I need some help and because of that I am creating my first post! I have an Elven Druid (lvl 5 and finishing up 3FoE in Age of Worms) The party actually met him and has been adventuring with him mostly outside of town. However as I get nearer to sending the party to Greyhawk I fear that there will be some issues. He normally plays a warrior and thus far the mentality of that character is blaring through his druid. My feeling is that when he gets into greyhawk or chooses to enter diamond lake he is going to forget about the stigma of a druid and when I role play it using the NPCs he is going to get mad or something and hurt my session. Druids are odd characters that I have minimal experience with. Any suggestions on how to handle the possible screeching halt my game may face and just how much stigma should I use in Diamond lake and Greyhawk.
Basicly the watch will keep reminding him/her to not use flame
spells in town.
Most other people will think said person is a barbarian till
they use a spell.
In my game the guards at the door grabbed the head off the trident and threw it in the trash.
The innkeeper retrived it and mounted it on the wall.
Does the druid take regular baths?
What's his animal companion? A wolf can sort of pass for a dog.
Remember that there is a word for people who make fun of
barbarians. Dead.
There are not that many morons in the free city.
None of the modules say an NPC will tease Barbarians and Druids.
the problem I see is our druid will go into town see a "wrong" and attempt to right it. example: Diamond lake is a mining operation that is striping the land of its minerals and poluting its waters when smelting. the druid makes it known to the majority of those around that it is wrong and such and start to cause a small uproar. the people being fairly simple minded will challenge the druid in argument. with a warriors mentality in the background the druid has a show of power (spell or panther animal companion) townsfolk not having seen much of that sort get afraid and the party suffers or worse the towns folk call upon the gaurd to rid them of such a dangerous character. there are many a thug in diamond lake and it just worries me that the druid may be very forward and ruffle a lot of feathers some influencial. (mine owners who are "destroying" the land).
If memory serves not only is their an ancient Druid ring just outside the Free City but the druid who maintains it lives in the city. Obviously he has negotiated his faith with his environment, let him be the beacon. Surely a city-shy druid will stop by the ring at some point. Perhaps you could develop this local druid as a mentor of a sorts for the druid PC, who points out that not all things in the city are evil--maybe noting similar arrangements in nature, like bee hives.
So often I see druid characters paint themselves in a corner with their loathing of society, but I find that a cliche. Not every druid has to be a filthy, town-hater who relates to animals better than to people. But keep in mind that the cliche is usually the first attempt with a new class. So when a PC takes the obvious path, I find the best thing to do is show them an alternative viewpoint with all the benefits, and see what happens.
Ultimately, you can't change someone else's character. You must point things out from time to time (like the paladin going on a murderous rampage), but this is often seen as a heavy-handed attempt to steal the character away from the player. I say encourage your player for stepping outside his usual warrior role and find way to work around it, lest he retreat to fighter and never peek out again.
Well you can only hope when he starts going all 'Eco-terrorist' on the city dwellers that the other members of his party are able to either calm him down or convince him to wait outside the city somewhere or something.
Otherwise there are ways that this could be kind of fun and add to the campaign. If the Law gets their hands on him for somekind of trouble he has caused don't just kill him off, put the party in a moral dilema about whether or not they should bust him out of Jail. Or have some kind hearted well known NPC intervene on his behalf with a strong lecture to him that his behavior will not be tolerated but he will be freed as long as he gives his word to behave.
In the Mirrors adventure, if he gets turned over to the Law, have him be the one that is captured by the Doppledangers, they take the PC and store him in Sodden house and one of them takes his place in the party giving an explanation of how he was released as per above. "The cruel and bestial city folk even slew my beast animal companion Biter right before me very eyes, sob sob."
thanks for all the help. well be having a session soon and ill post afterwards with what happened. thanks for making my first post a successful one!
You just gave me an idea.
Maybe the druid outside the city is waiting to make his move.
For example, when a dragon attacks Diamond Lake.
The druids and Elves might be trying to shut down the mines
and whack the undead.
Maybe they can bring in any surviving lizardmen.