Given the events so far, I would adjust the attitude of your faction to be a bit more favorable towards the party given their success with the bandit and the respect the ODW appears to have attracted. That said, the players don't know this, they don't know what it means, and it should not be such a big deal as to derail a campaign or change its path. A few Dragonborn think the ODW deserves respect. That's it. Maybe some members of that faction will react more favorably but they aren't going to start feting the characters as heroes or gods because an ODW hits a bandit with a staff and then proves she can eat a lot. The events just don't have that much impact. They are cool, fun narrative but pretty much irrelevant from the viewpoint of any larger events in the world. In this case, the DM appears to be blowing these events out of proportion.
Which comes to the second point. The DM is there to adjudicate the interactions of the players with the world in a logical consistent way.The DM helps write the story but they have to remain impartial except in the rare circumstance when rule of cool makes it worthwhile for events to proceed in an improbable manner.
Watching the ODW grab her staff run up and start beating on the bandit with an 8 strength is funny once. The ODW through whatever happenstance of luck wins the combat. Players though tend to do the same thing again and again, in this case they can't reasonably expect the ODW to win again and again. In fact, the ODW won't win most of the time. Maybe, without DM intervention, they would never win. Instead the bandit quickly slices the low hit point, low AC druid down to zero hit points and death saves. The DM has to decide early on if they will plot armor their PC or let the chips fall where they might. I strongly caution against the plot armor approach since some players will keep on pushing more and more ludicrous actions until it reaches the point where they simply live or die on your decision and allowing them to live with such a stupid decision could really interfere with the concept of DM as independent arbiter/adjudicator. So, go with rule of cool rarely when it is fun but make sure that the player's know that characters that make stupid decisions will generally not succeed.
Also, I am unclear about "the druid did not prepare spells". If the caster has a long rest then they ALWAYS prepare spells unless the player specifically states that their character did not prepare spells. Just because a player goes oops, I forgot to write down my spells ... doesn't mean the character would have done so. Pick the spells and get on with the game and ask the player to finish preparing next time. On the other hand, if the player is specifically trying to play a forgetful ODW, then it is certainly a role play option but it would be completely out of character for such a chararacter. The character could have been a druid for decades ... preparing spells every day would be as much a part of their routine as brushing their teeth, eating breakfast or getting dressed. Unless they were not competent any more (in which case they would not make a reasonable adventurer) the character would always have spells prepared. This extends even more to cantrips which would always be available whether they prepared spells or not. In either case, there is a situation that needs to be resolved either with the character or player. (One more small point, if the ODW regularly forgets to prepare spells, why would anyone else in the party choose to adventure with them? They are intrinsically unreliable, you never know whether they will be able to contribute or have your back in a difficult situation. If this was a regular occurrence, the ODW would not be part of an adventuring group unless there are intertwined backstories that might justify it.)
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Just a couple of comments.
Given the events so far, I would adjust the attitude of your faction to be a bit more favorable towards the party given their success with the bandit and the respect the ODW appears to have attracted. That said, the players don't know this, they don't know what it means, and it should not be such a big deal as to derail a campaign or change its path. A few Dragonborn think the ODW deserves respect. That's it. Maybe some members of that faction will react more favorably but they aren't going to start feting the characters as heroes or gods because an ODW hits a bandit with a staff and then proves she can eat a lot. The events just don't have that much impact. They are cool, fun narrative but pretty much irrelevant from the viewpoint of any larger events in the world. In this case, the DM appears to be blowing these events out of proportion.
Which comes to the second point. The DM is there to adjudicate the interactions of the players with the world in a logical consistent way.The DM helps write the story but they have to remain impartial except in the rare circumstance when rule of cool makes it worthwhile for events to proceed in an improbable manner.
Watching the ODW grab her staff run up and start beating on the bandit with an 8 strength is funny once. The ODW through whatever happenstance of luck wins the combat. Players though tend to do the same thing again and again, in this case they can't reasonably expect the ODW to win again and again. In fact, the ODW won't win most of the time. Maybe, without DM intervention, they would never win. Instead the bandit quickly slices the low hit point, low AC druid down to zero hit points and death saves. The DM has to decide early on if they will plot armor their PC or let the chips fall where they might. I strongly caution against the plot armor approach since some players will keep on pushing more and more ludicrous actions until it reaches the point where they simply live or die on your decision and allowing them to live with such a stupid decision could really interfere with the concept of DM as independent arbiter/adjudicator. So, go with rule of cool rarely when it is fun but make sure that the player's know that characters that make stupid decisions will generally not succeed.
Also, I am unclear about "the druid did not prepare spells". If the caster has a long rest then they ALWAYS prepare spells unless the player specifically states that their character did not prepare spells. Just because a player goes oops, I forgot to write down my spells ... doesn't mean the character would have done so. Pick the spells and get on with the game and ask the player to finish preparing next time. On the other hand, if the player is specifically trying to play a forgetful ODW, then it is certainly a role play option but it would be completely out of character for such a chararacter. The character could have been a druid for decades ... preparing spells every day would be as much a part of their routine as brushing their teeth, eating breakfast or getting dressed. Unless they were not competent any more (in which case they would not make a reasonable adventurer) the character would always have spells prepared. This extends even more to cantrips which would always be available whether they prepared spells or not. In either case, there is a situation that needs to be resolved either with the character or player. (One more small point, if the ODW regularly forgets to prepare spells, why would anyone else in the party choose to adventure with them? They are intrinsically unreliable, you never know whether they will be able to contribute or have your back in a difficult situation. If this was a regular occurrence, the ODW would not be part of an adventuring group unless there are intertwined backstories that might justify it.)