The druid is a playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Druids wield nature-themed magic. Unlike clerics, druids do not have special powers against undead and, in some editions, cannot use metal armor. Druids have a unique ability that allows them to change into various animal forms, and various other qualities that assist them in natural settings. Publication history Creative origins The druid is named for the pre-Christian Celtic priests called druids. In the book The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games (2014), Michael Tresca highlighted that "historically, druids did revere trees as nature spirits. [...] Zoomorphism was common enough to justify druids transforming into all kinds of animals. [...] Conspicuously lacking from Dungeons & Dragons is the role of sacrifices in druidic rituals". Original Dungeons & Dragons Druids appeared, but not as player characters, in the original Greyhawk supplement from 1974. They were presented as a player character class in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement in 1976. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition The druid was one of the standard character classes available in the original Player's Handbook, and appeared as a sub-class of cleric. The druid was one of five subclasses presented in the original Players Handbook. Originally, druids were very limited in their choice of weapons and armor (not able to wear any metal armor, and only permitted a few weapons, though that did include the scimitar and crossbow), and were of True Neutral alignment, but were able to cast spells more times per day than the magic-user and at a faster speed than clerics; they also had access to both healing and attack spells (albeit at different levels). Essentially, they were in many ways in between the cleric and the magic-user in function and use, with different special abilities. There were also a set of societal rules governing druidic life as well as higher-level abilities. In order to reach some of the higher levels, players had to defeat a higher-level druid in combat; after accomplishing this, they earned different titles (such as Archdruid) and gained lower-level druids as followers. The later-published accessory Unearthed Arcana featured several higher-level abilities for druids, including the ability to summon various elementals and para-elementals, the ability to enter and survive in various planes (such as the elemental planes and the Plane of Shadow), and so on. Basic Dungeons & Dragons The druid was available as a character class in