Camouflage

[Valerion]

Question: Why is it that rangers have the ability to camouflage themselves, and druids don't?
Reason for asking: It would make sense that a druid could hide in the forest. Just about every other magic user has detect magic, and there are items in the game that grant permanent detect magic, therefore making spirit form useless in many PK encounters. And yes, I keep a steady supply of invisibility potions also, but every magic class except for druids can detect that, so it is also worthless against mages.
What it would do:
1. Make druids harder to find. (Especially useful while under rank 30, where you are a target by anyone and everyone)
2. Put druids on an equal playing field with other mage classes, especially at low ranks.
3. Make druids one of the best fleeing classes. (This would be the main argument for turning camouflage down, as I can see it) Spirit form, camouflage, and pathfinding. However, they don't have any kind of gate, teleport, or word of recall spell, so I don't think it would be too much.
4. Give people another reason for calling druids overpowered. (I don't really believe this, although I do think they are one of the most well-rounded classes)
Of course, all of this is my opinion, but I feel that camouflage is the one skill that would even out druids in PK matches. I'm not saying that tornado and their maledictions aren't great, but when it comes down to it, spirit form just isn't enough for getting away. Please let me know what you think, as I have been wondering about this for quite some time now.

[Allie]

Druids have spirit form, which is good anywhere, as opposed to camo only in forests. Personally I think spirit is better.

[Clifton]

If druids could cammo, you know what that'd be like? That'd be like chasing thieves or ninjas in extra damage. They already pull DISEMBOWELS and have pets to rescue/add damage, whatever... plus They have an assload of offensive spells. The reasonable conclusion is that they are more of an offensive class. Besides, they're clerics of nature. Most of their powers come from chanting, not skills like Ranger's camoflauge, beast call, etc... etc...

[Valerion]

Ok, so spirit form is good everywhere. Wonderful.
Example: A druid and a fire giant berserker are fighting at let's say, the 25th rank or so. Mr. Fire Giant Berserker goes and gets a pair of spectacles, which are easy as shit to get. Now Mr. Druid is f***ed, unless he can run like a bat out of hell. Couple this with the fact that most mage classes get detect magic at like what? The 3rd rank or something? Giving them camo would only make them hard to find like thieves or ninjas in the FORESTS, which is where they should be anyways. So who cares? For RP purposes alone, you should have to be damn good to catch a ranger or druid in the woods anyways.

[theobserver]

You can apply the same argument to invisibilty. Most mages get detect invis before level 10 and clear potions and other detect invis items are easy to get, so why not give every mage hide to help to escape pks?

[Sebryn]

spirit form + pathfinding + pets + the correct mixed potion(s) + all the kickass maledictions = good enough (IMO)

Adding camouflage would overpower an already arguably overpowered class. Foraging/brewing/mixing (while kinda time-consuming) is a very underutilized and underrated skill set (IMO).

[Seryie]

I played a druid for a while, and they are overpowered as shit i am the sukiest pk'r around, and it wasnt that hard to kill.. the pets the spells *drools* they are very very buff!

[Valerion]

Ok, if you've looked at the post going on in Mocker's Tavern about the Best of the Best, you will notice something. There are repeating answers from people about the following classes:

Invoker: None
Ninja: None
Psionicist: None
Ranger: None
Druid: None

First of all, if these were all overpowered classes, there would be more people playing them. Obviously these classes need some recoding if very few people want to play them. But I'm sure Dav is aware of which classes need recoding, and that's his business and his alone to determine what needs to be fixed and what doesn't. It's his MUD.
And Sebryn, you have some good points. Thank you for responding to my post with something intelligent. I completely disagree with you about camouflage, but at least you are giving me a valid reason why it shouldn't be done. That's all I'm asking for.
However, I do not believe that a Druid is a very formidable PK'er until he gets his lifeblood spell, Tornado. Sure, druids that just go around chanting tornado suck IMO also, because there are some very good spells they have besides that.
I do love the druid class, and it is one of my favorite classes that I've ever played with on any MUD. I'd just like to see a few things revamped, and I'm trying to get my ideas out there about this VERY underrated profession. Thanks for any input you all have. I just wanted to clarify why I am putting these druid posts out there.

[Rezakhan]

One further point--giving druids camo would effectively mean that warrior classes would have almost no way to kill them. All the classes that have some form of hiding (ninjas, thieves, rangers) are classes without protective shield, meaning a warrior/zerker has to bash/bodyslam them to death before they can run off and hide. Since druids have might of oaks, which takes away those skills, it would give the druid a hell of an advantage over those types of classes.

[Stephen2]

Druids.. Are.. AWESOME!

On the old forum Dav/Burzuk (P.S. Where is Burzuk? Haven't heard from him on here for a while...) many times listed the many, many cool things about them.

From my experience:

Enhanced damage
Best two defences in the game
The most powerful affliction in the game
Two half decent pets (albeit low, low HP)
Cure serious on a GROUP (awesome)
Prot shield/Trip protection in 1 spell

Christ, they're powerhouses.. If I make another character any time soon, it'll be another druid. Halfling druids are amazing, I can't believe there's no good ones at fifty...

To be blunt, camoflague is an overpowered skill. It lets you hide anywhere in a forest (there are forests EVERYWHERE), with only ONE class being able to see you.

To give ANOTHER overpowered skill to a stacked class would be rather silly.

[Davairus]

[Burzuk]

[Accident-Prone]

Druids ROCK HOUSE! They are a powerhouse class. Camoflauge would be a great rp skill. Only would make them almost unstoppable. I think they are fine the way they are. At least they can see camoflauged rangers.