Making an elder druid disappear

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all

Creating a mysterious NPC that aids the party from time to time, a druid thousands of years old. I wont go into details, but he is a pure druid, level 20, ageless, venerable before that, human.

What tools are at my disposal within Core, Complete and Races (+UA, Frost and Sand) to make him disappear in a variety of ways.

I assume there is always the "turn into an earth elemental and float into the ground" and the "turn into the air elemental and become transparent" methods, which are fine for walking round a corner and then vanishing before they get round it too, but I also want to make both him, and his awakened Dire Bear literally vanish in front of them. I dont mind skipping dimensions, creating mist, anything like that. I just need ideas that will work.

Thanks

[Hiro Quester]

Well, in addition to just wildshaping into a bird or animal and flying/scurrying/walking/ burrowing away there are these spells

Level 2
Tree Shape: You look exactly like a tree for 1 hour/level.

Level 3:
Meld into Stone: You and your gear merge with stone.

Level 5:
Tree Stride: Step from one tree to another far away.

Level 6:
Transport via Plants: Move instantly from one plant to another of the same kind.

Level 7:
Wind Walk: You and your allies turn vaporous and travel fast.

Level 8:
Word of Recall: Teleports you back to designated place.

All of these can easily be augmented by distracting, dazzling, or obscuring spells like Flare or Obscuring mist. All of them can be shared with his (nearby) Anmal Companion.

And then there are any number of Summoned Nature's Allies that could carry him away.
A giant eagle swoops down and plucks him into the sky;
A hippogryph flies past as he leaps onto its back,
An air elemental creates a whirlwind that sucks him aloft (after which he wild shapes into an air elemental himself).

etc.

All that is in Core.

[Mr Adventurer]

Master Earth? Can that be shared with Share Spell?

[The Glyphstone]

A wizard minion with Craft Contingent Spell and Invisibility, to prepare contingencies on him and the bear offscreen.

[eggynack]

Well, if the bear is awakened, then you can maybe have the druid toss shapechange on him, that way they could disappear using the same general methods the druid would using wild shape. And, on the wild shape end, your best options are going to come from form adding feats, particularly aberration, dragon, or exalted wild shape. From aberration, you get the will-o'-wisp form for straight up invisibility, and the dharculus (PlH, 112) for crazy dualplanar shenanigans. From dragon, you mostly get invisibility from a massive pile of creatures, but something like a mist dragon (DoF, 142) for gaseous form or a gem dragon from the MM II for planar travel. And, from exalted, you mostly just get blink dog based dimension door. Then, you just kinda have the bear do the same sorta thing.

Actually, come to think of it, you could always take a dip into hierophant at the end of your progression so that you can just toss wild shape onto your companion. Don't think you can get the alternate forms listed above that way, but you probably can get elemental forms sent over. And, of course, list expansion through something like contemplative or seeker of the misty isle can work wonders. Those kinds of classes mean that your spell list can be expanded out from standard druid escape maneuvers to include ones from other classes, like bog standard teleport.


Master Earth? Can that be shared with Share Spell?
Don't see why not. That could work fine at this. Sweet spell, that is, what with its ability to bypass teleportation stoppers.

[Bronk]

Well, normally an animal, once awakened, wouldn't be a legal animal companion anymore.

Why not make the bear either a druid itself, also high level, or just another high level druid that happens to be wild shaped? Maybe the main druid has leadership, for example...

[Mr Adventurer]

Well, normally an animal, once awakened, wouldn't be a legal animal companion anymore.

Why not make the bear either a druid itself, also high level, or just another high level druid that happens to be wild shaped? Maybe the main druid has leadership, for example...

The bear is the druid Wildshaped and the druid is the bear Shapechanged!

[Inevitability]

Use whatever polymorph spell suits you fancy and turn into an invisible stalker?

[Albions_Angel]

I think I am going for Transport via Plants. Its quick, high enough level the PCs wont get it, he can take his awakened dire bear with him (bye bye spell bond :( ), it can be done under mist or fog if need be. And it can be used for a while before they get wise to it, at which point there are other routes to take.