D&D 5E Anybody else a bit disappointed by the underwhelming selection of Godly Domains?

[cbwjm]

From a Cleric standpoint that makes a little sense, but from a Pantheon viewpoint, it is still super restrictive. And Like you said, Wizard still had more, so I don't think class balance would have been skewed. Regardless, it is what it is. I think I'll dust off my 3.5 and work out the one or two I really feel like I need for my campaign.

Thanks all for the input.

I would suggest looking at any prestige classes that were made for specific faiths in 3e as well, such as the heartwarden for Sune in the forgotten realms. It might help you to come up with more ideas for the domain abilities.

 

[Ancalagon]

I too think there are too few domains. There doesn't need to be a domain for *everything*, but the list in the DMG feels incomplete.

 

[Satyrn]

I am just starting out here, so there very well could be more options published in later books , and I guess I'm just venting. Anybody know if there are any more options or resources out there apart from just making up my own? Alternately any thoughts or commiseration?

Some commiseration, yeah.

But also a thought: It may help if you don't consider these domains to be like 3e's domains 9r 2e's spheres. These are subclasses, after all - far more substantial than just a few spells.

Rather, consider each domain to be 2e's cleric of a specific mythos (or whatever they called what the druid was an example for in 2e) and suddenly, instead of a lack of domains, you're getting a whole host of options where only 1 past edition gave only 1 such option (the druid).

So, if you're the DM, assign each domain to one (and only one!) god, and boom! Lots of setting flavor, concrete setting related choices that tie the cleric tighter to his god than 3e domains and 2e spheres ever did.

But yeah, more domains would be nice.

I had created nine custom priests of specific mythos for 2e and 3e's domains simply did not live up to that work. I had to create a bunch of feats (which was cool, though, since they could then be taken by more than just clerics, so every class could tie themselves closer to a god if the wanted)

5e's domains give me the custom priests with no work (or would if there were just a few more domains!) - so if I actually went to the trouble of porting those feats over to 5th, I'd have everything !

 

[GMMichael]

It seems more story driven and I really like almost everything I'm finding in it. That being said, when I set out to populate my world, I came across the harshly short list of Domains. From what I can see they are trying to remove alignment's effect on anything resembling game mechanics and, due to that I'm not super surprised Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are removed.

I hope you didn't miss this, but 5e is supposed to be streamlined. How well that went is up for debate. That's probably why the domains aren't what they were before.

It's probably a good thing that they're pulling alignment back from game mechanics, because they've added flaws, bonds, traits, and ideals. Could be a train wreck there if they're not careful.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm a longtime D&D player, I've mostly played/run 3.5 and Pathfinder with some AD&D and a tiny bit of 4th, but recently picked up the books for 5th Edition. On the whole, I really like it. It seems more story driven and I really like almost everything I'm finding in it. That being said, when I set out to populate my world, I came across the harshly short list of Domains. From what I can see they are trying to remove alignment's effect on anything resembling game mechanics and, due to that I'm not super surprised Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are removed. I can't say I agree with that move, but at least it's consistent. I'm not sure why they felt the need to remove Travel, Magic, Death and the myriad other domains that used to be available. I know Domain adds a great deal more to a clerics toolkit now than just some spells and I can see they tried to roll a good deal of them together to simplify, but it just feels really bland to me.

I am just starting out here, so there very well could be more options published in later books , and I guess I'm just venting. Anybody know if there are any more options or resources out there apart from just making up my own? Alternately any thoughts or commiseration?

As someone who has run and played a lot of 3.0 adventures where religions were a major source of quests, and who perused supplements such as Defender of the Faith and Faiths & Pantheons, I totally understand how you feel about the number of 5e domains available!

Unfortunately (but not that much) the 5e domains are designed differently, and that doesn't lead to adding new domains as easily as in 3e. Just take a look at what each domain means in terms of mechanics in the two editions:

3e domain: 9 spells + 1 ad-hoc feature
5e domain: 10 spells + 5 ad-hoc features (minimum, sometimes the 1st-level feature is multiple)

Picking the spells is easy design job, but the features need to be playtested, as they are usually unique enough.

This is practically the main reason why they don't design as many domains in 5e as in 3e, they are essentially 5 times more important than before! Possibly the second reason is to keep some reasonable balance in the amount of options available to different classes (or at least among the "classic four" classes), so that the Cleric doesn't get tens of domains (i.e. subclasses/archetypes) to choose from while everybody else gets only a few.

If you design your own domains, it helps to notice that there are at least some patterns:

- the 2nd-level feature is normally an additional Channel Divinity option
- the 8th-level feature is often the same Divine Strike (but not for every domain), with only the damage type varying between domains
- the 17th-level feature is so far away that you don't have to stress too much designing properly

 

[76512390ag12]

I am waiting for Green Ronin's 5e Book of the Righteous to provide a bucket load of Divinity to my D&D, which as a long time RuneQuest player is something *I need*. [My players may not care so much, ]

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

 

[Draegn]

You could say that gods can do anything they want to, for, they are gods after all. However, the "domains" that they prefer are merely their chosen method of testing their faithful. It is simply part of their personality. Though who can truly understand the nature and motivations of the gods?

 

[jgsugden]

Can people give a list of some Gods that are not well served by existing domains?

 

[Satyrn]

Can people give a list of some Gods that are not well served by existing domains?

For my homebrew, there are a few.

I mean, I could cram the Nature domain onto both gods of nature - but the set up would be much better with a Beast/Predator domain for the ferocious animal god, and a sort of Harvest domain for the other one with themes of protection and nurturing.

But I also need more elemental domains than just Tempest. Though Tempest is excellent because it's more than just "Air" although it kind of suffers by also being "water" (although the Life domain works for my sea god well enough I can overlook that. But I'd like a a Wrath domain that focused on fire, and a Strength domain for earth . . . although I admit the War domain can be slightly modified for each and be close enough.

 

[Zer0Fox]

Can people give a list of some Gods that are not well served by existing domains?

With the addition of Magic and Death, that covers most of the glaring holes I first encountered, though it'd be hard to have any god from the Norse Pantheon without having the Law and Chaos domains. Or the Egyptian Pantheon for that matter, they are all about the Maat. You can try and lump law into knowledge or Chaos into trickery, but I just don't feel either does justice.