Druid

 

Summary: Started out with mainly a PHB druid with no spellcasting and better Wild Shape, along with a few boosts to Lore related endeavors, a few Ranger abilities, and average BAB. Ended up with a fairly IH-y version of the class. A lot of this is lifted and tweaked from the SRD, so whatever rights that gives Wizards I fully acknowledge. Also thanks to Mac for his stress token idea, which I have lifted as the inspiration for feral tokens, and for those with ideas on the forum, especially IgaVsKoga for a number of ideas and seeds.

 

Class Description

 

The Druids of the Swordlands follow the Old Way, in tune with the land and its creatures. Their origins lie in the skills and disciplines taught to humans tasked by the Masters with guiding, protecting, and watching over the natural world. Though the Masters are gone, the Druids remain - having long since transferred their loyalty from the Masters to the land itself, they keep their vigil, walking the wild places of the world, advising, shaping, and sometimes preying on the struggling kingdoms of man.

 

Combat Block

 

Skill Groups

Druids gain access to the Athletics and Wilderness Groups. In addition, they learn a wide variety of other skills, gleaned from both their education in Druidic Lore and their wide travels. Almost all druids are accomplished healers, as proficiency in this skill gives them currency in all the realms of man and also allows them to tend to the natural world. Many druids develop strong social and language skills to better act as ambassadors of the land; others eschew such niceties in favor of more direct methods of persuasion. Virtually all cultivate knowledge of the wild.

 

Feats

Druids are past masters of Lore, skilled in the use of herbs to heal or harm and gifted with preternatural insight into beasts. Their reputations also grant them some additional cache when manipulating or intimidating others. Finally, they can access a number of feats which are of no use to most characters but allow them improved abilities while wildshaped.

 

Class Features

 

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Druids receive training with a variety of weapons, in particular those which are of use in the wilderness for hunting or utility, or which are easy to improvise in the wild. Druids are proficient with the following weapons: club, greatclub, dagger, quarterstaff, sickle, handaxe, throwing axe, spear, sling, shortbow, and longbow. They are also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form they assume with wild shape (see below).

 

Druids are proficient with light armor (padded, leather, studded leather) and shields (except tower shields). Druids can only transform small amounts of metal when they wild shape; daggers, spearheads, arrowheads, coin, leather armor studs, and the like. Large, continuous amounts of metal (such as swords, maces, flails, armor, shields) do not transform, and are at best left behind, while at worst they might inflict damage on the new form. Details are left up to your DM and adjudicated on a case by case basis, but it’s an exceptionally dumb idea to wear metal armor or shields and attempt a transformation.

 

Bonus Languages: At first level the druid receives Druidic and Sylvan as free languages, if these languages exist in your campaign.

 

Excluded Abilities

 

Summary of Abilities Gained By Level

 

Wild Shape (Su): At 1st level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small animal with Hit Dice equal or less than her druid levels. Her options for forms include all creatures with the animal type, not just those listed under the animal appendix (ex. this includes both dire animals and dinosaurs). Duration and uses/day are limited by the druid’s tolerance for Feral tokens, as discussed below. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action which doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The form chosen must be that of an animal the druid is familiar with.

 

The druid's range of options expand over time, both because her increasing level expands the HD of creatures that she can assume and because she learns to become ever larger and smaller creatures. She gains the ability to take the shape of a Medium Animal at 3rd level, a Large animal at 7th level, a Tiny animal at 11th level, a Diminutive animal at 13th, and a Huge animal at 14th level.

 

At 16th level, a druid gains the ability to use wild shape to change into a Small, Medium, or Large elemental (air, earth, fire, or water). At 19th level she is able to wild shape into the form of a Huge elemental.

 

Mechanical Effects of Wild Shape

Upon transformation into a Wild Shape the druid gains:

• the Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores of the new form; however, any attribute affecting Traits (such as Dextrous or Tough) modify the base statistics of the form.
• all movement modes, racial skill bonuses, racial bonus feats, and extraordinary abilities of the form (both attacks and qualities).
• the natural armor of the creature transformed into, and uses this or her base defense bonus as is most advantageous against each attack (dexterity and other feat or trait based mods to defense are used in either case).
• the natural attacks and, on a full attack action, the attack routines of the creature. In doing so she loses her normal iterative attack spread. Instead, if the creature has multiple attacks, then the main attack(s) is/are made at full BAB for all attacks, while the secondary attack (usually a bite) is made at -5 below full BAB (-2 if the druid has selected the Multiattack feat). For example, a brown bear has 2 primary claw attacks and a secondary bite.
• hit points as if she had rested for 8 hours. She does not heal ability damage or reserve points, although if her hit points are at full and she has reserve point damage outstanding then any remaining healing can be applied to her reserve pool.

 

While transformed, the druid retains:

• classes, class levels, saves, BAB, and base defense bonus
• hit points (possibly modified by a new Con)
• mental attributes of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (besides changes caused by excessive feral tokens)
• skill groups, skill ranks, and feats, although feats or skills may be inacessible or heavily penalized due to anatomical incompatibilities
• traits
• extraordinary special attacks and qualities derived from class levels

 

When transformed, a druid loses:

• the ability to speak while in animal form. She is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form and gains a +4 bonus to Wild Empathy checks made against animals of the same type. Elementals are able to speak normally.
• any extraordinary special attacks and abilities from hernormal form that are not derived from class levels

A druid is considered disguised while Wildshaped, and receives a +10 bonus on all disguise checks to oppose observer Spot checks. Observers who are not familiar with the druid in her natural shape have no chance of seeing through this disguise (since they have no basis of reference); observers who are familiar with the druid use the familiarity table on p 89, as if the druid were impersonating someone known to them. While the druid is able to make minor adjustments to the individual characteristics of the forms they assume, their personality and self-image leaves certain indelible marks which can be noticed by those who are extremely observant or intimately familiar with the druid.

 

Feral Pool (Su): The druid's ability to Wild Shape exposes his mind to powerful animalistic impulses; the longer he remains in animal form, the harder it is to maintain his core identity. The ability of the druid to resist this inevitable mental erosion is measured by his tolerance for feral tokens. Unlike most token pools, the feral token represents a negative state which the druid incurs as a price for his abilities.

 

A druid has a tolerance for feral tokens = druid level/2; he can tolerate 0 feral tokens at level 1, when he gains his ability to Wild Shape, 1 at level 2, 2 at level 4, etc. At the beginning of every ten minutes the druid spends in a Wild Shape, he gains one feral token. Remaining in the alien form of an elemental is especially taxing on the druid’s mind; feral token costs are doubled while in elemental forms (1 token/5 minutes). When the druid is Wild Shaped and gains feral tokens in excess of his tolerance, he incurs damage to his mental attributes = the number of tokens he has in excess of his tolerance. Druids do not incur attribute damage for feral tokens while in their natural form.

- Example 1: Vadania is a 5th level druid. She has transformed into a wolf and remained in that form for ten minutes (1 feral token). If she transforms back exactly at the ten minute mark, she will have acquired only one feral token and will have one feral token's worth of tolerance left in her pool.

- Example 2: If Vadania had remained in wolf form for a total of twenty five minutes, she would gain 3 feral tokens (one at immediately upon transforming, one immediately after the first ten minutes, one immediately after the first 20 minutes) and suffer 1 point of damage to charisma, intelligence, and wisdom (for the 1 feral token she has in excess of her tolerance). If she then transforms back to human form but is forced shortly thereafter to change into an eagle to escape a marauding band of orcs, she will immediately gain another feral token and incur another 2 points of attribute damage to each mental attribute (because she now has 2 feral tokens in excess of her tolerance), for a total of 3 points of attribute damage so far.

 

Feral tokens are lost at the rate of 1 per full hour the druid is in his natural form. At 10th level the druid gains Improved Feral Pool, which increases this rate to 2 tokens/hour in natural form. At 17th level the druid gains Supreme Feral Pool, which increases the recovery rate to 3 tokens/hour in natural form. These increases may also be annuitized over the hour, to regain 1 token/half hour with Improved Feral Pool and 1 token/20 minutes with Supreme Feral Pool; the sums are the same, but the downtime required is reduced.

 

If all of a druid's mental attributes are reduced to the level of the animal form assumed, or to 3 each for elemental forms, the druid's identity has been subsumed into that of his shape; he stops losing attribute points, but also begins to act only as a creature of his type. The druid cannot initiate the transformation back into human form on his own; the DM must determine the means by which such a transformation can occur, but typically it should be the plot of a small adventure.

 

Nature Sense (Ex): At 1st level a druid gains a +2 competence bonus on Knowledge (nature), Heal, and Survival checks, and a +2 bonus on Intelligence checks made to generate tokens with Beast Lore.

 

Wild Empathy (Ex): At 1st level a druid gains the ability to improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. A druid can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

• At 4rth level the druid may use Wild Empathy to communicate with fey beings; it substitutes for Diplomacy in this case. Under most circumstances a druid may expect an additional +2 circumstance bonus on this roll for being a druid; events may arise which reduce or eliminate this bonus
• At 8th level the druid may use Wild Empathy to communicate with intelligent plants. Plants with intelligence 4 and up use the rules for fey, above; feral, predatory plants use the rules for animals, with a -4 to the check.
• At 12th level the druid may use this ability to communicate with elementals, using the rules for fey, above.

 

Woodland Stride (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a druid may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion still affect her.

 

Trackless Step (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a druid leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired. The druid still leaves a scent trail, so those who are capable of tracking by scent may continue to do so. At 11th level the druid effectively has no scent trail while in natural environments; her body is fully in tune with her surroundings. This makes it impossible to track, locate, or detect the druid via the Scent ability while in a natural setting.

 

Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a druid gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like abilities of fey.

 

Endurance: At 5th level, druids receive Endurance as a bonus feat; their long travels and affinity with the land have inured them to many hardships.

 

Embrace the Wild (Su): At 5th level the druid gains the ability to take on more powerful Wild Shapes than he would normally be able to, according to his level or sizes available. While this ability can be very powerful when the druid is in challenging circumstances, it imposes severe penalties on the druid and is never used lightly.

 

When Embracing the Wild, a druid picks an animal he wishes to become, regardless of its HD or size. The duration of Wild Shape drops to 1 minute / token, and for each HD that the assumed shape is in excess of the druid’s level, or for each size category beyond that normally allowed, the druid incurs an additional cost of 1 feral token per minute or fraction thereof. If the druid bypasses his tolerance in this manner, the ability damage for each feral token beyond his tolerance is iterated separately, as if it had occurred over time.

- Example 1: Vadania (5th level druid) is in a great deal of trouble, backed into a corner by lecherous ogre. Feeling that her normal forms are insufficient for the task at hand, she Embraces the Wild and becomes a tiger. She immediately acquires 3 feral tokens - base of 1, +1 for the tiger’s HD being 6 while she is only 5th level, +1 more for assuming the form of a size large creature (her normal maximum size is medium, which is one size away from large). With her tolerance of 2 feral tokens, she suffers a point of damage to all mental stats. Vadania now has a minute in tiger form to teach the ogre how to treat a lady.

- Example 2: Some weeks later, Vadania runs afowl of the siblings of the ogre in question, who would like to have a word with her about the state their brother’s body was found in. Worried and outnumbered, Vadania again Embraces the Wild, this time to assume the form of a Dire Lion. She incurs 5 feral tokens (1 base, +3 for the 3 HD by which the Dire Lion exceeds her level, +1 for the size difference). Her tolerance is 2. She therefore has 3 more tokens than her tolerance, but their mental damage is iterated separately; she therefore takes 1 + 2 + 3 damage (for the first, second, and third token in excess of her tolerance, respectively) to each of her mental attributes. If she remains in dire lion shape for more than a minute, she loses herself to the beast (5 more tokens would inflict a total of 30 points of damage to each of her mental attributes, easily taking her to animal levels).

 

Swift Tracker (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, a druid can move at his normal speed while following tracks without taking the normal –5 penalty. He takes only a –10 penalty (instead of the normal –20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.

 

Venom Immunity (Ex): At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons. As a side benefit from this ability, the druid generates and spends Venom tokens at twice the normal rate (1 token/2 hours work instead of 1 token/4 hours, a half hour to cook up the poison instead of an hour). Total immunity to poison allows the Druid to suspend safety precautions, take shortcuts, and in general work much more quickly with toxic substances than a normal character.

 

Camoflage (Ex): A druid of 13th level or higher can use the Hide skill in any sort of natural terrain, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment.

 

Timeless Body (Ex): After attaining 15th level, a druid no longer takes ability score penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however, remain in place.

Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up.

 

Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): While in any sort of natural terrain, a druid of 15th level or higher can use the Hide skill even while being observed.

 

Supreme Wildshape (Su): Gained at 20th level, the druid's wildshape now has a base duration of 1 hour/token (or 1 per 30 minutes in elemental form), rather than 10 minutes/token (or 5 / token for elementals) as was previously the case.

 

Ex-Druids

Since the abilities of Druids in IH are effectively a set of skills and practices which can be learned, rather than a gift of abilities granted by a deity or sacred abstract, there is no mechanic for suspending class abilities. However, a Druid who repeatedly acts against the generally accepted tenets of the class and is discovered by other Druids is likely to become a different kind of Ex-Druid.

 

Druids and Arcanists

While both Arcanists and Druids follow mystic disciplines which grant supernatural abilities, the application and perception of these gifts is wildly different. Arcane magic is new to mankind, and as such Arcanists have a clumsy, open-ended, brute-force approach to spellcasting which seizes upon magical energy and attempts to force it to provide a particular external effect. Their successes can accomplish virtually anything, their failures are often catastrophic, and they are respected and feared for both. Druids, on the other hand, follow a tradition which has been with man for millennia, which alters the relationship of the practitioner to his environment. Its powers are reliable, but are channeled into a particular, narrowly defined suite of effects. Druids are respected advisors, treasured allies, and feared enemies.

 

The Order

Druidic society is as loose or tight as is beneficial to a particular campaign; however, it is worth considering the notion of such an organization, particularly with a Druidic First at its center, as a source of plot hooks and intrigues for your game.