Druids!

 After talking to Xeno, Phlox, Deus and Everythings from the GLoG server (I don't know if they have a blog) I decided to try my hand at a GLoG archetype for Druids. Wizards have their schools, and thieves have their guilds; what do Druids have? This takes some influence from Arnold's Cleric as well.

Druids

Druids have a sacred space. This place is generally located in nature, and consists, at a basic level, of a threshold between the real world and some sacred space. It can be in our world, a layer on our reality, a demiplane, or a temple; the threshold can be stationary or mobile, and can consist of a gate, a Torii, two sticks, a tree canopy to pass through, a monolith to touch, or anything else you can think of. They also have a biome, roughly correspondent to their sacred space. Forest druids are from the forest biome and have a forest-themed sacred space.

Druids gain one Spirit Die (SD) per template. These are d8s normally, but can increase and decrease based on environmental factors. They gain spells as Wizards do.

If the Druid is in their sacred space, their die is a d4. If a Druid has been in their sacred space in the past week, or is in their biome, they use a d6. If they are somewhere that's extremely dissimilar to their biome (say, the city for a forest druid) then they use a d10. Otherwise, they use a d8.

Restoring SD also works differently for Druids. They can restore their first SD by resting like wizards can, and any SD can be restored by visiting their Sacred space. The other three can be restored by doing additional things to revitalize them. This varies druid to druid, but examples are:

- owning a holy item

- using a specific magic item relevant to them

- communing with their nature spirits


To write your own druid, you need:

1. A biome and a sacred space.

2. ways to restore SD (about three?)

3. A spell list.

4. a special ability, probably to gain at level 1?

 *edit* 4. A holy item, with which they perform spells and use a special ability. (I like the idea of the druid dying and the party keeping their magic item as a keepsake. Plus it's cool.)

Examples

1. Druids of the Monolith

    - Sacred Space: the Monolith

Monoliths are scattered about the swamp. Touching one and providing it with a blood sacrifice will allow you access to the space, and council with the Elder God. The better the sacrifice, the longer the access, the better the council, and the more people allowed in. Their biome is the swamp.

    - Restore SD by:

Killing creatures with your ritual dagger.

Dealing 1 SD worth of damage to yourself for every SD you wish to regain.

Spending an entire night in a trance gazing at the stars and contemplating what vast and incomprehensible beings lurk beyond them (lose a night's sleep).

    - Holy Item: Ritual Dagger

You have a ritual dagger. You cannot use other weapons. The dagger deals more damage than people would expect it to (probably by about 1 die size but I don't know what your hack's rules are). You must hold it while casting spells. It constantly drips blood and you can cause it to whisper in peoples' minds during the night, denying them rest.

    - Spells: too lazy


2. Druids of the Wild

    - Sacred Space: The Feywild

Accessed by climbing up the canopy of the tallest tree in sight and muttering a prayer only you know as you pass through. It's difficult to maintain a grip on the tree trunk, so if you stay too long you'll probably fall to your demise. Their biome is the forest.

    - Restore SD by:

Meditating for an hour at the base of a tree that lets no light in

Hunting down and killing a small, docile animal with your bare hands

Hunting down and killing a large, predatory animal with your bare hands (+2)

communing with a local nature spirit, maybe solve a problem for them or just vibe for a bit

    - Holy Item: Shaper's Girdle

While wearing the Shaper's Girdle, you can turn into animals. Must have HD equal to or less than yours. At second level you can turn into swimming animals, at third flying; before that, subtract 1 HD from the kind of animal you can summon, to a minimum of one (so at level one, you can summon a 1HD flying creature if you have 2 HD, or a 1HP swimming creature if you have 1 HD).

    - Spells: too lazy you know what these guys do

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