All Things Druid

[marredwolf]

This is the best information I've ever run across on the Druid class. I present it here, in short format, as a template mostly for DMs, but also players. What you take from this into FRC is up to you, but its extensive enough that something should be used.
Taken from 3rd Ed. The Quintessential Druid:
"..."
The vast majority of druids claim membership in the druid order. As an organisation, the druid order is at best nebulous and distant. Few druids have any real contact with other members at all. Even fewer have any contact with the higher echelons of power. The order's influence reaches to the furthest corners of the world and far into the distant past but the grand druid and the archdruids who serve him rarely feel any need to influence events directly, preferring to give lesser druids a free hand in their own destiny while watching from a distance.

The druids welcome people from all walks of life into their order. Political affiliation, race, gender, intelligence and experience with the natural world have no bearing on the decision.

The Circle

A druid's most immediate contact with the druid order as a whole is his local circle. Any druid who spends more than a few months in one place is automatically considered a member of the local circle. It is perfectly possible for a druid to never meet another member of his circle or to have any interest in contacting them. A druid circle can be almost any size and even its leaders will rarely know exactly how many druids lie within the circle's domain.

A domain's boundaries are usually determined by natural features and by the availability of a suitable sacred site where the circle can hold its gatherings. They rarely adhere to political boundaries and many druids find that they are essentially making their home in a place claimed as part of the territory of two or more circles. This rarely leads to conflict and a druid is welcome to use the resources of both circles, acting as an intermediary between the two, although he will rarely be allowed to hold a position of authority in more than one circle at a time.

The organization of any particular circle is left entirely in the hands of its members or whichever members take an interest in establishing a hierarchy. One druid in the domain will usually step forward as a seneschal of the local sacred grove. This position initially involves awakening the grove but later in arranging for the grove's protection. This is a spiritual calling and sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with organizing a circle to use the grove...Many circles have a place for a grove defender, an individual with the martial skills to defend the grove from physical attacks. At the head of a circle is the master druid or a council of four or five master druids.

[marredwolf]

Sacred Groves

Sometimes, a powerful nexus rests for a time in one place. Over the course of a few months, the nexus transforms the area. Trees grow tall and strong, plants grow rampant, springs flow with crystal-clear water, animals bath in the sunlight and the seasons are perfect. In these places, the doors into the otherworld open. Sprites, unicorns and all manner of natural
wonders can be found wondering the woodland.

Druids call these nexus-invigorated areas sacred groves. Natural sacred groves are difficult to find. They rarely last more than a few years as the nexus slowly moves on. A druid who stumbles on a natural sacred grove is entitled to a Knowledge (nature) check (DC 20). If the check is successful, the druid notices the sudden increase in natural energies...

Each sacred grove applies a modifier to its effective caster level dependent on the extent of civilisation, deforestation and artificial construction within its domain. If the modifier is -5 or more, no natural sacred grove will be found within the domain. If the modifier reduces the caster level of an anchored sacred grove to zero or less, the grove will be destroyed and its otherworld nexus will vanish immediately.

A natural grove is quite small, usually a circular effect centred on the point where the otherworld breaks through into the other plane...Once a grove is anchored, its radius becomes fixed at 100 ft. + 10 ft. x the effective caster level of the grove.


Anchoring a Sacred Grove
Prerequisites: Knowledge (nature) 12 ranks, 9th level druid.

By using his own life energies as a tether, a druid can bind an otherworld nexus to one place, preventing it from drifting off. In performing these rituals, the druid becomes the seneschal of the sacred grove; its spiritual harbinger.

The rituals for anchoring a sacred grove do not require the druid find a natural sacred grove but it is a faster process if the druid can find a place where a natural nexus touches his plane.

Each sacred grove, once anchored, can be considered an enormous and powerful magic item.

A character can only ever be the spiritual anchor of one sacred grove at anyone time. The seneschal can determine the caster level of the grove when he anchors it but he can set the caster level no higher than his own druidic caster level.

The ritual of anchoring requires a single large stone or tree to form the physical portion of the anchor. A druid must use either a single chunk of non-sedimentary rock weighing at least 1,000 Ibs or a single tree of large size (at least to ft. tall). If the druid uses a tree to anchor the grove, its life will be magically extended. It will not age a day so long as the grove remains anchored. The ritual requires a number of special primary ingredients to activate the anchor...making the final value of the incorporated material components to 1,000 gp x the caster level of the grove. Finally, at the end of the ritual, the character must expend 400 experience points x the caster level of the grove...The ritual requires two days per caster level of the grove to complete...The character can only work on the ritual of anchoring...during rest periods, he can engage in light activity...but cannot fight, cast spells, use magical items, or perform any other demanding tasks.


Destroying a Sacred Grove
Physical attacks against the anchor stone or tree will damage and eventually kill the seneschal...If the grove is destroyed, by any means, the grove seneschal must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 5 + the level of the grove). If the check fails, the character simply dies. If the check succeeds, he loses 1d4 levels instantly.


Seneschal and Grove Powers
(there are quite a few, I'm only listing the most important ones, and least powerful, imo)
Scry Grove (sp): As a full round action, the seneschal can scry anyone within the sacred grove.\

Grove Alarm (su): The grove seneschal is mentally informed if any creature with an Intelligence of 6 or greater enters the grove. This works no matter where the seneschal is. If the seneschal has met the creature before, he is informed who the creature is. This ability is blocked by mind blank and similar abjuration spells that protect against divinations and functions no matter where the seneschal is.

Spiritual Dependence: Once a druid becomes a grove seneschal, he develops a strong spiritual dependence on the grove. His soul must return to the grove if he has been away from the grove for more than one year and one day, even if this means leaving the grove seneschal's body. If the grove seneschal strays from his grove for more a year and day, he dies instantly and his soul becomes a seneschal spirit.

[marredwolf]

Traditions

Though every circle is a unique political arena into which a druid must tread with initial trepidation, there are a few traditions to which all circles adhere to some degree or another. These traditions are taught to all aspirants. Even a druid who has never stepped foot on the lush green grass of a sacred grove knows the traditions.


The Tradition of Hospitality.
A circle is obliged to offer hospitality to any druid that asks for it. A circle, no matter its past relations with the druid, will feed a druid and give him a place to rest for the night. Hospitality includes a prohibition against requesting information from the druid unless he first offers it...Should a leader refuse hospitality, for any reason, he would almost certainly be challenged and removed from leadership.


The Tradition of Honesty.
Between members of the circle, there is no deception. Only honesty can propagate the smooth working of a circle. More so than any other tradition, this is the one most open to interpretation. In some circles, even the smallest lie is reason enough for the other members to drive the druid out of the circle's domain. In others, the rule only stands while within the sacred grove and, even then, only the letter of a statement needs to be true.


The Tradition of Guardianship.
All members of the circle are expected to both protect and avenge other members and all living creatures within the circle's domain. Many druids see this as the principle responsibility of the order
- becoming consumed by a never-ending crusade to protect a particular stretch of wilderness.


The Tradition of Trials.
Druids consider it important to know the capabilities of their peers. Druids in of power are expected to test those under them and to give newcomers the opportunity to prove themselves to others. These trials are an ever-going commitment on the part of the archdruids, elders and master druids, testing those under them so that they might expand their skills and reputations.


Inner Circles
An organisation as extensive and powerful as the druid order could not function merely as a collection of autonomous circles, each operating in its own unique and peculiar manner. For the most part, individual circles are able to deal with the dangers that threaten living creatures. Responsible for its own small portion of the world, it relies on those druids who travel aimlessly between the circles, never taking up home in anyone place, to coordinate the efforts of the druids. Some of these druids, mysterious wanderers, lesser ranking members of the circles from which the leaders from time to time seek advice, are far more than they at first appear - they are archdruids...The archdruids know that the druids over whom they are rulers are all strongly independent creatures. It is only because the archdruids exercise their authority in only the most urgent of matters that their authority is recognised at all...Every plane has its own grand druid. He rules over the entire otherworldly realm that lies parallel to the plane and all the inner circles within that plane are answerable to this one druid.

[soulfien]

Awesome info! Thanks!!!

[marredwolf]

glad you like it. I'm leaving out a few key things, regarding what I've already put here, that would not work well with nwn, but I can relate more info upon request.



Ogham - The language of the Druids

All druids can speak and write the secret language of the order, the mysterious tongue usually called Ogham. It is the duty of every druid to not only learn the language but to make sure no one from outside the order ever learns it. The secrets of the druids are recorded in Ogham and it would be devastating for the order should the language become commonly known among its enemies. Should any druid teach the language to an outsider or should any outsider speak more than a single word from the language at a time, powerful divinations created by the druids at the dawn of time will immediately infonn the grand druid of the transgression. Though generally forbidden to interfere in the actions of lesser druids, the archdruids, with all their magical might, will not hesitate to kill either a druid who teaches the language to an outsider or anyone who learns the language from them.

Though the language of Oghan can be used to speak about or write down anything that any normal language can be used for, it does also have a magical property. The language of Oghan can be used to record spells, to scribe scrolls and to write trigger words or guidelines on magic items.