One of my players is planning to play a druid for my next campaign, and I'm really having problems coming up with plot hooks for a druid.
What kind of reasons do druids have for going adventuring, delving in dungeons or getting involved in court intrigue?
>>43905145
Something I learned is let the players give you hooks.
Play a few games with his character, learn his story, let him tell you why hes wandering. When he has, find something in his back story to give him a bigger hook so he fells like part of the story.
>>43905145
whalers
seal clubbers
loggers
farmers
ragtag rebels oppressed by an empire
I lost my cat
>>43905145
All plot hooks in any story ever boil down to one of two things.
>Character wants something, circumstances give them an opportunity to obtain that thing.
>Character has something they cherish, circumstances take that thing away.
Without knowing what the character cares about, you're not going to be able to come up with good plothooks aside from the stereotypical assumptions of "LOL, DRUIDS LOVE NATURE! THEY'LL GET PISSED OFF IF PEOPLE ARE CUTTING DOWN TREES, RIGHT!?"
>>43905145
Spreading seeds
>>43905267
Interfering with nature. Denied.
BBEG is a massive threat for nature, and the planet to an extend.
>>43905163
>>43905264
These guys know what's up.
But assuming you know nothing about the character, and the player themselves knows nothing about what their character wants (we were all shit roleplayers when we started), the key would be to twist the "Druids care about nature" thing into part of a bigger story.
Example: The forest you/your coven has been protecting is being invaded by people you recognize as city-dwellers from the nearby city. Normally these people are easily scared off by a display of Nature's power and the blessings of the Old Gods that you wield... however this time it's not working. No matter what you do, they keep coming back... and yet it's strange. Though they're incredibly destructive, they're not lumberjacks or miners or the usual sort of people who pillage nature. Furthermore, the leaders of the city have always been content to leave you be... so why all these people now?
As the campaign continues, you learn that these people aren't here by choice. The nearby city is suffering some sort of turmoil or finacial collapse. Conditions within the city, especially in the poorer districts, are worse than conditions outside the walls. The people invading your forest are simply trying to stay alive. Scaring them away does no good when they're faced with starvation... and unless you're an evil bastard, you're not going to just kill them all. Now your druid has motivation to get involved with the affairs of this city and those looking to solve it's problems.
>>43905145
Strange infection affecting his forest, and the elder druids send him out to try to find a cure. BBEG is the cause, using the magic of the forest to augment his power, sapping its life force for himself. Only way to save the forest is to stop the BBEG.
That being said: what kind of Druid is he playing? There really are lots of different kinds. In a one-off campaign that turned into a decent lengthen one, I had 5 players each playing different druids. One was a typical forest druid (though he played like rafiki. Was pretty awesome). Second dude was a brawler/shifter druid who was basically all about animals from all corners. Had a tundra druid, and his brother was a Desert druid. They played their thematics up pretty well, though I'm pretty sure the base idea for the two was heat miser and snow miser. They were fun. Final druid was a Stone Druid (good underground and was more about earth and groubd in general, but "earth druid" doesn't convey the same message).
Everyone had different outlooks on life, and on being a druid, different playstyles, and in the end, the whole thing was pretty awesome.
Hook #1
>you awaken to a message, a bloody dying bird informs you that orcs have invaded your druidic homeland
>go fuck those orcs up like only a party of adventurers can
Hook #2
>you seek an artifact of power
>your allies have all found theirs
>the artifact allows you access to all of your druidic powers
>plot twist, artifact is a vorpal rock
Hook #3
>barbarians have invaded your forest shagged your trees and chopped down your people
>are you a bad enough drood to save your people?
Final hook
>your magic is on the fritz, replace all your spells with random wizard ones
>fix your magic
>plot twist, you are actually a cleric
Druid is a jaded former adventurer who lost one party too many. After distancing himself from the ways of man, elves, and dwarves. He tends a forest far from contact. Growing tree guardians to protect nature.
After a few years an army of orcs, ogres, trolls, and goblins begins chopping down trees, slaughtering guardians and pushing into the forest. Defeat inevitable. He begged for a gods help, granted power, he animated the forest, as much as he could to delay the monster army. Vines grew sentient, creatures fled, and the forest began fighting back. However this power drained him mentally and has reduced him in level(if needed) possibly permanently
Seeking aid for this threat unknown to all he entered the closest town to form a party.
1. Talk to all races kings
2.alliances form. Doing quests and whatnot
3. Return to forest to either::
A. Forest has destroyed army, assimilated them to organic plant based creatures that attack on sight
B. Army has destroyed magical trees, and have created warmachines of great strength. And weapons to match, the magical wood is harder than mythril.
IF A:
BBEG is a sentient tree that grew self aware, and spread spores to infect creatures seeks to assimilate all creatures and run the world.
IF B:
BBEG is army leader. Unparalleled fighter, enchanted armor to reflect all non melee attacks, wants to destroy every enemy and unite monsters under his banner
I did a druid that came into civilization once a month to trade for nature-based wares from far-off lands and continents, and he had profession: tailor and Craft: Cloth. He basically made fancy tapestries out of the fibers he found in nature, and in animal pelts, etc.
His tribe was recently wiped out while he was in a city and he returned to the woodland to find his friends and family all dead. So turning to civilization which had been rather good to him, he brought Nature-based elements to the table by joining an adventuring party to locate and track down a mysterious black flame that appeared in certain areas, and left nothing but death in its wake.
He gets along well, if not a bit socially retarded since he isn't used to civilized ways. But he always tries, and is always happy to offer a helping hand. He's very team-based, and not one of those people who shuns civilization. They live differently than he does, but that is no reason to judge.
>>43905145
Someone stole all those sexy dryads and nymphs, you gotta find and save them.
>>43906255
This or human druid teen boy learned about animal people, got curious and is now traveling to get laid.
>>43905145
>What kind of reasons do druids have for going adventuring
Someone leaves their campsite LESS clean than they found it. There must be a reckoning.
>>43906255
>sexy dryads
Don't they die if they go too far from their tree? Or did they also steal the trees?
>>43907010
>you wake up one morning and someone has stolen your forest
>like, the whole thing
>you're in a desert now
>>43907470
I am stealing this idea. It needs to happen.
>>43905145
Same as everyone else. Being a druid doesn't define your character. They could also be a writer, a cook, a revolutionary, a fugitive, a bounty hunter, a merchant, a troubled youth, etc....
>>43905145
Finding source of unnatural corruption
Quest for a ritual magical sickle
Hunters killed a rare predator in your grove and you need to find a replacement
Loggers from nearby empire want to deforest your grove and you are able to fend them off in court rather than murderize them.
One of your druid friends is abducted or murdered and you want to figure out what happened
>>43907470
>They also stole the stream and the swamp further down to take the water nymphs.
>>43905145
Trying to rescue your father who was kidnapped and used to get to allow settlers to get to The New World.
He was the boats mast.
>Some jerk didn't properly put out his fire and you have to teach him proper fire safety and/or maul him to death.
>>43905145
It could be as simple and as cynical as the elder druids deciding that the circle needs a new leader, a strong leader, one of vision and power, who still has the youthful drive to Get Shit Done, and is sufficiently rash to sometimes decide to Do Something Now rather than endlessly debating.
So they kick him out with a mandate to go forth, to adventure, to do what he will except to be idle. Whatever he is doing, he must be growing, he must be evolving, he must be accumulating power and experience and knowledge.
>>43907737
>In a twist of fate, the newly created desert nymphs are also stolen
>>43905264
What about character is running away from something, have it catch up to them?
>>43905289
>druids
>removing themselves from nature
No.
>>43905145
>The President has been kidnapped by Ninjas. Are you a bad enough Druid to save the president?
>>43905145
Discovering other ecosystems
Gathering special seeds to turn a barren place into a lush forest
Felt that the spirits of nature called him somewhere
His fellow druids have all magically dissappeared
>>43909550
>After several days of strange, terraforming successes, the magma nymphs that remained on the exposed underground have been kidnapped.
>>43907470
>>43907737
>>43909550
>>43910199
The Druid is now Duke Nukem.
>>43910199
>The molten iron nymphs from the planet's exposed core are also kidnapped, messing up the planet's gravity and rotation, therefore ending the world
gg
>>43910218
>In a bizarre twist of events, the chemical and physical propierties of the emptiness of the cosmos create a new species of nymph known as Void Nymphs.
>Which are then promptly stolen.
I played a Druid in 5e. His hook was that one member of his circle killed another and then fled into the nearby city. The murdered member was my Druid's closest friend, so he volunteered to hunt the traitor down and bring him back.
Gave my DM creative liberties to do with the traitorous druid whatever he wants. The shit ended up destroying a small guild building with earthquake like powers. The other players belong to the guild, so now we're all united to kick the shit outta this asshole rogue druid.
We haven't discovered why he destroyed the guild but there have been hints the traitor may have been connected to it long before he became a druid -- many members are people who get lost in the wilderness who are deemed "worthy" by the spirits.
>>43905145
Have him solve a mystery.
>>43910247
>The reverse meta nothingness creates negative nymphs from the less-than-nothingness
>They are stolen along with the negativity
>World begins anew
rinse and repeat
>>43907010
They die if the bond with their tree is stretched too far, but if it's instantly severed somehow, then they survive and can wander, though they become soulbroken.
>>43907710
How could they be a courtesan though?
>>43905145
This >>43907710. Would you feel the need to weave "the baddies want to kill god!" into every plot where a cleric is involved? Just make sure to throw them a bone every once in a while and set an adventure in the wilderness where they can talk to bears and collect magic mushrooms.
>>43911194
>thorn whip cantrip
>specializes in kinky feminism
>niche market, but her small but dedicated clientele base pay top coin to be tied up in prickly vines while being told they're bad, bad, baaaaaad boys.
>>43911305
>feminism
I meant femdom, lol.
>>43905145
The BBEG, with his evilness, has also messed up the nearby forest/swamp/jungle.
Just about every person who has made a druid in games I've played in made their story essentially 'they grew up in the woods without any civilization but randomly went out to join an adventuring party?' Usually without even making them particularly uncivilized or confused on what things like money are.
There really is no reason for druids to go adventuring - they just join a party and go along with whatever everyone else is doing. This makes me sad in so many ways, because I love themes of nature against civilization.
>>43911305
>>43911378
>kinky feminism
the only tolerable kind
>>43911305
>kinky feminism
>>43911418
I want to hug her
>>43911460
Anon, please be careful.
>>43911430
There's a tolerable kind?
>>43905264
this.
had a druid and the player is a cat person. So the druid's companion was a cat.
So as the game went on, I added cats to him. they'd just start following him around, running away during combat. He'd name them and I'd have them get sick. Eventually, a brownie in a cat suit showed up, pretending to be a cat, and would meow at anyone who questioned it, but most people didn't even notice it was there.
Anyway, had an evil merchant from the Chinese Restaurant Merchant Guild kidnap a bunch of his cats. used that to motivate the character.
>>43905145
Gotta fill the Wicker Men with *something*.
Backstory my 5e Circle of the Moon Dwarf Druid, who has in Int of 5 but a Wis of 19, /tg/, you're my only hope. Spends as much time wild shaped as possible, (and mechanically I cheese it out with Conjure animal shenanigans).
>>43911863
>Give my character dimension /tg/!
Only if we can play him too, you lazy shit.
>>43912028
I mean....nothing's stopping you, you mongrel bitch.
>>43911863
>The more kinds of beings I can come to understand, the closer I come to enlightenment
At some point he realizes he doesn't even understand what it means to be a dwarf.
>>43905145
Some asshole traveler lost their exotic pet in your woods. Now the invasive species somehow reproduced and its family is running amok all unchecked. It's not evil though, just lacking in natural predators. Time to get all conservationist up in that shit.
>>43905145
his Druid order sent him to parley with the king/lord/duke/ect.. on behalf of the druidic peoples that the kingdom is slowly encroaching on
as Emissary it is his job to make nice and try and reach a peaceful ending to the difference between these two peoples. Have the leader ask him for something that then forces him to follow the party because they are also looking for it. Then he will sign whatever treaty thing you come up with and the Druids will be happy
>>43905145
Ask the player what motivates his character.
I played in an Eberron game once. The other players and I all made characters affiliated with the Gatekeeper Order (basically dirt worshippers who try to keep tentacle monster brain eating elder gods from the dark between the stars out of our world). We thought this would make it easy for the DM to come up with plots.
Instead, he pitched a fit because we weren't murder hobos motivated by greed. Evidently all of the plots he had (which he never bothered to tell us about during character creation) hinged on us being amoral mercenaries.
>>43905406
Post more cute plants
>>43911499
The kind when it's about you being a fucktoy for a sexy dominate chick
Bump for more plantgirls
Here to ruin your plant girl thread: Plant girls by a terrible fetish artist.I originally got into RPGs via the forums for this artist. I was innocent and had no clue that Transformation and Transgender were fetishes
>>43910211
And the BBEG is Carmen Sandiego.
>>43905145
Druidism is actually really political if you go back to the old school lore. Maybe a higher circle of druids kicked him out of his grove to fend for himself, after he introduced an organism that destabilized an ecosystem, or wore the wrong type of finch feathers to a party. Now he's trying to complete X quest to prove he's not totally incompetent.
Speaking of Groves, he could be seeking abandoned or dismanted druidic groves along the ley lines.
Speaking of ley lines, maybe there's a witch or hag funneling power out of the ley lines, and he's investigating the destabilization it's causing, trying to hunt her down.
Druids didn't used to be the stale moss wearing hippies the new lore makes them out to be, just dig into the old second edition stuff and you'll be fine.
Dryads a best
>>43924894
Dryads result in splinters on the dick. Alraune are better.
>>43910316
>mystery
Or rewrite history.
>>43905247
>I lost my cat
10/10 motivation for a druid to adventure.
Depends on what your campaign is and what your players are trying to achieve/prevent. Coming up with ideas for hooks would be easier if you gave us some examples of basic plotlines.
What sort of nymphs would an urban druid have?
>>43934630
stolen ones
