(Setting-Specific Class) The Druid

Of all the classes in The Setting With No Name, the Druid  is closest to the standard D&D Druid class. It's taken about 80% from the 1e PHB. The big difference  is the spell list which is full weird spells. Writing spell descriptions will come later but the spell names are at the end. You will see some new and some old names.

The Druid

A Druid is a nature priest of the Old Religion, based loosely upon pre-Christian Germanic paganism. His voice is the wind; his faithful, the trees. His cathedrals are the very forests themselves. Druidic magic is attuned to nature and seeks to strengthen and revitalize natural Man, animal, and plant. Druids revere natural places and protect them from encroaching civilization wherever they are able to.

However each Druid lives with a sword poised to strike him down, for it is strictly illegal to practice the Old Religion, and the penalty is summary execution. Heresy is a serious crime. Druids are considered heretics and are subject to any manner of gruesome deaths, most notably to be burned alive at the stake.

The Prime Requisite of the Druid is Wisdom. See Table 2 for XP adjustments due to high or low Wisdom.

Arms & Armor: A Druid may use Leather armor without penalty. He may carry a shield, but it must be made mainly from wood and other natural materials. He shuns large quantities of worked metal. He may use the scimitar (a curved backsword), club or shillelagh, dagger, sickle (a curved dagger unsuitable for throwing), sling, staff, and spear.

Combat Ability: A Druid uses the Cleric’s Attack Matrix line and Saving Throw charts but also adds +2 to his saving throws against fire and electricity effects.

Alignment: While churchmen are consumed by the struggles of Law and Chaos, the Druid must always remain Neutral for Nature herself is so. A Druid who is otherwise eligible to attain his next experience level may not do so while the Referee judges him to be acting in a generally Lawful or Chaotic manner.

The Druid’s Class Abilities:

The Old Tongue: Northern Continental Druids speak a language called Gallic that only a very few lay people have heard. They write a runic alphabet, otherwise extinct for six hundred years.  British Druids speak Brythonic, also written in the runic script. Druids from other regions speak related languages which are equally obsolete. Any two Druids can understand each other's basic concepts due to their similar secret languages. Thus two Druids may communicate without fear of being understood by laymen.

True Magic: Druids are the only true spell casters. While some other men use kinds of magic, they are but parlor tricks compared to the magic wielded by a high-level Druid. Spell lists and descriptions follow.

Animal Empathy: A Druid may make parley with natural animals much as men make parley with each other. He does not speak the animal’s language per se, but is able to communicate basic ideas and perhaps gain trust or some other advantage from an otherwise-wild animal using Table 25, Vol. I, p. 59, the Monster Reaction Table.

Tracking: A Druid may track others through his territory without fail within a week of their passing, by listening to the animals and plants of his demesne. Should the tracked party somehow obscure itself from such, the tracking only succeeds on a 1-2 on d6. Through a hex of territory that is of the same terrain type as his, the Druid may make a throw to track in the same way, and succeeds on a 1-4 on d6.

Nature Lore: Starting at 3rd level (Feeder), The Druid is able to name and identify natural animals, plants and fungi which appear in his domain (a Druid of England would be hard pressed to tell you much about a camel, for instance.) He is able to identify clean water and tell if food is fair or spoiled, but has no special ability to tell whether it is poisoned or somehow cleverly adulterated.

Pass Without Trace: Also at 3rd level, the Druid may pass through wild and overgrown areas without leaving clues, as even the trees and thorns bend to his will to allow him passage.

Nature’s Guile: At 5th Level (Botaner), the Druid gains immunity to mind-altering charms.

Shape Change: At 7th level (Haruspex), the Druid gains the powerful ability to assume the shape of any natural mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile or fish three times per day. He takes on all the physical characteristics of that kind of animal but keeps his own mind. The Druid’s held and equipped gear merges into the animal form and is therefore not available for use while shapechanged.

The following rules apply:

• Each kind of animal form may be assumed but once per day.
• The size of the creature can vary between 1 lb. (such as a bullfrog or songbird) to a black bear, no more than 450 lbs.
• He may not cast spells when in animal form.

Additionally, changing forms heals 1d6 hit points plus one hit point per experience level.

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Druidic Hierarchy: High-level Druids are rare, and kept so based on their rules of succession. Starting at 7th level, only a limited number may exist. Should another Druid wish to advance, he must defeat one of the existing Druids of the next level in some form of combat mutually agreed-upon and witnessed by other Druids. Then the loser, if he lives, relinquishes Experience Points sufficient to drop him halfway to the experience level he has lost. No Druid is forced to challenge his better; he may continue to adventure at his current Experience Level, gaining no more XP until such time as he participates in such a challenge.

Of level 7 Druids, there may only be three in a Barony.

Of level 8 Druids, there may only be three in a March.

Of level 9 Druids, there may only be three in a County.

Of level 10 Druids, there may only be three in a Duchy or Principality.

Of level 10 Druids, there may only be three in a Kingdom.

Of level 11 Druids, there may only be three in an Empire or Continent.

Of level 12 Druids, there may only be three at a time.

Of level 13 Druids, there may only be one.

Of level 14 Druids, there may be any number.

Druid Spell List: I owe a great debt to +BrianRichmondWriter of Goatman's Goblet for the inspirations and in some cases the game mechanics of these spells.

Druid Spell List

First Level Spells (21)

Animal Spy

Beast Mask

Delusions of Pride

Detect Magic

Detect Snares and Pits

Dove of the Morning

Ecstasy

Faerie Fire

Goodberry

Hawk’s Eye

Heat Theft

Hibernal Warmth

Locate Animals

Predict Weather

Purify Food and Drink*

Shield of Ice

Speak with Animals

Stormsworn

Thin the Air

Veil of Night

Winter’s Flesh

Second Level Spells (25)

Blight

Boreal Songs

Breathlessness

Chill Steel

Control Temperature

Create Water

Creeping Sickness

Debauchery

Exhalation of Purity

Ferocity

Harvest Rations

Heat Metal

Heat Shimmer

Hold Animal

Locate Plants

Mantle of Winter

Obscurement

Produce Flame

Protection from Lightning

Renewal

Rites of Hospitality

Screaming Mandrake

Sunlight

Warp Wood

Water Breathing

Third Level Spells (22)

Anti-Plant Shell

Blood Moon

Call Lightning

Cloak of Autumn

Cure Disease*

Curse of Atavism

Doldrums

Dread Whispers

Harvest Moon

Icicles

Neutralize Poison*

Protection from Fire

Pyrotechnics

Riddle of the Heart

Shatterfrost

Shillelagh

Somnolence

Spring Showers

Sticks to Snakes

Summer of Youth

Wild hunt

Wild Speech

Fourth Level Spells (20)

Animal Growth

Baleful Polymorph

Black Hound

Bloom

Cloud Visage

Cure Serious Wounds

Curse of Foolishness

Dawn

Dispel Magic

Earthmaw

Elemental Augury

Form of Frost

Hallucinatory Forest

Insect Plague

Northern Winds

Passplant

Sin-Eater’s Touch

Speak with Plants

Summon Denizen

Theft of Youth

Fifth Level Spells (16)

Aluren/Nature’s Charm p. 95

Anti-Animal Shell

Beatific Sun

Call Woodland Beings

Commune With Nature/The Sylvan Library

Cure Serious Wounds

The Elf-King’s Pursuit

Gaea’s Blessing

Oath of Druids

Plow Under

Rejuvinating Touch

Rock to Mud*

Thornwrack

Transport via Plants

Turn Wood

Wall of Fire

Sixth Level Spells (11)

Animate Rock*

Conjure Elemental*

Control Weather

Creeping Doom

Feeblemind

Finger of Death*

Fire Storm

Metal to Wood*

Nightsong

Reincarnate

Water to Dust