Druid or Cleric?

[Texicles]

Bring on the Druid class!

My favorite 4e class is the Druid, and much of what colors that is the non-priest things.

If you think of Druids in terms of a nature-flavored priest, with priestly spells, no turn undead and the ability to hibernate, then I can see the argument for making them a variety of Cleric.

If, however, you fancy the Druid as a PC that has some powerful tools when in beast form, and other powerful tools in normal/humanoid form, then I feel that there is too much to be done with the Druid to make it a modified Cleric.


Also, don't forget, Druids were included in the AD&D PHB. Furthermore, I sincerely hope that they retain some of the 4e flavor in their 5e incarnation.

 

[TerraDave]

Well, every other class is doing it!

Does the druid still need to be its own class?

You seems to be implying no. Voting on this will probably go more yes.

In the other poll, 56% or so say they want it as a class option. Pretty good.

And the druid has been a class since like 1976 or something (the Blackmoor supplement). While they have some legendary/historical roots, the D&D druid has long been its own thing with fairly distinctive, and popular, mechanics.

 

[Lanefan]

So far I'm the only Lemon Druid vote, here's why:

We long ago took the Druid class and reskinned it as Nature Cleric. This allowed us to fold them into the pantheon system, and also gave more opportunity to overlap them with Normal Clerics if desired. Pleasant side effects: they could now also be any alignment where before they were restricted; and any race, ditto.

Simply slapping a nature domain onto a Normal Cleric doesn't make them different enough.

Lan-"the most successful race-class combination our games have ever seen is Hobbit Nature Cleric"-efan

 

[Gold Roger]

From a game mechanic standpoint, the druid has loads of stuff no cleric has and even domains and themes wouldn't suffice to put it all on a cleric. Simmilarly, druids have a lack a lot of stuff the cleric has.

From a flavor standpoint, many groups and published settings place druids very far apart from the cleric or even generic priests. I don't think a cleric or generic priest would do any Eberron druid justice, for example.

To me, the druid is a definite keeper for the core book. Like every class, it should be easy to remove from the class roster, if so desired.

 

[MarkB]

I think the druid is already sufficiently distinct from the cleric to warrant its own class, and furthermore I'd consider the new edition a good opportunity to increase that distinction, not dissolve it.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I like Primal magic. One of the best things to come out of 4e.

Now that we can have Arcane healers, and something else to call nature magic, maybe we can finally put a stake through the heart of atheist Clerics. Divine magic is divine, so if there's no gods involved in it, it must be something else.

 

[Tallifer]

In my favourite edition, the Druid is a controller whilst the Cleric is support. Enough said.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Now that we can have Arcane healers, and something else to call nature magic, maybe we can finally put a stake through the heart of atheist Clerics. Divine magic is divine, so if there's no gods involved in it, it must be something else.

"Atheist clerics" have been possible since AD&D (possibly earlier?), so I don't see why D&DN should remove the option to play them.

 

[mlund]

Druid : Cleric as Barbarian : Fighter

Make of that what you will.

- Marty Lund

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

"Atheist clerics" have been possible since AD&D (possibly earlier?), so I don't see why D&DN should remove the option to play them.

Yes, but they're an oxymoron necessitated by the Cleric being the only class capable of serving as a fully functional healer-- now that having a healer is optional, and a healer doesn't have to be a Cleric, that flavor-killing contradiction in terms can finally cease to be. Or, at least, be something that is purely defined by the setting or something truly unusual.

Someone who uses divine magic without worshiping a god shouldn't be just another spellcaster, manipulating magical energies through a little bit of good old-fashioned know-how. That is, according to the fluff, not how Divine magic works. Divine magic should depend on divinity... a character using Divine magic without worshiping a god should be an aberration, something truly unusual, like an Ur-Priest or a larval godling starting to express itself.