Design Notes IV: Making Clerics Different

Note: this is the 4th in a series as I make my own GLOG hack. Start Here.

Clerics have an odd place in my heart. I don’t like that clerics are essentially full spell casters in 5e (along with sorcerers, wizards, bards, and druids), but I do like that they try to get back to their combat roots.

In my mind, Clerics are martial-based and back in AD&D, heck, they didn’t even get spells at first level. I like in 5e that some of the divine domains give martial abilities that make the cleric something besides a heal bot. Clerics, with their heavy armor and (sometimes) martial weapons, should be standing side by side fighters. Yes, they can heal, but they can also take and give out punishment on the front line.

The inclusion of spells vexes me. I mean, I understand a spell list creates a unique character and it allows the cleric to fight, heal, and do other things. It makes the cleric powerful, but the cleric often feels like a Wizard with different ways of dealing with damage. Even the light domain in 5e is a wizard/cleric combo: A class that can heal and sling fireballs at a moment’s notice… which is cool, but not what I want. 

I don’t want a second spell list, nor do I want to deal with a second “type” of magical ability by using “Divine dice” or something similar to, but legally distinct from Magic Dice. It just isn’t where I want to go with the cleric. 

Let’s figure this out without making a pseudo wizard. I think this is going to land closer to a Paladin than a traditional Cleric, but we’ll see this through to the end.

What do I want Clerics to do?

In my mind, Clerics to 3 things. They heal, they fight, and they hate the undead.

But, there are also different kinds of clerics… back to 2nd Edition, there were mythos or divine domains that a cleric could choose. 5e has its divine domains as well. I love this. In an ideal world, clerics should feel varied. A light cleric should feel different than a war cleric. Let’s get on with it.

For those who Heal.

For healing, I like the 5e paladin’s lay on hands ability. There is no randomness to it and it is structured and easy to understand. Done. We can tie the pool to the Cleric’s wisdom stat to still make it important for the Cleric. This should be an initial skill for the class. I also added a 4th template ability, doubling the healing potential of the cleric.

For those who fight

This is where it is going to get dicey. I think the fighting abilities should come with the domain. Some domains come with heavier weapons, while others come with other abilities that can enhance other cleric powers. The abilities are also set up across two different templates. With the first template, the cleric gets a basic skill associated with their domain, and by the third, they get an impressive ability.

These bring some easy variety to our clerics. 

The war domain comes with martial weapons (tied to the fighter’s martial weapons list) at the first template and multiple attacks (like our Fighter) by the third. Since the fighter snags multiple attacks on their second template, this means that the war cleric doesn’t outshine our straight martial class. 

The Storm domain comes with a spear and the ability to add 1d8 lightning damage to an attack that lands up to the character’s wisdom modifier per day. This functions as a pseudo smite (like the 5e paladin). For the third template ability, I added control weather. The storm cleric chants and calls upon their deity to change the weather. If the gods agree, the effect is based on the time chanted. If you chant for

• 1 hour you can change the temperature by 10 degrees, or increment (e.g. sunny to cloudy)

• 2 hours  call on seasonal precipitation

• 3 hours unseasonal precipitation

• 4 hours call on a seasonal storm

• 5 hours calls on an unseasonal storm

• 24 hours call up magical plagues (rain blood or frogs).

The fire or light domain can come with some spells (cast once per day) like light at level 1 and ignite at level three. They don’t use magic dice, they just are cast as if they are used with magic dice (2 dice for light and 3 for ignite). 

For clerics that want to increase their healing abilities, there is the life domain. In the first template, a life cleric adds healing on a short rest. By their third template, they get “Life conduit” where they can use their lay on hands ability to heal disease, poison, ability score damage, or remove a curse.

For those who hate undead.

One final ability for the cleric is Turn Undead. The priest clutches their holy symbol and forces (generally undead) denizens to flee. A classic moment in any vampire film.

I wanted to make the language broader to have uses beyond “undead”. 

Once per day, a cleric can attempt to ward off creatures hostile to your deity. To do so, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring all of your god’s enemies. Each creature that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. This can affect your party members.

A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you.

Most deities loathe the undead, but this can include other groups of other creatures as well. A player should be able to explain why the targets have run afoul of their character’s god. For example, a god of strength may rebuke those who choose to win by trickery. A god of the sun may censure those who live in caves (i.e. live far from the light of the sun). The DM should note all rules/values of the god the player espouses as we wouldn’t want any contradictions. Attempting to turn creatures that the god would see as neutral may grant advantage on saving throws.

In the end.

With healing, fighting, and turning, I think this class is ready to be playtested and it is also time to muse on adding some additional divine domains. What about Love or the Forge? Should curing disease be only part of the life domain? Let me know.

You can download the current version of the Cleric here.

Other places to wonder

If you are interested in this, you can check out my work on the Fighter and Wizard.