Druid - How to RP Classes in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM
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- Опубліковано 28 лис 2024
- Get back to Nature this week on Web DM! Druids are so much more than Radagast!
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Im really enjoying this series, but may i ask you to also talk abouy multiclass implications in this? What does it mean to be a fighter and a cleric? A sorcerer and a warlock? A druid/ranger/ancient-paladins/nature-cleric/feylock abomination?
Druids: D&d fish and game
maybe when you guys wrap up class RP videos maybe do a set of race and/or background RP videos?
another long shot idea:
I know this is a DND channel, but I’d love to see a show/channel in this format on Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars Edge of the Empire? Maybe?
I just always like the idea of a well-adjusted character with no real tragedy.
Player: "Were you like, abandoned in the forest by your parents?"
Druid: "Oh, this is a path I chose"
Player: "Was your circle found and murdered by--"
Druid: "They're alive and well. Many of them are probably out helping villages right now, like me."
Player: "Aaah, I gotcha. You guys were banished for being too friendly with human civilization."
Druid: "No. This is just my job. We want to foster coexistence with people so they don't log our shit."
I try to make all my characters like this. Nothing worse than a party of orphans out for revenge.
I like to do that with my characters as well. Helps to level out some of the crazy in the rest of the party.
The gist of my druid character is basically "The authorities busted up our self-sustaining druid commune because we weren't paying taxes, so now I'm trying to find a new direction in life now that our sustainable fishery is out of business."
I love to play the well adjusted type myself. Unfortunately, the last time I did, my DM decided to curse my character's loving daughter with the power of an evil god and have her destroy an entire village filled with their friends and family. So I'm sticking to friendless street urchins for the foreseeable future :T
This is my Druid...
I like making cultures that have coming of age rights that send the character out in their own as a sort of lifestyle quest
Imagine a city druid, talking to pigeons, protecting _that_ particular flowerbed.
"Wild- shaped in to a crane doing crane style" ...we went from Avatar to Kung Fu Panda
13:50 They made several movies about that idea. They're called Kung-Fu Panda :)
When they said nature wizard I immediately thought of the coolest Druid idea I've ever had. I NEED to play as a Druid based on Hagrid!
Pretty much a goliath druid.
My lost Druid: noble goes for a walk one day in the forest. Gets lost for 6 years, ends up accidentally married to a tree nymph that he can’t understand, thinks he is being held hostage. Bunnies and deer love him, he has allergies, including hay fever. Pretty much a living hell for him. Then one day when he tries to escape he bumps into a band of adventurers. Absolutely loves cities, hates nature but nature loves him.
Alex None A noble that goes for a walk in the woods and inadvertently walks through a fey crossing and ends up in the feywild would be a cool backstory for a circle of dreams druid.
Sounds like a reluctant Disney princess.
Samuel Cole imagine being abducted by Ariel, forced to eat only seaweed, unable to understand fish language and with an intense dislike for steel drum music LOL
Oh and your fish wife brings you random broken forks to try and cheer you up! 😂
Alex None, yo Ursula, get me out of here and I'll sign your contract - heck, any contract. You can have the trident and blow up this wacky kingdom for all I care. In fact, screw them, I'll help you for free.
Licjr 1018 That's my current character's story. Except they are a sailor.
I think Circle of Spores added a lot for druids for those of us who maybe don't want to go the meditative or hippy-dippy route. I'm currently playing a half-orc druid from an ancient Druidic order who embraces natures endless cycle of destruction and decay and it's been super fun!
Roleplaying the struggle between her respect for tradition and genuine belief in the necessity of death and decay versus her own deep seated fears surrounding death has been fantastic and it's allowed my character to embrace the perspective that civilization is just another facet of nature, it's just a facet that is inevitably destroy and rebuilt. Idk I just think Circle of Spores is great lol
I love the circle of spores. Recently, I've been designing a circle of spores druid that is focused on maintaining the balance between the natural energies of the world, known as forces. And not only is death a force that is part of the balance, undeath is to. So I'm looking forward to clashing with npc druids that are pissed that I'm occasionally creating undead, but in actuality I'm protecting the balance of the natural world.
The thing is, i've come up with a monk/druid combo. A perfect split of 10/10. You become the embodiment of nature and your mastery over your own body is reflected in the elemental form you possess. I can imagine a scenario where in your level 1 backstory, your monk master is mad at you because you aren't following the teachings 100%, you- the upstart prodigy that didnt find what he was looking for was therefore, banished, you found druidism and then through your connection to the wild and the primal magics you ascend to a higher state of self-improvement.
You return to the temple where this monk master is some bogus and generic way of the open palm shmuck and you come in, say your piece and watch as the entire monastery look on terrified as they see you become this writhing mass of water that then takes somewhat humanoid form with 2 outstretched limbs in the forms of a stance.
Or not even that, just shapeshift into gliding squirrel that lands a flurry of blows in the form of tiny bicycle kicks to then once grappled, shapeshift into a massive bear and proceed to maul his ass with bear-fu AND you got magic to back that up further.
The monk druid combo to me is the absolute self-perfection goal for those who seek bettering ones self through meditation and connection to all things. I really REALLY want to try it out as a concept.
One of my players had an idea for an Druid villain that starved out towns and villages very subtly by making the soil super rocky or sending pests or weeds that can't be killed, constant wild fires, etc.
now I want a nature based party; Druid, Nature Cleric, Monk of the 4 elements, Oath of the Ancients Paladin, a Ranger, and maybe a Fey Warlock for good measure, these pesky settlers and their settlements Are the monsters and dungeons
Good, but not from the usual perspective
My one druid is a tabaxi druid that before she started adventuring, she literally sped between areas and cities delivering messages and items for her father's small business, shifting into like a true big cat to speed her up. She's not the traditional druid, and she likes cities.
9:49 "I am the Druid, I speak for the trees"
Valerie Heyd AND THE TREES SAY DIE!!!
"I see you chop a tree again, I'll break both your knees"
As always an absolute pleasure to watch, you guys always get the creative juices flowing!
I love the idea of like how paladins have on oathbreaker when a paladin breaks their oath, maybe their is a "oathbreaker" druid that destroyed or neglected nature or the cycle of nature in some way. Maybe they would be able to wildshape in undead instead of animals. Maybe parts of their body would transform to suit their apearnce such as growing a wolves claws or a elks antlers like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Probably not undead, but a monstruosity specific druid would be cool.
Aberrations! The most unnatural and horrid things that reflect the druid's impure mind & magics
I love the idea of druids that kinda forgot how to be human, because they spend so much time as an animal. That could be fun to rp.
Also, in my understanding of medieval villages, they were very much “self sustaining”. They would have part of a forest they would keep underbrush cleared and the trees pruned for any needs they would have. So it could be said, these ye olde villages were lead by druids.
Geeko170 like in Animorphs when they can't change back to human if they stay in animal form for like, 24 hours?
I wonder how the party would feel though haha, still interesting idea, just need to be careful,IMO. :)
Geeko170 druids were the spiritual center of the celtic people there are instances of druids actually leading there people completely
Geeko170 and in deserts not listening to wiseman could potentially just mean death
Wizards of the Coast: we have to limit flying creatures with Wild Shape to level 8, because we can't give players the ability to fly too early, even if it's limited to a couple of hours
Also Wizards of the Coast: Aarakocra and Winged Tieflings
As someone who is playing a Druid for the first time tomorrow, this was perfectly timed
"Your love for the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed your mind" - Saruman to Gandalf. It is totally not tobacco.
"addled"
It is tobacco. In the meeting of Bilbo and Gandalf in the opening of the Hobbit it states it when they first meet.
@@lucasmayes840 r/whooosh
@@lucasmayes840 We all know he meant Pot. Let it go.
Theres a reason Hobbits are mellowed out peaceful creatures.............
I played a gnomish druid that grew up in a quarry, learning his magic by observing and acting as the earth elementals do. By level 7 he spent 100% of his time as an earth elemental (we played pathfinder)
One idea is having literally one of the fundamental particles that make up matter be magic or the precursor to magic as used by spell casters. That way, a Druid is literally tapping into the magic that makes up nature, and why spells like metal to wood/mud work, because you are taking the particles of matter and channeling magic through them, causing the magic that makes up the metal turn into wood/mud. It also explains how magic can make physical objects and still adhere to some idea of conservation of energy/matter and detect magic can be flavored as detecting objects that are imbued with magic separate from matter and you're detecting radiation. It also explains how the 4 elements come together to make th material plane, as they represent basic matter as magic with stacked particles with a homogeneous spin, and the elements coming together to create more complex matter could be when magic of different spins form particles of matter together.
jemm13 like in eragon
I run this, kind of!
The 4 classical elements of the 'inner' planes combine to make matter, and the outer planes (by way of their in-betweens, the positive and negative energy planes) combine by god-given circumstance to make the weave.
The weave is why magical effects are limited to certain spells, one you get past the power level of cantrips, and it gives every magic class a cool relationship to the weave.
Sorcerers are distortions in the weave by their very being, able to exert their will on it.
Warlocks exert the force of their patron's plane through the weave.
Wizards understand the weave, and how to pluck it's strings, like seidhr magic.
And all the divine casters absorb the latent divine energy of the world, and focus it through the weave to do spells, their differences determined by how they learned to master their realtionship with the universe. Each class and most subclasses teach different ways to use your body and and mind, to notice the motion of the gossamer veil of the weave and move force through it. Paladin oaths are an exception, they're all differences in the magic they have been taught to fuel by conviction, based on the tenets of their oath and the meaning behind their conviction.
I always had an idea for a ratcatcher urban druid who left their nomadic family to live in the city and can commune with the rats of the city because of the teachings of their family. I imagine them lanky, tired looking, deep sunken eyes, and ambiguous. Has a very sarcastic tone and tends do things kinda begrudingly. Gets along better with rats than people. Has an animal compaion named Hamelin.
Would that be Shepherd Druid?
The iron druid chronicles is a great series that defines what a druid is very well. Fun read.
I really like the idea (although I've yet to see a fan class or anything for it) of a Madness or Youth Circle druid. Basically this thought that what we consider irrationality is really just our natural existence. Maybe instead of just wild-shaping, they do the opposite: gaining an animal's mental characteristic but not its physical.
Imagine gaining a tortoise's wisdom, an eagle's perception, or a puppy's charm.
Britannia (show) on Amazon more accurately portrays the druids. They are dark and taboo but very hippy. Like divination wizards but without study and more intuition and relationship with the gods and nature as a reflection of the gods
Charliezar i would say that Druids can be however you want them to be
There is no ”acurete portray” only subjektive norms
Antrosa The Ant accurate portrayal here means historical accuracy
A T Thank you for clarifying, i can now go ahead and disslike myself. Recently got into a debatt with a Guy who forced his player because he Didnt play the class ”acuretly”
Check out the Iron Druid book series, an interesting way to shape the druidic responsibilities
Druids have always been my favorite class. But NOT the tree hugger kind, the one that has no issue making the world rip people limb from limb.
bob smith You can (and should) be both!
Word. I once made a homebrew Circle of Extinction Druid Subclass for a character concept of a Lawful Neutral druid who follows Darwinism and the rule of the jungle. Sink or swim, simple as that.
Reconciling that with being a team player by saying that the party would help her survive by covering her weaknesses, like a wolf pack working as a single organism.
In the last campaign I played, I had an urban druid. Urchin background. Grew up in a city. With the heavy Dex lean it was natural to give it a rogueish twist with stealth and slight of hand. They functioned like a rogue in terms of out of combat things. Larguely a heal bot in combat. Grasslands circle seemed to have spells that worked with this and it was a fit for the urban circle. Personality wise they were about balance which made it fun to push the party toward necromatic magic as virtual extension of consuming the physical body in a hunt.
animal boy sounds like a knock off beast boy
and monk panda isn't a knock off? Just go with it
Teen Titans featuring:
Animal Boy
Robot Guy
Bird Lad
Space Gal
Dark Bird Girl
Funnily enough, Animal Man isn't.
In my world, druids are the keepers of "the Old Faith" whereas clerics represent "the New Faith."
Cool - very GoT/ASOIAF!
90% sure the druid in your group smokes weed
And he aaalways has to find his animal stats
cloudsRniceC0M3 are you judging me? I feel judged.
My groups druid is truly a stoner, and he hasn't had anything but dire wolf pulled up in advance, ever
Stoner druid here, and yes I do.
But I always know the most combat effective beast for my level so it's never really a problem.
Also we're a full stoner dnd group, so it doesn't really count.
Horrible Man the best d&d is blazed d&d.
I'm going to be playing my first full caster class in a few weeks (I've been playing since 2013 and the closest I came was a paladin). I'm usually the dm with my group so I'm super excited to see how a druid hobgoblin goes
"Animal Boy"? Jim I thought we were friends!
Druid "lich" but instead of undead and singular its becoming something close to myconid and imparting its consciousness into a fungal grove to evolve into a higher form of life akin to an elder brain... end goal being Unity from Rick and Morty.
Making a Circle of Spores Druid with that as their end goal would be SO fun.
Oh I like this
What you're thinking of is Beast Boy, which is more like how the conventional druid works (wild shape turns you into an animal of your choice)
I'm in the process of creating a druid in 3.5 (5e disappointed me even with circle of spores) that is nature's cleansing force. I think the prestige class Blighter is very close to what I have in mind, but I'll have to look again. A man of nature who some may view as evil, of course, but who really deals with poisons, fire, storms, locusts, and decay because everything must die and someone's watching the clock. That someone is me.
Perhaps this character is more suited for a villain than a PC, but if I find a DM who lets me, I could see this working as a PC if done right
Look up Astoshan, yhe Grey Necromancer.
You guys talking about a world where everything is governed by magic or spirits just sparked inspiration in me. I've honestly never really thought about it like that, but now I'm definitely going to put that idea into my own setting that I'm developing. I'm (mentally) developing a world heavily influenced by Far Eastern folklore, myths, and religion which is essentially an intersection of different planes. I can already see that a druid's place in that world would be to keep the peace between spirits and civilization and be a liaison between them.
kind of like putting a yolk on an ox that wants to run free.
+christopher brander It was more or less a preliminary idea honestly and I'm definitely open to ideas. What do you think should change or should it just be more in-depth? It could be that most people in the rural areas are more in tune with the spirits than the city-goers because they need to interact with them on a consistent basis and druids (and possibly rangers) are simply the most in-tune with nature. Maybe certain druids see it as a duty and actively pursue it while others simply wish to co-exist?
I was just trolling earlier. : here: Your idea, which i think is near brilliant, reminds me of "Sprited Away". If you haven't watched it you must. Off-hand i'd say some druids are powerful gate keepers, villains, rogues/thieves, informants, merchants, mercs, nursury care takers, every kind of job that can be imagined, there will be a druid to fill it. BUT all druids are "avatars" or go-betweens of the real world and the spirit world, since very few people can perceive or interact with it.... if i understand where you're going with it. I would be interested to read more about it as you flesh it out. Sadly i doubt i'll get to.
(Long post incoming due to long-winded world details) I haven't yet watched Spirited Away but I've watched other Ghibli films (I've honestly lost count on how many times I've rewatched My Neighbor Totoro between my childhood and my little sister when she was growing up) and am fairly familiar with popular/basic Japanese folklore and myth. I don't have it all fleshed out since I don't particularly have plans to finish it up until Matt Colville's Strongholds Kickstarter book gets out since I really want to try implementing that into that setting too. I think there’ll be a bunch of homebrew stuff in terms of rules and several classes/archetypes though not entirely sure yet since I’d like to play-test them first.
I like your idea with the druids, though I may make the spirits and the world interact more tangibly in the end. For instance, the river spirit may be pissed and the average person may see just a raging river but a druid might see the water elemental beneath the surface of the water causing it all. But, I would never say to my players "You're a druid, you HAVE to do this and HAVE to act this way" so maybe they're a druid but are terrible at communicating with the spirits and it can be a character arc for them to improve or something. I think I might have druids be able to speak both Primordial and Sylvan as an added bonus for flavor. And rangers will probably be able to choose one or the other depending on their favored terrain. But here's basically what I have currently:
The world itself is very close in proximity to the various elemental planes, the Shadowfell, and the Feywild and there are times and areas in the world where those planes and the material plane may overlap. There are four general categories of being: lesser beings, spirits, lesser gods, and true gods. Lesser beings are basically the PC’s, beasts, goblins, and other blood-and-bone-type creatures. The spirits are things like elementals and fey. They can be like what they mentioned in the video, a water elemental that causes the river to flow, but also like small creatures like in Studio Ghibli films like the soot spirits in My Neighbor Totoro, or like creatures in another more recent 5E module, the vegepygmies in Tomb of Annihilation. Lesser gods are more powerful beings such as archfey or elemental titans which are often powerful enough to have their own pocket-dimensions or are able to simply transition between planes at will. These are often revered, feared, and sometimes even worshiped by the common folk though the practice is often more common in rural areas. Though, they may also be as simple as a giant wolf-spirit who is the guardian of the forest. True gods are what they sound like and are essentially the gods of creation (haven't established a pantheon yet, though not certain I really want to).
Players will start in a small, rural town overseen by a local lord likely at level 2 because I honestly don’t like level 1 (too weak, most classes don’t get anything cool, etc.). The town is mostly farmland with a small market, enough to function for a normal, everyday life's needs. Surrounding the town is mostly wilderness (likely mostly hills and forest) with one main road through the area. Session 0 will probably have a quick encounter with a small pack of wolves (which will probably be a subtle hint at what's to come later on). Players will enter the town and probably stay at one of the two or three inns and start on one of the requests from there. In the forested area, there are dedicated shrine maidens (a homebrew class I found and liked, though possibly interchangeable with druids depending on how I flavor it) which worship the local lesser god at its shine as well as a circle of the shepherd druid (from Xanathar’s). The guardian of the forest is a giant (size category huge most likely) silver/white-haired wolf or elk (haven’t decided which yet). The hills will have a mine which was abandoned after a recent clan war ended and the common folk no longer were forced to mine for iron but has since been taken over by kobolds. I’d like to keep the campaign more-or-less morally neutral so that there’ll likely be no “right” answer like if they decide to clear out the kobolds, they’ll come to realize they just invaded their home and have to make the decision whether or not to spare the eggs and non-combatants who are cowering before them. They might be able to form some kind of deal with them so that they can mine the mine for ore again, etc. The guardian of the forest will later be in trouble and there’ll be some hints and fallout to this in the form of wild animals being more irritable and deadly than normal like wolves possibly going out and attacking the townsfolk in their fields when they’d normally give them a wide birth or the forest sprites start terrorizing passersby since the forest’s “ruler” isn’t there to keep order, etc. Players will likely want to help the guardian and by doing so will gain its favor (probably in the form of a 1-time summon) and the favor of the town and local lord. That's basically most of what I have now off the top of my head. Honestly, it's good that I have it written down somewhere lol.
Yoda is a Gnome Druid!
Spencer Toons I'd go goblin personally. His acrobatic style when he used a lightsaber suggests nimble escape
This was a fantastic video! I really enjoyed it! You gave many tips and many thought provoking and inspiring ideas. As someone who has studied nature a lot her whole life I’d like to add something; have the DM study and develop the ecosystem more and ensure they understand how and why their animals behave. And also make the Druid character learn actual nature information and test them. They prove they understand the animal they can wildshape it. As well a druid should also have the option to seek out a teacher to help them learn about animals they wish to wild shape into. This should speed up the process. I have a system that can be added to any tabletop rpg called ‘Learning’ which allows a character to study and them make learning rolls vs a DC the modifier is the (usually) INT mod plus the amount the teacher adds plus if books helped plus how relaxed or ideal the learning conditions were. The DC is based on how difficult the skill being learned is with it being lower the more time the student takes and higher the less time and more rushed it is. Basically. Anyways great work as usual, love this Rp tips series!
Bears standing on two legs and doing stunning strike is completely fair and legal according to rules!!!! This is my favorite character that I play!
Theres a character that i never played but i loved the concept. Using the Xanathar's character background generator, i ended up with a neutral evil tabaxi that fleed from home to the sea looking for his father and ended up becoming a pirate druid, using elemental magic to move his ship trough out the ocean.
Excellent Video! But as a side note, Hookah uses shisha which is typically tobacco mixed with fruit shavings and sometimes caffeine. It's calming effect comes from the large amounts of nicotine you are ingesting, which makes it perfect for groups. There isn't anything 'extra' about it really
I LOVE this new class roleplaying series.
Just watching this one again since my main character is a Druid...
IRL, I'm also a small scale farmer.
Here's a potential implied bit of texture for how the Druid relates to the town in the model you described with the Druid being the negotiator/mediator between the Fey and the Town, or just the Wild and the Town. I heard echoes of the real world Agricultural Extension Agent (resource people from the local State Agricultural University in any given state). Some farmers love them and really appreciate their advice, others regard their "intrusive meddling" with a disdainful contempt and no matter what the Ag Agent says the farmer only hears, "HI! I'm from the Guvament and I'm here to help!"
I can see a lot of fun in that same kind of unpredictable variety in how the Druid is met from town to town and person to person.
Fascinating video. Druids can travel so fast around the world that trying to limit what they can transform into doesn't have much impact if they have any downtime and the creatures exist somewhere. They can even effortlessly travel between different planes.
not one mention of Allanon or Shannara??
Druid Monk but no Druid Barbarian, Druid (Green Knight) Paladin?
ENCORE
Shannara druids also make a great archetype for "Refusal of the Call" backstories and a case for undead druids. If you expand out/back to the modern/near-future prequels, Knight of the Word is a brilliant version of an urban fantasy druid.
Nice video guys it was dru- rad !!! *plays air guitar*
Treating a Druid's work as being negotiating with spirits is a completely valid way to go. Under that logic, every spirit is a rational (or irrational) actor who can be talked to, intimidated, and called upon, depending on the circumstance.
Another way to do the Druid, though, is more elemental. (Not like the actual Elemental monsters in the Monster Manual). To this kind of Druid, a "spirit" isn't so much a sentient (or even Sapient) being, as it is a spiritual force. A flow of natural power, impersonal and without thought or feelings. Much like a river or stream, really. When you think about it, there isn't really a "river" per se; there's a long succession of water droplets that move along a single meander. In much the same way that you'd never try to negotiate with a line of people _as_ a line, there's no talking to the stream. It's not a single thing, but a succession of things. There's only working with the flow of the water - or in this case, the flow of elemental energy - to accomplish a goal. Using the right words and rites and tools to stop, divert, expedite, or co-opt that flow, like you would dam a river or dig trenches or erect water wheels. Manipulating the environment so that, afterwards, what the Druid wanted to happen was exactly what the natural world would have done anyway, just in a new direction.
In that way, such a Druid would seem almost akin to a Wizard. Both use their methods to manipulate the world around them into behaving a certain way, by understanding how these elemental forces work and how to shape them. While the Wizard uses precise methods to work with the elements, almost as a Science, the Druid treats their manipulations more like an Art. The Druid is the cunning man or the wise woman, employing Wisdom where a Wizard might use Intelligence.
Really fascinating all the variations possible when you really try and immerse into the character type. Massively helpful as I start my first campaign as a Druid.
I've been DMing for the past couple of years and am finally relinquishing the DM screen to play Strixhaven! I'm creating a druid who has been discussing the equations behind shifting sands with a "sand" elemental - thanks Jim and Pruitt for that inspiration!
Thank you guys.
I have to play a druid soon and I wasn't inspired to do it at all. Your video helped me insurmountably to create a character, that I actually want to play.
The character will be centered around humility and "knowing your place". That goes very well with some perspectives on nature, life and death, that a druid could have.
I love the idea of a druid who perceives the 'civilised' folk as to soft. Mostly because it makes me think of the Fremen naib Stilgar from the Dune series of novels.
I like the idea of a survivalist druid in a harsh wasteland of an environment that he is both wary of but also deeply attuned to. He is dependant on a magical substance (like spice but a DND version) for his magic abilities but he is also a great fighter in his own right.
Although I did just start the iron druid series so let's see if that doesn't change...
Love your channel, just found it today as I am a new d&d player. I'm a huge rp fan for video games and tabletop alike. The flow of your conversations and the depthness of it is kinda of cool. Like modern day lore masters
I love the idea of a zoologist druid going around studying and cataloging evey animal they can.
Your channel is pure gold. Thank you for the video, great job!
A new WebDM video on my birthday. Druids are funny.
Happy Birthday!
Kriegsman!!! Why are you celebrating being dumped out of your cloning vat when you could be fighting a war of attrition for the Emperor?!
hey Brother.
I cast Minor Misunderstanding!
i really like the spore druid, one of my player took this circle and he's helping the necromancer in his study while teaching him that too much undead is not good and if he does create an army of undead he will stop him at all cost
i think its a great balance to throw a spore druid with a necromancer without feeling completely unnatural, the druid is just there to keep the balance between life and death
Amber is what you're looking for, but Jade still applies cos that's plant life and life in general.
I enjoyed this discussion. It's organizes thoughts about the druid that I have been mulling over for hears. I would add that I see druids being masters of knowledge. They work to understand and wield the knowledge of nature, in all it's forms. They can be teachers, guides, wisemen, healers, and more. "Magic", is the extension of in depth knowledge of the world.
Druids in the Iron Kingdoms are certainly an interesting breed to draw inspiration from. Talk about savage, those guys are brutal! Great video guys! keep it up!
Book "Mother of Learning" have some version of shapeshifters and it explains them as having a tiny amount of blood of ancient shapeless primordial due to a ritual that their far ancestors performed. After they bind a soul of a creature to themselves, they could assume its form.
I love playing the Druid class. I usually follow the "ambassador" path, between nature and civilization. I never thought about the Fey side of it though, only keeping the peace between the forest/animals and humans. I can't believe I have been overlooking the Fey side all this time!! Now my brain is rethinking many new scenarios...
this has become one of my favorites, thanks guys! I'll definitely incorporate this to my adventures
I am surprised you didn't mention swarm druids. They are interesting say you run a Vlad Dracul build turn into a Swarm of Bats, a carrion druid who turns into a swarm of ravens, or even the Oogie Boogie build have your druid melt into a swarm of insects.
The Druid protects the wilds from civilization and in turn protects the civilization from the wilds.
I could see drawing on Henry David Thoreau as a great inspiration for the more civilized druid.
As a new d&d player with a druid character I am happy to finally see this video in my feed
I love every single episode! never enough of them though lol
For the druids, a different idea would be to have them commune in their dreams and have actual physical results happen in the real world when attempting to tame the "insert wild shape beast" to then learn from it, have it count as sleep but only for half the amount, thus they'd have to "sweatbox mushroom trancing/sleep a full 16 hrs to attain a full days rest when attempting to stalk and tame the animal within the dream/shared nature consciousness
make the actual use of the wild shape be more like allowing the "ygdrassillian memory of the bear" to slide into your body and have the effects like reach etc we as if they are happening at a distance by an invisible force extending from the druids body, though it casts a shadow revealing its hidden presence. almost like a controlled demon possession in look of the druid
make all dealings with the fae and any abilities or powers be very alien off angled and the general feeling that reality is trying to push them out and it's distorting them, make all encounters with fae skew distort and distend perceptions of all sentient things within a certain vicinity, and alter the terrain in slight to dramatic as it twists and gnarls and bends to reshape it in the faes image of reality more warped as it slides up the power scale.
Holy shit that got esoteric! 😊
I have always wanted to play a druid who felt a big desturbance in the flow of natural magic. He is a wood elf who lived in a small plot of woodland and has lived thier for nearly 900 years. He had never delved into the power of natural magic (making him 1st level) and it isnt until he felt the destrubacne wher he feels it is his duty as a person who is tuned into the natural world to make himsself strong to make the balance ones again. His name is Johny Goodberryseed. I think he would fit best in Elemental Evil but im playing a samurai fighter in that one rn.
Hm this has definitely given me some ideas for a druid now. Also Tal'Dorei guide in the background!
Crazy that you should talk about the Monk Druid combination. In a game i play now i'm Monk 5 Druid 2, and having a blast.
Being able to do martial arts while wildshaped is fun, and the extra AC from unaroumed defence is good, as well as the movement.
Highly reccommend to you out there.
I use animism as a basis for my druidic religious beliefs. Old 3e oriental adventures has a good blurb on it (pg 68) and how everything has a spirit. The spiritual plane is like the feywild or shadowfell, a mirror plane. Druids worship and are devout to all of the natural spirits. This creates other interesting spiritual ideas, such as a dwarf may look at raw ore and see the ideal spirit form of the ore in it, thus forge a perfect hammer, trying to bring out the spirit form and get the spirits blessing.
Yes, animism! Clerics tend to worship anthropomorphic gods and goddesses, whereas the "Old Faith" as I like to call it teaches the Druid to revere and commune with the spirits of places. I'm having a blast with my "Owlbert," whose backstory is that of a former college boy who left university (got expelled) because of his gradual defection from mainstream society into a nearby squatter community of Druids. Imagine Gerrard Winstanley's True Levelers if they had been Druids instead of English Evangelicals. Owlbert "found himself" among these agrarian communist squatter-types, but he's an "adventurer" now, because his adoptive Druid community was wiped out in the same fashion and for the same reasons as the True Levelers of English history.
I think a good base for how a druid uses magic is the Netflix show "The Dragon Prince." In the show, magic is tied to the aspects of the world, like Fire, Water, Earth, Sky, etc, but in order to learn magic from these aspects, you have to understand it. Not just what it is, but what it means, it's purpose, and the changes it can make to you and the world around you. So you can't just read a book about fire magic and use it willy-nilly, you have to understand the primal nature of fire: the heat, the warmth, the destruction and the untamed wildness of it. This is basically what I see druid magic as, and what seperates it from arcane magic.
I've made a "Primal Animist", kind've a reverse Moon Druid, more fighter than druid, druid spells at 1/3, and then a bit of a monkish fighter, I took panther form only, and those attacks, and then her attacks, AC, and senses would increase a bit as she leveled
I never knew I wanted to hear you guys discuss Pipe Weed in Tolkien, but man am I sure glad you did! :D
Ive always been fascinated by something mtg made, the necromantic druid, using druidism and necromancy to heal or reanimate, planting dead bodies for growing plant zombies... Golgari are fun!
My Moon Druid for our Storm King's Thunder campaign was also against type, a wood elf druid that was an agent of Morgwais, the Red Lady of the High Forest (using the Spy background). My character was deeply enmeshed in the religious and political hierarchy of the wood elves as both an emissary and priest of Rillifane Rallathil. For the course of our campaign he was tasked with serving the interests of the queen along the Sword Coast, whose goal was eventually reestablishing the elven kingdom of Earlann in the heart of the High Forest. To that end, I helped develop relationships with various political and business organizations, kept the queen apprised of the developing situation with the giant king and kept myself at the heart of goings on, to say nothing of ridding the land of the encroaching hill giants. So as I envisioned the character, he was more like a cleric, but of a nature god and from a nature magic oriented society, and had the attitude of doing whatever was necessary to serve the greater good, meaning the needs of the forest and of my people, even if he found the urban, bustling mercantilism of Waterdeep distasteful when compared to the primal beauty of the wilds.
With proficiency in stealth and thieves tools and the ability to wild shape into a cat, he filled the rogue role for our party quite well, while also being able to adopt any necessary role in battle, whether it was controlling, blasting, tanking or healing. It probably would have made more sense for the queen to send a bard or rogue or paladin or some such, but our DM wasn't overly reliant on rolling persuasion if we role played convincing arguments, so it usually worked out okay. I joined the group at level three or four and we went to level 14 over a little over a year, it was great.
I have to ask, with your interesting comments on spirits of nature and animism within how Druids can fit into a setting - have you heard of Glorantha? Because it embraces those ideas and much of your Cleric discussion in a massive way.
Spirits and fae control or maintain some parts of the world, other things like rain are a result of planar phenomenon (water plane touches the prime material through the air plane and we get rain, if it's the paraelemental plane of ice instead you get snow).
When my Druid became a fey pact Warlock, because I wanted to smite too, my DM and I basically looked at the Shaman from Warcraft that could smite with their natural weapon which was a hammer made of twisted roots with a large crystal for the smashing part. Then when I could spellcast with the wildshape, my DM allowed me to smite using the claws since I usually liked Raptors and the Allosaurus forms. I also went giant ape and used my hands to smite sort of the way a monk would jab. I might go monk a couple levels when that campaign starts up again.
My favorite real world inspiration for how nature works in a fantasy settings is Biodynamic Agriculture. In the early 1900’s this guy named Rudolph Steiner came up with this theory about agriculture that has this whole esoteric mythology about appeasing the elemental spirits of nature by doing these strange rituals, planting with the moon phases, and other occult stuff. He believed in these mystical elemental creatures such as gnomes, undines, salamanders, and sylphs that are in charge of all of the natural process. He even writes about an actual wizard casting world shattering magic in his account of history of the world. I heavily use his writings on the elemental, spiritual, and alchemical aspects of the natural world as inspiration for how things work in my game settings and how my druids view the natural world. I have a few books of his lecture notes, but you could just as easily take things directly from the biodynamic agriculture Wikipedia page or any of the other biodynamic affiliated websites and blogs. To me this is better stuff than I could ever come up with, and I love that it is a real world mythology that some people actually believe(d) in. Biodynamic farms are rare but some still exist in the modern day.
great tips with the tables from Xantathars! Will look into buying the book :D
Whenever my druid wildshapes, I have to roll a percentage die to see if I can control my actions normally, or if the animal mindset takes over.
Ahh, everybody's favorite _Animorphs_ ruleset
@@GrassPokeKing love your profile pic. Grass starters all the way
Jared Laskowski Thanks so much, they don't get nearly as much love as I think they deserve lmao
@@GrassPokeKing Agreed, so under appreciated.
Deh Dwuids (sorry, couldn't help myself) are, admittedly, my least favorite class. However, I have been recently inspired to try one...but it's a little different.
In the style of Jerry Holkins:
"Imagine if you will, a DARK druid..."
Specifically, a Drow who has, through communing with Myconids, recognized the ecology of the Underdark as not only valuable, but integral to the survival of it's denizens, and thus throws down the shackles of expectations. His Wild Shapes will be giant spiders and other deep beasties. His mentor would be a Myconid Sovereign whom has existed in tune with the natural order of the Night Below.
what if you went really off brand Druid by doing like hill giant or Yuan-Ti Pureblood
I think the new Xanathar's rule options for learning new wild shapes are pretty cool. I recently decided to run it a bit differently. I think based on the way different classes can change their shape I run it this way: a wizard, in order to polymorph something into an animal needs to know knowledge about that animal. They need to study them in the wild or thoroughly research them and have a comprehensive knowledge of how they work. Druids I see, having Wisdom being their core stat, have an innate connection to the tree of life. Similar to beast Boy in DC who is connected to a life force called The Green, he has a natural and powerful connection to all other animals and can call on their forms as they need to. I think with the fantasy most players who play druids have it would, most of the time, feel frustrating to have your forms restricted without spending a ton of time out in the wild trying to find them.
When you get to paladin would you mind talking about what it means for a paladin to swear upon his oath as mine does that quite a lot
Harry Hoare you mean something like, "by Grapthar's Hammer, I will avenge you."
woodsman105 yeah something like that but my uses is it more like "I'm telling the truth"
Harry Hoare sorry, that was a Galaxy Quest movie quote.
woodsman105 hahaha I guess I have a new movie to watch then
Harry Hoare Alan Rickman is fantastic as usual.
A kensai + druid multiclass sounds like a good Jedi setup :)
I’ve always wanted to make a homebrew summoner subclass. If you find a willing monster/beast and you form a bond with them, then you can summon them in battle by spending your Wild shapes. It’s still in the early stages of my brain but I would just love to play a summoner haha
I saw it somewhere and haven't been able to scratch the itch yet, but a human female druid, Shepard circle, magic intimate with find familure for an animal sidekick, and noble background. Throw in proficiency in performance and a Disney Princess is in play.
You gotta remember we used to essentially farm forrest's, a druid could also teach them how to tend the nearby forrest better so they can gather whatever resources they need from it more efficiently while also making it better for the local ecosystem.
I absolutely love this new series! I think once all the classes are out I'll have my players watch your rp video on any new class they want to play lol. Keep em coming Web DM! My favorite channel by far.
I have always thought that they are not using iron because of the fae,
not using steel because refining it is destructive to the environment...
so, bronze sickles, I guess
I'd say that they could use steel if it was forged in specific ways, such as Damascus steel which uses leaf litter, small stick/branches which could be taken from the ground, and straw which can be put aside during the harvest, and uses bellows to get the temperature high enough, thus not producing much smoke and the amount that it does can be used by the plants to breathe (it's mostly just carbon oxides).
They could probably also use elvish steel as it's forged in a typically eco friendly manner.
Dwarven steel is debatable, as it tends to be unsustainably mined, and might be made in a way that causes harm to fae, but dwarves tend to use volcanic activity to heat their metals, so it's pretty low impact.
Orcish steal is probably off limits though as it's likely forged using coal and logs cut from young(ish) trees, the iron strip mined and the blade forged in the least fae friendly manner possible.
But that's just my thoughts on the matter, and it's entirely the DM and player's choice as to how to handle it.
OMG this is the problem!
"Polished teak wood, cuts like steel." -- Blade, the Vampire Hunter, in some comic I read
I made my table die when I played a warforged druid. It wanted to learn the magic so it could become living. It was one of my favorite characters.... Also love the Mystery Men reference in the beginning.
Great video, Really helpful as was struggling a bit RP mine at the moment. Trying to write a back story as we speak for my circle of the shepherd druid
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did... did pruitt just make my next character a monk panda
A T get a friend to do it with you. Walk into a tavern like
You: hi I'm Kung Fu Panda
Them: and I'm Kung Fu Panda 2
A T I am having full metal alchemist brotherhood flashbacks.
Like a Pandarian?
Anoobis God of SkrubZ
Assuming you're referring to wow lore, pandaren is the species.
Pandaria is the continent.
Pandarian is a denizen of pandaria which isn't always a pandaren.
Also, not all pandaren are from pandaria.
Also, blizzard writing isn't all that great.
one of my friends did this, belly slammed a dude through a stone wall and said "skadoosh"
it was magical
Talking about urban Druids makes me want to have a Druid that is sort of a magical version of Frederick Law Olmsted. This guy was basically the father of landscape architecture, a 19th century conservationist and landscape artist who worked on designing national parks. Central Park in NYC and the park around the Capitol Building in Washington DC are both his works, as were the grounds around the Vanderbilt manor at Biltmore. The guy was really prestigious, and worked to promote nature for the benefit of humanity.
So we might have a Druid whose whole mission is to help developing urban kingdoms to incorporate the natural world into their modernizing nations. This would be especially important in "modern" settings like Eberron, where magical industrialization are starting to push out the wilderness. The Druid comes in and says, "Not only should you try to balance your progress against nature, here's positive reasons why you might want to."
A Druid who sees the rise of cities as inevitable, and so is trying to mix nature into those cities in a pleasing way.
AWESOME (see "Leaf Chief" in some other forums: wants to own land to dominate nature or control urbanization)
Pruitt, if you enjoyed having to rotate your Swamp Thing novel, you should look into House of Leaves. It's a great story about sentient labyrinths and messing with the reader.
A good starting point imo is the iron druid chronicles, it's in the same vein as Dresden, but for druids instead of warlocks
Mushi-Shi
I was absolutely waiting for them to mention a mushi-master druid, called in by villagers when the natural balance goes awry.