D&D 5E Anybody else a bit disappointed by the underwhelming selection of Godly Domains?

Zer0Fox · Apr 12, 2017

I'm a longtime D&D player, I've mostly played/run 3.5 and Pathfinder with some AD&D and a tiny bit of 4th, but recently picked up the books for 5th Edition. On the whole, I really like it. It seems more story driven and I really like almost everything I'm finding in it. That being said, when I set out to populate my world, I came across the harshly short list of Domains. From what I can see they are trying to remove alignment's effect on anything resembling game mechanics and, due to that I'm not super surprised Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are removed. I can't say I agree with that move, but at least it's consistent. I'm not sure why they felt the need to remove Travel, Magic, Death and the myriad other domains that used to be available. I know Domain adds a great deal more to a clerics toolkit now than just some spells and I can see they tried to roll a good deal of them together to simplify, but it just feels really bland to me.

I am just starting out here, so there very well could be more options published in later books , and I guess I'm just venting. Anybody know if there are any more options or resources out there apart from just making up my own? Alternately any thoughts or commiseration?

KahlessNestor · Apr 13, 2017

Death Domain is in the DMG, but mostly for evil NPC use. Arcana Domain is in SCAG. There were a few trial balloons of further domains in the Unearthed Arcana releases, but these aren't official.

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Demetrios1453 · Apr 13, 2017

Zer0Fox said:
I'm a longtime D&D player, I've mostly played/run 3.5 and Pathfinder with some AD&D and a tiny bit of 4th, but recently picked up the books for 5th Edition. On the whole, I really like it. It seems more story driven and I really like almost everything I'm finding in it. That being said, when I set out to populate my world, I came across the harshly short list of Domains. From what I can see they are trying to remove alignment's effect on anything resembling game mechanics and, due to that I'm not super surprised Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are removed. I can't say I agree with that move, but at least it's consistent. I'm not sure why they felt the need to remove Travel, Magic, Death and the myriad other domains that used to be available. I know Domain adds a great deal more to a clerics toolkit now than just some spells and I can see they tried to roll a good deal of them together to simplify, but it just feels really bland to me.

I am just starting out here, so there very well could be more options published in later books , and I guess I'm just venting. Anybody know if there are any more options or resources out there apart from just making up my own? Alternately any thoughts or commiseration?

The Death domain is covered in the DMG (as it's likely used mainly by foes, although it's usable by players with DM approval). The Arcana domain is featured in Storm Coast Adventurer's Guide. There also have been some recent Unearthed Arcana articles on the WotC site that have additional domains for playtesting. As it's been made pretty obvious that much of the playtesting material featured on recent UAs is for an upcoming rules expansion book (most likely one of the releases later on this year), we're probably going to see those, and quite possibly others, become official here in the near future.

FormerlyHemlock · Apr 13, 2017

Well, you could buy a copy of the old Tome of Magic and steal some of its domains: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/17391/Tome-of-Magic-2e?it=1

A quick-and-dirty procedure for converting 2nd edition domains (basically, modular spell lists) to 5E domains (bonus powers separate from your spell list) would be to convert a spell castable at level N into an Nth level domain power, usable once per day. So, to take the domain of Math as an example, Spacewarp (basically a wormhole--like 5E's teleportation circle but to anywhere a Teleport could reach) is a 6th level spell, so a Spacewarp power shouldn't be plugged in at 8th level, so you plug it in at 17th level. A 6th level spell might be underpowered as a 17th level ability if you make it once per day, so instead you make it cost a Channel Divinity. Do that twice more with other spells like, say, There/Not There or the one that allows you to purposefully miscount objects in order to change their quantity, and you've got your new domain of Math.

Obviously the 2nd edition domains are more flexible and (IMO) superior, since you don't have to pick just one or two Math-related things for a Math domain, but re-designing how 5E domains work isn't what you asked for so I'll desist.

Zer0Fox · Apr 13, 2017

Interesting, I'll have to check those out. Thanks for the replies. I hadn't heard about a rules expansion book coming out yet, but that sounds like something to look forward to.
Thanks again guys.

cbwjm · Apr 13, 2017

I would definitely like more domains for clerics, although I'm not sure how many would get used by players, however, NPC clerics can use them. I'm mainly finding a lack of elemental themed domains: frost, earth, and water. I can used Light for fire and Tempest for air but for the others I need to choose from the existing list which may not be the best. Tempest for a sea god, perhaps nature for earth. Not really anything for a god of the frozen north though. But then again, while I would have liked to have seen these official domains for clerics, I can in the meantime just homebrew something up if needed. Currently have a frost domain almost sorted, not sure on the capstone but its almost there.

Zardnaar · Apr 13, 2017

There are wquite a few domains on the DMGuild and EN5ider here at ENworld and the power level is fairl decent as well ie very playable, not broken etc. A lot are updated 3.5 Domains.

The Crimson Binome · Apr 13, 2017

Clerics in 3E received two domains, and clerics in 5E only get one, so it makes sense that each domain has more to it and there are fewer of them. It does cut down on some of the counterintuitive combinations that you could put together in 3E, but this method serves to reinforce character identity.

Shiroiken · Apr 13, 2017

Another thing to consider is page space. Cleric has more sub-classes than any other class except Wizard. Space was a premium, and giving more Domains (i.e. Cleric Sub-classes) would have to take away from somewhere else. This is especially bad if they added in Domains that partially overlap other Domains (such as a Guardian Domain and the War Domain) or niche Domains (such as the Forge Domain from UA). The DMGuild and homebrew can easily make up for any "needed" Domains that didn't make the cut, while leaving potential Domains for future products.

Zer0Fox · Apr 13, 2017

Shiroiken said:
Another thing to consider is page space. Cleric has more sub-classes than any other class except Wizard. Space was a premium, and giving more Domains (i.e. Cleric Sub-classes) would have to take away from somewhere else. This is especially bad if they added in Domains that partially overlap other Domains (such as a Guardian Domain and the War Domain) or niche Domains (such as the Forge Domain from UA). The DMGuild and homebrew can easily make up for any "needed" Domains that didn't make the cut, while leaving potential Domains for future products.

From a Cleric standpoint that makes a little sense, but from a Pantheon viewpoint, it is still super restrictive. And Like you said, Wizard still had more, so I don't think class balance would have been skewed. Regardless, it is what it is. I think I'll dust off my 3.5 and work out the one or two I really feel like I need for my campaign.

Thanks all for the input.

D&D 5E Anybody else a bit disappointed by the underwhelming selection of Godly Domains?

Zer0Fox

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