There is no shaman class in D&D, which disappoints me, so today’s November character creation is the jungle druid, Tybalt Ara. An Aarakocra, or bird-person, I imagined Tybalt being less of a raptor (typically Aarakocras are presented has hawk, eagle, falcon, or owl humanoids) and more of a macaw, a Scarlet Macaw actually.
It’s a difficult thing to conceive of a druid as it doesn’t really feel they gather their own personality stats-wise until 3rd level. For Tybalt, he’s a shaman whose clan lives in the high canopy of a remote jungle. His tasks included healing and managing the growth of the canopy. However, one day while riding thermals just above his clan’s home, Tybalt was struck by some kind of a projectile. As he plummeted to the jungle below, he suddenly found himself caught in a fine netting. Tybalt felt a burning wound in his wing and the netting seemed to magically constrict itself around him. Soon he was pulled up into a poacher’s airship. When the crew realized what they had acquired they set course for the nearest slaver coast. And thus was Tybalt sold into slavery as an exotic pet. He has since escaped and is trying to make his way back to his clan. However, he has no sense of where his jungle home is in relation to the world he now finds himself in. Tybalt adventures to collect the resources and information he needs to return home.
An unfortunate roll has left Tybalt very squishy (3 HP) leading him to try to avoid damage through his use of flight. Also, Tybalt is bent more towards being a healing and buffing druid than a combat one. Although his jungle roots (if you will) encourage him to deploy Entangle as a nearly default action but his role as shaman still pushes him to want to heal others so he’s not stingy about using Healing Word. Skills-wise, he is pretty standard for a druid relying on Nature, Animal Handling, Medicine, and Survival to show his worth. DMs and PCs will have to have a conversation about whether or not his use of Shillelagh would affect his Spear or Sling stones. Regardless, Tybalt is a from range attacker making sure he’s well behind some kind of protection keeping Absorb Elements at the ready.