Driuds: Too Much Metal

[R-Hero]

I need some help with a petty question that has bothered me for a while.

Why do Druids avoid using 'too much metal'?

I thought the Druid class was nature lover/deciple, true??

Example, I'm Druid X, I need a bow or quarterstaff.
Cut down a tree and make said weapon.

Druid X is also naked.
Kill buffalo/cow, tan skin for armor.

These Druid X is o.k. with.


Paladin Y wants, sword, barding, shield, armor, etc.
Goes to Smithy Z, He digs up coal, ore, etc., Smelts and forges said shiny paladin toys.

Driud X don't like that but is o.k. with falling trees and animal killing??

What am I missing??

 

[prosfilaes]

Because pure metal isn't natural, and it's indicative of industrial processes that demand civilization to make. Forging something, from ground to item, is not a one-man process; at the medieval level, it takes quite a few people in permanent habitations to make the quality of steel going into medieval weaponry. Whereas anyone can make a quarterstaff by themself, and leather armor isn't impossible for one person or even hard for a nomadic community.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

THe druid reflects a very simplistic mid 20th century view of nature and the environment that rejected civisilation and its attendant technologies as not being part of the natural order.
This is all very much IMO and all that but it gives rise to all kinds of oddities if you start thinking about and does not bear well to much scrutiny.

Also given the predelition for D&D characters (pc druids included) for killing things and taking their stuff you then have in some versions the further oddness of some metal weapons being acceptable to druids. Scimitars for instance but not rapiers with no obvious explaination as to why.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My guess on scimitars is:

1) they are one of the kinds of swords most closely linked to executions & sacrifice; blood rituals being one aspect of the pagan sects rolled into the D&D pastiche of Druidic faith;

2) their crescent shape echoes the form of certain phases of the moon, much like the sickle and scythe, and the lunar cycle is a big part of Druidic worship


As I recall, such was implied or stated in previous editions.

 

[jonesy]

Sickle was the iconic druid weapon. Since there were no sickles in 1e, druids were given the scimitar. It's a kind of stand-in.

 

[Nagol]

I need some help with a petty question that has bothered me for a while.

Why do Druids avoid using 'too much metal'?

I thought the Druid class was nature lover/deciple, true??

Example, I'm Druid X, I need a bow or quarterstaff.
Cut down a tree and make said weapon.

Druid X is also naked.
Kill buffalo/cow, tan skin for armor.

These Druid X is o.k. with.


Paladin Y wants, sword, barding, shield, armor, etc.
Goes to Smithy Z, He digs up coal, ore, etc., Smelts and forges said shiny paladin toys.

Driud X don't like that but is o.k. with falling trees and animal killing??

What am I missing??

Well, "I need a quarterstaff." Find a small tree in an untenable situation (too much competition, poor rooting, whatever) and/or a a large limb on a tree in an untenable position and prune nature to create a staff for use.

"I need leather armour." Find an animal preferentiially in overabundance or at least well represented and kill, skin, prepare meat for eating, collect intesines/sinew for binding, and bones for small implements.

"I need something made of steel." Find ore body, cut hole in living rock, take rock and smelt releasing heavy acidic smoke using chemicals, water and charcoal/coal. Discard acidic and poisonous tailings, take iron and place in kiln with charcoal. Heat with a lot more charcoal. Remove steel. Fashion steel into implement.

Which of these operations is not renewable? Which has the larger impact on the environment?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've found most druids to favor folk tunes and ballads, myself.

 

[Nifft]

Sickle was the iconic druid weapon. Since there were no sickles in 1e, druids were given the scimitar. It's a kind of stand-in.

Yep yep.

And they needed their sickles, IIRC, because they had to cut their own mistletoe & holly at night, under the full moon, and catch the clippings before they touched the ground.

If you lost your berries, you were out of luck until "that time of month".

"Nature is a Mother", -- N

 

[TarionzCousin]

I've found most druids to favor folk tunes and ballads, myself.

Are you sure? Because this smiley is clearly a bald druid:

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I've found most druids to favor folk tunes and ballads, myself.

My brain went there briefly when I read the thread title, then my mind drifted towards wondering if this was another thread railing about overpowered druids not just being "metal" but that druids were "too much metal" for players to have. Heh.