Please help flesh out my exalted Druid [Archive] - Wizards Community

Please help flesh out my exalted Druid [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sander_Kaa
02-05-07, 10:07 AM Hello everyone,

I've only 2-3 weeks left before I'll play after 2 years of DM'ing. I have to admit I like optimizing my character. However, a solid background and a way to flesh my character out during gameplay is even more important to me!

At the moment I have created a Monk1/Druid9 (deity: Beory) with has chosen the exalted path by choosing Vow of Poverty. As you might notice, an alignment change has been there. He has an Flying (well, gliding actually) dire Squirr

My character, Spink, grow up in the city Verbobonc (Greyhawk setting) in a mid-class family. Father send Spink in his teenager-years to the Monastry of Rao. Spink learned to live and fight like a Monk. In the year before reaching adulthood Spink was send on a final test in the woods of Gnarley to prove he is worth it to join the ranks of the Rao brotherhood.

He failed miserably, Grukvand was not amused and decided to leave him alone in the woods. A caravan of "merchants" found him weeks later. Instead of bringing him back to Verbobonc Spink was forced to travel along. Finding out these merchants are travelling to the borderland of Iuz. In small towns Spink was forced to fight animals in gladiatorlike arena's. A villager became aware of Spinks extraordinary talent of handling and calming animals and decided to buy Spink from his owner, the group of "Merchants".

This villager was Hankum Tord, a druid who was a circlemember of the Druids of the Vesve forests(http://weirdscifi.ratiosemper.com/greyhawk/The_Vesve.html). He teached Spink the lessons of Druidism. Spink advanced in his career while fighting the hordes of Iuz together with the many elves of the Vesve.

Do you like it? Does it make sense? And the most important question: How do I play this exalted Druid? How would he act?

Many thanks for any advice from your side!

Sander
Arcade
02-07-07, 09:03 AM Hey Sander,

It mostly makes sense. I am completely uninformed about exalted and vow of poverty, though the name can give me a pretty good idea about its features. What your story does not explain very well is why you took a vow of poverty. If it was because of your monk training, and then your school left you to die in the woods, I don't think your character would feel compelled to honor that vow any longer. Or is it because of the circle of Druids?

Other than that, it's OK. The gladiatorial combat is fine, though I find it doesn't really add anything to the story. Your character went from killing animals for sport to protecting and talking to them. Chances are you now hate gladiatorial combat and any sort of violence for others entertainment. You probably don't make friends easily and have no respect for family, seeing as how easily you have been betrayed and sent away in the past. Not a loner though- if anything, you believe in working in groups and not being forced to fend on your own.
Just my take.
Sander_Kaa
02-07-07, 11:09 AM Thanks for your response Arcade.

About the Vow: When Hankum Tord bought me from the caravan to introduce me to Druidism he also showed his way of life; living in poverty and contributing his gains of adventuring to the poor. In a ritual in the woods of Vesve I gave my "Sacred vow" and after that my "Vow of Poverty".

About the gladiatorial aspect: I wasn't actually killing the animals, I've beaten some unconsious or I calmed them (because of the fights I learned some things about handling animals).

Your description of a men who has no respect for his family and monk school totally fit with what I had in mind. Another aspect of my character is the fact he wants to prove himself after his miserable failure in his younger life (not able to survive alone in the woods of Gnarley).

The missing part in my background however are the years between I became Druid (lvl2) and nowadays (lvl10). I only figured out I battled the forces of Iuz alongsides the elves living in the Vesve. A small story how I met my companion, a flying dire squirrel, is on my "to do list".

Any help is welcome!
Ivelios2
02-10-07, 10:13 AM Hmm i think this might be a little hard to rp right. As a druid you worship nature and try to emulate it well most druids do anyway. I see good druids as druids who try to emulate the nuturing protective elements of nature which is all fine and good. However being exalted means basically being a fanatic amazingly dedicated to the abstract ideal of goodness to a degree which many would consider insane your as holy as most saints. Nothing in nature is like this not even close.

Putting that aside for now being exalted in and of itself is an extremly difficult thing to rp. You cant kill unless you have a very good reason and i mean very good. If your party is traveling through a swamp and some lizardmen jump you and you kill them i would immediatly strip you of your exalted status. Did you try to talk to them even as they attacked you? Maybe that swamp was their home and you were trespassing maybe it was sacred ground to them. Even if they were raiders why didnt you try to entangel them or do subduel etc. You dont steal you dont lie alot of other good characters can justify these things pretty easily but not you. In short being exalted is even more restrictive them being a celestial in alot of cases and the only reason many not all of course but many people want any of it is purley munchkin.

If you decide to go ahead anyway you should look at the BoED and put their exalted guidlines somwhere on your sheet and remember what would Jesus do?
MongooseFamiliar
02-10-07, 12:43 PM Putting that aside for now being exalted in and of itself is an extremly difficult thing to rp. You cant kill unless you have a very good reason and i mean very good.

I disagree. Good does not equal pushover. Being exalted means that you aren't just good, you are GOOD. For some characters, this means taking the vows of peace and nonviolence and trying to do no harm.

For the characters I play, this usually means hunting down evil and punching it repeatedly until it dies. Most good/exalted characters won't go around killing indiscriminately, this is true, but if there is something that is a threat to innocents or that is evil, a good character would have every reason to intervene. Exalted, moreso.

As for the Vow of Poverty and exalted-ness, perhaps during your travels in the woods you became enlightened and decided to emulate the inherent goodness you saw in nature and the natural world. You saw that you no longer needed physical wealth or possessions to be happy and complete. I think an exalted druid would spend as much time out in nature as possible, and would take a very dim view of those attacking the forest and creatures in it, which he holds sacred. Since your character is so close to animals, I think he would probably intervene on their behalf as well.

Keep in mind, also, that good and evil are sometimes subjective. Let's say a man is beating his horse. To many, he is foolishly damaging his possession or being needlessly cruel. To a ranger or a druid that holds animals sacred and sees them as his brothers, torturing an animal like this is an evil act. I suggest you give some thought to your druid's moral code and what is "good" and "evil" to him, and that might give you some insight on how he would react to things.
Ivelios2
02-10-07, 07:11 PM Posted by MongooseFamiliar

"For the characters I play, this usually means hunting down evil and punching it repeatedly until it dies."

I absolutley disagree in fact most badly played paladins have this exact view. It violates not one but two of the main principles of being exalted. Mercy and Forgivness these traits are put forward in the book as the easiest to violate and i wholly agree. Every time you kill an intelligent creature unless it puts an innocent being in immediate peril without knowing why its doing what its doing you violate mercy and obviously since it is dead forgivness. The book says straight out you should ask for surrender whenever possiable no matter how vial the creature or how evil it seems because thats exactly what being exalted means.

I once again point to my above lizardman example if a lizardman attacks you and lets say you can detect evil on him through a class ability you still must ask for his surrender before trying to kill him or i would immediatly take away your exalted. Hell even if he dosent answer if you dont try to restrain or disable him and insted immediatly use lethal force id strip your exalted. Maybe it dosent speak commin for all you know.

Exalted means your so full of goodness it actually gives you powers. Its alot different then the usual stupid paladin line of hunting down evil and beating it to death.
Sander_Kaa
02-12-07, 04:36 AM Interesting discussion guys!

I definately take the hint to put the BoED exalted code on my character sheet!

I don't fully agree on not killing anything because there is a Vow of Peace and Nonviolence for. However, showing mercy is a thing my character would do. I put many ranks in social skills like diplomacy and sense motive. Talking prefers instead of killing the plain evil being.

However: we are going to play an underdark adventure with possibly many drow and human but also: undead. How about them, IMO druids hate (evil) undead more than anything. What should be my exalted view on them?

Thanks for your input so far!
Callista
02-12-07, 12:08 PM The vast majority of undead are unredeemably evil, in the same category as demons. You should make an exception for ghosts (which can be any alignment) and intelligent undead willing to surrender (if they will let you provide a Reincarnation for them). If you're going to accept an undead creature's surrender, though, make sure you can put them under a truth spell or at least have a really high sense motive.

But as a druid, you'd hate anything which runs on negative energy as being damaging to nature; as an Exalted person, you would want to put their souls to rest and keep them from killing anyone--which they will eventually do, given that most undead have cravings for things like blood or flesh or life energy.

Feel free to kill mindless undead. They're little more than constructs, and made of negative energy to boot--meaning they naturally attack the living things that run on positive energy.
MongooseFamiliar
02-12-07, 10:49 PM Another thing about undead - they are a violation of the natural order, the natural cycle. Such a thing would be anathema to a druid.
TheAnthroDM
02-13-07, 02:26 AM Another thing about undead - they are a violation of the natural order, the natural cycle. Such a thing would be anathema to a druid.
With that noted, their are sects of Druids in some campaign world that believe Undeath is part of the natural order of existance, thought they are ussually even so this shouldn't concern your character much, unless he encounters some.

That being said, yes, most undead are inredeemably evil.
Your druid should have no problem smiting down undead, intellegent or otherwise. If by some chance they surrender and you are capable of performing "Reincarnate" at the time that would be suitable, otherwise it would depends on your resourses what to do.
Sander_Kaa
02-19-07, 03:03 AM In the past days i've updated my character with a "code of cunduct"" based on the good principles out of the Book of Exalted Deeds (mercy, forgiveness, sacrifice etc).

I've talked to the new DM who will start next sunday, we will meet a lot of drow. Thay hate surface-dwellers he announced (which means I gonna have a hard time redeem some prisoners). He is, however, willing to follow the BoED rules on redemption. Allowing me to make diplomacy checks day-after-day to change slowly the alignment of my prisoner(s).

No when I'm thinking of combat encounters with Drow elves some questions come up:
- Do I use lethal damage at all (I say yes, unless I choose Vow of Nonviolence and I didn't)?
- Do I kill them if they keep fighting instead of surrendering?
- Do I take prisoners at random or just all of them if I have the possibility?
- Do I talk to them first instead of attacking straight out.

Thanks for helping me fleshing out my druid.

Sander
Callista
02-26-07, 05:34 PM Kill them if they refuse to surrender.

Take prisoners if they surrender. Be prepared to deal with them--that means having arrangements with someone willing to keep them imprisoned until either judged and sentenced or released, or exchanged for your side's prisoners.

Talk to them first if they don't attack you.

You're a druid--that means NG. You don't have any allegiance to honor or individuality, so don't worry about either one when making your decisions.

If you can find yourself a neutral enemy soldier, then you've got a chance at redemption... drow are generally dyed in the wool evil, but every once in a while you'll find one who doesn't want to do any more than just survive. Take your chance then.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sander_Kaa 02-05-07, 10:07 AM	Hello everyone, I've only 2-3 weeks left before I'll play after 2 years of DM'ing. I have to admit I like optimizing my character. However, a solid background and a way to flesh my character out during gameplay is even more important to me! At the moment I have created a Monk1/Druid9 (deity: Beory) with has chosen the exalted path by choosing Vow of Poverty. As you might notice, an alignment change has been there. He has an Flying (well, gliding actually) dire Squirr My character, Spink, grow up in the city Verbobonc (Greyhawk setting) in a mid-class family. Father send Spink in his teenager-years to the Monastry of Rao. Spink learned to live and fight like a Monk. In the year before reaching adulthood Spink was send on a final test in the woods of Gnarley to prove he is worth it to join the ranks of the Rao brotherhood. He failed miserably, Grukvand was not amused and decided to leave him alone in the woods. A caravan of "merchants" found him weeks later. Instead of bringing him back to Verbobonc Spink was forced to travel along. Finding out these merchants are travelling to the borderland of Iuz. In small towns Spink was forced to fight animals in gladiatorlike arena's. A villager became aware of Spinks extraordinary talent of handling and calming animals and decided to buy Spink from his owner, the group of "Merchants". This villager was Hankum Tord, a druid who was a circlemember of the Druids of the Vesve forests(http://weirdscifi.ratiosemper.com/greyhawk/The_Vesve.html). He teached Spink the lessons of Druidism. Spink advanced in his career while fighting the hordes of Iuz together with the many elves of the Vesve. Do you like it? Does it make sense? And the most important question: How do I play this exalted Druid? How would he act? Many thanks for any advice from your side! Sander
Arcade 02-07-07, 09:03 AM	Hey Sander, It mostly makes sense. I am completely uninformed about exalted and vow of poverty, though the name can give me a pretty good idea about its features. What your story does not explain very well is why you took a vow of poverty. If it was because of your monk training, and then your school left you to die in the woods, I don't think your character would feel compelled to honor that vow any longer. Or is it because of the circle of Druids? Other than that, it's OK. The gladiatorial combat is fine, though I find it doesn't really add anything to the story. Your character went from killing animals for sport to protecting and talking to them. Chances are you now hate gladiatorial combat and any sort of violence for others entertainment. You probably don't make friends easily and have no respect for family, seeing as how easily you have been betrayed and sent away in the past. Not a loner though- if anything, you believe in working in groups and not being forced to fend on your own. Just my take.
Sander_Kaa 02-07-07, 11:09 AM	Thanks for your response Arcade. About the Vow: When Hankum Tord bought me from the caravan to introduce me to Druidism he also showed his way of life; living in poverty and contributing his gains of adventuring to the poor. In a ritual in the woods of Vesve I gave my "Sacred vow" and after that my "Vow of Poverty". About the gladiatorial aspect: I wasn't actually killing the animals, I've beaten some unconsious or I calmed them (because of the fights I learned some things about handling animals). Your description of a men who has no respect for his family and monk school totally fit with what I had in mind. Another aspect of my character is the fact he wants to prove himself after his miserable failure in his younger life (not able to survive alone in the woods of Gnarley). The missing part in my background however are the years between I became Druid (lvl2) and nowadays (lvl10). I only figured out I battled the forces of Iuz alongsides the elves living in the Vesve. A small story how I met my companion, a flying dire squirrel, is on my "to do list". Any help is welcome!
Ivelios2 02-10-07, 10:13 AM	Hmm i think this might be a little hard to rp right. As a druid you worship nature and try to emulate it well most druids do anyway. I see good druids as druids who try to emulate the nuturing protective elements of nature which is all fine and good. However being exalted means basically being a fanatic amazingly dedicated to the abstract ideal of goodness to a degree which many would consider insane your as holy as most saints. Nothing in nature is like this not even close. Putting that aside for now being exalted in and of itself is an extremly difficult thing to rp. You cant kill unless you have a very good reason and i mean very good. If your party is traveling through a swamp and some lizardmen jump you and you kill them i would immediatly strip you of your exalted status. Did you try to talk to them even as they attacked you? Maybe that swamp was their home and you were trespassing maybe it was sacred ground to them. Even if they were raiders why didnt you try to entangel them or do subduel etc. You dont steal you dont lie alot of other good characters can justify these things pretty easily but not you. In short being exalted is even more restrictive them being a celestial in alot of cases and the only reason many not all of course but many people want any of it is purley munchkin. If you decide to go ahead anyway you should look at the BoED and put their exalted guidlines somwhere on your sheet and remember what would Jesus do?
MongooseFamiliar 02-10-07, 12:43 PM	Putting that aside for now being exalted in and of itself is an extremly difficult thing to rp. You cant kill unless you have a very good reason and i mean very good. I disagree. Good does not equal pushover. Being exalted means that you aren't just good, you are GOOD. For some characters, this means taking the vows of peace and nonviolence and trying to do no harm. For the characters I play, this usually means hunting down evil and punching it repeatedly until it dies. Most good/exalted characters won't go around killing indiscriminately, this is true, but if there is something that is a threat to innocents or that is evil, a good character would have every reason to intervene. Exalted, moreso. As for the Vow of Poverty and exalted-ness, perhaps during your travels in the woods you became enlightened and decided to emulate the inherent goodness you saw in nature and the natural world. You saw that you no longer needed physical wealth or possessions to be happy and complete. I think an exalted druid would spend as much time out in nature as possible, and would take a very dim view of those attacking the forest and creatures in it, which he holds sacred. Since your character is so close to animals, I think he would probably intervene on their behalf as well. Keep in mind, also, that good and evil are sometimes subjective. Let's say a man is beating his horse. To many, he is foolishly damaging his possession or being needlessly cruel. To a ranger or a druid that holds animals sacred and sees them as his brothers, torturing an animal like this is an evil act. I suggest you give some thought to your druid's moral code and what is "good" and "evil" to him, and that might give you some insight on how he would react to things.
Ivelios2 02-10-07, 07:11 PM	Posted by MongooseFamiliar "For the characters I play, this usually means hunting down evil and punching it repeatedly until it dies." I absolutley disagree in fact most badly played paladins have this exact view. It violates not one but two of the main principles of being exalted. Mercy and Forgivness these traits are put forward in the book as the easiest to violate and i wholly agree. Every time you kill an intelligent creature unless it puts an innocent being in immediate peril without knowing why its doing what its doing you violate mercy and obviously since it is dead forgivness. The book says straight out you should ask for surrender whenever possiable no matter how vial the creature or how evil it seems because thats exactly what being exalted means. I once again point to my above lizardman example if a lizardman attacks you and lets say you can detect evil on him through a class ability you still must ask for his surrender before trying to kill him or i would immediatly take away your exalted. Hell even if he dosent answer if you dont try to restrain or disable him and insted immediatly use lethal force id strip your exalted. Maybe it dosent speak commin for all you know. Exalted means your so full of goodness it actually gives you powers. Its alot different then the usual stupid paladin line of hunting down evil and beating it to death.
Sander_Kaa 02-12-07, 04:36 AM	Interesting discussion guys! I definately take the hint to put the BoED exalted code on my character sheet! I don't fully agree on not killing anything because there is a Vow of Peace and Nonviolence for. However, showing mercy is a thing my character would do. I put many ranks in social skills like diplomacy and sense motive. Talking prefers instead of killing the plain evil being. However: we are going to play an underdark adventure with possibly many drow and human but also: undead. How about them, IMO druids hate (evil) undead more than anything. What should be my exalted view on them? Thanks for your input so far!
Callista 02-12-07, 12:08 PM	The vast majority of undead are unredeemably evil, in the same category as demons. You should make an exception for ghosts (which can be any alignment) and intelligent undead willing to surrender (if they will let you provide a Reincarnation for them). If you're going to accept an undead creature's surrender, though, make sure you can put them under a truth spell or at least have a really high sense motive. But as a druid, you'd hate anything which runs on negative energy as being damaging to nature; as an Exalted person, you would want to put their souls to rest and keep them from killing anyone--which they will eventually do, given that most undead have cravings for things like blood or flesh or life energy. Feel free to kill mindless undead. They're little more than constructs, and made of negative energy to boot--meaning they naturally attack the living things that run on positive energy.
MongooseFamiliar 02-12-07, 10:49 PM	Another thing about undead - they are a violation of the natural order, the natural cycle. Such a thing would be anathema to a druid.
TheAnthroDM 02-13-07, 02:26 AM	Another thing about undead - they are a violation of the natural order, the natural cycle. Such a thing would be anathema to a druid. With that noted, their are sects of Druids in some campaign world that believe Undeath is part of the natural order of existance, thought they are ussually even so this shouldn't concern your character much, unless he encounters some. That being said, yes, most undead are inredeemably evil. Your druid should have no problem smiting down undead, intellegent or otherwise. If by some chance they surrender and you are capable of performing "Reincarnate" at the time that would be suitable, otherwise it would depends on your resourses what to do.
Sander_Kaa 02-19-07, 03:03 AM	In the past days i've updated my character with a "code of cunduct"" based on the good principles out of the Book of Exalted Deeds (mercy, forgiveness, sacrifice etc). I've talked to the new DM who will start next sunday, we will meet a lot of drow. Thay hate surface-dwellers he announced (which means I gonna have a hard time redeem some prisoners). He is, however, willing to follow the BoED rules on redemption. Allowing me to make diplomacy checks day-after-day to change slowly the alignment of my prisoner(s). No when I'm thinking of combat encounters with Drow elves some questions come up: - Do I use lethal damage at all (I say yes, unless I choose Vow of Nonviolence and I didn't)? - Do I kill them if they keep fighting instead of surrendering? - Do I take prisoners at random or just all of them if I have the possibility? - Do I talk to them first instead of attacking straight out. Thanks for helping me fleshing out my druid. Sander
Callista 02-26-07, 05:34 PM	Kill them if they refuse to surrender. Take prisoners if they surrender. Be prepared to deal with them--that means having arrangements with someone willing to keep them imprisoned until either judged and sentenced or released, or exchanged for your side's prisoners. Talk to them first if they don't attack you. You're a druid--that means NG. You don't have any allegiance to honor or individuality, so don't worry about either one when making your decisions. If you can find yourself a neutral enemy soldier, then you've got a chance at redemption... drow are generally dyed in the wool evil, but every once in a while you'll find one who doesn't want to do any more than just survive. Take your chance then.