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[scriver]

Yeah, it was the lack of templates I was getting at.

[My Name is Immaterial]

If, big if, it's like 3.5, a druid with low wisdom isn't so bad.  With wild shape replacing your physical abilities, you're only really suffering from low skill points and bonus spells.  In 3.5, druid spells have relatively few save dcs compared to arcane spells I'd say.  They focus on buffing characters rather than forcing saves, even if it's a buff that lets you throw weak fireballs for a few rounds.  So a druid seems like a good choice when stat rolls are bad.  BUT!  (again, if it's like 3.5) you should consider prioritizing constitution, since wild shape in 3.5 doesn't change HP at all.  You use the HP of your normal squishy form, despite what the animal's CON is.  It's a weakness of elf druids.

Having taken a look at the druid spells, it seems like I can really be effective without a high Wis.
Wildshape uses the shape's HP instead of the original. I plan to stay in Wildshape, so I can't debuff, since you can't cast spells in Wildshape till level 18, which means that I don't need a high DC. Buffing has been nerfed, since you can only cast one spell tagged "Concentration" at once, which most buff spells are. But if I start that before combat, or in the first round, I should have no problem. Even healing I restrict to out of combat with Goodberry, which is a flat 10 HP heal, split in any way you want. It even feeds people for a day!

[IWishIWereSarah]

Yeap, druids are really good if you're looking for stat indepenfant class from level 1.
Wizard could be ok if you begin at higher level (no lvl 1 invocation).

[GiglameshDespair]

Yeah, thus was my reasoning.

[Spehss _]

Question for DMs, how do you go about making a good setting and plot? I'm trying to make a roguelike and I keep going back and forth on plot ideas.

I could go with a quest for a macguffin like Nethack's Amulet of Yendor or DCSS' quest for the Orb of Zot, but I feel that's kinda just a lame excuse to go in a dungeon and kill and loot. I like the idea of a quest against a great evil, like ADOM with the quest to close the gates of chaos, or Angband with the goal of killing Sauron and Morgoth, but I can't think of a big bad evil guy or a source of evil for my own roguelike.

[Sergarr]

Steal from One Piece and make the plot about a revolution to overthrow the evil world government concealing the secret past of the land.

Oh, and also about sweet, sweet pirate loot.

[sjm9876]

Generally I start from a random idea I have. Usually a what if? of some description. From there I can build a setting in and out from that point, mostly just following logic and arbitrarily sprinkling effects and giving them causes.

Plotwise... they tend to arise naturally from the setting, and I pick ones that look cool.

Sadly, none of this applies that much to roguelikes, as all the detail would go massively to waste. You might be able to take inspiration from the Forgotten Realms setting or something similar (I think it has a wiki) as they tend to have big bads in abundance.

[Yoink]

Question for DMs, how do you go about making a good setting and plot? I'm trying to make a roguelike and I keep going back and forth on plot ideas.

I could go with a quest for a macguffin like Nethack's Amulet of Yendor or DCSS' quest for the Orb of Zot, but I feel that's kinda just a lame excuse to go in a dungeon and kill and loot. I like the idea of a quest against a great evil, like ADOM with the quest to close the gates of chaos, or Angband with the goal of killing Sauron and Morgoth, but I can't think of a big bad evil guy or a source of evil for my own roguelike.

I'll be the bad guy! You can make your roguelike about an epic quest to slay the villainous, menacing, incredibly handsome Yoink.

[Toaster]

And his fiendish pet Octokitten.

[scrdest]

Question for DMs, how do you go about making a good setting and plot? I'm trying to make a roguelike and I keep going back and forth on plot ideas.

I could go with a quest for a macguffin like Nethack's Amulet of Yendor or DCSS' quest for the Orb of Zot, but I feel that's kinda just a lame excuse to go in a dungeon and kill and loot. I like the idea of a quest against a great evil, like ADOM with the quest to close the gates of chaos, or Angband with the goal of killing Sauron and Morgoth, but I can't think of a big bad evil guy or a source of evil for my own roguelike.

I'll be the bad guy! You can make your roguelike about an epic quest to slay the villainous, menacing, incredibly handsome Yoink.

Actually... make the protagonist the bad guy. Stealing the Epic Loot for... well, Nefarious Porpoises.

[Kadzar]

Those lazy porpoises should steal their own epic loot.

[scrdest]

Those lazy porpoises should steal their own epic loot.

I know, right? But that's why they are Nefarious.

[Radio Controlled]

Make it your quest to slay the pantheon of gods, those fickle beings who toy with the lives of mortals for their amusement. Make it the player's job to free his kind of the pantheon's whip, to break their chains and bring freedom to the lands.

Could make a bunch of templates and then make each game mix and match so that each pantheon is different, with different gods with their own mix of abilities.

[Spehss _]

Make it your quest to slay the pantheon of gods, those fickle beings who toy with the lives of mortals for their amusement. Make it the player's job to free his kind of the pantheon's whip, to break their chains and bring freedom to the lands.

Could make a bunch of templates and then make each game mix and match so that each pantheon is different, with different gods with their own mix of abilities.

This was one of the ideas I had, actually.

Basically after the player character beats the BBEG in the depths of the dungeon they unlock a "portal" leading even deeper into the depths, which is revealed to be a prison built by the gods and abandoned during the creation of the fantasy world. The gods sealed the great evil which is the magical source of all evil ever through the magic of plot demanding it, and after the gods sealed it they build the big-ass dungeon and mountain on top of it--as a security measure-- and ditch it. The player dives through the dungeon, killing all manner of evil thing and eventually killing the BBEG and having the option to enter the prison and try to kill the source of evil forever. To make it so it isn't a straight jump from "final boss" to "extra endgame super hard boss" with no other threats in between I thought of having the gods try to intervene and force the player to leave the prison or kill them, giving a reason for extra uniques with even more unfair ways of killing the player with the plot excuse being that it's the gods going all out to stop the player from freeing even greater evil into the world.

So gameplay wise it presents a kind of optional "boss rush" after beating the main plot and story wise it presents an epic scale climax of a mortal character killing gods in the name of destroying evil and saving the world.

[Fniff]

Here's an idea playing off the bad guy idea.
The player was once a minion of the dark lord that ruled over the lands. However, a great hero led an army and killed the dark lord. Now the player has to descend into the monster-filled dungeons of his former lord and gather the hidden components for a dimensional gate at the bottom of the dungeon.
You could then add an FTL-style issue where the hero's forces trickle down into the dungeon and take it over as time goes on.
And for once, it can be a literal dungeon, with the monsters being the horribly tortured and mutated prisoners now free and looking for vengeance.