Druid Groves

[InsectPlague]

Alright, so I was thinking today, and I've always really liked the lair system, and I always thought that Druids could use a method to establish "groves" in their area's they are guardians of, but that these groves and lairs would be immensely simplified versions of the normal lairs system that work a lot more simply and yet allow for some interesting benefits.

Simply each grove would have such:

-Different themed groves for different types of druids, some suggestions I have are: Bestial/Underdark, Generic four elements/elemental, wilderness/plantlife, insects/spider/beetle. Rot already exists as an advanced lair. Doesn't have to be a huge variety in the beginning, and each of the groves can encompass multiple types of druids under a certain subtype, such as the four elements one showing examples of the four elements so any elemental type of druid could use it, ect.

-Ley ritual initiator with rewards based on the theme of the grove

-Grove heart, the heart of the grove which can be fed all those resources you find everywhere to increase the level of the grove and give minor xp rewards for contributions

-Weaker gaurdians and less numerous than typical lairs, perhaps only four gaurdians that are themed to the lair, more for fluff than actual defense, as defending the grove will be mostly up to the druid and his allies

-3 Levels like most lairs, however, increases in level don't increase the size or appearance of the grove, this is to save time in having to develop tiers, keeping this simple, instead level ups in the grove will allow more interesting themed rewards from the ley ritual, the grove itself should be relatively small

-no storage, no buffbot npcs, MAYBE a healing crystal if the DM's feel generous, free resting typically that still consumes food. the grove is the druids home after all.

-Can still be destroyed by raiders forcing a start-over and opening up an interesting option to enemies of nature.

I was thinking the tiers should allow as such:

Tier 1: Ley Ritual can be used to summon a moderately strong themed gaurdian to the lair that acts as a henchmen, can be used to cast a full restoration on self, or minor trinket reward

Tier 2: Ley Ritual can now be used to summon a themed creature that can be AE'd and is otherwise neutral, and can be trained as a unique animal companion with a level requirement of 8.

Tier 3: Having nurtured your grove, and the ley in the area to such heights, your ley ritual now has the power to create unique themed trinkets and equipment strong in the ley that lasts until a reset has occured.


I was thinking this could replace all current ley rituals, and allow an awesome opportunity for druids to establish actual groves in their area's of choice

I tried to keep this easy to design especially in the terms of not having to design an entire new area for each tier, along with making it lack the great benefits of buffbots and storage that most lairs have. And if someone wants to simplify it further by all means go ahead, these are just my idea's, I know it has some nice benefits but establishing a grove should come with some benefits i think.

I also think this option should only be made available to stewards, or exceptional druids who have shown they wish to remain separate from the stewards and yet still prosper.

[Deston E]

I love this idea. Maybe tie it into the rent system and require a certain amount of points invested/wk instead of money. Owning the Grove maybe gives speed bonuses or other things while in it!

[zDark Shadowz]

Would the lairs be available to attack without DM oversight? It needs to be if we're expected to raid them for saturated leystones.

[Kinslayer988]

My ideal druid grove is a special type of lair. When the grove grows, druid gets buffs in the area and spawns deadlier creatures. Making the druid an actual threat if the player builds towards it.


Sadly this is not my top priority at the moment. Too many things on my plate. HOWEVER this is something I would like to work on eventually.

[Stranger]

Kinslayer, take a look at the current Rot Fungus script which modifies spawns and adds horrifically deadly entries to the spawn table given enough infestation.

It is rudimentarily similar to what you hope to do, but currently limited to Rot Druids.

[InsectPlague]

Dark shadows, it is possible to do without DM oversight if the spawns in the grove are made friendly to only the druid itself, or others marked as friends of the grove, but thats a lot of extra scripting, might be simpler just to require DM oversight, however if a DM were willing to put in the scripting work, i could see it being perfectly doable without DM oversight for any attacks.

As to what you are saying Kinslayer, I like your idea too, and would be delighted personally to see something like that, maybe mark certain area's as potential druid groves and make it so the spawns in the area grow increasingly deadly as the druid grows the power of his grove, make them claimable and once claimed all creatures in that grove are friendly towards the person who claimed it, and make the area itself give bonuses like the old withered barbarian perk did on withered lands, the bonuses growing with the strength of the grove. Though i do think there should be ley ritual sites in these groves, not only because they can make for some cool rp, but also because there are indeed many who would like to attack these rituals and it can lead to some interesting conflict.

My suggestion was going off the lair system, but if you could just adjust existing area's to function as groves, and put in a system that would be cool, maybe add a few new flavorful area's that serve as groves as well, would be nice to see groves available that can accommodate a nice variety of flavors of druids.

A few area suggestions if that were the case?

foul hallows as one, centered on the moldmire of course, webbed caverns as another, hidden pond as one, the center being the cave. Rotlands, shroomstalk forest, plenty of potential. That would be pretty awesome to see, druids who claim these area's actually being able to increase the danger of them to non-druids or non-friendlies to the grove, as well as getting bonuses while in the area's encompassed around the grove.