Elemental druid and tweaks

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Any delver who can use the starting 250 point template to get Create Animal-20 (free SM 0 animals essentially all the time...

All the time that they are in wilderness. Remember, towns and dungeons (90% of the PC inhabited space) are -1 to -3 Nature's Strength, which impacts casting and maintenance costs.

... and free SM +1 animals like karkadanns and grizzlies and tigers whenever you're in nature, after you track down suitable animals with the appropriate spells) cannot possibly be the weakest archetype.

With skill level 25 and as long as they park their butt in that Primeval pristine never before touched by civilized people wilderness. And then don't leave it. Have fun finding a "dungeon" there... and once your buddies are done setting up camp and chopping down trees for campfires...

I wasn't impressed with Druids until I took a close look at their spell list, then wow. They are definitely a force multiplier.

They can be a good "minion master" or utility/support caster when they're in their own element, which will not be very often unless the game is a wilderness hex crawl. If the campaign is wilderness hex crawl they can come into their own, but even then, I'd rather roll Cleric with an agricultural/animal "house-ruled"* lens, just for the healing.

* Imported from Dungeon Fantasy 7 Clerics.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Any delver who can use the starting 250 point template to get Create Animal-20 (free SM 0 animals essentially all the time, and free SM +1 animals like karkadanns and grizzlies and tigers whenever you're in nature, after you track down suitable animals with the appropriate spells)

Originally Posted by mburr0003

All the time that they are in wilderness. Remember, towns and dungeons (90% of the PC inhabited space) are -1 to -3 Nature's Strength, which impacts casting and maintenance costs.

Right, that's why distinguished between nature and other times. Even in town when you're at -3, you've still got Create Animals-17, and can therefore maintain as many SM 0 animals like black bears and rat swarms as you can cast. I just said more about this in the other thread so I won't repeat it here.

They can be a good "minion master" or utility/support caster when they're in their own element, which will not be very often unless the game is a wilderness hex crawl. If the campaign is wilderness hex crawl they can come into their own, but even then, I'd rather roll Cleric with an agricultural/animal "house-ruled"* lens, just for the healing.

* Imported from Dungeon Fantasy 7 Clerics.

I haven't looked at DF 7, but well sure, if you can have the best parts of both a cleric and a druid, why wouldn't you? But even a pure 250-point druid is powerful, even when they're at a -1 to -3 penalty.