Druids- Happy Hippies? or feral forces of nature?

[dachda]

The Goblin Punch blog has a fantastic post about Druids and visualizes them as feral forces of nature, who find anything civilized to be evil, for example domesticated dogs would be considered an abomination of nature as abhorrent to a druid as undead are to a cleric.

Good read. Find it here: http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/09 ... .html#more

[Arduin]

Interesting but, internally contradictory.

[dachda]

Interesting but, internally contradictory.

Gave it a quick read (I'm at work) so missed the contradictions. Have time to elaborate?

[Arduin]

Interesting but, internally contradictory.

Gave it a quick read (I'm at work) so missed the contradictions. Have time to elaborate?

Mankind is unnatural (yet they don't kill themselves). People can't create homes but animals can, et al. IF Druids were of the mind set in the post, they would quickly die off. Druids don't use weapons but physically attack hunters and kill them. It goes on and on. I'm seen many of these written up over the decades. All of them fail on many levels and if used end up with a class that is totally untenable to play in a game.

[serleran]

I have made some sects of druids similar to the theory, more like co-terrorists though. Fundamentally, I play them as recognizing the need for civilizations and domestication but not industrialization -- use to need, and no more.

[Treebore]

I let my players decide, then they survive or die as the role play dictates. Like one of my current players is switching from a Fighter-Cleric of Thor to my house ruled Elemental Druid. I am looking forward to seeing how he plays it.

[Go0gleplex]

Okay. While I give the author an attaboy for effort I gotta agree with Arduin. The premises presented are rather silly overall. There are some salient points then the author jerks the rug out from under themselves expounding on it. If anything, I'd say a druid is more like a moderator attempting to provide checks and balances to extreme events, espousing living with nature rather than trying to remake it or control/rule over it. But that's just my opinion.

[Julian Grimm]

Okay. While I give the author an attaboy for effort I gotta agree with Arduin. The premises presented are rather silly overall. There are some salient points then the author jerks the rug out from under themselves expounding on it. If anything, I'd say a druid is more like a moderator attempting to provide checks and balances to extreme events, espousing living with nature rather than trying to remake it or control/rule over it. But that's just my opinion.

Same here. I see the druids as a balancing force. They make sure that there is not too much encroachment into wild areas, will help with farming and animal care and also instruct loggers and hunters on best practices to keep the balance. I guess I see it more as druids are stewards of nature than eco-terrorists or tree hugging hippies.

[DMSamuel]

Okay. While I give the author an attaboy for effort I gotta agree with Arduin. The premises presented are rather silly overall. There are some salient points then the author jerks the rug out from under themselves expounding on it. If anything, I'd say a druid is more like a moderator attempting to provide checks and balances to extreme events, espousing living with nature rather than trying to remake it or control/rule over it. But that's just my opinion.

Same here. I see the druids as a balancing force. They make sure that there is not too much encroachment into wild areas, will help with farming and animal care and also instruct loggers and hunters on best practices to keep the balance. I guess I see it more as druids are stewards of nature than eco-terrorists or tree hugging hippies.

This is how I think of them as well. Though I have been known to throw in an extremist as a problem in the area that needs to be dealt with.

If the problem isn't dealt with, the extremist starts recruiting people and can become a huge problem. The extremist can come from a variety of different classes, depending on the needs of the story or the facts of the area (i.e. doesn't have to be a druid).

A PC druid extremist like that wouldn't last very long in a party of reasonable adventurers.

[Arduin]

I let my players decide, then they survive or die as the role play dictates. Like one of my current players is switching from a Fighter-Cleric of Thor to my house ruled Elemental Druid. I am looking forward to seeing how he plays it.

For sure. PCs are controlled by players. I was just referring to the general slant of the class. If all were "eco terrorists" they would eventually be hunted down to extinction by well paid, hired characters of other classes.

The general description found in PHBs of many editions of D&D and D&D like games seems to indicate a middle of the road approach. As noted by almost all on this thread.

The occasional nut case makes for fun though.