Spell research: refluffing help needed!

[WarKitty]

So I'm a devoted druid player. I've been thinking, wouldn't it be cool to research a few spells for myself? Nothing gamebreaking, of course, and I'm willing to pay the spell research costs.

My problem is, sitting around in a library or a lab just doesn't seem like a druid-y thing to do. So here's my challenge to you playgrounders: Come up with a good way to re-fluff the 1000 gold and 1 week per level requirement so it fits with a druid.

[PId6]

Making huge $$$ donations to environmental protection organizations until your deity (or nature itself) gives you the spell you want? They are divine casters after all.

[WarKitty]

Making huge $$$ donations to environmental protection organizations until your deity (or nature itself) gives you the spell you want? They are divine casters after all.

I'm not sure the EPA has been invented yet. I like the idea of a donation but I'm not sure what a nature-worshiping panentheistic (no that is not a spelling error) would donate to.

[arguskos]

To the local druid circle, or the local branch of the church of the god of nature, obviously! They both need funds for certain things, such as for the purchase of resources they can't grow (not everything grows everywhere, after all) or for the hiring of mercenaries to help protect them in hard times when orcs and worse close in around them (which happens a lot, after all).

Perhaps the things you need to research the spell (holy texts, special oinments that are expensive to produce, etc) cost money.

[WarKitty]

To the local druid circle, or the local branch of the church of the god of nature, obviously! They both need funds for certain things, such as for the purchase of resources they can't grow (not everything grows everywhere, after all) or for the hiring of mercenaries to help protect them in hard times when orcs and worse close in around them (which happens a lot, after all).

Perhaps the things you need to research the spell (holy texts, special oinments that are expensive to produce, etc) cost money.

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately I'm stuck in a world where druids are always loners and there really are no established nature deities.

[arguskos]

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately I'm stuck in a world where druids are always loners and there really are no established nature deities.

Then the reagents and access to texts concerning both the effect you're trying to create and the magical theory behind it cost money to buy/access. Now, if those are free (possible, since everything else seems to be a no-fly), then we've got issues, since I dunno what else might work.

[WarKitty]

Then the reagents and access to texts concerning both the effect you're trying to create and the magical theory behind it cost money to buy/access. Now, if those are free (possible, since everything else seems to be a no-fly), then we've got issues, since I dunno what else might work.

Might be an idea. I think I'm mostly having trouble envisioning a druid spending a bunch of time perusing magical texts in an old library. Although I suppose there might be some rare works in the druidic language. Reagents, now...there's a good idea I hadn't thought of. Maybe you have to obtain so many GP worth of magical plants.

[Wonton]

Hm. My idea is that your druid has to find a powerful area/object of nature magic, and then make some sort of sacrifice (that has monetary value equal to 1000 gp/spell level) so that the area/object grants him the new spell. The remoteness explains the several weeks this research can take.

Examples:

• An ancient tree that has guarded its forest from those who would defile it for millenia. You must bury X thousand gold pieces among its roots, and it will grant you the spell.
  
• A deep cavern, that can only be entered by crawling along hundreds' of miles of narrow tunnels. Once there, you have to "reunite" X 1000-gp rubies with the earth by throwing them into a very deep pit.
  
• Same as the last one, except it's a cave under the ocean, and you use Pearls.

[arguskos]

Might be an idea. I think I'm mostly having trouble envisioning a druid spending a bunch of time perusing magical texts in an old library. Although I suppose there might be some rare works in the druidic language. Reagents, now...there's a good idea I hadn't thought of. Maybe you have to obtain so many GP worth of magical plants.

Well, unless your druid has an encyclopedic knowledge of magical theory and can spin magic like a potter spins clay, it's likely he's gonna need to look stuff up somewhere. Perhaps access to an enchanted grove, where the fundamental nature of magic is inscribed upon the very trees themselves? Spin it however ya like, but it makes sense that you'll need to double check with someone at some point to make sure you actually CAN do X or whatever.

[Magic Myrmidon]

1000 gold for some kind of salve/potion/something that heightens one's awareness, then spending a week in the woods after using it? You spend time meditating, contemplating, etc, and you gain a deep understanding of the spell and its use at the end of the week.

Maybe.

[WarKitty]

Hmmm...now I'm thinking focus stones maybe. With the rarity of the needed stone dependent on the power of the spell of course.

[Quietus]

Hm. My idea is that your druid has to find a powerful area/object of nature magic, and then make some sort of sacrifice (that has monetary value equal to 1000 gp/spell level) so that the area/object grants him the new spell. The remoteness explains the several weeks this research can take.

Examples:

• An ancient tree that has guarded its forest from those who would defile it for millenia. You must bury X thousand gold pieces among its roots, and it will grant you the spell.
  
• A deep cavern, that can only be entered by crawling along hundreds' of miles of narrow tunnels. Once there, you have to "reunite" X 1000-gp rubies with the earth by throwing them into a very deep pit.
  
• Same as the last one, except it's a cave under the ocean, and you use Pearls.

I'd go with something along these lines. Very flavorful, I like it a lot. Plus, it gives you a quest - and you can combine it with one of the ones further down, sense-enhancing reagents/whatever, and a boatload of meditation, so that instead of burying gold under a tree, you're spending X weeks meditating under it.

[WarKitty]

Yeah I'm thinking of working with Dr. Wonton's idea here. Will obviously have to run it past my DM, but it shouldn't be a problem.

[CrazedMalarite]

Initial research of spells requires rare herbs/leaves/fur/whatever which is very expensive and hard to get. As you start to understand the magic at work, you are able to do it yourself without relying on the 'crutch' provided by the reagent.

Not exactly the same, but meh...

[fryplink]

Meditation, and giving back to nature, your character meditates and is given a vision, the vision is of the druid doing something, say sanctifying a burned portion of forest with expensive incense, pushing the taint of {insert setting specific evil here} for a period.

In exchange nature gives you a second vision during meditation afterwards. The vision is the new spell