Druids and Deities

[anacreon]

I was wondering, since in 3rd edition druids don't have to be true neutral anymore on the one hand and Eric has clerics on the other, why shouldn't other deities support druids? Specifically, I think deities like Nesirie (as protectress of marine flora and fauna, maybe also other sources of water), Cuiraecen (as god of storms) and Kriesha (as goddess of glaciers) shouldn't have any problems at all supporting Druids.
What do you think?

[The_Masetian]

Good idea....the list might even be expanded:

Moradin: The god of dwarves, but also metallurgy, gems, underground areas, caverns and such. The question is whether or not he would accept humans as worshippers

Avani: The goddess of the Sun could extend her influences to for instance vulcanos...thus adding a fiery druid to the repertoire.

Haelyn: Anduiras of old was associated with Air, and I find it fair to state that Haelyn inherited this association at Deismaar. This opens up to, for instance, the King/Queen of the Wildernes (Or whatever the prestige class is called!) from Masters of the Wild.

Laerme: The daughter of the druid god could perhaps be said to especially represent the fertility of animals and the beauty of nature, be it a soothing rainbow or a torrential rainstorm...

[geeman]

At 11:30 AM 5/18/2003 +0200, anacreon wrote:

>I was wondering, since in 3rd edition druids don`t have to be true
>neutral anymore on the one hand and Eric has clerics on the other, why
>shouldn`t other deities support druids? Specifically, I think deities
>like Nesirie (as protectress of marine flora and fauna, maybe also other
>sources of water), Cuiraecen (as god of storms) and Kriesha (as goddess of
>glaciers) shouldn`t have any problems at all supporting Druids.
>What do you think?

I`d do it under the right circumstances. The character should have to have
a particular role-playing take on his role in the worship of his patron,
and I might want tweak a few powers/abilities here and there to suit the
situation, but it should be possible. There were a lot of 2ed kits that
represented things like "druid of the sea" (for Nesirie) and things like
that which could be used to exemplify how the class could be used for
deities other than Erik in BR. In effect, I think it should be more along
the lines of a "specialty druid" of a particular god. The limitations on
character class could have a kind of dispensation, if you will, regarding
that particular character.

However, I generally reserve such things for NPCs--and mostly the
non-recurring NPCs at that. Players sometimes go berserk when you give
them the "role-playing exception" to things like the character class
restrictions of a campaign setting, and if too often exposed to such
exceptional NPCs then the purpose of the restriction tends to be
diluted. Of course, that depends quite a bit on the player(s), but unless
I`m convinced s/he`s willing to jump through a lot of role-playing hoops
when running that PC I won`t allow them to ignore things like character
class restrictions that are part of the campaign material.

In most cases, if I were trying to emphasize a nature aspect of a
particular PC`s worship of one of the BR gods it`d probably be more
sensible to give them access to a few druid abilities as part of their
cleric class abilities, giving them an expanded list of feats to take
(which is, essentially, the same as expanding their class abilities) or by
adding spells to their spell list that emphasize the nature aspect of their
god.

Gary

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[kgauck]

The two other faiths that I allow druids for are Kriesha and Ruornil. Both
have a nature focus, AFAIC, and would have druidical priests. Both get
altered a bit from the standard druid. Kriesha is limited to cold based
spells in the elemental department, but I mostly just substitute energy,
drop a few spells where energy substitiution isn`t desirable, and add a few
spells. I work the BoP`s granted powers in as class features and reduce the
Wild Shape progression a bit.

you can see my three druids at
http://home.mchsi.com/~kgauck/taelshore/divine.htm

The first section goes into detail about the organization of the druidical
organization among the Rjurik. Note that the link to the seidhr isn`t
active yet, the others are.

Scroll down a bit for links to the druids of Ruornil and Kriehsa. I should
mention that IMC, druid means more than just nature-priest, although it does
mean that. It also means a greater facility with the Shadow World.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "anacreon" <brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET>
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 4:30 AM


> I was wondering, since in 3rd edition druids don`t have to be true
> neutral anymore on the one hand and Eric has clerics on the other,
> why shouldn`t other deities support druids? Specifically, I think
> deities like Nesirie (as protectress of marine flora and fauna, maybe
> also other sources of water), Cuiraecen (as god of storms) and
> Kriesha (as goddess of glaciers) shouldn`t have any problems at all
> supporting Druids.
> What do you think?

More important than alignment, I think, is the fact that druids are heavy on
class features, including wildshape. While some of these specific feats can
be altered or swaped for other granted powers, its really easy to make
nature oriented priests with targeted spell lists, domains, and a just a few
granted powers (more along the BoP model of one around 1st, 4th and 9th
levels) rather than the familiar druidical model, based on wildshape and
something nearly every level. For Nesirie, I`d go with that approach. See
my priestess of Nesirie at
http://home.mchsi.com/~kgauck/taelshore/Nesirie.htm

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[anacreon]

Specifically for Nesirie, I imagined a sort of Cerilian Greenpeace/Save the Whales thing :)

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "anacreon" <brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET>
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 6:46 AM


> Specifically for Nesirie, I imagined a sort of Cerilian Greenpeace/Save
> the Whales thing :)

Actually, I think Nesirie would side with the whalers. In any event, I
don`t equate druids with modern enviromentalism, but rather circle of life
thinking. Honor the whale, take only what you need, use the whole animal,
all of these yes. For one thing, the idea of a human as outside of nature
with no need to hunt is distinctly modern. Priests of Nesirie, to the
extent they care about whales, would reglate the hunt from within the
whaling community. Just as medieval lords restricted the hunt of deer as a
leader of the community, able to provide or withdraw assistance. The priest
who predicts weather at sea, possible changes weather at sea, teaches the
wisdom of the sea, and sets limits about what is appropriate and what is
taboo is far more powerful than the outsider who combats the community.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Green Knight]

This is a very interesting idea.

After 3E came out, I have gradually been introducing Rjurik clerics of Erik. The city-dwellers are actually leaving the old druidic tradition and becomming more civilized, adopting the worship-style (clerical) of civilization at the same time. The nomads are keeping to the old ways, which is a source of conflict.

Now, using this as a model, I have also introduced some druids that have abandoned Erik and are following Kriesha instead (quite a few of them in the domain of the WW). In fact, those among the nomads that follow Kriesha, are of the druidic tradition while the city-dwellers follow the clerical tradition. I haven't explored this fully yet, but I think this is a local Rjurik thing. In Vosgaard, the clerical tradition holds sway.

I have also on occasion used some druidic followers of Ruornil. In addition, the shadow of the Old Gods (disposessed of their portfolious, and now both evil and vengeful) are a real presence in my campaigns, and they have mostly druidic followers. That, and I use druids to represent the elven connection to nature.

[RaspK_FOG]

Originally posted by anacreon
I was wondering, since in 3rd edition druids don't have to be true neutral anymore...

I was wondering myself... Why do so many people insist on saying that in 2e a druid had to be TN?!? As far as I know (Could it be they are refering to older printings or NOT to AD&D 2e?), and I have the AD&D 2e Books, a druid just had to be of "any neutral" alignment! NG, LN, TN, CN and NE could qualify! Does someone care to explain this to me?

[RaspK_FOG]

Originally posted by kgauck

Actually, I think Nesirie would side with the whalers. In any event, I don`t equate druids with modern enviromentalism, but rather circle of life thinking. Honor the whale, take only what you need, use the whole animal, all of these yes. For one thing, the idea of a human as outside of nature with no need to hunt is distinctly modern. Priests of Nesirie, to the extent they care about whales, would reglate the hunt from within the whaling community. Just as medieval lords restricted the hunt of deer as a leader of the community, able to provide or withdraw assistance. The priest who predicts weather at sea, possible changes weather at sea, teaches the wisdom of the sea, and sets limits about what is appropriate and what is taboo is far more powerful than the outsider who combats the community.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

Actually, I loved what you wrote! Most people do not understand the concept behind druids, their dedication to the endless circel of life meeting death, then life, and so on, with different cycles that each interlope with the next, weaving time as we know it (the basic druidic concept that we must adher to the cycles that govern the universe).