el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
So one of the elements of 2E I loved the most and grandfathered/adapted to 3E was the notion of the "specialty priest." In my Aquerra homebrew there were no "generic" clerics or druids. Instead, every order of priesthood dedicated to a specific god had its own class built on the basic principle of the druid (which was the 2E example specialty priest). Thus a priest of Thor (called Marshals in that world) were more focused on battle, killing giants, and casting thunder and lightning spells, and using hammers. Each priesthood also had their own spell list and I had a ton of homebrewed domains. In fact, the 3E cleric ability to trade out prepared spells for healing spells was replaced with trading out spells from a chosen domain. Each priesthood had a limit on which classes it could multi-class with and how, and was limited in alignment somehow (must be "good" or must be "lawful," and so on).
Anyway, my current homebrew setting "The Republic of Makrinos" - which I developed to run 5E - has the opposite approach. Every priest is a "generic" priest and who or what they worship is totally separate from their powers. It is up to the individual player to determine how a Life Cleric (for example) serves a God of Pestilence and why they think the god grants those powers. Furthermore, a cleric of any alignment can worship and get powers from any god. Yes, a chaotic evil cleric can serve the god of law and justice. The details of doctrine are for mortals to work out and there is little to no direct contact with the gods (or saints or ancestors).
However, I was wondering, if I were ever to try to update my old homebrew for 5E would it make sense to create distinct sub-classes of cleric (or druid) for every available god? Basically, most clerics are the same for the first two levels and then dedicate themselves for good to one god and get further specific powers based on that god. Put aside the amount of work that would be (I am not against doing the work, I find it fun), does it seem like a workable approach to cleric/druid subclasses? Does anyone know of any settings or site for homebrew stuff that take this approach? Anyone try to do this themselves for their own homebrew or even for an established setting with a legacy of specialty priests (like Forgotten Realms - Faiths & Avatars and Monster Mythology were both big influences on me).
Thoughts welcome.
Anyway, my current homebrew setting "The Republic of Makrinos" - which I developed to run 5E - has the opposite approach. Every priest is a "generic" priest and who or what they worship is totally separate from their powers. It is up to the individual player to determine how a Life Cleric (for example) serves a God of Pestilence and why they think the god grants those powers. Furthermore, a cleric of any alignment can worship and get powers from any god. Yes, a chaotic evil cleric can serve the god of law and justice. The details of doctrine are for mortals to work out and there is little to no direct contact with the gods (or saints or ancestors).
However, I was wondering, if I were ever to try to update my old homebrew for 5E would it make sense to create distinct sub-classes of cleric (or druid) for every available god? Basically, most clerics are the same for the first two levels and then dedicate themselves for good to one god and get further specific powers based on that god. Put aside the amount of work that would be (I am not against doing the work, I find it fun), does it seem like a workable approach to cleric/druid subclasses? Does anyone know of any settings or site for homebrew stuff that take this approach? Anyone try to do this themselves for their own homebrew or even for an established setting with a legacy of specialty priests (like Forgotten Realms - Faiths & Avatars and Monster Mythology were both big influences on me).
Thoughts welcome.