D&D 2E 2E specialty clerics

[trancejeremy]

They were pretty neat, but they weren't very well balanced.

 

[was]

I'd like to see that, it really gave the clerics a unique feel

 

[Mattachine]

In my 2e campaign, there were only specialty priests, no "generic ones". That way, it got rid of the problem of non-specialty priests being more powerful. Also, it meant that the divine casters of each deity used spells that matched that deity, and could not use spells that simply didn't make sense.

The cleric of the sea god did not get to catch flamestrike!

 

[dangerous jack]

I liked Specialty Priests in 2e. In our Birthright campaign (where it was mandated to be a specialty priest) we had 2 that felt completely different.

That said, for 5e I could see these being implemented through Themes. Instead of "Priest of Nature God" it could be redone as "Nature God's Servant", so easily combined with a Cleric, or even a Wizard or Rogue. The breakdown of 1 power / level + a few quirks that 4e themes have definitely reminds me of specialty priests, although admittedly it's been a long time since I played 2e.

 

[Ahnehnois]

They were pretty neat, but they weren't very well balanced.

I'll take that any day.

 

[Kynn]

I'd love to see clerics as "generalist dudes in armor with melee weapons and spells who heal" drop out of the core rules entirely and their stuff get divided up between paladins and specialty priests.

I doubt it will happen, but I can dream, right?

 

[Spatula]

Interesting... It seems to me the specialty clerics were more powerful. They had added bonuses with little to no drawbacks.

It really depends on the specialty priest. The ones in the Complete handbook were pitiful compared to the standard cleric. The standard cleric got major access to most of the spheres, all armor, decent weapons, turn undead, and the 2nd-best THAC0. Aside from tacking on lots of special class abilities, you couldn't really get all that much better.

As with a lot of game elements, 2e wins when it comes to flavor and loses when it comes to effectiveness or balance. I loved the specialty priests, but I thought the 3e designers' criticisms were valid, and I think the 3e cleric was a good compromise between customization and niche/role fulfillment.

 

[howandwhy99]

I'm getting the impression that everyone here really likes the 2E rules for specialty priests - suggesting that they are desired in 5E.

well you know, you can't really trust polls.

 

[tlantl]

I'd love to see clerics as "generalist dudes in armor with melee weapons and spells who heal" drop out of the core rules entirely and their stuff get divided up between paladins and specialty priests.

I doubt it will happen, but I can dream, right?

Take up the seat behind the screen and you can make it happen.

How's that for DM empowerment?

 

[Ratskinner]

In 2E, specialty priests differed from standard clerics because their abilities were customized by deity.

I remember the opposite, the specialty clerics were usually selected to help min/max a character. Many of the specialty clerics were quite awesome in their own rights. Particularly in games using the Player's Option: Skills & Powers rules it seemed like all I ever saw were elven Specialty Clerics or Specialty Cleric/Something Elses.

Of course, many DMs ignored ability requirements or players fudged ability scores. I suspect there would have been fewer otherwise (but still a lot, they sometimes had huge advantages.)