Quick question for people who have ran a campaign with a player who used awakening a lot. We have a druid who has the staff of the woodlands which he sometimes uses to cast awakening on various things. I know the most basic way around this is to either minimize the amount of long rests he has (casting time is 8 hours) but if the party wants to stop and let him cast the spell and not count as a long rest how to i try to balance this. I don't think a world of super intelligent horses and plants will be easily to keep track of. My only guess would be to try to send a random encounter at the party and make them defend him as he is casting.
Staff of the Woodlands lets you cast Awaken as an action. There's not much you can do to stop them from casting Awaken specifically without also taking away their ability to cast the other spells in the staff.
Follow the advice in DMG Chapter 4 to build NPCs quickly on the fly.
†As a note, I don't think Staff of the Woodlands doesn't remove the need for a Martial Component.
* - (an agate worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes)
That's a LOT of money to cast the spell all the time. You don't just toss that around.
† Edited as per dropbear8mybaby, ignore everything I just said.
The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn’t expend any of the user’s spell slots, and requires no components unless the item’s description says otherwise
I don't think a world of super intelligent horses and plants will be easily to keep track of. My only guess would be to try to send a random encounter at the party and make them defend him as he is casting. Any ideas?
Rather than trying to prevent it via combat (which could be construed as adversarial, and seems unlikely to be a deterrent), maybe try leaning into it. Your Druid wants to create something interesting, so let him... but you really don't have to track any of it (unless you want to). Some ideas:
The intelligent awakened creatures wisely decide to stay hidden from the rest of the world (and away from the party)
The intelligent creatures band together into a community (like a Disney-style village). I'm sure they could figure ways to track each other down and communicate.
Feyfolk transport (via faerie circles) the awakened creatures to the Feywild (where having all sorts of talking animals is pretty normal... kinda like Narnia)
The awakened animals eventually turn on their creator (like in the Animal Farm novel)
Other Arch-Druids might council against abusing the power (or alternately, might have use for all the awakened creatures)
Have an upcoming battle/war where an army of intelligent animals will be needed.
etc.
In any case: there should not be a hoard of animals following the druid around... they might be his friends, but that doesn't mean he controls them. Track/allow only what you are comfortable with.
Quick question for people who have ran a campaign with a player who used awakening a lot. We have a druid who has the staff of the woodlands which he sometimes uses to cast awakening on various things. I know the most basic way around this is to either minimize the amount of long rests he has (casting time is 8 hours) but if the party wants to stop and let him cast the spell and not count as a long rest how to i try to balance this. I don't think a world of super intelligent horses and plants will be easily to keep track of. My only guess would be to try to send a random encounter at the party and make them defend him as he is casting.
Any ideas?
Staff of the Woodlands lets you cast Awaken as an action. There's not much you can do to stop them from casting Awaken specifically without also taking away their ability to cast the other spells in the staff.
Follow the advice in DMG Chapter 4 to build NPCs quickly on the fly.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
†
As a note, I don't think Staff of the Woodlands doesn't remove the need for a Martial Component.That's a LOT of money to cast the spell all the time. You don't just toss that around.† Edited as per dropbear8mybaby, ignore everything I just said.
Erm, nope.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Rather than trying to prevent it via combat (which could be construed as adversarial, and seems unlikely to be a deterrent), maybe try leaning into it. Your Druid wants to create something interesting, so let him... but you really don't have to track any of it (unless you want to). Some ideas:
In any case: there should not be a hoard of animals following the druid around... they might be his friends, but that doesn't mean he controls them. Track/allow only what you are comfortable with.