Now, I get the feeling that those classes may find it difficult to find their place in Sigil or around the planes. A druid is supposed to relate to nature, and he should be interested in natural things. If the Beastlands are perfect for the druidic way of life, and a few other planes acceptable (Bytopia, Elysium, Ysgard) I cannot see why or how a druid would start a career adventuring through the planes from a base in Sigil. Most of those places are actually hostile to natural forms of life, and planewalking should be really distasteful for a druid.
And by the way, when the druid is in the Astral or in Limbo, where does he get his magic from? Add to that the fact that the animal companion(s) will probably have a rather short life expectancy if the players visit a city in a layer of Hell or the elemental plane of Fire. I would also expect any non magical animal to panic and remain unmanageable in a crazy environment like Limbo or the Abyss.
So, if there is no logical motivation for a druid and if it is not possible to make use of the interesting class features, maybe I should just discourage my players from choosing a druid ?
A ranger might be more suitable for a planar explorer but again, how do you play (I mean : not kill immediately) the ranger's animal companion?
Thanks for your advice
Perhaps the druid is dedicated to perserving the flora and fauna of every plane, seeing nature as an unbreakable whole that ignores planar bodies. Even the Astral Plane has life on it, and the thoughtwinds that blow across it can show the health of life on other planes.
Maybe the best solution is to introduce a threat to the natural world that lasts the entire campaign and affects a variety of planes, giving the PC a justification to keep planewalking until a solution is found.
Or just tell a player who wants to play a druid to come up with a good justification for why the character feels the need to planewalk. Perhaps the player will come up with a more interesting hook than I have. The rationale should vary, anyway, depending on the other characters' motivations - maybe the druid has the same reason for adventuring as the party's ranger, barbarian, or scout.
"And what happens now?" Nwm asked.
Nehael laughed. "I asked that very question myself."
"And what answer did you receive?"
"'A Viridity,'" she replied.
"That is suitably vague," Nwm sighed.
"Strange," Nehael said drily. "I had the same reaction. There is something that I would like to share with you, Nwm. A place."
"What sort of place?" Nwm asked suspiciously.
"A sanctuary. An island of Green. An unassailable bastion. A womb."
Nwm felt a frisson of excitement as she spoke, but his voice was sceptical. "In my experience, nowhere is unassailable."
"Prepare to change your mind," Nehael smiled. She held out her hand, and he took it. Stretching forwards, she lightly touched the bark of the tree.
"Step into the tree," she said.
They dissolved into an ocean of jade, emerald and celadon. Another Tree, which was the same tree – it was, in fact, all trees – appeared.
*
Nwm quaked. His mind screamed in fear, and soared in awe. His breath became rapid and shallow. He was dumbstruck, unwilling to believe, but knowing that it was there.
"Eadric's forebears would have referred to it as the Tree-ludja," Nehael said softly, touching the Tree. "Yours would have called it Derv.**"
"What have you become?" Nwm asked her.
"You know what I am," Nehael smiled. "I am merely Nehael. But now the way is open. You first showed it to me. She remembers. That is why it is Tree, and not Lake or Storm."
Nwm swallowed. She alluded to things which made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. Gingerly, he reached out.
Tree, he knew.
He looked out from the blackthorn in the courtyard of Kyrtill's Burh; from a huge banyan in Afqithan, around which demons clashed furiously; from a hornbeam with white bark and silver leaves, beneath which a goddess meditated; from a viper-tree amid a grove in Azzagrat, where acid rained and fire burned; from a lonely olive-tree on a deserted island in Pandicule; from a celestial oak which rose, impossibly perfect, upon the Blessed Plain.
Nwm withdrew his perception, and looked at Nehael.
"How?" He asked.
This Way, she showed him.***
"Is there more?"
"Oh, yes. There is much more."
"But to look into Hell? Oronthon's Heaven? These places are not…"
"Of the Green?" She offered. "I think you need to revise your understanding, Nwm. The Viridity is a transcendental principle: it does not care for conventional labels. Green just became a lot bigger."
**The Tree probably deserves some explanation. Before the rise of Oronthonianism, the migrant Borchian tribes (from whom Eadric and his kin are descended) venerated nature spirits of various kinds, manifestations of different aspects of the Hahio ("Interwoven [Green]"). These facets ("ludjas") were numerous and diverse, and never fully systematized: for example there was a ludja for Stream, for Valley, for Gorse-bush, for Snow etc. etc. etc. Larger ludjas also subsumed smaller ones – e.g. the Stone-ludja superseded the Pebble-ludja, the Boulder-ludja etc. The three principal ludjas were considered to be Stone, Water and Tree.
Derv is a Crixi word meaning "[prototypical or archetypal] Tree." There was considerable overlap and syncretism between early beliefs in the peoples who predated the foundation of Wyre, and certain concepts were held to be parallels of one another – Derv and the Tree-ludja possessed an obvious identity. For Derv to be an actual tree however was almost nonsensical from Nwm's perspective: it is like being shown the Platonic ideal of "Tree", manifested and fully real.
There was that elven bar in Sigil with real trees and everything. What was it called?...
The Green Mill in the Lower Ward. I think it only has 1 tree in the yard and I also think it's the only tree in Sigil. I may be wrong though, it's been two years since I used that inn in my game.
but still if a druid have some quest to do in the planes, he must visit and ever stay a time in sigil because it is the perfect place to travel quick from a site to another...
Still he could live perfectly in the outland, the city gate to a wild plane and visit sigil when needed throught a portal, so he lives in the city and go into sigil when needed.
if you think it twice, the only people really willing to stay in sigil are those who cant be anywhere else.