Druid
Player's Handbook p33

Game Rule Information

The following changes have been made to the powers and abilities of the Druid. Any published rules for the druid that do not directly contradict the contents of this page still apply.

Class Features

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: I use the rules for Weapon Group Feats (UA p94). At first level the druid gains the Basic Weapons feat and the Druid Weapons feat. Druids continue to be proficient in light and medium armour, and with shields. Their armour must be made of natural material - i.e. it must be padded, leather, hide or another armour approved by the GM. Any shield carried must be wooden.

Ignore Spell Failure (Light Armour): Druids gain the equivalent of this feat at first level. However, it only functions for armour that fits with the druid's ethos (i.e. padded or leather armour).

Ignore Spell Failure (Medium Armour): Druids the equivalent of this feat at fourth level. However, it only functions for armour that fits with the druid's ethos (i.e. hide). If they already have this feat they may select another in its place.

Ignore Spell Failure (Shields): Druids gain the equivalent of this feat as a bonus feat at fifth level. However, it only functions if the druid is employing a wooden shield.

Spellcasting: Druids cast nature magic, not divine magic. Their power does not come from a god, but from the living world itself. This is a technique they share with other classes such as rangers and healers. Complete details of nature magic and how it functions can be found in the section on magic.

Animal Companion (Ex): The rules presented on p35-36 of the PHB stand with one exception. The druid's animal companion is not typical of its kind. Players should roll up their animal companions in the same way as character: 4d6 drop the lowest for each stat, and then apply racial modifiers. However, creatures of the Animal type cannot have an Intelligence score greater than 2. Players should roll hit points and not take the average figure.

Spontaneous Casting: The use of spell-points make these rules redundant. The druid cannot turn other spells he has memorised into summoning spells because he doesn't memorise spells.

Chaotic, Evil, Good and Lawful Spells: Druids strive to shake off the confines of good and evil. They consider neutrality to be the only way forward, and are motivated by a desire to balance the world. They may cast any spells with these descriptors that appear on their spell lists, as long as they do so in balance.

Wild Shape (Su): The basic rules for wild shaping remain unchanged, but there are some extremely important and game-changing modifcations that druids players must accept. The ability to wildshape is greatly prized by the druidic order. Druids aren't really considered to have 'made it' unless they can change form. Becoming and animal and being one with nature is like a narcotic to a druid. Once they start, they can't stop. The adrenaline rush, the new sensations, the enhanced senses - it is overwhelming.

There is no limitation in the number of times a druid can wildshape in one day, nor is there any limitation in the amount of time a druid can spend in his wildshaped form. As soon as he reaches 5th level he can wildshape as many times as he likes. However, there is a price. The more a druid wildshapes, the more he loses himself. With each successive change he remembers less and less about the thinking being he was and more and more like the animal he has become. Every time a druid wildshape he takes on some characteristics of the creature without realising it. As a dog he might mark his territory, as a magpie he might be attracted by shiny things.

In the standard rules, the druid can use his wildshape an increasingly number of times per day as he rises in level. For the purposes of the House Rules, read the table as the number of times per day he can safely wildshape. If the druid exceeds this figure there is a chance he is stuck in his wildshaped form forever. For each extra wildshaping attempt the druid must make a Will saving throw (DC 15). If he succeeds then the wildshape attempt works normally. If he fails then he is stuck in that wildshape form until the next sunrise when he can attempt another saving throw (at +1 DC) to return to their original form. If that save fails then he makes an attempt the following day at another +1 to DC and so on. If any of those saving throws fails by 10 points or more, then the druid takes on the mental characteristic of the animal he ressembles. He forgets his past life, his powers and abilities and becomes a creature of the wild. Powerful magicks may be able to restore a druid after such an event, but they would not be easy to come by, and first the druid would have to be caught.

The levels at which the druid gains the ability to turn into creatures of different sizes and types (such as plant creatures) is unchanged. Equally, when a druid gains the power to turn into an elemental (16th level) the number of times per day he can do this, is actually the number of times per day he can safely do this. Because changing into an elemental is a more profound experience than turning into a shrew, the base DC of the Will saving throw is 25.

Finally, druids who wish to wildshape into a specific creature they have met may do so by taking the new feat, Unique Shape.

Healing Magic: Druids gain access to healing magic (cure light wounds, cure moderate wounds etc) at exactly the same level as a generic cleric. In the standard rules they are normally one level behind the cleric in the acquisition of these spells. These changes have been made to make the game fairer. See the section on Wounds and Healing for changes in the amount of hit points healing magic restores.

Variants

The following druid variants appear in the Unearthed Arcana. They deserve a mention here for the sake of completeness and their position in the rules. Players shouldn't feel obligued to adopt these options instead of the standard class. Variants don't make the character any more powerful, they simply make it different. "Official" variants are found in a variety of sources, for a complete list of all the variants I use in my campaigns follow this link.

Druidic Avenger: A marriage of the druid and barbarian classes, a druidic avenger is a character who foregoes his animal companion, and some of his wild empathy skills in return for fast movement and the ability to enter a rage. It's nothing that can't be duplicated by multiclassing, but it's a single class and is different enough to stand in the rules. See Unearthed Arcana p51 for more details.

Wild Shape Variant - Aspect of Nature: This variant, again from Unearthed Arcana, allows a druid to utilise one of his uses of wildshape to gain a more versatile game related benefit. For example, rather than turning into an halibut (which would make opening that underwater door exceedingly tricky) he can choose to grow gills and webbed fingers instead. The advantage of this is that the druid retains his own type and spell-casting abilities, and that he can combine different aspects - so he could draw on the power of the elephant and the power of the halibut to become a very strong swimmer. There is nothing particularly wrong with these rules, but they are incompatible with the list of Wild Feats that appears on p78 of the Complete Divine. In the Complete Divine the ability to do any one of these tricks calls for a feat. So to gain the ability to grow gills and web fingers would call for the character to have the Swim as a Fish feat, or it would not be possible.

Obviously, both variants cannot exist in the rules so I had to choose between the two. I decided to go down the Wild Feat route presented in the Complete Divine. I did because I believe the versatility in using wild shape in such a fashion should be costly to the druid, not something they can automatically do. It also takes something away from the Warshaper prestige class (Complete Warrior p90). However, there is one small change necessitated by my changes to the wild shape rules. None of these wild shape feats have a duration placed upon them. If they state a duration in the description the ignore them. See p67 of Unearthed Arcana for details of the Aspect of Nature rules. Some of them could easily be converted into additional wild feats.

Planar Substituion Levels: Druids who make the prerequisites may swap out certain class abilities in favour of planar-related ones. At 4th level they may swap Resist Nature's Lure for Resist Extraplanar Might. At 9th level they may swap Immunity to Venom for Planar Tolerance. At 13th level they may swap A Thousand Faces for Counter Summoning. They also gain Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill. See Planar Handbook pages 27 and 31 for more details.

See Also:

• Magic
• Nature Magic
• Spell Points
• Spell Failure
• Wounds and Healing
• Druidic Tradition
• Druids of Iourn