Assault Clerics, Cleric Shocktroopers

[Hasegawa Rayven]

I have this idea, for a group of clerics that are along the lines of a military organization.

These are not your usual, everyday, martial training at the temple, types of cleric. These are the specialized forces of the church that go into dark places and use their light to burn away evil.

Or, alternatively, the ones that charge into the light to snuff it out.

My inspiration for this so far is a concept of a group called "The Light-bringers of Pelor". (Yes, I'm sure it could use a better name.)

The initial concept for it was basically a commando-style cleric with their ranged divine powers in place of machine guns. The clerics as groups, would be in "fire-teams" of four, with squads of 9 (Including a senior Cleric to lead the squad) and then have 4 squads assigned to an "Assault Paladin" to lead them.

Thoughts, Suggestions, Ideas?

 

[Saagael]

It almost sounds like you'd be almost better off with paladins instead of clerics, since they seem more "smite the wicked!" than clerics do.

Do Invokers or Avengers fit in the mix at all? Invokers can be pretty "laser gun" if you get the right powers.

 

[Hasegawa Rayven]

Well like I said, the Original concept was the "Commando Cleric", Basically something like Rambo with Lance of Faith instead of his HMGs.

All Divine classes would be accepted. It's the organization that I'm trying to build.

BTW: the concept for the leader was a High level Avenging Paladin.

 

[Mengu]

Decide what you want to be the common ability of the Lightbringers. Then make a Lightbringer Theme, a background, and maybe a leader PP. My vision of it would be something like:

Background: +2 stealth or religion.
Theme: Level 1 - give them a power like Bravo Prey; Level 5 - May use wisdom in place of dexterity for stealth. Level 10 - Any stealth check roll between 2 and 7 counts as 8.

That would constitute the stealth part of the commando aspect.

Then flavor a PP however you like for the group leader.

This would probably be better served in the house rules forum.

 

[the Jester]

I've long thought giving each deity or sect a unique power, prolly at-will but possibly encounter, available as a lvl 1 choice for any member of that sect regardless of (divine) class, would be a good way to differentiate divine pcs by religion, something that I feel 4e doesn't really do very well. I think something like that might work for you here.

I too was thinking that paladins (and avengers) would make better choices than actual clerics for this kind of thing, at least in general; clerics are solid leaders and very poor strikers, so I'd stick to classes already closer to the striker role. YMMV.

 

[Unwise]

The description certainly seems to lend itself to Avengers more than other classes to me. They seem more like a divine SAS/ninja than other classes. I would picture an organisation like that having sneaky Avengers as their vanguard, who open the gates for a group of Paladins to come charging in.

I tend to keep clerics more rare than Paladins in my games. Clerics are sort of their bosses in most genres.

Don't discount the use of non-divine classes too. Most temple guards are not paladins. In my games not all knights of a holy order are Paladins either. Some of them would be essentials Knights or Cavaliers. Most 'Lord Marshal Paladins' would actually be Warlords, not Paladins too. Sure they might know a few divine spells and lay on hands, but their primary ability is the ability to lead men. Maybe consider them a hybrid of sorts, in old editions they would probably be Paladin 9 / Warlord 15 or something.

A large enough organisation will have people of all sorts. For instance, they won't go far without a seer, artificer, bard (to write hymns and keep heroic records), assassin (unless truely goody-two-shoes), outdoorsman etc.

 

[DracoSuave]

So... the original inspiration for the Cleric class then?

 

[Ryujin]

"Clerical commandos" would tend to make me think more of Avengers, than Clerics or Paladins. Unfortunately DEX isn't really what I would call a Clerical ability score but maybe you could work up a usable Cleric, with Avenger multiclass?

If simply Clerics then what comes to my mind's eye would be a bunch of staff-using Clerics, with staves that act as Holy Symbols too, that they swing up across one shoulder when they unleash radiant power awesomeness.

"Fire in the hole!"

 

[erleni]

If you look at commando style-radiant mafia build you may take a look at the Covenant Agent. It's an assassin/avenger paragon path that thematically fits your concept, melds well with a Morninglord due to a lot of radiant attacks and lets you use the infiltrator powers of the assassin (Shadowed Legion is a wonderful power for an holy commnado).

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I'm not sure why so many are focused on non-cleric classes for this concept. There's anything forcing commando analogs to be Avengers or Paladins. After all, the parallels between the generic D&D party and a tactical squad of soldiers are pretty strong. The cleric fits fine. Compared to the average person or even the average soldier in a D&D world, the cleric is a highly trained individual in terms of combat. For that matter, so are the wizard and invoker.

Think of squad combat video games with various roles analogous to classes (incl medic nowadays in some). Or think of any Vietnam movie you've ever seen where different members of the team fulfill the usual set of stereotypes. Think of the A-Team. Lots of room for clerics, paladins, invokers, etc.