Are there any powerful Druids and Clerics in the lore of D and D?

[Thejugman]

Hi Guys! This is my first post here, and I was wondering if there were any powerful Druids and Clerics in the lore of D and D 3rd edition like there are powerful wizards like Larloch? Or is D and D just a world of powerful wizards and nothing else? The reason I was asking is because Clerics and Druids are traditionally grouped together in the same tier, and it is sort of weird to me to have an abundance of powerful Wizards and nothing else.

Also, I have tried looking up what I am asking here, and I found nothing except lore about the Wizards. So, sorry if there is a thread or something detailing this, and I have just not found it.

Thank you all if you decide to post and help me.

[Doctor Despair]

Eggynack is a powerful druid. :smallcool: In all honesty, though, he's a resident expert on druids as I understand it, so perhaps he'd have something to offer.

[Dr.Samurai]

In the Eberron campaign setting the Speaker of the Flame, Jaela Daran, is a high level cleric, and the de facto leader of the Eldeen Reaches, Oalian, is a level 20 druid.

[Calthropstu]

The Cleric Quintet featured Cadderly who is a very powerful cleric with a direct link to his god. One of the 7 sisters is also a cleric of Eilistree. Elminster is a cleric as well. The Drow Matron Mothers are all powerful clerics.

As for Druids, the Moonshae Islands have several powerful druids, there was a book I read on them forget what it was called. Was the only time I read a D&D novel that featured a druid as the protagonist.

[Falcon X]

Any of the Matron Mothers of Menzoberranzen, city of the Drow, will be significantly strong priestesses. Though even that doesn't put them far past level 10.
- In Drizzt 2: Exile, the most powerful spell cast by them was Animate Dread Warrior (http://alcyius.com/dndtools/spells/unapproachable-east--33/animate-dread-warrior--3468/index.html), though it was done as a cleric ritual.

Planescape would be a good one to look through. You have to be pretty strong to be a blood on the planes, and every time somebody sentient is mentioned, they tell their class and level.

[Deadline]

Honestly depends on the setting.

Crysania Tarinius, from Dragonlance.

Cuthbert, before he became a deity.

Eberron has an awakened pine tree druid 20 listed somewhere.

Several to be found in the Forgotten Realms setting for sure (one of Drizzt's companions is a cleric, right?).

And, it's not official WOTC content, but the Druid Nwm from Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre campaign is awesome. Not as awesome as Mostin the Metagnostic, sure, but awesome all the same.

[Allanimal]

In Greyhawk, the ruler of Veluna, His Venerable Reverence, the Canon of Veluna, Hazen, Shepherd of the Faithful is a cleric.
The ruler of the county of Ulek, His Noble Mercy, Lewenn, Count Palatine of Ulek, is an Archdruid.

Those are just two examples from a quick search of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer...

[Aharon]

For the forgotten realms, there are quite a few (Cadderly Bonaduce, Galvin, Qilué, Tarl Desanea, Deirdre Kendrick, Fzoul Chembryl, Hobarth,...)

But not all of them were explicitly statted in 3.0 or 3.5. Among those was Fzoul Chembryl (Cleric 17/Hierophant 2, FR Campaign Setting pg.163).

[Flickerdart]

I think a whole bunch of gods have 20 levels in Cleric and/or Druid. Check Deities and Demigods.

Faerun is the go-to setting for mortals with hugely inflated levels. Matron Yvonnel Baenre is a 25th level cleric. Erevis Cale is a 21st level character with 11 levels of cleric. Cadderly is a 20th level cleric.

Sinklayr Greenstroke is an 18th level druid.

[Calthropstu]

(one of Drizzt's companions is a cleric, right?).


Negative, all of team Drizzt are martials.

Well, Catti Brie tried to become a wizard and it killed her, but I ignore that book. In fact, that book and anything that came after it I consider bull**** and completely disregard it.

[LordOfCain]

Animate Dread Warrior,though it was done as a cleric ritual.
That site is looked down upon here due to its questionable at best legality. And by questionable at best, I mean it's illegal.

[hamishspence]

Animate Dread Warrior, though it was done as a cleric ritual.

A Zin-carla is something a bit different - at least in 3.0. Faiths & Pantheons had stats for them- Arachne prestige class, 9th level class feature - ability to create them (effective minimum cleric level to enter the PRC is 5th) - so character would have to be at least 14th level.

In 2nd ed it was apparently a 7th level cleric spell in the Villain's Lorebook:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Zin-carla_(spell)

[Deadline]

Negative, all of team Drizzt are martials.

Well, Catti Brie tried to become a wizard and it killed her, but I ignore that book. In fact, that book and anything that came after it I consider bull**** and completely disregard it.

After some digging, I think I was thinking of Belmora, a dwarf cleric of Moradin. Forgotten Realms, but sounds like she was probably not a Drizzt companion.

[hamishspence]

Stumpet wasn't exactly a Companion - but I think she did accompany the party at some point.

[tomandtish]

For the forgotten realms, there are quite a few (Cadderly Bonaduce, Galvin, Qilué, Tarl Desanea, Deirdre Kendrick, Fzoul Chembryl, Hobarth,...)

But not all of them were explicitly statted in 3.0 or 3.5. Among those was Fzoul Chembryl (Cleric 17/Hierophant 2, FR Campaign Setting pg.163).

Darkwalker on Moonshae (first officially published Forgotten Realms novel) had Robyn Kendrick (Deirdre's mother) who actually went from Druid to Cleric and back again during the two trilogies. I think they statted her out at one point as 14th level (but not 3E).

The Cleric Quintet and some of Salvatore's later work also has Pikel Bouldershoulder, a dwarven druid. I'm working on memory but I think he threw a 7th or 8th level spell once, but he was always very weirdly written (more high level fighter with druid powers "as called for by plot").

[Thejugman]

Thank you all for your answers. I should have added to the preface that I am not only new to the forums, but I am also new to D and D in general. I have only watched some streams on twitch and browsed the forums for a year or so. I have none of the books for D and D yet, though I think I should start with the core ones, since they might be the basis for everything else.

Also this might not matter, but the only games like D and D that I have been able to attend were, I think, games from an RPG tabletop game called Vampires: the awaking during college. I just sat for them and listened to the guys and girls play, not participate in them. I think it is similar to D and D because they played some edition of D and D in private sometimes (the reason for that is that they had one guy play D and D who did not want other people seeing him play it).

Now that that is out of the way, in regards to the topic at hand, those are a good number of clerics and druids you guys have mentioned. I have looked up almost all of them online and could not find a few. I will definitely need the books for this. But anyway in regards to the characters you guys have listed, they do seem to be pretty powerful people, but there does not seem to be anyone coming close to the power level of some of the Wizards I have seen in threads. This could be expected and caused by Wizards being more open to being bad guys and maybe having more means to get power through magic. So, I am wondering if there were any evil Druids and Clerics on the level of Wizards like Ioulaum, Szass Tam, Arthindol the Terasser, Daurgothoth, and the aforementioned Larloch. I am thinking all of these guys are level 25 and above with some being in the fourties, and I unfortunately think most of the people I mentioned might be able to easily beat most of the people you guys mentioned.

Not that my opinion matters much, but it is a little discouraging having Cleric and Druid as my favorite classes to play in games and then seeing them and wanting to play them in D and D, they seem so outclassed by Wizards or one class in general by not having any characters come close to their power.

But anyway, thanks again for your replies. I enjoyed reading them.

[GilesTheCleric]

Narratively, any class can be as powerful as the author wants. Wizards are probably more powerful (and common) since they're probably easier to write about than a Druid or Cleric, and don't have the same restrictions on their growth (a deity, the goals of nature). In terms of game mechanics, all T1 classes (Wizards, Druids, and Clerics) are roughly equivalent in power. It's common wisdom that the power of the base class doesn't matter as much as player skill, though ("Player > Build > Class").

[Stewzors]

While I don't think he's overly powerful, I'm a massive fan of Pikel (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Pikel_Bouldershoulder) the Doodad.

[Eisfalken]

Traditionally, there are far more "epic-level" wizards than clerics, druids, or other divine casters. Forgotten Realms was a notable exception, but that setting has gods meddling far more in mundane affairs. Greyhawk comes just after that, with a few top-tier clerics ruling nations; only one nation is ruled by a druid, but most of the druids in that setting don't give a fig about society in general and mind the wilderness far more. Eberron hasn't got epic-level anything; even the most powerful wizards listed there are either some horrific evil that's been alive centuries, or xenophobically reclusive because they know "things".

Why would clerics and druids be more scarce, though? They arguably adventure more, and are far more interested in the goings-on of the mundane world, if only to promote their god's interests.

The answer is self-contained: clerics and druids don't really fear dying after a certain point, because if they stay true to their ideals, they go directly to the best place for them upon death. In Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, very few clerics who die after 20th level would give a rat's behind about coming back; they end up exactly where they want to be, and would turn down any attempts at resurrection (which anyone can, in fact, do). Only if some astounding elder evil threatened the world would they seek to come back, but even then they are just as likely to ask their god to let them come back once the task is done.

Wizards are... well, they have different priorities. Most are firmly agnostic at best; they know the gods exist, but that's nothing to do with the pursuit of arcane knowledge, which is what they love first and best. Dying doesn't help them attain their goal; that's why a lot go lich or otherwise undead on us, because time is always pulling hard at them, dragging them down gradually.

Reversing age was actually easier in 2nd edition; there were notable items and high magic stuff to do the deed. 3rd edition was curiously more silent on the matter; only a few known ways to getting back to youth existed, all of them convoluted, without the fiat of the gods/DM.

Anyway, that's the main reason there's more epic wizards around: they have a very sharp sense of self-preservation and survival, unlike divine spellcasters for whom death can equal victory for their personal goals. Overall, most settings have histories indicating several epic divine spellcasters; in some, they were priest-kings who ruled vast empires, saints and martyrs who established huge religions, etc. But once they succeeded at whatever and their god put a rubber stamp on them coming to serve them on the Outer Planes, well... off they went.

Meanwhile, archmages float through various places like the Astral Plane or undead ruins, and keep getting more and more power as best they can.

And every once in a while, one of them - Halaster, Zagyg, some giant wizard from Xen'drik - well, they go... a little insane, you know. So they make some twisted place like Undermountain or Castle Greyhawk, or cause a literal legion of dragons to use epic magic to destroy an entire continent, you know, the usual thing wizards get into.

And if we're very, very lucky, they disappear and leave behind fabulous wealth they don't mind the rest of us plucking out of wherever they used to be...

[Particle_Man]

Wasn't Kyuss a cleric (as in the monsters "spawn of kyuss" or "son of kyuss")?

For clerics, 1st ed AD&D has the following if you look in their magic items under artifacts and relics:

Al'Akbar (Cup and Talisman) has some artifacts/relics named after him in 1st ed AD&D DMG.

Similarly, Yagrax was a powerful wizard-priest tied to an artifact/relic, same book (Codex of the Infinite Planes).

Also (same book):

Arnd had another one (Invulnarable Coat of Arnd).

Johydee too (Johydee's Mask).

Dahlver-Nar (Teeth) was said to be the most powerful of clerics ever.

So while there is not much on these clerics, they were powerful enough to have artifacts/relics (the most powerful magic items in the game) associated with them in 1st ed AD&D.

[Calthropstu]

Darkwalker on Moonshae (first officially published Forgotten Realms novel) had Robyn Kendrick (Deirdre's mother) who actually went from Druid to Cleric and back again during the two trilogies. I think they statted her out at one point as 14th level (but not 3E).

The Cleric Quintet and some of Salvatore's later work also has Pikel Bouldershoulder, a dwarven druid. I'm working on memory but I think he threw a 7th or 8th level spell once, but he was always very weirdly written (more high level fighter with druid powers "as called for by plot").

That was it, darkwalker on moonshae trilogy... that was the one I was trying to think of. I forget most of it, but I recall the protagonist was a druid. As I recall, AD&D 1st edition capped the druid at lvl 14 which is when that book would have come out. Translated to 3rd edition, she'd be a solid 20.

[Ruethgar]

Liriel Baenre is a battle wizard/cleric and has a few books written on her. Though honestly she does play up the wizardry more. Drizzt isn't a druid, but Ranger is close if that counts.

[Mechalich]

Relatively powerful clerics and druids and comparatively rare in part because most of the fluff materials for D&D lore was created under a 1st/2nd Edition regime, including all of the major characters and clerics and druids were significantly less powerful at that time. They didn't get 8th or 9th level spells, and their spell list was significantly more limited. Also, the lion's share of epic level spellcasters in D&D are from the Forgotten Realms and Ed Greenwood apparently liked wizards better than clerics.

Additionally, the cleric class was originally very much a creation of the Christian hierarchy, which meant that powerful clerics were supposed to sit around in the high temple and not do much with their powers. This can be seen in the case of characters like Factol Terrance of the Athar - who was statted as a 19th level Priest of the Great Unknown, but wasn't exactly in the business of adventuring anymore. The same is largely true of characters like Drow Matron Mothers, they weren't written as adventurers (though Triel Baenre does manage to cast Miracle during the War of the Spider Queen, which might be the novel series showing the most high-powered divine spellcasting out there). Quenthel Baenre is a major character in War of the Spider Queen and when she finally gets spells back in the later novels throws around some fairly impressive effects.

[Endarire]

OP: Plenty of deities and avatars have lots of divine casting levels. St. Cuthbert and Iuz from Greyhawk/Oerth have 20ish Cleric levels and more!

Eberron does have some official epic level content, but the stuff I know best is from Dragons of Eberron. Check out from there the city of Io'Lokar, City of Knowledge. It felt included so the world would have an epic city, but felt silly in its presentation.

[Afgncaap5]

But anyway in regards to the characters you guys have listed, they do seem to be pretty powerful people, but there does not seem to be anyone coming close to the power level of some of the Wizards I have seen in threads. This could be expected and caused by Wizards being more open to being bad guys and maybe having more means to get power through magic.

As a few others have already pointed out (or at least hinted at) that has a bit to do with player skill and people using the game system as a game system, and sometimes there can be an incongruity with the stories. Players with access to all the books are sort of like video game players who know all the tricks to getting the most out of video games (I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that they're using cheat codes, but it might be reasonable to think of it similarly to how speed runners know just the right way to make use of glitches to shave hours off of their playtime.)

The authors of books, published adventure modules, and most GMs aren't bound by the same rules that the players are, but they're also expected to adhere to some narrative structures. So, you can get some amazingly powerful things either way, but you tend to get them in different ways. It can lead to weirdness (sometimes good weirdness) if they're not mixed with caution, though.


Eberron does have some official epic level content, but the stuff I know best is from Dragons of Eberron. Check out from there the city of Io'Lokar, City of Knowledge. It felt included so the world would have an epic city, but felt silly in its presentation.

Yeah... I've got mixed feelings about Io'Lokar. It's kinda weird to me that a city literally containing the most powerful and impressive people on the planet is sort of a footnote in the world's grand scheme.

[Lord Haart]

You see, Wizards of the Coast don't really do that thing. There was an attempt by Druids of the Hedge to push their own, d60-based rulebooks on the market back in nineties, but they've got boycotted by popular opinion as "pagan" and "deeply disturbing".

[Afgncaap5]

You see, Wizards of the Coast don't really do that thing. There was an attempt by Druids of the Hedge to push their own, d60-based rulebooks on the market back in nineties, but they've got boycotted by popular opinion as "pagan" and "deeply disturbing".

Well, yeah, of course they're deeply disturbing. Sixty-sided dice system? Look, I can tolerate the d10s, but I like my polyhedrons to be platonic solids, thank you very much. I'm just glad it's been so long since D&D's used a d30. *Shudder*

[GrayDeath]

Not to mention Clerics of the (Enter fitting religious building here, due to not wanting to violate the Forum rules) and their truly heretic attempt to use only D 3`s ^^