D&D 5E Clerical Domains You'd Like To See

[Paraxis]

Four classic elements of air, earth, fire, and water. They will be needed for Darksun setting anyway.

Hearth/Home/Family all one domain just pick a name.

 

[Remathilis]

Biggest ones missing IMHO:

Justice
Luck
Sea/Ocean
Love/Passion
Darkness
Frost/Winter


Then there are unlimited possibilities, especially considering variations e.g. a Sun domain is not necessary the same as a Light domain, and there could be both an Undeath and a (good) Death/Dead domain that work differently than the DMG Death domain.

Among the many:

Arts/Beauty
Greed
Agriculture
Travel
Fear
Chaos
Forests
Disease
Mountains
Destruction
Strength
Moon
Crafts
Wisdom
Freedom
Vengeance
Hunting
Trade
Mischief
Joy
...

I'm not sure some of these are really omissions as much as too narrow.

Take a domain like tempest: it can represent sky gods, storm gods, destruction gods, etc. It's pretty broad. How many can joy represent? Wisdom?

Moreso, what is the difference between trickery and mischief? What does forests bring that nature doesn't?

I'd rather see only a handful of new domains than dozens of "dragon below" specific domains.

 

[Parmandur]

Any new domain has to be broad enough to support an entire subclass in flavor and mechanics. The overly specific ones don't seem all that neccesary, but I would love to see Earth/Fire/Water/Air and Law/Chaos/Good/Evil, though the last four are arguably already covered.

 

[Parmandur]

Things needed for a Cleric subclass:

- a set of spells that are always prepared and count as Cleric spells; this can radically open the design space.

- a set of features from 1st to 20th that set the domain apart. The 7 already provided get very creative with this.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I agree with Remathilis. Many of the above can be covered as a denomination or sect of an existing domain. Tempest, in particular, is super broad: sea, ocean, storms, weather, anger, revenge, etc. etc.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm not sure some of these are really omissions as much as too narrow.

Take a domain like tempest: it can represent sky gods, storm gods, destruction gods, etc. It's pretty broad. How many can joy represent? Wisdom?

Moreso, what is the difference between trickery and mischief? What does forests bring that nature doesn't?

I'd rather see only a handful of new domains than dozens of "dragon below" specific domains.

Being narrow is not the problem, for me the purpose is that of differentiating cleric characters of different religions or even the same, so narrow is good.

Obviously, you don't need to have the same purpose. At the other extreme, one single domain can cover all clerics, which is what happens in Basic.

 

[Li Shenron]

Any new domain has to be broad enough to support an entire subclass in flavor and mechanics.

Ah but you see, now because in 5e domains = cleric subclass, you're stuck with the idea that they have to be as broad as other classes subclasses. They can be broad if you want, but they don't have to. If this is the result then perhaps it was a mistake to make domains into subclasses.

I don't think there was neither any conceptual nor practical problem in 3e with having 50 or so different domains. Furthermore, in 5e domains still grant a list of domain spells plus a few bonus abilities (with many overlapping of abilities across different domains), so it is definitely a piece of cake to design hundreds of new domains just by swapping some domain spells with other spells.

The downside of broad domains, is that there is a risk of sometimes not really capturing the idea of a clerical faith (see the Death domain as the biggest example so far, it is not really usable for "good" religions of the dead). If you don't want to "officially" design a new domain, another option is to allow a specific character (or some NPC) to swap domain spells with others.

 

[Dausuul]

Domains I felt were missing, after going over the Greek and Norse pantheons:

Revelry
Love
Craft
Justice
Sea
Night
Fate

I'm trying to keep the number of domains limited. Aphrodite is the goddess of emotional love while Eros is the god of physical passion, but I'd be fine with putting them both down as gods of Love. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine while Bragi is the Norse god of poetry and music, but they can both--barely--fit into Revelry. I also tried to use existing domains where possible. Rulership is the natural choice for Zeus and Odin, but Zeus can also be Tempest and Odin can be Knowledge, so I took Rulership off the list.

But the seven PHB domains (plus Death) generalize too much. Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Poseidon are three examples of gods who just don't fit any of the existing domains.

 

[Hannerdyn]

Peace
Gratitude
Suffering
Poverty
Repentance
Revenge
Trade
Hunting...

and Clowns.

 

[Boarstorm]

Spiders.