so um. I have a question and I didn't want to interrupt the d&d fantown thread with it. First of all, I'm white and also Very Nervous about Getting Things Wrong because I don't want to be That Guy. Now, I have two characters. One is an NPC and my player character's mom, and a human Druid who either focuses on plants (a la Mother Nature) or weather (a la storm from xmen). She has dark skin and curly hair. Second is player character, who is a half-elf shaman. She also has dark skin and curly hair. I'm worried bc of the fact that she's a shaman with dark skin with a mother who is very connected to nature means that I'm being Awful and a Racist, but at the same time playing a shaman with fair skin would just make me feel worse, and I'm Really Committed to playing as a shaman due to it being a hybrid class of two of my faves (oracle and witch). so I guess what I'm wondering is, am I worrying too much, or should I change my character to being white because I'm white even though that feels wrong to me, both because of the connotations and because she travels all the time and spends a lot of time in the sun, so I feel like she'd have naturally darker skin anyway?
Shamanistic beliefs are common to a lot of different cultures and peoples. It's about as general a term as "monotheism." I don't think it's racist to play a black druid or shaman, provided you're not, like, playing to a bullshit pop-culture Santeria/voodoo caricature with shrunken heads and cannibalism. But I'm a white dude so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Another thing to consider -- and I think I'm on firmer ground here -- is the nature of your D&D group and what they're comfortable with. The ethnicity of your character may never even come up, or it may become relevant depending on the campaign setting and how much the DM integrates character backstories. It's hard to say.
If u are not doing [This] or [This] / [This] you should be pretty okay. And honestly I dont think you should worry. One of the best part of Dnd is that though u can see some real world pulls, if u think something shady u can change it for your world and lore. I don't know how the book describes the shamanism class, but if you think the way the book presents is inherently racists, change it. If you think you are creating an idea off of a bunch of ingrained racialised tropes, just reflect on why you though that, and how you will change or look at your character after that.
Considering she's an idealist who is very much about doing things Her Way and not about to give people spiritual advice, and she's a doctor who has lots of medical knowledge along with magical healing abilities, I think I'll probably be fine. She's one of the player characters so I'd say she's a main character. For the last bit, I'd also say that her religion isn't exactly magic? Her spirit thing (which is kinda where she gets her powers from) is a completely separate thing from religion for her--she doesn't worship them, but rather has a deep respect for them. The way she treats them is that they're kind of like friends. I'm not sure she even HAS any one specific deity. She IS the go-to person about lore, which might be bad, but that's lore from around the entire continent because she's traveled a lot as a nomad and also picks up a lot of things from her patients. Plus as a player I'm usually the one they go to about forgotten details bc I take incredibly detailed notes. even if I'd chosen another class I'd still probably have had my character have darker skin because I'm tired of my characters all being the same, and it made sense given the fact that she's out in the sun all the time and her mother is from the desert (Where my character was also born). Thanks for the input, both of you!
