Better to reskin or create a new circle? I'll be honest i love putting Eldritch horror in everything class, Saw the one in the primeval thule 5e Sorcerer which was interesting as for the druid one? not so much. What do you think? if not a new one how would it be played?
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
I feel that when you bring in eldritch horror, you get a circle of spores druid. They have the emphasis on undeath and would fit the bill quite well, and if that didn't work, you could change some flavor text to make the attacks better suit your needs. You could also take the circle of the Shepard and make their ability to summon stronger creatures augmented with an otherworldy appearence
Circle of the spores. Otherwise, druids by their very nature are the opposite of the Eldritch Horror type. They seek to preserve a balance and are in touch with the natural world. Perverting that becomes a dual class(with warlock or cleric probably)/fallen (anti)-druid? The druids themselves seem to draw their power directly from the natural world/plane, without a need for an outside source to power them (In contrast with warlocks or clerics)
What are you trying to do with a druidic servant of the elder ones? How do you reconcile the stated ideology of the base druids (Preserve the balance of the natural world, protect the plane, etc) with the goals of an alien, unknowable mind that typically exists in a state of indifference/antagonism towards those goals? Is this supposed to be a cult that uses the druids to the ends of the Ancient Ones, or a group of druids who feel that the old ones exist as part of the natural order of things?
I think if you start to flesh out what you want out of this character, you might see one of the existing classes could just be tweaked, or that you just want to make a new warlock pact with an emphasis on corrupting nature.
Personally I look at it the other way- *because* Druids are inherently the opposite of eldritch horror, and represent a strong connection with the natural world of *this* plane, the only way you're going to pull it off is reskinning. Your wildshapes can be reskinned to be weird, twisted horrific forms and abominations which mechanically function identically to the statblocks of beast forms available for your level. The summons you do can be similarly abhorrent. Spells can be reskinned as well. Overall, the plane to which you have a strong connection can be repurposed and remade to be the far planes rather than the material plane; it just takes some effort. So in terms of subclasses, I ask, which would work best with that reskinning? Ideally, from what I can see, ones which are not inherently tied to more nature / plant / material plane based stuff; so not Circle of the Land or Circle of Spores. The feywild is very specific in its thematic nature and it doesn't seem to fit to go Circle of Dreams. Circle of the Shepherd offers the chance to do more reskinning and highlight reskinned summons, making you a "shepherd" of the plane and creatures of the great old one you represent and highlight that reskin, while the Circle of the Moon offers the chance to highlight the reskinning of your wildshape, so either of those is a great fit.
The feywild is very specific in its thematic nature and it doesn't seem to fit to go Circle of Dreams
I mean the feywild by its nature is chaotic and heightened and a little weird. If you re-dubbed it "Circle of Nightmares" and skin everything accordingly it might make sense to go with that circle too. Think Green Hags and Boggles and all the intensely negative emotions instead of elves and pixies and all the "ticksy" fey things.
I do agree that Druids, to me, represent the connection to the Prime Material plane and therefor don't feel like the best fit for this idea.
My idea is someone who saw madding places or lands in the far realms and they are something a regular person can comprehend, to adapt to the place his/her body achieve powers similar to a druid - a connection - making him able to harness and form this madness to his/her will, be it abnormal abharations or sprouting stuff of madness.
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
In that case I think reskinning Moon or Shepherd to be summoning/transforming into this nightmare place (you're not turning into a wolf, you're just using those stats but describing some horrifying creature. You're not summoning a pixie, just using the stat block to summon some flying ball of flesh and arms).
I was misunderstanding and thinking you wanted to try and push an existing druid towards that, which I felt didn't fit with their flavor)
A forbidden truth druid does not wild shape, but instead can wild shape into any abberation of cr1 or lower additionally at lvl 6 the cr limit is 3
At lvl 10 you gain the ability to spend 2 wildshapes to increase the wildshape limit by half your spell attack bonus rounded down
Additionally you may summon an abberation of total cr 5 or lower with a level 4 slot. When summoning an abberation it will attepmt to oppose your will by making a wisdom save equal to your spell save. On a save the abberation acts of its own free will and will attack the summoner. On a fail the abberation is under complete control of the caster for one hour. The abberation can repeat the save once every 10 rounds.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the challenge rating increases by 1 for each slot level above 4th.
At lvl 14 you gain the ability to cast spells that the abberation you are wildshaped into has, but you use your own spell slots to do so and cannot cast a spell if you do not have access to that level of spell.
At lvl 18 a forbidden truth druid is master of Abberant creatures and can use any supernatural or magical abilities of the creature they are currently wildshaped into.
Additionally aberrations summoned by the druid no longer oppose the druids will.
Thematically the class could be similar to the Oathbreaker Paladin: A corrupted version of the original class, a traitor to the natural world. The Broken Circle.
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+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +
Circle of Stars is also a great choice, rp wise for sure, and fits well with the cosmic horror idea.
A druid could start out as a typical CoS type but ends up looking so deep into the starry night sky that they catch notice of some eldritch stars that reveals to their mind the madness and the truth of the beings that lay beyond the stars, or what have you.
Then you can reskin the class itself, changing the Starry Form constellations to perhaps aberration-like constellations, and Full of Stars to something related to the Void, and rather than being all lit up with starry light to being phasing in and out of this reality, displaying ethereal tentacles or weird bits.
Thematically the class could be similar to the Oathbreaker Paladin: A corrupted version of the original class, a traitor to the natural world. The Broken Circle.
^^ yeah this. Druids fundamentally oppose anything you might associate with the Great Old Ones. "Druids accept that which is cruel in nature, and they hate that which is unnatural, including aberrations (such as beholders and mind flayers) and undead (such as zombies and vampires)." So you could go all in on that and make a spellcaster dedicated to corrupting the natural world - destroying the natural balance, spreading pollution and disease, laying waste to pristine wilderness, etc... It's going to be hard to do that with actual druid spells and abilities. I would look at other spellcaster classes for this, and just make it their background that they were formerly a Druid until their mind was broken by Cthulu.
Perhaps the character originally was a druid who sought to remove the corruption to the material plane that was civilization and restore nature. Then, they discovered that the nature that they know only began after the gods exiled the original inhabitants of the material plane to the far realm, and now seek to restore the Old Ones as rulers of the material.
Could be a new subclass, or use really any of the existing ones.
Perhaps the character originally was a druid who sought to remove the corruption to the material plane that was civilization and restore nature. Then, they discovered that the nature that they know only began after the gods exiled the original inhabitants of the material plane to the far realm, and now seek to restore the Old Ones as rulers of the material.
Could be a new subclass, or use really any of the existing ones.
That's a good way to do it! Similar to what I had in mind! I was thinking of a druid who belonged to the circle of stars who at one moment looked too deep into the cosmos and caught sight of some "strange stars" where they received some wild cosmic revelations of life, etc. That one glimpse essentially undoes everything they knew of the natural world. So all the weird and whacky cosmic horror stuff becomes the true, hidden nature of the universe to them. They don't necessarily desire to bring all the 'unnatural' stuff into the world, but their alignment would become kind of chaotic neutral and they would just do as the strange stars told them, essentially.
A mad druid who has accepted a wider scope of what constitutes what we typically consider nature sounds like a fun idea. I disagree with some here that an Eldritch Horror is necessarily directly opposed to druidic ideology. More mainstream druids who perceive nature as plants, animals, and elemental forces, yes. But nature constitutes all that exists across all the planes. The Old Gods lurking in the far reaches of space beyond the limits of the universe are exactly as natural as any rabbit or tree. They're a part of the cosmic ecosystem beyond the scope of a mere planet. To their greatness, a world might be more akin to prey than an entire ecosystem. The consumption of a material world by an ancient star god may be no more appalling to them than a wolf devouring a rabbit.
The druid in this case would be the Shepherd of the Old Ones, shining a light on new worlds for their alien intelligence to locate and devour so they may continue to perform their cosmic function in the grand natural ecosystem that is the stars themselves.
A Circle of Stars druid focusing on celestial spells like Moonbeam would be great for this. You don't even necessarily need to reskin the abilities. It might be more fun if your druid isn't immediately recognizable as something Eldritch. Maybe the beasts they summon are all deranged, possessed of aggression wholly unnatural for the species. Their wolves are still clearly normal wolves, but their behavior is off to anyone paying attention. Perhaps when you conjure vines and plants they're riddled with strange parasites that quickly choke them of life after the spell's effects end. Elemental powers would be mostly the same, but maybe any time you cast a spell it makes others around you feel uneasy. An uncanny valley sort of sensation like they're watching something that seems natural but isn't. Your druid insists that parasitism is perfectly natural, but nobody has ever seen a parasite that looked quite like that before. Even your wild-shapes could look unnaturally gaunt and half-starved. Maybe even diseased. You assure everyone that it is perfectly normal. You're just a bit sickly so that gets reflected in your animal forms.
If you play it right you could make it into a fun, eerie character with a big plot reveal toward the end.
You could pick any druid circle you want tbh, and then just rename your spells for thematic reasons. For example, I'm playing a level 2 Circle of the Stars Druid right now, and I've been renaming all my spells to fit a "star" theme. So, Entangle is now Engravitate, where tendrils of gravity wrap around foes rather than vines. Ice Knife is now Void Knife, Thorn Whip is now Gravity Whip, Cure Wounds is Soothing Starlight, Healing Word is Flash of Starlight, Thunderwave is Polarity Breach. When I reach level 3 and get 2nd level spells, I'll be renaming Enhance Ability as Constellate, where I draw constellations on my allies in the shapes of bear, fox, owl, w/e.
None of the damage types change, so there's no mechanical benefit (Void Knife still causes Piercing/Cold damage), but when the DM or I start describing what's happening, it's thematically "star"-like. Similarly, you could pick any Druid Circle but rename all of your spells to fit a Great Old One theme, so Charm Person could become Enthrall Person, Druidcraft could become Vitiate or Defile, Thorn Whip could become Tentacle Whip, Barkskin could become Entropic Skin, Entangle could become Ententacle :P W/e you want, the world is your oyster. Head to thesaurus.com, seventhsanctum.com, or fantasynamegenerators.com if you get writer's block and need some inspiration to get the creative juices flowing :)
Better to reskin or create a new circle? I'll be honest i love putting Eldritch horror in everything class, Saw the one in the primeval thule 5e Sorcerer which was interesting as for the druid one? not so much. What do you think? if not a new one how would it be played?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
I feel that when you bring in eldritch horror, you get a circle of spores druid. They have the emphasis on undeath and would fit the bill quite well, and if that didn't work, you could change some flavor text to make the attacks better suit your needs. You could also take the circle of the Shepard and make their ability to summon stronger creatures augmented with an otherworldy appearence
Circle of the spores. Otherwise, druids by their very nature are the opposite of the Eldritch Horror type. They seek to preserve a balance and are in touch with the natural world. Perverting that becomes a dual class(with warlock or cleric probably)/fallen (anti)-druid? The druids themselves seem to draw their power directly from the natural world/plane, without a need for an outside source to power them (In contrast with warlocks or clerics)
What are you trying to do with a druidic servant of the elder ones? How do you reconcile the stated ideology of the base druids (Preserve the balance of the natural world, protect the plane, etc) with the goals of an alien, unknowable mind that typically exists in a state of indifference/antagonism towards those goals? Is this supposed to be a cult that uses the druids to the ends of the Ancient Ones, or a group of druids who feel that the old ones exist as part of the natural order of things?
I think if you start to flesh out what you want out of this character, you might see one of the existing classes could just be tweaked, or that you just want to make a new warlock pact with an emphasis on corrupting nature.
Personally I look at it the other way- *because* Druids are inherently the opposite of eldritch horror, and represent a strong connection with the natural world of *this* plane, the only way you're going to pull it off is reskinning. Your wildshapes can be reskinned to be weird, twisted horrific forms and abominations which mechanically function identically to the statblocks of beast forms available for your level. The summons you do can be similarly abhorrent. Spells can be reskinned as well. Overall, the plane to which you have a strong connection can be repurposed and remade to be the far planes rather than the material plane; it just takes some effort. So in terms of subclasses, I ask, which would work best with that reskinning? Ideally, from what I can see, ones which are not inherently tied to more nature / plant / material plane based stuff; so not Circle of the Land or Circle of Spores. The feywild is very specific in its thematic nature and it doesn't seem to fit to go Circle of Dreams. Circle of the Shepherd offers the chance to do more reskinning and highlight reskinned summons, making you a "shepherd" of the plane and creatures of the great old one you represent and highlight that reskin, while the Circle of the Moon offers the chance to highlight the reskinning of your wildshape, so either of those is a great fit.
Just mho.
I do agree that Druids, to me, represent the connection to the Prime Material plane and therefor don't feel like the best fit for this idea.
My idea is someone who saw madding places or lands in the far realms and they are something a regular person can comprehend, to adapt to the place his/her body achieve powers similar to a druid - a connection - making him able to harness and form this madness to his/her will, be it abnormal abharations or sprouting stuff of madness.
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
In that case I think reskinning Moon or Shepherd to be summoning/transforming into this nightmare place (you're not turning into a wolf, you're just using those stats but describing some horrifying creature. You're not summoning a pixie, just using the stat block to summon some flying ball of flesh and arms).
I was misunderstanding and thinking you wanted to try and push an existing druid towards that, which I felt didn't fit with their flavor)
This is what I've cooked up for personal use
Circle of forbidden truth
Circle spells
1st arms of Hadar, chromatic orb
2nd crown of madness, phantasm force
3rd life transference, hunger of Hadar
5th Danse Macabre, synaptic static
8th mind blank, Maddening darkness
Lvl 2 Abberant shapes
A forbidden truth druid does not wild shape, but instead can wild shape into any abberation of cr1 or lower additionally at lvl 6 the cr limit is 3
At lvl 10 you gain the ability to spend 2 wildshapes to increase the wildshape limit by half your spell attack bonus rounded down
Additionally you may summon an abberation of total cr 5 or lower with a level 4 slot. When summoning an abberation it will attepmt to oppose your will by making a wisdom save equal to your spell save. On a save the abberation acts of its own free will and will attack the summoner. On a fail the abberation is under complete control of the caster for one hour. The abberation can repeat the save once every 10 rounds.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the challenge rating increases by 1 for each slot level above 4th.
At lvl 14 you gain the ability to cast spells that the abberation you are wildshaped into has, but you use your own spell slots to do so and cannot cast a spell if you do not have access to that level of spell.
At lvl 18 a forbidden truth druid is master of Abberant creatures and can use any supernatural or magical abilities of the creature they are currently wildshaped into.
Additionally aberrations summoned by the druid no longer oppose the druids will.
Thematically the class could be similar to the Oathbreaker Paladin: A corrupted version of the original class, a traitor to the natural world. The Broken Circle.
+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +
Circle of Stars is also a great choice, rp wise for sure, and fits well with the cosmic horror idea.
A druid could start out as a typical CoS type but ends up looking so deep into the starry night sky that they catch notice of some eldritch stars that reveals to their mind the madness and the truth of the beings that lay beyond the stars, or what have you.
Then you can reskin the class itself, changing the Starry Form constellations to perhaps aberration-like constellations, and Full of Stars to something related to the Void, and rather than being all lit up with starry light to being phasing in and out of this reality, displaying ethereal tentacles or weird bits.
^^ yeah this. Druids fundamentally oppose anything you might associate with the Great Old Ones. "Druids accept that which is cruel in nature, and they hate that which is unnatural, including aberrations (such as beholders and mind flayers) and undead (such as zombies and vampires)." So you could go all in on that and make a spellcaster dedicated to corrupting the natural world - destroying the natural balance, spreading pollution and disease, laying waste to pristine wilderness, etc... It's going to be hard to do that with actual druid spells and abilities. I would look at other spellcaster classes for this, and just make it their background that they were formerly a Druid until their mind was broken by Cthulu.
Perhaps the character originally was a druid who sought to remove the corruption to the material plane that was civilization and restore nature. Then, they discovered that the nature that they know only began after the gods exiled the original inhabitants of the material plane to the far realm, and now seek to restore the Old Ones as rulers of the material.
Could be a new subclass, or use really any of the existing ones.
That's a good way to do it! Similar to what I had in mind! I was thinking of a druid who belonged to the circle of stars who at one moment looked too deep into the cosmos and caught sight of some "strange stars" where they received some wild cosmic revelations of life, etc. That one glimpse essentially undoes everything they knew of the natural world. So all the weird and whacky cosmic horror stuff becomes the true, hidden nature of the universe to them. They don't necessarily desire to bring all the 'unnatural' stuff into the world, but their alignment would become kind of chaotic neutral and they would just do as the strange stars told them, essentially.
A mad druid who has accepted a wider scope of what constitutes what we typically consider nature sounds like a fun idea. I disagree with some here that an Eldritch Horror is necessarily directly opposed to druidic ideology. More mainstream druids who perceive nature as plants, animals, and elemental forces, yes. But nature constitutes all that exists across all the planes. The Old Gods lurking in the far reaches of space beyond the limits of the universe are exactly as natural as any rabbit or tree. They're a part of the cosmic ecosystem beyond the scope of a mere planet. To their greatness, a world might be more akin to prey than an entire ecosystem. The consumption of a material world by an ancient star god may be no more appalling to them than a wolf devouring a rabbit.
The druid in this case would be the Shepherd of the Old Ones, shining a light on new worlds for their alien intelligence to locate and devour so they may continue to perform their cosmic function in the grand natural ecosystem that is the stars themselves.
A Circle of Stars druid focusing on celestial spells like Moonbeam would be great for this. You don't even necessarily need to reskin the abilities. It might be more fun if your druid isn't immediately recognizable as something Eldritch. Maybe the beasts they summon are all deranged, possessed of aggression wholly unnatural for the species. Their wolves are still clearly normal wolves, but their behavior is off to anyone paying attention. Perhaps when you conjure vines and plants they're riddled with strange parasites that quickly choke them of life after the spell's effects end. Elemental powers would be mostly the same, but maybe any time you cast a spell it makes others around you feel uneasy. An uncanny valley sort of sensation like they're watching something that seems natural but isn't. Your druid insists that parasitism is perfectly natural, but nobody has ever seen a parasite that looked quite like that before. Even your wild-shapes could look unnaturally gaunt and half-starved. Maybe even diseased. You assure everyone that it is perfectly normal. You're just a bit sickly so that gets reflected in your animal forms.
If you play it right you could make it into a fun, eerie character with a big plot reveal toward the end.
You could pick any druid circle you want tbh, and then just rename your spells for thematic reasons. For example, I'm playing a level 2 Circle of the Stars Druid right now, and I've been renaming all my spells to fit a "star" theme. So, Entangle is now Engravitate, where tendrils of gravity wrap around foes rather than vines. Ice Knife is now Void Knife, Thorn Whip is now Gravity Whip, Cure Wounds is Soothing Starlight, Healing Word is Flash of Starlight, Thunderwave is Polarity Breach. When I reach level 3 and get 2nd level spells, I'll be renaming Enhance Ability as Constellate, where I draw constellations on my allies in the shapes of bear, fox, owl, w/e.
None of the damage types change, so there's no mechanical benefit (Void Knife still causes Piercing/Cold damage), but when the DM or I start describing what's happening, it's thematically "star"-like. Similarly, you could pick any Druid Circle but rename all of your spells to fit a Great Old One theme, so Charm Person could become Enthrall Person, Druidcraft could become Vitiate or Defile, Thorn Whip could become Tentacle Whip, Barkskin could become Entropic Skin, Entangle could become Ententacle :P W/e you want, the world is your oyster. Head to thesaurus.com, seventhsanctum.com, or fantasynamegenerators.com if you get writer's block and need some inspiration to get the creative juices flowing :)