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

[Aldarc]

you seems to have a misaligned understanding of the word Wise - the IndoEuropean origin Wittos means "to know" or "be aware" of the "manner of things" (eg clockwise), its the same origin as Wit. SO a Wizard is someone who Knows things and thus Intelligence is a good fit.

This seems a bit of an Is/Ought fallacy, and also an argument with holes once we bring in Wisdom as a stat, which is used by both Druids and Clerics.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Taking on the form of beasts really belongs in shamanism.

Yep. So that's why it bugs me when people suggest making a separate shaman class. Current D&D druid is already a better representation of a shaman than it is of a druid.

 

[Blue Orange]

Yep. So that's why it bugs me when people suggest making a separate shaman class. Current D&D druid is already a better representation of a shaman than it is of a druid.

Last time I read up on this one of the big divisions in religious practitioners is between the priest tied to a specific religious structure (common in state societies) and shaman who individually interacts with the spirit world (common in tribal societies). So having them as separate classes, with the druid substituting for the shaman, makes sense. (Ironically the Druids were more of a priesthood in the conventional sense...)

 

[D1Tremere]

Except it's not. Phylactery is Greek, phylaktḗrion meaning safeguard or amulet. The Hebrew word is tefillin.

Phylactery (from Ancient Greek φυλακτήριον (phylakterion) 'protectant') originally referred to tefillin, leather boxes containing Torah verses worn by some Jews when praying.

That said. this wasn't really my point. The term Amulet for example is not used in a negative or overtly offensive way. Amulets in D&D are just magic necklaces, often protective in nature. Not necessarily offensive based on use, which was my point.

 

[Azzy]

How about primordialist or something to the effect.

 

[Azzy]

A class that just kind of meanders through life and succeeds by dumb luck would be an interesting idea for a comedy-themed game.

Sounds like a bard.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's also something that started out as a very minor feature and grew over the editions - as you say, for the sake of uniqueness.

Taking on the form of beasts really belongs in shamanism. How shamanic the original druid belief system was we really don't know, since most of what we have comes from Roman historians, who wrote what they did (only one person in that wicker man, Lord Summerisle?!), rather than what they believed.

Merlin does quite a lot of shapeshifting in T.H. White's books, and the movie version probably had an influence on D&D.

Shapechanging is a pretty frequent deal in Nordic mythology, and it's not tied to shamanism at all. Both Merlin and Morgan le Fay also do shapechanging between Geoffrey of Monmouth and Mallory's versions.

 

[Davies]

If 'witch' is off the table because of its perceived link to warlocks, then might I suggest "pagan" as an alternative term for 'druid'? The term's official meaning is "a member of a religious, spiritual, or cultural community based on the worship of nature or the earth". It also has its roots in the Latin word for 'rural', which suggests a division between the class and the more 'urban' clerics and wizards.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Shapechanging is a pretty frequent deal in Nordic mythology, and it's not tied to shamanism at all.

Hmm.

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[Maxperson]

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

No. D&D changes the terms, because not real. D&D isn't pretending to model real life. That means that in D&D the hill is just a normal hill, but the hill might have a supernatural earth elemental spirit to represent it.

If you want to make your D&D mirror real world animism, you can do that. The D&D rules shouldn't make that attempt, though.