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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9747603" data-attributes="member: 7052563">I actually think you are correct, but both classes seemed to be underrated and overlooked back then.  They both had slightly quirky abilities that could be limited or even neutralized if the DM interpreted the rules in a particularly strict way, or if the adventure did not offer good opportunities.The modern druid leans on wildshape and is generally considered a good class, but the consensus back in the 80’s (as seen in Dragon magazine reader letters and Forum editorials) seemed to be that it was a highly situational class that was only really useful on wilderness treks, but not so much in dungeons or towns.  One of the biggest problems was that IIRC in 1E the equivalent wound healing spells were higher level for druids than for clerics, and since clerics were often treated as mere combat medics, this would make the druid much less effective in that role.  The other abilities were a grab bag of pseudo-“Celtick” Stonehenge hippie tropes, and you had to get creative to use them effectively.  Scimitar was always the best melee weapon choice (next best thing to a war scythe?).  One point I rarely see in discussions of the 1E druid is the fact that their spellcasting could be significantly weakened if the DM wanted to be very strict about the rules for mistletoe as a material component, making adventures in environments where mistletoe does not grow very difficult.My friends generally saw druids as second tier, but even back then I thought they had strong themes that were too much fun to not give them a try, so I played a human druid and had a good time with him.  The new weapons and spells from UA helped a lot.  The Goodberry spell eliminated many of the rigors of wilderness travel, but we never did real hex crawl stuff anyway.  I had the Healing and Herbalism proficiencies from the DSG/WSG books, which boosted our natural healing from +1 hp to +4 hp each night, so obviously that made my druid popular with the rest of the party <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😄" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f604.png" title="Grinning face with smiling eyes    :smile:" data-shortname=":smile:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />.  We also allowed elves and half-elves to play NG druid/rangers and druid/ranger/mages because it just seemed like a natural fit, and there were several of those in our games over the years.  We never bothered with material components for spells, so that alone was a significant buff for spellcasters.</blockquote>

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