D&D General Rethinking the class name "Druid".

[Jack Daniel]

How about just "witch," then?

It fits with the theme of the subclasses: Circle of the Land, Circle of the Moon, etc., etc. You could even change "circle" to "coven."

 

[payn]

For the fantasy heartbreaker I want to write Someday™, I settled on Greenseer for Druid and Incantor for Bard. Not because I thought they were offensive, but because they have unnecessary cultural baggage.

It's also a good idea to give your own game some of its own identity.

 

[payn]

How about just "witch," then?

Dont they already have warlocks?

 

[Jack Daniel]

Dont they already have warlocks?

Don't they already have both wizards and sorcerers?

 

[payn]

Don't they already have both wizards and sorcerers?

Sure, but way less confusing than having warlocks and witches be different things.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Sure, but way less confusing than having warlocks and witches be different things.

…but is it? Really?

Suppose that we haven't all been playing D&D for decades and gotten used to the idea of wizards and sorcerers being "different classes." To most people, apart from the notion that "witches & wizards" are the same thing thanks to Harry Potter, they're all just spooky words for spooky magic-people, and they can be as specific or as general as we want them to be.

(Has there even been a pop culture thing that makes "witches & warlocks" the same thing since Bewitched? Did Sabrina do that? I honestly have no clue.)

 

[payn]

…but is it? Really?

Suppose that we haven't all been playing D&D for decades and gotten used to the idea of wizards and sorcerers being "different classes." To most people, apart from the notion that "witches & wizards" are the same thing thanks to Harry Potter, they're all just spooky words for spooky magic-people, and they can be as specific or as general as we want them to be.

(Has there even been a pop culture thing that makes "witches & warlocks" the same thing since Bewitched? Did Sabrina do that? I honestly have no clue.)

It is really, because Wizard doesn't mean female Sorcerer.

 

[Krachek]

In first edition Druid was a cleric subclass. So renaming it Nature Priest or Wild priest is a valid choice.

 

[D1Tremere]

A few thoughts.
Neither druid nor shaman are terms used in specific real world religions. These were terms used by others to label them, not things they called themselves. Much like the various Native American tribes did not generally call themselves many of the names that were used to refer to them.
I think the bigger point that gets missed is this, that most people only object to terms that are used to reflect negatively on their real world beliefs or customs. Take the issue around the use of Phylactery as an example. A Phylactery specifically refers to a small leather box containing Hebrew texts on vellum, worn by Jewish men at morning prayer as a reminder to keep the law in the real world. Turning it into a vessel that is used to trap souls and house the soul of a necromancer could definitely be seen as an offensive perversion by many devout real world Jewish people, while they likely would not mind if it were used in game for some more benevolent purpose. That said, I am not Jewish and do not propose to speak for Jewish people. I just think it is less about the words or terms being used and more about the way in which they are used.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So I'm trying to think of alternatives. So far I've come up with "greenpriest" and "wildpriest".

Both of which are going to be more jarring for most D&D players and most people coming to D&D than "Druid".

The thing is, at this point in pop-culture history, you call someone a "druid" and pretty much everyone thinks "Nature-friend dude maybe with some magic powers". You call someone a "Greenpriest" and it sounds highly specific and weird. Druid is no worse than Wizard or Sorcerer or Warlock or Cleric as a name - in fact I'd say it's better than Cleric.

I'm not offended. I'm not offended for someone. I'm getting that nerd reaction where I read something that doesn't fit my concept of generic fantasy, even D&D generic fantasy, and can't get over it. Mentions of possible offense are down to my OCPD.

I dunno about OCPD, but I would strongly suggest you are in a small minority of D&D players who find "Druid" one of the more jarring names, let alone as jarring as you describe.

Turning it into a vessel that is used to trap souls and house the soul of a necromancer could definitely be seen as an offensive perversion by many devout real world Jewish people, while they likely would not mind if it were used in game for some more benevolent purpose. That said, I am not Jewish and do not propose to speak for Jewish people. I just think it is less about the words or terms being used and more about the way in which they are used.

I am always a little amused by this sort of thing because 70% of the people I played D&D with as a teenager were Jewish, and literally every lich we encountered in those years was run by a Jewish DM, and certainly none of them were offended. Not saying you couldn't be but...