HEllo Guys and gals of the paizo world long time no talk!
Well I need some help I have a scout/Druid that is wearing the hide of animals and such skining the magical beasts that we run into. I was just wondering.... is that okay? I mean the way Im playing it off right now is that Nature has two sides the nice beautiful, peaceful side and the ugly, vicious side, so my character loves and respects them for the beauty but if they attack him or kills them he does the ugly thing (Skining Them) to show the beauty of there skins and furs and how easy the swing nature can take in a few secounds..... hows that for a reason? Oh! Also I was wondering if there are any real life animals that do this? Like wear or take something of the other animal or anything like that? Thanks in advance I'm at school right now so I had to make this quick sorry if there is any errors in the text.
Thanks again
Haun
I'm not sure what you mean by "okay". From a game mechanics point of view wearing hide armor is fine for either class (I think, I haven't looked at Scout in a while). If you asking whether it makes you evil or a bad person, it all depends on intent. If while adventuring you have to kill an animal or magical beast and then skin it I think it's fine. I would look at it like you don't want any of the creature to go to waste, so you use the hide for warmth or protection, maybe each the meat of the animal or makes tools and weapons from various parts of it. That all would be fine in my mind. If you actively seek out certain creatures so that you can kill them and skin t =hem, then that would be going down the slippery slope of evil.
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Not really following some of your questions there...
Are you asking if skinning a dead animal is ok? The way that I see it, if you kill an animal for either food or self defense, then taking parts of the dead creature typically isn't "good" or "bad" -- it's just using resources. On the other hand, most people would say that skinning things that have a "soul" or "intelligent" creatures is wrong -- there shouldn't be much of a market for elf skins. Going that route, many magical creatures are intelligent and you might need to be careful.
I guess that I would say -- "It depends on the circustances and the creatures in question."
As far as "real life animals wearing or taking something from another animal"...
I don't know of any animal that uses parts of an animal as a trophy. There might be some animals that may store food or might use parts as part of a nest, but that doesn't seem like what you are looking for.
I guess that this is just a long way of saying that I didn't fully understand what you were asking.
First off, Thank you Chris and Moff for the great insight!
Well Chris I like the whole "dont want the animal to go to waste" thing and "use it for protection and warmth". I dont think my character is going to go out of his way to go kill animals and magical beasts just for there skin or fur so I think Im ok then.
Moff What I was asking was can a druid skin and wear a animals skin and other items and does that make him evil? I get what your saying, and I think I am going to go look up some animals that do that because now Im really intersted to see if there is any even.
Thanks again and I cant wait for more feed back.
I don't think wearing skins is something that makes you evil, or even violates a druids beliefs. Even 'trophy' hunting could potentially be acceptable (though not likely popular with one's druid bretheren); carrion eaters will take care of the body, and it's easily justified so long as it doesn't force an imbalance in the local ecosystem.
What makes anything evil is their intent and the means they take to get there. Ritually torturing an animal before taking its skin is obviously evil. Killing an animal for its hide is not.
I would posit something similar. In D&D, animals do not enjoy the same consideration that intelligent creatures enjoy. Depending on the DM, killing animals may never be evil or might be evil only under certain circumstances. Myself, I find it distasteful to not kill an animal as quickly as possible or to kill an animal just for a trophy. If a player were to do so repeatedly in my game would probably constitute an evil alignment.
I view the druid's code as a sort of new-agey hippy kind of philosophy. This philosophy is not about the absolute forces of Good and Evil that exist in D&D. Killing animals, cutting trees, clearing land and so on is okay--but only in moderation. Practicing any of these acts without necessity is beyond moderation. For example, killing animals is okay as long as you actually use all of its parts. Killing sprees and mass animicide is not. I imagine the druid philosophy not having anything against ritualistically killing an animal--possibly in a drawn out and painful manner--and then eating it. While a good character would probably find such 'torture' to be at least distasteful. Similarly, a Good character might not have any compunctions about flushing out a large amount of game in order to kill them all and hold an opulent feast, while a druid's code would forbid such a brazen disrespect of nature's bounty.
If anyone understands all that, they get a big thumbs up!