No Druid in PHB?

[Exen Trik]

I expect druids will show up in a later book, probably the PHB2. They'll introduce the Nature power source and have at least a couple other classes for it. My guess is there will be a melee class that steals the druids shapeshifting shtick, and another built around animal summoning and companions.

 

[Li Shenron]

Druids are a weird amalgam in 3e right now - they're both controllers and combat monsters (at least after they start getting their shapeshifting powers). They're a decent example of a class that crosses roles, as they can play both the "defender" and the "controller" depending on what the party needs. That makes them seem overpowered compared to other classes (especially at higher levels), but I'd like to see that cross-role framework kept myself.

The problem is that 3e designers made Druids ALL those things at the same time: shapeshifter, healer, fey-touched, animal lord, elemental spellcaster...

There is so much potential within the Druid array of sub-concepts that it well deserves to be a whole class with lots of paths and options, not so many fewer than clerics or wizards!

If it's too hard job, then leave it for a later PHB...

 

[The_Fan]

I see the Druid probably going the way of the other "Problem Child" of 3e: The Bard, though for different reasons.

The Bard was a class that tried to do everything and wound up doing nothing particularly well.

The Druid was a class that tried to do everything, and would up doing it TOO well.

I see both being in PHBII, since they probably need more playtesting to get them to where they need to be. Either that, or the number of core classes will be boosted to 12, with 3 for each class role.

 

[CleverNickName]

I expect druids will show up in a later book, probably the PHB2. They'll introduce the Nature power source and have at least a couple other classes for it. My guess is there will be a melee class that steals the druids shapeshifting shtick, and another built around animal summoning and companions.

I agree, but it would be nice to see the druid in the first batch of books. No particular reason, other than it is my favorite.

I hope they give druid magic more "nature" flavor than they did in the 3.5 Edition. For example:

Druid magic is a shoo-in for "staff magic," requiring all spells to use an uncut, unpolished wooden staff as a focus. Druidic spells should have their own rules, like arcane and divine spells do...for example, druid spells cast while wearing metal armor could incur spell failure chances (or not work at all). Druid magic should work differently when used indoors or on other planes, since the connection to nature is diminished (or missing, or different).

Just thinking out loud...

 

[GreatLemur]

I'd be OK with seeing the druid go away and get eaten by the cleric. It always seemed a little silly to me to have clerics who worship nature gods and draw power from them, and druids who worship nature gods and draw a different set of powers from them.

I'd definitely be happiest to see the Druid subsumed by the Cleric in terms of both mechanics and flavor. However, I think it's most likely that we'll get a new Druid (along with the Bard and Gnomes, and maybe that Mageblade class) in PH2.

If that's the case, I hope they actually go out of their way to make a real flavor distinction between Clerics and Druids. For example, it'll be cool if they finally and completely remove nature gods from the Druid's fluff and say that they're always empowered by nature itself. Then "natural" could actually be a power source alongside martial, arcane, and divine.

It might even be cool to break up the Druid's schtick into two different classes. So you could have your nature-worshipping, spell-casting, animal-summoning, Cleric-ish Druid . . . and then also a melee-focused, shape-shifting Green Defender or something.

EDIT:

I actually would like the Druid to be taken further away from the cleric, by cutting all the relationships with the deities, hence changing the Druid's flavor so that the power source is not divine but something else (or otherwise, sort-of divine but from something different than the gods). That way, a Druid would be very different from a Cleric of a nature God: the second would believe that there is a god overseeing nature, the first would negate the needs for gods of nature and advocate the supremacy of nature over the gods.

Yeah, absolutely. If there's gonna be a Druid (I honestly rather just see a more flexible Cleric), it's got to be more distinct from the Cleric than the 3.x version was. In previous editions, the meat of the distinction was in the Druid's lifestyle and worldview, but I'd rather see 4e distinguish them more in terms of power source and mechanics. No more "I'm a Cleric with a nature god except I turn into a bear and suck at healing, LOL."

 

[Heroditis]

No Druid means...

No $E (errr 4E) for me. If, in fact, the Druid is not one of the core classes, I will not be buying 4E until the appropriate supplement is out. I have no interest in a "points of light in a dark world" that does not include Druids wandering about and making their way in the darkness.

 

[frankthedm]

There's no possible way to encompass all of the Druid's ability and spell differences with talent trees, either,

Good! Druids got way too much in 3.5.

Animal companions are loved by players, and enhance the game on a great number of levels.

Druids being able to use the animals they should be protecting as living meat shields that outperform the front line PCs does little to enhance the game.

Shapeshifting, similarly, is something players love. Removing either of these things outright would seem like madness to me.

Removing wild shape, ala PHB2, would be one of the sanest things wotc has ever done.

 

[Wormwood]

Removing wild shape, ala PHB2, would be one of the sanest things wotc has ever done.

Honestly, that simple and elegant druid shapeshift rule justified the cost of the PHB2 for me. It is a requirement in the games I run, and is sorely missed in the game I don't run!

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

I don't see the neccessity of the Druid or the Barbarian when their abilities can be wrapped into the Cleric or Fighter trees (respectively).

Subclasses of a major class, with the advent of ability trees, are no longer neccessary.

 

[The Lost Muse]

No $E (...) for me.

Not to be overly negative, but why do I get the feeling we'll gbe seeing this again in about 8-10 years?

On topic, I think that the druid could easily be expressed as a "cleric of a different role" although I would like to see it kept as a seperate class.