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

[Crimson Longinus]

No so much an argument as the fact that some languages just don't have enough synonyms to elegantly cover Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock and Witch, especially if they have gendered nouns... I checked the French version and they already had to pull out some obscure words to make a difference between Sorcerer and Warlock. Dunno what they'll have to use if you wanted to make a Watch class separate from Warlock.

Frankly, I really dislike thesaurus based class design. There are too many classes already, especially caster classes.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I can't imagine why the OP would care about that, given that this whole thread is about one table's search for an appropriate house-rule.

I mean as far as I know to them "druid" only exists in D&D and a completely different word is used to refer to the historical practitioners.

 

[Maxperson]

3. Patchouli-scented hippy.

4. (The Class Formerly Known as Druid)

Hah. These bring back memories. My parents were hippies in San Francisco in the late 60's and early 70's. My dad had a lightshow called The Brotherhood of Light that was the premier lightshow for the Fillmore West, and we lived in an apartment on Haight and Ashbury(not that I remember any of that). When I was born I dodged a bullet. On the flip of a coin I wasn't named Sitting Bull. #hippies

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

My dad had a lightshow called The Brotherhood of Light that was the premier lightshow for the Fillmore West

The premier ... lightshow ... you say?

....GROOVY!

 

[Mannahnin]

I agree. I'm just not getting the right match between the class and the name "Druid", so I was crowd-sourcing some relplacements.

Right now I like "wilder". But I'm sure that isn't the right kind of evocative for others.

Yup. The best word for your game is probably going to be setting-dependent. If, for example, not-druids are members of a specific magical order, say The Brotherhood of the Green, then Green Brother (or sister) could be a good term. If they are instead solo practitioners who gain their magic from connection to the wild gained in solitary hermitage, it could be something like Wilder, or Hermit. Or if you wanted to circle back to re-purposing a historical term, maybe one with less baggage, something like Woodwose.

Wild man - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Maxperson]

The premier ... lightshow ... you say?

....GROOVY!

Yeah. We have a book called The Art of Rock and Roll. It's fun going through it and looking at the old concert posters. A lot of the ones for that era and location have my father's light show on them.

 

[gorice]

Some more general terms I see as alternatives to "shaman" in the anthropological/comparative religion sense are "spirit worker" or "ecstatic practitioner", but these are certainly not as evocative for game purposes.


I mean, for that matter you could argue that "priests" are a mistake as a character class, because they really don't have a basis in Swords & Sorcery fiction.

From the point of view of being general and descriptive, "Fighting-Man" (as the term was used by military scholars and historians, and by pulp writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs) and "Magic-User" are very practical terms.

But they aren't very evocative.

The advantage of using specific historical terms like Shaman or Warlock or Druid is that they connote things. They carry or imply more meaning. They feel more grounded in some sort of place and setting, even if the definitions being used in the game are not well-matched to the historical realities of the terms.

I see where you're coming from, but the thing about 'druid' in D&D (and likewise ranger, bard, paladin, and to some extent cleric, as you pointed out) is that it's basically self-referential. Which is why people struggle so much with the name: the D&D druid's real referent is the D&D druid, but the name carries very specific historical connotations.

This far down the pop culture human centipede, I'm not sure whether there's any good option aside from starting with a clean slate.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sure, if people are wanting to do the mental gymnastics to take that sentence completely out of context in an effort to be offended.

It isn't mental gymnastics, it's just a set of lived experiences that are very different from your own leading to different things being plainly obvious.

I can guarantee you with absolute certainty that no effort at all is being made to come to the very obvious connection between descriptions of fantasy races and their cultures, and real world cultures. It is plain in the text.

 

[Mannahnin]

I see where you're coming from, but the thing about 'druid' in D&D (and likewise ranger, bard, paladin, and to some extent cleric, as you pointed out) is that it's basically self-referential. Which is why people struggle so much with the name: the D&D druid's real referent is the D&D druid, but the name carries very specific historical connotations.

Increasingly self-referential, yes, though Gary's version was loosely based on old historical texts. He said the class was based on the Gallic priests described by Caesar in De Bello Gallico, IIRC.

Although I think there were a few druids or druid-like figures in fiction he might have also been referencing, like Getafix from Asterix as was previously mentioned. I've seen someone else reference a druid character called Dalan from Henry Kuttner's Elak of Atlantis stories.

 

[Laurefindel]

Woah. This thread has gotten spicy!

Well, I provided two options earlier. I have two more!

3. Patchouli-scented hippy.

4. (The Class Formerly Known as Druid)

I vote for option 4. Perhaps in time it will simply become « The Class ».

I’d leave option 3 open for a subclass however. « my character? Oh, it’s a patchouli-scented class formerly known as druid »

‘has a nice ring to it…