The wildshape thread got me thinking about this. I have gamed for twenty or so years and during that time have played with a number of women some friends, some girlfriends and some girlfriends of friends. What I noticed a lot was that when a woman was new to D&D the class they almost always chose to play first was Druid. Yes that is a generalized statement based only on my experience. What I'm trying to figure out is if the experience is solely my own. Do most women start out playing D&D as a Druid? If so what is the draw of the Druid? Don't get me wrong it's a good class that I personally like, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
No, for the women in our group it was a ranger, cleric and sorcerer. Druids are a pretty popular class in our group though, especially with the female players.
I can say that I started D&D playing spell casters when I was a wee girl. Then I somehow moved into playing druids years later. Not sure how that happened, but I think I may try my hand at being a rogue next.
In our group during the 2nd edition days, it was usually cleric with the notable exception of one girl who liked paladins (she liked having healing abilities and the option of smiting stuff). For 3rd edition the new girl played a druid first-or, rather, a druid/sorcerer. There's enough stigma about being a tree-hugger that people don't like druids in our group much. That, and the weapons and armor restrictions. No one argues about their spells, though . . .
Rogues rock. Best class in existence.
Girls/women in my game have played a wizardly hobgoblin, a larcenous human with serpentblood feats, an elven assassin and even a mind flayer, among other things. I've had a lot of people tell me "chicks dig druids" in other groups, but I haven't seen it in mine. If anything, I've seen a slight lean toward evil characters (even in good groups), but only slightly.
Yeah I've had the same experience. I haven't gamed with many new gamer women, but at least half of those who I have gamed with chose druid as their first choice.
My wife can't stand casters; she loves nothing better than to beat people down with a two handed sword. I always have to stay on her good side when we play PvP games. ;)
My experience with female players has been:
One person would only play a sorceror.
One person played a druid, fighter... I'm sure there was others they just played them all badly so they aren't memorable at all.
One person rogue, rogue/mage/arcane trickster. (Prefer the options presented by rogues.)
All I've realized is having an NPC call them the B word or C word is an easy way to start a fight in a bar or otherwise.
Of the few girls I've introduced to the game, barbarian and ranger were most popular choices.
I've DMed for ladies who have played: Monks, barbarians, clerics, rogues and fighters, but narry a druid. I have had a guy play a female druid sorcerer, once but that's about as close as I've gotten.
GGG
The female player in my group has played such a variety it makes my head spin. However her first character ever in one of my games was a bard. I think she tends to like characters who combine things--rogue skills, some spell use. Currently she's playing a ranger but is thinking of adding a prestige class of some kind.
My wife really digs the druids, and always rolls a druid.
The other women at my game table like to try other classes, but with one exception (she has a love for barbarians) the ladies seem to like casters best, and druids best of all.
I've noticed a general tendency towards druids for female players in general - nothing too extreme.
I think it might be something like the general tendency to play clerics early on for new players - a safe bet, but "Cleric", or 2nd edition "Priest" are stereotypically both slightly boring (real world that is) and male, whereas Druid benefits from books, such as Mists of Avalon, for female archetypes.
I also think there's a tendency to "view" any choice of Druid that *is* made as overly common. For instance a friend of mine I've known for 7 years played a druid (centaur) as her second character. Recently I mentioned (in deciding what to play for Pathfinder) that she "always" played Druids. Turns out that first one was the *only* one. Surprised me.
My girlfriend however has already played a druid and a druid/sorcerer in a year and a half of playing (probably out of about 5 characters total), along with a wilder, a fighter/rogue/duelist, and now a ranger.
Rangers are popular first choices for females at my table with Barbarians being maybe the second most popular choice.
Rangers are popular first choices for females at my table with Barbarians being maybe the second most popular choice.
Ive always felt that people gravitate first towards the class and alignment that closest reflect them. Especially where Role Playing is concerned. Its always easiest to play oneself.
Within the last year, I've had five women in my gaming group (Three newbies to RPG and Fantasy and two longterm players including my wife) Of the newbies, each found a nich that they liked in the group. One always played a ranger, one a cleric, and one a thief. My wife is always in a constant state of challenging herself with harder and harder characters (Her newest one is a Monk psionisist berserker...it a long story), but our other longterm player Always has some sort of fighter in the mix of any PC she plays. Infact the one class that no one wants to use is a druid. My sister has One druid character, but she only plays a couple of times a year, and she only did up a druid, because no one else ever did.
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Ive always felt that people gravitate first towards the class and alignment that closest reflect them. Especially where Role Playing is concerned. Its always easiest to play oneself.
I've generally noticed this too. Every time I'm teaching someone new about the game, they always tend to have difficulty stepping out of their own shoes at first.
interesting; now that you mention it; I have seen the same thing; actually they all played druid except for one who played an excellent Barbarian.
Druids in general are not particularly common in groups I have played...the character I started with was equivalent of ranger (if that class would have been available in that game, she would have been that) and after that I think it was wizard and rogue...all three have been popular choices as starting characters for female gamers...men tend to go for fighters or wizards, rarely I have seen any male gamer to start with rogue or ranger.
There are 3 women in our group of 7 (6 players, 1 DM).
1 plays a Half Elf paladin, 1 plays a Human Ranger, and the other plays a Dwarf Barbarian (the rest of the group is Favoured Soul, Rogue, Cleric/Wizard).
They tend to be pretty merciless group in combat.
The other DM (aside from me) in our group, his first wife had two characters that were repeated in every campaign either:
Elven Druid
Elven Sorcerer (though this was only when we complained or she got tired of the Druid)
Generally they had one of two names as well, Sel or something or other similar.
His new wife has played a half-elf Bard and a half-orc Barbarian, we are all overjoyed.
My wife doesn't play, but one of her friends did for a few sessions as a badass elf fighter with no fear.
So, I'm with the proposed statement 33%.
-c
Just tried to get 2 new girls into the game (schedule conflicts with work and school put that attempt on indefinite pause) and they both went right for druid. Beyond them, I've gamed with 7 other women so far, and of them I know of only 2 who did not play a druid within their first 3 characters. The two stand outs played a barbarian and a ranger as their firsts, if I remember correctly.
I think druid catches the female attention for a few reasons:
A: Being in touch with nature. This is an important thing for most of the women I know, but that might be more indicative of who I associate with rather than a game/mentality correlation.
B: Being able to "communicate" with animals. Between speak with animal and wild empathy, this concept always seems to get lingered on. Which then naturally is reinforced by...
C: Having an animal companion. Once animal companion is mentioned, I don't think anything could sway the choice from druid. Again, its subjective, but all the women I know love animals. Getting to have a "mystically bonded to you" animal just makes it better. Which then leads to....
D: Wild Shape. If animal companion didn't sell them, wild shape is the deal maker. I can totally see the draw, some of my favorite characters were druids, but it still amazes me how reliable the druid package is for hooking beggining female players.
E: Healing magic, but free of power structures. I notice a lot of women hear "cleric" and immediately envision a ridgid church heirarchy of some kind. But the ability to heal, to give life, seems like another deeply rooted psychological draw for them, so druid seems to fit the bill of healing without a potentially odd or ridgid heirarchy behind it.
Again, all of this is my experience, and as such holds only as much weight as you see fit to give it. But I must say that I agree, if you'll pardon the somewhat politically incorrect turn of phrase: druids get the girls.
Now that you mention it: in the first D&D campaign that involved my girlfriend a few years ago, she played a druidess as well (3.0 at that time). I guess it has something to do with 1. being able to heal, 2. having rapport with "cute" animals (she got a lynx as animal companion, which was in the end anything but cute, but that is another story). At least that is what I think is the reason. I will ask her tonight.
And the shapeshifting ability may be some reason, as well. I will never forget the scene in which two bugbears tried to ambush her, but she noticed in time and changed from demure and petite human in robes into a raging and charging rhino... I ruled that the bugbears were just frozen with surprise and fear for the round. Charging rhinos are truly nasty...
In between, she tried to play a drow priestess aspiring to be an assassin (the campaign did not work out), so "no more mr. nice guy" (or Ms cute girl) at that point.
Now, she is playing a knight, which so far works quite nice.
Stefan
EDIT: The Black Bard has me beaten to it, and summed it up nicely.
Well, my first wasnt a fighter; my first was a dwarf; that was a class back then; after the release of the hardbound, now called 1st ed; I just played each class for a year, regardless of the game, to learn them all.
going back almost 30 years, can only think of that one female player non druid, though there was one that was multiclassed elf or half elf wiz/druid so I still call that a druid.
E: Healing magic, but free of power structures. I notice a lot of women hear "cleric" and immediately envision a ridgid church heirarchy of some kind. But the ability to heal, to give life, seems like another deeply rooted psychological draw for them, so druid seems to fit the bill of healing without a potentially odd or ridgid heirarchy behind it.
When I introduced my ex-girlfriend to RPG and D&D she chose halfling rogue (as another girl did for her first character) her second: human rogue, then monk...
We played the campaign up to level 10 and she was always complaining, when she couldn't sneak up to someone and kill him with as much damage as possible (so far for the healing aspect).One girl, although she had played D&D before a long time ago, chose human cleric of Lathander, the other (who had played other RPGs but never D&D before) chose wizard...although she was overwhelmed by the spells and chose human Barbarian in the next campaign.
So my call is for rogue and halfling (I guess it would be different if halflings were still hobbit-like ;-).
I never noticed that before, but evidence in my campaigns tends to support that idea. Of the four females I've DMed for, I've had three Druids and one Hexblade.
My wife can't stand casters; she loves nothing better than to beat people down with a two handed sword. I always have to stay on her good side when we play PvP games. ;)
That has been my experience. The women new to gaming, in my opinion, like butt kicking fighters.
The wildshape thread got me thinking about this. I have gamed for twenty or so years and during that time have played with a number of women some friends, some girlfriends and some girlfriends of friends. What I noticed a lot was that when a woman was new to D&D the class they almost always chose to play first was Druid. Yes that is a generalized statement based only on my experience. What I'm trying to figure out is if the experience is solely my own. Do most women start out playing D&D as a Druid? If so what is the draw of the Druid? Don't get me wrong it's a good class that I personally like, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
You know, the are two "new" girls I've played DnD with.
The first, chose a druid.
The second was chosen to play a fighter. Her boyfriend chose it for her. He played a druid.
I suspect that if the second girl was given a choice herself what to play, I think she'd have chosen a druid. He was in the campaign, and the girl joined later, so I don't know. She might've chosen druid and the guy said "I'm playing one, might as well try a fighter."
Nope, not druids. I have seen women play all the (core) classes, but a druid only once. I do not know how many of them were first timers. The two first timers I do know have both been rogues.
I think the choice might reflect the archetypes. A new player is given the PH open to chapter 3 and told to look through it. Of the classes with woman in the archetype, two show a lot of skin (wiz and monk). Not wanting to play into the woman in fantasy (chain mail bikinis are not chain mail) stereotype especially around a table full of men*--drops the choices to three. Druid is the first (comes with a cool wolf) pic alphabetically and the rogue has the decent artwork with the introspective look. Of course this does not explain the lack of paladins, but maybe that is the flattop and blue eye-liner.
*purposely skipped mentioning that stereotype.
I'll admit that I haven't had too many women in my campaign, but I have had two :P. One of them played a Druid (aha!), which I'm pretty sure had to do with the nice picture of the female half-elf with a cute wolf companion... The other girl was in the same group, and she actually would have played a Druid but I got her to play the cleric. Admittedly, both of them were pretty young (13 and 9, respectively), but nonetheless for me the generalization held true...
Of females I've gamed with, druids-only are ahead 2-0.
Hm . . . female players in my groups thus far:
Fighter: 2
Cleric: 2
Rogue: 1
Monk: 1
Psychic Warrior: 1
Ranger: 1
Paladin: 1
No druids in sight . . . ranger was the closest one.
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Hm . . . female players in my groups thus far:
Fighter: 2
Cleric: 2
Rogue: 1
Monk: 1
Psychic Warrior: 1
Ranger: 1
Paladin: 1No druids in sight . . . ranger was the closest one.
From the one regular female player and two occasional players in our group, we've had:
Rogue: 5
Fighter: 3
Wizard: 2
Barbarian: 2
Sorcerer: 1
Cleric: 1
With the women I've gamed with, none of them play druids. EVER. They tend to go for fighter, rogue, or barbarian, but sometimes play wizards. However, I've had several men play as druids. One of them even has two druid characters.
The druid in our party is a woman being played by a man, whose girl friend is new to the game (so is he, now that I think of it), playing the party cleric.
The others have given the girl playing the cleric, all sorts of suggestions on how to build the perfect support NPC. She has mentioned on wanting to kick butt. so with a little help from the DM, she has new clothes, new spells selection and a new Bad ass atittude.
The girls want to kick butt too.
Nope, not druids. I have seen women play all the (core) classes, but a druid only once. I do not know how many of them were first timers. The two first timers I do know have both been rogues.
I think the choice might reflect the archetypes. A new player is given the PH open to chapter 3 and told to look through it. Of the classes with woman in the archetype, two show a lot of skin (wiz and monk). Not wanting to play into the woman in fantasy (chain mail bikinis are not chain mail) stereotype especially around a table full of men*--drops the choices to three. Druid is the first (comes with a cool wolf) pic alphabetically and the rogue has the decent artwork with the introspective look. Of course this does not explain the lack of paladins, but maybe that is the flattop and blue eye-liner.
*purposely skipped mentioning that stereotype.
I think your right on that.
Hmmm.
My gaming friends of the feminine persuasion tend toward the larcenous side of things.
One Played a Barbaian and then a Sorcerer, then a fighter.
One player a rogue/Unfettered (MC Arcana Unearthed)
One played a series of Clerics each to different deities.
One played exclusivly fighters.
One played a series of rogues, bards with a fighter level thrown into the mix.
One played a really cool elven archer for two years.
One did all of her characters with psionics. Never with the core classes.
I can honestly say that I have never played with a woman who played a Druid character or more strikingly never had a druid NPC. She was the DM of our weekly game for two years or so.
In the games I DM Druids are taking a slightly evil turn.
Out of playing with five different women over the past three campaigns only one played a druid (my wife) and that was because of party circumstance. We were coming out of one group where two of the six members decided not to play anymore and joining another that had recently started a new campaign after finishing a long-running 2nd edition campaign. The core classes were already taken so my wife chose druid even though she had just played a cleric in the prior campaign (the prior campaign was her first gaming experience). Her druidess was a half-orc with a lousy charisma stat though, and she played up all sorts of fun things with her. It was especially fun when I introduced a new paladin character after my previous one was killed by drow. This paladin followed Sune the love goddess, and made it his mission to "beautify" his new companion. :)
Unfortunately the campaign died soon after that, but we've had a new one going for almost two years now with me as DM.
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Mmmmm....women are drawn to playing Druids.....interesting concept. I must admit to not seeing much evidence of that amongst me or my friends.
As a female player of 18 yrs experience (and normally involved in an average of 4 campaigns at any one time) I am only now playing my 1st ever Druid and even that is multiclassed with a warmage (mmm...bang bang spells)....just for something different to be honest. Though I will admit to a weakness for clerics.
Out of all the current female roleplayers I know, one plays monks or martial clerics, one likes psi warriors, another plays bards or rogues and another likes sorcerers. I am wracking my brain and can only think of one female of all the ones I played over the years with that consistantly played druids.
Mmmmm....women are drawn to playing Druids.....interesting concept. I must admit to not seeing much evidence of that amongst me or my friends.
As a female player of 18 yrs experience (and normally involved in an average of 4 campaigns at any one time) I am only now playing my 1st ever Druid and even that is multiclassed with a warmage (mmm...bang bang spells)....just for something different to be honest. Though I will admit to a weakness for clerics.
Out of all the current female roleplayers I know, one plays monks or martial clerics, one likes psi warriors, another plays bards or rogues and another likes sorcerers. I am wracking my brain and can only think of one female of all the ones I played over the years with that consistantly played druids.
I think the OP is wondering what class woman play the first time they make a character - i.e. before they even really understand the rules. I have no doubt that woman with lots of experience play a verity of classes and come to favour one or another for a wide number of reasons.
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I personally have never known female that picked a druid as their first character (maybe all my friends are against type). For myself it was a theif, and then a theif/cleric.
I have seen nearly every character type played. Most DMs I know would recommend a beginner character (male or female) to start with a non-spellcasting type for simplicity's sake, especially if they don't own a PHB.
Maybe it is a particuliar 3ed phenomenon linked to the character pictures in the PHB, as suggested earlier in this thread. I have only introduced two new female players to the game since 3rd ed was released (one went monk and the other bard).
well, druids can be melee from hell if the gm doesnt gimp the hell out of them with a lot of stupid add on rules; druids are the like the best of many worlds; they can sneak; fly, buff, heal, blast, melee, tank, swim, breath water; sheesh a whole party of d&d druid would terrorize a gm, but sure would allow some cool opportunites.
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I've DM'd for a lot of women, and played with another. I think the total is something like 10 or 12. Of them, only one played a druid (but she played druid over and over in every campaign). The most popular class by far is barbarian - three of the girls, all new to the game, picked it very enthusiastically. I think it is popular because it's a socially sanctioned way for a girl to show aggression and let off some steam. All three barbarians were female characters as well as players. Of the others, we had a bard, a ranger, a paladin, a fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a ninja. Very melee-oriented, even the cleric (I provided a heal-bot DMPC so she could do something other than heal). The one man in the group (my husband) played the wizard.
Oh, and my first character was a female dwarf fighter with a charisma of 3, but I've played casters since then, when I've had the opportunity to play.
Ive always felt that people gravitate first towards the class and alignment that closest reflect them. Especially where Role Playing is concerned. Its always easiest to play oneself.
Oh dear, my first character ever was a CN vampire fighter...no wonder people think I'm bloodthirsty
The women I've played with over the years have almost all wanted to play rogues.
Mrs. Gneech has recently started to develop some fondness for clerics, as well.
-The Gneech
What I noticed a lot was that when a woman was new to D&D the class they almost always chose to play first was Druid.
We have three women in our group; my wife consistently plays front line fighters (even if her class wasn't built for it), another always plays an arcane spellcaster, but our newest woman did pick a druid because coming to tabletop from World of Warcraft the druid concept was what she was familiar with. Most of the druids I've played with over the years have been men.
Do most women start out playing D&D as a Druid? If so what is the draw of the Druid?
I think the 1st question has been answered well enough. :o)
The 2nd one though, I haven't seen anyone actually answer. Albeit, I did only skim through the posts. I think part of the draw is the nurturer in us, females. Plus with a druid you get to use certain bladed weapons so we can still let our frustration out by beating the living heck outta someone too.
Personally, I started out with a straight fighter the very first time I played D&D. Now, I usually prefer Rogue but will still play fighters. I don't much care for spook pushers or magot abusers but I've played 'em & have even enjoyed some of them.
That's my $.02.