Nature Magic

Nature magic is a broad term that encompasses the magic of druids, rangers, healers, blighters and many other classes and prestige classes that draw the power for their spells from the natural world. The third edition rules state that such characters cast divine magic. As far as I am concerned, this is not the case. The magic of these classes is an entirely different tradition and pursuit than the worship of gods. The age and the origins of Nature Magic should be determined by individual campaign settings. Nature Magic is often called Druidism, which is the only version of this particularly type of magical pursuit, and is listed below.

Druidism

Availability: Perhaps not quite as common as clerical magic or wizardry, druidism is nonetheless a potent force in any campaign world. It can be used for a variety of effects, but most notably to heal and to affect the natural world. The following classes make use of druidism: Druid, Ranger, Healer, Blighter.

Spellcasting: The spells for the classes that make use of druidism come from the specific class list - druids cast spells from the druid list, rangers from the ranger list, healers from the healer list and so on. Druidic spellcasters do not need to prepare their spells in advance as a wizard, they cast them spontaneously from a pool of spell-points using a mechanic similar to the cleric. They can freely cast any spell in their repetoire on a point for point basis - e.g. a fifth level spell costs five spell points - up to their maximum spell point total.

Once per day (normally at dawn) the druidic caster sits in quiet meditation in an area surrounded by nature and slowly draws the power he requires for his daily spells from his natural surroundings. Assuming that there is plenty of life about this process takes about one hour. The druid does not draw energy from living creatures, but from the plant life and from the soil. If the druid finds himself in a place where there isn't much plant-life (such as a glacier or a desert) then this meditation can take significantly longer than an hour. The GM can rule that the process takes up to eight hours in the direst of conditions. In the druid has no energy to draw upon (he is adrift in the Plane of Quasielemental Vacuum) then he cannot gain the energy to cast any spells. In order to meditate and gather energy, a druidic caster must have rested for at least eight hours at some point in the previous day.

Technically, a druid can do through this process of gathering energy more than once per day, although they must rest for an additional eight hours before doing so.. However, druidic casters have a terrific repect for nature, and will usually only do such a thing if it is an absolute dire necessity. Even then they will not gather the energy from the same place, in case they unwittingly do damage to their surroundings.

Defiling: Druidic casters do not have to be patient. They can draw energy from nature and use that energy to directly cast a spell. As long as they are surrounded by nature, they can keep casting. They effectively have unlimited spell points. However, druidic casters never do this for a very good reason. To speed up the gathering of energy in this fashion is fatal to the land around them. Defilers (as they are called) leech all the nutrients out of the soil, kill plant life and cause living creatures with the range of 5 ft per spell level intense pain. Anyone acting on the same initiative point as the defiler in sickened.

Any animal companions automatically abandon a defiler. To commit such a sin is to be thrown out of the druidic order and be hunted down and killed. Equally the healers consider such a use of their powers to be an anathema. Rangers lack the skill to defile with their powers regardless of how hard they might try. It should be impressed upon players that if their druid ever defiles then it is almost certainly the end of their career as a druid and their life. At the very least such a character will not be playable for any more than one more session before an ignominous end.

Blighters make use of this ability for their own ends, how this fits into individual campaign settings is up to the GM.

Gaining spells: Druids and Healers gain access to orisons and 1st level spells at level one, 2nd level spells at level three and to each subequent spell level at odd numbered levels thereafter to a maximum of ninth level spells at level seventeen. Rangers and other practitioners of druidism have very different spell progressions and you are advised to refer to the appropriate sourcebook.