Class Look: Druid

Welcome back, good gamers! This time we will look at another class from the game that I love to play, Dungeons and Dragons. Continuing our look at the base classes, we will be moving on to the Druid. I've played the druid a total of once before, and she died really fast (stupid Tojanida). However, the time that I spent playing her was a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind another chance to do so again.

Without further preamble, the Druid!

The druid, in a nutshell, is the mortal agent of the spirit of nature. You can be the protecting force for natures beauty, or an avenging fury bent on showing the power of nature. There are many different ways to look at a druid, ranging from personality to ability focus. The two main abilities is the shape-changing ability or the spell-casting ability. Both are equally powerful and both have a lot of fun role-playing opportunities for the player to play with. As far as difficulty to play, the druid is on the more advanced side, mostly because you have to keep track of the various spells as well as the changes to your stats while under the wild shape ability.

Race

Most races work well with the druid, though I think the ones that work the best is races closely tied to nature. Elves, halflings, gnomes, or half-orcs are the races that I feel work best with the class. That's not to say that dwarves, humans and half-elves can't be druids, I just feel that their attitudes in general aren't really interested in nature untamed but to cultivate it to their advantage.

Multi-classing

There are a lot of classes that work with druids, but there isn't really any that I recommend. I mean, you can always take a few levels in another class to complement your abilities, though I personally feel that it's better to just keep going with druid levels for the extra spells or special abilities. Especially if you are focusing on being a shape-change druid, since there really isn't any benefits from any of the other classes that beats out gaining more shape-changing forms or more usages per day of the ability.

Arch-types

This is where the druid can have a lot of fun. The type that I played was basically a “lost boy” personality. She had been orphaned and rather then staying at the monastery where she was being educated she left and lived out in the wilderness. These are druids who are almost completely out of touch with modern society and don't understand “man's law”.

What is the law?  No spill blood!

This personality type can really go either way, with either focusing on the spells or on shape-changing. I personally would normally go with an animal companion with this character, rather then the domain version, mostly because it would make sense that they would need the assistance of another creature to survive in the wilderness all their lives.

Another personality trait to go with is the old hermit. You may be living on the outskirts of a village or city, but you aren't completely out of touch with society. You may be considered by the villagers as a wise-man or healer. This type I typically would focus on spell casting, since you typically are more interested in not scaring away the villagers, and aren't as much in need of the various survival benefits from the shape-changing forms. Also, you would also more likely take the domain option from Nature Bond, rather then the animal companion. This is because you still live close to civilization, so you don't need the extra survival help that an animal companion brings.

Crazy old hermit, but not as crazy as the next guy...

You can also go over to full blown isolated hermit as well. You would typically live in a cave somewhere, or a cabin. Your exile may be self-imposed due to a hatred of the outside world or because an outside force drove you to avoid civilization. Joining the party may be for any number of reasons, any of which can help give the DM some juicy extra material that will personalize things for you. The main change from the other hermit would be to focus on shape-changing and having an animal companion.

Just laugh a lot and talk crazy...the party will love it!

Most DM's don't allow evil characters, but there are druids who focus on the vengeful and violent side of nature. They don't have to be evil, in fact, they just feel that people come second to nature. They would kill a child without qualm, but possibly weep over the death of a tree or plant. They would probably have a blend of shape-changing abilities and spell focus, mostly because they want to maximize their lethality.

So there you have the druid and a few ideas of where to go with it. Next time, we will be talking about one of the classes that is always fun to play, the fighter!