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Dungeon World / Re: Shapeshifting animist is a poor substitute for Druid
« on: February 20, 2013, 11:31:57 PM »
Heh. This is a timely thread. I was just about to start one called "Druid Runs Amok" when I saw this. There's some really good ideas here. I was playing two days ago with my two kids (14 year old son playing a Druid and my 13 year daughter playing a ranger). We were playing lvl 3 chars.
The Druid decided on being an elf so he got the great forests forms and after enjoying 20 minutes looking up weird sea animals on google, decided on the open sea as his second category of forms.
We had a blast. The Druid certainly had the limelight though, and was shape-shifting every other turn to counter every threat. He rolled 10+ on almost every shapeshifting move the entire night so it was a little difficult to reign it in.
It was great to see such creative roleplaying from my son.
The first fight, a wizard they knew was running away from 5 wargs chasing him across a field. The PCs ran to help. The Ranger was shooting the wargs in the eyes and throats, downing one, her companion tangled with another.
The druid turned into an African King Eagle. The thing had a wing span of over 6 feet, massive claws and he swooped down and picked up the scrawny mage dodging the salivating maws of the wargs and depositing the wizard to safety, then leaping back into the air, swooping down and at the last instant turning into a venemous snake that bit the warg but didn't kill it. The warg trapped the mage in it's paws and was about to bite its head off when poof, he turned into a giant sea turtle with a shell diameter 35'. The warg was so confused it almost meowed. They tidied up the fight after that.
The giant sea turtle was a familiar staple in other encounters. One I didn't even see coming: so they were tasked to get the Book of Luthroth, required by the mage they rescued, from the bowels of a library in a city under attack by a goblin horde. The druid easily sneaked into the city--flew high--duh and into the library, overcoming most physical obstacles. My challenge was what to do with The Ranger so she wasn't completely left out. (You know bro and sister players--they don't always form the best teams.)
Anyhow, after a brutal fight with an orcaster and a lizard man, who were also after the book, the druid coming out victor, and the ocraster fled. The ranger eventually made it all the way through the sewers and into the city by the time the druid finished up this fight.
He eventually made it a subterranean large circular room--special collections area--there was a pedastal on the which rested the book bathed in a shaft of obvious magical light. A suit of armor (obviously a guardian) stood nearby ready to engage anyone who messed with the book. Druid flew in as a small bird, circled the pedestal, and then when it was right above the armored suit, turned upside down, shape shifted into a giant sea turtle and crushed it like it was a tin can! Squish. We all just started laughing. My daughter was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe!
He got the book, shapeshifted to an ant, and crawled out of the room, the guards that rushed down not being the wiser. After all who would see an ant?
Later, he did the turtle move again, flying lazily above the goblin command post of the goblin horde as a humming bird then upending and crushing the platform. I wonder what they thought seeing a giant turtle fall out of the sky and kill their leader and two of his orcasters? He then zipped away as the humming bird again, while being trailed with bursts of magical energy from the one remaining orcaster.
The goblins not used to seeing it rain giant turtles pulled back their assault. The heroes had saved the town (well okay the druid hero). The ranger at this point, the druid outdistancing her.
It was fun but, he did tend to hog the limelight. Thanks for the ideas here.
The Druid decided on being an elf so he got the great forests forms and after enjoying 20 minutes looking up weird sea animals on google, decided on the open sea as his second category of forms.
We had a blast. The Druid certainly had the limelight though, and was shape-shifting every other turn to counter every threat. He rolled 10+ on almost every shapeshifting move the entire night so it was a little difficult to reign it in.
It was great to see such creative roleplaying from my son.
The first fight, a wizard they knew was running away from 5 wargs chasing him across a field. The PCs ran to help. The Ranger was shooting the wargs in the eyes and throats, downing one, her companion tangled with another.
The druid turned into an African King Eagle. The thing had a wing span of over 6 feet, massive claws and he swooped down and picked up the scrawny mage dodging the salivating maws of the wargs and depositing the wizard to safety, then leaping back into the air, swooping down and at the last instant turning into a venemous snake that bit the warg but didn't kill it. The warg trapped the mage in it's paws and was about to bite its head off when poof, he turned into a giant sea turtle with a shell diameter 35'. The warg was so confused it almost meowed. They tidied up the fight after that.
The giant sea turtle was a familiar staple in other encounters. One I didn't even see coming: so they were tasked to get the Book of Luthroth, required by the mage they rescued, from the bowels of a library in a city under attack by a goblin horde. The druid easily sneaked into the city--flew high--duh and into the library, overcoming most physical obstacles. My challenge was what to do with The Ranger so she wasn't completely left out. (You know bro and sister players--they don't always form the best teams.)
Anyhow, after a brutal fight with an orcaster and a lizard man, who were also after the book, the druid coming out victor, and the ocraster fled. The ranger eventually made it all the way through the sewers and into the city by the time the druid finished up this fight.
He eventually made it a subterranean large circular room--special collections area--there was a pedastal on the which rested the book bathed in a shaft of obvious magical light. A suit of armor (obviously a guardian) stood nearby ready to engage anyone who messed with the book. Druid flew in as a small bird, circled the pedestal, and then when it was right above the armored suit, turned upside down, shape shifted into a giant sea turtle and crushed it like it was a tin can! Squish. We all just started laughing. My daughter was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe!
He got the book, shapeshifted to an ant, and crawled out of the room, the guards that rushed down not being the wiser. After all who would see an ant?
Later, he did the turtle move again, flying lazily above the goblin command post of the goblin horde as a humming bird then upending and crushing the platform. I wonder what they thought seeing a giant turtle fall out of the sky and kill their leader and two of his orcasters? He then zipped away as the humming bird again, while being trailed with bursts of magical energy from the one remaining orcaster.
The goblins not used to seeing it rain giant turtles pulled back their assault. The heroes had saved the town (well okay the druid hero). The ranger at this point, the druid outdistancing her.
It was fun but, he did tend to hog the limelight. Thanks for the ideas here.