Hey people, just wanted to draw some attention to this. It's great information and should help out with people wanting to make Druids, or who are already playing them.
Nekhy wrote:
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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. They are required to choose 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.
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