Preserving/Defiling need to be reworked as world-specific game mechanics that are available to all arcane spellcasters, at all times, regardless of subclass. Defiling especially, because that is the entire point of it. That it's the easy way, the careless way, that it is what reduced the world of Dark Sun to the near-lifeless place it is today. Not feats, not backgrounds, not classes -- it needs to be an absolutely pervasive mechanic that is tied to Dark Sun itself.
Just because there is specific subclasses tied to preserving/defiling, doesn’t mean that they won’t make it a mechanic.
It shouldn't be tied to any subclasses at all. It's as pervasive in Dark Sun as the Mists are in Ravenloft.
And in thinking more about it, and digging thru old Dark Sun stuff, I've realized that the Druid is fine -- there's always been a group of Druids in the setting seeking to trying to restore life to the lands, and it fits that well. It's really only Defiling where my issues actually lie.
Preserving/Defiling need to be reworked as world-specific game mechanics that are available to all arcane spellcasters, at all times, regardless of subclass. Defiling especially, because that is the entire point of it. That it's the easy way, the careless way, that it is what reduced the world of Dark Sun to the near-lifeless place it is today. Not feats, not backgrounds, not classes -- it needs to be an absolutely pervasive mechanic that is tied to Dark Sun itself.
Thats not how their design elements work in 5e. Most player options are not hardcoded into a setting. Its an extra planar game world, and people might interact from other places, but also people want to be able to use these player mechanics in other official game settings or homebrewed settings.
And also, as has been said, the game needs to work and be interesting for more than just a subset of classes.
Darksun was never accessable by planar magic. This is part of why they should not try to refresh old worlds. They can't possibly make most people happy.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I shot down someone else talking about a wizard being counted as a druid being ignored in some movies. That's irrelevant. I even said it's outside the scope of the discussion.
What is not irrelevant is that druids are unpopular in D&D. That's fact, and it's been backed up by data from D&D beyond several times. Here's a look at one of the instances that's right here on DDB, showing druid performing poorly in comparison to most classes. Of the core classes only Sorcerer and Monk performed worse. Monk was notoriously bad in 2014, no shocker nobody played it. Sorcerer is sort of considered a discount wizard with a worse spell list, so no shocker that sorcerer performed worse as well. Artificer isn't core, is kinda crap, etc etc.
So, WOTC has to decide...do they gamble spending dev cycles on a class that isn't guaranteed to generate excitement, or do they focus on things that they know people want. It's an easy call. Druid is a gamble. You may not like that, but it's the truth.
I wrote that the problem related to the popularity of the class in 5e does exist. I even specifically pointed out that the problem was in the implementation of the class. One of the most well-known problems was with conjuration spells (such as conjure animals).
But in previous editions this problem did not exist.
It shouldn't be tied to any subclasses at all. It's as pervasive in Dark Sun as the Mists are in Ravenloft.
And in thinking more about it, and digging thru old Dark Sun stuff, I've realized that the Druid is fine -- there's always been a group of Druids in the setting seeking to trying to restore life to the lands, and it fits that well. It's really only Defiling where my issues actually lie.
Thats not how their design elements work in 5e. Most player options are not hardcoded into a setting. Its an extra planar game world, and people might interact from other places, but also people want to be able to use these player mechanics in other official game settings or homebrewed settings.
And also, as has been said, the game needs to work and be interesting for more than just a subset of classes.
Darksun was never accessable by planar magic. This is part of why they should not try to refresh old worlds. They can't possibly make most people happy.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha