How would a playerneed to explain having druid powers not being adruid so you okay it

[CyberThread]

Right now am thinking of playing an assassin that uses druid magic and shapeshifting but I don't really want it to have anything to do with "balance" or the nature powers at all really. What I would like help is vetting this potential idea on how you as a DM would allow this disconnect at your table.


Recap: Assassin story-line(not class), being a druid. Fey Warlocks and Sorcerers are out of the question, the wildshaping is a bit critical to the idea.

[Bellberith]

Right now am thinking of playing an assassin that uses druid magic and shapeshifting but I don't really want it to have anything to do with "balance" or the nature powers at all really. What I would like help is vetting this potential idea on how you as a DM would allow this disconnect at your table.


Recap: Assassin story-line(not class), being a druid. Fey Warlocks and Sorcerers are out of the question, the wildshaping is a bit critical to the idea.

Well, nothing in the book says a druid has to be druid-like. So you could just use the druid class and call it a day. Moon circle would be a must. A druid can be a perfectly viable assassin at mid levels. And later at level 15+ druid is easily one of the strongest things in the entire game when played correctly (Moon circle).

[CantigThimble]

Perhaps refluff them as a servant of a cruel trickster fey or animal spirit, perhaps someone like coyote.

[JoeJ]

Right now am thinking of playing an assassin that uses druid magic and shapeshifting but I don't really want it to have anything to do with "balance" or the nature powers at all really. What I would like help is vetting this potential idea on how you as a DM would allow this disconnect at your table.


Recap: Assassin story-line(not class), being a druid. Fey Warlocks and Sorcerers are out of the question, the wildshaping is a bit critical to the idea.

What were you imagining when you came up with this idea in the first place? Do you have an idea for a real character, or are you just looking at a set of abilities?

[CyberThread]

What were you imagining when you came up with this idea in the first place? Do you have an idea for a real character, or are you just looking at a set of abilities?

Am thinking of a shape-shifting assailant that uses nature magic to kill its target. It is not a ranger, and not bound to druid priorities

[Zejety]

As a fluff question, this will depend heavily on the DM and setting.
Some see classes simply as bundles of abilities and if the setting allows for non-Druids with these specific sets of abilities, multiclassing into Druid for those abilities does not need to mean that you are becoming an actual Druid.
I a game I'm playing, I am playing a single-classed Druid, but in-character, I am a Fey-pacted Warlock. Maybe you could strike a similiar deal?

[Bellberith]

As a fluff question, this will depend heavily on the DM and setting.
Some see classes simply as bundles of abilities and if the setting allows for non-Druids with these specific sets of abilities, multiclassing into Druid for those abilities does not need to mean that you are becoming an actual Druid.
I a game I'm playing, I am playing a single-classed Druid, but in-character, I am a Fey-pacted Warlock. Maybe you could strike a similiar deal?

Exactly my point above. When playing a class in D&D you don't need to actually RP as that class. At least depending on DM and game you don't.

Nothing in the phb says that a druid has to be one with nature or anything like that. Mechanically he can be a druid with pure druid class levels, but in game he is a shape-shifting assassin.

If i were your DM i would allow you to do it, the only penalty i would impose is that you wouldn't know Druidic because you were never actually a druid so there is no way you could have learned the secret language.

[ji6]

Although I think the idea of just flavoring your druid and saying you are something else is probably the better option, I recently had a very similar idea and home-brewed something for it, so I cannot help but link it here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?473152). This home-brew does not really get the magic part of the druid, but instead focuses on wildshape and more of a ambush-style of play. I think it would fit well with your concept since it gives you the assassin feel, and as a home-brew you and your DM can change around a couple of the features to be more like you want. So far, it plays pretty fun because of high-speed wildshapes combined with the bonus action disengage from rogues (and a few other features), but it is still ongoing playtesting (with one of my main ideas for change being just getting normal wildshape instead of progressing at half speed, since wildshape is not too strong without the moon druid's features).

[Logosloki]

Player: "Hey DM, I'm thinking about a shapeshifter assassin and the closest to my concept would be the druid but I don't want the baggage associated with the class, can I just not take all the hippie stuff and RIP and TEAR?"

Me: "Sure, are you going to be taking any small forms for sneaking around?"

Player: "Yes."

Me: "Excellent (Said whilst giving my best Mr Burns impression)."

Player: [Shudders barely perceptively, as if they know they have just set in motion something which may or may not be good].

The only thing I would do would be to swap out Druidic for Thieves Cant. Thematically better whilst putting a barrier between any real druids in the setting and you, the shapeshifter who is not related to druidism.

Bonus points if a player tailors their spell kit to their lore.

[hymer]

What I would like help is vetting this potential idea on how you as a DM would allow this disconnect at your table.

I'd probably remove the access to druidic language, and otherwise leave the mechanics the same. And then we'd have to work out the fluff. Some sort of deranged bard could be the ticket. I really hate refluffing something as non-generic as the druid, though, so I'd be talking about other options before I went there. Polymorph spells and their likes could give you access to shapeshifting, so maybe a wizard? Or bard, you can do a lot with that.

[Mjolnirbear]

Be a monster such as a wendigo.

Alternatively, and I've never heard of this save in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, try a naagloshii.

If you're refluffing the druid class there's no reason you can't also refluff the idea that you're a class and race.

[GlenSmash!]

Be a monster such as a wendigo.

Alternatively, and I've never heard of this save in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, try a naagloshii.

If you're refluffing the druid class there's no reason you can't also refluff the idea that you're a class and race.

"yee naaldlooshii" is the Navajo Skinwalker. Jim Butcher decided to spell it differently for some reason? It works great as a shapeshifting assassin in my opinion.

[Temperjoke]

Nature has a wide variety of predator-types. I'm sure many of them wouldn't be hippies either. :P I'm curious about the playstyle you're thinking of, though. You say shape-shifting magic user, do you mean sometimes kill/fight with an animal form, sometimes kill/fight with magic?

[Shining Wrath]

Druid, criminal background.

Works for the Unseelie Fey.

The humans have expanded too far into the demesne of the fey; the fey want the leaders of the humans to pay, especially because the humans have sent parties of adventurers after the elder fey in the wilderness. The unseelie are striking back.

Your alignment leans evil but you don't kill randomly or for pleasure; you kill in defense of your home, as ruthlessly as a mother bear protecting her cubs.

[Mjolnirbear]

Druid, criminal background.

Works for the Unseelie Fey.

The humans have expanded too far into the demesne of the fey; the fey want the leaders of the humans to pay, especially because the humans have sent parties of adventurers after the elder fey in the wilderness. The unseelie are striking back.

Your alignment leans evil but you don't kill randomly or for pleasure; you kill in defense of your home, as ruthlessly as a mother bear protecting her cubs.

Me likey (very much since apparently there is a minimum word count and quotes don't count)

[Clistenes]

Maybe he is possessed by some kind of spirit(s)? I'm thinking of something like Mongoose's Encyclopaedia Arcane's Shamans book's Touched prestige class. It is basically about any character being chosen by a spirit or spirits that force the character to take levels in the prestige class. The character gets shamanic powers, but now and then he/she is the target of a geas spell that forces him/her to fulfill a mission for the spirit if he/she doesn't make the save.

[zylodrizzt]

U could be a shifter or changeling too. Maybe do a limited school access like ek or at does but slightly wider like div ench trans n illu

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Other druids be all like

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/058/805/2ba.jpg

[Sredni Vashtar]

"yee naaldlooshii" is the Navajo Skinwalker. Jim Butcher decided to spell it differently for some reason? It works great as a shapeshifting assassin in my opinion.

If I recall correctly, the Navajo language doesn't quite have a set spelling for many words due to the nature of the language.

Also, the traditional skinwalker is absolutely a druid without the "druid priorities".

[JoeJ]

I think this is something you need to discuss with the DM. For me, it would come down to what role druids (the character class, regardless of whether or not they are known by that title) have in the world and how one goes about becoming one. The answers to these are questions will vary from world to world, and there's no way to predict what the case will be in the game you're going to be playing.

[djreynolds]

This is cool idea. It feels very Egyptian to me. Like a cultist of Set. Or the "Jackal".

1) you could just be a lycanthrope, cheesy I know.
2) you could give up you spell casting for sneak attack
3) you could multiclass druid/rogue and call it a day. I know that the 20th level druid capstone is awesome. You do not have to use the druid powers, and druids can be evil.
4) Are you just an evil killer, or out for revenge? I like the former

[Guran]

I once read a novel where assassins underwent a dark ritual allowing them to turn into animals. Storywise you could go with an angle along those lines.

[djreynolds]

It is a very cool build idea. I like the idea of him being a snake and delivering a lethal dose. Or becoming a bear, and "sending" a message for from his masters.

Druid/rogue would be fine. The problem arises, could he be allowed to sneak attack while in a finesse animal form, like a snake? Or does the OP care about the sneak attack even.

[Thrudd]

Right now am thinking of playing an assassin that uses druid magic and shapeshifting but I don't really want it to have anything to do with "balance" or the nature powers at all really. What I would like help is vetting this potential idea on how you as a DM would allow this disconnect at your table.


Recap: Assassin story-line(not class), being a druid. Fey Warlocks and Sorcerers are out of the question, the wildshaping is a bit critical to the idea.

It depends on the setting. Where does the setting say that Druid powers come from, how does a person get them? If you can only get them by training with Druids and obeying the rules of druidry, then your character might not be possible. Can a Druid be stripped of their powers after they stop worshipping nature? If no, then you could easily be an assassin that once trained as a Druid. You just would not gain any more Druid powers unless you returned to the fold.
Are Druid powers something you're born with? So it is less a matter of training and profession, and just a matter of blood and luck? Maybe then you could be a Druid that doesn't care about nature and balance.

By default D&D, forgotten realms or greyhawk, being a Druid is a profession. No wildshape without participating in the training and the meditating and the understanding of nature's ways. You may be allowed to be an evil Druid, that believes in killing, because survival of the fittest and nature is brutal, etc.

[GloatingSwine]

You could angle for a Shadow Druid like in Baldur's Gate. They're still interested in the whole protecting nature thing, they just think the best way to do it involves killing people as preventative medicine...

[Shining Wrath]

Alternatively, play an assassin who has a magic item allowing a limited number of polymorph spells per day with a constraint that the creature must be a beast. You'll have to convince your DM to let you have this item, perhaps by having an associated curse on the item - making all Wisdom saves with disadvantage or some such.

[mephnick]

I have to pound it into the heads of my players that "just because you chose Assassin, doesn't mean you literally have to be an assassin in the game. You could be a scout, or a marksman or a thief or..frickin' anything!"

It's really hard to get across to some people.

[Thrudd]

I have to pound it into the heads of my players that "just because you chose Assassin, doesn't mean you literally have to be an assassin in the game. You could be a scout, or a marksman or a thief or..frickin' anything!"

It's really hard to get across to some people.

That depends on the game and the setting, though. If the classes represent actual professions and organizations in the game world, as many of them do in settings I run, then choosing assassin does necessarily mean you are a professional assassin that has had a specific type of training. The class, in this case, is not just a set of abilities that you can reimagine as applying to any sort of person. If you are the paladin class, you are a knight of St.Cuthbert (for an example) and obey all the strictures of that order (which are built into the class mechanics). If you are a Druid class, you are a member of an ancient magical tradition which communes with nature and has a specific hierarchy. Those are the only people who have access to that set of skills and magic. The most flexible classes are fighter and thief, which are skill sets that can be obtained in much less organized fashion from many different walks of life.

[Shining Wrath]

I have to pound it into the heads of my players that "just because you chose Assassin, doesn't mean you literally have to be an assassin in the game. You could be a scout, or a marksman or a thief or..frickin' anything!"

It's really hard to get across to some people.

Miko in the OotS: "Just because I am a samurai as a social status does not mean I have levels in a class called samurai".