I am preparing to start a campaign that allows wide latitude to character creation. I talked to my first player about her character today, and she says "can I play a vampire druid?"
Wow. My first instinct was "no, druids are nature based, undead are unnatural." But I thought about it, and while it needs some re-fluff, the Druid class itself adds a lot of abilities that could be played as very vampire-like.
So I decided to do it like this:
First, I used the 3.5 Savage Progressions for Vampire as a base. So the character will be created as a human with levels of Vampire. I added a Hit Die and skill points so the character's not burning levels, and removed all mention of shape change abilities as a trade. In my mind, in the world this vampire comes from, only those who specifically learn (aka take this "druid" like class) gain those abilities. I also removed the upper end DR and capped the class at 6th level as opposed to 8th.
Now, I need to mod the Druid class. My first roadblock is what to name it. I have no idea.
Second, I need to change out some abilities and, I think, the spell list. I plan to allow the druid's Wild Shape to work with limited animals (wolves and bats), air elementals (mist), and vermin (spiders, creepy-crawlies). I'm looking at swapping in a more Witch-like spell list. Any suggestions on how to mod, or even what to call this non-druid druid?
Oh, nice. I was unfamiliar with Shaman archetypes. The Bat Shaman looks pretty cool.