What follows is the first draft of the ovate, a spontaneous druid. It follows a specific theme in an attempt to capture some elements of older editions in terms of the druid, celtic lore, and so on
You can find the draft here: The Ovate
I'd appreciate constructive comments, questions, and so on.
Important Notes:
Ovates use the druid spell list.
Ovates use the sorcerer spells known and spells per day tables, respectively.
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cool concept!
the fact that he is a 9-level caster is implied rather than explicitly stated.
basically you toned down wildshape and traded in some bard lore abilities, then? consider instead keeping wildshape as is (or make it better?) and cutting BAB to half? if he is a peacemaker he really oughtn't carry any weapons (in the classic sense) and instead rely totally on magic. i would expand his magic options to compensate. i get a sense your mechanics don't quite support your theme here.
i would drop Soothing Words way down - like to 3rd or something? esp if you take away weapons he should be able to defeat his enemies another way.
maybe give him a 'pool' to 'draw on ancestral knowledge' or somesuch? (based on WIS?)
the sorcerer gets new spells at even levels. i would reconfigure your table to account for that. some levels (7, 13) come to be dead levels.
lot of potential here.
cool concept!
the fact that he is a 9-level caster is implied rather than explicitly stated.
basically you toned down wildshape and traded in some bard lore abilities, then? consider instead keeping wildshape as is (or make it better?) and cutting BAB to half? if he is a peacemaker he really oughtn't carry any weapons (in the classic sense) and instead rely totally on magic. i would expand his magic options to compensate. i get a sense your mechanics don't quite support your theme here.
I've seen the idea (a spontaneous druid) floated around as an oracle archetype, floated it myself as a bard archetype, and so on, but not a single one, including my own archetype, really "did it" for me; the idea of an ovate as a spontaneous druid with its own unique class features kinda lept out at me while I was doing some research for some "tribes" in my home setting and skimming old editions of Legends & Lore - ultimately, these provided the flavor I decided to try and run with. I'm glad you like it, I'm starting to get quite fond of it, too.
Since google docs won't properly import my tables, whether because were both stubborn or I'm doing something horribly wrong, I took screenshots and pasted them as images into the document. That should help clarify any potential confusion (as you have here and others have pointed out in another thread) regarding their casting abilities.
I'm fairly adamant about not wanting ovates to have plant or elemental forms, but I do agree that wildhshape could use some improvement. I just edited the document to add in the ability at 8th level to assume the form of a small or medium magical beast and at 10th level, in keeping with the pattern, the ability to use wild shape to assume the form of a tiny or large magical beast, via beastshape IV.
While I agree with you regarding the base attack bonus, and that the mechanic doesn't necessarily support the theme, I'm slightly concerned that it might have an adverse affect in conjunction with the druid spell list and/or wild shape. Thoughts?
Regarding the weapon list, I agree it should be cut down, somewhat. I'm considering cutting it down to the following, some of which are thematic in terms of druidic symbology, others which were common weapons of the Celts (I'm trying to keep the flavor text setting neutral, but I wanted to explain where the weapons came from):
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Ovates are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, quarterstaff, sickle, shortspear, sling, and spear.
i would drop Soothing Words way down - like to 3rd or something? esp if you take away weapons he should be able to defeat his enemies another way.
If I move it to level 3, should I also reduce the duration of the effect from 1 minute per level to 1 round per level, as the spell?
maybe give him a 'pool' to 'draw on ancestral knowledge' or somesuch? (based on WIS?)
I think you're talking about a new additional feature, and one not currently in the arrangement, yes? At first I thought you were talking about "Secrets Across Lifetimes", but I'm not 100% certain.
the sorcerer gets new spells at even levels. i would reconfigure your table to account for that. some levels (7, 13) come to be dead levels.
I tried to account for that in the Nature bond in the form of a limited choice of domains, which include their granted powers and domain spells; alternatively, they can choose an item as a form of arcanedivine bond of sorts. I'm not sure what to "fill in" for those.
Thank you, very much. Your input was very useful and helpful, as always.
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consider advancing wildshape at odd (rather than even) levels?
Divination Pool (Su):
a 2nd level ovate gains a pool of points equal to half his ovate level plus his Wisdom modifier. this pool replenishes on a daily basis.
so long the ovate retains at least one point in his pool he remains under a continuous effect of the Comprehend Languages spell.
he may expend one point from his pool to speak as though using Tongues for 1 minute.
he may expend one point to treat any 1st-level spell from the Cleric spell list as a known spell for 1 round. doing so is a swift action, and he become staggered the following round. as he learns to cast higher level spells, he may similarly expend one point per spell level to access higher level spells.
upon reaching 10th level, he may expend his entire pool to use Legend Lore as a spell-like ability. doing so leaves him fatigued for 1 hour.
Interesting!
Have you checked out the Shaman class in the New Paths Compendium by Kobold Press? The class is exactly that - a spontaneous druid with some other cool abilites as well.
You might want to take a look!
If that's the one I'm thinking it is (spirits, totem-based, very Native American in design )I already have it and we use the shaman as the primary divine/spiritual leader for the Mok'ra (orc tribes) - both the mechanics and fluff fit really well for this group, but it doesn't quite fit the vision I have for the ovate.
Re: Rainzax - I'm giving serious consideration to your Divination pool; I use a HEAVILY modified version of linguistics rules, which have varying levels, associated penalties on social skills based on mastery of a language, and takes the spells comprehend languages and tongues into account, so the ability to gain comprehend languages and tongues doesn't lessen the impact for actually learning and mastering a language. I need to think on it some more. I think it's a good idea, just so we're clear.
I'm looking at modifying the Nature bond slightly, to account for dead levels. I may be altering the list of Domains available significantly - a big deviation from the druid's list. While it will still list the Animal and Terrain domains, I think I'll shift it from elemental Domains to things such as Community (undecided on this one), Knowledge (Memory Subdomain), Rune (Languages, Ward), Travel (Exploration, Trade), War (Tactics), and Weather (Seasons).
War may seem out of place in the above list, at first glance. I feel it fits for certain leadership roles, however, as when diplomacy fails a knowledge of past conflicts and how they played out is certainly just as useful to a tribe as planting times and what not.
The aspect of nature bond that will directly address the dead levels, however, is going to involve the "item" bond. I'm considering changing the item bond to reflect the "sacred trees" concepts of the druids (oak, ash, apple, rowan, and so on) with a sort of tier system, focusing the item bond on the staff or spear as a sort of pseudo-familiar. I'll post more about the concept when I've worked out, more soldly, the concept I'm trying to express.
Thanks again for the input, guys.
Made a few slight alterations:
o Moved Soothing Words to 3rd and added a scaling effect;
o Added information regarding alignment spells;
I went ahead and did as Rainzax suggested, moving wildshape to odd level increments, in addition to removing the bonded item bit, and it pretty much fills the gaps, so to speak & altered spontaneous casting from summoning to divination spells.
I'll use the sacred tree mechanics I'm working on for an actual druid archetype.
At the moment, I'm missing two things: a second component to nature bond (possibly a familiar, but limited to certain types, i.e. no outsiders or elementals) and a capstone ability which may or may not tie into a divinaton pool, depending on how it goes.