Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pres_man 12-27-05, 02:31 PM	I'm just curious as to your thoughts of how a druid who is a priest to a nature god, would act differently then a cleric that is a priest to a nature god. This is using the assumption that a priest is a job, not a class. Since both druids and clerics get divine spells, and these may come from a deity, then it doesn't seem unreasonable that there might be druid priests. My thoughts are that a druid who was a priest, would view the deity more as a powerful ally and liege. That is the relationship between a druid and a nature deity might be more similiar to that of a knight and a king. The druid and the deity have the concerns of nature in common and the druid has sworn to serve the deity for this common goal. The cleric on the other hand would be dedicated solely to the deity themselves, not to some larger arching goal. The cleric might take on responsibility of certain areas of interest by the deity (domains), but it is only to serve the deity, not because of any special dedication to those areas of interest. That is the deity comes first, then the special interest for a cleric, whereas for a druid the special interest comes first and then the deity.
Sosthenes 12-27-05, 03:33 PM	The word "Druid" has almost as much range as "Cleric". And there are more philosophical clerics who just view their deity as a personification of some principle. Some clerics skip the middleman and revere the principles directly (at least in some worlds). And if your Druid is similar to the celtic version, he's not that different from a early priest. I would say that clerics are more organized, more modern. Apart from some monastic recluses and hermits, they're not as focused in their devotion, i.e. they've got lots of other work to do. While a druid is probably surrounded his true calling (nature etc.) all the time. Clerics often act as a connection between their congegration and the gods, while Druids are there for nature itself. In addition, I'd say that primeval nature gods wouldn't have that much clerics. A nature cleric is much more likely to follow a more specialized principle, i.e. the "Mother Goddess" with lots of fertility and community aspects. Or even an agricultural deity. Some of the more martial nature gods tend to gather quite a lot of priests who are actually rangers...