DND 5e Steampunk Druid

[Tenebris86]

I have been running a homebrew steampunk setting for the past few months and we are starting a side campaign Westmarches styles for weeks when we are low on players. Anyhoo, a player is wanting to run a steampunk druid and is interested in scrapping the spellcasting. The idea is that the druid would have issue with civilization and technology throwing off the natural balance.

Any ideas on how I could help this player come up with a nice, balanced replacement for spellcasting would be awesome!

[Blackbando]

Maybe let them Wild Shape into constructs (i'm assuming since you have a homebrew steampunk setting you have more constructs than just MM) like a Moon Druid, and give them more Wild Shape uses than average?

[nickl_2000]

The challenge here is that spellcasting is central to a Druid and it's hard to remove it. You could give more Wildshape options, but doing so will give the PC and excessive amount of temp HPs making him pretty much impossible to kill.

I think you would need to re-jigger the Druid completely and make them into an shape shifter. You really need to give the Druid some other primary damage dealer since they no longer have cantrips to work from.

Level 2
Ability 1: You get Moon Druid CR transformations CR and allowing you to change as a bonus action. However, you only get your native HP pool (you don't get additional HP for transformations). You may wildshape infinite times per day. When you are calculating attacks you use your proficiency bonus + the creatures str/dex (whichever is higher). When you gain this ability you lose your ability to spell cast. You also have the ability to speak while in wildshape forms and you keep your Wis/Int/Cha/Con stats. When you wildshape, you change into a mechanical version of the beast and you get immunity to poison. You are also not subject to spells the affect beasts like in normal wildshapes.

Ability 2: You may wrap yourself in natures protection giving you a bonus to AC. You have the option of an AC calculation 10+Con+Wis

Level 6
Your natural attacks while wildshaped count as magical and all bonuses magical items you are wearing while in your humanoid form apply to your wildshaped form even if they can't be seen or naturally worn on the shape of the animal.

Level 10
You gain a construct familiar. Choose any small or tiny beast CR 1/4 or lower and you get a mechanical version of it. The familiar is immune to poison and is healed by taking lightning damage. If the familiar is destroyed it can be rebuild with 25 GP of materials over a short rest. You can communicate with the familiar telepathically and use it's senses.

Level 14
You make some mechanical modifications to your body. Your unarmed attacks get a +1 to attack and damage and you gain resistance to nonmagical damage from Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing, Fire, and Cold and you gain darkvision to 120 feet and can see through magical darkness.

Level 20 This obviously doesn't work as is, so it need something else. I think it may be best to steal from the barbarian.
You gain +2 to your Wisdom and Con and your max for these stats is 22.




There is something it is by no means perfect, but it may be a starting point that you can work from. One of the issues I see is that other than AC, your Wisdom doesn't really matter anymore. However, this may be a bonus.

[Blackbando]

Another issue with it is that they get nothing but Druidic at 1st level, and also get no features at all the normal spellcasting levels (3rd, 5th, etc.).

I don't really see why you need to scrap spellcasting, though. If I were you, I'd just fix up the spell list to be less druid-y and more metal-y (take a gander at Forge Cleric for some good ones). It'd take a lot of effort to replace spellcasting with something equal but still druid, and not make it either completely busted, or too weak.

Nickl_2000's idea is a step in the right direction, if you do continue with removing spellcasting, but we'll need to figure out 9 new features at the normal spellcasting levels.

[Amnoriath]

I have been running a homebrew steampunk setting for the past few months and we are starting a side campaign Westmarches styles for weeks when we are low on players. Anyhoo, a player is wanting to run a steampunk druid and is interested in scrapping the spellcasting. The idea is that the druid would have issue with civilization and technology throwing off the natural balance.

Any ideas on how I could help this player come up with a nice, balanced replacement for spellcasting would be awesome!

As others have said spell casting is very crucial to the druid with that being said Unearthed Arcana has given some pretty decent systems that look like magic but isn't. You could keep it spell slot progression but instead have rune like functions. Personally I wouldn't use the options in the runepriest as they are rather weak by themselves. You said you wanted to tap into ley lines or something like that. An example would be this.
Fist of Earth
As an action you can strike a square adjacent a 15 foot cone tears the ground apart any creature standing on it they must make a strength save or take 1d6 in bludgeoning damage and are rendered prone. At druid levels 5, 11, and 17 the damage die increases by one step(d8, d10, d12).
Slot expenditure: You may expend a slot as part of the action for every level of the slot add one die to the damage roll. Additionally if creatures would succeed on the save they take half damage.
Then like the runepriest attuning to them could add other abilities.

[Ashtagon]

I have been running a homebrew steampunk setting for the past few months and we are starting a side campaign Westmarches styles for weeks when we are low on players. Anyhoo, a player is wanting to run a steampunk druid and is interested in scrapping the spellcasting. The idea is that the druid would have issue with civilization and technology throwing off the natural balance.

Any ideas on how I could help this player come up with a nice, balanced replacement for spellcasting would be awesome!

(emphasis added)

If what you are looking for is a steampunk-themed druid, changing the wildshape feature to constructs only would certainly be part of the overall change needed. However, as a counterpoint, consider what I highlighted. If this is the core concept of what the player is after, then absolutely no change is needed. That is already the core point of what a druid is all about.

At most, what you'd need is to run through the druid class features, and adjust any features that absolutely require a natural vegetation environment to function, but even this only applies if the GM is certain that the campaign would not allow those features to be used at all as written (e.g., tree stride is irrelevant in a setting in which forests have been all but eliminated).

[nickl_2000]

This is still a work in progress, but it may be worth a shot. Take the urban subclass and fluff the wildshapes to be mechanical and clockwork.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SkZcdWQi0G

If you do use it let me know how it plays. I would love to hear.

[Amnoriath]

Forgive me for being blunt but don't people here understand that this druid has issue with things such as all of you are asking him to transform into? I understand steampunk usually expects those things but much of the steampunk genres out there often lace natural magic as a balancing force into the stories.

[Blackbando]

Forgive me for being blunt but don't people here understand that this druid has issue with things such as all of you are asking him to transform into?

If the druid is having issues with the natural balance being thrown off, then one could assume that he would possess powers based on whatever is overpowering nature. An oathbreaker sworn to the darkness still uses radiant damage, after all, even if he hates it.

I don't really understand any other way he could be a "Steampunk" druid, aside from maybe some sort of steam manipulation? But, that's possible with druid spellcasting already, making the request moot.

[Amnoriath]

If the druid is having issues with the natural balance being thrown off, then one could assume that he would possess powers based on whatever is overpowering nature. An oathbreaker sworn to the darkness still uses radiant damage, after all, even if he hates it.

I don't really understand any other way he could be a "Steampunk" druid, aside from maybe some sort of steam manipulation? But, that's possible with druid spellcasting already, making the request moot.

Right, but changing wild shape to allow constructs is a request against the requested concept. It is one thing well they already have it or something else has control over it but that isn't really the case here.