Druids have a very different out look on life and the world

Druid Mentality

I am currently playing a Druid in a friend of mine's campaign. One thing I have always loved about druids is that there are so many kinds of druids you can play, from the tree-hugger-vegan hippie druid to the transform-into-a-panther-and-rip-your-face-off hunter druid. There are just so many unique druids you can play; one thing that I've noticed that binds them all together (besides the class) is that they have a very different outlook on the world compared to most characters you play.

They value nature. They live by some kind basic rule; for example one druid may feel that nature is a thing that needs to be protected, so she goes to a logging town and burns it to the ground while everyone is still in it; she's not evil. In her mind they are the evil ones, (it could be said if she locked everyone inside the town before she burned it, then she could be evil... you say tomato, I say pasta sauce). Another druid could see life as a hunt, tracking down bigger and better game.

I am playing a druid with the thought that life is something to be valued. You shouldn't needlessly kill something because you can, or because you’re hungry. If you can find and eat fruits instead of taking a life you should, but if you're starving and you need to eat, and no other option is available, then killing something to eat would be acceptable. (I am going somewhere with all of this, trust me)

He also believes that everything has a part in the balance of nature: mouse eats the seeds, snake eats the mouse, fox eats the snake, man eats the fox, and the monster eats the man. It’s the way things work, yes, even man and monsters are in this balance. The only thing he will go out of his way to kill is something that is disrupting this balance on a major scale, but whether he kills in self-defense, out of starvation, or to preserve balance, he pays tribute to the life he helped take away by making sure nothing goes to waste.

This brings me to the odd thing about my druid: he believes that if you kill a fox, you skin it, eat the meat, use the bones for daggers, make die out the blood. And if you kill a dragon, you skin it, eat the meat, use the bones for daggers, make die out the blood. If you kill anything at all, you make use of everything you can, which includes humanoids.

This is something that you don't see very often with druids, which I think is odd: a lot of druids claim that killing a tree or animal is as bad as killing a humanoid, yet they still burn the wood and eat the meat of the animal. It's contradictory (if you're a vegetarian I understand because you don't eat any meat) if you're a druid who thinks killing an animal is wrong but still eats of a bear who attacked you and ended up dying, you should do the same with humanoids. It only makes (perfectly!) logical sense.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, and my party may try to kill my character, but it just makes role-playing sense to me. I don't know if anyone else thinks all the time about how they can play true to their character but I do, thanks for letting me drone on about this! If you disagree or agree leave me a comment or message me on my Reddit.

-Thanks for Reading