BriarMonkey
First Post
Off the top of my head, no. You have to be Lawful Neutral, Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral.
seeking advice: playing a Vampire Druid?
- Thread starter xois
- Start date
Off the top of my head, no. You have to be Lawful Neutral, Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral.
Incorrect. Druid's Alignment is "any Neutral." That includes Neutral Good and Neutral Evil. Always has, since before 3rd Edition even. You can be "Law-Chaos Neutral," or "Good-Evil Neutral-" both count as Neutral for something.
Back in BECMI D&D, you had to be Neutral, but then again, BECMI only had Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. It didn't have the Good-Evil axis.
BriarMonkey
First Post
That part is also not correct. According to page 20 of the AD & D Player's Handbook (6th printing, 1980), the Druid "... They are the only absolute neutrals (see ALIGNMENT), viewing good and evil, law and chaos, as balancing forces of nature which are necessary for the continuation of all things."
So, there have been divergences over time to "expand" the allowable Neutrals, such as going from 1st edition to 3rd edition. And honestly, I have never had a player run a Neutral Good/Evil one in any of my games, which is why I discounted those.
But yeah, looking at the Pathfinder PRD, it simply states "any neutral". So, that would seem to include any alignment with "Neutral" in its name.
You misunderstood what I meant; admittedly, I worded it badly by not making a new paragraph. What I meant was, the four "slightly Neutral" alignments- LN, NG, CN, NE- were always considered "neutral alignments."
The Druid itself had to be TN back before 3rd Edition, you are certainly correct about that. As your quotation notes, back before 3E there were some ways in which you weren't even "truly True Neutral" unless you were a Druid (Paramandyrs notwithstanding)!
For most purposes, the distinctions were fluff text, unless the DM made a big deal out of it.
BriarMonkey
First Post
True. But then, depending on the circle, alignments have always been rather "open to interpretation".
Also true.
As for the OP's problem, I agree with the posters suggesting looking at a way to change the character but keep the Druid powers intact. There should be a way to do it; otherwise the GM is just crapping on the PC IMO. Perhaps the newly-vampiric Druid could gradually start switching class features over to an Archetype, such as Blight Druid from the APG. The switching of powers would be a gradual thing, and the appearance of these strange abilities in game would then be a Clue to the other PCs that Something Is Rotten In Denmark (or at least Our Party). Blight Druid isn't allowed to have an Animal Companion, but that's not currently an issue for the Vampdruid anyway, so it could be done.
I can't speak for the GM of the Vampire Druid's game of course, but I as GM would jump at a chance to do something like that.
Argyle King
Legend
I think it would be pretty easy to play a NE druid. You'd start to represent the darker and more savage side of nature. Not chaos, but brutality. Mentally morph yourself into a predatory animal - something which should be rather easy considering you are now a vampire.
As far as an animal companion goes, I'd simply choose one which has a similar predatory nature. Your relationship might become even stronger than that between a normal druid and his companion. You are both now part of the same pack of predators. Hunt together and feed together.
On the law/chaos axis, you are something of a beast, so you lean toward chaos. However, being that you're bound to the 'law' of what your master wills you to do, it balances out. In time, you're forced to control your more chaotic and savage instincts as a vampire. The hunger is still there, but you have some manner of control over it. That's not to say you don't sometimes have outbursts though. After all, you'd be NE; not LE. Instead of walking a middle ground between law and chaos, I see more of a see-saw teetering back and forth between the two.
As far as an animal companion goes, I'd simply choose one which has a similar predatory nature. Your relationship might become even stronger than that between a normal druid and his companion. You are both now part of the same pack of predators. Hunt together and feed together.
On the law/chaos axis, you are something of a beast, so you lean toward chaos. However, being that you're bound to the 'law' of what your master wills you to do, it balances out. In time, you're forced to control your more chaotic and savage instincts as a vampire. The hunger is still there, but you have some manner of control over it. That's not to say you don't sometimes have outbursts though. After all, you'd be NE; not LE. Instead of walking a middle ground between law and chaos, I see more of a see-saw teetering back and forth between the two.
