Issue 3 - Druids on the Planes

Let me preface my comments: I'm going in assuming that a Planescape planar druid has one plane that they're calling home and being a guardian for. If you're going for a universal planar druid, that's a much different exercise and my comments aren't as well placed.

SM would make more sense than SNA.

Oh, I don't know. The idea of a Mechanus druid running around with a moignos companion is really evocative of both the plane and of Planescape's otherworldliness. As such, it probably would be worthwhile to develop a few viable alternative companions. Switching the existing companions from being animal-type to being an aligned type could be a good stopgap measure however.

I do agree on developing a set of plane specific domains though.

No problem with that. Makes sense.

This feels like one of those abilities that helps to evoke the flavor of the druid class, so maybe instead, gain a bonus to aligned animal/magical animal types, with a penalty applying to non-aligned types. A Mechanus druid, for instance, would gain the bonus to axiomatic creatures, with penalties to good/evil/anarchistic types. Maybe no penalty or bonus to good/evil, with the full penalty (or more) applying to anarchistic. For a plane not in the cross, maybe have them pick one side or the other (corresponding with their druid's alignment choice).

The bookkeeping would be a pain in the butt though, so this one probably warrants further consideration.

I'd add in something about how the druid gains the ability only while in their home plane.

A flat bonus against all outsiders doesn't make sense, especially if there is a particular plane a druid calls home. Maybe have them gain the bonus against outsiders/exemplars from their home plane. It's what the original bonus is nominally for anyway: to protect themselves from the actions of a race they would be exposed to in the course of being a guardian of nature. For a NE druid operating on The Grey Wastes, +4 to saves against yugoloths would be pretty amazing.

If this were developed beyond a general idea, you could get specific powers associated with this, rather than a flat bonus to saves. Like maybe being able to calm the emotions of raging Ysgardians, grant temporary sanity to people from Pandemonium or the ability to force Carcerians to tell the truth. Like I said, flavor-wise the ability feels like a protective abilitiy for what a druid encounters, so being able to counteract the usual hazards associated with a given plane would be well placed.

I'm ok with these changes.

Good change.

Awesome ability, but does it evoke that feeling of planarness? I think this one could be examined more.

I think that maybe my ideas with regards to druids for specific planes fall outside of the scope of what could be covered in an article. Maybe I should start up a thread in the RPG discussion?

Beyond that, I think that we're in agreement, not much really needs to be changed beyond a few tweaks and pokes.

While this sounds like an awesome idea, I feel that something should be taken into consideration when creating druids with affinity for a specific plane. I feel that doing so might turn the character into an Aquaman, where the druid is awesome when he's, let's say, in the Grey Waste, but kind of underpowered everywhere else, while at the same time the fighter or the paladin or the wizard might be as equally powerful wherever they go.

This might lead to campaigns where you either have an underpowered character, or a good chunk of the campaign must take place in the Grey Waste so the druid would be able to do his thing.

This sort of thing wouldn't happen with a generalist "planar" druid, though then it loses some of it's flavor.

Here is a question that was of some background concern to me while I was writing Planestuck.

How is the druidic tradition kept coherent across the Planes?

It's one thing for wizards to cast similar spells across planes. The laws of magic are the laws of magic. Priests have the scriptures their plane-spanning gods provide, which dictate the wonders their god allows clergy to perform. But a given druid doesn't necessarily worship a god, and there are a multitude of ways to draw power from nature. Now, perhaps the druidic traditions need anchoring entities. Perhaps druidry has the unique claim of being the natural universal religion. But that's a lot to hang multi-universal coherence on.

Are the druidic orders sponsored by entities like Obad-Hai and the Archomentals? Were they begun in deep history by the rilmani? Are there high-level druids that coordinate the druid orders on various worlds, and spread the word to worlds where druidry is unknown? (A severe challenge to this role is that druids lack any planar travel spells in their spell list -- a missionary druid will either need planar travel items, an ally with planar travel abilities, or a very good working knowledge of elemental vortices and portals from worlds to the Astral.)

It strikes me that the various part-neutral exemplars are likely to find the philosophy and goals of aligned druids highly useful to their goals, and might even regard them as missionary outlets for their own worldviews. Thus, you might have, emerging out of the confusion of shamanism and incantations among primitive mortals, five related but separate druidic traditions that all touch on Nature and Balance in different ways, sponsored by modrons, guardinals, rilmani, night hags (they seem more fitting than yugoloths), and, well, no one really for chaos, which is perfectly in character for chaos. It might be a two-faceted project of the fey of both kinds, working slightly at odds with each other and the result ending up the way it always has, or perhaps it just arises naturally somehow in the space left over by the other four. I just can't really see the slaads picking up the slack here. (But a nasty twist could have the CN druid tradition secretly supported by Far Realm entities, as a long-term project to destabilize reality -- the "balance" of complete and total disruption.)

Night-hag-advised evil druid circles (or individuals) would have the great planar advantage of interplanar travel via nightmare for their high-level devotees, when the hags permitted. Lawful druid circles with modron permits and privileges might be able to access the Labyrinthine Portal regularly. The guardinal-advised good druids, of course, have very reliable and trustworthy allies. The true neutral druidic traditions that worship Obad-Hai or other TN gods probably have a good claim to being the original source material of druidry.

Just some thoughts on this question.

Looking back earlier in the thread re: the Summon Nature's Ally ability, perhaps a planar druid could work out with her GM a substitute monster list based on the monsters available in her home plane. (To echo the flavor of 2e Planescape, the list could include the planes immediately bordering -- in the case of Mechanus, the Outlands, Arcadia and Acheron. Of course, any druid might find Outlands creatures useful in some situations.) The main recommendation I would give for writing up such a list is that the available monsters at a given level should have CR no greater than the highest CRs of the standard SNA spells of a given level, and the list should include no more options than normally available for SNA at each level. The "normal" SNA list is given because, of course, most druids live and work on the Prime.

We could give an example list for Mechanus. Options could include formians, drone modrons, the lower ranks of inevitables, pseudoelementals at appropriate levels (mechanics-wise, just elementals with the appropriate alignment trait), axiomatic creatures, and smaller monsters native to Mechanus such as moignos and gear spirits.

It might be worth special note, if we do, that summoning axiomatic creatures from lower-level lists can be surprisingly useful, given their linked minds, and it would be an interesting rumor that the modron hierarchy is somehow aware of summonings of modrons and even senses events through them, even though summoned creatures are only creations of spell energy.

(Purely personal: my wizard with Arcane Disciple and the Law domain never got the chance in-game to summon 1d4+1 celestial elephants. Some day. Some day.)

I'll second Anetra. Sketch or not, I love the look of him. With some polish, I suspect that it would be wholly in line with the look and direction of a Mechanus druid.

Since you seem like you're soliciting comments, I'll say that I liked the pendant keys and gears sort of looking like holy symbols. And the drama-mask kneepads don't really scream "plane of order" to me. I could suspend disbelief enough to hear a good explanation for them, sure, but it's definitely not my first intuition.

I do like his general look. He's got a DiTerlizzi vibe, and the overall air is definitely druid-ish. (Druish?). And the monodrone companion is fun.

As for a background, this might be a fair amount of extra work, but what about a "Gearhenge"? Dolmens and menhirs made of Mechanus' gears, pulley belts and axles, some of them rotating against each other, in a big circle around him? This could even suggest an activity for him -- instead of just standing there, he could be arms raised, hailing the alignment of a big piston and socket in the upper distance that are apparently about to touch, like a druid on a Prime world hailing a solstice.

The faces are mostly for the DiTerlizzi feeling, I won't lie about that. I can easily change them kneepads to have a single gear on them, that could work. I do wanted to keep it, at least spiritually, to Tony's style, since to me that is a very important part of Planescape and what drew me into the setting. I could always draw him in another way, but I don't think that would feel as good. Also should I assume you didn't like the keys and gears and such? In the second version I gave him a proper tool belt, which I feel is something a druid of Mechanus might find useful to have around.

As for the more dynamic scene, are you thinking something along the lines of this?

http://i.imgur.com/gAcyidY.jpg

Bah, double post.

Well I did, in fact. Here are several thumbnails of the set up, and one thing I noticed is that the monodrone makes things very cluttered in all except for the one on the lowest right. So in the end I think I'll go with that one.

http://i.imgur.com/3AhJ7uN.jpg

My number one response is that as the artist you should do what you think would look the best.

As for my personal preference, I'd think that a LN druid would probably prefer detail and a serious stylization to the opportunity to look cartoonish in color. ;^)

For what it's worth, I like the less cartoony drawings. Since the artwork is going to be paired with a lot of other Mechanus-oriented material, the slightly more...I don't know, adult? feel to the less cartoony drawings meshes better with the overall subject matter. The druid character you've come up with is fantastic, despite any misgivings you might have about our ability to judge something that you just tossed out. I'd love to see a full color version (is that watercolor?), but I know all too well the constraints of time and energy.

Also, you're one a hell of an artist. I'd love to be able to capture the look and feel of a character with just a few pen-strokes like you're able to. My stuff is mostly delegated to scribbling on paper then picking stuff out of that.

Well, since I do like giving people choice, I now present you with two slightly different versions of the same thing. I went and drew the black and white version, but I also decided to add some shading. Here are the two pictures, and use them as you see fit. (Should I send this art to someone specifically so we can make sure it gets in the zine or something?)

1. Black and White -> http://i.imgur.com/RVU7SfF.jpg
2. Black and White + Grey Shading -> http://i.imgur.com/YxSvESQ.jpg