Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
My style of DMing is to create situations and let the players come up with solutions. A few possible solutions might just occur to me as I craft the situation, but I long ago gave up trying to figure out what the players will do. Usually they came up with things I didn't think of anyway.When it comes to taboos and the (silly IMHO) scenario where a druid has to wear metal armor to save the world ... I have a story.
TLDR version: I don't think making light of religious beliefs should be part of the game.
Longer version:
Long ago in a galaxy ... um .... edition far far away in a campaign called Living Greyhawk, I played a paladin. Yep, lawful good, gung-ho, firmly leaning in to the trope. Imagine The Tick as a paladin. Never forced anyone else to go along with him, although he would voice his opinion if he disagreed. Most of the group was pretty like minded so it wasn't a big deal.
Then we had a mod where we were supposed to literally choose between helping a demon or a devil. No other choice was given, it felt like a giant middle finger to anyone who ran a PC who would rather die with honor than help either one. The DM had pity on us and gave us a third option that was just higher risk which I was okay with.
Now, this was a module and it wasn't the DM's fault. However, if it had been the DM's idea to do this I would have had a major problem with it for that particular PC. Other PCs I ran it wouldn't have been as big of an issue but the mod was asking my paladin to break his vows, to do something he swore he would never do.
To some DMs that may be a "moral dilemma". To me? It was an artificial scenario scripted specifically to be a giant f*** you and the horse you rode in on*. Screw anyone who takes their PC's vows seriously.
If I was playing a druid and I took my taboo against wearing metal armor seriously, I would feel the same way. While I'm going to plead the 5th on personal religious beliefs or lack therein, people's faith is not something to f*** around with just because you can. The DM would have to knowingly set up this very specific scenario in an attempt to force someone to ignore a taboo, a very fundamental part of their belief system. I don't think it's okay to make lightly of religious beliefs like that.
In any case I'm going to go back to ignoring this thread other than the occasional fishing for laughs. I was just thinking about how I hadn't really explained why I think forcing a druid to wear metal armor should ever be a thing.
*My paladin's horse's name was Snert BTW and because the way 3.5 worked Snert was eventually smarter than my paladin.
So I might have a situation where nature might end if the PCs don't stop it, but I'm not going to set it up so that the way to solve it is to get into metal armor. However, if the best solution the players come up with is to get into plate armor and the druids player says to me, "With so much riding on this I grit my teeth and put the foul metal around my body." I'm going to let him do itm. It's HIS character, not mine.