Renaissance era clerics

[Caspian]

So, I'm setting a game in and around 1494 in Italy and now come to the question of clerics. Aside from the obvious point of making not all priests to be clerics, I'm put to the question, how should I modify the cleric. I want to still allow for the standard cleric, but with a somewhat reduced spell casting ability. Also, I wanted to introduce a more intellectual/preachy capable divine spell caster, as I remember there's one in Unearthed Arcana, but the problem is that's a purely intellectual modification. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.



Jonathan

 

[Darklone]

I have a lot of priests (not clerics) as Bard/Experts. That's what you want? Preaching is their profession

 

[Caspian]

I have a lot of priests (not clerics) as Bard/Experts. That's what you want? Preaching is their profession

Depends on the era, and the religion really, just figured there should be a bit of a change, plus I want to try to stay away from the Cleric as unstoppable divine tank. And I should have put this in House Rules, argh.



Jonathan

 

[Darklone]

Not really.

The bard class is, if you neglect the musical orientation and preferences and change it into a Divine Bard (UA perhaps) a perfect preacher class, actually much better than the dumb "me warmace basher" cleric.

 

[Scharlata]

... bard class is, if you neglect the musical orientation ... a perfect preacher class...

Not necessarily

Clerics - as part of the clergy of the roman-catholic church - were meant to preach and uphold the liturgy in Mass. Some of them were actually composers, organists, musicians and/or (lay) priests. Some of them wandered the land to tell the people the vitae (careers) of saints to embellish the power and glory of the church.

So, your approach of using divine bards as a substitution for clerics might work very well.

Don't forget missionaries: Men (and sometimes women) who were sent out to far away lands to work and preach. They could be experts with no spellcasting abilities at all.

And finally, think about the features of the Evangelist, Church Inquisitor, Sacred Exorcist, Hospitaler, and Pious Templar prestige classes from the Complete Divine. All of them are real world concepts that sometimes endured the centuries. You can take some or all of the abilities to construct an interesting concept of a preacher/cleric of the late 15th century.

Kind regards