My daughter agreed to play a wood elf wizard at the start of this campaign, without knowing much about D&D races and characters. After a couple sessions (with 7 other players), she decided she wanted to be a drow.
Okay. We invented a backstory where she was a drow who rebelled against Lolth and was cursed to become a wood elf. (The curse will be lifted shortly in the story and she'll be restored to true drow form.)
I'm already struggling with this, but after more thoroughly reading the PHB, she wants to change her class, too, from 3rd level wizard to 3rd level druid.
She's already used her wizard abilities.
This is probably dumb, but it's hurting my brain. Can you guys think of a magical explanation for _class_ changing? She doesn't want to multiclass. How does she go from knowing wizard cantrips to druid cantrips? I mean, yeah, it's probably part of the curse, but how does that WORK? I need story help.
Luckily Druids and Wizards have the same levels for their Subclass Features. You can just change her over to a Druid of the same level and make her subclass called something like "Primal Arcana". She knows a number of Wizard Spells equal to her Druid level, she can prepare and cast them as Druid Spells. Instead of gaining any Druid Circle Features she gains the Arcane Tradition Feature of the Wizard School she choose. That's what I would recommend. You don't need to come up with any magic event, she was always a Druid that happened to tap into the natural Arcane Energies around her.
When this has come up in my group what we did depended on what was happening in our game at the time. Bear in mind that our group is quite light hearted and we have been going for years so we'd just discuss what we wanted to do.
If it was a mistake and we were just starting, an out of game answer was easiest; we have swapped the class out and keep everything the same.
If however it would disrupt the story we fix it in game to frame it correctly (like what you have done with the curse already). One example when we did this we had a possesion story where a tiefling rogue would swap back to Druid (sorry the race escapes me) which became a character quest to remove. As you already have a curse in play why not modify that to inclued the class change too?
Either retcon it, or make the drow druid a different character from the wood elf wizard and swap them out.
We already incorporated the wood elf's true original status of the rebel drow into the story, so different characters as you and @RohanRules suggest won't work well here. That was my first thought, too, though, and if she'd mentioned the class change before we revealed the curse and story and everything, I'd have insisted on that route.
Split personality, the wood elf within had the mind of a wizard, however, once the personality and form of the Druid Drow breaks free, the memories or abilities of the woodelf wizard are lost. Have one session where she’s almost playing as both characters but with only one ability set (wizard or Druid)
...As you already have a curse in play why not modify that to inclued the class change too?
So how does that *work*, exactly? Like, the curse granted her wizard cantrips and spells, and removed her druid spells, and when the curse is lifted she just "forgets" those powers? I think that's the big question.
I guess "forgetting" is what has to happen with racial abilities too... But for some reason magically class changing seems less "realistic" (ha) than magically sub-race changing.
...As you already have a curse in play why not modify that to inclued the class change too?
So how does that *work*, exactly? Like, the curse granted her wizard cantrips and spells, and removed her druid spells, and when the curse is lifted she just "forgets" those powers? I think that's the big question.
I guess "forgetting" is what has to happen with racial abilities too... But for some reason magically class changing seems less "realistic" (ha) than magically sub-race changing.
Make the curse have properties of reincarnate or true polymorph which could conceivably change race and class.
...As you already have a curse in play why not modify that to inclued the class change too?
So how does that *work*, exactly? Like, the curse granted her wizard cantrips and spells, and removed her druid spells, and when the curse is lifted she just "forgets" those powers? I think that's the big question.
I guess "forgetting" is what has to happen with racial abilities too... But for some reason magically class changing seems less "realistic" (ha) than magically sub-race changing.
Magic is a curious thing :) The curse could be used to explain all and if you want realisim there are plenty of cases in real life of academics turning in to artist and priest becoming sceintists and viceversa...
You could do something where the curse cut off the character’s access to the Druidic magics along with changing her form. So through lots of study (which is how wizards traditionally get their powers), she was able to regain some semblance of her magical powers. Then when her form gets changed back, you can change her spells over to Druidic spells with maybe a bit of wizard flavor since the Druidic magic would be her “natural” magic. Maybe let her keep one or two wizard cantrips that are remnants of her intense study, but then just let her be a Druid.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Harry Hoblin, the happy goblin, doin' all of the goblin things
He likes murder, loot, and pillage; he's doin' all of the goblin things
He'll eat your puppies and your babies; he's doin' all of the goblin things
non-retcon ret-con. Just like when they change an actor mid-series or in a sequel, just let it go quietly. This is especially useful for newer or younger players who are having trouble deciding.
You could always do this: It worked well for this campaign. :)
Edit: You could have split personalities. For example, the wood elf wizard was a cursed persona that appears once in a while. You can make two character sheets, or different spell sheets, or whatever. It might be interesting to role play a split-personality PC. I've never tried it, but it might work.
There is also this: Your daughter just wants to have fun in the game. My suggestion is to just rebuild her character sheet with her new race and class, and take the other one away. Your game doesn't have to be ultra serious about rules or making this "just right". You are trying to get her to enjoy this hobby, you are trying to share an enjoyable experience with her. Don't let "realism" or "rules" or "immersion" or any of that crap get in the way of having fun.
Maybe someone needed to sneak her out of the underdark and to do this they cast true polymorph on a gem which was implanted into her back. This removed her memories and substituted a wood-elf wizard personality. As the gem moves closer to the surface some of her memories start coming back. Perhaps nightmares of being a drow with dreams of being a druid trying to hide their true interests from other drow. When the gem is expelled (or removed) the spell ends and the gem is powerless. She reverts to her old form and class with only vague memories of the polymorphed version. If you want some vestige of the previous persona you can give her the magic initiate: wizard feat.
However, the player doesn't sound that old and that might make her liable to want to change things up again. Wood elf wizard and drow driuid are both pretty cool role playing choices but kids are often into liking interesting choices AND being good a their chosen role. Neither of these are mechanically optimal :) ... but maybe she is fine with that. Either way, I'd suggest having a chat and see what it was about the wood-elf wizard that bothered her and see whether the drow druid will actually fix the issue. Is there someone else at the table playing either a drow or a druid? (or both)?
Either way, I'd suggest having a chat and see what it was about the wood-elf wizard that bothered her and see whether the drow druid will actually fix the issue. Is there someone else at the table playing either a drow or a druid? (or both)?
No other drows or druids. But yeah, chatting makes sense. She's 16. Hard-to-talk-to age.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Newish DM here.
My daughter agreed to play a wood elf wizard at the start of this campaign, without knowing much about D&D races and characters. After a couple sessions (with 7 other players), she decided she wanted to be a drow.
Okay. We invented a backstory where she was a drow who rebelled against Lolth and was cursed to become a wood elf. (The curse will be lifted shortly in the story and she'll be restored to true drow form.)
I'm already struggling with this, but after more thoroughly reading the PHB, she wants to change her class, too, from 3rd level wizard to 3rd level druid.
She's already used her wizard abilities.
This is probably dumb, but it's hurting my brain. Can you guys think of a magical explanation for _class_ changing? She doesn't want to multiclass. How does she go from knowing wizard cantrips to druid cantrips? I mean, yeah, it's probably part of the curse, but how does that WORK? I need story help.
Either retcon it, or make the drow druid a different character from the wood elf wizard and swap them out.
KIll off the wood elf, or maybe just have the character retire.
Luckily Druids and Wizards have the same levels for their Subclass Features. You can just change her over to a Druid of the same level and make her subclass called something like "Primal Arcana". She knows a number of Wizard Spells equal to her Druid level, she can prepare and cast them as Druid Spells. Instead of gaining any Druid Circle Features she gains the Arcane Tradition Feature of the Wizard School she choose. That's what I would recommend. You don't need to come up with any magic event, she was always a Druid that happened to tap into the natural Arcane Energies around her.
When this has come up in my group what we did depended on what was happening in our game at the time. Bear in mind that our group is quite light hearted and we have been going for years so we'd just discuss what we wanted to do.
If it was a mistake and we were just starting, an out of game answer was easiest; we have swapped the class out and keep everything the same.
If however it would disrupt the story we fix it in game to frame it correctly (like what you have done with the curse already). One example when we did this we had a possesion story where a tiefling rogue would swap back to Druid (sorry the race escapes me) which became a character quest to remove. As you already have a curse in play why not modify that to inclued the class change too?
@SladeTracey This is very cool. I'll see what features she'd be missing out on, and if that's acceptable trade-off.
We already incorporated the wood elf's true original status of the rebel drow into the story, so different characters as you and @RohanRules suggest won't work well here. That was my first thought, too, though, and if she'd mentioned the class change before we revealed the curse and story and everything, I'd have insisted on that route.
Split personality, the wood elf within had the mind of a wizard, however, once the personality and form of the Druid Drow breaks free, the memories or abilities of the woodelf wizard are lost. Have one session where she’s almost playing as both characters but with only one ability set (wizard or Druid)
Dungeon Master - PBP Lost Mine Of Phandelver (Closed)
Dungeon Master - PBP Out Of The Abyss (Closed)
Dungeon Master - The Chronicles Of Dantia (Home Game)
Forbi & Dorbi - Deep Gnome - Fighter/Rogue - PBP Into The Fire
Vosdred Ironeye - Hill Dwarf - Fighter/Wizard - PBP Game of the Last Chance
So how does that *work*, exactly? Like, the curse granted her wizard cantrips and spells, and removed her druid spells, and when the curse is lifted she just "forgets" those powers? I think that's the big question.
I guess "forgetting" is what has to happen with racial abilities too... But for some reason magically class changing seems less "realistic" (ha) than magically sub-race changing.
Make the curse have properties of reincarnate or true polymorph which could conceivably change race and class.
Magic is a curious thing :) The curse could be used to explain all and if you want realisim there are plenty of cases in real life of academics turning in to artist and priest becoming sceintists and viceversa...
You could do something where the curse cut off the character’s access to the Druidic magics along with changing her form. So through lots of study (which is how wizards traditionally get their powers), she was able to regain some semblance of her magical powers. Then when her form gets changed back, you can change her spells over to Druidic spells with maybe a bit of wizard flavor since the Druidic magic would be her “natural” magic. Maybe let her keep one or two wizard cantrips that are remnants of her intense study, but then just let her be a Druid.
Harry Hoblin, the happy goblin, doin' all of the goblin things
He likes murder, loot, and pillage; he's doin' all of the goblin things
He'll eat your puppies and your babies; he's doin' all of the goblin things
non-retcon ret-con. Just like when they change an actor mid-series or in a sequel, just let it go quietly. This is especially useful for newer or younger players who are having trouble deciding.
You could always do this: It worked well for this campaign. :)
Edit: You could have split personalities. For example, the wood elf wizard was a cursed persona that appears once in a while. You can make two character sheets, or different spell sheets, or whatever. It might be interesting to role play a split-personality PC. I've never tried it, but it might work.
it's been a long time...
You folks rock. Thank you for the suggestions!
There is also this: Your daughter just wants to have fun in the game. My suggestion is to just rebuild her character sheet with her new race and class, and take the other one away. Your game doesn't have to be ultra serious about rules or making this "just right". You are trying to get her to enjoy this hobby, you are trying to share an enjoyable experience with her. Don't let "realism" or "rules" or "immersion" or any of that crap get in the way of having fun.
Maybe someone needed to sneak her out of the underdark and to do this they cast true polymorph on a gem which was implanted into her back. This removed her memories and substituted a wood-elf wizard personality. As the gem moves closer to the surface some of her memories start coming back. Perhaps nightmares of being a drow with dreams of being a druid trying to hide their true interests from other drow. When the gem is expelled (or removed) the spell ends and the gem is powerless. She reverts to her old form and class with only vague memories of the polymorphed version. If you want some vestige of the previous persona you can give her the magic initiate: wizard feat.
However, the player doesn't sound that old and that might make her liable to want to change things up again. Wood elf wizard and drow driuid are both pretty cool role playing choices but kids are often into liking interesting choices AND being good a their chosen role. Neither of these are mechanically optimal :) ... but maybe she is fine with that. Either way, I'd suggest having a chat and see what it was about the wood-elf wizard that bothered her and see whether the drow druid will actually fix the issue. Is there someone else at the table playing either a drow or a druid? (or both)?
Excellent points.
No other drows or druids. But yeah, chatting makes sense. She's 16. Hard-to-talk-to age.