Author Topic: Mystery of the Druids  (Read 11406 times)

Dobian

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2013, 03:41:44 PM »
I watched the original Wicker Man on cable a few months ago.  Classic 70s weirdness.  I love that decade!


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Snowflame

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2013, 04:48:58 PM »
Maybe just more animal companions for both ranger and druid to spice it up?

I mean whatever happened to riding dogs? Those guys were reliable, best friends as rangers good memories. I had a St.Bernard once on my ranger, loved him. Maybe a monkey? A parrot? Falcons for characters who want to be Falconers? But i'm sort of getting off topic... Animal companions can kind of help give druids something cool at least. I was actually shocked when I saw custom familars but no custom animals.

I would LOVE a riding dog. I mean those guys were really nice. I never used them to ride, and I would hate to see mounts on the server so to speak (cause it's so laggy and mounted combat can be kinda borked at times :o... at least in 40's it was not so sure on 20's).

Elfric

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2013, 08:27:18 PM »
A lot of Ravenloft druids seem to be more on the Gaelic premise in Farlorn, Verbrek, Valachan, Vechor. Meanwhile Sithicus taking a more classic DnD role due to being elves. Surprisingly Ranger classes are common in Ravenloft as survivalist, guerrilla fighters, spiritual warriors, and scouts, so I'm surprised there's not a lot of items tailor made for these two classes.

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2013, 08:56:47 PM »
Maybe just more animal companions for both ranger and druid to spice it up?

this.

Exordium

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2013, 09:21:54 PM »
I suspect that the lack of love that Ravenloft as a setting has for Druids, is because they don't really tie in well with traditional gothic horror.

That's pretty much it.  When you think Ravenloft you think necromancers, or paladins on the good side.  But I think you can incorporate druids by bringing gothic horror into the forests more, with dark moonlit rituals, animal sacrifices, black hooded figures flitting through the trees, etc.

I'm not sure if this is really the case. Canonically, all the classes have their abilities and strengths weakened from the more traditional fantasy adventures. Fighters wont have the same level of enchanted equipment; Wizard's can't find many scrolls and are in danger of persecution; For druids, the nature is more hostile than what it usually is. But this is also from where stems the challenge of finding alternative ways to complete a task.

Druids and the rural dwellers in dark forests and the guardians of those forests do have a strong place in Gothic Horror. And in Ravenloft there exists domains where druid is the most common class and all other classes are barely heard of. Personally, I really think that druids and rangers have as much place in Ravenloft as do paladins and necromancers. The lone, wise man dwelling in an ancient, often hostile forest is just as archetypical as the mad magician in his tower.

For the mechanical balance of the class, there are some boons for druids. More spells per day than wizards, and the highest potential DC for spells from all the classes. Wisdom-focused druid with Zen Archery and good spell selection can be very strong; But yeah, NWN lacks quite few things that would give more flavor (and perhaps, more choices) for a druid.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2013, 09:24:23 PM by Exordium »

Badelaire

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #30 on: January 23, 2013, 12:27:47 AM »
One thing I loved about City of Arabel's class changes (apart from the fighter kits and monk fighting styles) was the ranger/druid companion alteration. You could only gain a companion by taming an animal or magical beast in the wild which depended on your class level, AE, charisma and so on. I recall a ranger having successfully tamed a bulette and in no uncertain terms that shit rocked. The down side was if it died, you had to tame a new companion. I, personally, would be trying to hunt down an ebon dire tiger, dire crag cat or ancient dire croc on PotM. <.<

BahamutZ3RO

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #31 on: January 23, 2013, 12:57:49 AM »
Gotta catch 'em all.
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dark_majico

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #32 on: January 24, 2013, 07:02:10 PM »
Seeing as druids can only take a balanced view on the world and can only intervene when the balance is tipped too far, they cannot relentlessly fight evil the way that Paladins can, they can't mercilessly acquire wealth and material possessions like a Sorcerer, there craft doesn't lead them for a never ending thirst for knowledge like the wizards, and they don't have the versatility and freedom of choice fighters do, I think the biggest problem for Druids is finding something to actually do once they are created. Gear is probably a problem but isn't the biggest thing Druids need right now, maybe what the module needs is some sort of never ending plot they can pick up? More faction play, which is down to us, we need to band together us Druids and Rangers, but we need some evil shit to go down and some conflict with some demented apposing faction.

Lucadia

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #33 on: January 24, 2013, 07:35:14 PM »
Two words.

"Shadow Circle"
  the infinite antagonism to any druid. Join them or die trying get away from them.

airengale

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #34 on: January 24, 2013, 10:45:33 PM »
It's been said before many times. Let those who have the best initiative cast the first Druid Circle Player faction. Druid Circles are highly secretive; they would not have rangers in them—they are for druids alone.

In regards to lack of story for Gothic Horror: au contraire :P

I created my own story with my druid that I think serves the gothic horror atmosphere just fine. Balance is a constant struggle. There is already great evil in the land—twisting and corrupting—I'd go as far as to say that the Darklords or Darkpowers is what's corrupting the land and thus is the focus of the druid.

W/e your thought, it takes a little creativity; the platform is good enough to create story—this particular thread was not giving a solution for that, and as such this deserves its own thread. Anywho, I would be interested in seeing stuff happens.


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Lucadia

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #35 on: January 24, 2013, 11:35:08 PM »
plenty of room for fallen druids. Join me!

Ercvadasz

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #36 on: January 25, 2013, 12:10:02 AM »
Seeing as druids can only take a balanced view on the world and can only intervene when the balance is tipped too far, they cannot relentlessly fight evil the way that Paladins can, they can't mercilessly acquire wealth and material possessions like a Sorcerer, there craft doesn't lead them for a never ending thirst for knowledge like the wizards, and they don't have the versatility and freedom of choice fighters do, I think the biggest problem for Druids is finding something to actually do once they are created. Gear is probably a problem but isn't the biggest thing Druids need right now, maybe what the module needs is some sort of never ending plot they can pick up? More faction play, which is down to us, we need to band together us Druids and Rangers, but we need some evil shit to go down and some conflict with some demented apposing faction.

Actually, there are quite a many plots usually.
Some are told by players, others by dm-s. Characters, factions, MPC-s, NPC-s. You name it.
You just have to take your pick.
For instance, there is one ranger in the ML faction, a layman to the Ezrites, an associate of Mother, then there is one who sympathizes with the rebels, etc.
The story is out there, just sometimes it is not that easy to pick up, and make it continue.
Many a times it may halt for quite a while. Because player, DM they all have real lives.

About druids, i played one. They are strong on AOE spells actually, to offer archers, throwers more time to shoot off their missiles. With a bit of preparation they can allmost offer as much as a cleric. Their main problem is that their true power comes quite late. And that just like rangers they are lacking in the item section.
For instance the High cloak which is druid class restricted, basicly offers them +2 AC, but is actually more usefull to all those other guys. (UMD users.)
Clerics have a serious amount of spell slot raising items, just think on the ring that gives level 8 or 9 bonus spell slot. (cant remember which level it gives)
Or all the other nice items clerics can and find usefull. A druid has the branch of Yggradrasil and...that is it.
(allthough if further usefull items were added those i have yet to see, i have stopped playing a druid over 2 years ago.)
The thing is with a bit of boosting of the arrow section, having divine or magical damage dealing arrows, we coudl help all those zen archer druids as well.
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Ryltar/ Robert Archer

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #37 on: January 25, 2013, 10:34:52 AM »
I made a few months back a few arrows that were basically like the divine mler bolts you can find now and then for fighting undead also made a few other odds and ends though i never seen any that got into the server sadly made some nice items for rangers too

Dobian

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #38 on: January 25, 2013, 11:48:18 AM »
It's been said before many times. Let those who have the best initiative cast the first Druid Circle Player faction. Druid Circles are highly secretive; they would not have rangers in them—they are for druids alone.

I've tried creating druid circles before.  It's a nice idea but it always seems to fall apart after a couple of get-togethers.  Could always try again I suppose.  And divine arrows would be great for my Zen archer.  Let's order up some of those!


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Endlessorrow

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #39 on: January 25, 2013, 07:59:12 PM »
Any thought on removing the monk class mixing prohibition for druids and yes by extension that would mean shifters as well. But Druid monk makes up for alot of spell shortage.
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dark_majico

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #40 on: January 26, 2013, 12:28:34 PM »
It's been said before many times. Let those who have the best initiative cast the first Druid Circle Player faction. Druid Circles are highly secretive; they would not have rangers in them—they are for druids alone.

I've tried creating druid circles before.  It's a nice idea but it always seems to fall apart after a couple of get-togethers.  Could always try again I suppose.  And divine arrows would be great for my Zen archer.  Let's order up some of those!

Please do! I'm playing my first druid here now.

BahamutZ3RO

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Re: Mystery of the Druids
« Reply #41 on: January 26, 2013, 02:52:29 PM »
Druids are great. No, you'll never be a cleric... But if you wanted to be a cleric, why didn't you roll one?!

One thing that might help is some modifications to the Druid's shapes. You've got...

badger
brown bear
boar
panther
wolf

Just look at what the form is intended to be/do, and give it some bonuses to make them more viable. IE, give panthers a bonus to hide/move silent based on level of the Druid.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2013, 02:56:48 PM by BahamutZ3RO »
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