How do you make druids cool and exciting again?
drugs, bestiality, ecoterrorism
>>46063665
not OP but i'll bump the shit outta this
there are probably various games that really emphasize nature and all that but without hogging all the lore and seizing the setting... that's it isn't it? druids are separate from society. barely any of the lore concerns them. they don't hail to any nation they're of the forests.
>>46063820
>forests
problem number one right here
>>46063665
Play a Sewer/Homeless Druid in a City setting.
Have your Animal Companion (if applicable) be a Rat, or a Dog, you know, the usual "homeless person" animals.
Quarterstaff- A whittled/broken wooden beam, small and long enough to be used as one. Same goes for a club. Or if you're near a park, it could still just be a tree branch, etc.
Think outside the box, but not too far outside. Then you'll get the stuff that you're looking for.
You're the allegedly (and possibly) "Crazy homeless person everyone thinks is magic."
Or the "Secretly magical crazy homeless person."
Use your imagination, Anon. That's what games are for.
Make them real druids. They're not priests of nature, they're priests of a people that don't have a lot of cities.
Make them weird hobos that kings have to treat with respect if they don't want to be inflicted with a curse that makes them see their family as foreign invaders. Make them conduct weird rituals in the woods that everyone suspects are just drinking moonshine and scratching their bollocks, but you can't be sure because if you peek on them you get strangled and thrown in a bog. Make them interrupt warring armies because the sound of their fighting disturbs a herd of sacred cattle. Make them poets and visionaries and keepers of a long oral tradition that every bard hopes to gradutate into.
>>46063665
1.) play it just like a wizard who happens to study nature magic.
2.) apply any/all wizard tropes
3.) enjoy playing a fantasy equivalent of a nerdy biologist who geeks out at flowers and has a nerdy secret society that invented its own language
>>46064222
I also like the idea of this type of druid meeting >>46064047 this type of druid. like some young upstart academic druid trying to conduct an ethnographic study of weird and vulgar hobo druids in an attempt to study and improve his nature magic.
Make them mysterious.
>>46063665
Emphasize there is more to the world than fucking forests.
We need mountain men, fremen, jungle dwellers, etc.
Were they ever not? If you're not excited by the concept of a nature mage you're probably not going to think they're exciting ever
A few ways I've seen it done:
"Civilized" druids who use their abilities to aid in construction, agriculture, and warfare, harnessing uncaring, neutral nature in the same way that a wizard harnesses arcane energies, rather than like a cleric devoting themselves to a god.
Slayer/Protective druids serving to guard the material plane and its inhabitants from extra-planar or otherwise "unnatural" forces. Crusading angels, conniving devils, raging demons, primitive elementals, mad wizards, and zealous clerics all seek to bend the natural world and all who live in it to their will, to export their insane, unbalanced version of reality to the material world. Druids are what stand in the way of the material plane being turned into a replica of any one of the outer planes or, worse, a constant battlefield between forces that care nothing for the "little guy."
>>46063665
What's that picture from OP?
>>46063665
>How do you make druids cool and exciting again?
By making an interesting character rather than relying on some snowflakey setting gimmick?
>>46064295
I don't really dig how druids are tied to a certain terrain. It gets kind of old roleplaying "wow I'm really out of my element here" over and over again when a DM decides to never include the area of your expertise just to spite you.
Whenever you transform you take on an instinct of that animal for an hour after you turn back.
>>46064332
Everyone ever is like that.
>>46064380
Right, so I guess that means one of a few things. either:
1. this is a flaw of druids and should be changed
2. Druids are so setting specific that you really ought to talk with your DM about druids before opting to play one
or 3. druids were not intended to be fun.
>>46063665
Set your game in a time and place where large metropolises are less of a thing. People have to contend and work with nature everyday to live. Nature is the norm and "civilisation" is the exception.
In this way caring about trees and berries and animal and rain isn't hippy bullshit, it's arcane yet incredibly practical knowledge.
You could diversify your "nature" element. There is not binary divide between civilisation and nature. The world is divided into many realms, one of which is the realm of men.
>The trees align themselves to various factions and plot against each other on the plain of dreams.
>Ants and Bees possess their own realms which they guard jealously from outsiders. They know of paths to secret under-realms; places of might riches and unfathomable terror.
>There are kingdoms in the clouds and on the winds, their ancient alliance with the beings below grant us the gift of rain. Birds are their messengers.
>The sea is filled with demons. They are wise and terrible.
>Wolves once were men, when they betrayed us they were banished to the woods where they still nurse their grudge. They have build an alliance with the demons of the moon.
No being should ever take the "balance of nature" for granted. The wisdom of greed of each realm hold the world in tact but it is not uncommon that they should falter.
![56344588-druid-mark-graham-blesses-this-years-crop-of-gettyimages[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/QW8aE47.jpg "56344588-druid-mark-graham-blesses-this-years-crop-of-gettyimages[1].jpg")
![110260-004-598C407E[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/0YUieQi.jpg "110260-004-598C407E[1].jpg")
![Druids-mistletoe[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/1Pgim5B.jpg "Druids-mistletoe[1].jpg")
What does /tg/ think of the concept of planar druids (not necessarily game-breaking planar shepherds) who exemplify the "nature" of exotic planes such as the clockwork bureaucracy of Mechanus, or the war cubes of Acheron?
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, MUSCLE DRUIDS
Also giant burning wickermen that they can build/summon to attack their foes.
>>46064148
So make them wizards
>>46064514
Yeah, no, that is not the right answer at all.
The only thing that sets neo-pagans apart from other new age crackpots is that their pseudohistory is more reliant on bad anthropology than alien conspiracy theories.
Make your druid a lumberjack
I like abbusing the shit out of wildshape for thigns other then being meaty for combat.
>>46063665
>How do you make druids cool and exciting again?
Obviously by giving them agency, same as you make anyone cool and exciting.
For example, take your basic D&D druid: a strange motherfucker who hangs around outside the city doing weird things with bears. Sure, he's got magic, but so does everyone else, and they get to live in proper buildings and have soap and only have bears when they're really in the mood for bears.
But what if, for instance, there isn't any fucking city. Or at least nothing we'd dignify as such. No stone or steel or industry, just wood and clay and mud. Say it's the dark heart of fantasy Africa, and what passes for a city is a collection of mud huts full of scared people hiding from the terrifying beasts that surround them, like hens hiding from a fox. But the most terrifying beast of them all is the motherfuckin' druid. The shape-shifting enigma with all the powers of nature at his fingertips and the respect and -indeed- obedience of the strongest, most savage animals.
The druid doesn't work in most settings, because most settings just don't make sense for druids. Not all that much interesting shit goes on in the forests in a medieval or later society, so their entire schtick is pushed off to the sidelines, and they're pretty much relegated to the shitty role of "noble savage", which itself has been played out by decades of awful media.
>>46064295
Played a Druid who hails from a tropical archipelago. Was out of place in a traditional deciduous forest, but he knew his shit when it came to volcanoes.
Playing in my tropical home next campaign. Lots of waterbreathing spells and potions, poison sea life, dotted rain forests,islander elf babesand of course, volcano gods.
Make them good at something other than turning into animals.
>>46064602
Not a fan of outer planar druids, since that's very much the realm of clerics.
>>46064148
Yes, this. Mystery, power, and a little kookiness is essential. Druidic knowledge is heavily cloaked in secrecy and metaphor, for the wisdom of the druids is of great and terrible power. Think like Gandalf or a Disney wizard or something; wise, spiritual, and ready to have a good time, but when shit goes down, he's bringing out the heavy hitters. Whenever he stops fucking around and starts taking things seriously, it's probably actually a big deal. He can always gain the audience of a king, and knows all the other wise men of the realm personally. Some druids might be more community-based and some more aloof, but no matter how the community views them, their power is something to see - and not always in the way you might think.
You could also go insane horrific cannibal who kidnaps babies and sacrifices them to the moon. But who's to say he's not still wise?
>>46064644
Granted there is a lot of overlap between bad anthropology and alien conspiracy theories but the more vanilla neo-pagans don't think that Stonehenge is sitting over a buried UFO or something.
They do like to pretend that the site was sacred to the Celts however when there's nothing to suggest that it was anything more than a curiosity to them like it was for the Romans and everyone else.
>>46064307
Its from Adventure Time I think, couldnt tell you the episode
>>46063665
druid are cool fuck you mate
>>46064720
^ This. I recently put ranks into Craft(carpentry) as a druid, and combining that with Shape Wood can make for some really stupid but amazing things to be built. Incidentally, it has also helped expand my problem solving beyond "hit it until it stops moving," so I consider that a plus.
>>46064307
That is Huntress Wizard from an episode of Adventure Time that aired last week.
>>46064738
They know many things, especially the ways of wilderness and the things civilized men fear. Perhaps he is not so skilled in relating to other humans; the wisdom of all men is limited. But what sets a druid apart is his capability to seek wisdom from many places others might find distasteful or scary. He fears not the wild beast or the mysterious witch; but what he does fear is something to which any man who values his life would pay attention.
Make them hoboes
Hobo druids that use their plant magic to grow tobacco and beans while they wander the land for some loot and a place to sleep before wasting their money on booze and tramping off to the next place.
>>46063665
I always felt that druid was pretty limiting concept. Shapeshifting+nature magic (sometimes summoning) and general hippie bullshit.
Shouldn't it encompass everything from medicine men to low magic almost rangerlike hermits to traditional shapechangers to dark shamans that are as likely to eat your liver as cure your illness?
Of course this might just be a dnd class issue and would solve itself if the system was more broad, with vague archtypes like martial, rogue, arcane and divine.
>>46064722
Clerics are associated with gods, who live in divine realms that merely tend to be within Outer Planes.
Druids could very well represent planes as a whole.
>>46064502
In this context Druids would learn the ways of alien realms. They would be spies and infiltrators to other worlds or scholars of inhuman histories. They might be diplomats or traitors or seekers of enlightenment. However they are most likely not at home among their own kind.
Their power is mostly drawn from their current surroundings. Druidic magic is the power of the material realm. Their spells are literally etched in their brains, bones and blood.
>Many other creatures have druids as well. Many wolves take the form of humans to infiltrate our homes and kill us in our sleep.
As for other spellcasters:
>Clerics are similar to druids but their power is more distant. They draw from platonic realms or other planes which are best described as "semi-real." Their ties are more abstract and general. They are common among many birds, elephants, turtles, trees and most of all humans. Ants are never clerics for they believe only in the thoughtless order of the colony. A creature must be able to think deeply (if not logically) to become a cleric.
>Powerful clerics begin to lose their connection to this world
>Wizards are craftsmen, artificers or scholars. The first wizards crafted their spells meticulously from scratch. Their magic was not totally of this world or the next. It was too delicate and alien to be held by a living thing, so it was transferred to script. The creation of these spells was mysterious even too the crafts and too this day much of wizard's time is dedicated to understanding how exactly he does what he does.
>In practice wizardry contains many of the components and gestures similar to druidry and much of the abstraction of clerical study. It is a powerful and flexible tool but too unnatural to truly aid the body and soul. Healing spells of this practice often do more harm than good.
>>46064987
considering druids don't even get summon monster or planar ally, or banishment, or gate, or the other outsider summon spells, or even plane shift
and outer planes are Divinely morphic, even outside the realms of the gods, and linked to souls, alignments, prayers, and everything else linked to clerics
it's not an uninteresting idea, but i don't see how it isn't just switching the words cleric and druid
hell, you should just play a cleric who roleplays more like a druid
Urban Druidry.
>>46065207
Maybe every plane as has their own planar casters and clerics all use shared pool of gods (even if some gods are banned or blocked from influencing certain realms).
So all druids in standard plane would pretty much the same with some racial and cultural variations but druids of other planes would draw power from what is natural there?
Human and elf druids would disagree on semantics but would be quite far removed from a demon druid.
>>46063665
How to you 'normally' roleplay a druid?
>>46065207
>>46065301
>using 3.PF as a basis
lol
>>46065422
treehugging faggot with life magic and civilization allergies
>>46063665
I like the whole Gatekeepers theme from Eberron/Atticus's views on it from the Iron Druid.
>Protect the earth from external threats: gods, demons, outsiders, etc.
>Protect the earth from magical damage.
Leave the hippie man vs nature shit alone, man's a part of nature
>>46065587
I think being keeper of something related to the natural world is the core attribute of a druid.
Either they are as you said keepers of the material realm, or they could be keepers of the wild like usual.
You could give them more unsual roles too like keeper of evolution trying to introduce struggle to the society.
>>46065488
>talking about planes and fantasy druids
>not using 3.PF as a basis.
it might not be the only setting(s) to have both of those things, but it's by far the most prominent one around here.
>>46066038
god damn it why did you respond to him
>>46063665
give em war sheeps.
Huntress Wizard is a ranger
>>46066112
Hunter Cleric is a Ranger.
Hunter Wizard is something else probably some sort of Demon Hunter (though not necessarily limited to demons).
>>46064307
Latest episode of Adventure Time about a cool forrest girl trying to summon a spirit with a flute, she's not a druid tho
You could go with a character that's a member of a druidic circle whose overall goal is the fall of civilization as we know it. Not just to re-actively protect nature, but to proactively bring mother nature's fury to all who forsake their natural place in the world.
>>46066336
So Circle from Warmahordes?
>Druids are all incredibly snobby and rich
>Because they can control the land, they basically have full control over the cities biggest food supplies
>They form a union of Druids dedicated to making money and pushing other farming families out of business
>>46063709
But I don't even like Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
>>46066383
after a quick google search, kinda something like.
Not necessarily merciless, they could actually like hunters, poachers and the sort for actually taking their place in the food chain. reverse druid!
>>46066413
Sounds like something a few players i know would do.
>>46066330
COOL FOREST GIRL GOT HER OWN EPISODE
A NEW ONE
OH LUCKY DAY
Question, what's the best way to show a Druid/Naturey loving civilization that went wrong? Any decent pics or ideas?
>>46066508
Not exactly, but look up Helheim from Kamen Rider Gaim.
>>46066536
>Helheim
Just the type of thing I was looking for, thanks.
>>46066413
Basically my druid, except she learned that aristocrats in big cities will pay mad money for "authentic elven druid" knick knacks so she just sells them sticks and leaves to show off at parties.
Make them frightening and unknowable. The powers they wield are beyond the ken of man. More so than wizards or sorcerers even. It is ancient and primeval magic, filtered down from when the world was young. It requires sacrifices. Be that the comfort of civilization, the warmth of a woman, or the blood of their fellow man. The natural world is bereft to human notions of good and evil.
powers of sexual healing
>>46066596
Awesome.
>>46066508
Look up "Native Americans."
Degenerate fucking savages. Living in filth, going around nude before God's very eyen, not even working steel or making gunpowder. I'm glad they were wiped out.
>>46066651
Oh, also to expand on this, Druids should be really about the big picture so to speak. Time is a non-factor and the life of a single animal, humans included, means less than nothing to them.
>>46066716
You behave like they had a choice in the matter of their technology. Also, native Americans wore shitloads of clothes.
>>46066716
>not knowing what the fuck they're talking about
>being a fucking idiot in a million ways even other than that
>shut the fuck up
i'm gonna do it, i'm gonna take the bait
please, shut your goddam mouth you fucking piece of trolling nazi trash
go to hell
>>46066038
2e, 4e, 5e.
>>46066716
>wow we're natives weird i mean
>living in filth, unlike the industrial era white people ofc
>the point being that they lived in conditions DIFFERENT FROM MINE HOW DARE
>dressing a way they didn't when they should have been dressing like MERICANS
>which is offensive for MY BIBLE THUMPING religious reasons, because one pope really hated nudity for some bizarre reason and warped people into thinking that hared was somehow in the bible a few hundred years ago now everyone who does not retroactively alter history to fit MY standards of ARBITRARY DECENCY is officially demoted to animal, a call i of course and qualified to make
>not MAKING METAL THE WAY i personally don't know how to and couldn't if i were sololy of a village less than 200 strong but ya' know... THEY WERE DIFFERENT THAN US
>glad for genocide
this trolling is just bad you couldn't have made it this bad all on purpse please kill yourself
>>46066785
I bet you think native Americans domesticated horses too.
>>46066868
i literally don't i heard that somewhere and thought immediately it was bullshit
but i think there were human beings who were horribly mistreated and died because imperialist values said it was ok to slaughter people by the thousands in the name of stealing gold and crashing their economy with their own greed
>>46066868
*Native Americans
you forgot a capital N
>>46066911
Actually, most of them died of diseases introduced from the "Old World".
A lot of them died from imperialism, though, lets be fair.
>>46066785
>>46066911
>>46063665
People that play druids usually don't quite grasp nature beyond common sense. Like:
-Have the druid really get nature. He knows that plants commit violence to other plants in ways both subtle and taking longer that people can notice.
-He has strange ideas about how animals change over time and become really diferent, like "fish-becomes-people" diferent. He thinks he can use magic to speed up and control the process, creating fauna and flora that can fight back civilization, or merge with it.
-He loves fire, for fire cleanses buildings and farms, and renews the cycle of some biomes.
-He thinks scribbling down something about nature is sacrilegious, knowledge must be oral. Books, math equations, records, philosophy, writing itself, those things are ways to control the world that can't be tolerated.
-They hate domesticated animals, for they are travesties of nature. Dogs, cows, horses, all must be preyed upon, for they aren't real animals. At best, one can give them a chance to become feral.
-He always smiles with all teeth bared, like one happy about the idea that all can solved by biting the jugular of others.
-Ressurection is anathema. Living forever is also anathema, except for a single species of sea life.
-There is no such thing as magical realm. Nature is all kinds of fucked up... from human perspectives.
>>46066859
I don't think you can call it bad when the rustling is this strong
>>46066931
a lot of them were raped, mutilated, enslaved, hunted for sport, and fed alive to dogs by imperialism let's be fair
>>46066922
If the best comeback you can come up with is nitpicking a capitalization error that was probably an autocorrect, then it's probably time to stop typing. Nobody thinks pedants are clever in any way.
![scf_1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/h3nT2v8.jpg "scf_1[1].jpg")
>>46066985
And not for undue reason, let's be fair.
But don't worry, I'm sure in your revisionist liberal history classes, it was all sunshine and dances with wolves until the evil white man came along.
>>46067002
wow holy shit bro i was just saying it's a proper name they're not "the natives who lived in America" they're "Native American"
capitalizing both words distinguishes the demographic as separate and acknowledges that they were their own thing, their own kind of nation, separate from what is now America.
the way you sploded i'd almost swear i was the troll lol
bro you got some issues
>>46066985
>>46066716
Hello /pol/.
>>46067128
Feels good.
>>46067128
here's to keeping the tradition going in the new millennium.
>>46063665
Here's some art that's kinda sorta maybe a druid
>>46067128
>slavery
>rascism/xenophobia
>colonization
>implying that only whites did these.
>>46067207
>>46067243
>>46067218
Aztecs, the whites of the Natives.
That said, they might make a pretty good evil/failed Druid civilization. Or the Mayans.
>>46066859
>>46066785
>>46066737
>>46066938
>>46066958
>>46067159
Started tongue-in-cheek, turned into an assblaster. I thought "going around nude before God's very eyen" would have given the joke away, but I guess some folk just want to be triggered.
I take no responsibility for you faggots letting the /pol/ in.
>>46067318
I was applauding you, but sure, whatever.
>>46067337
If you're >>46066958
then I appreciate the acknowledgement. I just feel weird taking credit when it was just a tragic butthurt accident.
>>46067375
it was a chain of butthurt accidents. it was a twenty car pileup on the railroad of broken asses
>>46067218
You would be hard pressed to find a culture without some form of slave labor or oppressive uneven contracts past nomadic stage and finding culture without xenophobia would be plain impossible.
>>46065422
Libertarian.
>>46063665
I had a guy who hailed from a land of technological advancement, he was basically an engineer. He was drafted, and the ship he was on crashed on to an island. When it became clear his CO's were mouthbreathers, he ditched them and found a new home among the island natives. He then discovered that they worshipped a goddess who flourished with the strength of the island's flora/fauna. He devoted himself to the goddess when one of her clerics saved his life, and developed a field of magi-tech that didn't pollute. He wound up a Druid/Techno-Palladin type deal.
>>46067218
I almost forget
>genocide
the guy who made this must have went to a Liberal Arts college in California.everything else on that list besides the ones i mentioned are totally white people things, although one could debate World War 2
>>46067747
> WWII is a white people thing
> muh poor innocent nips, suckered into a power grab in Asia by the WHITE MAN!
> WMDs a white thing
> yep, nobody non-white ever used biological or chemical warfare
Be a cool and exciting player.
>>46067798
Japanese Hipsters were doing WW2 before it was cool.
I'm running a reincarnated druid right now who was once a man that got so mad after seeing the afterlife he thought he wanted for real when he died that he damn near mantled the abstract concept of fire and willed himself back to the world of the living, and now goes around defacing the monuments of the gods and preaching natural earned power over divine gifted power.
So far his accomplishments have been swinging a sword with a dumpster stuck to it, overthrowing a bandit camp and turning it into a mercenary fort, and attacking a cloud so hard he won.
He might also be a barbarian.
It's been fun and the others in the group like him, so I guess the trick to making a druid fun is having fun with the druid. Do that and good times will come to you.
>>46063665
Don't.
Just let them die in peace.
>>46066651
>Make them frightening and unknowable.
that's a terrible idea
literally everything is "frightening and unknowable" these days
elves
fay in general
wizards
magic in generalyour moms vagina
and so on
whenever someone thinks "X is boring" they immediately go "let's make it weird and scary!"
>>46064644
Far too few people understand that bad anthropology makes for awesome gaming.
>>46063665
You can't because they never were cool or exciting. At best you can be amusing as the silly old man who talks to birds and trees.
>>46063665
>mfw druids stopped being cool and exciting and no one told me
>>46063665
Sacramental peyote for everybody.
>>46063665
rest of party gets abducted by local army. turn into bird and follow. wander around camp. steal clothes. chat up local soldiers for food and informatiion. animal ritual on ritual. holding conversations with captive party sorceror while chilling in the mage tent.
tl dr, be matt graham.
>>46066439
Play a Fenrian, you'll have fun.
>>46066716
>wiped out.
That would imply there's none of us left.
>>46066957
I like your style. My druid is all about the law of meat and survival of the fittest. Nature is not subject to good and evil because there is nothing inherently good about being eaten or bad about taking a life to fill your stomach. He tolerates civilization, but finds it distasteful for the way it fosters an environment that encourages a proliferation of weak individuals. He understands economics and has respect for its abstraction of predation, but sees gold as a waste of time when violence is a more direct means of domination.
Hippy druids are shit because the players treat nature as if it is inherently good. In reality, nature is a brutal balance of life and death. The battles of men for power are good because corpses are full of nutrients.
>>46066911
Fuck off tumblr.
Evidence suggests there was a pandemic across north america a couple decades before europeans began settling it. As in millions died. North America was post-apocalyptic.
>>46067099
Well, no. But scalping was a meme started by the dutch.
>>46066737
>peoples don't have any control over their technology
DOES GOD ON HIGH HAND DOWN SCIENCE ON HIS WHIM
>>46066957
>>46069819
>all these edgy edgelord hippies
"Domesticated' Dogs are part of a pack structure that see us as the alpha.
Sorry, in the environment I come from, the NE/TN asshole druid are more cliche than the good hippy druids. Just a never ending cavalcade of violent xenophobic assholes foaming at the mouth about MUH RULES OF NATURE like an autist having a shit fit. It gets old. One dimension, be it GOOD or EVIL, is boring
>>46070781
Are you saying he doesn't, Heretic?
>>46063665
Druids keeping the balance.
Nature is death and rot as much as sunshine and magic berries.
Make it a balance thing, healing and growth requires sacrifices of death and decay.
>>46067128
>The World Wars only involved white people that's why they were called the World Wars
>Japan did nothing to China or anyone else in Asia
Jesus Christ above, I know this image was made by a dumbass, but why list WWII on there? It started and ended in Asia.
>>46063665
Have them take command of trees
>>46069408
So you mean that going back to the roots is a bad thing?
Druids, wizards, fey, elves, they always were terrifying and unknowable. As science progressed, and we learned more about it, we started finding reasons for all those phenomenon.
But seriously, back to the roots is bad now?
>>46069854
>dutch
well, anything for a proffit, jan kees
>>46064282
Is that game even good?
>>46071909
It's fucking terrible.
>>46069832
That's what they get for murdering the settlers of Vinland.
WE WAS NATIVES AN SHIET
>>46072061
So everyone should play it?
>>46072550
Not that anon, but as far as I know, it's not so terrible is funny, it's just awful. Only really fun part is that cover.
>>46063665
Druids were never cool or exciting.
>>46064148
>druids
>priests of a people that don't have a lot of cities
You don't know shit about druids, do you?
>>46063665
Shape-shifting and thick furry cocks
>>46066720
This, I too played my character with such reasoning, failing local "motherly goddess archetype, river-themed ver." church, who expected druids to be their agent/allies.
I mostly hunted and killed outsiders/aberration who dared enter my turf, First World feys too, because fuck those guys, they're unnatural as fuck
>>46063665
Pics related.
>>46072940
>>46072956
>>46071909
>>46072550
>>46072584
It involves a Scottland Yard detective poisoning a bum with pure ether to steal his begging change to make a phonecall because his bosses cut off his phone after he kept calling internationally.
I try to make my druids heralds of nature, in the sense that they are messengers, representatives. They are there to make sure balance is kept, and not in "stay the fuck away from my forest" sense, but more in the "we are all part of nature and it's our duty to respect the land" sense. It might sound like a watered down version of the classic archetype but I think it has potential.
It may or may not have been posted in this thread, but I would really like to see a mechanic where their powers are greatly effected by the nature of their surrounding. For example while in an old thriving forest they're a monster, but if they get stuck in a big city they get a major disadvantage. I know this is weeb as shit but their was a pretty decent anime about ghost hunters where like one priestess was considered weak as shit all series because her powers were the weakest, but in the penultimate episode she saved everyone because they happened to be in an old ass forest. Even then her powers could only be used like once every three hours in even an ancient forest. Sure it sounds a little meh, but it would make them interesting is certain powers were modified by surroundings.
>>46069819
>Hippy druids are shit because the players treat nature as if it is inherently good. In reality, nature is a brutal balance of life and death. The battles of men for power are good because corpses are full of nutrients.
pacifist leaning "enlightened" whimsical druids are my shit and i wouldn't be able to keep a straight face rping the whole "violence and domination" route (or a smile) but this is so well put I'm going to use it's core ideas as a Druid mantra
>>46072970
>>46072956
I'll admit as a kid, I always wondered if the artists did the naked ladies just by painting, or if they had a racket going where they could get women to pose naked for them for hours for these kinds of pictures.
>>46063665
Druids have never been exciting. They weren't even exciting in Eldritch Wizardry.
Read their implementation back in AD&D for inspiration.
You basically couldn't advance at a certain point without replacing a retired druid. Meaning, they had to give up their power or be killed, like Highlander.
>>46074175
>people posing for paintings
yes this is how it works
also people do it willingly, it's not really a racket
Huntess Wizard is a qt
There's lots of hard ways to answer this question OP.
I do like adding a bit of edge to Druids, similar to other posts on here.
I also like the concept of Druids as being similar to Satanists, or rather as a 1970s christian hysteria of what a satanist might be like. Lives in society, but seduces young girls into the woods to have sex with, has sex with animals and rapes children, uses drugs and addiction to hold followers, uses black magic, holds black mass and blood sacrifice, etc.
Also I love this >>46064148 post here. Druids are essentially Wizards who aren't controlled by the state. I'm also playing a game with very open ended and simplistic rules, so Wizards and Druids are technically the same class, you can just fluff and/or specialize them to represent their differences.
Mainly I think people over rely on the hippy naturalist thing. Fighters can be noble warriors or cold blooded killers, Mages can be mad and power hungry or young optimists, Thieves can be robin hood or fucked up bandits, so Druids can be hippies or they can be more pragmatic and less one dimensional.
>>46063665
You can't, they were designed to be lame
>>46076279
this
this post was good
I've never explored wizards as contracted scholars bound to the will of the state before but it opens up a lot of opportunities
(i'd personally prefer people didn't bring child rape into every fourth thread, especially for edgy points, but whatever that's just /tg/ i guess)
>>46063665
Stop playing D&D basically.
WOW and D&D style "Druids" are boring because they're bland shape shifting Hippie Wizards with no trace of the distinct cultural and religious trappings that makes the little we know about the actual Druids remotely interesting - highly particular sacrificial methods for certain gods, the maintenance of sacred groves as temple-spaces, and unfathomably ancient artistic and mythological motifs like the Horned God some call Cernunnos.
>>46078898
What system does them well then?
>>46079195
I like Rune Quest because the cult system allows you to customise the parameters of particular magical or religious organization, what spells and skills they teach and at what levels of initiation they teach them.
This means you can reconstruct classical Gallic or insular druidism to whatever degree of realism best pleases you, or just work in some of that delicious druid flavour.
This is a good thread.
One time I played a druid in 3.5, I was told it was going to be a pirate campaign. So I had fun with it. I ended up being the only one who thought to buy a ship at creation, which automatically made me captain. I played an Aventi with a tragic backstory (I'll admit, it was cliche as fuck) that left him with his father's merchant ship, and I traded an Animal Companion for the Weather domain. I played it like I wanted to keep an eye on the surface dwellers and make sure they didn't fuck up the ocean while performing semi-questionable shipping runs.
I invested skills in Craft (Rock Gardening) and in conjunction with knowledge nature crafted a mural of barnacles and krill on the bottom of my ship, so should anyone ever piss me off so badly it called for keelhauling, they would be treated to a nice view while being slashed to bits. I never needed to use it, trying to play neutral good with the Aventi set of virtues. But if someone fucked with my boat, I would unleash the forces of nature. The DM was partial to fucking with my boat(s).
>>46080175
Seaweed, not krill. I'm a dumb sometimes. There was some kelp in the mix as well.
nature bump
>>46075713
She's okay
>>46070918
I am the law of meat guy. I get what you are saying and I might have overstated the violence aspect. I could see how an endless stream of Warmahordes druids could be just as bad.
You're right about the pack structure thing. My druid is not always trying to be the alpha, but he hangs out with a guy who is. I heal and buff the pack leader and deal with the mooks so he can kill the big stuff.
>>46074133
Thanks man. As far as I am concerned, my edge druid and your whim druid can both work as long as they are well played.
I like to keep in mind that some forests have periodic fires built into their growth cycle, so "save the trees" is bad for them. On the other hand, removal of violent predators can seriously fuck up an ecosystem. It's about taking a long view and not being too idealistic.
>>46082465
>I like to keep in mind that some forests have periodic fires built into their growth cycle, so "save the trees" is bad for them. On the other hand, removal of violent predators can seriously fuck up an ecosystem. It's about taking a long view and not being too idealistic.
Druids understand the needs and balances of nature better than anybody else and their switching from a "save the wolves or giant monster gods from the oldest spirits of the wood will come to get you" stance to making rampant wolf sacrifices and feasts every few years it confuses normal city folk and alienates the Druids from the heard.
When wolves are overpopulated and threatening to drive other scavengers and prey to extinction with their insatiable need for sustenance the druids begin actively hunting them, when the population evens out and city folk over-hunting wolves begins upsetting the balances bigger predators from the deep woods begin coming out to claim what territory used to be the wolves and the druids need to put a stop to that shit.
But slickers know nothing of ecology their belief system holds that gods created the mountains, forests, and rivers unchaningly and basically take the same approach to the whole thing that Americans take to global warming. The scientific brilliance drenched into the Druid's culture is indistinguishably from their "false gods" "evil blood rituals" and "maniac hippy bullshit". Druids are so different religiously and culturally from townies that they've been outcasted completely and nothing about them can be taken seriously.
>>46063665
>Druids tired of civilization
>Enchant animals and plants to sack cities.
>>46082475
>no Huntress Wizard gf
Why am I still even living?
>>46082994
what about a druid who considers enchanting animals and plants to be a gross violation of the natural order by taking away the agency of a living creature?
he could even have the utmost disgust for elven tree cities to the point he'd prefer human civilization to their crimes against nature.
>>46082475
She looks kinda autistic
>>46083787
is all the bait in this thread coming from the same shitface?
>>46083395
>druids fighting elves
perfect
>>46066307
He means the pic in OP. Huntress Wizard is a ranger who plant magic.Or is a plant.
>>46064619
GURRUK
>>46086849
She's a wizard, wizard is a race and a job description in AT.
>>46086849
>>46088233
Huntress Wizard is a Wizard (Race) character with levels in Ranger and then multi-classed into some levels in Wizard.
>>46064619
This.
>>46088233
>>46088293
All Wizards(species) are wizards, but not all wizards are Wizards(species).
>>46088313
But she obviously has spent time around and practicing wizardry. Her time spent in Wizard City is referenced again in Flute Spell.
>>46088313
I never got the impression that wizards were a race
after all, finn and jake go to wizard school that one time
it's an interesting enough concept though
