D&D Quest Starters by Character Class — Cleric and Druid

If you happened to have missed part one, D&D quest starters are designed as small scenes or quick skill challenges meant to get some roleplaying in. Maybe you use these when you feel a character needs to be put in the spotlight. Maybe you wrote story plot about one of the characters and you do not want to leave the others out. Bring in some quest starters and allow the roleplaying to begin. These can develop into larger stories if all involved like where the story is going but they can also be a simple one and done conversation. This series is organized by character class, and last time I did a large intro and knocked out bard and barbarian. So today we are going to look at a couple more. Do you have faith?

D&D quest starters — cleric

Clerics are those who wield the divine power of the gods. They are literal conduits of their magical power. They have the ability to heal the sick restore life to the fallen or summon fiery wrath upon their enemies. The cleric character class is easy to use for D&D quest starters because they already have a serious divine linkage. But they might not always work because what if the player is playing a reluctant cleric? This angle does make it more difficult but can be used to push the cleric character in one direction.

• Medical Need. A person comes running up to the cleric seeing the obvious sign of the deity displayed and begs the character for healing. Whether it be a simple wound or illness that can be treated or more of a dire injury that requires serious use of spell slots. You give the character a moment to display for all who can see magical healing not seen in day to day life, if ever at all.
• Crisis of faith. The cleric witnesses another priest or member of the faith drop or throw their holy symbol on the ground, or you could even have the NPC come up to the character. The thing is to portray that something is wrong. Something occurred with the NPC and their faith has been shattered. Does the cleric care enough to restore faith in their common deity? Does he heal the mind with words but leave the connection broken between former follower and the deity?
• Apprentice. As mentioned in the last article someone wishing to learn from the adventurer is always a great way to add in some extra roleplaying. The character could take on an apprentice. This offers up more danger to the commoner as they travel with a band of adventurers or the NPC could be given tasks the cleric gets to check up on and make sure the apprentice did a good job with.
• Fellow Priest. It could easily be a lower member of the order or a higher one depending on what you need, but someone of the same faith notices the cleric and approaches. You can use this to get some roleplaying in and see what the character thinks about the current or past quest or it could just as easily lead to being given a quest or important plot information.

D&D quest starters — druid

Druids are the guardians of nature. They might worship a god or goddess but they draw their power not from deities but from the very land, sea and air itself. Druids are easy to offer up D&D quest starters when you are out in nature but a little harder to pull them in once you get to civilized lands. I have known a few druids over the many years of playing this game who downright refuse to enter a city, barely setting foot in tiny villages.

• An injured animal. Much like the cleric seeking to help those who are injured a druid might be willing to do the same for an animal. It could be a pet, or a wild bird fallen from the sky that needs attention. While the druid is tending the animal the onlookers or whoever is around asks questions and gets the roleplaying started. Alternatively the druid could cast speak with animals and roleplay with the injured animal. This could possibly lead to a new friend, pet or animal companion.
• Herbalist needs lore. The herbalist has come across an interesting plant unseen before and the reputation of the adventuring druid has drawn her in. She seeks out the druid in identifying the plant. You can allow the player to add agency here letting them describe the plant and what it is called. Either way it could be something fairly common for the trained druid trained and should either require no check or a low DC.
• Animal gone wild. A horse got spooked and is rampaging through town. People are calling for help from anyone who can calm the horse. The speak with animals spell or Animal Handling can go a long way in restoring order on the streets. How will the people react?
• Apprentice. Again this is an easy one to give out. Someone has heard of the character’s exploits and wished to learn from them. See above.

Divine casters are out of the way now for D&D quest starters. I hope you enjoyed these character class based ideas meant to encourage roleplaying and share the spot light even if it is only for a minor scene. If you have any ideas I did not bring up feel free to comment below and share.

As always thanks for reading and until next time stay nerdy!