What is a druid?

[Paul Farquhar]

The original D&D druid (and bard) is based on a Victorian reinvention of what they imagined the pre-Roman Celtic religion to be. Given that the original druids kept no written records, all they had to go on was what the Romans said, and the Victorians decided that what the Romans said was propaganda, it was pretty much based on Arthurian myth (I.e. early fantasy fiction) and pre-Raphaelite paintings. More recent archology suggests that the Romans where in fact telling the truth, and the druids where very big on human sacrifice.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I think you are right that there are many options Your idea of an elf living off in the swamp is a fun one, and I'd suggest you just commit to that.

I will offer a few thoughts on the mechanics of what you are proposing:

1. Absolutely consider the circle of Spores from the Ravnica book. It's got a creepy flavour, and necromancer-like abilities that will be fun to play with. (If not, then a Swamp Circle of Land druid would be your go-to.

2. Since you have decided on an elf, you might consider whether you really want a level in Hexblade. You don't need it for Sword proficiency (you have that with your Elven weapon training), so you are spending a level to be able to use your charisma stat to attack rather than strength. But you don't gain any functional proficiencies for what you've described. (Hexblade's curse is good for 1 combat per rest). With Hexblade, you'd likely want to have good numbers in Wisdom, Charisma, and Dexterity -- it's a big investment. Shillelagh is your friend -- a solid Wisdom attack. But if you want the MAD experience, Hexblade is flavorful and would make a solid 2-level dip, as you note.

3. Much of the flavour can come from the background and what you choose form that. If you do have a Dex investment, a Druid Criminal would fit what you've described, and give you some mechanical oomph to support it. Or just invent a background: e.g.
SWAMP EXILE
Skills: Stealth, Survival
Tools: Thieves' Tools, Herbalism Kit
Equipment: as hermit
Feature: Bad Reputation (as Pirate)

 

[Li Shenron]

For the first time, I find myself interested in playing a druid. I have mostly played warlocks in 5e with only one exception. Somewhere recently I thought it would be interesting to play a druid.

full disclosure: I want to play a character that has a lot of creepy witch-like potential. I dislike circle of the moon and plan to play with weapons and spells. I am taking one level (likely hexblade for sword prof and flavor) and some feats to do this. When
i wild shape, I am looking for spiders and snakes and the like, almost exclusively.

but my main thought is that I have never seen the druid description seem so wide open.

are they wandering mages, sage like magic users? Are they priests focused on the divine? The intro text says sort of Yes to all of these things.


i am interested in hearing how others have attempted to make druids part of the game world. I feel I am going off label...planning to play an angry and rebellious gray
elf now who has renounced corellon and makes the woods or perhaps swamps his new kingdom.

but is he priestly or just freelance like a mage that adventures?

how do you define the role of druids?

(edit for typos)

Yeah but is a Wizard? What is a Sorcerer? What are cows?

From an individual player's perspective, to help the player understand what is a Druid, I would suggest to look at her spells. Sure the wildshape is a unique and defining ability, but unless you go the Circle of the Moon route and routinely wildshape for combat, wildshaping for scouting/disguise won't feel fundamentally different from using spells for the similar purposes. In general tho, a Druid's spells give her a lot of identity, both narratively (if you don't ignore the fluff in the spell descriptions) and tactically (making the Druid IMHO closer to the Wizard).

From a worldbuilding point of view, Druids are traditionally represented as a cult network, but IMHO the divine aspect kinda gets in the way, and creates confusion like the often mentioned "why do we have both Nature Clerics and Druids?" As a matter of fact I do not see any particular reason why Druid's "religion" couldn't be just a light mix of theories on the world, superstitious beliefs, traditional rites, but not necessarily a strong "faith". I'd rather focus on the strength of her connection with nature represented by what she can do (spells) rather than why (religion).

It should also be noted that there is quite a room for differentiation. In the 3e era, we were playing in our own semi-homebrew fantasy world where there were 3 different world-spanning druidic groups or "societies": the Druids of the Moss (the most loose and generic of the group, essentially peaceful nature-lovers focused on promoting a good relation with animals and plants), the Druids of the Standing Stones (the mystic/scholarly type who presumably knew a lot of ancient secrets), and the Druids of the Crescent (evil-bent and driven by hatred of civilization). Perhaps it was a precursor thought to today's archetypes, which can definitely be used as world-building tools.

At the moment in our family game campaign we have a Druid PC, but we're still at low level and kind of playing the campaign in a sort of "BECMI" style... in other words, "we haven't left the dungeon (tier) yet" so we haven't given much thoughts about the world outside

 

[generic]

The original D&D druid (and bard) is based on a Victorian reinvention of what they imagined the pre-Roman Celtic religion to be. Given that the original druids kept no written records, all they had to go on was what the Romans said, and the Victorians decided that what the Romans said was propaganda, it was pretty much based on Arthurian myth (I.e. early fantasy fiction) and pre-Raphaelite paintings. More recent archology suggests that the Romans where in fact telling the truth, and the druids where very big on human sacrifice.

This makes me a tad less happy to have the name Sutcliffe (south-cliff), which is thought to be connected to traditional Celtic (not the ridiculous new stuff) Druidism.

 

[Warpiglet]

I think you are right that there are many options Your idea of an elf living off in the swamp is a fun one, and I'd suggest you just commit to that.

I will offer a few thoughts on the mechanics of what you are proposing:

1. Absolutely consider the circle of Spores from the Ravnica book. It's got a creepy flavour, and necromancer-like abilities that will be fun to play with. (If not, then a Swamp Circle of Land druid would be your go-to.

2. Since you have decided on an elf, you might consider whether you really want a level in Hexblade. You don't need it for Sword proficiency (you have that with your Elven weapon training), so you are spending a level to be able to use your charisma stat to attack rather than strength. But you don't gain any functional proficiencies for what you've described. (Hexblade's curse is good for 1 combat per rest). With Hexblade, you'd likely want to have good numbers in Wisdom, Charisma, and Dexterity -- it's a big investment. Shillelagh is your friend -- a solid Wisdom attack. But if you want the MAD experience, Hexblade is flavorful and would make a solid 2-level dip, as you note.

3. Much of the flavour can come from the background and what you choose form that. If you do have a Dex investment, a Druid Criminal would fit what you've described, and give you some mechanical oomph to support it. Or just invent a background: e.g.
SWAMP EXILE
Skills: Stealth, Survival
Tools: Thieves' Tools, Herbalism Kit
Equipment: as hermit
Feature: Bad Reputation (as Pirate)

I think you hit the nail on the head. I recently wrote a thread about messing up characters. For me, it starts by veering off the vision. So going with the renegade elf in the swamp is important and should be front of mind.

Second, I like the idea of a custom background. Bad reputation is a great idea. That said, I might skip thieves tools and go with something else. Not for power or effectiveness per se but I just don't see him as picking locks often, though I may need to give that possibility more thought. Herbalism kit is spot on concept...survival only makes sense.

I know circle of shepherd does not sound creepy on its face but if you mostly summon spiders and snakes, it could be!

 

[BookBarbarian]

Druids are individuals so tied to he natural world or in tune with it that that connection grants them the magic contained in the D&D natural world. And yes, that leaves a lot open to interpretations such as worshiping a nature deity, or studying nature magic, or despising civilization, or tolerating it, or living in a park in a city.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I think you hit the nail on the head. <snip>
I know circle of shepherd does not sound creepy on its face but if you mostly summon spiders and snakes, it could be!

Cool. glad to help.

Talk to your DM and be sure he/she is fine with you determining the type of creature you summon. Shepherd within this frame would be awesome.

 

[Aldarc]

I'm kinda surprised, if not disappointed, that no one has mentioned the 4e Druid so far, especially given how 4e was really the first edition that distinguished the identity of the druid from both the cleric and wizard via the Primal magic source.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I'm kinda surprised, if not disappointed, that no one has mentioned the 4e Druid so far, especially given how 4e was really the first edition that distinguished the identity of the druid from both the cleric and wizard via the Primal magic source.

I think it is because primal spirits aren't a "thing" in 5e (yet). Fey kind of have the primal spirit role (among other roles), but they are pretty wanton with their affections: they power up warlocks, paladins, and are a named as a possible source for how you become a wild magic sorcerer entry in the PHB, and then eventually become buddies with glamour bards, so it is hard to say they are particularly pro-druid. Also, when a cleric loses concentration on conjure celestial, it doesn't get mad at him (even if it is an evil fallen celestial), but a druid losing concentration on conjure fey has an angry fey on his/her hands. That doesn't signify a friendly relationship between druids and fey.

 

[Bupp]

Totally love the Arnold K. take on druids mentioned above.

I also like the umbral beast shape. Visually a nice take.