-Level or Higher (Level -6)
Brine swimmer* (Sand)
Giant ant lion** (Sand)
Giant stag beetle
Monstrous centipede, Huge
Monstrous spider, Large web-spinner
10th-Level or Higher (Level -9)
Lesser knell beetle (MM3)
Monstrous scorpion, Large
Monstrous spider, Huge (hunter or web-spinner)
13th-Level or Higher (Level -12)
Chelicera (MM3)
Monstrous centipede, Gargantuan
Monstrous scorpion, Huge
Monstrous spider, Gargantuan (hunter or web-spinner)
16th-Level or Higher (Level -15)
Leechwalker (MM2)
Monstrous centipede, Colossal

*Available only in an aquatic environment.
**Available only in a desert environment.

You probably want to compare this last one to a similar thing from the Wizards website.

 

[Nazhkandrias]

Wow, I really like those variant features, MythMage, especially the Mortal Wild Shape bit. I'll try to convince my DM to use them, since they don't seem too out there. Plus, your Wild Shape variant is a little more simple to remember, assuming my DM is cool with it. The Wizards article is good and detailed, but the whole Wild Empathy thing will just be a pain in the ass for everybody, I know it. After this, a few common sense things (allowing the summoning of vermin from Summon Nature's Ally, replacement of Detect Animals with Detect Vermin, etc.) should round this Druid out nicely.