We should add classes for North American medicine men, African witchdocters, and NorthEast Asian shaman just to mess with everyone's heads
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D&D General Nature Clerics vs. Druids?
- Thread starter Xeviat
- Start date
jgsugden
Legend
In my setting:
Druids draw their power from nature itself, not from a God. Specifically, their power originates in the positive and negative energy planes and flows through the Feywild and Shadowfell to reach the druid. They can worship a God just as a fighter might, but the Gods grant them nothing. Their organizations are more interested in the balance of the universe than the interests of the Gods. While they may be beholden to mortals in their organization, they are not beholden to extraplanar powers.
A cleric of nature is a lot like a cleric of magic. They represent the interests of a God who holds sway over a fundamental force of the universe. If they anger that God, the God may take their powers from them. They have a responsibility to others that worship that God. They have a duty to spread the word of the God and recruit more to the cause. They give their faith to the God, and the God grants them power. They are empowered at the whim of the Gods - and that relationship, just as any relationship, can be stable and supportive or abusive depending upon your partner. This approach holds true for a few non-cleric subclasses as well, such as order of the ancients paladins, zealot barbarians, and certain monks.
A third related category are warlocks affiliated with life, death or fey (Archfey, Hexblade, Undead, Undying). They have contracts by which they are granted power over the fundamental forces tied to nature and the lifecycle. Often, those that care most about nature are tempted to make deals with these beings that pervert or twist nature to their bidding. The warlocks have to follow the terms of their contract with the greater being that gave them their power, but beyond that they are free agents which allows them to protect nature with tools tied to the life and death struggle of nature. Sometimes those contract terms are very specific and highly monitored, and at other times they are very vague and there can be disputes about whether the warlock is in conflict - but either way, the warlock usually learns that their contract is very, very important. The warlocks with an interest in the natural balance often find themselves at odds with the power that granted them their abilities as Archfey, Shadow, and Undead forces tend to be abusive of the forces of nature in one way or another.
Druids draw their power from nature itself, not from a God. Specifically, their power originates in the positive and negative energy planes and flows through the Feywild and Shadowfell to reach the druid. They can worship a God just as a fighter might, but the Gods grant them nothing. Their organizations are more interested in the balance of the universe than the interests of the Gods. While they may be beholden to mortals in their organization, they are not beholden to extraplanar powers.
A cleric of nature is a lot like a cleric of magic. They represent the interests of a God who holds sway over a fundamental force of the universe. If they anger that God, the God may take their powers from them. They have a responsibility to others that worship that God. They have a duty to spread the word of the God and recruit more to the cause. They give their faith to the God, and the God grants them power. They are empowered at the whim of the Gods - and that relationship, just as any relationship, can be stable and supportive or abusive depending upon your partner. This approach holds true for a few non-cleric subclasses as well, such as order of the ancients paladins, zealot barbarians, and certain monks.
A third related category are warlocks affiliated with life, death or fey (Archfey, Hexblade, Undead, Undying). They have contracts by which they are granted power over the fundamental forces tied to nature and the lifecycle. Often, those that care most about nature are tempted to make deals with these beings that pervert or twist nature to their bidding. The warlocks have to follow the terms of their contract with the greater being that gave them their power, but beyond that they are free agents which allows them to protect nature with tools tied to the life and death struggle of nature. Sometimes those contract terms are very specific and highly monitored, and at other times they are very vague and there can be disputes about whether the warlock is in conflict - but either way, the warlock usually learns that their contract is very, very important. The warlocks with an interest in the natural balance often find themselves at odds with the power that granted them their abilities as Archfey, Shadow, and Undead forces tend to be abusive of the forces of nature in one way or another.
Nature Clerics exist so that those DMs who only wish to run Core Four have a suitable domain for nature gods.
Not all DMs are going to use druids, just like not all DMs are going to use paladins... which is why the Nature domain and the War domain and the like are useful. Same way that not all DMs will use multiclassing, which is why things like the Trickery domain and the Zealot path and the 4 Elements way and the Scout archetype are also useful and good to have.
If you use every single player-facing mechanic in the PH, Xanathar's, and Tasha's... there is going to be overlap. Even within individual parties. But having all this overlap allows groups to pick and choose which parts they want to use, and fill in gaps when necessary. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to use one thing or another.
Not all DMs are going to use druids, just like not all DMs are going to use paladins... which is why the Nature domain and the War domain and the like are useful. Same way that not all DMs will use multiclassing, which is why things like the Trickery domain and the Zealot path and the 4 Elements way and the Scout archetype are also useful and good to have.
If you use every single player-facing mechanic in the PH, Xanathar's, and Tasha's... there is going to be overlap. Even within individual parties. But having all this overlap allows groups to pick and choose which parts they want to use, and fill in gaps when necessary. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to use one thing or another.
Zardnaar
Legend
Shadow Circle 2E Druids handbook.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
I completely disagree. I never played any previous editions, but I love the power sources. It just makes sense to differentiate the classes.
Zardnaar
Legend
As someone said early if you're using power sources the classes could be independent.
Clerics and Druids primal or Divine probably some others.
Sorcerer, arcane, divine (divine soul), shadow etc.
4Ecwas like a straight jacket even when it made no sense. They had to make the Tempest fighter for example just to compete with the Ranger.
Your problem isn't with power sources.
Your problem is how 4e used power sources.
The 4e design team was too strict in making every base class use one power source and stick to one role. In D&D many classes are multi-source and multi-role in archetypical mechanics.
Zardnaar
Legend
If things are multi source it kinda obsoletes the idea of power source. You don't really need an in game reason. Magic works.
It's fluff for the most part and mostly irrelevant except for certain world's like DS.
Nature clerics okay very differently than druids even if they share a handful of spells. Druids more wizard or beast, cleric more of buff and beat down still.
Power sources had a favor and a mechanical identity. However the desire to "fill out the spreadsheet" kinda ruined it.
Divine powers dealt radiant or necrotic damage and had slight leaders aspects.
Primal powers focused more on fire, cold, thunder, and lightning and had transformations and summons.
If the Nature Cleric was Divine with Martial, Arcane, Elemental, Shadow, or Primal options based on domain whereas the Druid was Divine, Primal or Both based on who they revered, there would be a clearer picture of how they differ.
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