Cleric - Holy Warrior or Healer?

[Falling Icicle]

Am I the only one that wants to see priests, as in dedicated divine casters as opposed to those who go around in plate mail hitting people with their mace? The default "cleric", as in divine warrior with bludgeoning weapon, always seemed more like a paladin to me, and the absence of a more priestly class has always bothered me. If people want to be a traditonal cleric that's fine by me, I'd just like to have the option to play a priest who focuses on spells rather than melee and goes around in a robe.

 

[Tallifer]

What is in your opinion, the primary function of the cleric? A holy warrior who smites his enemies with divine power or a healer?

A holy warrior who smites his enemies with a mace and a healer.

That is the grognard part of me showing. I think priests of other orders/religions should have a separate divine class.

 

[Grazzt]

It should depend upon the deity and the deity's domains/ spheres of influence.

And, I would not limit it to just Holy Warrior or Healer. A cleric of the god of Dreams and Illusions or a cleric of a Trickery Deity should be neither.

Agree with this. That's one thing I really liked about 2e. A cleric of Azoth the Destroyer had different weapons, spells, abilities, etc. than a cleric of Dunkin the God of Pastries. Both felt and worked differently in play.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I chose holy warrior because IMO the cleric leans more toward the warrior archetype than the magic-user archetype. As I see it, the main difference between a cleric and a fighter is that the cleric exchanged some training in weapons and endurance in favor of a somewhat limited spell list.

 

[Glade Riven]

Never really used the class that much except as NPC healbots. Still, though, looking at class roles...

Paladin: Holy knight, champion of the faith. 3.5/Pathfinder had him take on a few spells, kinda making him a fighter with a dash of cleric, with Lay-on-hands for emergency medical treatment. 4e pushed him away from "emergency backup healbot," and I'm fine with that.

Priest: Haven't looked at old school stuff (it's on my to-do list), but from the looks of things, the priest in 5e is probably going to be in the nuker category (or a divine bard, which would be weird). Personally? I'd give the heavy duty spellcasting from 3e's cleric to him.

Cleric: For 5e, I'd make the cleric as the "halfway point" between paladin and priest - supportive role, backup melee, decent spell selection but not as potent as the priest's. Buff and debuff are his bread and butter. In 3.5 terms, spell progression up to level 6 instead of level 9 (aka like a bard, but using Wis and divine spells instead of arcane).

 

[JRRNeiklot]

This is not about what the 5e cleric should look like, but what you think about when you hear the term cleric. The poll is tied at 26 all atm. That's hardly 5 out of 6.

 

[RangerWickett]

The term should be priest. Cleric implies a member of a literate book-tending clergy. Priest is more generic, and likewise the class should let you build warpriests, healing priests, trickster priests, death priests, and so on.

 

[Fede]

This is not about what the 5e cleric should look like, but what you think about when you hear the term cleric. The poll is tied at 26 all atm. That's hardly 5 out of 6.

Yes, but the OP is a bit ambiguous, someone could read the question as "what should the cleric be?" instead of what you (and me) read.

 

[Hassassin]

Like asking is a Wizard an evoker or a conjurer: yes, or something else.

 

[The Shadow]

Like others, I'd like to see a priest somewhat on the 2e model.

Then the traditional 'cleric' could be one possible priest build.

Though the split between cleric and paladin is odd and somewhat hard to justify... And if the priest class is as modular as it will need to be, is it really one class any more?

Arguably, "priest" or "holy man" could be a theme in addition; not all clergy need be miracle-workers.