Completed classes I have yet to generate a subclass for:
Barbarian,
One down, four to go!
A really interesting thing about subclasses in 5e is the very different conceptual space each of them take up. A rogue, for example, mostly gets abilities in their subclasses that work to further the fluff of being a rogue, as the majority of their crunch and damage progression comes from the class itself.
Dramatically less so with the druid. Most of what makes up a Druid Circle is entirely crunch, with fluff taking a back seat. Indeed, most of a druid's progression beyond base spellcasting and cantrips comes from their choice of circle, be that damage progression from the Land's spell slots, Moon's forms, or Twilight's damage scaling, or healing progression as with the Dream's definitely-not-lay-on-hands.
One of the trickier parts of formulating a druid is inserting fluff alongside necessary crunch. A Druid Circle may have fluff, but it also absolutely has to have a Thing It Does that no other Druid Circle does. So much of the design space in terms of crunch is already well-occupied, leading one to have to be pretty creative when making an entirely new type of druid.
FEATURES:
- Have a street-based familiar, including pigeons and raccoons! No one should have to face the mean streets of a city by their lonesome.
- Use your familiar to fortify your allies, but good luck convincing the party cleric to let a raccoon climb all over her.
- City-based spellcasting, giving you an assortment of city spells, similar to what a land druid receives.
- Push through crowds effortlessly, and take the faces of those you have seen. Not in a literal sense, more in an expend-two-uses-of-wild-shape sense.
- Be one with the city itself, and learn to commune with it as you would nature.
CONCERNS:
- Some of this is intentionally derivative of the Land druid, as I intended this as a sort of counterpoint to its wild-based magic. Don't want it to be too much of a knock-off, though.
- The pigeon's Natural Messenger ability may be a little powerful, but eyeballing it I don't find it to be much worse than a raven's mimicry.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- A whole lot, actually. Designing druids is very difficult for similar reasons as wizards, because what has already been done with the class crunch-wise (including UA) is already very comprehensive, but there's still a little wiggle-room left that can be elaborated upon.
The hobo druid we didn't know we needed! Great job, as always! There's a lot of room to create different characters, from the a "trash witch", similar to Holly Conrad's Strix on DCA; to evil druids, like spies and assassins in the style of the Faceless Men from Game of Thrones.
ReplyDeleteIt's also nice to see the Companion option for a Druid again, in the form of the familiar...
There's a mechanic that I saw used on Critical Role, but can't remember the origin for it, or if it's a spell or feature... Keyleth, a Druid of the Moon, used it to make the plants in a small area grow at a much faster rate, recovering an area that was under the effects of a White Dragon... I wonder if a Druid of the City could use that to affect a neighborhood in a similar way.
>It's also nice to see the Companion option for a Druid again, in the form of the familiar...
DeleteSort of wish there was a core ability for the druid to have a companion. Something like the warlock pact boon, but for druids, would be nice.
>make the plants in a small area grow at a much faster rate
The spell Plant Growth is definitely what you're after. Has options to be cast as either a 1 action or 8 hour spell, and the 8 hour version appears to be what you're describing.
I also like the idea of a city druid as a sort of urban forester, encouraging tree growth, urban gardening, and (probably) sustainable farmer's markets. The introduction of the living, green element into what would otherwise be urban deserts is what this class option is all about.
Man, I'm feeling an Inquisitive or Mastermind Rogue multiclass with this Druid for quite an interesting character. Druid/Rogue by itself is already interesting, but I feel like this lends itself to a little more of a roguish Druid. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that may warrant clarification, though, is the pigeon's Natural Messenger doesn't necessarily specify if the pigeon returns during the rest. Also, after reviewing this a bit more I noticed a typo on the first line of the same ability, "The over the course..."
Good catches on Natural Messenger, both should (hopefully) be fixed if you refresh the page.
DeleteCreating Druid subclasses is always more work than creating most subclasses, I agree. Back when I was working on a necromancy supplement (which I /really/ should finish), I made a voodoo style Circle of the Loa which was focused on potions and speaking to the dead and it ended up taking up a page and a half on homebrewery without any art and barely any fluff text.
ReplyDeleteIt's on page 3 if you want to see it: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyXh5XIKLl
Wonderful to see an actual druidic companion. Because it works off find familiar, it's not too bad. In fact, strictly speaking, it's inferior to find familiar because of the loss of the ability to shuffle it away into the extradimension space and the fact that beast is a "worse" keyword than fiend/celestial/fey (most of the time).
I'd like to see some kind of health scaling on the familiar. The familiar cannot attack so it wouldn't be overpowered but the issue is that most of the familiars under find familiar have very little health - I don't think any of them break 15 health points.
So once you get to higher levels your familiar will be dying a LOT. I'd say that past level 11, pretty much very AoE will be able to annihilate your little friend. This would be annoying enough but it's even worse for our friendly neighbourhood hobo because most of his abilities key off his familiar.
I'd say give the creature a new hit die every other druid level. It'll be 1d4 hp so it's not going to make your familiar unkillable.
Streetwise survival doesn't really make up for the familiar's poor survival at higher levels because the ability encourages you to sacrifice the temporary HP for other people.
However, I do really like the ability itself. Like some kind of fuzzy guardian angel.
The list of spells they get is pretty good too. It's a nice blend of utility. The lack of outright harming spells is nice because it reinforces the theme this circle has of protection and growth.
Part of the crowd is nice (I feel like you should change the name to Part the Crowd and be an urban Moses). The ability to move through people's spaces is handy but the bit I really like is the ability to wildshape into other humanoid's appearances. That's a completely different use than "hulk out as a bear or hulk out as a GIANT ELEMENTAL".
Commune with city is really cool but I don't get why it gives advantage on insight checks against lies or resistance to psychic damage. Mechanically I don't mind, it's not that powerful for 10th level, but it just doesn't make any sense fluff wise. Are the buildings whispering secrets to me and protecting my mind?
Friend of the People is...mental. Not overpowered but it's basically an always on sanctuary that allows you to hit back.
"I can't hit him, he's the sweet old hobo, you can't hit the-"
*Sounds of man being hit by shillelagh*
"Can't...beat the hobo..."
I agree with you that familiars should scale more, but that's honestly more of a problem with the Find Familiar spell itself, as opposed to this particular subclass. I think it's nicely balanced by the fact that you don't have to "recast" Find Familiar for 50 gp, but instead you just spend a short rest with the body, or a long rest and deal with the disadvantage on ability checks for the one day to get your buddy back.
DeleteI quite like Commune With City, honestly. You have to read a bit more into it than some things, but the advantage to discern lies is like the guy that's lived in the city for so long (with the concentration of people that it has) that they've learned to sniff out lies. Resistance to psychic could be similar to being slightly numb to the plights of the city, though I don't know if that explanation fits with the feel of this Druid. I'll admit that one is a smidge harder to explain, but I still feel like it fits thematically. I believe it's hearkening to the immunity to poison and disease that Land Druid gets.
Friend of the People is a direct conversion of Nature's Sanctuary from Land Druid, but I do agree with your assessment of it, and I actually feel like both abilities should probably have a "unless you harm it in some way" clause.
@ Isaac Sasquatch
Delete>I'd like to see some kind of health scaling on the familiar.
>Streetwise survival doesn't really make up for the familiar's poor survival at higher levels because the ability encourages you to sacrifice the temporary HP
I'd say it encourages finding a balance, really, but I might exempt the familiar from area effect attacks just to make it that much harder to double-dip on the tHP.
>Commune with city is really cool ... but it just doesn't make any sense fluff wise
Yeah, I definitely need to boost the fluff. I should also take out the bit about lie detection, I think. I wanted to illustrate that druids of this Circle "know people" well, but I don't know that I have the fluff to back it up on CwC.
>Friend of the People is...mental. Not overpowered but it's basically an always on sanctuary that allows you to hit back.
Hah, fair point. I intended it to mirror the Circle of the Land's effects against plants and beasts, but humanoid is definitely a more common type of creature, and much more able to reason.
Might have to workshop this one a bit more.
@ Vileo Sufora
Delete>Commune with City
You've more or less got the flavor on the nose there, except for psychic resist. My intent there was to call upon the collective mental strength of the people for support, but I realize that has zero written fluff supporting it.
And yep, you're right: like a lot of features of this Circle, the psychic resist is supposed to be a counterpoint to what Circle of the Land offers.
>Friend of the People is a direct conversion of Nature's Sanctuary from Land Druid, but I do agree with your assessment of it, and I actually feel like both abilities should probably have a "unless you harm it in some way" clause.
That'd be smart, but unable to change official work as I am, I think I'd much rather just do a full rework on Friend of the People. There are probably more flavorful things I could slot in at that level.
I just have to think of them first!
"I'd say it encourages finding a balance, really, but I might exempt the familiar from area effect attacks just to make it that much harder to double-dip on the tHP."
DeleteThat would go a fair way to helping the fuzzy critter I think.
Still, the issue with 'finding the balance' is that the balancing is basically not using your ability.
" My intent there was to call upon the collective mental strength of the people for support"
If that's the case, you could mention something about drawing on the spirit of the city.