D&D 5E Cleric Modifications

Thurmas

Explorer
I see the approach you are going for, and I wonder if you can make it without having to change too many things. I like the approach of two paths at level 1. I also worry that you making them too weak with no armor proficiency at all, compared to other casters. Warlock and Bard both get Light armor. Sorcerer and Wizard both get access to Mage Armor, which Cleric doesn't have.

Make minor adjustments listed below to the Cleric class. Keep the domains as they are except: Remove all Weapon and Armor Proficiencies. Divine Strike at level 8 becomes a Path upgrade at 8.

Cleric:
Hit Dice: 1d6 per Cleric level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per Cleric level after 1st

Armor: None
Weapons: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows
Tools: None

1st level – Select Path of Servitude – Path of the Crusader or Path of the Prophet (in addition to domain)

Crusader
Crusaders are the vast majority of clerics, and represent the foot soldiers and vanguard of a particular faith or religious order.

Bonus Proficiencies:
When you choose this path at level 1, you gain proficiency in all armor, shields, simple and martial weapons.

Divine Fortitude
Also at 1st level, divine energy flows through your body. At 1st level, your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class.

Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 weapon damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.


Prophet
Only a handful of clerics become prophets - they are the chosen leaders of their faith/religious order, often ordained by and possessing a strong connection with their god(s). They typically eschew physical combat and are instead highly accomplished orators and miracle workers.

Bonus Cantrip
When you choose this Path at 1st level, you learn one additional cleric cantrip of your choice.

Bonus Skill
You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice.

Divine Protection
Also at 1st level, the divine energy flowing through your body reinforces your defenses. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.

Divine Intervention
You may cast the shield spell without expending a spell slot. You may not use this ability again until you finish a short or long rest.

Potent Spellcasting
Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.


What this accomplishes is clearly dividing the two concepts, while doing very little to change the domains. Admittedly, it doesn't include all the abilities you're including, but I think it adds in the core concepts and accomplishes your goal. It allows the domains to still be full play and doesn't seem to me to increase or decrease in power anything in an overly dramatic way. I think the two Paths are balanced against each other.
 

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Li Shenron

Legend
While I like many of the design choices for 5e clerics, I feel they really dropped the ball by not allowing room for a completely non-martial wizard-style cleric. I also think it's very arbitrary how some domains offer Divine Strike and/or bonus proficiencies while others offer Improved spell casting and would prefer being able to choose between those two independently of domain choice. I want to come up with a very simple way to revise the cleric class to account for this without undermining the official cleric OR having to design a whole new class.

I like simplicity and so I would do something even simpler than you.

1) Replace all armor and shield proficiencies with either the Skilled feat or the Magic Initiate feat

2) Replace Divine Strike with Potent Spellcasting if your chosen domain doesn't already grant the latter

Point 2) is the same as yours, while point 1) is based on the observation which feats grant those features:

- "Lightly Armored" grants an ASI plus light armor proficiency
- "Moderately Armored" grants an ASI plus medium armor and shield proficiency

Together those two feats grant 2 ASI and all the armor proficiency of a Cleric. Therefore, we can say that roughly (because the ASI are not freely choosable among all the 6 abilities but only 2 of them) the Cleric's armor proficiencies are worth one feat. So if remove those proficiencies, let's compensate with 1 feat, and to emphasize that the result should be a more scholarly cleric, let's restrict the feat to either Skilled of Magic Initiate.

For a slightly more complicated but perhaps more sensical variant, instead of the Skilled feat as written restrict the skills choice to only Int- and Cha- based skills, and instead of the Magic Initiate feat as written, let the Cleric select any combination of 2 cantrips + 1 spell (1st level) to become Clerical spells for you, instead of coming all from the same class and using a separate slot for the spell.

[note: the baseline for this idea is that the Cleric could choose 2 additional clerical or domain-inspired cantrips and the "Mage Armor" spell to compensate for the lost AC]
 
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