I am still working on my campaign set in 17th Century Europe. I've figured out how to fit most of the classes into the culture, although there is not a match at all between Pathfinder class and 17th Century occupations.
For this thread, I am considering changes that I should make to the classes to make them fit. for example, Fighters should have proficiency in runs, but Armor Training and Armor Mastery is not likely to be very useful.
But first, I am looking at the Druid. I written up that four possible character concepts for druids are the following:
1. A remnant of the ancient druidic religion, who has somehow inherited the rites and traditions of the Celtic religion.
2. A "green witch" who focusses on magic based on the natural world.
3. A shaman from a distant land where the primitive culture is practically untouched by modern civilization.
4. A master of "applied natural philosophy" whose study of and respect for nature allows them to actually cast spells and achieve other magical effects.
The main thing I am considering is making Wild Shape an optional power for this class. I see that there are various alternate class options for Druids that delay the acquisition of this power, but I am not sure I like the alternate class feature mechanic. The problem I see with it is that it makes character creation a lot more complicated, and at a certain point I wonder if it would be better to do a classless game like GURPS.
One thought I have is maybe give Druids the customization option to forgo Wild Shape at 4th level, and then at 5th level may choose a spell of 3rd level or less that she can use as a spell-like ability the number of times a day that she could have used Wild Shape.
I'd go with #3. Think Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest
I'd go with #3. Think Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest
The reason for listing the concepts is to consider options, so all four options would be valid for this setting. Also, if a player can think of a fifth or sixth idea that fits, then that is fine -- the list is not intended to be exhaustive.
The reason for putting the list in this thread is to examine the sorts of characters that I am looking to support.
I suppose all four types could use Wild Shape. The concept came from ancient tales of druids. Witches and shamans are known for changing shape, and there is no reason why a philosopher who studied their methods could not do so as well.
I am considering making all the variants for Druids in the Advanced Players Guide available as options for druids who want to specialize.