Falling is up to the gods, which are NPCs, and very different minded. So, it's another case of c'est la IC vie.

I think anyone with a deity can potentially fall. Don't think it happens in Amia, though.

I never played Rangers but from my understanding they are stalkers, trackers and survivors. Hardly anything zealous about that. If they wanna be, fine. If not, fine. Having them require a nature deity for their spells appears silly IMO.

I think anyone with a deity can potentially fall. Don't think it happens in Amia, though.

Recognize that nature encompasses more than just forests.

I think anyone with a deity can potentially fall. Don't think it happens in Amia, though.

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Lore and General Guidelines to playing a Druid in the Forgotten Realms:
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Druids are charged with maintaining the balance of nature, making sure the determination of most intelligent races to conquer nature is never fully realized (especially since to accomplish this would be ultimately self-destructive). Druids make sure that forests are not over-logged, or that animals are not over-hunted. In many places local rural people confer with druids before clearing land for farming, or allow their regulations for hunting and fishing to be determined by druids.

Druids do not have traditional temples. Instead they gather in sacred groves, or sites of beauty in nature, or among collections of stone which mark places of significance on this plane. Druids typically avoid staying too long within the walls of a town or in any congested urban area. They revere and worship nature, but also understand that it is to be used, so they are not against hunting or logging or fishing, just the wanton depletion of those resources by civilization.

Druids tend to try to live simple lives uncomplicated by technology or involvement in the politics of men, except of course when it cannot be avoided. Since the vast majority of druids are neutral in alignment, the stereotype of the dispassionate and aloof druid is a common view among most people. However, a lawful druid may sent by his circle to serve as a game warden, or a good druid may live near a village to protect its citizens and give them firsthand guidance.

Typically, druids treat their animal companion as a friend with freewill to come and go as they please. They try not to send the creature to certain death, or make it stay in places where it would feel uncomfortable. Evil druids, however, sometimes see this companion as a tool sent by the god to do their will, as thus are less compassionate, seeing themselves as the alpha animal in the group.


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Basic Rules:
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Druids access a set of divine powers that are granted by one or several gods of nature. A druid can opt to worship the earth itself, Toril in place of a God, and also acquire these spells. They are required to choose either Toril or a God of nature to be given these spells and abilities.


A druid disdains the use of large metal weapons that are heavily worked or cover their body. Metal is a naturally occurring substance as any other, in being reworked it is disrupting the natural function of metal and as a result of this they instead prefer only using small shards. Because of this using metal will cause a penalty in their divine abilities, however simply touching metal does not destroy a druids gift - it's the choice to wear and use it. Sickles, kamas, daggers, spears, and many other types of weapons are traditional to the druid way of life. Some extremists attempt to eschew them totally, using Ironwood, bone, and stone however these tend to be tribal druids from less civilized areas and backgrounds. Leaning against a lamppost wouldn't lessen a druids power, nor would using a skillet or cook pot. Wearing an iron helmet would.

Any druid that acts against the cycle of nature will be either punished by a high council of druids, or be stripped of their title and druidic connections and abilities.

If a Druid multiclasses, they are still bound by oath to use the same weapons they had proficiency via their druid levels. If you would like to craft a weapon that is not standard to druid proficiencies, notify the DMs and follow the druidic laws in your RP of creation of the custom weapon.

An evil druid has no respect for life in general, but will instead seek to uphold the natural balance ruthlessly. Evil druids are devout adherents to the ways of Nature; they are not "Anti-druids". Evil druids zealously follow the teachings of the oaths and the word of the higher druids to the point that they will even kill other druids they feel are soft on the fundamentals, and could be closely related to modern religious fundamentalists in their actions. They will use Nature to carry out their goals with little regard for the lives of the creatures they use, yet they are not wasteful of their resources.

Druids seek to put an end to the living dead as they see this as a being that has no place in the pattern of life, and serves no function there. It is an aberration to the cycle which can sometimes be produced by natural means, yet still has no place in nature and should be done away with. A druid looks at a bird and sees it's functions in the environment around it, how everything it does effects a chain of life. The undead have no ties to this cycle and are therefor the opposites of what druid strive to achieve.

Druids are tied to the planes in some ways and understand the elemental realms better than most others that dwell on the prime. The spells they use are drawn from the elemental planes, and they can summon elementals to their aid or even change into one as they progress in ability. They do this with care and caution, knowing that to bring an elemental being away from it's home plane is to inflict instant pain and anguish upon it and in many cases render it insane from the experience. They also know that the prime is composed of all of the elemental planes and aspire to maintain the balance of these. For this reason, they don't want non natives to live on the prime as they don't fit into that life cycle, yet most will not actively seek to hunt out anything non-native.

Many Druids tend not to believe in "Good" and "Evil" but rather see things as "shades of grey"; with labels being irrelevant. The most important thing to them is the balance of Nature and maintaining it.

Druids tend to try to live simple lives uncomplicated by technology or involvement in the politics of men, except of course when it cannot be avoided.

Then again...what if a Ranger/Druid ICly speaks of burning down the forest. I think this is the kind of thing that makes me wonder as well.

Can a Ranger or a Druid say/do such things and still be blessed with their abilities?

If, as Cori listed, they don't have a deity or draw their abilities from nature are they still Ran/Drus?

If they have a deity and it wasn't of the nature pantheon, can they be called Ran/Drus?

If the deity is of the pantheon and they say or do such things, is it possible that they'd be blocked from their abilities?

A Druid, no. A Ranger, yes. A Druid has to be devout to nature. Period. No if's, and's or but's about it. A Ranger, on the other hand, can chose to be devout to nature or not. But if said ranger is of a good or neutral nature deity, then they would probably lose their abilities if they did do that.

Being a Druid means you protect nature.

Regardless, they're still Druids. Being a Druid means you protect nature. It wouldn't matter if they followed a Deity of Fury or Talona. A Druid is a Druid no matter what and that means they protect nature.

A druid of Talos might want to wreak havoc in order for the fittest to survive. Same with Malar. Evil aligned druids may cause damage for exactly what Yurell said, they see protection differently.

So in my humbledore, it's not as easy as "You're a goody-goodshoe druid and have to garden the forest, or you fall!"

I'll put it simple.

Druids protect and uphold the aspect of nature they worship.

They protect the *BALANCE* of nature. If for some reason a forest fire was a necessity for the protection of balance, then by all means, torch that sucker, and bring some marshmallows.

Keep in mind that forest fires are not quite the terrible thing they seem. Nature is built to live through them, making them very much a part of the balance, to an extent. Ie/ Pine cones can survive a raging forest fire, and open to drop their seeds when they cool after the fire is gone. Just like logging can in fact help the forest, if it's selective and not clear-cutting. My grandfather was one of few loggers employed to do selective logging within one of our national parks, for exactly that reason. Same thing goes for hunting, which is why a few good aligned elven deities even talk about hunting as a normal part of their doctrine.

Of course, we're talking generally here not some weird technicality that isn't very likely to happen. I don't know about you, but I can't think of many reasons why a forest would -have- to be burned to the floor.

IRL: Disease

IN a Magical Setting: Magical Disease.

Correct, and burning down a forest makes for a whole aspect of nature to be destroyed. That, would never be done by a Druid without losing favor of their god.

Druid cut trees, Druids hunt, no one ever said they didn't.

Incorrect. As fire is also an aspect of nature. Your assuming that only forests and wildlife are natural, they aren't. Fire, Water, Ice, Storms, Ocean, the Hunt. They are all aspects of nature. They are destructive aspects yes, but they are aspect.

Would a fire suddenly stop burning down a forest because it remembers that the forest is another aspect of nature? No.

Nature is always in conflict with itself, it's strife, it's calm, it's balance eternal. At times a forest may burn, but with the aid of nature it will grow back. It's when nature is perverted that druids get upset.

If a fire burned eternal then likely Druids of Kossuth would fight to protect this wonder of the aspect they serve. But Druids of Mielekki may fight to extingish this fire. Nature is always in conflict, and thus it is in balance.

Its awfully one sided to say "Heal nature!" "Hug trees!" "Grow stuff!"

Half of nature is about growth and growing and life. The other is about death. Cyclones, tornadoes, tsunamis, forest fires, lightning strikes, earthquakes. These are all natural too, and can cause immense destruction and often do.

They do, but most Druid characters I've seen seem to be of the "Eeek, is that an AXE you're carrying?" type.

All of the Faithful must adhere to the holy decree of Garmos Saernclaws. The Gospel of Saernclaws reads: "The Hunt must be clean. If disease or affliction is visited on hunters by a beast, clergy of Malar must do all they can to root out and exterminate the taint, that bloodlines and beasts in the wild remain always strong." Poison, and disease are not to be used in the hunt, and exterminated where it can be found. To do otherwise risks tainting the food chain, sending all of the Cycle out of balance.

Gunz those destructive forces have druids to. They are nature gods. You have even said they have druids. So I'm not entirely sure how you don't grasp what is being said by us.

A druid of a nature god would adhere to the "rules" laid down by that god. In most cases this will be those that align with the aspect/portfolio those god's represent. If a druid follows Malar, he will likely hunt other forces of nature. He won't protect, as Malar's mantra is that the strongest survives.

Talos is an offensive god, his druid's do not protect, they uphold his "rules" and act according to his rules, least they fall from his grace. As such, they are likely to attack other aspect of nature as well.

God's of nature are not all protectors, many are aggressive. Your example even proves this fact. Yes they don't do anything to break the balance, but they certainly do not protect other aspects. They prey on those aspects, and as such they fulfill there place in the balance.

The guy that probably has sexual fantasies about masturbation. I mean, Iron, you're a bookworm nerd that even in your wildest escapism fantasies flee to the internet to play the role of another bookworm nerd? Come on!

As has been said, we can block access to divine powers from any class, either with a widget, a spoken rule or a rebuild. We often don't, because it's pretty difficult to follow one PC for weeks and judge their behaviour, and do all the RP of sending divine hints and presenting religious dilemmas, on a server as huge as ours. It's (usually) not something you can just decide on the spot, seeing this ranger or cleric chatting with a guy who supposedly is an enemy of the church, or whatever. You'd really have to understand the PC's motives and history, his interpretation of his patron's dogma, and the deity's opinion about such a follower, before Falling becomes an option. So we don't do it often, but that's primarily because of practical reasons. We have and will do it for obvious transgressions that come to our attention, however.



There are lots of different kind of druids. I wouldn't be so bold as to say what they can't do or are not, unless the DMs have agreed on it or it is one of the very explicit core facts of the class, as printed in books.

That explanation in R&L is to be viewed as a "A Druid can be like this", not as "Druids cannot be anything but this." All in all, it's pretty hazardous to make statements about what's impossible, because it takes but one counter example to disprove you.


Personally, I like to think of druids as sages who understand nature in its entirety, but aren't content to merely theorize: they will take part in nature, as well. Druids in my mind aren't primarily "protectors", "overseers" or "worshipers" of nature, they are simply part of nature and recognize that. In fact, it would be quite blasphemous and arrogant to declare yourself a protector of something far greater than you, something you are a tiny part of, something that controls you instead of you having any control over it.

To a druid, religious practice and everyday life is not seperate, with the exception of some annual rituals and such. Also, I don't see why druidism should be restricted to plants and animals: "nature" as a word refers to the entire existance of the world which we percieve (as opposed to the world of ideas which we can only imagine or understand). That makes humans a part of nature, rocks, buildings, science and death a part of nature. The elemental forces, even moreso. I suppose druids are a bit limited in FR, thanks to their poor selection of deities, but I could perfectly see a druid of Kelemvor or such. Destruction of nature isn't so alien to the concept of druidism, either: destruction itself is natural, and nature is locked in an endless dynamic of destruction, change, rebirth, etc. To put a stop to this, and cherish a static equilibrium (such as in the forests of Arvandor, perhaps) might be favorable to some druids, but an affront to others. Destruction of nature is only natural, unless it is done with unnatural means and with unnatural goals. (What those might be, I'll leave out of this discussion as it goes into the realm of speculation.)

The guy that probably has sexual fantasies about masturbation. I mean, Iron, you're a bookworm nerd that even in your wildest escapism fantasies flee to the internet to play the role of another bookworm nerd? Come on!

Correct, and burning down a forest makes for a whole aspect of nature to be destroyed. That, would never be done by a Druid without losing favor of their god.

Depends on the deity. If it was Talos, destruction would be a great thing and gain you more favour.

The guy that probably has sexual fantasies about masturbation. I mean, Iron, you're a bookworm nerd that even in your wildest escapism fantasies flee to the internet to play the role of another bookworm nerd? Come on!

The guy that probably has sexual fantasies about masturbation. I mean, Iron, you're a bookworm nerd that even in your wildest escapism fantasies flee to the internet to play the role of another bookworm nerd? Come on!