#RPGaDAY – August 29, 2025 (CONNECT)

 

#RPGaDAY – August 29, 2025 (CONNECT)

Connect – As far as D&D and other fantasy RPGs, the strongest connection I think characters can make are with clerics/druids and their god. Warlocks also have a unique connection to their patrons, but sometimes those are contentious or even adversarial as they struggle with the deal they have for some reason made with this powerful otherworldly being.

Clerics and druids by contrast pretty much always have a strong holy connection or bond to their deities. For most of my campaigns, these holy casters can pray and meditate to gain their spells, usually dealing with some mystical intermediary on behalf of their god.  They can request aid and sometimes even unique spells they need to fit whatever they are trying to accomplish. In times of great need, they can pray to their god and sometimes get some sort of assistance or guidance. Game play wise, I have them roll % dice, the higher the better. Usually if they do receive some sort of benefit, they must later be especially penitent in their devotion. I would usually restrict this sort of divine aid to once per level, except for “contesting” healing spell results, which I have discussed previously as the DM rolling a second time, with the cleric needing to take those results.  They also usually get some sort of minor granted powers connected with their god at first level and above.

Anyway, as an example of a character’s connection to their god, this one was from the High School D&D Club I helped with a couple of years ago.  They had just leveled up to 3^rd level when the club ended.

One of the girls wanted to play a druid, who was following the Green.  She personally felt a strong connection with cows and carried a small stuffed one around school.  So, we made the bovine her primary spirit animal group and she even had a small cow-bat as “familiar”, which is actually a real thing and not something I made up. It turned out to be an interesting exercise in matching the player’s interests with those of her character.

 

Gabby, the Human Druid

Faith Followed - The Green

Some worshipers who share your faith often refer to the Green Man as the protector of the natural world, but you have never seen it that way.  To you it is too limiting to humanize nature that way and moreover see the Green as being the world’s divine spirit itself and so you strive to protect the wild spaces and creatures from the both the evil and the good created by mankind and the other sentient races.  The power of nature stems from the harmony and balance between all things, with none of them gaining dominance over the others.

The spirit animal group you most feel an affinity for are bovine in nature, with your belief that cattle are of foremost in importance to the whole world.  Through nature’s grace, cattle and cows in particular have been domesticated by mankind and are of vital importance to most other race’s survival.  They bring their divine spirit to others, offering of themselves their strength for labor, milk to raise the young, meat for continued sustenance, and even their very skin itself to provide clothes and shelter.

Your spirit animal group contains both domesticated and wild cattle, including both cows and bulls, bison, and buffalo.

In addition to your connection with the bovine spirit, you have also bonded with a unique animal outside that normal family of creatures, that being a small member in the mammalian order known as Chiroptera (a name of Greek origin meaning “hand-wing”), the Milk-Bat.

Sometimes called Cow-Bats, due to their black and white speckled bodies, these small flying bats are often found living in barns or making their homes around groups of cattle. They have developed sort of a symbiotic connection with the cattle, mostly feeding off insects and other small vermin that are attracted to them.

It is believed that Cow-Bats keep the cattle free of fleas, ticks, spiders, and other parasitic predators.  They also prey on small rodents, lizards, and snakes that can inhabit the area, further protecting them.  Sometimes, especially during the cold winter months, Milk-Bats will bite and drain the cattle of small amounts of blood and milk to sustain themselves.

Farmers honor and welcome the presence of these animals, as they realize they help protect their animals and keep their barns and fields free of stinging/biting pests and other vermin. They are viewed as a sign of a healthy herd and farmers appreciate the benefits they bring, which helps both species thrive and prosper.

Holy Symbol – An amulet of a stylized cow, with a small bat hovering above it, on a metal chain

 

Granted Powers - 1^st Level –

•Gain proficiency with the Animal Handling skill and if you are already proficient, you can apply double your proficiency modifier

•Specialized Speak with Animals – At will you can speak with your spirit animal group, bovines and bats.  Through this magic, you speak normally in common to the animals and they understand generally what you are saying (to the best of their intelligence and ability) and when they respond, you can understand them and glean the meaning of their limited vocabulary. 

•Nature Spells - Nature’s benevolent power has granted you the ability to cast two spells - Animal Friendship and Goodberry, in addition to your normal druidic spells you use.  These spells can only be used outdoors.  You can cast either first level spell a cumulative number of times equal to your proficiency bonus (currently 2 times) and you must finish a long rest before you can cast them again this way. 

 

Animal Friendship

Source: Player's Handbook

1st-level enchantment

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a morsel of food)
Duration: 24 hours

This spell lets you convince a beast that you mean it no harm. Choose a beast that you can see within range. It must see and hear you. If the beast’s Intelligence is 4 or higher, the spell fails. Otherwise, the beast must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the spell’s duration. If you or one of your companions harms the target, the spell ends.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect one additional beast for each slot level above 1st.

 

Goodberry

Source: Player's Handbook

1st-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a sprig of mistletoe)
Duration: Instantaneous

Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.

The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.

 

Granted Powers - 2^nd Level –

•Additional Wild Shape – In addition to your normal Wild Shape ability, you can also Wild Shape into your spirit animal form (cow or normal bat) one time, until you take a short rest.

-While in bat form, you gain a 30-foot flying speed, although your land speed drops to 5 feet and you gain a small bite attack (+0 to hit, doing 1 point of piercing damage.  Your armor class is 12 + any magical bonuses and you have a 60-foot blindsight ability with echolocation (as long as you are not deafened.) You have advantage on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on hearing. As a small bat, you only have 1 hit point.

-While in bovine form, your speed increases to 40 feet and you have 22 hit points, 16 strength (+3) and 14 constitution (+2).  Your armor class is 10 + any magical bonuses and you gain a charge and ram attack or a hoof attack against a prone or small sized creature.

To ram, you must move at least 20 feet straight towards a target and strike it, +5 to hit, doing D6+3 bludgeoning damage, plus an additional 2D6 damage from the ram, which forces the creature to succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or else be knocked prone.

To use your hooves to strike a target, +5 to hit, 2D4+3 bludgeoning damage against a prone or small sized creature as you stomp on them.

Your strength and size allow you to easily bear a medium sized or smaller creature, as long as they do not weigh more than normal. You can also pull a wagon or plow and be a beast of burden, carrying far more than a normal person could.

•Special Enhance Ability – Bull’s Strength – 1 TLR – As an action, you can pray to the Green and activate a Bull’s Strength ability, which lasts for 1 hour, unless dispelled or you go unconscious.

While active you gain +1 to your strength and 5 additional temporary hit points.  You also have advantage on Strength checks, and your carrying capacity doubles.

 

Granted Powers - 3^rd Level –

•Gain Perception – Either gain proficiency with the perception skill, or if already proficient gain expertise (double proficiency.)  This applies to both your active and passive perception skills.

•Sonar / Echolocation – 2TLR – As an action, you can activate a sonar /echolocation ability to “see” in the dark or to locate invisible or hidden creatures, out to a 15 feet radius circle around you. To use the ability, you must not be deafened and you must close your eyes and concentrate on the noises and sounds around you.