D&D 5E Polytheistic Clerics

[jrowland]

One of the most important considerations is your player group. This method would require quite a lot of maintenance and book keeping on the part of the player. Would your players welcome such a complication to keep track of or would it be a burden?

You know your players, so don't forget about the impact this has on them in this decision.

I second this. If your player(s) aren't on board, then youmade things complicated for no real reason.

The option of changing domains on a short rest is still complicated. Imagine changing from Light to War. A lot of features change, such as Warding Flare to bonus action attack, an AOE Channel Divinity to a +10 to hit, etc. Keeping track of all that is a pain (let alone mastery) and what about things like proficiencies? Do I lose/gain my heavy proficiency as I switch? Making that change on a Long rest might be too much, and while I agre, making that change per level might be too infrequent to capture the feel, it still might be too complicated in play.

The *best* option is have a "new" domain, lets call it Norse Pantheon (you could have egyptian et. al. in your world too) that grants all the things you are looking for:

1) an expanded spell list (this is actually easier to change on short rest, so maybe the bonus spells 'known' are fixed per long/short rest)
2) Proficiencies suitable to the norse (no heavy armor, for example)
3) All the 1st level domain features and channel divinity available, but share the same use (Channel divinity is set, the other feature is usually wis mod times per long rest)
4) As the cleric levels they get to pick an choose higher level options from any domain (such as potent spellcasting or Divine Strike etc) thereby specializing and differentiating

The added flexibility makes clerics stronger, so consider using Piety for all the gods. Here you can add complexity, but its on your (the DMs) side: They gain lose points of piety as the serve or fail to serve the specific deities. A good cleric tries to appease them all, but often, the gods oppose each other so a cleric pleasing one, displeases the other. Access to domain spells (by level) or features can be a function of Piety, giving some measure of limitation.

 

[davout1805]

I second this. If your player(s) aren't on board, then youmade things complicated for no real reason.

Of course. All house rules are discussed before hand and require unanimous agreement before use.

Thanks for the ideas. Somethings to think about. Even if I decide to go with mine, I'll change it so at character creation the cleric would pick a "primary" domain and all abilities related to a domain are from that domain. So when a switch is made only the spell list changes not the other abilities.

 

[Mercule]

In 3E, pantheistic Clerics just chose their domains normally, but from any of the gods in the pantheon. IIRC, there someone came up with a variant that narrowed the list a bit and focused on what the pantheon, as a whole, represented. For simplicity, I'd probably go for the former.

If I wanted to add something to make the pantheon more prominent, I'd probably allow the domain to be rechosen after each long rest -- this represents which deity the Cleric petitioned that day for spells. This could be problematic with things like Life and War granting proficiency with heavy armor, though.

For something slightly more complex, I'd let the Cleric choose the granted power and each bonus spell from among all the domains available to the pantheon, but each choice is permanent (or retrain at level up). While a Cleric might serve the whole pantheon, it takes great wisdom and experience to truly balance attention to multiple masters.

 

[Bupp]

From the Eberron Campaign Setting by WotC, copyright 2004, page 68:
"The Sovereign Host consists of the deities
most commonly worshiped by the majority of
Khorvaire’s population. Most people revere
the Host as a whole pantheon, offering
prayers to different deities in different situations.
Even clerics are often devoted to the
entire Host rather than to a specific patron. Taken as
a whole, the pantheon is neutral good, and its
favored weapon is the longsword—the weapon of
its martial champion, Dol Dorn."

My thoughts have always run in direction. Characters revere the whole pantheon, as does the clergy. Clerics do pick a domain, owing to their personality.

I do like the idea of changing up domains. I lean to being able to change during a long rest.

 

[Skyscraper]

I don't think it's that complicated, and I like the idea of a prayer to one god that (possibly) gives access to a new spell, to add a mechanic to the polytheist story.

Good stuff.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I don't think it's that complicated, and I like the idea of a prayer to one god that (possibly) gives access to a new spell, to add a mechanic to the polytheist story.

Springboarding off of that:

Since it seems like a very thematically tight pantheon-based class build, I'd go with something like this:

Instead of the usual, long, all-encompassing list of available cleric spells, tighten it up to a much smaller selection. A handful of spells per spell level generally applicable to the overall pantheon's theme. Then have a separate spell list consisting of more specific spells of each level for the individual deities.

Then, as an action once per short or long rest, the cleric can decide to pray to a specific deity in order to unlock that sub-list and expand their casting options.

From there, you could even theoretically let the cleric cast "spontaneously" from this smaller list: general spells or whatever deity with which he is currently seeking favor.

I dunno. I'm AFB so it's just a rough idea. I'd need time to see how to implement such a thing when I can look over the PHB.

[Hopes that spit-ball rambling makes sense. Hopes even more there is an actual nugget of useful idea in there somewhere. Isn't sure...]