Be they wise hermits, curious souls, or mysterious presences, druids are the advocates of the wilderness and its untapped powers, willing to accommodate all unless one takes more than is permitted.
Living within the rules they impose upon themselves, they embody and represent an ideology that espouses becoming part of nature instead of civilization. Wielding magic drawn from all that is around them, druids are capable of shaping the environment or themselves to accomplish their goals.
While anyone might come to understand how nature works, only druids can express how nature feels as they are, to an extent, an extension of the wilderness itself.
Most druids come from orders and families known as circles that define the powers and philosophies that they hold. Circle druids are particularly secretive due to historical anecdotes of exploitation that caused harm to both humanity and nature. For these druids the decades spent under their elders is not just for the sake of mastery, but also to learn the restraint and ethics necessary for one to responsibly wield the powers of nature.
There are druids that do not learn their magic from circles but rather from nature itself, often stumbling upon their gifts by accident or through the instruction of creatures of nature (such as the fey). While they operate much more openly, these hedge druids often lack the language to describe how their magic works. Most ultimately seek out a circle to join while some continue to develop their understanding independently until they take on apprentices to form a new circle of their own. All druids, regardless of origin, are welcome at cyclical congregations where tips on magic and shapeshifting are shared and matters of importance discussed.
With secrecy being so important to druids many would wonder why they’d embark on an adventuring career—to most adventuring is seen as both a way to master their skills and as the ultimate test of character. Some circles even require their members to have a certain number of years adventuring experience before they can officially become druids. There are also occasions when adventuring is used as a cover for a druid to pursue another mission, often related to the restoration of nature to an area or to seek out the root of an issue plaguing a druid circle.
You can find the instructions on how to create a Druid here.
Some druids are less interested in terrestrial nature and more in the secrets hidden in the night sky. After all, the world stretches beyond just the terrestrial, so why shouldn't there gaze wander upwards as well, not to menthion the effects stellar bodies have on the world. The moon drives the tides, starts plot out destinies and hidden knowledge, and astrologers seek it all, wreathed In the soft glow of starlight.
Source - Heroes Old and New
All things die, and all death begets life. This is the simple creed of decomposers, who find beauty in decay. Sometimes scorned by common folk as “filth witches,” decomposers adapt to urban environments far more capably than most other druids. In some cases, decomposers are benign, settling into the hidden cracks of the city and making use of what others throw away. Other decomposers are more hostile, behaving like parasites and decaying the city from within.
Source - Dungeon Delver's Guide
Elders are a special breed among druids in that their role is much more similar to that of the priest of an organized religion than is the norm for druids. Indeed, in some cases, an Elder may be part of a religion that trains its leadership as druids rather than clerics; this is especially common with certain nature-oriented or elemental deities. But Elders are more than just religious leaders, they are mysterious messengers and guides, and their training also grants them substantial expertise in uncovering or creating more potent versions of druidic spells.
Source - Thematic Toolkit: Storyteller
Flamespeakers are druidic acolytes of the mystical power of fire. Far from crude pyromanics, flamespeakers tap into both the literal and spiritual aspects of flame. Initially, they can control fire, accelerating or impeding its spread. But as their understanding deepens, they can burn away not just dry brush or their foes, but deception and falsehood as well. These druids are more likely than most to have a connection to the divine, and they can serve as both prophetic speakers and fearsome avengers for whatever larger cause they may choose.
Source - Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete
Guardian circles seek to achieve balance between civilization and nature, and consequently have the most contact with non-druids. They’re also often the first to find and teach those who discover druidic magic naturally, and when their powers are discovered they’re brought into the circle to advance their craft. Guardian druids protect the world’s forgotten reverent places and the convergences of leylines where the lattice is thin and nature’s power is tantalizingly within reach. But they also guard life, which includes creatures both wild and civil. Fledgling towns everywhere owe their livelihoods to a kind guardian druid’s boon to their harvest, and many lives are owed to their protector’s herbal remedies.
Source - Adventurer's Guide
There is a thread of menace through the perception of druids for many, and rot sowers may be a big part of why. Treading the edge of heresy among druids, rot sowers pervert nature by introducing undeath to their magic. Some do this in the name of preserving nature, deeming the compromise of using necromancy to be a trivial matter in the face of the threat to the natural world posed by civilization. Others are less ideological and just take power where they can find it. Few are safe to be around or particularly friendly, but malice and violence are not strictly required to walk this path. Regardless of their intentions and personality, these druids are orders of magnitude more likely to seek undeath themselves (typically lichdom) than those of any other known druidic tradition.
Source - Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete
All druids understand that life and death are both a part of the balance of the natural order, and they all have a respect for the power of the elements. But some take this further, adamantly holding to the belief that new life can only come when fed with death, that every blessing has a price. Such druids are keepers of ancient rituals and rites of sacrifice, drawing on death to heal and empower their allies. Such druids are uniquely suited to mastery of the cleansing power of fire, and in some places are known as Wicker druids after a particularly noteworthy ritual.
It should be noted, that while these druids have a perhaps deserved sinister reputation, they are not all monsters who capture and sacrifice unsuspecting victims. Some limit themselves only to the sacrificing of non-sentient life, while others are natural avengers who seek out those who have harmed the natural world or their communities, bringing them to justice while ensuring their deaths do the good their lives did not.
Source - Mysterious, Marvelous Miscellanea
Sea Wardens are druids who protect the waterways of their home. As the name implies, most of them operate from islands or coastal regions, but a few also have claimed large rivers or lakes as their homes. Some sea wardens embody the sea’s bounty, conducting themselves benevolently toward coastal peoples and ensuring the safety of ships coming and going. Others are bloodthirsty killers embodying the sea’s wrath who slay even subsistence fishermen who dare to sail upon their favored waterways.
Source - Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete
Skinchangers deeply embrace nature by constantly adopting the forms of beasts, doing so with such a fervor that they can lose their sense of self. These druids often abandon names altogether, knowing each other by scent and the subtle mannerisms of animals. They meet at secret wild places—marked with nothing more than a cut of bark or unassuming pile of stones—that they seek to protect from the encroaching clatter and fire of civilization.
Source - Adventurer's Guide
Sporekeepers are druids regarded as strange yet effective for their focus on fungus, and fungus is eclectic stuff. Neither truly plant nor animal, it can sustain, poison, or cause hallucinatory visions. Spiritually, fungi might be considered the holders of wisdom or the guardians of the lifecycle. Sporekeepers can tap into these properties and even shape the mycellium from which some mushrooms grow into useful shapes.
Source - Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete
Some druids scorn the usual taboos around metal and technology while still drawing upon nature magic. Scorned as heretics or even apostates by many other druids, they can nevertheless bring potent combinations of nature magic and technological advancement to bear.
Source - Gate Pass Gazette #6
Stormcaller druids feel most at home beneath the open sky. As the uncontested masters of weather magic, they can be a terrifying foe and also an invaluable ally. Many work closely with guardian druids, making sure that crops are watered and hostile monsters are driven away, but some are terrifying scourges who use their power to sink ships, level villages, and slay any who would dare to enter their domain.
Source - Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete
Stormwalker circles are formed from a variety of backgrounds—former sailors, cults formed in the wake of dragon turtles, and coastal hermits alike—and their outlook on civilization is just as varied. Whether their power came from study, birthright, or blessing, these druids summon the storm wherever they go, bringing down destruction on their enemies with all the force of a raging tempest.
Source - Gate Pass Gazette #7
Treespeakers draw power from flora in a panoply of ways but all act as conduits for the flourishing of life energy from the world itself. Some circles embody the beauty of nature, the dangers of the wilds, kinship with the plants around them, or simply seek to root out the arrogant meat creatures that befoul the sanctity of their woods.
Source - Adventurer's Guide