Roleplaying a Druid

Indra · Post by **Indra** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 11:32 am

Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask all former or current druids out there about role playing a druid. My Neutral Good Druid of Melikki ( Ro2/F2/Drd4) will soon be going into Chap2 of the Official Campaign. I like to play custom modules till my chars get to a certain level, then start playing the OC.
My question is about the relation between the Druid and hostile animals in the forest. I understand a Druid would not attack an animal in the forest for the fun of it. What if all the animals in the forest are hostile? Would he leave the area, or kill animals to defend himself?
There is a quest in Chap2 of the OC. A farmer asks for your help in killing a pack of wolves raiding his farms and cattle. Now as a druid you could care less for a farmer encroaching on the forest, but what if a pack of hostile potentially man eating wolves encroached on settled land and started preying on the populance? Would you just leave the area, or act in favour of the villagers against the wolves ?

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 1:40 pm

I like to consider people a part of nature too, so an act against people in general even from animals should allow the druid to act as well. The way he acts is up to his believes , if he is a good druid he might choose to dispatch or try to prevent the wolves from attacking people or other animals, as an evil one he might as well ally with the wolves which in his mind would be an act of revenge against the people that so mistreat nature.

Specifically in this quest you might be able to do something that will benefit both sides ...

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 5:49 pm

I played a druid, and came up with a few ideas. Spoilers, so highlight to read:

Neverwinter Wood:
You can try to use stealth to get past all the hotile animals in order to get to the places you need to go to complete the quest. Failing this, you can try to charm the animals, but then they follow you and attack the next hostile animal you see. You can also just take a potion of speed and out-run them, unfortunately, the speed only lasts so long. I suppose you could run all over the whole map, getting all the hostile critters to follow you, then go to one corner, drink the potion, and leave them in the dust all in one place.

Invisibility also works.

Peter and the Wolf:
Yes, you can negotiate with the Silver leader wolf after you hit her enough times to get her hit points very low. Then you can convince her to leave the area and stop bothering the cows. But how do you get to the lead wolf without first killing off her whole pack? I don't know. Maybe stealth, maybe invisibility, but I think some of the other wolves will see you when you confront the She-wolf, and you will have to kill them. Frankly, as a Druid, I would rather see her killing the cows than for the farmer to kill her.

One possibility: The She-wolf's problems stems from the haunting in Charwood where she and her pack used to hunt. If you solve the Charwood problem first, you might get different options for solving the Peter and the Wolf quest. I don't know, I never tried. Somehow I doubt that the game developers thought this far ahead, but it would have been cool.

Lastly: Don't take a henchman with you on these quests, because they will attack any hostile creature in sight.

dude87 · Post by **dude87** » Wed May 07, 2003 6:03 pm

I'm pretty far with a pure druid myself (no multiclass), and my reaction to the situation with the farmer was to leave the wolves alone, as wolves will do what they need to do to survive or protect their land. I'm True Neutral, so I thought that was what was right for RPing. But for the situation in the woods, I would try to see if I could Animal Empathy most of the animals, or try to stay away from them, or maybe the whole area itself. Druids are my favorite class, so I like to use them a lot.