This makes me think that if D&D had been redesigned for an East Asian or South Asian market instead of a US market, maybe a class associated with environment/natural areas/treehuggers/etc. would be more popular since polytheism never died in Japan or India.
It's not the polytheistic origins that make it "uncool", norse mythology is also pagan / polytheistic but is very popular at the moment. It's a cultural backlash against the environmentalism movement of the 1980s/1990s, largely driven by corporate propaganda.
Maybe. It's kind of hard to gauge what political/social messages most players are most influenced by. I mean, a person can love reneweable energy but hate laws that protect rare/endangered species. You can think that eagles and owls are cool as heck but also hate anything even vaguely associated with furries, which Druids have been tarnished by due to Wildshape and some people's ummm, "thirsty" imaginations. I do agree there is a lot of anti-environmentalist propaganda, but if this is a big influence on why Druid is the least popular, why did Rangers, which also use Druid spells and are arguably just as out of step with anti-environmentalists, not get dunked on the same way?
Aragorn is more popular & well-known than Radagast the Brown due to how Peter Jackson's Tolkien movies were done.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
why did Rangers, which also use Druid spells and are arguably just as out of step with anti-environmentalists, not get dunked on the same way?
Rangers aren't perceived as protectors of nature the way Druid is. They are more hunters, trackers, and survivalists (see popularity of survivalism in various reality shows). But they also did get dunked on, they aren't a very popular class and TBH many ranger players don't really use their druid spells. Plus, similar to Druid, Ranger didn't get many subclasses until they were turned into a "pet" class.
Druids carry IRL baggage attached to their very name that Dungeons & Dragons kinda didn't help.
Actual Druids weren't neutral-leaning spellcasting nature magicians. They were moreso record keepers & officiants. Pre-paper paper pushers, not Radaghast the Brown, Satanists, or (human/blood) sacrifice machines like what pop culture tends to pigeonhole them into.
So there's that in addition to in-game reasons.
Are you speaking as a historian, archaelogist or hobbist? Just curious.
Re: Aragorn. I agree. That circles back to the question of whether Druid's lack of popularity is driven in large part by a lack of positive pop cultural cache? Astrix? A semi-obscure comic book character who has none of the powers that Druids in 5e have and definitely not a "masculine" role model. I mean, I'm sure it helped the Ranger class popularity that Viggo Mortensen has been voted "Sexiest Man Alive" more than once. Not to mention the popularity of Orlando Bloom so much so that Peter Jackson included his character in the Hobbit movies even though Legolas was not a cannon character in that series.
I would venture to guess that wildshaping has also been less popular in part because there are so few positive characters in US/European entertainment that embody the ability to change appearances or forms. Despite being a "super spy," James Bond rarely wore a serious disguise. In the X-Men animated series, the popular characters are people like Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Gambit. and Rogue. The actual shapeshifters, like Morph and Mystique, never got much air time. While questionable, we can more or less graft the most popular X-Men characters to D&D classes thusly:
In contrast, you are far more likely to find positive, at least semi-popular shapeshifting characters in Japanese fantasy fiction. The tanukis of "Pom Poko," Sen in "Spirited Away," heck Eren Yeager of "Attack on Titan." Shapeshifters in Western fantasy and science fiction, are, in contrast, almost always villains, and rarely the popular ones.
Werewolves are a popular fantasy trope and now more often as the hero than the villain in Western media, you also have the Animorphs, tons of TV shows and movies (e.g. Brave, Cinderella, Princess and the Frog) featuring shapeshifting as neutral or heroes. So I don't think it's the shapeshifting that makes them inherently unpopular, certainly the baggage associated with shapeshifting is far less than baggage associated with making a deal with the devil (i.e. warlocks).
If we assume gender roles are at play, then "caring" is a feminine associated trait, hence an archetype associated with "caring" such as caring for the environment would be unpopular among male players, whereas violence-associate archetypes would be more popular. But Druids can equally be viewed as a "wrath of nature" type class so I don't know how feminine associated the class would be as a whole. Add to this that for 5e there is a 60:40 split for gender among players, I'm not convinced that's a major factor.
It is true that there isn't much portrayal of druid-like characters in modern media - though I would actually count Storm as a druid rather than a sorcerer - which can also be why players have less inspiration to make druid characters in D&D since many players create D&D characters based on other characters they like. You've got Radagast who was humiliated in his portrayal, Tom Bombadil & the skinchanger the Hobbit, Neville Longbottom (also largely a humiliated character), Storm (not very popular / became a joke due to poor writing & poor acting), some portrayals of Merlin, maybe Merida (Brave) or Elsa (Frozen) though they could created as Rangers or Sorcerers as well, kinda Aquaman (though he might be more of a Ranger), Rafikki (Lion King), and maybe some of the characters from Jurassic Park.
Aragorn is more popular & well-known than Radagast the Brown due to how Peter Jackson's Tolkien movies were done.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Rangers aren't perceived as protectors of nature the way Druid is. They are more hunters, trackers, and survivalists (see popularity of survivalism in various reality shows). But they also did get dunked on, they aren't a very popular class and TBH many ranger players don't really use their druid spells. Plus, similar to Druid, Ranger didn't get many subclasses until they were turned into a "pet" class.
Are you speaking as a historian, archaelogist or hobbist? Just curious.
Re: Aragorn. I agree. That circles back to the question of whether Druid's lack of popularity is driven in large part by a lack of positive pop cultural cache? Astrix? A semi-obscure comic book character who has none of the powers that Druids in 5e have and definitely not a "masculine" role model. I mean, I'm sure it helped the Ranger class popularity that Viggo Mortensen has been voted "Sexiest Man Alive" more than once. Not to mention the popularity of Orlando Bloom so much so that Peter Jackson included his character in the Hobbit movies even though Legolas was not a cannon character in that series.
I would venture to guess that wildshaping has also been less popular in part because there are so few positive characters in US/European entertainment that embody the ability to change appearances or forms. Despite being a "super spy," James Bond rarely wore a serious disguise. In the X-Men animated series, the popular characters are people like Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Gambit. and Rogue. The actual shapeshifters, like Morph and Mystique, never got much air time. While questionable, we can more or less graft the most popular X-Men characters to D&D classes thusly:
Wolverine - Barbarian; Storm - Sorcerer; Magneto - Wizard (with a god complex); Nightcrawler - Monk (very Shadow Mk); Gambit - Rogue (Soul Knife vibes); and Rogue - ??? (she steals powers)
In contrast, you are far more likely to find positive, at least semi-popular shapeshifting characters in Japanese fantasy fiction. The tanukis of "Pom Poko," Sen in "Spirited Away," heck Eren Yeager of "Attack on Titan." Shapeshifters in Western fantasy and science fiction, are, in contrast, almost always villains, and rarely the popular ones.
Werewolves are a popular fantasy trope and now more often as the hero than the villain in Western media, you also have the Animorphs, tons of TV shows and movies (e.g. Brave, Cinderella, Princess and the Frog) featuring shapeshifting as neutral or heroes. So I don't think it's the shapeshifting that makes them inherently unpopular, certainly the baggage associated with shapeshifting is far less than baggage associated with making a deal with the devil (i.e. warlocks).
If we assume gender roles are at play, then "caring" is a feminine associated trait, hence an archetype associated with "caring" such as caring for the environment would be unpopular among male players, whereas violence-associate archetypes would be more popular. But Druids can equally be viewed as a "wrath of nature" type class so I don't know how feminine associated the class would be as a whole. Add to this that for 5e there is a 60:40 split for gender among players, I'm not convinced that's a major factor.
It is true that there isn't much portrayal of druid-like characters in modern media - though I would actually count Storm as a druid rather than a sorcerer - which can also be why players have less inspiration to make druid characters in D&D since many players create D&D characters based on other characters they like. You've got Radagast who was humiliated in his portrayal, Tom Bombadil & the skinchanger the Hobbit, Neville Longbottom (also largely a humiliated character), Storm (not very popular / became a joke due to poor writing & poor acting), some portrayals of Merlin, maybe Merida (Brave) or Elsa (Frozen) though they could created as Rangers or Sorcerers as well, kinda Aquaman (though he might be more of a Ranger), Rafikki (Lion King), and maybe some of the characters from Jurassic Park.