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

[Faolyn]

Out of curiosity, I looked up the etymology of phylactery. It's from a Greek word meaning "amulet," so it sounds like it's a similar situation to shaman--i.e., a word from outside of a culture used to describe a specific cultural thing. The word itself might also have wider applications. I'm not Jewish myself, but I assume there's probably a Hebrew name for the same object.

To the OP: Customizing terminology for your own setting is one of the things D&D is absolutely for! One thing to think about when you're renaming druids is, what exactly is their relationship to nature? Do they actually worship it or just hold it in high regard? What do they see as the proper relationship between nature and civilization?

Interestingly, it's also the term used for those scroll-like word balloons in some Medieval art, and was also used to mean reliquary. Wikipedia also lists the fourth major usage of the term (after these two and amulet/charm): as the place that D&D liches store their soul.

 

[Maxperson]

Disclaimer: I am also not Jewish

There is another name for them, yes. Tefillin, which I believe is the more common term for them these days, though I’m not totally sure about that. At any rate, I do recall a post about its use doing the rounds on Tumblr, but it was from a non-Jewish (is Gentile the correct term?) user who’s known for weirdly appropriating Jewish culture and getting offended on behalf of Jewish people. But I have never heard, or even heard of, any actual Jewish folks taking issue with the use of the term phylactery in D&D. Doesn’t mean none ever have or do, but I don’t think there’s any general sentiment that its use in D&D is inappropriate.

I said it the last time I saw this. I'm Jewish and I am not in any way offended, especially since there is a definition for phylactery that simply means, "A protective amulet." While 1e used the Jewish version(still not offended), WotC editions have changed the usage to the second definition where it can be any object used to protect the lich's soul. I've also played with many other Jews over the years, none of whom were offended.

 

[Greg K]

I said it the last time I saw this. I'm Jewish and I am not in any way offended, especially since there is a definition for phylactery that simply means, "A protective amulet." While 1e used the Jewish version(still not offended), WotC editions have changed the usage to the second definition where it can be any object used to protect the lich's soul. I've also played with many other Jews over the years, none of whom were offended.

What is funny is that, despite us being on this forum for a long time, we only, recently realized that we had once, briefly, been housemates and still have some friends in common. A little more relevant to this thread topic is that, despite living under the same roof, we never did play D&D together during that time, but have the same experience with other Jewish players over the years.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I do wish it were structured as a class with mystic/spiritualist flavor, of which shapeshifter were a subclass.

The class might contain subclasses that resemble shaman, occultist, Oracle, witch-doctor….and the “Druid” of D&D.

 

[Maxperson]

What is funny is that, despite us being on this forum for a long time, we only, recently realized that we had once, briefly, been housemates and still have some friends in common. A little more relevant to this thread topic is that, despite living under the same roof, we never did play D&D together during that time, but have the same experience with other Jewish players over the years.

Not D&D, but we did play Rolemaster

 

[Yaarel]

UPDATE: I don't like the name. I increasingly feel like it's simply the wrong fit for my vision of generic fantasy: no matter how many contexts it gets used in I don't feel like I can separate the name from its original context.

So I'm trying to think of alternatives. So far I've come up with "greenpriest" and "wildpriest".

(original post that was confusing: )

Spoiler

I'm not sure "druid" needs a rethink. I'm also not sure it doesn't, as I'm not a person who get affected either way.

But I increasingly feel like it's simply the wrong fit for my vision of generic fantasy: no matter how many contexts it gets used in I don't feel like I can separate the name from its original, historical context.

So I'm trying to think of alternatives. So far I've come up with "greenpriest" and "wildpriest".

(I probably do not want to use the word "shaman" as I'm worried that also has some real world connections I don't want to exploit.)

The Druid is an "Elementalist", especially when classifying Plant as one of the elements.

Elementalist can include subclasses for Alchemist (protoscience) and something else (nature attuning).



The word "priest" is problematic because the term comes with its own technical meaning and historical context.

A "shaman" needs to satisfy cultural sensitivities among reallife animistic indiginous peoples.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

The Druid is an "Elementalist", especially when classifying Plant as one of the elements.

That's another good one. Maybe with extra emphasis on different elements via subclasses. "Animal" might be another element; that's where you get Wildshape.

 

[Yaarel]

That's another good one. Maybe with extra emphasis on different elements via subclasses. "Animal" might be another element; that's where you get Wildshape.

Animal feels like a different character concept from Elemental-Plant.

For me, Humanoid and Beast, even Monstrosity, go together. So shapeshifting includes human forms and so on.

Elemental shapechange (which is what I would call "transmutation" proper) is becoming rock, metal, fire, vapor, ice, wood, and so on.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Animal feels like a different character concept from Elemental-Plant.

For me, Humanoid and Beast, even Monstrosity, go together. So shapeshifting includes human forms and so on.

Elemental shapechange (which is what I would call "transmutation" proper) is becoming rock, metal, fire, vapor, and plant.

Which means that druid is not an elementalist. Animal connection is a pretty damn important part of them.

 

[Yaarel]

Which means that druid is not an elementalist. Animal connection is a pretty damn important part of them.

The Druid is a mishmash of several independent concepts.

Elementalism is one of them.

If one chooses one of the elemental options for Wildshape, a Druid character concept might have nothing to do with animals.

The Animalist (?) theme is part of the Bard class too.


I think D&D tended to lump plants and animals together in the sense of natural "life", but thematically, they dont really mix well together. Alternatively, viewing plant as one of the elements works well.