#lampad

(art by NestledNaga on DeviantArt)

When most people think of the druid class, many do think of them as opposed to civilization, which is fair, but not accurate, as there are many groups of druid that act as shepherds of civilization in regards to interacting with nature.

Not so with today’s archetype. While not actively enemies of civilization, the followers of the untamed order, or “wild” if you prefer the pre-remaster name reject it’s trappings, at most trading with civilization, but never coming to rely on the benefits of living in one. These are the sort of druids that will choose to sleep under the stars even when the inn is available unless there is a reason to stay.

While some may chide them as barbaric or closed-minded, untamed druids understand better than most that despite poetic descriptions of balance and the cycle of nature, for the most part such things are pretty systems applied to what is otherwise purely anarchy.

And as we’ll soon see, that rejection of grant ideals of order leads these druids down the path of fluidity of form much faster than other druids, making these the druids that master the classic druid ability of “wild shape” or “Untamed Form” as it is known in the post-remaster world.

These druids are quite capable of displaying fierceness, making them quite intimidating.

Additionally, they start with the basics of druidic shapeshifting, starting with basic small forms followed by animal forms.

They also gain magic that allows them to perform partial transformations, not unlike the animal shamans of the previous edition, to gain different shapeshifting benefits without giving up on having a humanoid form entirely.

The order also has some feats that are tied to it specifically. These include Brutal Crush to leave foes reeling from your anamalistic strikes, Creature Comforts to absolve oneself of fear, and Rip and Tear to rend foes.

Additionally, there are many that are less directly associated with the order but still useful. Primarily this includes any feat with “Shape” in the name, adding to the variety of forms their shapeshifting can achieve, from elementals to flying forms to savage war forms and beyond. Other feats include Call of the Wild, Order Explorer, Elemental Summons, Toppling Transformation, Healing Transformation, Explosive Metamorphosis, Bizarre Transformation, Cleansing Transformation, Reactive Transformation, Towering Transformation, Too Much to Swallow, Perfect Form Control, Heart of the Kaiju, and True Shapeshifter, as well as any other feats that might suit your build. Remember that it’s a simple feat for a character to gain access to other order-only feats.

Starting out with the ability to shapeshift into whole or partial animal forms, the untamed druid is certainly set up to be a versatile warrior, able to buff themselves up and shapeshift into battle forms, as well as taking on useful utility forms for scouting and the like as needed. Don’t forget that you’re still a full caster though, so you’ll need to buff up before entering the fray, and more importantly, have access to the versatility of the primal spell list.

It can be easy to assume that characters that reject organized society fall into barbarian stereotypes, but that’s a terribly narrow way to look at it. Sure, some might indeed view so-called “civilized” folk as soft, but others might actually have had history with civilization and chose to reject it nevertheless, and may in fact be very well-educated.

An odd sight has crossed paths with the party, for they encounter an ancient automaton that is also a druid! Syllabary has lived among animals and beasts for quite some time, rarely seeing any other sentient ancestries for years at a time. Though their shapeshifting is impressive, one has to wonder how much they’ve forgotten, both during their time as an automaton, and before, when they were flesh and blood.

When the circle of Glittering Stones was wiped out, their death left a neighboring lampad named Miurial without any company. So when the party encounters her and convinces her they must move on themselves, she asks them to find another group of druids to consider coming to keep her company. Fortunately one group does exist in a reasonable distance in the Depths, namely the Rustling Conclave, a group of shapeshifting warriors that favor insectile forms above all others.

Classic Mythology AU - Lampad/Cherufe!Keith

Hooo buddy this one really tried my patience like you wouldn’t believe! The problem is that in classical mythologies there aren’t really any fire spirits that take on a humanoid appearance like the other elements and I wasn’t too sure what Keith would end up being. The designated fire spirit is a salamander (yes, the actual animal) and I had thought to have Keith with a lizard’s lower half but my composition didn’t match the others in the group. But all things considered, he didn’t turn out too bad! I’m v happy with the cloak and his face, despite that weird arm haha!

Doing a bit of research, I did find two spirits from different cultures’ mythos that would fit, so I combined them. The Lampad comes from, you guessed it, Greek mythology. They are the spirits that carry torches and wear dark cloaks in the night to help the goddess Hectate on her nightly activities, so I’d imagine that Keith is probably doing the same for some old forest god every night (or maybe Haggar is our goddess idk). A Cherufe is a being from Chilean mythos that reside in volcanoes and can bring misfortune (I think?) and so that’s where Keith lives as well. He probably lives in the magma by day and comes down the mountain to the forest with his torch and has to serve some higher being because no one wants to be around fire spirits that supposedly bring back luck and destruction like the fire they carry. Will our group of misfits change his mind?

30 monsterpeople 13/30: Salamander Lampad

their torches will drive you mad, which means they’re automatically pegged as an annoying status effect user

Nymphs: Lampades

(art by Kelly McNee on Artstation)

 Of the handful of ancestries that first appeared as race builder examples in Advanced Race Guide, gathlain are perhaps my favorite, being an interesting twist on the classic diminutive winged faerie.

Being true fae does mean that they are one of the few playable ancestries for whom the First World, home of the fae and rough draft of the material plane, is considered a normal place. And with that comes the notion of belonging to one of the many faerie courts of that realm.

Whether or not they are gathlain, some other form of fey, or even a rare mortal resident or visitor, many bards who seek to curry favor of the fae courts learn the secrets of being a true courtier, and with it, many magical secrets (as well as the allyship of many fey).

Of course, taking on such a role isn’t without risks. After all, the fey are powerful and fickle beings, especially the powerful Eldest, the fey demigods that rule over vast realms in the First World.

These courtiers do not necessarily spend all their time in the fey realms, however. Many act as agents for the fey in the Material Plane, or perhaps freewheeling wanderers that received a blessing due to their charm and are occasionally required to show up to parties and entertain.

 The ways of the fey courtiers include a handful of new performances. In particular, they can use their performances to inflict curses upon their enemies, particularly those that have harmed nature or insulted the fae. At first, these curses are simply things like traditional curses or causing animals to reject the victim, but later on, they can transform them into small animals, or inflict a curse that slowly turns them into a plant. However, such performance-based curses always come with a stipulation by which the curse may be broken.

They also learn a performance that calls upon not just plants, but the earth and water to come alive and move, animating to fight for the bard.

Beyond such performances, the courtier can venture into the wilds and engage in trade with the fey, their mastery determining how much they can buy, sell, and the upper limits of what the fey might find for them. This might be flavored as them contacting a fey to act on their behalf in the First World to trade for items, or they might slip away to some hidden fey marketplace in either plane. Regardless, the only stipulation is that it must be an area of wilderness where fey can be found, though I’d argue that sufficiently fey-accustomed cities might also suffice.

Finally, these bards have many favors to call upon from the fey. As such, they add natural summoning to their spells cast, with techniques to augment said summonings as well. What’s more, they add a decent set of additional types of fey to their summoning list.

Being able to summon a wider variety of fey (with augmented summoning from the get-go!) is quite nice, and the new performances let you debilitate foes both in combat or for roleplaying reasons are all fun things, and giving up certain performances for them seems pretty fair. However, what will likely interest many players is the ability to buy and sell pretty much anywhere. Obviously the GM should put limits on this. Not every wild location is going to have enough fey to draw upon, or said fey might be hostile. I personally would recommend a build focused on summons, support, and debuff/control with spells from the back (since they lose one of their big debuff performances).

 The potential for these courtier characters to interact regularly interact with the fey realms is a gold mine for GMs wanting to take a legs of the main quest, or at least one side quest into the First World. Additionally, they may be the best equipped to actually deal with the fey peacefully. However, they also are the ones that perhaps best know how capricious and dangerous they can be, making even seemingly ironclad pacts and agreements into vapor on a whim.

  The Court of the Shining Grotto has been troubled by the disappearances of many of it’s subjects, and the mighty lampad who rules over them has sent one of her most loyal courtiers to recruit a band of heroes to deal with whatever is causing these troubles. The cause is a wormlike horror from the depths of the world called a rorkoun, which may be part of a much larger being.

 The iruxi tribes of Longmarch have long been allies of the fey, trading with them and helping maintain their shared territory. As part of this pact, they train some of their own to become courtiers in the fey courts, delighting them with their deep, crooning songs.