New class: Druid Plant Master

[Pienterekaak]

Hi people, my first post here,
and already starting with asking for some advise

We just started with a new campaign, and a friend of mine wanted to play a druid. First of all, no-one of us ever played a druid before, couse the druid class isnt a very strong class (atleast thats what i heared of it)

Me and this friend were watching a anime serie naruto, and suddenly we thought ... wouldnt it be cool if you could fight like gaara
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=pukN7k8Ogks little movie how gaara fights and how the plant maskter will fight (with plants instead of sand ofcourse))

Then we thought up a new class, the druid plant master, who fights with ... plants..

The class is simular with the druid in any way, exept he looses his spells and his ability to wildshape.

but by giving this up, he gets lots of supernatural abilities.
The problem is, we want to make it strong, but not overpowered. and he shouldnt be the damager in the party.

What i thought up at the moment (he gains new abilities as he grows stronger)

LVL 1:
Talk to plants: able to talk to plants

Plant fist: (thorns cover hands making them natural weapons)
Save: self

Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy


LVL 2:

Entangle: (vines entangle opponent from ground) entangles opponent making him loose his dex to AC.
save: Str check

Woodland stride


LVL 3:

Poison Sting: (poison thorn shoots at opponent) poison enemy as poison spell

Vine strike: (vine comes out from the ground, striking opponent) deals X damage
Summon natures ally 1

Trackless step

LVL 4:

Berry bush: creates a bush with X berries.
Plant heal: (vines surround wound and heal it) Heals X points of damage (touch attack)
Resist nature’s lure

LVL 5:

Plant armour: (plants surround caster) giving him X bonus to AC
Save: self
Summon natures ally 2

LVL 6:



LVL 7:

Plant wall: Creates a wall of plants
Summon natures ally 3

LVL 8:

Plant grab: (plants surround object, grab it and may bring it to caser)
Save: Str


LVL 9:

Thorn strike: (huge thorn raises from the ground hitting the opponent) Deals X damage
Save: reflex
Summon natures ally 4
Venom immunity

LVL 10:

Plant Increased fire resistance


LVL 11:

Control plants: You are able to do basic things with plants
Summon natures ally 5

LVL 12:

-

LVL 13:

Summon natures ally 6
A thousand faces

LVL 14:

Plant Coffin: (vines twist around the enemy) opponent is unable to move. dealing X damage per round.
save: Str check

LVL 15:

Plant Shield: (plants grow to protect caster against attacks, caster is unable to move) giving him X bonus to AC
Save: Self
Summon natures ally 7
Timeless body


LVL 16:

Plant Increased fire resistance

LVL 17:

Summon natures ally 8

LVL 18:

Sting of a 1000 thorns: (vines raise around the opponent shooting 1000ths of thorns at him) Dealing X damage
Save: reflex

LVL 19:

Summon natures ally 9

LVL 20:
Plant Prison: (subject is pulled down in the ground by vines, locking him there) Save not to be imprisoned, if failed. Deals X damage per round.

The plan is to make his abilities strenght depending on his plant master level.
So could anyone here help me determenting the damage he does, and the saves, and maybe the order in which he gets the abilities.

I hope you like my new class idee.

Thank you all in advance,

Pienterekaak

[icke]

First of all, the Druid class is one of the strongest, if not THE strongest class available: Full spellcasting progression, tons of USEFULL special abilities, a spell list with spells for every situation(plus healing) one can imagine and the best base attack bonus a caster can dream of. Did i forget the animal companion?

Now to Your class:

Talk to plants: You mean, like the Druid level 3 spell?

Plant fist: Look at the Shillelagh spell, it does something similar with the druids staff or club.

Entangle: The Entangle spell is spell level one for a druid and does basically the same.

Poison Sting, Vine strike, Summon natures ally 1: All of them druid spell of level one to three.

Berry bush: Does it do the same thing as the goodberry spell?
Plant heal: You can give the standard cure spells this flavor without altering any game mechanics.

Plant armour: See Barkskin.

I could go on and replace almost every special ability You gave Your class with an appropriate druid spell. So one should assume that, concerning flexibility, the original Druid class is more powerfull than this one.
You didn't say anything about durations of the effects, or usages per day. if assume "use at will", then they're far too powerfull for any class, so You have to restrict them. I can't come up with a clever restriction system that works for all of them, so You have to go over every single one Yourself.
By the way: Plants should never grant fire resistance, they are the best example for creatures being vulnerable to fire!

So my advice for You is this: Take the standard Druid class, the players handbook and the Complete Divine. Within the spell lists in both books You should find all the abilities Your player is so keen on, so just prepare spells accordingly.

I don't know if it helped You, but it's the best I can come up with...

[Pienterekaak]

Thank you for your reaction,
And yes, most of the ability`s of the plant master already exist, but have been given another name, to match the flavour. (or can become better since it should increase with the plant masters level)

I also notice i left out some details,
resistence to fire here means more protection against fire, since 1 fireball would probaly kill lots of plants, with this resistance it wont kill that many.

flexability,
Yes the spells and wildshape make a normal druid very flexible.
But a plant master can do lots of things with plants to,
talking to plants to gather information,
make bridges, or ladders of plants,
shielding himself in combat while his plants do the damage.
and use plants for lots of other little things.

He can use the abilities at will, but it might be a idee that he is able to use 1 + plantmaster lvl or a little more of his supernatural abilities a day?
would that make him less powerfull?

thank you agian

[Fredderf]

If you just want to change the names of the abilities for flavor, just do it. You don't need to change the actual workings of the abilities, just call them something different in-game.

If you could use these abilities too often if would overpower this class, while making them only able to use every so often would probably make the druid way more powerful.

I also agree w/ icke. Giving plants resistance to fire is like gicing a fire elemental resisance to water; it defeats both logic and purpose. Fires get doused by water. Plants get burned by fire.

If your friend wants to do this I would just let him play as a druid. He can just prepare a lot of plant spells and be very flavorful about his plants. Don't change the game, just alter names in-game and flavor things up

Sorry if I came off as harsh, but I think the druid should work fine for what you are talking about. Hope I could help.

[StickMan]

I like the idea but I think druids with the right spells do this.

[Pienterekaak]

Ok, you guys got a point on fire resistance.
Ill discuss that with our DM ( i am sure he wont mind it :P) since there are enough power players already.
Ill continue with trying this plant master thingy, if it looks underpowered, or isnt versitile enough, we will change it, and i hope i can post a proper plant master class next time.

And yes, the druid could probally do the same, i guess what makes it differend is the fighting style. The druids we encoutered fight by transforming into bears etc. the plant master will probally shield himself really good , and let his plants do the smashing, holding, poisoning and stinging. (which looks kinda cool :smallcool: )

Thank you all for your reaction

[icke]

Even the fighting style is completely a decision of the single druid. My druid usually fights by first buffing himself and then hitting everyone on the head with his shillelaghed quarterstaff, and it works fine - especially in combination with the animal companion.

If You want a more plant-themed version, why not change the elemental wild shape into plant wild shape? You could also broaden the Summon Monster spell in a way that it summons plant creatures, but I think that wouldn't be necessary.

If the fighting style You want to produce can be realized by a lot of spell-like abilities, why should it not work if Your druid uses spells instead? Same rules, same effect, less danger of unbalancing things and, most important, no need to build a new class :)

[ChaosStorm]

I'm in the same camp as most of these people. It's just a matter of tweeking the allready existing Druid to suit your needs rather than changing the class. I'm really glad that your friend wishes to challenge the usual way to play a Druid, though. Most of the classes are, in reality, quite capable of being molded to be played a multitude of ways, it's just that we get slapped with the traditional view of what it is suppose to be and forget that it's our game and we can sort the details out the way we want them to be.

You could change Animial Companion to Plant Companion, but I'm not sure what sort of Plant Creatures are out there that would be at about the same starting level as the animals.

[Triaxx]

A feat I think would fit well into a playstyle of this:

Crimson Thorns
Prereq: Druid 6, WIS 11
Effects: Crimson Thorns can be applied to either Entangle, or Barkskin spells. Crimson Thorns lasts for the duration of Entangle and Barkskin, and does 1d4 damage per round, or on each successful attack against the Druid. Applied as Metamagic with a level adjustment of +3.

Additionally, Druids may enchant weapons with this spell, adding +1d4 damage.

[icke]

A feat I think would fit well into a playstyle of this:

Crimson Thorns
Prereq: Druid 2, WIS 11
Effects: Crimson Thorns can be applied to either Entangle, or Barkskin spells. Crimson Thorns lasts for the duration of Entangle and Barkskin, and does 1d4 damage per round, or on each successful attack against the Druid.

Additionally, Druids may enchant weapons with this spell, adding +1d4 damage.

Where did You get that from, is it a homebrew?

I think it's too powerfull to be left like it is. Entangle has a large area of effect, so You're basically reproducing the Acid Fog spell, with one 3rd average damage and one 6th spell level!

[Triaxx]

It's Homebrew, and I forgot the adjustment. Fixed.

[icke]

Ahh, much better. I like it, I think I'll ask my DM to let my Druid have it when the next feat comes up... :)

[Pienterekaak]

:) thank you,
ill remember that feat, and maybe ill tell him to give up on that, and let him decide. Then its up to him.

thank you all for your opinion,
I now know druids own and i learned that adjusting something a little can be enough to reach the same result

thank you all

[Triaxx]

Go ahead, I thought that up when fighting a group of evil druids. We weren't having problems with them, because they'd entangle, we'd switch to ranged weapons.