A Question on Druids

[fred_jaboobi]

I was looking over the 3.5 druid this weekend and realized that they are not proficient with bows. Does this make sense?

 

[InzeladunMaster]

From a tactical point of view, no.

From a philosophical viewpoint, maybe. Druids are supposed to be one with nature, and a bow and arrow distances one from his prey. However, Tarzan was one with nature and he used a bow.

From a cultural viewpoint, yes. Druids come across as being cultists, not hunters. The people hunt food for them. They deal with their people's spiritual, cultural, and religious needs, and, in return, the people give them food and other necessaries.

From a game balance viewpoint, maybe. Druids perform the same role as a cleric in a party. If druids can use bows, then what makes them different from a ranger? On the other hand, I don't know that it would imbalance the game to give them a bow, especially if your druids in your world don't have the cultural framework described above.

 

[Grimhelm]

Nicely answered. I think it is important to take a lot of these aspects into account. While it makes no sense that druids in general should be prohibited from using bows, in the sense of game building and creating differences from groups, cultures and subcultures, it seems necessary to impose certain strictures and taboos. Many early cultures were rife with taboos. Groups would often prohibit certain things and allow others (seemingly without rhyme or reason) often in a way to structure themselves as societies. I think the thought applies here.

 

[thormagni]

I always thought Druids just talked animals into walking up to them, befriending the cute, fuzzy creatures of the woods. Then, when the shy, trusting critters crept close enough.. the druids would use their sickles to lop their little heads off.

 

[InzeladunMaster]

One should also note that many of the druid's traditional weapons are deeply symbolic. The scythe denotes the harvest, the scimitar (and to an extent the scythe) is shaped as the crescent moon, and so on. The bow lacks these spiritual cultural symbolisms important to what the druid represents to the people - it represents the hunt, which is not what druids do.

 

[Grimhelm]

It is fascinating just how much rite and tradition has sprung from the elements and business of agriculture. Most of our efforts to control and predict nature can be traced back to agriculture (and before that the simple need to survive and avoid death). I sometimes forget what the meaning of the word even implies--- culture of vegetable harvest. It wasn't just the act of farming, it was an entire culture, with rites, practices, superstitions, predictions, foretellings, sacrifices, and more. Even our most basic practices in math can be drawn back to measuring the earth--- geometry. That and the fact that it was always good to be able to count how many goats you had and how many days until the rainy seasons.

Anyway, I am babbling...

 

[InzeladunMaster]

I share your fascination. That is one of the reasons I love druids - and why I am disgusted that WotC left out the druid from the new version of D&D; they lost something primally important.

 

[thormagni]

Perhaps they left out the Druid because all of what you are talking about sounds dangerously close to back story and character motivation. I am guessing a Druid's powers don't naturally break into neat little combat chunks, which makes him class-non-grata for D&D4e. The same with the Bard, I suspect.

"What's that. You want a character which would have powers for things outside of combat? That is UNHEARD of!"

Of course, I am oversimplifying. But not by much...

 

[InzeladunMaster]

The same thought occurred to me, so it might have some truth behind it.

 

[Grimhelm]

If this is what is going on in 4E, I doubt I will ever look at it. I play the game to be creative and build stuff. Some of my favorite characters have been builders. Their ability to fight was always a secondary concern for me.