BUILD A BETTER DRUID | 10 Unique Ideas For Your Next Dungeons and Dragons Druid Character

oh hello there i'm gonna put this away clean your fake plants [Music] okay let's do this today we're going to talk about druids you know because they're adherent to nature for reference in the player's handbook it says that druids revere nature overall gaining spells and other magical abilities from nature itself or from a nature deity but what if they didn't what if they got their power from some other force what if it was given to them forcefully let's explore what being a druid really could mean in your character concepts in this way the shape of your druid will truly be wild welcome to the claret corner my name is ryker and here we talk about all things dungeons and dragons tapping into our higher powers to create worlds that are more unique and stories that are more impactful if you haven't already go and check out my other videos on other classes where i dive into other origins of their class magic setting aside what is explicitly stated in published books in that way these ideas are mine so take some leave some and do what's best for your game i'll be going over 10 ideas to expand on the druid and help you in your next character concept so diving right in what we do know about druids is one their affinity for nature and two their ability to change into animals but what if a druid is obsessed with the exact opposite of what normal druids stand for instead of nature a druid could be obsessed with civilization or order or law these could be druids representing the social structure of bees or monkeys so our first idea for the druid will be the city now places of population are like nature in being full of life social impacts and symbiotic relationships these druids might want to combine nature and civilization together or wish to completely alter nature to be more in line with the structure of civilization bringing more of a mathematical view to the world these druids could be more in tune with pigeons or rats on the street or the sewer and in this way it could be closer to a shaman where druids are agents of the nature and they commune with those outside of it the shaman is agents of civilization that communes with nature if that makes sense the druid learns from civilization to better nature and the shaman learns from nature to better civilization shamans are the ones that learn from the forest and the rivers to know exactly how to build a castle on top of them after all what's a city but just another biome of nature there honestly should be a tally on how many times i say nature in this video just saying but speaking of expansion and science let's look at the biomancer druid an artificial connection with nature given by experiments or substance effects these incantations could be done to you unwillingly or you willingly go out and try to graft yourself with animals or nature an example that comes to mind would be the simic hybrids in eberron these would also fit well in a future setting but it could just be a wizard that temporarily forgets about morality but in taking a potion actually grafting yourself with animal parts or exposing yourself long enough to certain magics you take on druidic features in a very non-conventional way but on that note you could very well inherit these abilities without modifying genetically you could already have beastial or animal dna since birth looking at now the beast druid this could come from a source of lycanthropy from your ancestors or simply evolutionary traits that have been passed down for thousands of years i could see a shifter being a druid not by choice but by lineage and you could have complete control over this ability to morph into an animal that could be extinct and if this bestial nature came from thousands and thousands of years ago you could have complete control into changing into a dinosaur or a woolly mammoth or you can fight against this beastial nature in your wild shape being overwhelmed by the primal vices of this form which could in this way multiclass well with barbarian now this blood of yours could also come from a draconic lineage so i introduced the dragon druid and sure i know that we already have a draconic sorcerer but in my opinion the druid is the best at elemental spells which fit well with the dragon so if you're going to explore the full range of chromatics and metallic dragons droids are a better fit and dragons are also known to polymorph into humanoids and other creatures so there's your wild shape you can be influenced directly from a red dragon and be the circle of wildfire druid or you can be influenced by a green dragon and be circle of spores or you can really tap into the lair actions and regions of dragons and be the circle of land and i know that everyone's still on the fizzband's treasure of dragons kick so i had to add it in there if you like these ideas so far let me know by liking the video and subscribing to my channel this lets me know to keep uploading videos like this and if there are other classes that i haven't done yet that you would like to see please add them to the comments below so on to the next type of druid we can say that your blood comes from beasts or dragons but what if instead of white and red blood cells you have chlorophyll and yes i'm talking about being a descendant from plants or nature itself and this druid we call the dryad obviously being descendants of these nature spirits also known as nymphs and naiads these are personifications of nature and manifestations of things like forests swamps and deserts in greek mythos these spirits are very well known for breeding with other creatures so it would depend on whatever your lore is in your world another way of being an offspring of nature is a tree ant which you can literally be a tree i would use the warforged or the autonome sat blocks for it but continuing to expand our horizons a little bit druids can find other mystical sources for their powers even beyond the physical plane as we know when druids and other classes use the summon beast spell or find familiar these beasts usually come in the form of a fae spirit meaning they came from the plane of the feywild spirits that only took the form of these beasts in that moment but what if they weren't fey what if they came from another plane introducing the planar druid let's say instead of a face spirit inhabiting your beast it comes in the form of a demon or a devil in celtic culture where druids come from you might be familiar with baphomet a deity from the 14th century that now manifests as a demon in dnd 5e your druid could work more with pentagrams and black candles even more you could have your spirits come from the shadowfell where it represents the corruption and the darkness of nature or it could come from any of the elemental planes if you focus on more of an elemental druid but dealing with all these planes could end in catastrophe especially dealing with devils but then again deals and curses are a great way to start a druid on their journey next on the list is the cursed druid a druid could easily get their powers from shaking hands with a hag having a more feywild background making a deal with the devil could result in more blood magic but what if nature itself was the one that did the cursing a good example in my mind would be davey jones and his crew in pirates of the caribbean they were cursed to take on the elements of the ocean and the nature therein another one would be the rock in the movie the jungle cruise with his associates spoiler alert they angered the river and the river made them part of it so what if you wronged nature in some way and it retaliated it cursed you with elements of itself as you desperately try to rid yourself of this curse but another curse could be focused on your wild shape what if you were an animal to begin with and you were cursed to be a humanoid of some type and you could only change back into that form a couple times a day until you break that curse continuing on this idea of being a past animal what if you were an animal in a past life and you can tap into these lives at will this druid we call the reincarnate be it a fox or a boar or a snake you could have been them all and you can reach back and cultivate the knowledge that you've gained in each life and this might depend heavily on your dm on if reincarnation is even a thing in your world however if not you could still flavor this and tap into animal spirits around you that have passed on animal ancestors that you can embody temporarily gaining their experience and communing with them when you wild shape a ghost dog whisperer of sorts but whatever faith or religion you have in your world i imagine you still have star constellations and taking a bit from astrology we have the star-born druid where you're given your abilities dependent on the nature of your birth it could be only a certain type of year that druids are born with druidic abilities or you could rule that depending on your sign you can be any one of the druidic circles if you were an aquarius you could be circle of the moon or if you were cancer you could be circle of the shepherd or if you were capricorn you could be the circle of dreams but your horoscope could determine which aspect of nature you could be pulling from these circles could also be dependent on weather pattern star alignment or solstices but again either way it's not the druid that chooses the nature it's nature that chooses the druid if we lean back into nature and plants next we get the consumer this druid doesn't rely on communion with nature but consuming of it and application of it nature didn't choose it it chose nature and in order to cast nature magic they need the right assortment of magical plants and fungi and if taken in the correct mixture it gives them the abilities to wild shape and do magical things this idea takes elements from the witcher or even modern witches along with plants you can tap into energy or chakra stones to imbue your magic in as well as long as you wear these crystals around your neck you can channel the power around you you might even need to ingest precious metals to manifest your power much like the mistborn series but you can look anywhere books or movies to find inspiration for your next druid i hope you can really take these ideas run with them and make it interesting i may also create a subclass dedicated to one of these ideas that i went over so please let me know if one stood out to you and then i'll put it in my discord linked below i'll be going over warlocks next so stay tuned for the next video but in the meantime go out there and spread the good word of d and make the world a better place both on and off your tables see in the next one

Channel: The Cleric Corner

Views: 27,374

Keywords: dnd, dungeon and dragons, d&d, homebrew, theclericcorner, dmtips, dungeon master, ttrpg, character build, subclass, worldbuilding, character creation, d&d5e, roleplay, druid class, bard, dnd class, druid ideas, wild shape

Id: p7Ff1TFajYE

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021