How to fake being a druid?

[Unoriginal]

Imagine that a character has to pretend they're a Druid in order to progress in a mission, with a whole group to help them.

Aside from putting the best actor of the group in the role of the druid, I thought that having a Sorcerer use Subtle Spell + Polymorph to fake the Shapechange ability would be a good start. Using illusions to fake summoning fairies and animals could work, too, and of course some magic items help duplicating the Druidic fair (like the Staff of the Woodland).

Any ideas on what else to do?

[LibraryOgre]

What level range are you looking at? A sorcerer seems like a good place. You might also be able to get some mileage out of a Fey Warlock.

[Aett_Thorn]

Fey or Celestial Pact of the Tome Warlock. Take Druid cantrips and rituals, the Beast Speech and Sculptor of Flesh Invocations to mimic some Druid abilities. Should get you close enough.

[Reynaerde]

A bard with a Fochlucan Bandore might be a good place to start. Add some illussions, Polymorph and their natural charm (pun intended) and you are done!

[OldTrees1]

Know Slyvan / Primordial + 1 obscure language like Deep Speech. Only a "fellow" druid would recognize you don't know Druidic.

[nickl_2000]

Would it be cheating for a Ranger to just pretend to be a lower level Druid? I mean, they have the spells and can use Druid weapons/armor already.

[Kyutaru]

Tell everyone you're shy about wild shaping so they need to close their eyes. Then Sleight of Hand your pet chipmunk onto the floor while using that high Stealth score and ventriloquism lessons to hide from sight. Since the highest passive Perception is the cleric's and you easily dwarf his MAD allocation, you remain undetected and the party talks to your trained animal that is currently licking his own feet.

[TigerT20]

Nature clerics are just druids that can't wild shape.

Hell, at higher levels you could use Divine Intervention to ask for Polymorphs/Wild Shapes.

[Naanomi]

A one level ranger dip gets you Favored Enemy: Plants, which gets you Druidic language

[NorthernPhoenix]

I'll agree that knowing druidic is generally the easiest way.

[Joe the Rat]

Fey or Celestial Pact of the Tome Warlock. Take Druid cantrips and rituals, the Beast Speech and Sculptor of Flesh Invocations to mimic some Druid abilities. Should get you close enough.


A one level ranger dip gets you Favored Enemy: Plants, which gets you Druidic language

Two of my favorites here.

Feylock can cover everything but healing, Cellock can cover everything except faerie fire. Tomelock gets you thorn whip and/or shillelagh. Anylock gets you Beast Speech and Misty Visions ("Wildshape? okay." <cast MV over yourself> "Grr, I'm a bear.") Or Vicissitude if you're up enough.

Ranger gets you closest fastest, if you don't mind being a low-ranking member. Although that is a bigger question - are you trying to fake being a Druid as a class, or Druid as a member of an order? While there's a lot of overlap, the emphasis on ability vs knowledge might be relevant.

[Unoriginal]

Two of my favorites here.

Feylock can cover everything but healing, Cellock can cover everything except faerie fire. Tomelock gets you thorn whip and/or shillelagh. Anylock gets you Beast Speech and Misty Visions ("Wildshape? okay." <cast MV over yourself> "Grr, I'm a bear.") Or Vicissitude if you're up enough.

And Eyes of the Rune Keeper let you read Druidic, if not speak it, in case you don't want a Ranger multiclass.


Although that is a bigger question - are you trying to fake being a Druid as a class, or Druid as a member of an order? While there's a lot of overlap, the emphasis on ability vs knowledge might be relevant.

Good question. The concept I had in mind was the BBEG being in need of a druid or several, and taking advantage of a druidic gathering to kidnap them (kind of like in Asterix). Or trick them into helping, if that option takes less effort. Then I wondered how a group of PCs could get a non-druid in the gathering and fool everyone, so that they can follow the BBEG's forces after the plan is enacted (presumably with the fake druid among the kidnapped ones).

But yes for a character concept, Ranger 1/Warlock with the Charlatant background do seems like the simplest/most efficient fake Druid.

[JackPhoenix]

Good question. The concept I had in mind was the BBEG being in need of a druid or several, and taking advantage of a druidic gathering to kidnap them (kind of like in Asterix). Or trick them into helping, if that option takes less effort. Then I wondered how a group of PCs could get a non-druid in the gathering and fool everyone, so that they can follow the BBEG's forces after the plan is enacted (presumably with the fake druid among the kidnapped ones).

But yes for a character concept, Ranger 1/Warlock with the Charlatant background do seems like the simplest/most efficient fake Druid.

Well, that's easy: convince a known druid to vouch for them, or, less reliably, disguise themselves as a known druid. It sounds like the druids are organized, which means they know each other, so a stranger would be suspicious even if he has druidic powers. I doubt the druids have to show off with wildshape and summoning animals before they are allowed entry.

[Unoriginal]

Well, that's easy: convince a known druid to vouch for them, or, less reliably, disguise themselves as a known druid. It sounds like the druids are organized, which means they know each other, so a stranger would be suspicious even if he has druidic powers. I doubt the druids have to show off with wildshape and summoning animals before they are allowed entry.

Well showing off is kinda the goal of the gathering.

The idea is less "all the druid are organized" and more "Druid convention", if you will. Sure there are known faces, and friends-of-a-friend types of recognition, but not a list of expected attendees.

Of course it's true it would be far simpler to have an actual Druid help out, either by having one in the group or one as an ally, but I was thinking about how to make it fun for those who didn't have either.

[kazaryu]

Well showing off is kinda the goal of the gathering.

The idea is less "all the druid are organized" and more "Druid convention", if you will. Sure there are known faces, and friends-of-a-friend types of recognition, but not a list of expected attendees.

Of course it's true it would be far simpler to have an actual Druid help out, either by having one in the group or one as an ally, but I was thinking about how to make it fun for those who didn't have either.

so, first of all, if this is meant to be an NPC there's no reason to limit yourself to PC classes and building a character that way. So instead of discussing PC style builds, imma focus on talking about the things you'd need.

first off, as has been mentioned, druidic. its their shibboleth. if you can't understand it then they know right away. (or you need to come up with an excuse fast). Comprehend languages is a 1st level ritual spell that lasts an hour. Combined with some ability to subltly cast it means that you always know whats being said to/around you, without them realizing it. obviously this leaves you vulnerable to suspicion if someone happens to cast detect magic. but, well, if there was no chance of the dude failing, then there's no need to worry about it. you just say that he's accepted as a druid and be done with it. so comprehend languages.

Now, the second part is actually being able to speak druidic. Depending on how your table runs it, the tongues spell also lasts an hour, and could potentially make it appear that your speaking druidic. alternatively you can create a spell/ability that allows you to speak and have your words heard in a specific language of your choosing. Or alternatively, again depending on how you flavor it, give this character telepathy. let him speak mentally. Maybe he 'suffered some kind of tragic accident when he was a child'. or maybe he was born mute. at least...thats what he tells the people. either way these are some fairly solid options for how to fake the biggest proofs of druidhood. Just hope noone asks you to write in it...

Lastly, and this part has largely been covered, you may need ot be able to imitate some druid abilities. don't worry specifically about wildshape, why? not all druids can do it. all PC druids can. but not all druids (the culture) are Druids (the class) that'd be like saying that all soldiers and guardsman are Fighters. its silly. In fact don't worry about any 'Key signature abilities'. they don't exist unilatteraly across the culture. they're explicitly PC abilities. this opens up plenty of possibilities. instead focus on the abilites that you *can* fake easily. any arcane caster is able to manipulate the elements. which is also a druid thing. That'd probably be a good place to start. Then your BBEG just needs to be good enough at lying. 'yah, i just felt a stronger connection to the fire plane, so rather than develop all those natury spells i focus on the fire ones.'.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Imagine that a character has to pretend they're a Druid in order to progress in a mission, with a whole group to help them.

Aside from putting the best actor of the group in the role of the druid, I thought that having a Sorcerer use Subtle Spell + Polymorph to fake the Shapechange ability would be a good start. Using illusions to fake summoning fairies and animals could work, too, and of course some magic items help duplicating the Druidic fair (like the Staff of the Woodland).

Any ideas on what else to do?


Well showing off is kinda the goal of the gathering.

The idea is less "all the druid are organized" and more "Druid convention", if you will. Sure there are known faces, and friends-of-a-friend types of recognition, but not a list of expected attendees.

Of course it's true it would be far simpler to have an actual Druid help out, either by having one in the group or one as an ally, but I was thinking about how to make it fun for those who didn't have either.

I'm going to assume no one is going to tailor their build to it, so no taking ranger for favored enemy plant for druidic language proficiency for instance. I'm also going to assume that at this convention there's not really a security checkpoint or such where they check your core class abilities, but there will be loads of druids and several of them will try speaking to a new face. Unless you can somehow fake speaking druidic, your best chance may be to send an animal, with the unvoiced suggestion that that beast walking in to the tent of great secrets is of course simply a wild shaped druid. I mean, what else could it be?

So, wait, how do you send an animal to do an infiltrator rogue/bards job? Polymorph would work, if you have access to it. But let's say you're not high enough level for that. One approach would be to merely disguise someone as an animal. Dress the barbarian up as an ape or a bear or something. But they're druids, they'll see right through that, perception uses their casting stat and they probably get advantage for being druids and having the nature skill. The second option would be to try an "Odysseus", send the fighter's warhorse with someone hanging underneath it, maybe hiding under a blanket draped over the animal's back or under fake hair or such. Odds are that at least one druid will still cast speak with animals or similar to converse with their colleague though, and the stupid horse, not knowing what your plan is, will give you away. So the most likely version of this to work is to find not just an animal friendly to you but also someone who can cast speak to animals and explain it to them. In fact, familiars get a psychic connection to their master right? One of those would be perfect, if you have one. They'll appear a tad stupid during conversation, but hopefully not enough to set off any alarm bells. Intelligence is a common dump stat for druids (and everyone else) after all. (And if you don't have a familiar in the party someone might have been thinking about getting one through the magic initiate feat anyway, because they're useful allround and the feat gives you two bonus cantrips to boot.)



A less involved and quite possibly funnier option is to send someone who stares and wonders at everything wide eyed. It's their first time here, they're an apprentice, and their master is around here somewhere. I think she went that way, I'll go look for her right away. A side effect of this is that anyone who does catch on and realizes you don't belong here will likely instinctively still treat you as a very low level character because that's how you present yourself, giving you a reasonable chance to deal with them at least fight your way out of there.

[Wraith]

Feylock can cover everything but healing, Cellock can cover everything except faerie fire. Tomelock gets you thorn whip and/or shillelagh. Anylock gets you Beast Speech and Misty Visions ("Wildshape? okay." <cast MV over yourself> "Grr, I'm a bear.") Or Vicissitude if you're up enough.

I think the problem with this is that Arcana is a class skill for Druids - it's purpose is to "check your ability to recall lore about spells, magic items, eldritch symbols, (and) magical traditions".

Admittedly it's an INT skill which many Druids dump, but all they need is one good roll and they'll immediately know that Silent Image isn't a Druid spell, and that it certainly isn't the same thing as Wild Shape.
Being able to cast non-Druid spells isn't automatically a deal breaker if you have a decent CHA and maybe proficiency in Deception from your background to convince them that you multiclassed, but getting caught using it to pretend to Wild Shape is not going to end well!

I think the only way to get around this would be as a Sorcerer with Subtle Spell and hope that no one realises you have even cast anything, or by having another source of non-spell based shapechanging available to you - Changeling or Shifter race, maybe? Or maybe being something like an Aasimar and pretending that your wings are a partial-change of some kind?

[Sigreid]

Who are they trying to trick? How much do the people they want to trick know about druids?

[Willie the Duck]

PC #1: "Oh my <deity>! There's a huge army of <enemies> coming this way. Quick, hide the bodies of the scouting party we just killed, and put on their chainmail. We'll pretend to be them and try to get the drop on the main group."
PC #2: "No."
Everyone else: "Yep, that's a druid..."
:smalltongue:

[Unoriginal]

Who are they trying to trick?

A bunch of druids and bad guys looking to get a powerful druid or several by any means they can afford.



How much do the people they want to trick know about druids?

Well the druids are druids, the bad guys have a general idea on the kind of traits and powers druids have but aren't experts on the question. At least one will be proficient in Arcana though.

[Willie the Duck]

Well the druids are druids, the bad guys have a general idea on the kind of traits and powers druids have but aren't experts on the question. At least one will be proficient in Arcana though.

Then this is going to depend a huge amount on what the DM rules this skill can detect. If Arcana can differentiate (for example), a druid casting goodberry and a ranger casting goodberry, then suddenly the best answer to pretending to be a druid is to pretend to be a druid who never casts spells in front of anyone, and figure out a way for that to not be suspicious. Why do they not cast goodberry? Well, they aren't hungry. Why are they not passing without a trace? Because they want to be noticed. Why are they not using Druidcraft to light their campfire? Why because their grandpappy taught them how to use flint and steel and by golly who are you to tell them that's wrong? Perhaps this druid was taught that magic was a dangerous primeval force, one which you should never use lightly, and until the effluence hits the air-mover, they are simply going to be a guy in hide with a scimitar who speaks a certain language, and puts forth certain principles.

[NontheistCleric]

True Polymorph into an NPC druid?

[Sigreid]

I might turn it into perfomance/persuasion/religion roles at various points

[JackPhoenix]

PC #1: "Oh my <deity>! There's a huge army of <enemies> coming this way. Quick, hide the bodies of the scouting party we just killed, and put on their chainmail. We'll pretend to be them and try to get the drop on the main group."
PC #2: "No."
Everyone else: "Yep, that's a druid..."
:smalltongue:

"I used to be a druid like you, but then I put on a chain shirt once".