What Kind of Druids Do You Like?

[TerraDave]

My guess is that people who picked nature thought it meant nature. Fey is something else, more like supernature.

 

[Voss]

I'd like to see a historical druid, i.e. part of a community concerned with religion, justice, law and the cultural tradition. Sadly, D&D has always dealt with some weird hodge-podge, anachronistic nature priest instead, and slapped 'druid' on it.

So, uh, none of the above.

 

[SmCaudata]

Shaper druid: focused on shapeshifting, wild-shaping into animals, etc.

Weather druid: focused on controlling weather, throwing lightning and wind, etc.

Also Other:

I would like to see the druid as master of nature. Controller of terrain by using roots to entangle or earth to build walls. Controller of weather to bring down lightning, darnkess, fog, cold, etc... Shapeshifter to fight and communicate with animals. Also I like all the flavor things that druids had like extensive nature lore, trackless step, etc.. Those should be there too. Encountering a druid in her home should a scary thing if she is upset with you.

I'm not a big fan to too much healing for the druid. I see the druid as protector but sort of a "nature will take its course" sort of mindset. Maybe a master herbalist for those types of remedies but no healing magic.

 

[Xyl]

Druids should look like this:

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Hehe, whenever and I mean whenever I have a talking dire-animal I always think of Princess Mononoke animal-voices.

 

[Surgoshan]

I guess I'm just against heavily-dictated roles....for me the druid could do about anything, so long as it related to nature. Not in an overly powerful way - but incredibly good in his element(s).

The problem is that that's where druidzilla started. Either you have someone who has no role and sucks at all of them or he has no role and is overpowered in all of them.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I went with animal, nature, and weather. To me, those are the core of the class--I always saw control over the classical elements being more of a Wizard thing. I think the shaper aspect should be a paragon path. On the whole, I'd conceive of the Druid as a Controller, drawing from the Primal power source.

The way I'd break those down:

Animal: this'd be a class feature, like Animal Empathy from 3E. Also some animal-based utility spells like minor shapeshifting, sharpened senses, and so on.

Nature: this'd be both a class feature (like Woodland Stride and Trackless Step from 3E) as well as a focus of the Druid's spells (Control spells like Entangle and whatnot). Utility spells like healing/regeneration.

Weather: also a class feature (resistance to elements) as well as spells (direct damage and AOE spells, like Sleet Storm and Call Lightning). Utility spells to shield from weather.

Rituals can cover classic Druid abilities like regional weather control, rat plagues & crop blights (or boosts), waterwalking/breathing, speak with plants/animals, awakening, even reincarnation. Also cover the summoning aspect, but in this case instead of summoning from some outer plane, you'd instead call an animals that's already in the region--and the animal would head your way, arriving 1-4 hours later. Lastly, I think it makes sense for Druids to be able to enter both the Feywild and the Shadowfell (death is, after all, a natural process).

For ability scores, I think it'd be cool if Wisdom drove the nature-based spells (you're in tune with and empathize with nature), and Charisma drove the weather-based spells (you impose your will over the weather, and force it to do your bidding).

That'd lead to two different flavors of druid. The receptive tree-hugging hippie druid, or the aggressive lightning-calling eco-warrior druid.

 

[CleverNickName]

The problem is that that's where druidzilla started. Either you have someone who has no role and sucks at all of them or he has no role and is overpowered in all of them.

Agreed. I think Wystan had the right idea, when he suggested that this giant smorgassboard of concepts be split up into different classes. If we expand on his idea, we could come up with one hell of a PHB2:

1. Druid: focused on elemental magic (striker)
2. Warden: focused on plants and animals. (leader)
3. Fury: focused on weather magic (striker)
4. Spirit Shaman: focused on fey and celestials. (controller)
5. Beastwalker: focused on shapeshifting. (striker)

 

[lukelightning]

Druids should look like this:

She's a ranger. And no, she doesn't have an animal companion... she's actually the wolf's cohort.

 

[Mistwell]

I never understood how "Nature = Summoning".

Summoning, in this sense, means bringing otherworldly animal-like creatures from another plane of existence onto our plane of existence for a brief time, to follow your orders and attack your foes.

HOW is that in any way natural or nature oriented?

It seems to the opposite to me - unnatural, alien, and not in tune with the world around you. It's a dissonant power.