D&D 5E WOTC Possibly Removing "Druids" for Religious/Cultural Sensitivity Reasons

[Staffan]

This was the tact that Starfinder did. It put their space cleric, space druid, space shaman, and space psion all under the "Mystic" class.

And now they're getting rid of the space psion aspects that were front & center in the class and doubling down on the cleric/druid aspects. But I'm not bitter at all about that.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

unpopular opinion:

I like there being an overlap between druids and nature clerics (and believe there should be nature based sorcerers an warlocks), as it allows a player to build similar concepts while using a different class.

Maybe a player just played a cleric, or doesn't enjoy cleric mechanics. But they still want a nature caster. Druid is perfect for them. And it works in reverse too.

 

[Remathilis]

"Nature Cleric" works for us and has for many years.

The druid's mechanical differences don't make them feel like clerics. The wild shape instead of turn undead, the primal spells instead of divine list. Up to a not-edition ago, they had different weapons and armor choices. I just don't see them as an offshoot of cleric, despite that being their design origin.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How many people wake up in the morning offended and outraged that Dungeons & Dragons has classes named Druid, Shaman, Barbarian?

No one. Read down a few posts.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Barbarian only means someone who doesn't speak Greek. It's not any kind of slur.

Since last year, it also means the person you absolutely don't want to rent an AirBNB from.

 

[Lanefan]

The druid's mechanical differences don't make them feel like clerics. The wild shape instead of turn undead, the primal spells instead of divine list. Up to a not-edition ago, they had different weapons and armor choices. I just don't see them as an offshoot of cleric, despite that being their design origin.

Yeah, WotC took the 1e roots and moved Druid mechanically farther away from Cleric, where we moved them closer together.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I am not opposed to an animist class as the druid feels to small to have lots of sub-categories to it and putting all the people who work with the endless list of things called spirits under one thing would make it way easier to make content for.

 

[Lanefan]

For a shaman-like primal-magic class, does "Primalist" work as a name?

 

[Mind of tempest]

For a shaman-like primal-magic class, does "Primalist" work as a name?

feels sort of ad hoc, has it been used anywhere else in case some one used it in some super negative way?
otherwise yeah seems like it should

 

[ECMO3]

...the Cleric, Bard, Monk, Paladin, Sorcerer, and Warlock should probably go, too?

...oh, and the Totem Barbarian and Berserker.... I guess just the Barbarian, period....

....that'd leave, what, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, & Wizard....
View attachment 304916
....yeah, that'd do.

I think Pippin and Merry are more Fighter than Rogue