The Verdant Enchanter
Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting edition of Best in Class, where we bring you new and exciting class options each and every week. This week is Enchantment Week here at Necromancers of the Northwest and so today’s class-related offerings will fall under the broad theme of enchantment. Naturally you’d expect me to create some new kind of wizard thing, but I think wizards already have some reasonably good options if they want to be enchanters, so today we’ll be looking at making another class, specifically, the druid, more enchanting.
New Druid Archetype
Verdant Enchanter
The world’s woods often look to powerful enchantments to protect them, and creatures like nymphs and dryads are always there to answer the call, but what about the woods’ more civilized defenders, the druids? Enter the verdant enchanter. These powerful adepts of nature utilize all of the charms of the natural world to ensnare their enemies’ senses, both to protect what is sacred and to punish the unworthy.
Spontaneous Casting: A verdant enchanter can channel stored spell energy into enchantment spells that she hasn’t prepared ahead of time. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast any spell of the enchantment school that she knows, provided that spell is at least one level lower than the level of the spell she chooses to “lose” in this way.
This ability replaces a druid’s ability to spontaneously cast summon nature’s ally spells, as well as the nature sense class feature.
Ensare (Sp): The verdant enchanter has the ability to ensnare the mind of any living creature that is foolish enough to stride into the woods. So long as the verdant enchanter remains within a natural setting (that is, one that hasn’t been developed by intelligent creatures), she may whisper bewitching nothings to any creature within 10 feet as a standard action. Any living creature who hears these words must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the verdant enchanter’s druid level + the verdant enchanter’s Wisdom modifier) or become affected as if by the spell charm person if the target is a humanoid, or charm animal, if the target is an animal.
At 7th level, this ability can affect targets as though by the spell dominate animal, if the target is an animal, or as charm monster, if the target is of any other creature type.
Finally, at 13th level, this ability can affect humanoids as though by the spell dominate person (it can still be used to replicate charm animal, charm monster, charm person, or dominate animal, if desired).
The caster level for this ability is equal to the verdant enchanter’s druid level. A creature that successfully resists this effect becomes immune to it for the next 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting effect, and, depending on the spell it replicates, is also a charm or compulsion effect.
This ability replaces the nature bond class feature.
Nature’s Lure (Su): Starting at 4th level, the verdant enchanter learns to harness nature’s power in order to enhance the effects of some of her spells. So long as she remains within a natural area, the saving throw DCs of any spell of the charm or compulsion subschools she casts are increased by +2. This bonus is cumulative with the Spell Focus feat and anything which would stack with the Spell Focus feat.
This ability replaces the resist nature’s lure class feature.
Master Enchanter (Ex): Starting at 4th level, the verdant enchanter can learn new enchantment spells to protect the natural beauty of her home. At 4th level and every even numbered level thereafter, the verdant enchanter may choose to add a single spell of the enchantment school from the sorcerer/wizard list to her list of druid spells known. The spell’s new druid level is of the same level as the sorcerer/wizard version of the spell. She may not choose to learn a new spell that is of higher level than the highest-level druid spell she could cast.
This ability replaces the wild shape class feature.
Charm Immunity (Su): At 9th level, the verdant enchanter’s familiarity with mind magic allows her a potent defense against many spells of that type. This effectively makes the verdant enchanter immune to spells of the charm subschool and all charm effects.
This replaces venom immunity.
Natural Allure (Su): At 13th level, the verdant enchanter gains the ability to beguile the senses of an observer into believing her to be a stunning fey creature. As a standard action, she can whisper a sacred sentence in the secret language of the druids. If she does so, each creature within 10 feet of her must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ the verdant enchanter’s druid level + the verdant enchanter’s Wisdom modifier) or view her as a beautiful, fey-like creature, such as a nymph. The exact appearance of the verdant enchanter is determined by the mind of the affected character and that being’s personal aesthetics. The creature type of the chosen creature is irrelevant to the function of this ability, and while one character might see a nymph, another might just as easily see a centaur, which might be viewed as fey-like despite not actually being a fey.
Regardless of the vision, the verdant enchanter gains a bonus on all Diplomacy checks made to improve the attitude of the target or make a request (but not to gather information or to any other special Diplomacy checks the character might make) equal to ½ her druid level (rounded down) against an affected target.
This ability replaces the thousand faces class feature.