Best Cleric Domains

[Dandu]

What?

Plenty of people only follow a religion because it provides them with concrete benefits, like power, wealth, and glory. It happens all the time in real life - I'm sure you can provide examples from your own experiences.

 

[LiL KiNG]

[Tongue in cheek]Gah! A Purist that believes in pursuing the faith for the purpose of the faith, instead of a means to the end![/Tongue in cheek]

Correctamundo! Metagaming should be discouraged. No one puts their faith into a deity so they can a free feat or spell, they put their faith in a deity because that power fills a need in their life and answers the existential questions their life confronts them with...

I find that RP and optimizing should work hand-in-hand, not exclusively of each other. Yes, you should be able to roleplay why your character is the way he is or believes what he does, but not at the expense of hindering yourself with useless features (like the ability to Turn water elements as mentioned above). Luckily most deities offer 3-5 domains in their portfolio so you can cherry-pick what will work best for your particular character concept while following the tenets of your chosen deity.

Another thing that plays into this is the DM and campaign setting. If your DM tells you before making your character that the world is overrun with undead a Cleric will likely stack his arsenal with things to enhance his abilities against undead. Just like a Rogue would look for ways to apply sneak attack to undead targets. Its just smart.

My favorite PC by far was a gnome barbarian (with a beard) armed with a greatsword and buckler. He was fun, he was plucky, but he was hardly optimized even with the lion totem/pounce feature.

For the race I'm creating they live in harmony with nature, they revere life, but they are no strangers to war and are stubborn, holding grudges against those who have threatened or harmed them or their tribe.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Correctamundo! Metagaming should be discouraged. No one puts their faith into a deity so they can a free feat or spell, they put their faith in a deity because that power fills a need in their life and answers the existential questions their life confronts them with...

What?

Plenty of people only follow a religion because it provides them with concrete benefits, like power, wealth, and glory. It happens all the time in real life - I'm sure you can provide examples from your own experiences.

While I know this is outside the intentions of the OP & I know enworld discourages conversations on real world religious discussion, I'll briefly say that while I agree with you Samloyal on both the principle behind the problem of metagaming and the principle behind what should drive faith, I must concede Dandu's point and agree that human history proves your statement false. On both principles.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

It is a good point nonetheless and important in FR. To address it; I'm writing up a lesser deity who is nature/life/war focused for a home-brewed rhino race (appearance based on the awesome Kifaro miniature by Studio McVey) and they are very similar to Minotaurs stat wise, but more like Wemics in their tribal/nomadic way of life.
Domains I'm looking at right now for the portfolio are; Healing, Life, Retribution, and War.

Was looking at/for other alternatives though.

Courtesy of Kung Fu Panda 2:

Sweet.

 

[Dandu]

Yes, you should be able to roleplay why your character is the way he is or believes what he does, but not at the expense of hindering yourself with useless features (like the ability to Turn water elements as mentioned above).

Black Dragons have the water subtype, you know.

 

[LiL KiNG]

Black Dragons have the water subtype, you know.

True and an excellent point. A few other creatures have the water subtype as well, but overall they are a minority or rarely encountered. Could be useful if the adventure path/world dealt heavily in or under water, but in your typical game the Water domain is kind of a dud.

 

[LiL KiNG]

not sure how to add an image... pasting the link in the insert image box doesn't seem to be doing the trick for me, but here is the link to the pic of the miniature;
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kifa...w=142&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:73

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It is a good point nonetheless and important in FR. To address it; I'm writing up a lesser deity who is nature/life/war focused for a home-brewed rhino race (appearance based on the awesome Kifaro miniature by Studio McVey) and they are very similar to Minotaurs stat wise, but more like Wemics in their tribal/nomadic way of life.
Domains I'm looking at right now for the portfolio are; Healing, Life, Retribution, and War.

Was looking at/for other alternatives though.

I once had a Minotaurean culture in a 2Ed homebrew that was based on Plains Indisn cultures. They were not horsemen (too large) but did use chariots. They were accomplished archers and javelineers, and we're also good with spears and throwing hand/axes.

We're I doing them now, I'd look at Sun, Travel, Animals, Plant, Healing, Protection, War, Weather, Trickery and the Elemental domains as being popular in their pantheon. I might throw in Ancestors, especially if I were using Shamans instead of Clerics.

Also, I would be tempted to have those with the War domain have a slightly different granted power were I to use the Plains Indian model. A priest with that domain could choose to have Wespon focus with his natural weapons (or IUC) for the purpose of counting coup.

 

[PrinceAngore]

My favorite PC by far was a gnome barbarian (with a beard) armed with a greatsword and buckler. He was fun, he was plucky, but he was hardly optimized even with the lion totem/pounce feature.

You and I must play in different worlds...how does a gnome carry a Greatsword, let alone while using a buckler??? Now granted I play oldschool 2.5 but still, the physics alone just don't match up...

 

[LiL KiNG]

You and I must play in different worlds...how does a gnome carry a Greatsword, let alone while using a buckler??? Now granted I play oldschool 2.5 but still, the physics alone just don't match up...

Indeed. Well in 3.5 weapon size categories come into play (I don't remember enough about 2e to recall weapon sizes there), so a small creature's greatsword is sized for them, and only deals 1d10 damage vs. a medium sized greatsword's 2d6.

A buckler is a small shield strapped to your arm, leaving your hand(s) free. I had to take a feat to retain the AC bonus while fighting, but there was still that pesky -1 attack penalty since I was using a 2hd weapon with it.