[Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Hello.

The Druid template from DF1 doesn't include Sense of Duty (Nature) but it includes Disciplines of Faith.

So, the question is whether any Druid should treat the Nature with caution and care or is it possible for a Druid to live by principles like "The Nature isn't a temple but a workshop" and "We shouldn't expect Nature's charity, taking that is our goal"? Treating the Nature as a tool not as a patron.

I mean more not a fluff concept, but "Under the Hood" mechanics of Druidic Power Modifier. Wouldn't such behaviour be too stretching from Druid concept and more similar to Animal- and Plant- College Wizard or Knowledge-Nature-Order Priest?

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

I vote yes to main question. Shifting the emphasis from "preservation uber alles" to "productivity through long-term stewardship" is a plus in my book.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Keep in mind that a GURPS Disadvantage is about restrictions -- what you can't and won't do. Being free to pillage nature's bounty just like everyone else, and use it as a tool to suit whatever your ends happen to be, isn't a restriction. That's not to say it's a bad character concept or a poor philosophy, just that it's not an inconvenient limitation that's worth getting a lot of Character Points. Compare with other Disciplines of Faith.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Could such Progressive Druids be somewhat like Gray Necromancers from Pyramid 3/50? Somewhat inflated cost on abilities but with less restrictions and broader and shifted spectrum?

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

It might work. Much of that Green Druid idea was an invention of urbanites in the romantic era and is simply another aspect of the noble savage myth. That does not mean that there is nothing to the idea of nature worship, etc. Simply that druids were not hippies.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

What? My copy does. Sense of Duty (Wild Nature), DF1 page 7. I mean, play whatever is fun, but DF Druids are hippies, afaict.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Hence the original question: non-hippy Druids? I still say yes.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Just to start with, would a Druid have a concept of "nature" as opposed to "oak, ash, and thorn"(or even "this oak, that ash, the other thorn")?

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

They aren't historical druids and devotion to "nature" worked as a "Neutral" alignment premise.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Druid without obligation to Nature
 

Well, "Nature" is not precisely defined generally. In that other game, we have Druidic schools named after seasons, with Winter Druids revering "nature red in tooth and claw", "survival of the fittest" and that sort of thing. A Duty to that conception of Nature could involve culling the weak, constant exercise and tests to prove and ensure that you yourself weren't one of the weak, foregoing the use of devices (and making other people forego them), et cetera. (for the record, Summer is Nature as Bountiful Provider, Spring is Nature as Self-Organizing and Maintaining System, and Autumn is Nature as Unfettered by Reason or Discipline). Summer and Winter Druids both would agree that Nature is there to be used by people (Spring and Autumn Druids would not).