Traditionally, druids are thought of as forest-dwelling folk, an assumption reflected by their weapon proficiencies. However, what if your druid comes from a vast desert or from near a metropolitan area? The following lists provide alternative weapon proficiencies designed with such campaigns in mind. A character using an alternative weapon list is proficient with all weapons on the list instead of those in which druids commonly have proficiency.
Druids from coastland or aquatic areas are more adept at using piercing weapons such as spears and tridents, as locals often use those tools for spearing fish and find them easier to wield underwater. Druids from coastland or aquatic areas are proficient with the club (often fashioned from driftwood), dagger, dart, longspear, net, quarterstaff, sling, spear, shortspear and trident.
The frozen lands are brutal and unforgiving, and all but druids and most hearty of souls find themselves at odds with this environment’s harsh nature. Druids hailing from this region learn to use weapons that mimic the land’s deadly and unforgiving nature or those easily found or crafted in an environment miser-like with its raw materials. Arctic druids are proficient with the club, dagger, handaxe, light pick (those living in the arctic rely on ice picks when climbing hills or mountains), morningstar, quarterstaff, scythe, sickle, sling, spear and throwing axe.
Wood, a scarce commodity in deserts and wastelands, rarely finds use in weapons used by druids hailing from such regions. As such, the desert druid lacks proficiency in many of the mainstays of druid weaponry (such as the club and quarterstaff). Because people living in the desert must adapt to severe conditions, desert druids learn to use several relatively exotic weapons. Desert druids are proficient in the falchion, javelin, kukri, scimitar, shortspear, sling, spear and whip.
Grasslands and savannahs are vast, open spaces, harbouring few places to hide when danger rears its head. Thus, druids who live in such areas learn to use more ranged weapons than traditional druids, allowing them to strike out at great distance. Druids of the grassland and savannah know how to use bolas, the javelin, longspear, scythe (long used as an implement for cutting grass and hay), shortbow, shortspear, sickle, sling and spear.
Druids from mountainous regions have a reputation for being more war-like and barbaric than their other brethren and thus are proficient with a more deadly array of weaponry. Some of their weapons double as tools used for mining. Many, if not most, dwarven druids can make use of this weapon proficiency list. Mountain druids have proficiency with the battleaxe, club, dagger, handaxe, heavy pick, light pick, quarterstaff, sling and warhammer.
Few subterranean inhabitants choose the druidic path, but those who do recognize nature’s splendour even in the deepest depths below the surface. Their weapon proficiencies reflect the often tight and confining quarters of subterranean regions. Subterranean druids have proficiency in the club, dagger, heavy pick, light pick (also useful for digging through earth and stone), shortspear, shortsword, sling and whip.
Source: Dragon Magazine #331 (Page 87)