Who heals in a Druidic society?

In 3ed if you were in the average human city there were Clerics available for healing. If you were deeply injured they were your best chance (if you could afford it)

If you lived in a Druidic society somewhere in the woods I assume that Druids would be the best healers. While they don't have the Spontaneous Healing that most Clerics in 3ed had they were still very good at healing

If you lived in a tribal society then perhaps you had a Shaman. Or maybe sometimes Cleric depending on if the DM had the book or not.

In 4th you have rituals which allow people to heal diseases and such. Still in the average Human city if you're haemorrhaging a Cleric is still your best choice.

In the tribes Shaman can heal you. Sure rituals are less common amongst them but they can still heal wounds and performa heal check if someones really sick.

However, Druids in 4th edition can no longer heal peoples wounds, although they can still learn a ritual or two.

So who would heal in such a society? Clerics are out (since Druids fulfil the religious role) and Shaman are out as well (since I've never heard of a society that was simultaneous Druidic and Shamantic, although I'd love to hear an example)

Would Druids multiclass in Cleric (forgetting the fluff but just for the healing power)?

Would a separate order of Druids exist (mechanically the same as Laser Clerics but refluffed)?

Herb Women (perhaps the Witch class if we ever get it)?

Would a Bard be the best fix? Mechanically they have the skills for healing and thematically they seem to fit in quite well (although less as minstral and more as "Lore Keeper")

Byronic said:

In 3ed if you were in the average human city there were Clerics available for healing. If you were deeply injured they were your best chance (if you could afford it)

If you lived in a Druidic society somewhere in the woods I assume that Druids would be the best healers. While they don't have the Spontaneous Healing that most Clerics in 3ed had they were still very good at healing

. . . <snipped for space>

However, Druids in 4th edition can no longer heal peoples wounds, although they can still learn a ritual or two.

So who would heal in such a society? Clerics are out (since Druids fulfil the religious role) and Shaman are out as well (since I've never heard of a society that was simultaneous Druidic and Shamantic, although I'd love to hear an example)

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I'm not so sure that Druids do fulfill a religious role in 4th Edition D&D. From the excerpt that I saw, it appears that 4e D&D Druids are solely Primal, not Divine at all. In that case, there could well be quite a few Clerics of Melora hanging around the Druidic settlements (if such woodland assemblages could be called "settlements").

Would Druids multiclass in Cleric (forgetting the fluff but just for the healing power)?

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That could very well be.

Byronic said:

So who would heal in such a society? Clerics are out (since Druids fulfil the religious role) and Shaman are out as well (since I've never heard of a society that was simultaneous Druidic and Shamantic, although I'd love to hear an example)

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I think you're getting hung up on the real world meanings of "druid" and "shaman" instead of the D&D meanings (4e and otherwise) of those words.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "druidic society," but the way I'd try to model real world Druids in D&D is to make them a group consisting of plant/animal themed wizards, clerics, druids, and shamans. They would all call themselves "Druids" and have their own areas of expertise, and they would all work together on stuff.

They go talk to their local warlord of course!

"My Lord, I have gout and my foot is rotting off"
"Bah, that's not so bad. Get back in those fields and plow"
"I feel better already..."

On a more serious note, the magic healing concept changed in 4e. The healing abilities in the PHB are more about combat and dealing with cosmetic pains in combat scenarios. Adding in a healing class that gets it's ability from a martial power is just one example of this.

For non-combat healing of a type the community might be interested in (stop the fever, how did the pitchfork get in my foot, etc) I would probably go with some sort of ritual which the druids, or others, could have access to via skills. There are other solutions of course, but that seems a simple way to deal with it. Course if you don't want a high magic solution in your world make the material components expensive or remove the ritual.

Jonathan Moyer said:

I think you're getting hung up on the real world meanings of "druid" and "shaman" instead of the D&D meanings (4e and otherwise) of those words.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "druidic society," but the way I'd try to model real world Druids in D&D is to make them a group consisting of plant/animal themed wizards, clerics, druids, and shamans. They would all call themselves "Druids" and have their own areas of expertise, and they would all work together on stuff.

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What he said.

Besides, when you get down to it all that "druid" and "shaman" really mean in real life are ethnic labels. There aren't any druids in history, for instance, that aren't Celtic and many people will also tell you that, in spite of ritual similarities, a shaman isn't a shaman if they don't hail from the Eurasian steppes (sorry, Amerindians). Otherwise their role is very much the same. Druids were legal and religious leaders in Celtic society and shamans served (and continue to serve) a similar purpose in Siberian tribes. Both were parts of nature-based religions that were partially (or wholly) animistic.

When you get down to it, there's not that much of a difference between druids and shamans, even in real life.

In D&D, the difference is even slimmer, particularly in 4e. The difference between druids and shamans is no more significant than the difference between clerics and (4e) paladins. They have different roles, but they're a part of the same culture.

In regards to druids who heal, I believe Rich Baker said in the FR forums that he personally considered most of the well-known druids from 2e and 3e to be multiclassing as clerics.

Vaslov said:

On a more serious note, the magic healing concept changed in 4e. The healing abilities in the PHB are more about combat and dealing with cosmetic pains in combat scenarios. Adding in a healing class that gets it's ability from a martial power is just one example of this.

For non-combat healing of a type the community might be interested in (stop the fever, how did the pitchfork get in my foot, etc) I would probably go with some sort of ritual which the druids, or others, could have access to via skills. There are other solutions of course, but that seems a simple way to deal with it. Course if you don't want a high magic solution in your world make the material components expensive or remove the ritual.

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With this in mind, then a simple Heal check is used for any long term healing, long term meaning more than a day or so. Remember, a Heal check will allow someone to use a Second Wind, so that at least 1/4 hitpoints can return if necessary.

Jonathan Moyer said:

I think you're getting hung up on the real world meanings of "druid" and "shaman" instead of the D&D meanings (4e and otherwise) of those words.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "druidic society," but the way I'd try to model real world Druids in D&D is to make them a group consisting of plant/animal themed wizards, clerics, druids, and shamans. They would all call themselves "Druids" and have their own areas of expertise, and they would all work together on stuff.

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This. I wouldn't let the class label Druid get you hung up on what members of a druidic society would look like. There will be rangers, clerics, warlocks (fey) and other classes as well.

Two points if it needs to be mentioned:

First, multiclassing as cleric is one of the best MC choices for a druid. Additionally, as a WIS class, heal is a pretty strong skill for druids.

Second, seems that some of their powers have a very slight healing element, so it may very well be possible to get enough healing to maintain a primal settlement, if that is your goal as a DM.

Finally, not a point but an observation regarding history: A lot of societies can get along just fine without a "Healer"

Solodan said:

Finally, not a point but an observation regarding history: A lot of societies can get along just fine without a "Healer"

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Exactly. In D&D terms, the real world has no "healers". The best thing we have are people with really high ranks in the heal skill. Civilizations seems to have managed.

tuxgeo said:

I'm not so sure that Druids do fulfill a religious role in 4th Edition D&D. From the excerpt that I saw, it appears that 4e D&D Druids are solely Primal, not Divine at all. In that case, there could well be quite a few Clerics of Melora hanging around the Druidic settlements (if such woodland assemblages could be called "settlements").
That could very well be.

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I don't really like the current description of the Primal Powersource so I'm ignoring it. Druids in my setting have a religious function, although with spirits and elements rather then Gods. And as I'll explain later the typical DnD Cleric is quite impossible in Druidic society.

Jonathan Moyer said:

I think you're getting hung up on the real world meanings of "druid" and "shaman" instead of the D&D meanings (4e and otherwise) of those words.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "druidic society," but the way I'd try to model real world Druids in D&D is to make them a group consisting of plant/animal themed wizards, clerics, druids, and shamans. They would all call themselves "Druids" and have their own areas of expertise, and they would all work together on stuff.

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I shall attempt to explain Druidic society in my game as an example

In my game the Druidic society was started by Elves and later on copied by humans who decided that these Elves might be on to something (of course with some differences). However neither the Elves or the Eladrin in my setting believe in Gods. The concept of religion simply does not exist in the Elven psyche.

Druidic human societies instead revere and try and live in some sort of harmony with spirits representing certain things like Cats, Trees etc (borrowing the concept from the Elric mythos). Partially because of Elvish influence the most common Heroes to come from Druidic society in my game are Warlords, Druids, Rangers, Wardens and Fighters. If Druidic society would need to defend itself or form a raiding party said warband would be heavily influenced by these kind of classes (while obviously not all PC's, they would be the equivelent in NPC or Monsters). This would be handy if they were fighting with or against a group of PCs. And I like my setting to have internal coherency.

However this still leaves me in a pickle. Since setting wise they have no healers. And when my PC party goes through a Druidic society I would like to see that they have SOME access to SOME sort of supernatural healing. The simplest way to solve this is to either use some kind of Leader class (fluffed to fit) since this also means that if a party with a Druidic theme wanted supernatural healing they could get it.

Warlords are not an option for this. While I can swallow their healing ability used in an adventuring party as the person only having a flesh wound, the same would not work as the main healer in a society. for immersion reasons if nothing else.

Clerics? Druids? They'd just have a good, long nap and it's over