What's the difference between a Druid, a Cleric with the nature domain, and an Oath of the Ancients Paladin? Not in terms of abilities so much, but rather in terms of roleplaying.
What's the difference between a Druid, a Cleric with the nature domain, and an Oath of the Ancients Paladin...
One gets power from nature.
One gets power from nature's master.
One uses power to defend nature.
Druid: Nature is the god
Cleric: God loves the Nature
Paladin: Use nature to protect nature.
Druids are an ancient faith worshipping nature itself
Nature Domain clerics worship a god who claims nature as part of his/her portfolio
Ancients paladins are similar to druid fluff, but more crusaders than protectors.
This. At least in 5e, paladins don’t neccisarily get their powers from Gods anymore, they get it from their oath to a particular ideal.
Druid: "I speak for the trees!"
Cleric: "I speak for the God of the trees!"
Paladin: "I just kill any motherfucker who touches my trees."
One is the appropriate OG character class.
One is a cleric with some "nature" splashed in from a spell list.
The third is an aberration in terms of fluff/crunch who should by all rights just be a particularly militant druid or a barbarian.
In roleplaying terms, druids usually take a neutral, detached view of other people, looking at the big picture instead. Their job is to protect the balance of the natural world, not healing the sick or preaching to the masses, so the druidic religion is typically small, insular and secretive. By contrast, a nature cleric is more likely to be found in a rustic frontier community helping people on behalf of their deity, spreading the faith and building temples.
Contrary to popular belief, the Oath of the Ancients fluff doesn't really indicate they are obsessed with nature. Their oath has more to say about protecting art than trees. They are more like elven paladins than druid paladins.
Depends on the Druid- we've got
>True Druid
Motherfucking Shub-niggurath worshippers, completely opposite to the notion of the drive of mankind, willing to speed up the doom of the universe, wishes his alleged connection with the true path of evolution rekindled, is effectively a skinwalker knows the basics of nietzhism and other philosphical topics without even referring to their societal establishments, simply knows the actual rules of nature, is fully aware of concepts of ecosystems both familiar and alien- in effect, understands how weird shit can get in nature is ammoral- no bound by social constructs of the falsehoods of civilization
>Circle Druid
The degenerated form of the above, not entirely aware of the true dark final culmultive nature of druidism, adheres to tribes and societies, occasional divinatory sacrifices when in need, has some sense about him, but not on the extreme end of the spectrum
>Nu-Druid
Faggot who thinks he knows dick about nature when he can't even tell you fuck worth dick- makes really shitty civilisation-nature comments and is more into the "aesthetic" of nature than actually giving a fuck- is a massive sellout to animals, closer to a vegan activist than actual druid- is also bald due to letting a fucking magical plant parasite take over their hair for the sake of their own idiotic vanity, this was not ever explained to anyone, resulting in the" Druids have green hair" fad. due to primitive mindset, worships god's it thinks have anything to do with nature worshipping subverted and otherwise poisoned values with objective alignment restructions thrown in
>NU-NU Druids
The Above + the entire elven Misconception of their false ideal of their so called connection to nature (When in actuality they are as removed from it as can be)
It's not as much about art itself but about beauty, creative works, things most related to life and living, which it calls 'the light.' Which is probably in contrast to despair, rote work, and so on.