My Life As A Gamer: He Speaks For The Trees

The Druid is a sub-class of the Cleric, and the only such sub-class in the Player's Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition.

Like the Cleric, the Druid is a supernaturally-empowered agent of a divine power. Unlike the Cleric, the Druid serves a power representing the natural world instead of some form of civilization or tribal mythology, and as such what powers he wields as well as the price demanded to pay for it are different- and greater.

This is abstracted into the Ability Score requirements to qualify for the class, the Alignment restriction, and at the higher levels they are required to either wait for an open slot or to beat an incumbent in a fight as Monks do. They are trained and initiated in this religion, reflected in the starting ages for fresh 1st level Druids entering play.

The Druid As A Character

Druids are explicitly imagined as the historical Celt religion had it survived contact with Rome. (PHB p. 21) This is reflected in their woodlands focus, their use of oak and ash in their ritual practice, and the use of mistletoe as a holy symbol. Their class-specific abilities and spell list also reflects this imagining.

The Druid cannot avoid the fact that he is strongest in a natural environment, including underground, and having friendly relations with Druids will make it easy for others to travel through such environments with minimal issue. The ability to flawlessly indentify plants, animals, and pure water is core to woodcraft and thus to wilderness survival; it is no surprise that Druids and Rangers get along well. (ibid)

The Druid's later immunity to Fae-like charm powers emphasizes the Druid as intermediary between Man and Nature, and the much-discussed shapechanging power to assume animal forms has long captured the imagination of authors and gamers alike- such that "Druid" is synomymous with this power these days. (ibid)

Druids have some of the most potent spells in the game, and later editions have not diluted this potency much if at all. Starting with entangle and charm person or mammal all the way to conjure earth elemental and reincarnate, Druids possess the ability to ensure that a region under their dominion stays wild and free.

All of this has a catch, and that catch is that--like Assassins and Monks--Druids are a highly structured class with an institutional practice behind all those powers. Those senior Druids (12th level and up) directly oversee and direct lower-level Druids, which means your Druid early on, which means that this entire class feels like a magical lodge based on a wolf pack's social dynamics.

Yes, this means that low-level Druids are not free agents as such; it is not unreasonable for a Druid character to be under orders from the Druid, Archdruid, or the Grand Druid that he serves at any given time.

This also means that Druid characters have very clear advancement metrics. They start off serving the most junior Druid and every time they level up they change who they report to, eventually answering to the big man himself before he hits the advancement wall at 11th level where he has to beat one of the Druids to make 12th level. This career path, and the institutional support it presupposes, makes it clear that the presence of this class at all means that the Druid religion is well-established therein.

The Druid As A Patron

No other class in the game so clearly transitions from Adventurer to Patron. Druids set themselves up in sacred groves or similar places, which are strongholds for game purposes (PHB p. 22) and automatically acquire lower level Druids of the appropriate number and level as followers; they are allowed to take hirelings and Henchmen normally, so this is a bonus for winning a ritual combat challenge (if the challenger).

The Druid is concerned with maintaining the natural world in his region. He is disdainful of Civilization, prefering that Man be content with being in the world than dominating it, and thus would see the spread of his woodlands and its fauna and flora over the rise of cities and the binding of the land with roads. Being the agent of a divine power of the wild and the gods that champion it, the Druid is like Conan's Crom: he cares not if anyone thing lives or dies, only that it may do so and intervenes only when that is threatened. This is not a class of valor, brilliance, or cunning; it is a class of patience, perspective, and struggles with remaining connected with the ordinary world of mortal men.

As opposition, the axis is going to be about settling, taming, and civilizing an area instead of living within the boundaries that would otherwise be present- about hunting and foraging, about living in villages or (semi-nomadically) in tribes, with no industry to speak of and no economy greater than that of gifts- much like the Celts as imagined back then would have it.

The Druid's Domain, therefore, is less a well-manicured public park and more of a wildneress that is dangerous to those that disrepect it. "Fuck around and find out" has a very palpable presence, especially when perpetrators are actively hunted by angry Druids able to outpace them, outflank them, and turn air and land against them in retribution.

Conclusion & Commentary

Yes, the Druid is a powerful class, but the price is high and the presumptions are many. It is not out of line for a Referee to disallow this class just to avoid having to deal with that institutional presence and its questions- nevermind all the shapeshifting shenanigans that can go on.

Despite the reverence for the natural world that some profess, demi-humans rarely are able to walk this path- including Elves. Halflings, as NPCs only, may reach 6th level; Half-Elves are as unlimited as Men. Due to the longer lifespans of Half-Elves (DMG p. 13), I would expect that race to dominate the upper ranks over time; it took Unearthed Arcana to address this in the slightest.

The Druid is too often used outside of its inspirational context, as well as without its institutional structure. It is not Generic Nature Priest, no more than the Cleric is Generic Priest.

These act as checks that the rules do not make explicit, but serve effectively when employed in play; you won't find Druids in Fantasy Arabia or Fantasy Africa, try as some tourists and more well-meaning fools might.

Sub-classes exist explicitly to address this sort of thing, and the fact that the Shugenja exists as a Cleric sub-class proves it. More enterprising gamers should recognize this fact and make use of it in their campaigns.