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<blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 2650603" data-attributes="member: 259">Thanks, Joe--very cool post!On the one hand, I agree that the &quot;humans suck!&quot; approach to druids does not have any societal precedent in the real world.&nbsp; Every culture out there has had a way to interact with nature, has altered nature.&nbsp; You know those New England Native American tribes who lived lightly off the land as wandering hunter-gatherers?&nbsp; Those big forests they lived in were of their own creation, through judicious use of fire and other tools (I was looking for my copy of Changes in the Land, an ecological historian's account of how Native Americans and early European settlers altered the New England landscape, but I'm unable to find it).&nbsp; Everyone changes their environment.On the other hand, in a world with factual and highly communicative Gods, it's not out of the question that nature gods want to protect and expand their own territory.&nbsp; Yes, the sentient races are a part of nature; however, the sentient races in D&amp;D and the real world tend to alter their habitats more profoundly and more rapidly than the nonsentient critters do.&nbsp; A nature god who wants to protect her domain isn't going to like that rapid alteration, and may develop an antipathy toward humanoids.My own druid is patterned off the doctor in Deadwood:&nbsp; a profane, frustrated, low-charisma, highly-ethical guy who doesn't much like people and thinks they're horrible but tries to do the right thing anyway.&nbsp; He's no hippie:&nbsp; he kills prisoners, he issues deadly threats, and he's not above eating a deceased animal companion because hey, why waste food?&nbsp; But he's also working on developing mining techniques that don't offend his deity, and refuses to help a party-member mine an incredibly valuable vein of mithral that we ran across.&nbsp; He hates cities (except for the food), prefers to sleep outside away from the smells of civilization whenever possible.&nbsp; He carries a Quench scroll around in case he ends up having to cast a Firestorm in the middle of a forest.I think that with druids as with any other class, it's important to have a good strong background for the roleplaying.Daniel</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pielorinho, post: 2650603, member: 259"] Thanks, [b]Joe[/b]--very cool post! On the one hand, I agree that the "humans suck!" approach to druids does not have any societal precedent in the real world. Every culture out there has had a way to interact with nature, has altered nature. You know those New England Native American tribes who lived lightly off the land as wandering hunter-gatherers? Those big forests they lived in were of their own creation, through judicious use of fire and other tools (I was looking for my copy of [i]Changes in the Land[/i], an ecological historian's account of how Native Americans and early European settlers altered the New England landscape, but I'm unable to find it). Everyone changes their environment. On the other hand, in a world with factual and highly communicative Gods, it's not out of the question that nature gods want to protect and expand their own territory. Yes, the sentient races are a part of nature; however, the sentient races in D&D and the real world tend to alter their habitats more profoundly and more rapidly than the nonsentient critters do. A nature god who wants to protect her domain isn't going to like that rapid alteration, and may develop an antipathy toward humanoids. My own druid is patterned off the doctor in [i]Deadwood[/i]: a profane, frustrated, low-charisma, highly-ethical guy who doesn't much like people and thinks they're horrible but tries to do the right thing anyway. He's no hippie: he kills prisoners, he issues deadly threats, and he's not above eating a deceased animal companion because hey, why waste food? But he's also working on developing mining techniques that don't offend his deity, and refuses to help a party-member mine an incredibly valuable vein of mithral that we ran across. He hates cities (except for the food), prefers to sleep outside away from the smells of civilization whenever possible. He carries a Quench scroll around in case he ends up having to cast a Firestorm in the middle of a forest. I think that with druids as with any other class, it's important to have a good strong background for the roleplaying. Daniel [/QUOTE]

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