D&D 5E Cleric Domains

[Blue Phoenix RPG]

I find it confusing that players are trying to expand the cleric domains from the PHB. I looked at a bunch of the old domains and I think what they did is simply COMBINE domains to make it more streamlined. See for yourself below:

Cleric Domains (Combined domains):
Knowledge (Arcane/Artificer/Mental/Memory)
Life (Good/Law/Love) Opposite of course from Death (Evil)
Light (Day/Purity/Sun)
Nature (Animal/Balance/Neutrality/Plant)
Tempest (Elemental/Weather)
Trickery (Chaos/Luck)
War (Blood/Destruction/Glory/Honor/Justice/Leadership/Nobility/Strength/Valor)

So having just the seven domains honestly makes things easier. Just use the list I've provided and you'll be able to convert over from older editions.

 

[SpaceOtter]

Personally, I don't feel that the existing domains necessarily do justice to all of the concepts you've combined above. The Life domain seems more about healing, fighting undead, etc. than it does about love, for example, which you'd expect to be more inclined to spells and abilities of charm and influence. You say that Tempest covers all the elemental, but what of earth/mining? And those are just two examples. And should Death be "Evil"? What of the likes of Kelemvor and other death gods who specifically protect the sancitity and peace of the dead and oppose undeath? Looking at the Death domain revealed through the Adventurers League play, it's all about inflicting wounds, causing sickness, raising the undead, etc. Sure, that's Evil, but what of deities of death who very specifically are not evil and would not do such things? According to the game so far, they'd still use the same domain.

 

[SpaceOtter]

FWIW, I don't think they should go the route of domains for everything like they did in the past, but there are some pretty big divine concepts, found in practically every pantheon (real and imagined) that simply weren't covered such as darkness, love, music, peace, etc.

 

[Kai Wren]

Darkness/Shadow is a particularly glaring omission since they have included Light.

I'm hopeful it will appear in the DMG since the stated reason for no Death domain is that it is 'evil' and therefore it isn't unreasonable to hope that other 'evil' domains will be included.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I find the only two domains that I always feel like I'm missing are pretty standard-- Civilization and Protection.

In Perigorn's list, it includes both Good and Law under Life... and I really feel like they should be split up. Civilization covers it, and is a lovely compliment and opposite to Nature. And Civilization would then tackle many of the domains that Life and Trickery currently tries to handle-- Law, Justice, Trade, and Commerce, for example.

And then for Protection, it's pretty self-explanatory. Sure, War can cover honor, courage and valor, and Life can cover home and the hearth... but both of those have so many other facets already that they cover, that taking those specific sections away from them and giving them to Protection-- a domain all about keeping people and loved ones safe, and standing up for what's right makes much more sense to me.

You add those two and you then get to 10, which works well for me: Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, War, Civilization, Protection, and Death.

 

[Andor]

The domain that gets me is Nature. Why is there a nature domain cleric, and also Druids.

They only way I can make sense of it is if Druidism represents a tradition of man (and demi-humans) as part of nature, whereas the Nature domain cleric represent dominion over nature, which then puts Druids and Nature clerics at odds. Which has fun implications, but doesn't seem to be how they intended it.

There is a potential "Old ways" vs "New ways" conflict built into class system though, with Druids, Rangers, Fey Pact Warlocks, Totem Barbarians, and Ancient Oath Paladins on one side and Clerics, Oath of Valor Paladins, and Wizards on the on the other with the other classes on a spectrum of shaded neutrality.

 

[Astrosicebear]

The domain that gets me is Nature. Why is there a nature domain cleric, and also Druids.

They only way I can make sense of it is if Druidism represents a tradition of man (and demi-humans) as part of nature, whereas the Nature domain cleric represent dominion over nature, which then puts Druids and Nature clerics at odds. Which has fun implications, but doesn't seem to be how they intended it.

There is a potential "Old ways" vs "New ways" conflict built into class system though, with Druids, Rangers, Fey Pact Warlocks, Totem Barbarians, and Ancient Oath Paladins on one side and Clerics, Oath of Valor Paladins, and Wizards on the on the other with the other classes on a spectrum of shaded neutrality.

Druid's oath is more practical. A druid oath is to the flora, fauna, and terra, where the god is secondary. Clerics view their god as creator and the land, animals, and plants as secondary. Small distinction, but big implications. At least that was always my interpretation.

 

[rjfTrebor]

The domain that gets me is Nature. Why is there a nature domain cleric, and also Druids.

They only way I can make sense of it is if Druidism represents a tradition of man (and demi-humans) as part of nature, whereas the Nature domain cleric represent dominion over nature, which then puts Druids and Nature clerics at odds. Which has fun implications, but doesn't seem to be how they intended it.

There is a potential "Old ways" vs "New ways" conflict built into class system though, with Druids, Rangers, Fey Pact Warlocks, Totem Barbarians, and Ancient Oath Paladins on one side and Clerics, Oath of Valor Paladins, and Wizards on the on the other with the other classes on a spectrum of shaded neutrality.

they're not trying to build a cohesive with the rules options. they're presenting tools for you to do that yourself.

 

[Sadrik]

I find it confusing that players are trying to expand the cleric domains from the PHB. I looked at a bunch of the old domains and I think what they did is simply COMBINE domains to make it more streamlined. See for yourself below:

Cleric Domains (Combined domains):
Knowledge (Arcane/Artificer/Mental/Memory)
Life (Good/Law/Love) Opposite of course from Death (Evil)
Light (Day/Purity/Sun)
Nature (Animal/Balance/Neutrality/Plant)
Tempest (Elemental/Weather)
Trickery (Chaos/Luck)
War (Blood/Destruction/Glory/Honor/Justice/Leadership/Nobility/Strength/Valor)

So having just the seven domains honestly makes things easier. Just use the list I've provided and you'll be able to convert over from older editions.

Below are the ones from 3.5 that I think you missed. Source: http://home.comcast.net/~ftm3/JHtB/domains.html
Cavern
Celerity
Charm
City
Cold
Commerce
Community
Competition
Courage
Craft
Creation
Darkness
Deathbound
Deathless
Decay
Destiny
Domination
Dragon
Dragon Below
Dream
Drow
Dwarf
Elf
Envy
Exorcism
Family
Fate
Feast
Force
Gluttony
Gnome
Greed
Halfling
Hatred
Hunger
Illusion
Inquisition
Kobold
Liberation
Lust
Madness
Meditation
Mentalism
Metal
Mind
Moon
Mysticism
Necromancer
Ocean
Oracle
Orc
Pact
Passion
Pestilence
Planning
Portal
Pride
Purification
Renewal
Repose (Death for good aligned deities)
Retribution
Rune
Scalykind
Shadow
Sky
Slime
Sloth
Spell
Spider
Storm
Suffering
Summoner
Time
Trade
Tyranny
Undeath
Wealth
Windstorm
Winter
Wrath

 

[the Jester]

I find it confusing that players are trying to expand the cleric domains from the PHB. I looked at a bunch of the old domains and I think what they did is simply COMBINE domains to make it more streamlined...

>snip<

So having just the seven domains honestly makes things easier. Just use the list I've provided and you'll be able to convert over from older editions.

Yeah, but there are tons of missing things.

First of all, Light doesn't reflect law, like, at all. There is no way to do a Chaos cleric, nothing suitable for a god of fire, no time domain, etc.

Another good reason to create new domains is to bring back cool old spells that are missing from 5e; all the Numbers, Thought, Time, Chaos and Law sphere spells from 2e's Tome of Magic are great examples of the types of things for which 5e has no equivalent.