High Level Druids (D3.5 core bks)

[allenw]

I'm working on an adventure for 3-4 15-16th level PCs and I need some ideas.

They will be first investigating a stronghold/bolthole created by high level (but not epic) druids in case of a apocalyptic disaster (which is, in fact, happening in the campaign background). I'm trying to think of the sort of nifty things that high level druids might create, build, make, etc. -- likely focused on druidical stuff (possibly with help from druid who multiclassed). This would be a druid secret place and they wouldn't want help from outsiders making it.

If a group of high level druids wanted their own world-ending terror weapon as a counter-threat, any thoughts on what they might make?

The bolthole is intended to link to an even more secret outerplanar hidey-hole where the druids worked on projects they wanted to keep secret from everyone. I'm looking thru manual of the planes for ideas but figured the group mind might know of existing materials.

[Eldariel]

Well, Druids have some spells that have very destructive potential. An empowered version of Control Winds, for example, in item form could very well qualify - create thousands of Tornadoes all around the planet, with Lightning Storm-effects added. Maybe turn the entire atmosphere into one gigantic tornado (with magic, it can be done). Basically anything that has to do with land works though - that's what Druids draw their powers though and master manipulation.

Any kinds of "dirty bombs" would be very Druidic - Poison is a Druid-spell and a very natural thing that comes from many plants and creatures, so one of those in massive scale could work. Of course, something a bit more exotic like a spell that Animal Growths all animals or Awakens all trees or Giant Vermins all vermins on the planet could really work as the "nature's vengeance"-type spell and would very likely result in a very wrecked place.

Massive versions of Storm of Vengeance, Reverse Gravity or something that makes the ground into quicksand or volcanic would also make all sorts of sense. Knock yourself out!


As for a secret place, nice touch would be to have it made entirely out of living wood, shaped into the likeness you want. Of course, Stone Shape is also on their list (along with Wall of Stone), so old, boring Stone corridors would work. Just keep ties to the ground and the living and it'll feel very druidic.

[Keld Denar]

Maybe some kind of epic burrow. Living walls of tree roots, earthen walls covered in vines and runners, and other naturally manipulated architecture. Entry is obtained by speaking the password and walking right into a tree, then decending into the ground. Traps may include sentient vines and plants that snag and snack on unwary trespassors. The entire complex could be relatively morphic, allowing powerful druidic leaders to change the structure, opening or closing passageways and creating rooms as desired.

As far as motives and doomsday devices, maybe the druids revere elemental fire above all else. They feel fire is the ultimate in natural processes. Its culls the weak, yet the strong are emboldened by it. The earths core is pure firey destruction, and the druid cult is trying to gain mastery over it to bring it to the surface at their call, creating hundreds of volcanos across the surface of the planet to cull the weak and purify it for the survivors.

Its easy to cross the line from devotion to zealotry, and from zealotry, anything is justifyable if you think about it.

[Tempest Fennac]

Wouldn't ending the world violate the "revere nature" part of the Druid's alignment restrictions? Being as ending the world would result in a lot of animal and plant deaths, I was thinking that it could be interresting for the world to be returned to a purely natural state by the Druids (eg: non-animals/magical beasts would be polymorphed into animals, or possibly plants, cities could be turned into mountains or forests, etc). The Druids would need a large amount of creatures to survive so that they could continue to teach the Druidic Faith to people, unless the spell extended the lifespan of animals while allowing them to learn Druidic magic (unless the Druid's plans are to just die out to leave the world without any races which are capable of altering it in the way that humans can).

[streakster]

(unless the Druid's plans are to just die out to leave the world without any races which are capable of altering it in the way that humans can).

Just a nitpick, but wouldn't that also violate their oaths? You can't get rid of humans 'cause they build things anymore than you can get rid of beavers or ants. Just what they do.


Personally, would a superweapon, instead of a full apocolypse bomb, work? Because I was thinking the Ultimate Animal - or maybe a group of them. Not magical beasts, just really, really big dangerous beasties.

Ideas:
A form of insect like a super-locust, save carnivorous and capable of chewing through metal. Then make them in swarms. Giant swarms. Island sized swarms. They just leave desert behind... (Don't be silly. Of course that doesn't violate druid oaths. Desert's a kind of nature, everyone knows that.)

Also, sandworms. 'Nuff said.

[Tempest Fennac]

I was thinking that you could argue in favour of Druids getting rid of humans because of the damage some humans, and some other races, cause to the environment. It would depend on how hardline the Druids are really (some would be in favour of having everyone more dependant on nature while others would see erradication as the best way to defend nature). I suppose the Druids could just use magic to become animals perminantly if deliberately dying out would violate their oaths.

[streakster]

I was thinking that you could argue in favour of Druids getting rid of humans because of the damage some humans, and some other races, cause to the environment. It would depend on how hardline the Druids are really (some would be in favour of having everyone more dependant on nature while others would see erradication as the best way to defend nature). I suppose the Druids could just use magic to become animals perminantly if deliberately dying out would violate their oaths.

Ooh, yes! The "Turn everyone into a Fennac fox" bomb! I like it!

[Tempest Fennac]

(It's spelt "ec". I only spell my name as "ac" because I like that spelling better.)

My idea was for it to turn people into a large variety of things (if people only became a specific predator or herbivour, natural balances would go out of the window after a few combat rounds). I suppose personality could affect who became what, but that could still cause unbalances, so I guess even numbers of people becoming plants, herbivours or predators would work better for this.

[Keld Denar]

Maybe they feel that the world needs a "hard reset", after which they can grow and develope it as they choose. After all, while a volcano is destructive, the ash it leaves behind is very fertile and rich in nitrogen to promote plant growth. From there, life will repopulate with the all powerful druids there to guide every step as they wish.

Yea, it goes against every thing most druids stand for, but like I said, its a fine line between devotion and zealotry. A zealot can justify and rationalize anything in his own mind.

Just like Arthas justified the slaughter of innocent people during the Culling of Stratholme, so too could these druids justify the destruction of nearly all life as we know it with the desire to begin again. All it takes is a lot of conviction and maybe a couple of dark whispers. Dark whispers arn't hard to come by either.

[Tempest Fennac]

Those are good points. I'm assuming the Druids are only likely to see civilisation as flawed rather then nature itself, which is why the Druid's specific beliefs are important here.

[allenw]

I was thinking more along the lines of hard reset for an area, or a Crynoid (of Tom Baker's Dr. Who fame) that animates/awakens plants as a creeping doom. (Tho I the PCs just thwarted a Romero-style zombie plague and I don't want to repeat the same meme.)

I like the living burrow, esp if it changes around them. (I recall an adventure with shifting maps where the exit squares are always in the same relative points so you can freely mix and match it.)

For the most part, we try to stick to official 3.5e rules and critters, so I'm looking for ways to work within that rules set, but I'm not the rules monkey of our group.

For context -- game is reaching its epic end. In the campaign's pre-history, the world was run by dragons who worshiped Bahumet and Tiamat. The elves, dwarves, and early druids got together to try to bind Tiamat into the dragon orbs. Stuff went wrong, and they bound both Bahmut and Tiamat into the orbs. Result was catostrophic climate damage, magical backlashes, and civiliazation fall. Couple thousand of years later, the PCs and the Evil Empire are racing to find all the orbs and put their respective gods together, hopefully avoiding the disaster part.

When Tiamat vanished, the three CE consorts celebrated by raiding her treasury and spent the last two centuries doing their own thing in various places. Now that she's coming back, they know she's going to be irked with them and are hoping to ingratiate themselves by avenging her on her foes and taking their treasure. The PCs recently fought off the White Consort who was sending a zombie plague against the elves and killed it with an elvin doomsday device. (What happens if you use a Therazdin ritual to go inside a Sphere of Anhilation and cast a Disjunction from inside it.) Now the Black Consort is after the druids and the PCs will be looking for their stronghold, library (which may hold clues to the orb rituals), and their uberweapon.

[Tempest Fennac]

Thanks for explaining (my solution isn't suitable in this case). Would plants be that effective on Tiamat, though? (I'd assume the Doomsday Device would be optimized to combat her, and the other guys if the Druids know about them).

[JellyPooga]

A Druid uberweapon has got to be either a direct incarnation of or at least an avatar of Nature itself...if you've seen Princess Mononoke, think of the Forest Spirit/Nightwalker. Summoning such a thing should be epic level stuff, so the uberweapon is more likely to be instilling a member of the order with the power of nature or suchlike to create an avatar rather than an incarnation. Something like a difficult Ritual should do the trick...

[Jack_Simth]

I'm working on an adventure for 3-4 15-16th level PCs and I need some ideas.

They will be first investigating a stronghold/bolthole created by high level (but not epic) druids in case of a apocalyptic disaster (which is, in fact, happening in the campaign background). I'm trying to think of the sort of nifty things that high level druids might create, build, make, etc. -- likely focused on druidical stuff (possibly with help from druid who multiclassed). This would be a druid secret place and they wouldn't want help from outsiders making it.

Well, they'll want plants and animals in their bolthole - so it'll either need access to some sunlight, or an large area of permanent Daylight (craft a few "periodic traps" of Daylight, and you're done with that aspect). Given they're assuming a doomsday scenario for the cavern, they'll want a few things:

1) A source of fresh water that's hard to mess with (the spell Create Water is on the Druid list, and all you need to make it constant is Craft Wondrous Item and the trap rules - not too hard).
2) A way to get Daylight (the spell is on the Druid list, and all you need to make it permanent is Craft Wondrous Item and the trap rules - not too hard).

Just about anything could be *in* the caverns, of course, although you'll probably want a full ecosystem in there somewhere - after all, they'll want to rebuild eventually.


If a group of high level druids wanted their own world-ending terror weapon as a counter-threat, any thoughts on what they might make?

Contagion (3rd) and Baelful Polymorph (5th) are both on the Druid list. Perhaps they research an 8th level spell that is a contagious version of Baelful Polymorph, turning people into random animals? Cast it a few times in a few major cities and you have your Armageddon weapon.