Cleric Domain: Wonder

[keratacon]

The Wonder Domain (draft, looking for feedback)

This class option serves a few purposes. First and foremost, it gives an option for a Cleric to play the 'face' character of the party, with bonus social skills and an incentive to build one's character with a high charisma.

Secondly, it is designed to evoke the religions of the Middle East rather than the more traditional fantasy pantheons inspired by ancient Europe. The spell list, in particular, is inspired by the old testament.

Lastly, it gives the Cleric a different role in combat, with a good selection of battlefield control abilities and some debuffs. It will hopefully be a useful character in a party where the arcane caster has focused more on blasting.

 

[cbwjm]

Well for starters, I think you should perhaps tone down the signs and miracles at level 17. If you look at the arcana domain, the arcana cleric gains a total of 4 spells of levels 6, 7, 8, and 9 from the wizard list. Perhaps following this example (or a modified version of it) would be a good idea instead of adding all spells of these three schools of 7th level or lower to their spell list.

The level 6 ability doesn't really offer much for the player since it is all down to the DM, you may want to replace this with something that provides a clear mechanical benefit.

I'm also not too fond of swapping stats for attack and damage rolls and feel like the wonder cleric should still have to rely on strength and dexterity for attack and damage rolls but that might just be me.


The Faith's Apostle and Channel Divinity seem fine to me although might instead want to make the channel divinity afflict an enemy (or enemies, compare it with other channel divinity abilities before deciding) within a certain range instead of requiring a weapon attack and using a bonus action.

 

[keratacon]

I was actually thinking that this was *less* powerful than the Arcana domain's 17th level ability, which grants an 8th and 9th level spell, which are unrestricted as far a school, and are always prepared bonus spells instead of just added to the list of potential spells to be prepared. But I'll take that under advisement.

Yeah, other people have given that same criticism for level 6. I'm thinking of coming up with a battlefield control ability or perhaps a save-or-suck that requires a Cha save, as those fit the intended combat roll of the subclass better.

As for Cha replacing Str or Dex, the goal of this class is to give players a strong reason to have a high Cha and be able to play a cleric as a face character without sacrificing combat effectiveness. I might have it just replace Str though.

The requirement of a weapon attack for the channel divinity ability is to prevent that ability from being strictly better than the blindness/deafness spell. Some have commented that faith's apostle is a little weak compared to the skill bonus that knowledge domain gains, so I might add the minor illusion cantrip and take away one of the languages.

 

[keratacon]

Ok, based on feedback from you and others, I have updated the class. I'm very curious to hear what people think about the new 6th level ability and a new spell I created for the class. The new ability in particular should convey that this is meant to be a battlefield control character.