Moon Druid Epiphany

snickersnax · Mar 30, 2019

For the longest time I've had a secret dislike as a DM for moon druids. Not because they are overpowered, but because I just couldn't make any sense of why they are called moon druids. The player's handbook description was so lame, I couldn't stand it.... Their order gathers during the full moon to share news and trade warnings... changeable as the moon, a druid of this circle [might change forms daily].

A player's short description of moon druids was this. "They are the druids that turn into dinosaurs and elementals." Where was the moon in all of this?

It just wasn't doing it for me. I tried to homebrew/houserule a cooler story versions of moon druids. Druids that messed around with lycanthropy. My homebrew moon druids would choose one of the were-animal forms and that should be the main form they change into. Ahhhh, this felt so much better. The moon in moon druid finally fit.

The problem was there were a few folks attached to the 5e RAW moon druid, and I needed a place for them. It finally hit me, I would simply change the name from Moon Druids to Primordial Druids

Primordial was a word that made sense instead of moon. It describes a PC druid's general trend in shapechanging from animals to prehistoric mammals to dinosaurs to elementals. It was the journey toward more and more fundamental life forms. Suddenly I loved the druid with a simple name change. Everything made sense.

Does anyone else suffer these kinds of 5e meaning crises or is it just me?

Charlaquin · Mar 30, 2019

Moon Druid works fine for me. The moon is a symbol of change, and Moon Druids are all about changing form, so it makes sense to me. I’ll agree that turning into dinosaurs is pretty goofy, but I’m not a fan of (non-avian) dinosaurs in D&D anyway, outside of a few remote, probably magical locations like the Isle of Dread. I just tell players interested in playing Druids that in my world Dinosaurs are all but unheard of, so their character won’t have seen any before play starts.

snickersnax · Mar 30, 2019

Charlaquin said:
Moon Druid works fine for me. The moon is a symbol of change, and Moon Druids are all about changing form, so it makes sense to me. I’ll agree that turning into dinosaurs is pretty goofy, but I’m not a fan of (non-avian) dinosaurs in D&D anyway, outside of a few remote, probably magical locations like the Isle of Dread. I just tell players interested in playing Druids that in my world Dinosaurs are all but unheard of, so their character won’t have seen any before play starts.

hmmm,,, Moon druids are about the moon, the moon is about change, change is about money, money is about merchants ERGO moon druids should be merchants. Where does the lunacy end?

Charlaquin · Mar 30, 2019

snickersnax said:
lunacy

I see what you did there

Shadowdweller · Mar 30, 2019

snickersnax said:
hmmm,,, Moon druids are about the moon, the moon is about change, change is about money, money is about merchants ERGO moon druids should be merchants. Where does the lunacy end?

Oh come on, that's just crazy.

Bitbrain · Mar 30, 2019

I always assumed that they were identified as Circle of the Moon because they are basically a "good" version of a Lycanthrope.

snickersnax · Mar 30, 2019

Bitbrain said:
I always assumed that they were identified as Circle of the Moon because they are basically a "good" version of a Lycanthrope.

I get that warm fuzzy feeling when I think about moon druids and lycanthropes, too. Not so much when I think about were-dinosaurs and were-air elementals though.

generic · Mar 30, 2019

snickersnax said:
I get that warm fuzzy feeling when I think about moon druids and lycanthropes, too. Not so much when I think about were-dinosaurs and were-air elementals though.

Were-air elementals, also known as Lycanthrope Flatulence.