Druid level titles?

[scottenkainen]

Has anyone done more creative level titles for the druid class?

[doublejig2]

This is a good topic. I wish I had something for you.

[doublejig2]

Here's some from a thesaurus (and a few others)...

Aspirant: applicant, contestant, striver
Ovate: ovoid, brother of the blood, wild man
Initiate: apprentice, neophyte, student
Druid: diviner, medium, haruspex, seer, navigator, Oak King, Holly King
Arch Druid: star steward
The Great Druid

[howandwhy99]

I never thought the level titles were something used in game. You know, NPC knowledge. They were more a legacy from wargames and not referenced by characters in the game, like stats.

I could see a case for Druids (and Assassins) though, especially with the need to advance through other position holders in the order. You need to know who is who and what secrets to share with others of the order. They have a secret language after all.

Circles of initiation works for me, but you could play off that. It would heavily define the class and game experience for any player though.

1. Keeper of the Faith -- Someone with 1st level training as a specialty priest. There should be titles for 0-level characters not druidic figures. E.g. Members.
2. Bearer of the Blood
3. Seer of the Land
4. First Circle Initiate
5. Brother / Sister
6. Councilor of the Faith
7. Second Circle Initiate
8. Father / Mother
9. Druid
10. Arch Druid
11. The Great Druid

[doublejig2]

Agree for the most part (I like level descriptors for any class). Just the level titles evoke a much stronger link to the milieu; members, and I'm interested. And, even if restricted to NPCs as one possiblity, they flesh the class out and enforce its interactions. The titles certainly provide something to fall back on whenever the class is brought up - rumors, trade talk. Rival groups might even differ in their levels descriptors. But the descriptors also limit alternatives. It's the same old  story - the DM, choices, and the campaign!

[Stormcrow]

Dec 16, 2018 23:58:43 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

I never thought the level titles were something used in game. You know, NPC knowledge. They were more a legacy from wargames and not referenced by characters in the game, like stats.

Yes and no. Yes, they are a legacy from wargames in that each type of figure has its own name, and yes, they are like stats in that the game can refer to a character by its "figure type" instead of its class and level (e.g., a Veteran instead of a 1st level fighter or a Wizard instead of a 11th level magic-user). But no, in that in the early days there wasn't much push to separate player and character. Characters were often named after the players playing them and were viewed simply as avatars for the players in the game world. A player might very well reference a level title as a wargame stat while speaking in character.

[howandwhy99]

Dec 17, 2018 9:34:48 GMT -6 Stormcrow said:

Dec 16, 2018 23:58:43 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

I never thought the level titles were something used in game. You know, NPC knowledge. They were more a legacy from wargames and not referenced by characters in the game, like stats.

Yes and no. Yes, they are a legacy from wargames in that each type of figure has its own name, and yes, they are like stats in that the game can refer to a character by its "figure type" instead of its class and level (e.g., a Veteran instead of a 1st level fighter or a Wizard instead of a 11th level magic-user). But no, in that in the early days there wasn't much push to separate player and character. Characters were often named after the players playing them and were viewed simply as avatars for the players in the game world. A player might very well reference a level title as a wargame stat while speaking in character.

Good point. Players may certainly have used the titles in shorthand reference. As strategy games go I don't think D&D can be said to be about character portrayal.

I track NPC knowledge to partly determine their behavior, including the information they can share. I don't include game abstractions in that information. Firstly because the referee is never to show the hidden design. But also because the titles wouldn't necessarily be recognizable to NPCs anyways. The obvious exceptions are classes with unambiguous ability gains at level plateaus. From my reading those are only in subclasses - which correspond to unique communities anyways. I allow greater fluidity for spellcaster's spell progressions, but even if their advancement was discretely recognizable the same level names wouldn't necessarily be used across every community in the game. I don't even do that with geographical names.