Making an "unnatural" (atypical) Druid: Most boring RP/Fluff Class in 5e?

[DiceDiceBaby]

TL; DR - Dear Giants, I need some help creating a Druid that isn't your average neutral, tree-loving, nature-adoring druid.

It seems that, among all the character classes currently available, the Druid is the one with the most prohibitive selection of character costomization. Yes, even more prohibitive than the Paladin.

Barbarians don't have to be chaotic anymore, and it's possible to build a DEX barbarian who is an honorable tribesman. Bards and Clerics what seems to be an almost infinite number of unique permutations and combinations to make. Fighters and Rogues are incredibly diverse and now have up to six or seven archetypes (each) to choose from, and even more builds between them. Monks and Paladins now have multiple paths and ways to choose from, and Paladins are no longer defined by the Lawful Good alignment, nor Oath (they can break it or interpret it in a different manner). Rangers have been retooled so many times that you how have seven different Ranger types to choose from, and some of the design variants are so different from each other that they may as well be different classes. Warlocks, Sorcerers and Wizards also have so much potential in the wide world of magic and sources of magic that you can easily weave a great story out of them.

But what about the Druid?

Poor Druids seem to be doomed to an eternity of abiding by nature's whims. Doomed to merely having high WIS and/or mental stats (since they Wild Shape). They can't even wield technology in the form of metal equipment. Unlike Clerics or Warlocks who are subject to the whims of finicky gods, goddesses and patrons, or Paladins who stress out about keeping their word, the Druid has to obey nature. That's it. The Ranger can go into a city or a pub and get a drink or socialize, but chooses not to. The Druid has to commune with animals and/or live in their habitat of choice and stay there. When Druids aren't good (because they promote life) or neutral (because they have to work with unaligned beasts), even evil Druids are little more than militant environmentalists.

The last time I tried to make a non-typical Druid, I ended up making a Water Genasi Pirate who was Lawful Evil and believed in "Survival of the Fittest" and would refuse point blank to change into any creature that wasn't aquatic, nor use anything other than water or ice themed spells because he wanted to prove that the sea is the ultimate power, and water the ultimate element. Other than that, I've got nothing.

I seem to be utterly unable to make a compelling Druid character who is not so strictly bound to nature, or who doesn't stray far enough from the character concept to be original. Every other class (if you count all the 5e material published so far) can now create crazy character concepts at will, but the Druid is not only heavily dependent on your DM, but nearly impossible to make beyond being a guardian of nature. To put it bluntly, in the largest campaign I've been part of, every single PHB Class was represented, except Druid. No one in my circle could make a great Druid character, and since my friends in this group are all graduates of humanities (specifically, creative writing and literature), I find this quite disturbing. I also find this a good opportunity to roll a Druid for that campaign and fill an otherwise unoccupied niche.

Now, I'm out of ideas. Please help! Anything goes! Alignments, backgrounds, races, funny or inspiring stories, all that jazz. Sources include, but are not limited to: The PHB, DMG and MM, Elemental Evil Players Companion, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Unearthed Arcana, heck, even Planeshift Zendikar (my DM is pretty much an "everything goes" DM, but he might exclude Zendikar or Modern Magic). Out of all the classes, the Druid has the least number of interesting variations in that it only has two Druid circles, while every other class now has at least three other Paths, Colleges, Domains, Archetypes, Ways, Oaths, Magic Sources, Patrons, Pacts, or Schools of Magic. The only one with less options is the Mystic (who actually ties the Druid with two Mystic Orders to match the two Circles), and that's a UA class that only goes 10 levels.

Ideas much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Telesto]

Unnatural? Go with a Drylich or Blight theme, or even go toward the void.

Drylich would be toward converting other natural places to the harsh unforgiving desert. A kind of purification where only the strong can survive.

Blight would be similar, but focusing heavier on the notion of swamps, vermin, plague and pestilence.

Void would be the ultimate alternative druid, for only through the complete destruction of all things can nature truly be preserved. Time can no longer degrade that which is not there, we come from the void, and as such return to the void.

[TundraBuccaneer]

My way of dealing with fluff that doesn't feel right is trying to look at it from a different view. Like what I repeatedly saw was the idea that wizards forget all their spells after every long rest. And need to relearn them as part op the preparation.
My take on wizard preparing spells is that they need to forge a direct connection with the weave inside them selves. That is why they need special inks when writing spells in there spellbook since they need to write the actuals spell in the book not just the description.

Now the difficulty with druids is what kind of drive does you character have to take part of the campaign. This is difficult because nature is a vary difficult subject to base a story around.

Step1 would be to determine what is nature, are humanoids part of nature? If they are is their instinct to build towns and city's natural?
I would not think a druid needs to be a hippy-tree-hugging-vegan-pacifist that gets mad at every butcher en lumberjack he sees. Enough animals and plants eat each other or make resources from each other (lots of insects use wood to build there homes).
A druid however needs to know there is a limit to what you can use without hurting a ecosystem. That is what they are about maintaining balance.
And don't worry about not directly protecting nature. Don't forget you are a part of nature, the whole world is, don't think so highly of yourself that you need to protect nature or that nature even notices you. Don't forget that you are your own race a wolf knows it is a wolf, you know what you are.

Step2 what is it that druids do? Are form a circle that is focused around tribal shamanism they are the old faith lets not forget.
In the medieval you could be a royal adviser on al things nature(think farming, Lumbering, road building) maybe even magic as well if magic is considered a natural resource in your world.
Druids hate thing unnatural like devil influence or necromancy so fighting liches and arch devil-made-monstrosity's could be your thing. Orcs tend to be a very destructive force and maintaining their population could be also in your direct interest.
Maybe on of the party members is a friend or family druids can be more influenced by there own instincts and have a strong need to aid them.

I hope this helps

[Callin]

Lets see what the PHB has to say about Druids.


"Rever Naturre above all Fluff. (Examples- Nature Itself, Nature Deity, Elemental Forces.) Fluff Fluff Fluff *Mechanical Bit* Oppose Cults of Elemental Evil and others who promote one element to the exclusion of others. Fluff Fluff Fluff *mechanical* hates Abberations and Undead. Fluff Fluff Fluff."

So honestly your view is pretty narrow as to what they can do. Terry Brooks and his Shannara Druids are not out of the realm of possibility with the mechanical. (Shannara Druids are best Druids. I still dislike the Druid class on Mechanics though.)

[Belac93]

Well, a rot druid subclass was showcased by wizards in a dmsguild review, and it seems pretty interesting. It also has been said (although I can't remember where) that a druid can technically use metal, it's just extremely weird. Kinda like a LG necromancer.

What if this rot druid hated nature? She kills animals, and uses their corpses to make unnatural fungi, raising an army so she can destroy the world!

So, lets see this character.

Ability scores
Alright, its a little stereotypical, but lets focus on wisdom mainly. However, this character hates nature, so she will want something that lets her avoid and kill it better, so lets give her high dexterity. She will obviously need high constitution, and intelligence is important, but we can probably dump strength and charisma.
So, before racial adjustments, we have: 10, 15, 13, 12, 14, 8 (in the regular order)

Race
So now, we come to another important part. I'm going to say we should go with Variant human, for simplicity's sake (at least for now). So, we'll get +1 dexterity and +1 constitution for our increases, putting us up to 10, 16, 14, 12, 14, 8. For our feat, why don't we take sharpshooter. Alternatively, resilient (con), warcaster, or the sword master feat from UA would also be good, but lets say sharpshooter for now.

Class features
So, we get all the basic druid abilities. With the circle of the rot, we gain the ability to turn into fungi, and you can grow minions.

Spellcasting
Get spells that are nasty against animals. Animal friendship, locate animals or plants, and several other spells would be terrifying to nature. Get blight, definitely, and focus mainly on buffing/utility spells.

Tactics
So, here is how combat with this character will go down:
Round 1: Enemies appear, cast buff spells.
Round 2: Shoot most injured enemy with your sling, using sharpshooter to deal 1d4+13 damage.
Round 3: An enemy is dead, summon plant creatures from it's corpse (myconids or blights). Healing word any downed ally.
Round 4+: Keep using sharpshooter, send minions into melee to fight. If any enemies come near, shapeshift into a spore servant or a myconid and get your minions over to help you.

Your AC should be about 15 (studded leather), or 17 if you are caught in melee without a wild shape (shield), or 16 if in wild shape (barkskin).

So we end up with a ranged minion summoner/buffer. Pretty similar to most druids, but with very different flavour.

[Veldrenor]

They can't even wield technology in the form of metal equipment.

Bit of a nitpick, but this isn't strictly true in 5e. The PHB says that druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal, not that they can not. Druids are like vegetarians: a vegetarian is perfectly capable of eating meat, they just choose not to. And the "rule" against metal armor is kinda silly to begin with; it's perfectly ok to use metal to kill (they still use metal weapons) but not to protect? You can certainly have a druid who wears metal armor if you have a decent reason for it. Like a druid who's a dwarf. "Metal is stone, it comes out of the earth, what could be more natural than that?"


When Druids aren't good (because they promote life)...

I don't exactly agree with this. Druids promote nature, not life. We have a druid in our group who's sole focus is balance and the natural order. When the group fought a devil who was killing people in town to collect on soul deals, the druid cast barkskin and shillelagh and then stood in a corner and watched. He had a whole slew of reasons why, but one of the big ones was that the druid sees evil as balancing the scales opposite good ("light casts shadows"). Devils are evil made flesh, they're completely natural. While he's not big on the constructs of civilization, in his mind the only truly unnatural things are aberrations (that's kinda what the word "aberration" means) and undead (things are born, they live, and then they're supposed to die).

Actually, you could make a pretty good evil druid around that last one. Death is as much a part of the natural order as life. Predators kill prey and disease culls the weak from the herd. You could go with that. You don't help trees grow, you start the forest fire that clears the brush and dead wood.

[Giant2005]

Just because all Druids have some kind of attachment to nature, doesn't mean they are carbon copies of one another. Just look at the Baldur's Gate characters: Jaheira and Cernd. They were wildly different characters even if they both thought trees were really cool.
Just don't get too hung up on the big picture - it is the little details which really make your character stand out.

[pwykersotz]

This was pointed out to me recently (http://goblinpunch.blogspot.ca/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html), and might give you some ideas.


Druids are creatures possessed by the cold spirit of Nature.

Druids love natural spaces. It's even fair to say that druids feed on them. They feed on the snow that falls on ancient pines. They feed on the weevils gnawing on roots. They feed on the hunger in a wolf's belly.

Because these things are Natural, they are Good, for at least one definition of "Good".

Then what is Bad, in the eyes of a druid? Why, all the things that destroy the natural order. Rationality, math (druids hate math), language, money, metallurgy, fur trappers, philosophy. The philosophy of a druid is "no philosophy". And true, druids use language to talk among themselves, but it is always tinged with a bit of self-loathing for this reason, a reminder of their distance from Nature and from what is Good.

Nature is red in tooth in claw. Nature is hungry and rapacious. Nature is self-absorbed. Does a panther care about anything beyond it's own well-being? And because these things are Nature, they are also Druids.

[Gastronomie]

I once had this idea of a Druid/Rogue who was formerly an assassin who harnessed the power of forest spirits to fight for the greater good, according to the religious beliefs of an ancient cult. I simply liked the image of this cultist assassin in a forest with pixies flying around him.

I ended up not using him, but I'm interested in using him someday.

But yes, I can't think up many ideas. And probably because "protecting nature" seems to be a "lawful" thing.

There's all sorts of chaotic characters, because every one is chaotic in a different way. Not so much with lawful - lawful people (not all of them, but a majority of them, especially when they're following the same "law") tend to be really similar to each other.

[georgie_leech]

I once had this idea of a Druid/Rogue who was formerly an assassin who harnessed the power of forest spirits to fight for the greater good, according to the religious beliefs of an ancient cult. I simply liked the image of this cultist assassin in a forest with pixies flying around him.

I ended up not using him, but I'm interested in using him someday.

But yes, I can't think up many ideas. And probably because "protecting nature" seems to be a "lawful" thing.

There's all sorts of chaotic characters, because every one is chaotic in a different way. Not so much with lawful - lawful people (not all of them, but a majority of them, especially when they're following the same "law") tend to be really similar to each other.

Because Roy, Hinjo, Miko, and Roy's mom all have such similar personalities? :smallconfused:

[pwykersotz]

Because Roy, Hinjo, Miko, and Roy's mom all have such similar personalities? :smallconfused:

I second this. Thinking lawful characters, even those who follow the same law are "really similar" is decent evidence that you yourself are a bit more on the chaotic side and unable to see the differences. I'm the opposite way, I had trouble seeing chaotic characters as different (or interesting) at all when I started GM'ing. One of my players ended up playing a very different strain of chaos by example and then it clicked.

[Temperjoke]

It almost sounds as if you want a murderhobo druid, since a lot of your complaints seem to be about how druids like to keep things in balance and nature-focused. A lot of the justifications for such a thing would also make such a druid a difficult fit for a party, as many of the reasons you'd have for killing would also apply to the other members of your group.

Drow, Underdark Land Druid, Acolyte background - You are an assassin in the service of Lloth, preferring to change into spiders when you use Wildshape, your knowledge of the wilds of the Underdark served your Goddess well in your people's raids, and your knowledge of nature aids in attacks on the surface dwellers.

[MintyNinja]

The last time I tried to make a non-typical Druid, I ended up making a Water Genasi Pirate who was Lawful Evil and believed in "Survival of the Fittest" and would refuse point blank to change into any creature that wasn't aquatic, nor use anything other than water or ice themed spells because he wanted to prove that the sea is the ultimate power, and water the ultimate element. Other than that, I've got nothing.

I was going to suggest this... almost verbatim.

My next Druid wants to be the World's Greatest Thief. I call him the Cat Burglar. He's a Grassland Druid in a city and he's adapted himself to that environ incredibly well. At level 5 he has a 21 Passive Perception and should be an asset to the party of thieves and murderers that we'll have. Good times ahead.

[ES Curse]

The core Druid isn't really that restrictive. The problem comes from only having two official Druid Circles. Where are the beastmaster Druids of yore? Or the guy that worships the elements as opposed to nature and life? The class has a lot of unexplored options for the fluff given.

[Stan]

It's easy to recast fluff and most of the mechanics in 5e are flexible with no alignment restrictions. A druid is a character good with nature spells, the rest is flexible. Here are a few options:

1. Royal foresters. The royal family has set aside large tracts of forest for royal use. A group of foresters have become a druid circle over time to keep the riffraff out. The druids don't care about the balance of nature crap unless it makes things better for the royal family. They kill poachers so keep game available for royal hunts and they consider themselves above peasants, not because they care about animals. They regularly kill most predators (other than boars which the prince likes to hunt) to create overpopulation of prey animals for more productive hunts.

2. Agricorps. Druids who use their nature powers to maximize crop yields. Power over animals makes it easy to score high value bush meat. Some will occasionally trick and capture fey as their parts sell like mad. These druids seek to get rich and retire. They're not necessarily evil, they just do what people have always done and have learned to do it better. Perhaps they are merely seeking to feed a stressed population.

3. Scientists. Druids who study nature to learn about life and humanity. They try not to interfere with the natural order as doing so biases observation. Shape changing allows close observation, along the lines of an anthropologist who lives within a community that they are studying.

[Slipperychicken]

I seem to be utterly unable to make a compelling Druid character who is not so strictly bound to nature, or who doesn't stray far enough from the character concept to be original. Every other class (if you count all the 5e material published so far) can now create crazy character concepts at will, but the Druid is not only heavily dependent on your DM, but nearly impossible to make beyond being a guardian of nature.

Nature clerics, rangers, and ancients paladins all have druid-y flavor without the same restrictions.


And frankly druids don't have that many restrictions. I just last week made a druid who was a simple wanderer, less interested in protecting nature than he is in observing nature, learning from it, and becoming it. He might do the Smokey the Bear routine once or twice, but his main thing is living like an animal, unconstrained by external moral constructs, slaking his desires, protecting people close to him, killing enemies and eating parts of them, and otherwise doing as he wishes. His philosophy holds that kind of unhindered savagery as the most natural and ideal state of being.

There's also the interpretation that civilization is just more nature. To a druid who believes that, a humanoid city is not so different in principle from an ant-hive or a termite mound. Of course, in my opinion that fluff could be better represented with a nature cleric, who is allowed to use metal armor, and whose spells are more appropriate to serving civilized peoples.

[Waffle_Iron]

Drow make interesting Druids. As an underdark land Druid, you have ample reason to not act hippy-dippy.

Nature in the underdark is brutal, unforgiving and hungry. Druids would be, too. Transforming into a spider as a symbol of your faith has RP potential.

[Slipperychicken]

Nature is brutal, unforgiving, and hungry wherever you go. Druids would be, too.

Fixed that for you.

There are good reasons why we have things like buildings and cities IRL, and why we humans usually clear out most of the trees when we move in somewhere.

[Joe the Rat]

Swamp Druid. Hermit. You are now a witch with a cauldron, looking for children to eat. Add a splash of ritual caster or magic initiate, and you can get a black cat (or raven) familiar, as opposed to just turning into one.

Any Circle. Outlander. You are now a tribal Shaman. You are one with the land and the spirits, and guide your people. You either master the spirits of the land, or call the animal spirits into your form. You seek balance with nature, because nature bites back hard.

[tieren]

The metal armor thing was errata'd out, its now a suggestion.

The genasi are great for druids, you could really specialize one for nearly any element.

There is the summoner druid. Really druids are the best summoners in the game with the most variety of summons available.

You could go for minister of agriculture, who lives in a civilized realm and uses their knowledge and love of nature to organize efficient farming and good crop yields while trying to minimize impact on more feral areas.

There is of course the whole moon druid shapechanger thing, which seems to be all you see but is only one option.

You could have a gypsy druid wandering the wilderness to see more and experience the zest of life, maybe with a entertainer background.

You could have a soldier who gets a little ptsd and takes some time off to meditate and connect with nature and struggles to resolve the war like past with the new found drive to preserve.

You could try to build Dar the beast master, pick up a familiar with a feat, use animal handling skills and speak with animals to build a friendly menagerie of beast henchmen to aid you.

You could go goliath and build a huge lumberjack who talks with his friend the great blue ox.

There is really no artificial limit imposed on your imagination by the system.

[PaxZRake]

My current Druid fell in love with a Marilith before she went back to wherever she came from (probably the Abyss?) and so now he's terraforming the lands in the hope that making his immediate environment more hospitable for her (he's guessing, doesn't know much about them) will impress her enough to come back.

Like a nature obsessed Thanos kind of.

[DivisibleByZero]

My current character is a Ghostwise halfling monk 1. His wife was transformed (via powerful Wish level magic) into being a wolf. So he decided to learn elemental nature magic to protect her while he searches for a way to change her back.
Currently monk 1 / druid 4 (circle of the Beast, with his wife as his animal companion, from DMsGuild).
He focuses on elemental magic and minor healing instead of tree hugging nature magic.
With magic initiate cleric (fluffed as an aberrant dragonmark), he plays kind of like a wizard with some support and some melee/mounted ability, and has a very cool companion instead of a familiar.

[Giant2005]

The metal armor thing was errata'd out

No it wasn't - the errata didn't include any changes to the Druid.

[tieren]

No it wasn't - the errata didn't include any changes to the Druid.

Sorry, it was the March 2016 Sage Advice, give it what weight you will.

[Herobizkit]

2e had a Druid Kit called the "Lost Druid" whose lands were maliciously destroyed ("forests burned to the ground, swamps drained, mountains ruined by mining") and, as a result, become bleak, vengeful shadows of themselves.

In the realm of homebrew, let's call it a Blight Druid. I'd suggest allowing a Land Druid to use the bonus spell list of the DMG Death cleric in place of their usual Land spells. I'm honestly not sure what to suggest for Moon Druids.

I'd also swap Cure Wounds for Inflict Wounds - this Druid is no longer dealing with positive magic.

Additionally, the Blight Druid can animate Animal skeletons and zombies and possibly do twice as many as your standard casting (as most animals tend to have very few hit points).

[Afrodactyl]

I created a moon druid that took a dip into warlock, and he was an insane, blind witch doctor who's 'great old one' was the moon itself. He saw through his imp familiar, and acted at it's whim as he believed it was the moon itself commanding him and granting him power.

[smcmike]

I think the OP is making two simple mistakes.

First, a Druid does not have to be a hermit. Druids can be fully embedded in society, just like anyone else. Heck, you could easily make a Druid who had literally never set foot beyond the city walls.

Second, a Druid doesn't have to worship "Nature" in a generalized sense, and he most certainly doesn't have to be a hippie or an environmentalist. He can worship a specific deity, or pantheon, or conception, and you can get as specific and weird as you like with it.

[R.Shackleford]

TL; DR - Dear Giants, I need some help creating a Druid that isn't your average neutral, tree-loving, nature-adoring druid.

It seems that, among all the character classes currently available, the Druid is the one with the most prohibitive selection of character costomization. Yes, even more prohibitive than the Paladin.

Barbarians don't have to be chaotic anymore, and it's possible to build a DEX barbarian who is an honorable tribesman. Bards and Clerics what seems to be an almost infinite number of unique permutations and combinations to make. Fighters and Rogues are incredibly diverse and now have up to six or seven archetypes (each) to choose from, and even more builds between them. Monks and Paladins now have multiple paths and ways to choose from, and Paladins are no longer defined by the Lawful Good alignment, nor Oath (they can break it or interpret it in a different manner). Rangers have been retooled so many times that you how have seven different Ranger types to choose from, and some of the design variants are so different from each other that they may as well be different classes. Warlocks, Sorcerers and Wizards also have so much potential in the wide world of magic and sources of magic that you can easily weave a great story out of them.

But what about the Druid?

Poor Druids seem to be doomed to an eternity of abiding by nature's whims. Doomed to merely having high WIS and/or mental stats (since they Wild Shape). They can't even wield technology in the form of metal equipment. Unlike Clerics or Warlocks who are subject to the whims of finicky gods, goddesses and patrons, or Paladins who stress out about keeping their word, the Druid has to obey nature. That's it. The Ranger can go into a city or a pub and get a drink or socialize, but chooses not to. The Druid has to commune with animals and/or live in their habitat of choice and stay there. When Druids aren't good (because they promote life) or neutral (because they have to work with unaligned beasts), even evil Druids are little more than militant environmentalists.

The last time I tried to make a non-typical Druid, I ended up making a Water Genasi Pirate who was Lawful Evil and believed in "Survival of the Fittest" and would refuse point blank to change into any creature that wasn't aquatic, nor use anything other than water or ice themed spells because he wanted to prove that the sea is the ultimate power, and water the ultimate element. Other than that, I've got nothing.

I seem to be utterly unable to make a compelling Druid character who is not so strictly bound to nature, or who doesn't stray far enough from the character concept to be original. Every other class (if you count all the 5e material published so far) can now create crazy character concepts at will, but the Druid is not only heavily dependent on your DM, but nearly impossible to make beyond being a guardian of nature. To put it bluntly, in the largest campaign I've been part of, every single PHB Class was represented, except Druid. No one in my circle could make a great Druid character, and since my friends in this group are all graduates of humanities (specifically, creative writing and literature), I find this quite disturbing. I also find this a good opportunity to roll a Druid for that campaign and fill an otherwise unoccupied niche.

Now, I'm out of ideas. Please help! Anything goes! Alignments, backgrounds, races, funny or inspiring stories, all that jazz. Sources include, but are not limited to: The PHB, DMG and MM, Elemental Evil Players Companion, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Unearthed Arcana, heck, even Planeshift Zendikar (my DM is pretty much an "everything goes" DM, but he might exclude Zendikar or Modern Magic). Out of all the classes, the Druid has the least number of interesting variations in that it only has two Druid circles, while every other class now has at least three other Paths, Colleges, Domains, Archetypes, Ways, Oaths, Magic Sources, Patrons, Pacts, or Schools of Magic. The only one with less options is the Mystic (who actually ties the Druid with two Mystic Orders to match the two Circles), and that's a UA class that only goes 10 levels.

Ideas much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Blighter from 3e was stupid, due to requirement issues, but in 5e it could be fun.

Necromancer Wizard/Druid, there was a Lich Druid in 3.5, completely legit NPC that they made...

I'm going to work on a necromancer type shaman who hates nature and wildshapes into undead versions of animals for my homebrew, well, eventually.

[Arkhios]

Another "vote" for the atypical druid from my part would be a land druid wearing heavy armor (which, by definition are also primarily made of metal). Maybe try and emulate some sort of Shaman of the Five Elements (air, earth, fire, wood, and metal).

[R.Shackleford]

Another "vote" for the atypical druid from my part would be a land druid wearing heavy armor (which, by definition are also primarily made of metal). Maybe try and emulate some sort of Shaman of the Five Elements (air, earth, fire, wood, and metal).

Nature Cleric is pretty much what you are looking for.

I really wished they just made the druid part of the cleric

[Arkhios]

Nature Cleric is pretty much what you are looking for.

I really wished they just made the druid part of the cleric

Except that wasn't my point. I know Nature Cleric is the "second best druid" (or the "better druid", depending on who's asking). My point was to answer to the topic: "Making an "unnatural" (atypical) Druid". ;)

[R.Shackleford]

Except that wasn't my point. I know Nature Cleric is the "second best druid" (or the "better druid", depending on who's asking). My point was to answer to the topic: "Making an "unnatural" (atypical) Druid". ;)

Which is perfectly fine for a Nature Cleric as they would be seen as unatural druids.

They can't wildshape and they run with metal. The specific type of character that uses the Chinese elements falls under Nature Cleric more so than Druid.

[Telesto]

Blighter from 3e was stupid, due to requirement issues, but in 5e it could be fun.

Necromancer Wizard/Druid, there was a Lich Druid in 3.5, completely legit NPC that they made...

I'm going to work on a necromancer type shaman who hates nature and wildshapes into undead versions of animals for my homebrew, well, eventually.

Dry Lich. Walker in the Waste is the class. (Sandstorm)

And yeah, Blighter was the name, not Blight Druid as I had said in the second post (Pathfinder had Blight Druid as one of the Archetypes). I can't remember what book it was in, check Complete Divine.

And the third I mentioned was just a druid trying to bring everything to its natural state of nothingness.

[Arkhios]

Which is perfectly fine for a Nature Cleric as they would be seen as unatural druids.

They can't wildshape and they run with metal. The specific type of character that uses the Chinese elements falls under Nature Cleric more so than Druid.

That's certainly one way to see it, and you are free to visualize it that way if you want to. Just, don't try to force others into thinking in your way... sheesh

[Fable Wright]

...You know, this question was at the forefront of my mind when creating my current character, a mad scientist Zebra druid. Who's probably insane for more reasons than that sentence implies.

The first thing to know about this Druid is that he realizes that the prohibition of metal only applies to armor. This is because he saw the panicked screams and melting faces of those soldiers his comrades scorched with Heat Metal. He was traumatized enough by this to never, ever trap himself in such an inescapable suit, but he has no qualms with easily dropped bits of weapon or armor.

The second thing is that he loves technology and progress. Humans are in the monster manual, too, and he's the steward of the entire book. He finds it fascinating that humans think themselves different from ants, just because they're big and ants are small. Nobility, social caste decided by birth, huge buildings and stockpiles of food and mutually beneficial trade? I don't see the difference between the two. And he's spent enough time as each to know how few differences there were between them, and he takes a fascination in humanity's mastery of the arcane and divine. I mean, it's not like the ants haven't been practicing their spell-weaving, but they never seem to take the scale of human casting, you know?

The third things was his lessons on the circle of life. You know how you can die as an animal and revert back to normal? This was explored in great detail in his past. He would be turned into a mouse and eaten by a lion, turn into a deer and be eaten by a lion, turn into a lion and eat deer and mice, turn into an elk large enough to kill the lion, and take part in the ritual hunting of the elk by a tribe of lions. He would be the ant, and the anteater, and the parasite. And he remembered each and every one of these deaths, when his neck was snapped, when his organs spilled out, when he stared at the setting sun and just wondered why. Why him, why them, why any of this. It has skewed his perspective on the value of life and death, dramatically.

The fourth thing was his mad science. You see, he realized that in order to preserve the elements, one must understand them. As an energy source, as a weapon, as a shield. What happens when you channel positive-aligned air over negative-aligned earth? Lightning over metal, and dust particulates hurled by electromagnetic waves. What happens when you harness positive fire over negative water? Light through focusing crystal; lasers. What happens when you bard an earth elemental in steel and put inside him a heart of enchanted minerals? Life originated at the intersection of steam and ash; what happens if you grow your Goodberries there? He seeks to understand, to innovate, and to enhance technology to preserve the understanding and balance of all of them. After all, when a Druid with a railgun or orbital bombardment station tells you to stop cutting down trees, you are going to listen.

Finally, he's actually supportive of the existence of Undead and constructs and aberrations and demons. They are all parts of the natural order, even if they were brought about by the arcane. He believes that Liches and Aboleths were two of the eight beings that originally inhabited the world; relics from the previous universe, and their spawn have as much right to be here as the races that spawned from the embers of the conflicts between the Primordial Eight. Of course, most other Druids don't have History and Arcana proficiency and a positive intelligence score, so they don't tend to know the secret origins of the world. My character is supportive of creatures that desire to transcend the natural order, trying to hack themselves into the forms of liches and the other primordial beings. Hell, he'd aim to become a lich himself if one of the eight types of beings were not the Archdruids, constantly churning between their elemental forms and being the fire who set the stones alight with bushes, trees, and life as we know it. Likewise, if someone wants to create new forms of life, his stance is to go for it! Just make sure that you're taking care of your creations, and have made sure to find them a good biological niche. Really, whoever made the creature that hides in doorknobs is an idiot who deserved the death of his creations.

Hope this gives you some ideas on how to run a highly atypical Druid. Happy gaming!

[DivisibleByZero]

My point was to answer to the topic: "Making an "unnatural" (atypical) Druid". ;)

The bottom line of this entire thread boils down to that of character development and backstory.
Your (or my, or his/her) druid can and will be as stereotypical or atypical as the player creates him to be. There have been a few examples in the thread (mine included) to highlight that not every druid needs to be a tree hugging hippy as was purported.

[Sigreid]

Borrow the bit from King Arthur about the lord and the land being one: Make a traditional noble whose family are druidic because a sick land can poison the city as surely as a sick city can poison the land.
The local shaman for a village or city
Barbarian tribal shaman
Court astronomer


Basically you have to respect nature to be a druid. You don't have to be anti-civilization.

Just thought of the Urchin background and a street rat that is a druid because of his bond with the nature that has integrated it into the city (rats, stray dogs, pigeons, etc.)

[Addaran]

Play some kind of cultist or fiend (tiefling!) that stole the magical secrets from a druid Circle. Or you're actually an angry spirit that possessed a druide body but can't escape. Now you forcefully take the magic, even without respecting nature and can have the motivation you want. Most DM should be okay with it, if they allow evil characters.

[Vogonjeltz]

because he wanted to prove that the sea is the ultimate power, and water the ultimate element. Other than that, I've got nothing.

This runs counter to the core ideals of the Druid in 5e.

Per the PHB: "For druids, nature exists in a precarious balance. The four elements that make up a world-air, earth, fire, and water-must remain in equilibrium. If one element were to gain power over the others, the world could be destroyed, drawn into one of the elemental planes and broken apart into its component elements."

Consider for a moment if something as mundane as allowing DVD's to supplant Tape Decks meant that the entire world would end. Knowing that, you might be pretty fanatical about preventing such a thing from coming to pass. Try using that compulsion to build a character.

i.e. Hermit background Druid. The big secret this person has come across is just that: That if ever one of the elements becomes dominant over the others, the entire world will end in an elemental cataclysm, ending all life.

That makes a for some compelling roleplay, where the Druid takes a very dim view of Pyromancers and their ilk, those who are focused on one element to the exclusion of all others; this Druid is now a practicer of the old faith, seeking to maintain balance in order to save the world from total destruction on a constant basis.

In this view, the Druid would be good because while everyone else is off serving their own self interests (Money, Fame, Glory, Knowledge, Some silly Deity's portfolio, etc...), the Druid would be adventuring and fighting to save the world and quite literally prevent it from being torn apart.

That goal is shared by Druids, but it's the connection to that goal and the method of going about it that is where the variety comes into play.


Out of all the classes, the Druid has the least number of interesting variations in that it only has two Druid circles, while every other class now has at least three other Paths, Colleges, Domains, Archetypes, Ways, Oaths, Magic Sources, Patrons, Pacts, or Schools of Magic. The only one with less options is the Mystic (who actually ties the Druid with two Mystic Orders to match the two Circles), and that's a UA class that only goes 10 levels.

Circle of the Land is actually comparable to the Cleric domains in that each one gives a different set of circle spells, so there's potentially a lot of customization available there.

[Belac93]

Once Volo's guide to monsters comes out, I want to play a goblin druid, who's only goal in life is eat people.

[Dr. Cliché]

Similar to Fable Wright, I'd suggest a druid who believes that technology is just a part of nature. After all, may animals construct shelter, use tools and even create impressive architectural displays that can change landscapes. Hence, human(oid) civilisation - with all its technology and tools - is perfectly natural.

What's more, it is far easier to adapt tools than to adapt creatures. The former can be done in a matter of days or even hours, whilst the latter takes generations. Hence, the easiest way to advance nature is to advance technology and tools.

What's more, the druid could take this a step further by making animals and tools one and the same - manufacturing mechanical augmentations or replacing limbs/organs with such (magic makes things so much easier). They could have even done this to themselves, with their augmentations carrying over to their animal form.

Obviously this would work better as a villain (since DM fiat is needed), but I think its a fun idea.

[Vrikolaka]

My druid is an Ambassador of the Spirit World. She never even stepped outside her city, but she is an excelent social character, and tailored by her master (she have a level of warlock too, for good measure), to know how to deal with them. Dealing with Elementals, Fey, Spirits, Undead, Beasts, being a shaman and a Bridge of the Great Bat on this world.

(I even talked about this character here on GitP, asking for help to make the character sheet)

It's not a tree hugger. It's not evil (like most of the suggestions, suggesting blighters, and such), and it's not literally tied to "help the nature". She will, if the spirit asks this for help her, but she is not... like... she doesn't need to. The Druid class is there, only because the class is more tailored about how I imagined she would deal with the perils. Will be Druid (Land - Grassland) 17/Warlock (Archfey) 3.

[unwise]

I had a druid once that was a devotee of the Ploughman (see The Axis Trilogy for the inspiration). It was a religion that stated that nature was to be brought to heel and serve mankind. All the wild and chaotic things of the woods were to be burnt to make new civilized areas and fields.

It was quiet a different take on a Nature and Civilization domain and played quiet well, my druid subjugated, exiled or slayed every wild thing that encroached upon civilized lands. He constantly pushed the agenda of the frontier towns, where he felt his god's work was most important. Needless to say he did not get on well with fey of any kind.

[Paelias]

I have a druid/ranger. He was pure ranger up to level 4 and chose revised beast master, thinking about how to best protect society from the wild, while loving parts of the wild himself. At 5th level, he saw how people in a small town were scared of his panther, and how when they were scared they reacted violently. After that he chose to learn the ways of a druid, still protecting civilization from the wild, but also protecting the wild from civilization, trying to act as a buffer of sorts.

[KorvinStarmast]

And true, druids use language to talk among themselves, but it is always tinged with a bit of self-loathing for this reason, a reminder of their distance from Nature and from what is Good. No self loathing at all, that blog post is wrong. Druids see that all living things, themselves included, are a part of the natural world.
Swamp Druid. Hermit. Good call.

Basically you have to respect nature to be a druid. You don't have to be anti-civilization. Good call, but here's the core problem:
Necromancy! Look at the dates, Paelias . :smallbiggrin: ( just now noticed after the post. Oops)

[Vogie]

It's all about your fluff.

RAW Land Druids could just as easily be niche elemental benders.

Alternatively, ask your DM for a Land Druid variant, where the domain changes with the terrain you're actually in, rather than "the land where you became a druid"

Mix Twilight Druid with various Cleric domains for a Necromantic healer.

Moon Druids could be the mechanical base for a werewolf. Or Weretiger. Were-Tyrannosaurus.

Tranquility Monk / Dream Druids are decent healers and care more about metaphysical and the nature of a person rather than nature itself.

Land Druid X with a Primeval Guardian Ranger Base (requires 3, no more than 5-7 levels) would basically be a Tree Ent gishes

Probably the most flexible is the Spore Druid (UA)
With a little bit of refluff, it could be a:

Swarm Druid (poison is now due to insects instead of spores)
Wildfire Druid (Exact same class, replace "Poison" with "Fire" damage and "Spore" with "Ash")
Blizzard Druid (as above, but with swirling ice dealing cold damage)
And so on...

[GlenSmash!]

I would make an atypical druid the same way I would make an atypical Champion.

I would choose a background that I find interesting and pick Traits, Bond, Ideal, and Flaw that most interest me.

Some that I think lean toward the atypical are Criminal, Soldier, Mercenary Veteran, City Watch, Clan Crafter, Bounty Hunter, Noble, Knight of the Order. Pretty much anything besides Outlander, Hermit, & Uthgardt Tribe Member would result in a interesting druid IMHO.


Edit: And I just realized this was a thread necro.

[Beechgnome]

I like the scientist druid, who preserves life in part because he/she wants to be able to study it.

I have a backup character who is a Hill dwarf Circle of the Land (Arctic) druid who got his start at an underground seed vault, based on Svalbard in Norway. Even a dangerous plant like a kelpie or blight is worth preserving... Well, it's seeds are at any rate.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I'm now kind of interested in making a high Int druid who studies the mathematical complexities of life. Basically: Jeff Goldblum. Life, uh... Life finds a way.

[Fire Tarrasque]

One idea I've had for a little while, that is more original than compelling, is a Lizardfolk druid who only transforms into reptiles and also believes in survival of the fittest. A bit too similar to the Gensai, but... Maybe? Or you could try getting a DM exception to use metal weapons and building an Urban Druid, another concept i've had for a while. Maybe multiclass in Rogue to be a stealthy druid who changes into Pigeons, Chipmunks, Squirrels, other unassuming creatures, gathering intel, sneaking around like a Sneky Snek.

[Kane0]

My current mini-campaign features a maligned sect of druids as the main villains actually. They lean more into the side of nature that most don't, the parts that represent death and decay in order to recycle and make room for new growth. The less glorious portions of the food chain; more focused on the prey, slimes, fungi and insects than top predators and elemental builders. They're like Druidic Janitors, except much more enthusiastic.

I've been slowly putting together a PC subclass for my players once the story arc has been resolved, so if they end up siding with them or want to follow the same path in other games they can explore it more. So far its being drawn heavily from the DM Guild Circle of Deathbloom.