Magic of the Land, Magic of Nature
I was thinking about the sphere access of Druids and Clerics, and I don't really think it makes sense. After all, until you get to ridiculously high levels, it is better for a party to have a druid than a cleric, since the cleric won't be much of a healer, have very few spells, and a fairly limited selection of weapons (whereas the Druid will have Major Access to 2 spheres, and possibly minor in 1, any weapon they like, and be able to heal a lot... and in the heat of the desert, the lack of armor isn't such a huge drawback).
A few ideas I had:
1) Give Clerics Major in their Prime Element, and Major in Cosmos. Simple and expedient, but doesn't do much about Druids.
2) Treat Clerics as above, but reduce Druid access to Cosmos to Minor. Problem with this is that now Druids lose a lot of their access to high-level nature spells.
3) Create a 6th sphere, called "Nature" All Druids have Major Access to Nature, Minor access to Cosmos, and Minor access to one elemental Sphere closely tied with their guarded lands (or, in some cases, Major access to the elemental sphere, but minor to Nature, depending on what their lands are).
Clerics would have Major Access to their Element, and Major to Cosmos. This about balances them on spheres, and gives Druids access to spells they should have without going into some that don't fit.
Expanding on that last point, here is what I've worked up for the sphere of nature: Note that this a quickie listing, only... I went down the list in AoH and found spells that should be in the Sphere of Nature, looking up some that I wasn't sure of. Things marked with a * are both in Nature and Cosmos. Some of these may seem iffy, but I'm going from the idea that these are spells that a druid should have, even if he didn't get access to Cosmos.
1st level
Animal Friendship
Antivermin Barrier
Detect Poison*
Detect Snares and Pits
Entangle
Invisibility to Animals
Know Age*
Know Direction*
Know Time*
Light*
Locate Animals or Plants
Merciful Shadows
Pass Without Trace
Sacred Guardian*
Shillelagh
2nd Level
Barkskin
Charm Person or Mammal*
Goodberry
Music of the Spheres*
Obscurement
Slow Posion*
Snake Charm
Speak with Animals
Trip
Warp Wood
3rd level
Continual Light*
Create Holy Element*
Hold Animal
Plant Growth
Slow Rot*
Snare
Spike Growth
Starshine
Summon insects
Tree
4th level
Age Plant
Animal Summoning I
Call Woodland Beings
Giant Insect
Hallucinatory Forest
Hold Plant
Neutralize Poison*
Plant Door
Rejuvenate
Repel Insects
Speak with Plants*
Sticks to Snakes
Tanglefoot
Tree Steed
Weather Stasis
5th level
Age Object
Animal Growth
Animal Summoning II
Antiplant shell
Blessed Abundance*
Commune with Nature
Elemental Forbiddance*
Grounding
Moonbeam
Pass Plant
Rainbow
Undead Ward*
6th level
Age Creature*
Animal Summoning III
Antianimal Shell
Conjure Animals
Create Tree of Life
Find the Path
Gravity Variation
Land of Stability
Liveoak
Monster Mount*
Sol's Searing Orb (this really should be a fire spell)
Speak with Monsters
Transport via Plants
Turn Wood
Wall of Thorns
7th level
Changestaff
Creeping Doom
Regenerate*
Reincarnate
Restoration*
Sunray
That's about it. There are some spells, especially weather-related ones, in the elemental Spheres that should be available as part of the Nature sphere, but I don't feel like going through and picking them out right now. Let me know what you think of this preliminary list, and if you have any additions, subtractions, or questions as to why a certain spell got in.
Return to the main page.
Comments?