Pandaren druids and other class/race options

Based on lore and nothing else. Each of these cases made are based on canon and not a personal wishlist! (Not that there’s anything wrong with having a wishlist. Blizzard is also welcome to break their lore whenever they want, because it’s theirs.) It is also not based on faction class balance.

Druid:

First in line are Pandaren.
Canonically, druidism is a deep and spiritual connection to the Emerald Dream. The Emerald Dream is the “blueprint” of Azeroth. The Wild Gods roam here.

This connection is what grants one druidism.

  • Night elves call their Wild Gods Ancient Guardians. These are Cenarius, Malorne, Goldrinn, Aviana, Ursoc, etc.
  • Trolls call their Wild Gods Loa. A few are Hakkar, Bwonsamdi, and Gonk.
  • Tauren have a historical connection to Cenarius, respected for their worship of balance and nature.
  • Worgen were originally a forbidden druid shapeshift used by night elves harnessing the gift of the Wild God Goldrinn. The curse, being of druid origin, enhanced the nature abilities of those Gilnean humans who were cursed. (A few Gilneans were known for practicing nature magic, but very weak spells, because humans are not good at nature magic.)
  • Pandaren call their Wild Gods August Celestials.

Pandaren have a deep, innate, and shockingly personal connection to their Wild Gods, known to them as the August Celestials. (No, I don’t know what happened to the September or October Celestials.)

The four August Celestials:
Chi-Ji, the Red Crane: Presented as a healer
Niuzao, the Black Ox: Presented as a tank
Xuen, the White Tiger: Presented as melee DPS
Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent: Presented as ranged DPS

These four could grant their forms to Pandaren as a blessing. They are perfect for the four druid specs, and it would look dope.
There is actually no non-druid race on Azeroth that makes more sense for druids than Pandaren. There is nothing stopping them and I will advocate for Pandaren druids until my breath runs out.

An argument can be made for dwarves.
Least likely to be druids are those not native to Azeroth, those who abuse nature, and those who are known as weak nature magic-users.

*Please do not get me started on Kul Tirans. It gets me heated.

Paladin:

Conduits of the Light.

First up are night elves. While the Light they revere is different from the Light that others harness, night elves still weaponize it and use it to defend themselves. Night elf paladin spells would harness Elune’s Light. There are night elf paladins scattered throughout Azeroth.

As Elune’s chosen, Tyrande is the best example of a conduit of Elune; should Elune simply allow her Light to be used in such a way, night elves may be paladins. Elune may do as Elune wants.

Forsaken: Potential. Calia, Arthas’ sister… you know.

Monk:

Originally a fighting style invented in an uprising, out of desperation, monks require no weapons; they fight with their fists only. The magic used, Chi, is the Pandaren word for “spirit”. Chi uses the same spiritual magic that shaman do.

Worgen: A spicy take, but due to the inherent rage of the curse, worgen are a race who work harder than almost any other to find inner peace. I believe this should be highly valued. If orcs can quell their rage, then worgen can, too. A worgen who can tame the beast and find inner peace is a worgen deserving of respect. Just not Genn. He’ll never find inner peace, that man is troubled.

Goblins: Surely they’re not all bad.

Lightforged draenei: This seems a bit obvious. Lightforged are draenei, just with a bit of Light in them. The Light should not interrupt one’s connection with spirit magic, and it does not stop a draenei from fighting with their fists. Lastly, there is no lore saying the Light is not compatible with spiritual magic.

Shaman:

Should join druids in having a 4th specialization. Commanding earth and stone; wielding it as shield, weapon, and armor, shaman could tank heavy damage and taunt their enemies.

Continuing on: Shaman, using faith-based spiritual magic, harness the elements in an agreement with the spirits.

Lightforged draenei: Nearly the same argument as above; as far as I know, there is no written lore that states the Light is incompatible with spiritual magic. Though, it is implied with Lightforged not having shaman or monk currently playable.

Perhaps the spirits think the Light is too bright and shines in their eyes. The spirits demand you turn that off.

Demon Hunter:

The spiciest take incoming.

Zandalari trolls: Yes, you read that right. I hate it too. I was filled in recently on demoniacs:

Demoniacs are Zandalari trolls who take dealing with demons one step further. Through an ancient and arcane ritual, demoniacs allow a demon to enter their being. Rather than let it possess them though, they enslave the demon from the inside, absorbing the power of the beast for their own command. It is a feat few are ever able to master. The demoniac seeks to embody power outright, not just possess it. More than one demoniac has lost a fight with a demon, but with the enemies of the Zandalari threatening them, the power that a demoniac is able to unleash on the tribe’s foes is worth the sacrifice.

Quite frankly, this is literally the description of a demon hunter ritual, leaving out the bit where the ritual-takers are shown vile, incomprehensible visions of what the demons have done, causing them to rip out their own eyes in desperation for the visions to stop.

It is inarguable that these are, basically, demon hunters, just without the edgy motive for vengeance.

On the flip side: It is implied this may have been retconned, but that’s not confirmed. Further evidence of that is demon hunter lore seems to have been borrowed from this. Blizzard may have taken this lore and retconned demoniacs. Again, there is no confirmation on that. Until there is, I am cautiously pro-troll DH, because facts.

~~~
And that’s that. I’m probably missing some, but this list compiles all I can personally advocate for. I may update this if I’m reminded of any others. Thank you, and give worgen tails.

7 Likes

Agree. Pandaren druids, Night elf Paladins, and Monk being available to all races makes sense. Only reason why I could see Zandalari DH’s not working is because Blizzard seems to want them super exclusive to BE’s and NE’s, otherwise they would have made Nightborne and Void Elf Demon Hunters.

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And that’s totally true. There are workings outside of the lore keeping certain class/race combos from happening. This list is meant to be purely based on lore, without taking into account “outside forces” like faction class balance and game design!

Bwonsamdi and Hakkar are both loa but not used for druidism.

No, but LFD have no connection the elements that we’re aware of.

I don’t think that’s a spicy take at all, I agree completely.

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Correct. These examples are only meant to get across what Loa are, because they’re the most popular ones. :~)

Regular draenei! The plain blue flavor. The spirits like draenei.

They learned from Nobundo, who was one of the broken contacted by the elements. I don’t really like draenei shaman, I think broken should be a playable race who can be shamans instead. That, or draenei customization options, and we can pretend all draenei shamans are broken, minus a few exceptions.

Zandalari warlocks also should have been playable bc of demoniacs but blizz HAD to remove them because they had too many classes.

I read about the demoniacs years ago an hoped that they could be, but alas they aren’t. It makes sense tho, they are the OLDEST race in the game, they should be every class.

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I agree with you! Lore-wise, they should.

I want to be a void paladin!

Tauren Rogues:

Longwalkers are already a thing.

Tauren Mage:

Tauren connect with their Yagnol cousins and start to appreciate the joys of lighting a dude up.

Click clack click clack

They can wear some slippers.

I would play a Pandaren if they could be druids.

Completely in support of this. It really makes no sense that goblins can’t be monks at this point.

All right I’m on board for all of it OP.

Sign me up.

I really want to see Dwarf druids through the Wildhammer customization options.

Would be nice to get another druid option.

I agree with all of these except for the Zanda demon hunters.
I actually think it should be Draenei and Orcs.

Why?

Both of their worlds were completely destroyed by the Legion, Argus and Draenor. I’d imagine some of them would go to extreme lengths to achieve vengeance for their kin.

I mean… so, like, yeah, but everyone has lost a lot to the Legion. Night elves/blood elves haven’t lost their world, yet they’re DHs. With this reasoning, any race could be a DH. I guess I’m looking for extensive lore that already proves they would do it, like with the other classes I mentioned! Zandalari are already doing it, and elves are even their kin.