D&D 4E Missing Domains?

There seems to be a lack of variety and authenticity among clerical domains. I think there are lots of things we need domains for, like Birth, Disease, Fertility, Justice, things there are plenty of gods for, but few if any spells. I would like to see a Motherhood domain. Every pantheon has a mother goddess, most have several, but is there a spell to ease labour pains? Is there a spell to fertilise parched soil or save a harvest from a storm? Seems like some area are lacking... Suggestions?

D&D, atleast 3rd edition which I am most familair with, seems to intentionally ignore addressing anything relating to pregnancy, childbirth, or sex in general.

With that said, some spells for a Motherhood domain might be:

1- Healthful Rest, Healers Vision, Omen of Peril
2- Ease Pain, Status
3- Nature's Balance
4- Remove Fatigue, Greater Status
5- Monstrous Regeneration, Revivify, Rejuvination Cocoon
6- Find The Path
7- Fortunate Fate
8- Cocoon of Life
9- Miracle

Domain power might be to use Deathwatch as a spell-like ability, either quite a few times per day or at will.

As for soil, Plant Growth in it's 2 versions should do what you're asking.

D&D has tried very hard to stay away from anything relating to sex or child birth, but if you really want an entire ruleset for it, you could try to find the Book of Erotic Fantasy.
It is a terrible book, half the pages are filled with naked creatures, and a good portion of the spells involve making the size of your sexual organs fit better into a centaur, but it does have some good rules about childbirth and more or less what you're looking for in terms of Fertility and Motherhood.

When you have a game that tries to blur the lines between Males and Females, it is hard to give special treatment to either of the two.

I have the BOEF, and I actually use it quite a bit. What I am really on about is the lack of spells and domains for things that people actually pray about and have gods devoted to. The average beet farmer in Faerun cares about his crops, his wife, his kids, and his livestock. Now I know it isn't dramatic or exciting but spells for common day to day things add realism and depth to a campaign. The most powerful cleric in ancient Rome was not the priest of Jove or Mars, it was the high priestess of VESTA, goddess of the hearth...

Samloyal23 said:

I have the BOEF, and I actually use it quite a bit. What I am really on about is the lack of spells and domains for things that people actually pray about and have gods devoted to. The average beet farmer in Faerun cares about his crops, his wife, his kids, and his livestock.

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The game is focused on tactical combat and Exploration. Pages devoted to things outside this scope wind up being extraneous to those playing the game in it's intended scope. If I sat down to play Dungeons & Dragons and we wind up spending time on something that doesn't bring us closer to a Dungeon or a Dragon, I'd be pissed at whoever decided to turn the game into Talking & Townsfolk.

I main problem is that, ignoring the other half-divine classes, Clerics are the ones who get Domains and Spellcasting and who expects a Cleric to spend their lives going and casting spells like "Magic IVF" (yes I suck at making spell names) on an almost daily basis.

People who worship the goddess, or god but in general they were always women, of Fertility believe that s/he can grant them the power without any sign, including a Cleric coming around to bless the "event" or a big event, much as the Romans believed VESTA did...

Samloyal23 said:

There seems to be a lack of variety and authenticity among clerical domains.

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Typically, the D&D rules have not cared about anything that doesn't help you do D&D's core game: go into dungeons, kill monsters, and take their stuff. Economically, there probably isn't a large market for gritty esoteria, and experienced designers and publishing firms tend to stay away from that sort of thing. Making matters worse, when designers have taken their hands to it, they've typically done a bad job of it.

Personally, I'd be interested in such a text, but I wouldn't expect it to be forthcoming any time soon. Nor for that matter do I have the time to do it myself.

Celebrim said:

Typically, the D&D rules have not cared about anything that doesn't help you do D&D's core game: go into dungeons, kill monsters, and take their stuff. Economically, there probably isn't a large market for gritty esoteria, and experienced designers and publishing firms tend to stay away from that sort of thing. Making matters worse, when designers have taken their hands to it, they've typically done a bad job of it.

Personally, I'd be interested in such a text, but I wouldn't expect it to be forthcoming any time soon. Nor for that matter do I have the time to do it myself.

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The inability of a DM to wring drama out of everyday events shows a lack of ambition and creativity and the inability of designers to make a realistic, dense magical world does nothing to inspire trust in their future iterations. What do you think their should be domains for that don't exist now? I think the availability of a Fertility domain with spells for improving crops and making babies (aka future minions of the local evil tyrant) could make or break a kingdom's wealth...

Samloyal23 said:

The inability of a DM to wring drama out of everyday events shows a lack of ambition and creativity and the inability of designers to make a realistic, dense magical world does nothing to inspire trust in their future iterations. What do you think their should be domains for that don't exist now? I think the availability of a Fertility domain with spells for improving crops and making babies (aka future minions of the local evil tyrant) could make or break a kingdom's wealth...

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The lack of deities which believably would inspire reverence and worship in D&D settings is something that I find both unsurprising and rather sad. The irreligious lack the proper prespective to create a compelling pantheon, and the religious fear treading in such dangerous waters.

The best D&D supplement in the history of the game is Aaron Loeb's "The Book of the Righteous". No one has ever done a better job of integrating religion into a setting, but still, it's clearly intended to create a framework that explains D&D rather than a cosmology which is believable outside those constraints.

But yeah, fertility is something that people typically really care about, whether its the fertility of crops, livestock, or their families. But really what strikes me most about D&D dieties is how little drama and narrative that they acrue to themselves. I mean, take the 12 Olympians as a familiar example. Each of them is the patron of probably a dozen different things, and each has a dozen or more stories to explain those relationships.

I'd like to see a book of spells (or rituals) with effects that are too minor to be of much interest to PCs, but which had a scale and duration sufficient to be of interest to communities as a whole. For one thing, it would reduce the assumption on the part of players (and some DMs) that good aligned NPC clerics have nothing better to do with their time than wait around being a dispensary for various cures to ailments the PC's have acquired by snooping around in dark places.

Samloyal23 said:

What I am really on about is the lack of spells and domains for things that people actually pray about and have gods devoted to. The average beet farmer in Faerun cares about his crops, his wife, his kids, and his livestock. Now I know it isn't dramatic or exciting...

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frankthedm said:

The game is focused on tactical combat and Exploration. Pages devoted to things outside this scope wind up being extraneous to those playing the game in it's intended scope. If I sat down to play Dungeons & Dragons and we wind up spending time on something that doesn't bring us closer to a Dungeon or a Dragon, I'd be pissed at whoever decided to turn the game into Talking & Townsfolk.

Click to expand...

Celebrim said:

Typically, the D&D rules have not cared about anything that doesn't help you do D&D's core game: go into dungeons, kill monsters, and take their stuff. Economically, there probably isn't a large market for gritty esoteria...

Click to expand...

Samloyal23 said:

The inability of a DM to wring drama out of everyday events shows a lack of ambition and creativity and the inability of designers to make a realistic, dense magical world does nothing to inspire trust in their future iterations. What do you think their should be domains for that don't exist now? I think the availability of a Fertility domain with spells for improving crops and making babies (aka future minions of the local evil tyrant) could make or break a kingdom's wealth...

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Hey Now...

...I just offered up a list of plenty of out-of-combat-directly-applicable-to-a-midwife-delivering-a-baby-type spells. If you'd like to ignore my post, I guess you can, but expect me to feel slightly miffed. Also, expect that the creators of any of those spells might feel neglected.

Have you looked at the Ease Pain spell? Nearly useless mechanically, but excellent Roleplay, personal touch stuff.

While I agree that D&D's primary focus is to raid dungeons, kill stuff, etc., the daily stuff is out there, you just need to find it. The creators did include a variety of the less-glamorous-not-kill-stuff spells, they just don't get as much press. Doesn't mean they're not out there.