Need ideas for my druidic focus

[Redhood101]

I'm making a reborn druid, circle of spores, and I am going for a really creepy character. A rotting corpse piloted by a plant that lives inside it and is the one actually controlling it. But I'm feeling stumped on what I should flavor my druidic as. I want something as creepy and unsettling as my character.

[Dualight]

A humanoid skull overgrown by fungi?
An ant that has a Cordyceps mushroom growing out of it.

Any other parasitic fungus could serve as inspiration.
Are you sure your character is a plant, or might you be a fungus in denial/ignorance?

EDIT: In my rush to help, I forgot to mention that it is quite the creative character concept. Have you thought about the how and why of the plant's existence?
You could go in a lot of different directions with the backstory. Are you natural, are you made in a mad experiment, is extraplanar influence to blame etc.

[Abracadangit]

I'm making a reborn druid, circle of spores, and I am going for a really creepy character. A rotting corpse piloted by a plant that lives inside it and is the one actually controlling it. But I'm feeling stumped on what I should flavor my druidic as. I want something as creepy and unsettling as my character.

Great concept!

So exactly what kind of magical plant are you, with this character? Are you sort of like a sapling growing inside the corpse, who manipulates the body with a network of gnarled roots and twisting branches? Are you more of a creepy undead flower, where the corpse's movements leave behind a trail of ghostly petals? Or are you more of a fantasy-themed cordyceps (which sounds kind of like the inspiration), with fungal stalks and mushrooms growing out of the corpse's skin?

I would think that the answer to your question would change depending on which option you pick, since each option is associated with different thematic elements & fluff. For example, the floral option might work with a large flower that only unfurls its petals when you cast spells, filling the air with necromantic pollen, or if you go the fungal route, maybe your focus is a lantern-like container with a big stalk of your fungus sitting inside like incense, and when you open it to cast spells, clouds of spores stream out of it like smoke.

But! If you're just going for creepiness factor over flavor, then some generally sinister concepts might include:
--The head/hand/other disembodied part of your original victim before hopping to your current host; maybe the cruel person that created you?
--A small animal/creature corpse that you sprang from initially, still choked by your roots/leaves/mushrooms/whatever. Maybe since you're magical, the thing you sprang from was magical also -- dead fairy/embalmed dryad's heart/etc.

I think the one trouble with finding a good focus for the concept is that since you yourself are a sort of creepy, undead, magical plant, the question is why do you need a focus, right. Your character seems more like an entity where the magic is flowing directly from you as opposed to being channeled from spirits/nature gods/nature personified, as most druids are. You might ask your DM if, in lieu of a focus, is it okay if the plant inside in the corpse IS the focus, and much like how a focus can be knocked from a character's hand, if you, the plant, are knocked out of the corpse, it would effectively nullify your magic powers until you can be returned to your host. But that might be a level of character complexity that your DM isn't up for, in which case I say go for the embalmed dryad's heart or the cordyceps incense.

I know I already said this, but I think it's an awesome concept. Just wanted to say that again.

[Psyren]

+1 to the coolness of your concept.

Remember a druidic focus doesn't have to be a plant at all - you can have a totem or fetish made of bones, teeth, skin etc. For a plant with such disdain over fauna as to be piloting one of them around I could see using even more human(?) remains in this way.

[JellyPooga]

I love this concept! It really leans into the Circle of Spores and is awesomely creepy besides.

I might look toward witchcraft in its many forms for inspiration, from voodoo/hoodoo to Russian folk-lore:
- Preserved body parts: a shrunken head, a chicken-claw wand, a knotwork fetish of the sinew of your enemies, an embalmed rat.
- Swamp things: a sodden vine rope/whip, a maggoty rotten staff adorned with a horned pig skull, an iron-thorn briar mancala that draws ichorus blood from your host-corpse every time you use it.
- The living, the dead...or something in between: an undead piece of your hosts brain in a jar that psychically whispers undreamed horrors telepathically to anyone that strays near, elevating to a chittering cacophony in the minds of your enemies whenever you cast a spell, driving all who spend much time with you slowly and irreversibly insane to the point of accepting your abomination of an existence as acceptable, normal or even desirable...

[Joe the Rat]

I'm going to second Psyren's animal-based totem approach. One of my favorite (if short-lived) druid characters had a necklace of carved nature spirit totems for his focus. Having carved bone totems would be much the same, only less woody.

As another idea, you could have some sort of trinity focus, parts bringing together the three forms of life (plant, animal, fungus) - a briarwood cane or staff growing shelves of fungi at the head, and a decorative piece from bone, or a couple of feather tokens bound by sinew and leather. Or go life-by-element: feather (air), wood (water), shroom (earth), humanoid bits (fire - as fire users).


But I'm feeling stumped I don't know if that was intentional, but :smallamused:

[Psyren]

What I like about the skin/teeth idea is that it definitely plays into your desire for a horror element. Lots of druids probably wave a mushroom or thorny vine around, but how many have a ripped-off human face as their focus? And your "plant" can see absolutely nothing weird about it whenever anyone expresses revulsion; they're just "using every part of the animal" the way druids should be.



I don't know if that was intentional, but :smallamused:

How did I miss that :smallbiggrin:

[JLandan]

Human remains or fetishes, always nice and creepy.

I was thinking, since you're a plant at heart (and I assume the plant part keeps the human part from decomposing in some way), maybe the druidic focus could be some part of yourself. Others have suggested fungi of some sort, but what about a flower or fruit that you pull out of yourself and have to occasionally replenish due to rot and wilting. Not as creepy as fungus, but if played right it could be.

The flowers could have faces of people you've done in, like Audrey II. The fruit could be rotten and smelly or have anthropomorphic characteristics.

[Segev]

I'm making a reborn druid, circle of spores, and I am going for a really creepy character. A rotting corpse piloted by a plant that lives inside it and is the one actually controlling it. But I'm feeling stumped on what I should flavor my druidic as. I want something as creepy and unsettling as my character.

This uses a +1 Druidic Focus and a Clockwork Amulet as its base, but it might serve your purpose:

Stake of the Gulthias Tree

This oversized wooden stake can serve as a club or a wooden dagger. Extracted from a tree that grew from a stake that slew the vampire Gulthias, this +1 druidic focus demands at least one drop of humanoid blood after each sunset, or it will not function until it is fed. Once after each sunset (after it has been fed), its attuned owner can forego an attack roll when making an attack, instead acting as if he had rolled a 10 on the die. In addition, once per sunset, it will permit the attuned druid to wild shape when the druid's uses are exhausted.

[Athan Artilliam]

A small jar of humanoid blood
A bit of tarnished silver from the earth
A wooden athame
A cobblestone torn from the town you are in or road you are traveling on at the time (like a druid who gathers herbs from where ever they go
A skeletal hand bound into a painful pose that is a druids rune

[nickl_2000]

-A Witcher's jar that is slowly filled with a drop of blood from each victim you beat in combat
-A dreamcatcher that is constantly being re-woven by a spider

[Rashagar]

That's an amazing character idea!

I've only got a couple of thoughts:

Your focus could be a part of yourself that you've grown in response to seeing the creatures you're adventuring with using tools. You just assume that your flesh suit is missing a bit.

Your focus is the part of you that allows you to propagate, and you refer to all of your magical effects as your children.

Something relatively mundane but flipping the roles. Eg. A normal druid might have a wreath of laurel. You could have a wreath of fingernails.