Ok so this is a super narrow digression on the general topic here, but just because the Druid taboo was brought up regarding hide and such. I always thought the "no metal armor" restriction for druids was a weird call. Especially since they were allowed to use draggers scimitars and sickles, not just as an option, but as basically their class thematic archetypal weapons niche heheh. So it just didn't really make sense to me, especially since actual Druids (or at least the cultures we associate with them) did work metal, quite prolifically, to the extent that you could probably make a case for Druids having some kind of deep wisdom about it even. About the 7 ancient metals and their secrets perhaps. Or like maybe riffing on how Iron was first discovered falling from the sky as shooting stars, going that whole angle with it. I think the taboo shouldn't be against the use of the metal per se, but rather the mining of it or how it was wrought from the earth. And like keeping with that, perhaps there are certain balanced methods employed by wise Elves or Dwarves, where the veins of ore are tapped and the furnaces stoked in way that was less disrespectful of the natural processes somehow, whereas something crafted by humans using a more quick and easy/destructive method would be more the taboo. I think they could spell that out a bit, like in the lore, and then you have some more room to provide masterwork or enchanted versions of the same, so the druid as a class doesn't totally miss out on whatever cool new tradeoff dynamic is cooked up for the tiers. I do feel like Hide kinda only exists, because Druids, but for a Druidic ethos that's almost even a weirder one than the metal taboo thing. Like I guess you could say that on some version the hide was collected in some sort of sacrificial rite where it was made holy as a gift or whatever. But that kind of idea of just a bunch of pelts stichted together that we usually get seems pretty far off from that lol. To me it bring up a point, more for the game than the proposed system revamp, which is just that the armor isn't really visualized all that well to type. Like the versions of leathers we see, being more like clothing than armor, or the "padded armor" being more like just regular old clothing made of regular old cloth hehe.
I 100% agree about how weird it is that druids don't wear metal especially because of their weapons, as you pointed out, but also because metal is natural too. It's bizarre that they'd consider any kind of shaping of nature or combining it to be taboo. It's like saying they don't make medicines because they must combine ingredients.
But, I guess, they didn't want druids looking like knights in full armor. They wanted to hinder them to keep them more like wizards.
