Ess' Class Project #9: The Druid

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Essence
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Ess' Class Project #9: The Druid

Post by Essence »

Ahh, the Druid, the one class whose class features I didn’t change…much. Even with the modifications that I made, the Druid remains the bar by which I measured all of the other classes in this project. The two most significant changes I made: I totally revised the animal companion (now works like the Totem Warrior’s companion from Arcana Unearthed), and I made the Wild Shape transformation provoke an attack of opportunity.

DRUID
Alignment: Must have at least one neutral component.
Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills: (4+Int)
The druid’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography, magic, nature, spirits) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

BAB: Middle
Saves: Fort high, Ref low, Will high

Class Features and Spells by Level:

Code: Select all

[br]							Spell Levels:[br]                                                 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9[br] 1 Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy 3/5 1/2                              [br] 2 Woodland stride                              4/6 2/3                       [br] 3 Trackless step                               4/6 2/3 1/2                      [br] 4 Resist nature’s lure                         4/7 3/4 2/3                   [br] 5 Wild shape 1/day                             5/7 3/4 2/3 1/2                  [br] 6 Wild shape 2/day                             5/8 3/5 3/4 2/3                   [br] 7 Wild shape 3/day                             5/8 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2               [br] 8 Wild shape (large)                           6/9 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3               [br] 9 Venom immunity                               6/9 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2                [br]10 Wild shape 4/day                             6/9 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3            [br]11 Wild shape (tiny)                            6/9 5/7 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2          [br]12 Wild shape (plant)                           6/9 5/8 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3           [br]13 A thousand faces                             6/9 6/8 5/7 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2         [br]14 Wild shape 5/day                             6/9 6/9 5/8 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3          [br]15 Timeless body, wild shape (huge)             6/9 6/9 6/8 5/7 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2         [br]16 Elemental wild shape 1/day                   6/9 6/9 6/9 5/8 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3     [br]17 Wild shape 6/day                             6/9 6/9 6/9 6/8 5/7 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3 1/2    [br]18 Elemental wild shape 2/day                   6/9 6/9 6/9 6/9 5/8 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4 2/3  [br]19 Elemental wild shape (huge)                  6/9 6/9 6/9 6/9 6/8 5/7 4/6 4/5 3/4 2/3	[br]20 Elemental wild shape 3/day                   6/9 6/9 6/9 6/9 6/9 5/8 5/7 4/6 3/5 3/4[br]


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the druid.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Druids are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, dart, falchion, greatclub, longspear, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortspear, sling, spear, and trident. Druids are proficient with light and medium armor but are prohibited from wearing metal armor; thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor, or armors made from special materials such as stone or wood. Druids are proficient with light shields but must use only wooden ones.
A druid who wears prohibited armor or carries a prohibited shield is unable to cast druid spells or use any of her supernatural or spell-like class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.
Spells: A druid casts normal spells, and any spell with the [Natural] descriptor. Every druid spell has a focus component (a sprig of a plant the druid considers holy), and a gesture component (emphatic motions). A druid may choose to ready any normal spell or any spell with the [Natural] descriptor provided he can cast spells of that level. He readies spells ahead of time, any of which he can cast up to the maximum number of spell slots available to him for each given level. To ready or cast a spell, a druid must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid’s spell is 10 + 1/2 the druid’s character level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier.
Spontaneous Casting: A druid can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn’t readied ahead of time. She is considered to constantly have all summon nature’s ally spells that she has access to readied.
Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A druid must remain neutral, and cannot cast any spells with the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Bonus Languages: A druid’s bonus language options include Sylvan, the language of woodland creatures. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
A druid also knows Druidic, a secret language known only to druids, which she learns upon becoming a 1st-level druid. Druidic is a free language for a druid; that is, she knows it in addition to her regular allotment of languages and it doesn’t take up a language slot. Druids are forbidden to teach this language to non-druids. Druidic has its own alphabet.
Animal Companion (Ex): A druid has a special animal companion imbued with the direct manifestation of the nature spirits that the druid reveres. The animal companion may be chosen from the following list: badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse (light or heavy), owl, pony, snake (Small or Medium viper), or wolf. If the campaign takes place wholly or partly in an aquatic environment, the following creatures are also available: crocodile, porpoise, Medium shark, and squid. The animal is naturally (but not magically) loyal, but will leave if mistreated. The druid need not make Handle Animal checks to teach this companion tricks. If an animal companion dies, a new one appears in 10+1d10 days, in all ways identical to the one that died. Each time the druid gains a level, the animal companion gains a special hit die.
Animal Companion HD wrote:1d8
Skill points: 4 (all skills the animal has naturally are in-class)
Saves: Fort and Ref good.
BAB: +1 per HD
Special: in addition to the normal feats and attribute increases, for every four Animal Companion HD, the creature’s Int score increases by one point.

The druid has an empathic bond with his animal companion as long as they are within one mile of each other. The warrior knows the animal’s general condition and can understand basic, emotional messages from it: “danger”, “relaxed”, or “hungry”, for example. The druid can send similar messages to his companion.
Nature Sense (Ex): A druid gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.
Wild Empathy (Ex): A druid can 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.
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.
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.
Wild Shape (Su): At 5th level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back again once per day. Her options for new forms include all non-templated creatures with the animal type. This ability functions like the polymorph spell, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.
The form chosen must be that of an animal the druid is familiar with, and cannot have a Challenge Rating greater than the druid’s character level.
A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because 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. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)
The druid’s weapon proficiencies are replaced with those of the creature she turns into. Usually, this only includes the new form’s natural weapons (if any). This includes the “unarmed strike” proficiency, preventing a druid in Wild Shape from making unarmed attacks other than her form’s natural attacks.
A druid can use this ability more times per day at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level, as noted on Table: The Druid. In addition, she gains the ability to take the shape of a Large animal at 8th level, a Tiny animal at 11th level, and a Huge animal at 15th level.
The new form’s Hit Dice can’t exceed the character’s druid level.
At 12th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a non-templated plant creature with the same size restrictions as for animal forms. (A druid can’t use this ability to take the form of a plant that isn’t a creature.)
At 16th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a Small, Medium, or Large non-templated elemental once per day. These elemental forms are in addition to her normal wild shape usage. In addition to the normal effects of wild shape, the druid gains all the elemental’s extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities. She also gains the elemental’s feats for as long as she maintains the wild shape, but she retains her own creature type.
At 18th level, a druid becomes able to assume elemental form twice per day, and at 20th level she can do so three times per day. At 20th level, a druid may use this wild shape ability to change into a Huge elemental.
Venom Immunity (Ex): At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons.
A Thousand Faces (Su): At 13th level, a druid gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell, but only while in her normal form (not in forms she takes with Wild Shape.)
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 vanish. Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up.

Ex-Druids
A druid who ceases to revere nature, changes to a prohibited alignment, or teaches the Druidic language to a non-druid loses all spells and druid abilities (including her animal companion, but not including weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She cannot thereafter gain levels as a druid until she atones (see the atonement spell description).


Critiques?
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