Thought of the day Thursday: Clerics

I’ve never really been able to get fully behind the idea of clerics as presented in Dungeons and Dragons games. For whatever reason, a traveling clergyman that wields the power of the gods really just leaves me cold. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that certainly there is a place for priests, churches, gods, myth and legend; but I can’t really get behind the combat medic position of the priest. Yes, I’m familiar with the Hospitaliers, the Templars, and other militarized orders of knighthood, but in my mind I just can’t resolve a traveling clergy member delving into the dungeon to act as an EMT for the party. I’ve never played a cleric, and in most of the games I’ve been in, clerics were usually not part of the part. Instead we’d use healing potions and visit the local apothecary for some healing. You know something? It seemed to work out alright. What about undead and the like? Well, actually, most of the times we’d just fight through them. Once we found a holy relic that was proof against undead. We simply improvised, adapted and overcame. At any rate, on the campaign setting I’m working on, I’m really thinking about doing away with clerics (or probably limiting them to an NPC class and make them more of true priests than the group’s corpsman). So for me, in my new milieu, the cleric will be right out. Well, that's all for now. Happy Thanksgiving all! Time to get back to the cooking!

Comments

  1. CormacNovember 25, 2010 at 11:53 PM

    It is just a different kind of magic - given to the cleric by the Flying Spaghetti Monster (or whatever kind of $deity you choose).

    Don't overthink it - I think that the reason so many classes exist is due to the fact that game designers are trying to be inclusive to how people like to role play. There are some that want a level of spirituality while smiting their foes.

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  2. XyanthonNovember 26, 2010 at 8:38 AM

    I think there are plenty of settings or the core rules that utilize clerics, demi-humans (something else I really want to do away with - but more on that later), and other such things. I don't necessarily want to rewite D&D, I'd just like to do my spin on it. Not that there is any thing wrong with clerics but me personnally, not so much, and they don't really strike me as having much of a presence in fantasy literature. Well, that is at least until Dragonlance. Which is ironic since the entire firts trilogy was devoted to the ABSENCE of the gods and clerics.

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