D&D 5E Archetypes to add to 5e

[DEFCON 1]

The idea that it’s “dnd multiverse or don’t play dnd” is one of the worst takes I’ve seen on this site in a long time.

I'm not trying to 'badwrongfun' anyone, I'm just stating a simple fact. The people who run D&D say that all D&D games fall under the umbrella of "the D&D multiverse" because at their core they are all D&D games. Anyone else can say otherwise. But those folks are never going to get the powers-that-be to stop saying it, no matter how much they try and deny their game of D&D is a part of that multiverse.

Which means the only way it is possible to have your game not get put under the "D&D multiverse" umbrella by those who claim it is, is to just not play D&D. If you don't play D&D, they won't say your game is part of the multiverse.

Either that... or just keep playing the game you always have, say that your game is a completely separate entity, and begrudgingly accept that some people are going to say your game is under the umbrella anyway whether you want them to or not.

If I had to guess, that is exactly what you and others do, because you're still playing D&D. At the end of the day, neither side has any choice in the matter-- you can't stop them from saying you are under the umbrella, and they can't stop you from saying you're not.

 

[Yaarel]

Don't see how that's in any way more true than of 1e or 3e.

Even if just count the number of times the word ‘gods’ or ‘deities’ occurs in the 1e Players Handbook, versus how many times it occurs in the 5e Players Handbook, you can palpably feel how many magnitudes 5e is worse.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Even if just count the number of times the word ‘gods’ or ‘deities’ occurs in the 1e Players Handbook, versus how many times it occurs in the 5e Players Handbook, you can palpably feel how many magnitudes 5e is worse.

Have you done that, or is this just some kind of impression?

Check out the 1e DMG. Higher level spells come direct from your deity, mid level from an intermediary. No deity, no spells.

 

[Yaarel]

In 1e, the word ‘god’ can include nontheistic concepts such as ‘nature’. Monotheism is an explicit option. And in every case the core rules aggressively encourage the DM to only use rules that seem helpful. And the ad-hoc incompleteness of 1e forces the DM to make up ones own rules anyway − and ones own setting. Imagination is the only limit. In practice, 1e DMs do make up their own setting rather than buy a premade one.

OK, if you're talking SRD rather than D&D, sure, it's scrubbed of a lotta stuff. Even so, very first line of the Cleric description in the SRD: "Alignment: A cleric’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful–chaotic axis or the good–evil axis, but not both). A cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral."

The very same 3e SRD rules say:

"If a cleric is not devoted to a particular deity, he still selects two domains to represent his spiritual inclinations and abilities."

A Cleric lacks the need to be devoted to a deity.

And the 3e Players Handbook is even more clear about the religious freedom of a Cleric.

"Some clerics devote themselves not to a god but to a cause or a
source of divine power. These characters wield magic the way clerics
devoted to individual gods do, but they are not associated with any
religious institution or any particular practice of worship."


This freedom of religion is a CORE rule, in the Players Handbook itself, that every player who plays a Cleric reads and knows.

And this respect for other people’s religious sensitivities is CORE in 3e, and is respected elsewhere in the rules of 3e.

Importantly, the 3e CORE rules dont get in the way of the DM worldbuilding.

 

[Yaarel]

4e and 5e violates everything.

 

[Tony Vargas]

In 1e, the word ‘god’ can include nontheistic concepts such as ‘nature’.Monotheism is an explicit option.

I don't recall any examples of such ever being given in 1e. And, again, 1e, higher level Cleric spells explicitly came form the deity.
In 2e, it's explicit that there are other sources of power for clerics, and the 2e CPH presents guidelines for creating priesthoods that gain power from a philosophy or force.

And in every case the core rules everywhere ACTIVELY encourage the DM to only use the useful rules.

5e's DM Empowerment mirrors that, and is, if anything, more explicit.

And the ad-hoc incompleteness of 1e forces the DM to make up ones own rules anyway − and ones own setting. Imagination is the only limit.

In other words, you credit the game with what it left out, rather than what it did. And, also excuse what it did, when that didn't fit with what you wanted - but won't extend the same courtesy to other editions?

The very same 3e SRD rules say

Nod, you can be a more nebulous sort of cleric - as you could be in any edition, though in 1e, you'd be out spells much above 2nd for your trouble - but you do so in a universe where there are many deities to choose from, whom clerics serve one at a time, and who live in the Outer Planes.

 

[Yaarel]

5e is so extreme, it is even fair to characterize it as if a religiously proselytizing bully. Maybe even behaving like a religiously fanatic criminal that does forced conversions.

5e is extremist about polytheism.

 

[Yaarel]

I don't recall any examples of such ever being given in 1e. And, again, 1e, higher level Cleric spells explicitly came form the deity.

For example, the fact that the 1e Druid is a Cleric who is a ‘priest of nature’, is one of the conflictive ad-hoc rules that opens up ambiguity, and seeds the defacto DM tradition of various ways to interpret the word ‘god’ nontheistically. Likewise, the fondness for Buddhism would tend to allow ‘nirvana’ to be a ‘god’. And so on.

 

[Undrave]

Have we got a Domain for Clerics of a Sea Deity?

 

[Tony Vargas]

For example, the fact that the 1e Druid is a Cleric who is a ‘priest of nature’

Who "hold the sun and moon to be deities.." according to 1e.
Sorry.

, is one of the conflictive ad-hoc rules that opens up ambiguity, and seeds the defacto DM tradition of various ways to interpret the word ‘god’ nontheistically.

There's no shortage of ambiguity in 1e, nor in 5e.