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Clerics are so uniquely D&D (which is the first place I even encountered the word cleric.)
Righteous warriors.
Bane of the undead.
Healers of pain.
Fanatics! Zealots!... At least there's the potential for such flavor.
So MEDIEVAL. Oh how modern D&D has forgotten (more likely -- abandoned/disowned) it's gritty medieval roots -- too European. (Actually D&D is a mixture of Medieval Europe and American Sword & Sorcery.)
I can't imagine D&D without clerics.
I want no part of D&D without clerics.
The MACE is their weapon. What better to crush bone? And as skeletons are the foot-soldiers of evil...
The undead... turn them you say? Suppose turning undead merely held them at bay, slightly cowering, as if from a bright flash of light, not destroy or cause them to flee. Kind of like the old Hammer Horror movies such a notion is actually based on where turning is usually something you do as you are trying to flee.
Suppose, clerics simply did more damage to undead. Double damage. And this can even increase with levels. So, they're still a weapon and undead are still a threat. In B/X, skeletons are made obsolete as soon as you have a 2nd level cleric... that's no fun.
In my imagination, clerics will always explicitly be a Roman Catholic styled class. I know, specialty priests and all that. And what of weird D&D, Dying Earth as opposed to Medieval Europe? Well you do you. But, I like having the Church, and demons, and witches, and black magic, and plagues, and crosses. All built on top of the ruins of the ancient, weird stuff...
Sects devoted Saints, Angels, Apostles...
And yes, CROSSES, not generic, good guy, holy-symbol crap. Actual crosses. And blood spilled in the name of those crosses. Wars and inquisitions. Saints and sinners. Heretics! There is a reason demi-humans live in the shadows of man... with some plotting their violent return.
And no spells. Spells are the realm of black magic (though some wizards may beg to differ, speaking of formulas and such.) Just prayers. And no spell books... Holy Missals.
- Of note: We always treated cleric spell knowledge like magic-users, meaning, you knew what you knew and didn't get to pray for whatever spell you wanted that day. But, if you think about it, a cleric should be able to pray for anything at any time. Their "spells" are direct pleas to their God for help with a very specific problem. Why clerics have to prepare spells is beyond me, unless it involves making sure they have properly memorized a prayer, of which, looking at the real world, there are hundreds, all serving a different purpose. How much time spent to memorize all of those? Most people, who know any, only know a few.
I love the concept of a squad of clerics, all clad in plate and chain, coifs are a must as well as a common tabard, delving deep to purge the unholy. A medieval crew, not unlike this book: VAMPIRE$.
The type of flavor, devotion, and fanaticism I want, Warhammer does better, Sisters of Battle and such. It is up to you to un-bland D&D.
Just some ruminations as I scratched pen to paper.
I am one of the people who can do without the Cleric (and my ideal D&D would be based on the Fighter / Thief /M-U lineup), but I can respect the position. If you go this way, you could do worse than playing the crusading Cleric concept to its hilt. It is flavourful, and less explored these days than the more general priest type.
ReplyDeleteHello my friend! In my mind there are two distinct flavors of the game: 1.) Hardcore Medieval Europe, with all of it's grit, and, 2.) Weird Fantasy, Dying Earth, Moorcock, with YES album cover style and geography. I strongly love both, but tend toward the (at least perceived) darkness of the Middle Ages.
DeleteI was literally thinking about this very thing earlier today. I was considering writing a blog post about the Cleric spectrum in D&D, running from crypto-Christian holy warrior to the Swords & Sorcery style weird cults.
ReplyDeleteWrite it up!
DeleteIn my original campaign there was a mythic reason for why clerics used blunt weapons. They were the members of the Order of St Mitra (aka The Footsoldiers of God), a semi-cloistered militant monastic order, whose patron saint was renowned for pummelling evil with his massive hands. So many of the members of his order liked using maces, forks and hammers with bronze-cast fists on the end. Which could also work as holy symbols of the order. [In the real world the mace was a symbol of divine Christian authority, which is why Kings often carry a rod (symbolic mace).]
ReplyDeleteNot all members of the order had clerical powers. However the Imperial Church was always seeking out people that had the potential to become clerics (as a class), and since 95% of them were peasants, most ended up in the Order of St Mitra (there were other orders/religions with their own specialist character classes; such as Paladins and Inquisitors in the Church, and other religions had other classes; I find it really improves the game when each type of priest/cleric is a completely different character class rather than just a flavour), where they were trained (and [in reality] indoctrinated). Their mission was to go out and rid the world of supernatural evil. To this end they often attached themselves to adventuring parties, who had a tendency to go to places where this sort of evil can be found. In return adventuring parties with a cleric usually found a lot of hospitality (and some support) at Church establishments.
Two important facts from this is that most clerics were not priests (and most priests were not clerics [as the class]). Priests had a different role in the Church (and whilst some Clerics did take sabbaticals as Priests, they were always encouraged to get back out there and bash some Evil). However at 5th level they could chose to take holy orders and act as a priest (marry, bless, etc). Most priest magical abilities are powered by the church/temple they manage. The level names are important in the class, since they measure the level of independent authority of the cleric (so they can ignore the local priests of the Church since they were effectively a Palatine Order [answerable only to the head of their order, his officers, and the Supreme Pontiff]).
[Continued in Part 2]
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ReplyDelete[Continued from Part 1]
ReplyDeleteThat said, there was always a lot of influence from classic Hong Kong cinema in my games. In particular with the role of the adventuring cleric, with films like Green Snake (probably better known to younglings with the fill White Snake and the Sorceror), Mr Vampire, Chinese Ghost Story, and most importantly (at least as far as the evolution of my game goes) Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons Within.
Which is why the primary clerical class in my current game is the Demon Slayer. They either work freelance or for their particular religion, and again go out and seek and defeat supernatural evil. Most are associated with a religion (which is where they got their training). [This fixed the problem that the Imperial Church was both rather xenophobic and focused on the idea of Manifest Destiny, and whilst the clerics did much the same thing in a game, they now had a lot greater freedom in choosing how to do it.]
I did want divine magic and arcane magic to be quite different, but I never liked the idea of clerics demanding magic from their gods [In my old game we used the standard (for us) getting spells when you gained level (since you were always adventuring in a sandbox game). One fun element was rolling randomly for the clerical spell you got and then trying to interpret what your deity actually wanted you to do given the powers you manifested; although this was moderated by actions in the game and prayer.]
So in my new campaign clerical magic is intrinsic to the cleric themselves and is based on the clerics ability to "turn undead" (which is the cantrip-level magic ability for clerics in my game). Thus their actual spells (sutras), are antithetic in nature and focused on banishment and dismissal. One aspect of this is that I did change the names of spells to remove the creation aspect common to the Judeo-Christian mythology of the OD&D cleric. So, for example, continual light became banish darkness and has the effect of pushing the darkness in an area away from the cleric, incidentally destroying any creatures of darkness (such as vampires) that don't escape ("full sunlight," remember), leaving it a roiling mess at the boundary of the spell. Which naturally also had the side effect of removing the spiritual darkness and gloom that can dwell in the heart of the people in the area of effect. Which makes it an invaluable spell for those camping in the depressing gloom of the underworld, and they can always wake up well rested. In comparison, the arcane magic spell of the same name allows a mage to summon/create magelight. This can take many forms (point source or dispersed) and colours, but no matter how bright it is, has no other magical side-effects (except when used to blind someone temporarily by simply being a bright light and/or "flash grenade").
Anyway, sorry for the length but I thought you (and others) might be interested in the approaches I took.
Thank you for taking the time to share this rich world! I also, have always made clerics roll their spells randomly (same with mages too, that way, not every mage knows sleep/charm/magic missile), a God has different plans for everyone. I hope others see what you've written here and are inspired, for you have successfully un-blanded D&D!
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