[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by scc

OK a DF-esque that I occasionally bring out and tinker with is notable in that it doesn't have any gods that span the entire world, those that do exist are very regional, low powered and have little ability outside of their domain or portfolio, which means that playing a straight cleric a less then stellar idea.

I have always taken the approach that the clerics are the most powerful of the various spellcasters regardless of the rules I use. Neither approach is inconsistent with how clerics are depicted in Dungeon Fantasy. The fact is that clerics are not free agents in the way a warrior, mage, or thief is. Whether a priest of a deity with limited abilities, or a priest of a universal deity they are constrained by the philosophy of the religion they are part of.

As a historical footnote, the Cleric class originated in first roleplaying campaign, Blackmoor, because on of the bad buys players, David Fant, was a high level vampire. The player were hard pressed with fighting against him. Because Fant's vampire was based on Christopher Lee's Dracula, Dave felt it was only fair to have a "Van Helsing" class as his nemesis. Throw a few other things and the cleric was born.

So as to what clerics are? They are monster hunters with divine powers for the forces of good (or law as the case may be).

Originally Posted by scc

Which brings me to druids, in DF (And D&D) they're sorta like clerics in how their powers work, so do they get their powers from some sort of nature god or do they get it from nature itself?

The origin of the D&D druid

In Wisconsin, we started playing D&D before there were even thieves (i.e., before Greyhawk was published). We were experimenting with classes other than fighters, clerics and magicÂ*users, though, and I thought a druid would be interesting, as a nature cleric that had some combat ability. I drew up a set of rules for us to playtest, and mimeographed them for our group (pre*Xerox days). After some playtest, I modified them in a second version of mimeo, but only distributed them among our players. Since we did go to early sessions of GenCon, one person in our group showed them to Gary, and with my permission (and some further editing), they were published in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement, in April 1976. The Chariot of Sustarre was added by Gary (or perhaps by Tim Kask); it was not in my original rules. I believe the changed spelling of my name was deliberate. I did not get paid in cash, though Gary did give me some freebies; I was just happy to get the new class added.

Given the origin of the D&D cleric, I would say that the Druid is a monster hunter with nature powers.