Character Classes

URBAN DRUID

The frenzied surge of a riot, the stately presence of a cathedral, the constant vigilance of the city watch, the slow decay of worm-eaten waterfront buildings - to most, these things are nothing more than the results of civilization, but to a rare few, they represent something more. To these few, the milling of pedestrians in a busy marketplace is akin to the industry of an ant colony. The towering statues erected to honor bygone dynasties are as pure as the mightiest redwood tree. The cobblestone and dirt streets are arteries of life. To these few, civilization represents a powerful force in and of itself, opposed to but not necessarily in conflict with nature. Just as nature has those who venerate and worship its purity and strength, so does the city have its faithful. They tend to be solitary and introverted, despite living in urban environments. They are physically alone but spiritually connected to the secret voices of the city itself. They are the urban druids. The urban druid knows that each city is, after a fashion, a living organism. Each city has its own personality, its own joys, and its own nightmares. The presence of its citizens are its voice, and the memories of its dead are its soul. The buildings are its bones, the streets its veins, and the protective walls its skin. Its eyes are the market, and its ears the port. Urban druids draw their power from the city and return it tenfold with devotion and faith. Urban druids adventure to gain knowledge (especially about the history and architecture of cities and the ways of their citizens). Unlike the druids of nature, urban druids do not form hierarchical societies. Each is left to her own; when two urban druids meet, they often exchange ideas, lore, and philosophies, but only rarely do they stay together. Urban druids find destruction and entropy to be the most horrifying aspect of the world; anything that can destroy a city is to be hated, feared, and hunted. Undead are particularly reviled for their ability to quickly destroy populations through disease, terror, and negative energy, but dragons and elementals (with their capability to destroy large buildings and swaths of cities with ease) are also hated, and often an urban druid turns to an adventuring life to seek out and slay these terrible foes. Urban druids cast divine 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. In addition to spells, urban druids gain an increasing array of magical powers, 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. As with classic druids, urban druids must remain impartial to a certain degree. They must value society and civilization above the individual. As a result, all urban druids must have a neutral component to their alignment. No urban druid is chaotic neutral, since hearing the secret voice of the city requires at least a modicum of organization. An urban druid worships the purity of society and the city above all else. Religions are incorporated into this as a whole, although the urban druid finds more to draw power from in the massive cathedrals and huge masses of worshipers than from their deities. As mentioned above, urban druids are alone in the crowd. They dwell in cities, and although they often visit smaller towns or even travel into the wilderness on a quest, they are only truly at ease in a settlement with a population of no less than 5,000 souls. Often, a neighborhood never realizes that an urban druid dwells in its midst, so secretive and subtle are her workings and goals. Humans, being industrious and quick to expand and build, have the highest affinity for the calling of the urban druid. Half-elves and half-orcs, often forced to live in large cities where they can rely on the anonymity of the crowd to hide their heritages, also often find themselves answering the secret voice of the city. Elves and gnomes, with their love of nature, are almost never urban druids. Urban druids share a love of society with the hard and the rogue, and they tend to find the company of these classes the most pleasing. Their devotion to cities and civilization often places them at odds with more rural regions and the wildlands beyond; as a result, they tend to avoid interaction with rangers and druids. Barbarians, with their rash behavior and disdain for civilized life, are the most reviled of the other classes. As with the standard druid, the urban druid is a versatile character. She can serve as a healer, a warrior, and a diplomat with case. Her urban companion can also provide valuable melee combat support.

Alignment: Neutral good, neutral, lawful neutral, or neutral evil

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The urban druid's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge(architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge(history) (Int), Knowledge(local) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (none), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Urban Druid

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the urban druid.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Urban druids eschew most forms of weaponry, preferring to use smaller and faster weapons that don't spread panic by their mere presence. Urban druids are proficient with the following weapons: club, crossbow (any), dagger, quarterstaff, rapier, sap, and short sword. They find armor to be distasteful and rude, and although they are proficient with padded, leather, and studded leather armor, they prefer to wear armor only when adventuring. The DM may allow urban druids to wear other forms of light armor that provide less than a +4 armor bonus as well. Urban druids are proficient with bucklers but no other shields.

An urban druid who wears prohibited armor or carries a prohibited shield is unable to cast urban druid spells or use any of her supernatural class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.

Spells: An urban druid casts divine spells, which are drawn from the urban druid spells list. Her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. An urban druid must choose and prepare her spells in advance (see below).

To prepare or cast a spell, the urban druid must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid's spell is 10 + the spell level + the druid's Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, an urban druid can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. She receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score. She does not have access to any domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.

An urban druid prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, although she cannot lose a prepared spell to cast a cure spell in its place (but see Spontaneous Casting, below). An urban druid may prepare and cast any spell on the urban druid spell list, provided she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

An urban druid's divine focus is typically a manufactured or forged item common to a city, such as a gear, a tool, a horseshoe, or a similar item.

Spontaneous Casting: An urban druid can channel stored spell energy into repair spells that she hasn't prepared ahead of time. She can "lose" a prepared spell in order to cast any repair spell of the same level or lower.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A druid can't cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity's (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

City Sense (Ex): An urban druid gains a +2 bonus on Gather Information and Knowledge (local) checks.

Favored City (Ex): At 1st level, an urban druid must select a favored city. This must be a settlement of at least small town size or larger that the urban druid has visited, but need not be the city the urban druid currently calls home. As she gains levels, an urban druid may consider additional cities her favored cities.

While within the city limits of one of her favored cities, an urban druid gains a sacred bonus to all Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Intimidate checks equal to her Wisdom modifier. In addition, she gains a +2 morale bonus on all Will saving throws.

Urban Companion (Ex): An urban druid begins play with an urban companion selected from the following list: Small animated object, bat, dire rat, rat, cat, dog, riding dog, horse (light or heavy), Medium monstrous centipede, Small monstrous scorpion, Small monstrous spider, mule, owl, pony, raven, snake (Small or Medium viper), warhorse (light). This creature is a loyal companion that accompanies the urban druid on her adventures as appropriate for its kind. A vermin serving as an urban companion has an Intelligence of 1, and its type changes to animal.

A 1st-level urban druid's companion is completely typical for its kind except as noted in The Druid's Animal Companion. As the urban druid advances in level, the companion's power increases as shown in that sidebar. An urban companion that improves as the urban druid gains levels adds Hit Dice appropriate to its type.

If an urban druid releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer. This ceremony can also replace a companion that has perished.

An urban druid of 4th level or higher may select from alternative lists of creatures (see below). Should she select an urban companion from one of these alternative lists, the creature gains abilities as if the character's urban druid level were lower than it actually is. Subtract the value indicated in the appropriate list header from the character's urban druid level and compare the result with the urban druid level entry on the table in the Druid's Animal Companion sidebar to determine the companion's powers. (If this adjustment would reduce the urban druid's effective level to 0 or lower, she can't have that creature as a companion.)

Any construct that serves an urban druid is spontaneously created by the 24-hour prayer that calls the urban companion; the urban druid need not have the Craft Construct feat or expend gold and experience points to gain the construct companion.

Crowdwalk (Ex): At 2nd level, an urban druid can move through crowds with ease, moving as if in an open space. If an urban druid attempts to move through a square occupied by a hostile creature (such as with a Tumble check or an overrun attempt), she gains a +4 bonus on any skill check, Strength check, or attack roll made to resolve the movement.

Alley Fighting (Ex): Urban druids are masters at fighting in cramped quarters, such as city alleyways or narrow dungeon corridors. At 3rd-level, an urban druid's ability to fight in these conditions improves greatly. As long as she is fighting in an area no wider than her space (5 feet for a Small or Medium humanoid), she gains a +1 competence bonus on all attack rolls. Additionally, if she makes a melee attack against a target around a corner, the target does not gain the benefit of cover (unless the foe has total cover). The urban druid retains the benefits of cover against her enemy, unless she is fighting another urban druid or other creature with a similar power.

Disease Immunity (Ex): At 4th level, an urban druid becomes immune to all forms of disease, including supernatural diseases like mummy rot.

Urban Shape (Su): At 5th-level, an urban druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium urban creature. This ability functions identically to a druid's wild shape ability, save that the list of forms the urban druid can take is much more specialized: It is limited to creatures with the humanoid type or to any non-construct creatures from her urban companion list (see above).

An urban druid can use this ability more times per day at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. In addition, she gains the ability to take the shape of a Large creature at 8th level, a Tiny creature at 11th level, and a Huge creature at 15th level. The new form's Hit Dice can't exceed the character's urban druid level.

At 12th level, the urban druid becomes able to use urban shape to change into an object (size based on the sizes allowed by the urban shape ability), such as a door or a wagon. The urban druid gains hardness equal to the material assumed, but the urban druid cannot assume the form of an object with a hardness of more than 10. As long as the urban druid is in object form, she has no means of locomotion or speech, but she retains awareness of her surroundings as if she were in her natural form.

At 16th level, an urban druid becomes able to use urban shape to transform into a Small, Medium, Large, or Huge animated object once per day. These construct forms are in addition to her normal urban shape usage. In addition to the normal effects of urban shape, the urban druid also gains all of the animated object's extraordinary special attacks and special qualities, including any defenses gained from the construct type. Her type changes to construct for the duration of the animated object form. A urban druid who becomes an animated object has no Constitution score for as long as he remains an animated object. The urban druid gains bonus hit points based on his size while an animated object, as usual for a construct.

At 18th level, an urban druid gains the ability to assume animated object form twice per day, and at 20th level she can do so three times per day. At 20th level, she may use this ability to change into a gargantuan animated object.

Information Network (Ex): Upon reaching 9th level, an urban druid has established an information network in a number of cities equal to her Charisma bonus. While in any of these cities, the urban druid only takes half an hour to make a Gather Information check (rather than a full evening or day). In addition, if any event occurs in a city that would interest the urban druid, she may make a Gather Information check to learn of the event as a free action. Knowledge of such an event reaches the urban druid's ears in 1d4 hours unless the urban druid is in an area that cannot be reached by her contacts.

ALTERNATIVE URBAN COMPANIONS

An urban druid of sufficiently high level can select her urban companion from one of the following lists, applying the indicated adjustment to the druid's level (in parentheses) for purposes of determining the companion's characteristics and special abilities.