Ehhh... I'll take a druid who's into arthropods, annelids and other invertebrates over the "Batman of Nature" any day of the week. :P
Some possible food for thoughts: forget about the pnp Hivemaster notion of buggy hippie days with smiling spidies. Rather, it may perhaps be more interesting in giving the microscopic side of nature a closer look: all of us have mutualistic, symbiotic relationships with other lifeforms in our very bodies. To put it into perspective, we have 100 trillion microbes and other tenants in our body and yet just 10 trillion human cells.
And while I do find it rather unlikely for druids to come across a microscope in the wilds, there are still critters out there which can be seen with the naked eye: namely parasites. I see potential there for a one-of-a-kind druid kit right there:
Imagine a druid who utterly lacks shapshifting abilities and with no actual martial prowess to speak of. Yet being a living host made of all kinds of the tiniest crawling critters. Kind of like a Cellular druidic branch, for the lack of a better word. I'm just brainstorming ideas here, but such a kit could very well be knowledgeable about nasty bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms that will terrorize enemies. Heck, it could be even turn out to be a better healer than clerics. Given the overly familiarity of the body's inner working.
I don't think it's an issue that insects eat other insects.
Druids whole thing is maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Whatever woodlands or cave system or whatever they're protecting, the inhabitants will be eating eachother, and that's the way it should be.
The druid's role is not to pick out one creature, and protect it from natural predators. It's to prevent the encroaching forces of civilization from bringing this whole house of cards crashing down around us.
I don't don't personally see an issue with the HIvemaster. They are just Druids that favor life of the creepy crawly variety. I can see them as protectors of life that other people, and even other druids might not think of much. The fact that a lot of insects eat each other woldn't be an issue. Druids are all about the natural order, that includes the food chain. You don't see "normal" druids preventing wolves from hunting deer, etc.
@subtledoctor Think of druids as the naturalists of the world. Generalist druids have no formal specialty. Hivemasters are entomologists, aquatic druids are marine icthyologists, etc.
There is no "Aquatic Druid" [...] in the Complete Druids Handbook
Fixed. No need to thank me. We both know that none of the so-called "Complete" books are truly complete regarding their subjects. They probably don't even have half of AD&D listed within them. Much less the campaign specific ones. Which already is in and of itself a sin, considering the sheer awesomeness of Zakharan kits.
Druids can be found in all kinds of biomes. Even the wet ones. For instance, I remember reading that especially half-aquatic elves are drawn into the druidic ranks. Faerun has no shortage of sentient races swimming around after all. Needless to say is that both later editions and Pathfinder explored fishy smelling druids in more detail.
Stromwreck, for instance, was one of the better books on the subject. It basically takes the base druid class and gives them some twists. Such as opening up toothed whales, fishes and marine reptiles for animal companion choices. And occuring no swimming speed penality in reefs, kelp forests or similar difficult terrains.
Pathfinder's take on the aquatic druid is a little more adapted under the waves.
It is wildly uneven. Now, your idea of "druidic entomologist" is a good one, but it isn't what is presented. There is a difference between understanding and appreciating arthropods' role in an ecosystem while others often don't (that sounds about like an entomologist - and, like a druid) vs. actually promoting and favoring them. The latter is, as I say, conceptually thin. I could certainly see characters with particular backstories roleplaying that way... but it doesn't make to shoehorn a kit - a career, basically - into that mold.
Plus, let's be honest, the name "Hivemaster" is stupid. It evokes a silly 2-dimensional villain-of-the-week, rather than a roleplaying archetype that fits within the concept of the druid class. Oh, you're a "master" of insects? Are your insect armies going to rise up and crush all humans, and then seat you as king of the Myrkwood?
While hivemaster aligns pretty even with the dozen other animal-centered druids out there, such as oozemasters( ha, bet you didn't see that coming :P ), nothing holds you from sticking with it
Arthromancer, Warden, Mediator, Keeper, Carrier or even Polleneer could be the kit's moniker just as well.
Anyway, since all of that argument seems to be just about the label attached to the kit (as I said earlier) and not the implementation of the kit itself, maybe I'll rename it to something like... how about "Hivekeeper?" (I'm not using "_____master" in a druid kit, sorry.)
Switching gears now:
Let's say, again and as always completely hypothetically, I was looking to do a Gray Druid kit along these lines (1 spirit animal, slightly different sphere access, 4-5 shapeshift forms).
Any thoughts on game resources to use? What should the shapeshift forms be? Maybe something like... - small spider - giant spider - boring beetle - ooze (which one?) - myconid - otyugh...?? - better ooze (which one?) - umber hulk...??
Something like that. Not sure about the last two, whether they are/could be considered natural creatures with a place in the underground ecosystem, vs. magically-created abominations.
Myconids sounds like an especially cool option! Do you have any ideas about what a myconid form would do?
I'm also looking it up and apparently myconids are sapient, so I don't know if that effects anything.
Umber Hulks are also apparently surprisingly intelligent. They speak Terran, which seems to be a language spoken primarily by Earth Elementals. Would that hint at them being a force of nature, in tune with the soil, rather than a blight upon the natural world, like undead and certain kinds of magical monsters?
Comments
Some possible food for thoughts: forget about the pnp Hivemaster notion of buggy hippie days with smiling spidies. Rather, it may perhaps be more interesting in giving the microscopic side of nature a closer look: all of us have mutualistic, symbiotic relationships with other lifeforms in our very bodies. To put it into perspective, we have 100 trillion microbes and other tenants in our body and yet just 10 trillion human cells.
And while I do find it rather unlikely for druids to come across a microscope in the wilds, there are still critters out there which can be seen with the naked eye: namely parasites. I see potential there for a one-of-a-kind druid kit right there:
Imagine a druid who utterly lacks shapshifting abilities and with no actual martial prowess to speak of. Yet being a living host made of all kinds of the tiniest crawling critters. Kind of like a Cellular druidic branch, for the lack of a better word. I'm just brainstorming ideas here, but such a kit could very well be knowledgeable about nasty bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms that will terrorize enemies. Heck, it could be even turn out to be a better healer than clerics. Given the overly familiarity of the body's inner working.
Druids whole thing is maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Whatever woodlands or cave system or whatever they're protecting, the inhabitants will be eating eachother, and that's the way it should be.
The druid's role is not to pick out one creature, and protect it from natural predators. It's to prevent the encroaching forces of civilization from bringing this whole house of cards crashing down around us.
Obviously I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your mod, but just if we're talking about hivemasters in general your hangups sound weird.
Keeper of swarms
Swarmologist
Swarmi
Hive Minder
Hive Tender
Shepard of Swarms
Hive Shepard
We both know that none of the so-called "Complete" books are truly complete regarding their subjects. They probably don't even have half of AD&D listed within them. Much less the campaign specific ones. Which already is in and of itself a sin, considering the sheer awesomeness of Zakharan kits.
Druids can be found in all kinds of biomes. Even the wet ones. For instance, I remember reading that especially half-aquatic elves are drawn into the druidic ranks. Faerun has no shortage of sentient races swimming around after all. Needless to say is that both later editions and Pathfinder explored fishy smelling druids in more detail.
Stromwreck, for instance, was one of the better books on the subject. It basically takes the base druid class and gives them some twists. Such as opening up toothed whales, fishes and marine reptiles for animal companion choices. And occuring no swimming speed penality in reefs, kelp forests or similar difficult terrains.
Pathfinder's take on the aquatic druid is a little more adapted under the waves. While hivemaster aligns pretty even with the dozen other animal-centered druids out there, such as oozemasters( ha, bet you didn't see that coming :P ), nothing holds you from sticking with it
Arthromancer, Warden, Mediator, Keeper, Carrier or even Polleneer could be the kit's moniker just as well. Nothing that helps, @subtledoctor... nothing that helps... *le sigh*
I'm also looking it up and apparently myconids are sapient, so I don't know if that effects anything.
http://www.lomion.de/cmm/umbehulk.php