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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bran Blackbyrd" data-source="post: 179120" data-attributes="member: 1710">Why wouldn't a cleric be trained as a priest?Not training them in the priestly arts would be a big mistake. When they are out there in the world they are representing their religion, they aren't just battlemages wearing holy symbols.In the PHB (pg. 93) we see a chart for random starting ages. In this chart you'll notice that clerics take longer to start out as characters than any combat oriented class, save monk. Why?In my opinion it's because they learn to be priests first and foremost, then they learn the arts of divine magic and combat. What good would a cleric be if he can bust heads, but can't tend to the flock when the situation arises?You'd might as well find a fighter/arcane caster and have him wear your church's symbol. But a cleric is more than an enforcer, a cleric is an agent of his/her deity.Take the priest out of the cleric and all you have left is a hired thug fighting in the ultimate gang war.It requires faith, wisdom and a closeness to your deity in order to channel that god's power into the manifestation known as a spell. That faith and wisdom is gained in priestly service to your deity.Otherwise any PC could walk into a chuch, sign their name on a contract, and walk off to kick butt with their new church-sponsored weapons, complete with logos. People of lesser faith and devotion than a priest might turn away from their religion in a moment of weakness and doubt, or worse, join the opposing religion! What church would take that risk by putting a novice out there with that kind of combat training and power?Just some food for thought. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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