Sorcery: Urban Druid Spellcasting

Sorcery: Urban Druid Spellcasting

The urban druid was a very obscure class in D&D 3.5, but also one that intrigued me a lot - I feel that it has a lot of potential. I wrote this thing up a very long time ago but for some reason did not post it on the blog, so there you have it.

Urban druids cast spells in the same way druids do, although they get their spells from the power of the city's spirit rather than from nature. Their spells are oriented toward society and construction, including the ability to change shape into different humanoids and creatures found in urban environments. The most powerful urban druids can transform into objects or even constructs.

-          Sorcerous Empowerment by default has the Magical, -10% limitation included, but we will replace it with Urban, -20% for this advantage and for the Sorcery, -15% power modifier itself. Thus, all spells will have at least a -20% limitation from the power modifier. To balance out the additional limitation in the internal construction of the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage, we will additionally apply Reliable 2, +10%. This will give a +2 bonus to rolls made for hardcore improvisation. After these adjustments, the cost of the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage will not change.

This makes the spells depend on the collective consciousness of urban dwellers instead of magic. Technology does not impair the use of urban druidic powers. Use the following table to estimate the penalty.

Environment	Penalty
City with a population of 5,000 or more	0
City with a population of 3,000-4,999	-1
Town with a population of 1,500-2,999	-2
Town with a population of 1,000-1,499	-3
Town with a population of 400-999	-4
Town with a population of 100-399	-5
Settlement with a population of less than 100	-6
Wilderness within 1 mile of a settlement	-7
Wilderness within 1-10 miles of a settlement	-8
Wilderness within 11-40 miles of a settlement	-9
Primordial wilderness far away from civilization	-10

A spell that requires no die roll loses 10% of its effectiveness (bonus to reactions or skills, DR, etc.) per -1 instead. If the penalties total -10 or worse, you’re powerless.

In addition, the new power modifier requires you to take a -10-point disadvantage that will represent the mystical practices of urban druidism. Typically, this is Disciplines of Faith (Mysticism) [-10] (p. B132) or Vow (Own no more than your horse can carry) [-10] (p. 161). Should you transgress, your powers will be revoked instantly, but you can get back in good standing by completing a minor quest.

-          Some spells require somatic, verbal, and/or material components. This is accomplished by adding the Requires Magic Words, -10%, Required Gestures, -10%, and/or Requires Material Component, -10% limitations to the spells. The combinations of these limitations may vary from spell to spell. This will make urban druids easier to counter.

-          FP cost should not be always 1 FP. This will add a bit of bookkeeping, but is useful for balancing powerful spells, such as Teleport. The same applies to casting times.

-          The caster’s spell repertoire must be limited to urban druidic spells. This is roughly equivalent to five colleges – Communication and Empathy, Food, Knowledge, Making and Breaking, and Technological spells with the addition of body transformation spells that can polymorph him into another city dweller or a construct and spells that transport you within a city or between cities. Sorcerous Empowerment gets no scope limitation.

-          Advantages granted by urban druidic Buff spells should have the Urban, -10% modifier, because they are limited by the presence of civilization, but do not require the subject to engage in mystical activities.

-          For hardcore improvisation, urban druids use Religious Ritual (Druidic) instead of Thaumatology.

-          When rolling a critical failure on a casting roll, use the City Botches Table (Pyramid #3-58, p. 38).

-          After all adjustments, Sorcerous Empowerment (Urban Druidic) costs 20 points for level 1 + 10 points/additional level.