Fitting together concept and rules for an Eberron Child of Winter Druid


Advice


Hello! I'm going to be enjoying an Eberron campaign soon, adapted to Pathfinder rules. I have a character concept, and a build concept, but I'm having some trouble splicing the two.

The character concept: I'm basing this off of something I saw online - he's basically a moderate among the Children of Winter, who believes that the Winter will come on it's own. Trying to force it is acting like a master of nature, rather than a servant. So his goal is to gain enough strength and power to be respected among the Children of Winter (and thus spread his lest extreme ideology), while seeking signs of when Nature wants winter to be ushered in.

The build: based on what the party already has, and what I enjoy playing, I want to play a caster druid with emphasis on summoning, buff/debuff, and battlefield control. The party has melee power (a warforged fighter of some kind and an inquisitor), a blaster (a sorcerer), and item creation (an artificer). I'd prefer to go domain over animal companion.

So here's the trouble I'm having. All the options that seem like they'd fit the RP concept really well (Ice or Decay subdomain, Blight Druid archetype) lend themselves better to blaster or melee roles or are not party friendly (looking at you, Decay domain!); the options that I like most for the build (Smoke, Wind, or Ocean subdomain for example) don't really fit the RP concept all that strongly.

Any suggestions on options that might work well for both?


What about if you spin it into a more healet like build?

If the concept is a Child of Winter that believes winter will come on it's own, perhaps he takes his inspiration from animals preparing for winter, aka building up for hibernation.

More of a focus on stockpiling power, and making sure your allies are prepared for what is to come.

Grand Lodge

While none of these address all your problems, they might help narrow your ideas.

Artic Domain: This is a terrain domain that allows you to heal cold creatures and, later, harm fire creatures. Decent spells on the domain list too (Frostbite, Sleet Storm, Freezing Sphere).

Artic Druid Archetype: This gives you some cold powers. Nothing special, but thematic and could be useful (YMMV).

Storm Druid Archetype: Wait, do not stop reading, I was gonna suggest asking the GM for permission to alter the archetype in the following ways.

Domains: Instead of Air (and cloud and wind) access to Water (and ice).
Windwalker: Instead of ignoring wind, ignore difficult terrain from ice.

Rest works as is, a blizzard is a type of storm.

1 level of Druid, followed by Winter Witch with winter patron. Less in line with your original RP concept, but I think closer to the mechanics you are looking for.


Edymnion wrote:

What about if you spin it into a more healet like build?

If the concept is a Child of Winter that believes winter will come on it's own, perhaps he takes his inspiration from animals preparing for winter, aka building up for hibernation.

More of a focus on stockpiling power, and making sure your allies are prepared for what is to come.

This is kind of what I'm doing, although I'm of the school of thought that thinks healing in combat should be an emergency measure only. But yeah, he's going to be a very support focused caster.

Dafydd wrote:

While none of these address all your problems, they might help narrow your ideas.

Artic Domain: This is a terrain domain that allows you to heal cold creatures and, later, harm fire creatures. Decent spells on the domain list too (Frostbite, Sleet Storm, Freezing Sphere).

Artic Druid Archetype: This gives you some cold powers. Nothing special, but thematic and could be useful (YMMV).

Storm Druid Archetype: Wait, do not stop reading, I was gonna suggest asking the GM for permission to alter the archetype in the following ways.

Domains: Instead of Air (and cloud and wind) access to Water (and ice).
Windwalker: Instead of ignoring wind, ignore difficult terrain from ice.

Rest works as is, a blizzard is a type of storm.

1 level of Druid, followed by Winter Witch with winter patron. Less in line with your original RP concept, but I think closer to the mechanics you are looking for.

I think the "Winter" in Eberron is more a metaphorical concept for hard times in general, so while I am okay with thematically doing some stuff with ice and cold, I'm not sure I want to go this far with it. I did consider the Ice Domain though. My concern is that many of the powers are more direct damage focused, and I don't want to tread too far on the blaster's toes.

I should mention, the campaign is starting in Darguun and will likely be heavily focused on the Mournlands. So I expect a desolate wasteland, but not necessarily a cold one.


Quick overview of the Children of Winter.


Edymnion wrote:
Quick overview of the Children of Winter.

Thanks, Edymnion.

This page is where I got my character's heretical viewpoint - specifically the Fullness of Time section.

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