Druids that have Left or Been Kicked out of a Circle

[DireSickFish]

So the last thread gave me so many good ideas I'm back for more. The party will need to form a ragtag band of druids into a druid circle. The old circle has been corrupted by a powerful artifact, and the only way to reach them physically is with the power a circle of druids.

I'm looking for ideas for interesting individual Druids the players could look for and find. And any interesting situations they might be in that the players could help with to get them to join the cause.

Oddballs even by the reclusive and accepting standards of Druids. Cast offs that don't mesh with even the loose structure of a Circle. Those to stubborn in their own ideals to work together with druids of other faiths for balance.

The setting is Forgotten Realms in the area around Silverymoon. No NPC is to wild an idea for this, what do you got?

[Aett_Thorn]

A couple of ideas:

1) Four individual Druids that each really like one season only. True Druids revel in the passing of time as a natural process, but these four Druids strive to get their respective areas to stay in the one season that the prefer. The trick would be to convince them how unnatural their ideas are and why the seasons each need to happen.

2) Second edition had a Druid kit that was a Hivemaster - a Druid with a fascination with insects of various types. Give him a spider companion, and his grove is one big spider web. Or maybe he really likes centipedes, which are just creepy, and might freak out even normal Druids.

3) Druids that represent "unnatural" areas. For instance, a Druid whose grove is in a Wild Magic area, where things warp and twist, but it's "natural" for that area now. Or a Druid who looks over one of the remaining spellscarred areas. Or a Druid whose grove is centered around a poisoned spring, who has gone a bit mad and believes it to be completely fine.

4) A Druid who believes in the life-giving power of fire, using it to cleanse areas because he believes that it causes rebirth. While many Druids are okay with a wildfire, they probably don't go around actually starting them (at least not on purpose).

5) A Druid who believes that sentient creatures are a scourge on the planet, and that they should be wiped out to allow nature to reign supreme.

[tieren]

I think I would work around themes of madness, curses, and corruption.

Maybe one went mad when he failed to stop civilization from creeping in and building a town where a sacred pool once stood (now its the town well). Treat the madness as a mental disease and maybe the party can come up with a way to find, subdue and cure him. You might find him in the sewers beneath the city tending to rats and vermin and looking for the sacred stone at the source of the once blessed waters.

Perhaps another was steward of a swamp which became home to a demon cult that summoned something horrid that leaked ooze from the abyss into the waters and corrupting the land and its guardian. The party can free the druid from his corrupted madness by entering the temple, destroying the cult, and sealing the rift.

Another fell under the control of a green dragon and was cursed into becoming one of her thralls. The party can free the druid, but only if the dragon is defeated or driven away first.

[Falcon X]

1. Cast-offs: First off you can modify existing famous people. What if Delaan Winterhound (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Delaan_Winterhound) got kicked out for some reason?
I love this guy. He lives as a ranger, out among the wild, most of the time. As such he doesn't always know how to talk to people and can be very blunt.

2. People who aren't druids, but have a connection to the earth in some way.
- One of Baba Yaga's rare apprentices. Witchcraft in D&D has always felt like a mix between earth magic and arcane magic. Interpret it as you will.
- A Favored Soul of a nature god. Usually they are ranger-like (I would argue that Drizzt has recently become a favored soul, except that he isn't a caster).

3. Specific people:
- Alessandra von Albrecht: She was a necromancer raised in a family of Jasites (Wee Jas). When her child was killed as collateral damage in a war, Alessandra fell into darkness and joined a dark group of people who promised they would help resurrect her daughter. Eventually, after she herself had done horrible things like slaughter children, she came to her senses about how dark she became and sought redemption again.
She petitioned Wee Jas and her goddess gave her a new ability. Instead of corrupting dead bodies, Alessandra would take part in the management of souls. She no longer manipulates the dead, but petitions them.
She eventually found a druid to train her and gained forgiveness from the planet for dealing so greatly with corruptive energies. She now follows a path not unlike a tribal shaman, casting earth magic. Yet, she has a strong focus on working with spirits and retains her necromancer levels.
- Choriss: A tiefling forest avenger. She is significantly more feral than the average druid. Her shapeshifting is more fluid than most and she has the ability to rage like a barbarian. Word is that she learned from no master, but from the animals and the trees themselves. She is their defender and vindicator.
She grew up in a community of tieflings who hid from civilization in some near-surface caves in the mountains. Parts of the caves were exposed to the sun and they would cultivate plants there. Choriss was a gardener here, however she also made frequent jaunts out of the caves to roam the wild.
Word is she left the community when they began to do dark acts of magic, as their bloodline lends itself to...
- Lorgan Lascelles: A man of too many vices for his circle. He began thievery. He was a drunkard, and druggie, and a brawler. All temperments that his former circle did not appreciate it. They had a high philosophy of both nature AND civilization, trying to strike the balance. They respected their own bodies and believed that one of the natural laws of civilization is to not take what is not given.
- Absolam Tierning: For whatever reason, Absolam is possessed by the spirit of Etherkai the Nightmare Dragon (http://www.epicwords.com/attachments/3874). Absolam remains unaware of it's existence and may even have some amnesia surrounding the situation. Absolam has been becoming increasingly more chaotic and violent. His nights are full of nightmares. He rages against authority and anything he could interpret as "imprisoning."
It is possible that he recently raged out of control, killing people. As such, the earth has quit trusting him and removed it's power from him. He is terrified and seeks atonement, which he may or may not have found yet.

[Hudsonian]

What about a druid that has developed a love for metal. He loves the art of craftsmanship. He has seen that metal is indeed a natural part of nature.

Give him martial weapon proficiency and moon druid levels, but instead of an elemental he can turn into an Iron Golem.

[Biggstick]

Whose to say the Druids the party is trying to find are the oddballs? Maybe the clique of a Druid circle that booted them was the one with the strange goings on within it and the Druids the PC's are rounding up are the ones that got out before things got really weird.

If you're absolutely set on rounding up this Bad News Bears of a team, here are some ideas.

1. Moon Druid that doesn't speak. S/he primarily spends their time in animal form. Either find someone to translate with the Speak with Animals spells or communicate with yes/no questions. This one was removed from the circle because of his/her attempts to become the Alpha of the circle, and the constant challenges were distracting in the meetings. S/he now tends to a small amount of forest that very few animal predators seem to exist in. This one's trust or favor could be earned by doing something simple that it could not, a mouse removing a thorn from the paw of a lion.

2. A male Drow Underdark Land Druid. He's simply too different from the above ground Druid circle. This Underdark Druid still lives underground, but near an entrance to the top soil. Any characteristics you give this Druid will be interesting imo, as a male Drow Underdark Land Druid sort of speaks for itself.

3. A lazy Land Druid of any type. This Druid didn't respond to a single request of the circle out of pure laziness. S/he prefers to just lounge about, doing absolutely nothing to protect (or endanger) the world around him/her. You could give this Druid vices that draw it into town (drinking, gambling, anything really to draw the npc into town) and allows for interaction with the Druid within regular society.

[DireSickFish]

Whose to say the Druids the party is trying to find are the oddballs? Maybe the clique of a Druid circle that booted them was the one with the strange goings on within it and the Druids the PC's are rounding up are the ones that got out before things got really weird.

I'm looking for oddball ideas because what I have thus far is rather tame. A Druid of Miliki that refused to be part of the circle that included "evil" druids of the Furies. A druid of Malar that thinks the circle is weak and left to strengthen himself. Recruiting both of them provides difficult as they tend to but heads and come to blows.

An old Dwarf Druid who likes cities and civilization, who thinks druids see people as "the enemy" to often. When most just want to go out and be hermits.

Fairly vanilla stuff. Looking for some spice!




2. A male Drow Underdark Land Druid. He's simply too different from the above ground Druid circle. This Underdark Druid still lives underground, but near an entrance to the top soil. Any characteristics you give this Druid will be interesting imo, as a male Drow Underdark Land Druid sort of speaks for itself.


I like this one a lot, it also gives me a good opportunity to introduce an NPC I was having trouble making relevant to the current adventure. As shes secretly half drow but wears full body armor and a mask to disguise it from the public, and has become something of a local legend. The party had heard of her but now she can have info on his existence/location.

[Biggstick]

I'm looking for oddball ideas because what I have thus far is rather tame. A Druid of Miliki that refused to be part of the circle that included "evil" druids of the Furies. A druid of Malar that thinks the circle is weak and left to strengthen himself. Recruiting both of them provides difficult as they tend to but heads and come to blows.

Make that Druid of Malar an Elf as well, as Malar especially dislikes Elven Druids. If one were keeping tabs on that Elven Druid, some might observe that it has two strikes against it in concerns with worship of Malar. This might push it to work even harder in it's desire to prove itself worthy of Malar. (For context, Malar hates Druids because they're always protecting the weak. Elves tend to do the same thing within the forest. Combining the two makes for an interesting worshipper of Malar.)

Read up a bit on Malar and the great Hunt's his worshippers put together; it might intrigue you and create another interesting role playing opportunity for your PC's.

[CursedRhubarb]

Perhaps one of the druids they seek isn't in a secluded area or out in the wilds, but has been near them the whole time.

In the Capitol City or whatever the largest city/kingdom is for them there could be a fortune teller. No one knows where she's from but everyone agrees she's been there for generations.

Unlike other druids she has not the distaste for civilization but rather thrives in it and the creatures that live in a city, from the insects and rodents to even humans. And she exploits humanity's silly superstitions and fears to make decent coin to buy the silks and baubles that fascinate her.

She can be extremely eccentric and loves to put on a show of being a stereotypical gypsy fortune teller but is really an old moon elf land druid and over 3,000 years old with a mind as sharp as a Dagger and can give a tongue lashing worse than any whip, witnesses acan be found to latest to her shaming and telling off many a guard that tried to hassle her after a reading they didn't like. Her specialty would be scrying and healing spells and she keeps the company of about fifty housecats.

[Nemenia]

A couple of ideas:

1) Four individual Druids that each really like one season only. True Druids revel in the passing of time as a natural process, but these four Druids strive to get their respective areas to stay in the one season that the prefer. The trick would be to convince them how unnatural their ideas are and why the seasons each need to happen.

2) Second edition had a Druid kit that was a Hivemaster - a Druid with a fascination with insects of various types. Give him a spider companion, and his grove is one big spider web. Or maybe he really likes centipedes, which are just creepy, and might freak out even normal Druids.

3) Druids that represent "unnatural" areas. For instance, a Druid whose grove is in a Wild Magic area, where things warp and twist, but it's "natural" for that area now. Or a Druid who looks over one of the remaining spellscarred areas. Or a Druid whose grove is centered around a poisoned spring, who has gone a bit mad and believes it to be completely fine.

4) A Druid who believes in the life-giving power of fire, using it to cleanse areas because he believes that it causes rebirth. While many Druids are okay with a wildfire, they probably don't go around actually starting them (at least not on purpose).

5) A Druid who believes that sentient creatures are a scourge on the planet, and that they should be wiped out to allow nature to reign supreme.

Number 5 is Actually the basis for my druid character. >.> Whoops

[arrowed]

The D&D concept of the druid tends to focus a lot on the plants-and-animals side of nature, but 'nature' is pretty huge as a concept. Natural Sciences or Natural Philosophy refers to the study of just about everything that hasn't come out of a human's brain, from biology to chemistry to physics... the study of acids is natural science, and so is the study of the stars, time, gravity, everything that existed before we did.
A druid could be a druid of the stars, working with radiance and light to preserve the cycle of night and day, or a druid of time dedicated to ensuring it's smooth flow continues uninterrupted. You could have druids of entropy, druids of weather, druids of any system not created by mortals, for all of that is nature.

[JackPhoenix]

Dwarf (or whatever) druid that doesn't care for plants and animals at all, only for the unliving parts of nature: storms over his head, rocks beneath his feet, fire in the heart of mountains and the ever-changing ocean. Technically, nothing except tradition forbids druids from wearing metal armor, they won't lose their powers or anything if they wear one in 5e (though per Sage Advice, they MAY explode...)

[Temperjoke]

How about an Underdark circle Deep Gnome druid in a large city? Doesn't like people, but rather emphasizes caring for the feral animals that live in the city. Makes their home in the sewers and catacombs beneath the city. Only gets bathed when it rains at night, scavenges for food and clothing, little to no wealth or personal belongings.

[NecroDancer]

Cilia Morgan: as a Druid he spent most of his time studying bugs and spiders learning how the smallest of animals effects the world around them. Cilia has learned how to spread his mind throughout entire hives allowing him to control vast legions of insects, the drawback is that he is very scatterbrained and has little to no intrest with the rest of the world.

[lunaticfringe]

Filthy eccentric Scavenger Druid. He/she isn't Evil, but they eat people. He/she doesn't go out of their way to hunt or kill them. If they happen upon a perfectly good unclaimed corpse, they chow down. Complete lack of understanding of why that's taboo & thinks burying & burning corpses is weird. Definitely a Moon Druid, bonus points if they are a cute race like a Gnome of Halfling. Ghostwise would be good, the telepathy increases the creep factor & they get +1 Wis.

[MrStabby]

Tamaril Skygazer, renowned meteorologist.

A bit of a dreamer for a druid - tends to wildshape into birds or air elementals to get closer to the sky. Casts spells with a meteorological theme - moonbeam, sunburst, prismatic spray (rainbows), ice storm, control weather up to meteor swarm. (yeah, not the druid spell list - but you know, special snowflake and all).

[MasterMercury]

An unwilling Druid? Maybe a noble, who fell in a cave and got zapped with nature powers? Now (s)he can't control the wild shape or the spells quite right, because (s)he is unwilling to accept that this nature baloney is part of his/her life.

[lunaticfringe]

Land Druid/Warlock, kicked out for making a Pact with a Demon or something from the Far Realm. Just don't pick Fey Patron, that makes sense. Maybe a Beholder 'God'. Go Ocular Adept style, give them a 3rd Eye that shoots death lasers.

Automaton Druid, use a Warforged from the Eberron UA as a base. (Composite plating could be some sort of ceramic or enchanted wood)

[Hudsonian]

Have you ever read Animorphs? One of the characters in that series got stuck as a bird, but then later regained his ability to shapeshift, but his base form was as a bird. Maybe this would be a pretty cool way to create the backstory where, in an attempt to reverse the transition the druid circle convinced the (Now permanently) bird Druid to wildshape into it's past human form, then stole it's wild shape ability and tied it to a talisman, and kicked the druid out until it realized that it was actually in it's true and natural form.

The Druid still has all of the ticks and mannerisms of a giant eagle and occasionally sheds a feather or two. He rarely speaks and tends to make flapping motions when he gets flustered or excited. Once the party finds the talisman, and restores it to him, the druid immediately returns to it's bird form and uses a modified form of the message spell to eloquently thank the party for it's assistance and inquires how he may return the favor.

Note: this character should not be built with PC levels because that would be boring... Also really limited. Pretty much just give him whatever spells you feel like giving him, he's probably 1500 years old or so, He's probably figured out some super slick way of casting spells as a bird.

[Hudsonian]

What about a druid that realized that using nature magic was not forceful enough to keep humanity from ruining his forest home and has gone to the College of Illusory Magic to learn the skills necessary to truly convince the citizens of the local town that the forest was haunted. He has become one of the most skilled illusionist at the college, but is now engrossed with being flawless. He is a perfectionist and is sure that if he were to go back now, the townsmen would see right through his "Flawed" illusions. However, he has gotten so deep into the world of illusion that the characters must convince him that they are not his supreme illusion projecting his greatest fear. That they are, in fact, seeking his help to save the thing that he so seeks to protect.

Once he is outside of his tower, he remembers his love of the outdoors and not merely his hatred of outsiders. This gives him the anchor he needs to maintain the separation between reality and illusion.

[arrowed]

I once played a rather wacky game of 5e where the ranger died but his spider animal companion lived. To save time the spider revealed it had been intelligent all along and had 4 levels in Druid. It kept the dead rangers sword for it's own and got to wild shape into humanoids instead of beasts.

[Arkhios]

Tsk tsk. As a Finn, I couldn't help but notice the misspelling of 'Mielikki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mielikki)' as 'Miliki' (at least I assume you meant the goddess of Forgotten Realms, and that of Drizzt Do'Urden), which is directly borrowed from Finnish Mythology (which, btw, is awesome!), and as such I have incentive to correct faulty spelling. ;)

[DireSickFish]

Tsk tsk. As a Finn, I couldn't help but notice the misspelling of 'Mielikki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mielikki)' as 'Miliki' (at least I assume you meant the goddess of Forgotten Realms, and that of Drizzt Do'Urden), which is directly borrowed from Finnish Mythology (which, btw, is awesome!), and as such I have incentive to correct faulty spelling. ;)

I was doing quick and dirty google search for my spell check. I thought something looked funny. I do in fact mean Mielikki. Planning on giving her a unicorn! Party is going to need to find a virgin to lure her out so they can get a chance to talk with her. Should be fun.