Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Would you allow this class combination (given the "absolute" neutral requirements of a druid)? Wasn't Curly Green Leaf in the Gord series a Druid that also functioned as a Ranger?

Personally I would not allow this combination, not only because of the alignment restrictions but also because I see the fundamental philosophies of the two classes as mutually exclusive. That is druids wish to protect nature from the mechanisms of civilization while rangers strive to protect civilization from the forces of the wild.

Lord Cias wrote:Personally I would not allow this combination, not only because of the alignment restrictions but also because I see the fundamental philosophies of the two classes as mutually exclusive. That is druids wish to protect nature from the mechanisms of civilization while rangers strive to protect civilization from the forces of the wild.

Great observation.

It's never come up, and I *might* allow it. It would be a house rule, however, because a dual-classed druid/ranger would not be allowed btb (because of the alignment conflict you mention).

“Both elven and half-elven characters can be druid/rangers, or can be triple-classed as druid/ranger/magic-users.” –Dragon #96 (Gary Gygax)

“[A]llow this multi-class combination only for characters of the Neutral Good alignment.” —Dragon #100 (Frank Mentzer)

That's if you consider Dragon to be btb, and those issue numbers are fairly high for our brand of 1e.

It doesn’t need apology. I figure most people here won’t use it (I won’t); but it’s there if you (i.e., the OP) want it.

It’s contemporary with UA, and it’s from a Dragon article by Gygax marked “Official AD&D® game alterations,” so, well within the bounds of BTB discussion here.

I didn't imply Dragon mag was off topic, but the articles are beyond the universally accepted 3 books. It doesn't make the articles bad-wrong-fun, but it does put them in the gray/grey area of what is considered btb. For instance, in my opinion, they're tacked-on house rules, that for whatever reason, GG decided to bless. GG also blessed the thief-acrobat.

I don't allow multiclassing of character classes outside of the core 4 classes (Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-User), because in my midn, the remaining classes are either more focused than the core four or already combinations of aspects of the core four and sorta multiclassed already.

If you're playing Gygaxian AD&D the druid/ranger is unquestionably allowed by the rules - limited to elves and half-elves, alignment NG (with N tendencies). The Dragon articles quoted by Falconer + the UA official errata in Dragon #103 explicitly allow it, and of course a druid/ranger is one of the major characters in Gygax's own novels.

If, however, you're a Mikecarrian fundamentalist, you probably don't want to allow this lest it be considered the first step on the slippery slope of impurity

Rolled up a human druid/MU which will transition to an MU once I hit 5th level (so should be an interesting mix).
Completed first part of U1 today, lost half the party. Barely made it to second level. Will probably finish up next weekend (taking out the smugglers boat) and then head to Village of Hommlette (we are attempting to do only earlY TSR modules, with a focus on Gygax).

francisca wrote:I don't allow multiclassing of character classes outside of the core 4 classes (Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-User), because in my midn, the remaining classes are either more focused than the core four or already combinations of aspects of the core four and sorta multiclassed already.

No Gnome Illusionist combos?
No Half-orc Assassin combos?

That’s like the whole schtick for those races.

Yeah, I've got no problem with core class/sub-class combos. Blending two sub-classes is where things start to get iffy. That's something I'd reserve for dual-classed humans, and even then I wouldn't allow certain combos (like the ranger/druid).

No druid-rangers; no chance.

AxeMental wrote:Would you allow this class combination (given the "absolute" neutral requirements of a druid)? Wasn't Curly Green Leaf in the Gord series a Druid that also functioned as a Ranger?

I'm rather fond of non-TN druids (more akin to the bardic Neutrals alignment schema), although I treat them as smaller cults in parallel to the Old Faith, rather than being major powers/players, per se, and they while they don't report up through the Great Druid hierarchy, they may (or may not ) be part of the Hierophantic Cabals.

So, I'd consider allowing a Druid/Ranger multi-class, depending on the player, and the campaign. I'd also consider allowing a NE druid/hunter, and some other somewhat more heretical combinations, like a NE druid/assassin of Nerull---I've had an NPC villain like this running around in my head for awhile....