Roleplaying: The Druid

[TheJoker116]

Okay, first thread in GitP forums, I need some advice on a member of my D&D group.

I play a rogue, a halfling, might I add. A greedy, lazy and generally annoying little rogue who always have little schemes to fill his purse. We also have a female halfling druid, played by a 12-year old who is also a new player. He doesn't have a lot of RP experience but he tries and gets better pretty quickly.

Now, there's a point in his role-playing that I have doubts on. The character, if I remember well, is chaotic neutral. At the end of a dungeon, we saw a nice, big treasure and my halfling, stupidly greedy like he is, ran to the treasure and got his ass ambushed. Thing is, the druid ddecided to follow me.

I personally think a druid who loves money is pretty awkward. I mean, the player doesn't even have any idea of how is character sees the world and the DM doesn't see anything wrong with a materialist druid. In my opinion, a druid would need a hell of a reason to try and get as much gold as he/she can (purchasing a plot of land from a local lord so the druid can protect endangered species living on said-plot of land, for example).

What do you guys think?

[Troacctid]

Did the did the druid take a Vow of Poverty? No? Then what's the problem? Treasure is great. You can buy magic items and stuff with it. All adventurers want treasure.

[atemu1234]

Did the did the druid take a Vow of Poverty? No? Then what's the problem? Treasure is great. You can buy magic items and stuff with it. All adventurers want treasure.

This, basically. Just because you love nature doesn't mean you don't want money.

[TheJoker116]

Haha, the player barely knows the Player's Handbook so no Vow of Poverty.

I'm not too keen on the "every adventurer wants treasure" thing, that's poor roleplay to me. I'm personally not a dungeon-crawling player so I get a bit nitpicky on such details in roleplaying.

I just found it weird that a druid would be so enthusiast about a treasure as my rogue is. but I'll see with the player about getting some motivations for his druid, I don't mind a druid that cares too much about personnal wealth if said-druid really needs a lot of money for anything but greed.

[Palanan]

There's nothing automatically disqualifying about a druid who has an interest in money, and it could involve some interesting backstory.

For instance, people who have experienced early poverty and other hardship sometimes become extremely acquisitive and materialistic when they have the opportunity. There's no particular reason this would prevent someone from also having a deep love of the natural world, and an abiding desire to protect it.

Even a non-materialist druid would certainly recognize the value of money, whether or not the druid himself could care less about it. Those little metal octagons can be used for any number of purposes which would eventually benefit the living land. This could include bribing royal foresters to steer the king's hunt away from more sensitive areas of the forest; to compensate local freeholders for lost revenue from woodcutting in a certain valley; or even to undermine the economy of a new settlement which the druid feels shouldn't be allowed to grow. Druids may not love money for its own sake, but they can certainly be clever in how they put it to use.



That said, since your fellow player is twelve, I'm guessing there's not that much depth involved in this aspect of the character; most likely he just wanted a first grab at whatever your rogue could find. If he starts running his character in a way that seems blatantly contradictory to a druid's values, point this out to him gently, in a manner that allows him to develop an in-character justification, rather than backing him into a corner and provoking a defensive response.

Otherwise, I would say just have fun with the game and don't worry about it too much. The game is structured around characters acquiring wealth, and those druid's vestments won't buy themselves.

:smalltongue:

[TheJoker116]

I know my DM asked the player to try and find some motivations for his character. I like your explanation, Palanan. :)
The druid being a halfling, I guess it would be natural for the character to try and get some wealth, since halflings just love to get money and spend it as soon as possible. Thanks for your input, guys. :)

[Troacctid]

Getting excited about treasure is a natural emotion. It's not out of character for a druid to embrace his instincts and impulses. Repressing them could be considered denying his true nature. And he's chaotic, an alignment well-known for being impulsive.

[nedz]

Fundamentally: It's not your character, and you're not the DM, so it's none of your business how someone else plays their character.

Also, they're 12, so you should cut them some slack in the RP department; since they don't have a huge amount of life experience to draw upon — and they are probably more interested in exploring the game than in developing their character.

[TheJoker116]

@nedz:

I understand all that, I'm simply having some doubt. I just want to clarify a few things because, while how someone plays his character is not my business, I could stay silent, let them be ... and just leave the group because some RP problems are making the game less fun for me. I'd rather make some effort to look into the matter, get some input and communicate with my group than just roll along and end up thinking my group in incapable/unwilling to make effort in roleplaying.

That said, yes, the guy is 12 years old so, yeah, I'll give him some slack. It's a simple detail I wanted input on and I want to help him improve his roleplay.

[eggynack]

Class is largely a metagame construct. What's important is character. Maybe his character just happens to have the ability to turn into a bear, and also loves money. If you want to improve his roleplay ability, you should thus start with character. What does he want? What does he need? Why are those things the case? How does he try to get those things that he wants/needs? What does he think about? So on and so forth.

So, his character wants money. We know this empirically. If you want to help, ask why his character wants money. Maybe he does want to buy a plot of land for a nature preserve. Maybe he's just greedy. The latter isn't a bad thing though, because greed is a character trait. He can roleplay that, and see if he'd be interested in doing so under other circumstances. Then you have the greedy druid, using his command over nature itself to find some coin. Sounds cool enough to me.

Let that be his character, if he wants it to be his character, and try to avoid putting in his head what you want the character to be. You have your own character, after all. You can try to work out other character traits with him, if you like, but greedy is a decent start. It's an even better start on a druid, actually. A character drawn by the conflicting forces of harsh materialism and oneness with nature sounds like a great roleplay opportunity. He could even be made to choose between the two, if he actually cares about the latter.

[TheJoker116]

@eggynack: That's good advice. Druid and greed looked like polar opposites to me but you got a point. Maybe the druid is not trying to get rich, she just likes shiny things. thanks for your input, all! :D

[Honjuden]

As has been mentioned a few times, being a druid doesn't preclude you from having vices. Playing to stereotypes all the time can lead to weak characters. Breaking the mold from time to time can change the way you look at things. For instance, you could have a rogue that doesn't value money at all because they can acquire anything they want by stealing it.

[Sam K]

Here's a druid concept that works well with materialism:

Not every druid is inspired by the tranquility of a forest glade. Some druids channel darker aspects of nature. Combat, dominance and securing your own survival at any cost are all quite natural. The druid views the party as the equivelent of a pack. In a pack, attempting to increase your rank through personal power, ability to contribute to the pack, and aquiring traits that give status is quite natural. It happens in nature all the time.

The druid recognizes that aquiring material goods grants status, as well as the opportunity to increase your personal power (getting better equipment) and through that being able to contribute more to the pack. Increasing your rank in the pack, in addition to being a natural instinct (and thus right), also means that he may in the future be able to direct the pack towards goals more aligned with his own.

As for helping him with the RP, try to build a character around what he enjoys doing. Instead of telling him he shouldn't be greedy, give his druid the nickname Magpie, because of his love for shiny stuff. Have your rogue try to use the druidic abilities in heists you plan; you've GOT to be able to find a use for someone who can turn into a bird! :)

[eggynack]

It also might be worth pointing him towards the cityscape web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a), which is full of urban themed druid ACF's. Most of them are pretty good, and they might fit in well with whatever he ends up putting together.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Sam K
Here's a druid concept that works well with materialism….

And a great concept it is. Kicking myself for not having thought of this. :smalltongue:


Originally Posted by Sam K
Combat, dominance and securing your own survival at any cost are all quite natural.

Not quite any cost, actually; there's a lot of behavioral and evolutionary theory about altruism, self-sacrifice and balancing an individual's survival against its close relatives or offspring.

However, a druid of a decidedly dark mindset could easily twist notions of kinship and altruism into something much more self-serving.


Originally Posted by Sam K
...give his druid the nickname Magpie, because of his love for shiny stuff.

I was going to say he needs a raven for an animal companion.

:smalltongue:


Originally Posted by Sam K
Have your rogue try to use the druidic abilities in heists you plan; you've GOT to be able to find a use for someone who can turn into a bird!

Chain of Eyes can work wonders when you're scoping out the castle for a heist.


Originally Posted by nedz
It's not your character, and you're not the DM, so it's none of your business how someone else plays their character.

It certainly can be, if someone isn't on the same page with roleplaying style as the rest of the group. In some situations this can cause real problems, especially if the other players are trying to RP characters which are responding as best they can to the actions of the off-page character. That can lead to some real tangles.

That said….


Originally Posted by nedz
Also, they're 12, so you should cut them some slack in the RP department; since they don't have a huge amount of life experience to draw upon — and they are probably more interested in exploring the game than in developing their character.

…this certainly applies in full.

Is this your friend's first D&D game? If so, definitely give him some leeway. As nedz indicated, it's up to the DM to define the limits and enforce them as he or she deems appropriate, so let your DM handle that, and you can focus on leading the druid into more temptation.

:smalltongue:

[Sam K]

Not quite any cost, actually; there's a lot of behavioral and evolutionary theory about altruism, self-sacrifice and balancing an individual's survival against its close relatives or offspring.

However, a druid of a decidedly dark mindset could easily twist notions of kinship and altruism into something much more self-serving.


There are examples of both, even in the same animal. A lioness will risk her own life to defend her cubs from enemies. But if a new male takes over the pride, he will kill any cubs fathered by the old male in order to make the females available for breeding sooner. While the lioness may be willing to die for her cubs, she's also willing to mate with their killer if the killer is a dominant male lion. Once the old cubs are dead, the new male is her best chance of passing along her genes.

Nature can be pretty freaking twisted at times. So many awesome druid concepts out there...