Iconic druid spells.

[Cynic]

I ran my a game for my wife and kid the other day. My kid is almost 5.

At first, i had assumed that i would make her a simple character - fighter/barbarian or rogue? I had thought that spell casting would be out of her league. But she looked through the races and classes in the PHB and decided and was rather adamant that she wanted to play a human druid.

At level 1, making her character was rather easy. And she handled it adequately. But I could see that the amount of options and the resource management was at the edge of her ability. Keeping this in mind, I've decided to make my own druid class. I thought I would use the same structure as the Tome jester and make the class an arcane caster rather than a divine to explain the whole metal armor business.

My only problem at this point is trying to figure out a list of iconic spells that are surrounded around SNA, and crowd control. The class is intended as a 10 level class. But, the spells give me the most difficulty.

Help?

[talozin]

If I were picking out a couple of spells from each druid level that have both seen a lot of association with the druid class specifically, and have good general utility in a fight (don't need to be fighting something super specific), I'd get something like this (core only)

1st: Faerie Fire, Entangle, Produce Flame

2nd: Barkskin, Heat Metal, Summon Swarm

3rd: Call Lightning, Sleet Storm, Spike Growth

4th: Command/Control Plants, Flame Strike or Ice Storm, Giant Insect/Vermin

5th: Animal Growth, Insect Plague, Rock to Mud, Wall of Fire or Wall of Thorns

I'd stay away from stuff like Warp Wood or Stone Shape -- they're very useful, but they present so many options that it might be hard for a very young child to get her mind around them. Similarly, situation-specific stuff like Wind Wall or "plan ahead" stuff like Fire Trap may not be a good idea.

[CatharzGodfoot]

If I were picking out a spell list for a druid-flavored class (spontaneous caster)...

0th: Animal Messenger, Create Water, Dancing Lights, Endure Elements, Know Direction, Purify Food & Drink, Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants.

1st: Calm Animals, Entangle, Goodberry, Obscuring Mist, Shillelagh, SNA 1.

2nd: Barkskin, Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Lesser Restoration, Tree Shape, SNA 2.

3rd: Daylight, Dominate Animal, Meld into Stone, Plant Growth, Water Breathing, SNA 3.

4th: Command Plants, Commune with Nature, Control Winds, Reincarnate, SNA 4.

5th: Animal Shapes, Baleful Polymorph, Tree Stride, Wall of Thorns, SNA 5.

[Josh_Kablack]

Hrm...probably not quite what you want, but here's a quick stab at a highly simplified Tome-ish druid who gets at-will powers and less complicated immunities in place of managing spell lists and arguing about wildshape:

Link to new thread

[RadiantPhoenix]

Druid (simplified)
"I speak for the trees"

Lorax quote, I like it already

Natural Remedies (Sp): Druids have a magic ability to heal. As a full-round action, a Druid may heal a target an amount equal to her Character level plus Wisdom Bonus. This ability requires the Druid to touch the patient and may be used at-will.

Helps address the 15-minute workday

DFK

Druid For Kids?

Elemental Blast: At 3rd level, the Druid gains the ability to project a ray of her chosen element to damage her foes. With a ranged touch attack, she may strike any target within Close range, dealing 1d4 damage per character level of the chosen type. (Increased by her Elemental Affinity)

Is this a standard action or an attack action? I presume it's also (Su)

[Josh_Kablack]

Lorax quote, I like it already

Probably needs a bit more tree-hugger stuff in levels 6-10 to be faithful to that.

Natural Remedies (Sp):
Helps address the 15-minute workday

As one of the Druid's traditional tasks is secondary or fallback healer, I gave it an intentionally inferior version of Quantumboost's White Mage 's Magic Hands ability, which is in play not much difference from having a Cleric or someone who can use a wand of Cure in the group.

DFK
Druid For Kids?

Yeah that was the 15-minute working title. I am open to suggestions for alternate names. Because calling a class "for kids" is insulting to every kid I know, Druid (simplified) is potentially confusing and alternatives like Haruspex are inappropriate on a couple levels.

Elemental Blast: At 3rd level, the Druid gains the ability to project a ray of her chosen element to damage her foes. With a ranged touch attack, she may strike any target within Close range, dealing 1d4 damage per character level of the chosen type. (Increased by her Elemental Affinity)

Is this a standard action or an attack action? I presume it's also (Su)

Thanks, have clarified. Trying to keep it useful but slightly behind the Fire Mage / Snowscaper versions.


Overall, I'm a little worried that making it both a worse blaster and a worse healer may leave it getting overshadowed, but hopefully getting to summon wolves who drool acid and repeat-entangle all enemies on the battlemat makes up for it.