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

[Yaarel]

Though it might be interesting to think how people in the setting would classify such things.

In Viking Period animism, they understood the "corpses" and the living "humans" to be different families of "nature beings" (vættir).

At death, one changed from one kind of being to an other kind of being.

 

[Charlaquin]

That is the point.

A nature being isnt a "giant made out of fire".

A nature being is the actual fire that is in ones fireplace.

Two different concepts.

But we are talking about D&D, where a fire elemental is literally a giant made out of fire.

 

[Yaarel]

But we are talking about D&D, where a fire elemental is literally a giant made out of fire.

At the same time, D&D freely misuses terms like "shaman", "nature spirit", "animism", Druid, etcetera.

Also, consider the chwanga. It is an Elemental creature type, but is part of the nature of the Material Plane. This concept is closer to animism.

But in animism. The natural feature itself is the person. In Norse animism, the mind of one mountain can project out of the mountain, to manifest in the physical body of a human, to travel to an other land, to become one of the mountains there. So, like a human can travel outofbody, so can a mountain. There is room for a kind of "psionic spirit", a mindful presence. But animism is all about the physical objects: body, mountain, river, sunlight, etcetera.

 

[Blue Orange]

I don't see "nature" and "science" as opposing forces or ideals. Science isn't "anti-nature," it's the study of it.

The opposition goes back to the Romantic period (19th century), when Romantic poets, novelists, etc. wanted to oppose the Enlightenment's overemphasis on reason. It's pretty post-medieval; medieval 'scientists' would have called themselves natural philosophers, and would be trying to understand God's world to better understand His plan.

Ironically you can more or less do cleric=priest and druid=shaman, with whatever term you prefer standing in for 'shaman' for religious specialists in tribal societies.

Wizards have a view of the supernatural probably closest to the modern scientific view than anything historical--it's a bunch of defined regular patterns (spells) you can study and master. They study in wizards' colleges and do research like modern scientists, brew potions like chemists, and make magical items like engineers.

 

[Charlaquin]

At the same time, D&D freely misuses terms like "shaman", "nature spirit", "animism", Druid, etcetera.

Also, consider the chwanga. It is an Elemental creature type, but is part of the nature of the Material Plane. This concept is closer to animism.

But in animism. The natural feature itself is the person. In Norse animism, the mind of one mountain can project out of the mountain, to manifest in the physical body of a human, to travel to an other land, to become one of the mountains there. So, like a human can travel outofbody, so can a mountain. There is room for a kind of "psionic spirit", a mindful presence. But animism is all about the physical objects: body, mountain, river, sunlight, etcetera.

I understand animism, it just isn’t something D&D has ever reflected, or tried to reflect.

 

[Yaarel]

I understand animism, it just isn’t something D&D has ever reflected, or tried to reflect.

I am more critical of earlier D&D history that occasionally abuse terms like "shaman" (including witchdoctor) offensively.

But the 5e tendency to turn every thing into a "god", or serving a god, or created by a god, is somewhat offensive.

The Celtic peoples seem mainly theistic, so Druids as "priests" of a temple seems plausible.

But nontheistic, nature revering, animistic Druid-class concepts are something different.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

But nontheistic, nature revering, animistic Druid-class concepts are something different.

That's just fluff and depends on the setting. In my world druids are explicitly animistic.

 

[Yaarel]

That's just fluff and depends on the setting. In my world druids are explicitly animistic.

I agree, setting is everything.

I emphasize, not every D&D setting is or should be Forgotten Realms.

 

[Yaarel]

Heh, I find it amusing that Norwegians refer to "holistic medicine" and "alternative medicine" as "troll medicine", in a positive well-meaning sense.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Heh, I find it amusing that Norwegians refer to "holistic medicine" and "alternative medicine" as "troll medicine", in a positive well-meaning sense.

But do you know what alternative medicine that's proven to work is called?

It's called medicine.