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When my PC's are in town or civilization, I can think of good side-conflicts to build up around the story, but I am having a hard time of thinking of how to find conflict (to be built into plot points) for druids (or possibly fey) which live their day-to-day life in the forest.
Does anyone have any resources they can recommend for ideas? (RPG supplements, fiction, notes, etc.)
Specifically, I am working with the Fangwood Forest in Nirmathas, but I could adapt (or take inspiration from) something else.
What was once a beautiful grove surrounding a spring has been turned into a haunted location and the creatures who use the spring can no longer access it.
A band of renegade elves (or anyone else you prefer) have taken to hiding in the woods. They attack travelers and settlers who live around the forest, even sniping from the trees to kill travelers in order to loot them.
A series of forest fires are traced to the summoning of a small fire elemental who escaped and somehow managed to stay on the Material Plane.
Not sure if these are what you're looking for, but I thought I'd throw them out there.
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Criminal hiding in woods. Robin hood like npc operating in woods.... now the town or guards are gearing up to trample everything and are jumpy enought o kill everything that moves until they find them.
Wildfires
A noble's pet escaped and has become the apex predator, now the local hunters have less to hunt and fear there will be no game in the forest soon
I was thinking more along the lines of what a druid might be doing in a normal day.
Checking on/harassing Lumber Jacks comes to mind, or perhaps tending to sick animals comes to mind, but that doesn't bring a good "feel" for why/how someone would live and work way out in the forest to me.
Are they any detailed sources for how druids have support structures, hierarchies, or even what they define their role as in the forest?
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Are they any detailed sources for how druids have support structures, hierarchies, or even what they define their role as in the forest?
As far as I've been able to tell, there is no global (or even continent-wide) druid-only organization. It's pretty much all regional, although there are some that come close (such as the Green Faith faction in the Faction Guide, which is dominated by druids, but includes other classes as well).
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A handsome prince has gone hunting in the forest and is spirited away to the First World by a dryad who wants him for her boy toy. His father wants him for an arranged marriage. The druid is tasked with rescuing said prince, who might be ensorcelled, or might just be happily eloped with the wood nymph to escape dad's arrange marriage. Meanwhile the king is willing to log the entire forest if he doesn't get his son back. What's worse, the dryad is similarly unreasonable, giving the druid what, for the fey, is a completely reasonable counteroffer: He can have his son back if he sends her seven more boy toys, each more handsome than the last.
A fabulous beast has escaped from the first world, menacing the forest both with its presence and with the presence of trophy hunters who are competing for the honor of slaying the firebreathing green elk or whatever the hell it is and mounting the head on their walls.
A coven of hags has moved into the neighborhood and are causing trouble, looking to turn an enchanted forest into a darkly enchanted forest.
Unicorns prize virginity. So do satyrs. Both live in enchanted forests. Conflict of interests? And what happens when the queen and her ladies decide to go a-maying?
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A rare and incredible white stag with golden antlers has been seen through the trees on the full moon. Legend says that the hunter who catches it summons thew ire of the nature spirits guarding it, and can bargain away its life for a wish. Suddenly, both the nearby noble is sending people to hunt it down so he can get his wish, and a bunch of poachers and bandits are trying their hand at it.
An angry druid is living at the edge of a forest which is being slowly chipped away by loggers, and is using maddened animals to savage people in their beds while they sleep.
A strange illness has appeared amongst the trees, the fey in the forest are going mad, and the druids have no idea whats going on...
All of the trees in a section of forest have suddfenly dissappeared and appeared on top of a hill, having demolished the old fort that stood there and replanted themselves (...and you shall fall when Birnam Wood travels to Dunsenane...) in the remains.
A traveling noble envoy went through the woods (who is a beautiful young half-elves girl), and has vanished. The only person to return was a "cat" who, when the curse on him was dispelled, starts rambling about a coven of cannibalistic witches...
I could go on and on and on...
I was thinking more along the lines of what a druid might be doing in a normal day.
Checking on/harassing Lumber Jacks comes to mind, or perhaps tending to sick animals comes to mind, but that doesn't bring a good "feel" for why/how someone would live and work way out in the forest to me.
Are they any detailed sources for how druids have support structures, hierarchies, or even what they define their role as in the forest?
Hunting and gathering, making or repairing possessions, making or repairing shelters, gathering materials for either, patrolling their territory, keeping an eye on troublespots, making preserves or medicines, curing hides, checking traps, or possibly checking up on trappers...
Alone in the wilderness, a fair proportion of activity will be related to basic survival.
While this is more about areas next to the woods...you can go with the old sheep herders vs cattle herders conflict. This has been going on in our world from just about the time we started herding these animals to present in some parts of the world.
Perhaps there are conduits to the fey realm throughout the forest and druids help serve as a layer of insulation (as it were) between this world and that.
The Folk of the Pines, a group of aasimar descended from angelic beings from an eternally moonlit celestial plane, dwell there in scattered hidden communities. They have little to do with civilization, but they will use their considerable powers to heal and aid those who come to them in peace.