D&D 5E Cleric Modifications

[jgsugden]

I'd just make the following Divine Domain:

INVOKER DOMAIN

The Gods act through their clerics, but only a select few of their clerics speak directly for them. These clerics are known as Invokers.

Invoker Initiate: When you choose this domain at 1st level, select another domain in addition to this domain. You gain all benefits of that domain.

Armor of Faith: Starting at first level, You may not cast cleric spells when wearing medium or heavy armor. However, your faith protects you. While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Enduring the Voice: Speaking directly for a God is taxing on the body. Your hit point maximum is reduced by one per cleric level you possess.

Domain Spells: Starting at first level, whenever you gain access to new domain spells, you may also select one evocation spell of the same level as the domain spells gained. Add that spell to your other domain spells and treat it like any other domain spell. This spell can be from any spell list, but counts as a cleric spell for you.

Channel Divinity: Rebuke Undead: Starting at 2nd level, as an action, you can use your Channel Divinity, present your holy Symbol and speak a prayer censuring the Undead. Each Undead that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it takes 1d12 damage and is pushed 20 feet away from you. The damage deal increases by 1d12 at 5th level, 11th level and 17th level.

Covenant: At 6th level you agree to abide by a stricter code of conduct in service of your God. Your devotion manifests in greater power from your God. Select either the Covenant of Malediction, Covenant of Preservation or Covenant of Wrath.

* Covenant of Malediction - One target of a spell or attack that you deliver that takes damage from the spell or attack is pushed 5 feet away from you.
* Covenant of Preservation - You may use your reaction to allow an ally to move half their speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
* Covenant of Wrath - Reroll any result of 1 or 2 on spells that deal damage.


Divine Form - Starting at 8th level, you may use your reaction or a bonus action to gain resistance to either radiant, thunder, lightning, fire, cold, acid or necrotic damage. You may only have resistance to one type of damage from this feature at a time.

Avatar - At 17th level, you may use a bonus action to become an avatar of your God for 1 minute. While in this form, you are size large, gain temporary hit points equal to your maximum hit points, and may cast Thunderwave as a 3rd level spell as an action. The duration of this effect increases to 20 minutes at 20th level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

 

[Einlanzer0]

I've done something similar with alternate domain design although much simpler than changing up the whole class.

Clerics remain the same, only the domains change becoming casters or melee clerics. Life domain might be changed to a caster domain by removing heavy armour proficiency and gaining sacred flame. At 8th they gain potent cantrips instead of divine strike. Doing this as well as any small changes to domain powers is enough to differentiate the differences for me between casters and melee clerics.

Of course, I also created a white mage which is essentially an altered wizard with access to the cleric spell list instead of the wizard but I needed a white mage for a setting I'm slowly working on.

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I'd be curious to see the white mage you put together for sure.

Here's what I have so far for what I'm working on:

Revised Cleric

HD D6
no armor or shield proficiency
wizard weapon proficiency

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. HD increases to D8 (or just +1 HP/level; not sure yet). Gain light/medium armor and shield proficiencies, and simple weapon proficiency. 8th level domain feature is always Divine Strike (untyped unless specified otherwise). Bonus weapon/armor proficiency where appropriate for domain choice.

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. No HD increase or extra proficiencies. 8th level domain feature is always Potent Spellcasting. Bonus weapon proficiencies from domains apply to skill/tool/languages, or a bonus cantrip. Gain Revelation Domain (in addition to chosen Domain), with the following features:

Revelation Bonus Spells (bonus spells for 6th-9th level instead of 1st – 5th):
11th – Move Earth, Mass Suggestion
13th – Project Image, Sequester
15th – Feeblemind, Telepathy
17th – Astral Projection, Miracle (slightly altered/weaker Wish)

1st - Prophet’s Rebuke – Gain Cha bonus to AC as a reaction once per short rest.

2nd – Channel Divinity – Revelation – Swap out one prepared spell for another, and regain a spell slot for the level of the swapped spell. Maximum is current spell level -1.

6rd – Mysteries of Faith – Once per long rest, if you receive damage, make a Charisma check vs DC 15. If you succeed, restore HP, stun your attacker, and regain a use of Channel Divinity (need to figure out the best formulas here).

17th – Channel Divinity – Portents of Doom – all intelligent creatures within a 25’ radius of the caster must succeed a composure/wisdom check opposed to caster's Charisma or suffer fear and madness (need to figure out the best formulas here)


While it may seem like I'm giving Prophets a lot, keep in mind that the proficiencies crusaders get constitute more of a direct power upgrade than the various abilities prophets get, since channel divinity competes with itself and they get no additional spellslots (outside of the new Channel Divinity) - if anything prophets sacrifice damage and attrition for more utility and versatility compared to crusaders, which is sort of the design intent.

 

[Einlanzer0]

I'd just make the following Divine Domain:

INVOKER DOMAIN

The Gods act through their clerics, but only a select few of their clerics speak directly for them. These clerics are known as Invokers.

Invoker Initiate: When you choose this domain at 1st level, select another domain in addition to this domain. You gain all benefits of that domain.

Armor of Faith: Starting at first level, You may not cast cleric spells when wearing medium or heavy armor. However, your faith protects you. While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Enduring the Voice: Speaking directly for a God is taxing on the body. Your hit point maximum is reduced by one per cleric level you possess.

Domain Spells: Starting at first level, whenever you gain access to new domain spells, you may also select one evocation spell of the same level as the domain spells gained. Add that spell to your other domain spells and treat it like any other domain spell. This spell can be from any spell list, but counts as a cleric spell for you.

Channel Divinity: Rebuke Undead: Starting at 2nd level, as an action, you can use your Channel Divinity, present your holy Symbol and speak a prayer censuring the Undead. Each Undead that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it takes 1d12 damage and is pushed 20 feet away from you. The damage deal increases by 1d12 at 5th level, 11th level and 17th level.

Covenant: At 6th level you agree to abide by a stricter code of conduct in service of your God. Your devotion manifests in greater power from your God. Select either the Covenant of Malediction, Covenant of Preservation or Covenant of Wrath.

* Covenant of Malediction - One target of a spell or attack that you deliver that takes damage from the spell or attack is pushed 5 feet away from you.
* Covenant of Preservation - You may use your reaction to allow an ally to move half their speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
* Covenant of Wrath - Reroll any result of 1 or 2 on spells that deal damage.


Divine Form - Starting at 8th level, you may use your reaction or a bonus action to gain resistance to either radiant, thunder, lightning, fire, cold, acid or necrotic damage. You may only have resistance to one type of damage from this feature at a time.

Avatar - At 17th level, you may use a bonus action to become an avatar of your God for 1 minute. While in this form, you are size large, gain temporary hit points equal to your maximum hit points, and may cast Thunderwave as a 3rd level spell as an action. The duration of this effect increases to 20 minutes at 20th level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Hahhah. Pretty similar to what I'm working on (see above). Neat concept. My only beef would be that I would want clerics to be able to have a normal domain while also being wizardly caster types, since that's such a basic cleric-defining thing. And I want them to have d6 HD by default instead of d8. This is both a mechanical and thematic preference, since d8 is so common in the game.

 

[Greg K]

Einlanzer0,
I am glad to see that I am not the only one that thought that the designers dropped the ball and is seeking a similar approach to a solution that I have suggested on these boards. I started with two as you did, but called mine cloistered (hit die d6, no armor, simple weapons) for the robed priest and Templar (Hit die d8, medium or heavy armor, martial weapons) for the martial priests (since the Knights Templar were partial inspiration for the AD&D cleric). I also had bonus cantrip at 1st level: Bonus Cantrip and 8th Level: Potent Spellcaster while the Templar received Divine Strike at 8th level. I even game my cloistered cleric a Charisma Bonus to AC when wearing no armor (based on the variant in the DMG) and extra skill points.

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.

Here's what I've come up with so far: Clerics are now a default d6 HD class with no armor proficiency and the same weapon proficiencies as a wizard.

At 1st level, in addition to choosing your domain, you also choose your clerical path - the Path of the Crusader or the Path of the Prophet. This essentially becomes a layer to your domain "subclass". So, essentially, you would become a Tempest Crusader, or a Life Prophet.

Crusader grants the standard proficiencies for RAW clerics and a HD bump to d8. The only change from RAW on this path is that your domain choice will always grant Divine Strike in place of Improved spellcasting at 8th level.

Prophet grants a new feature at 1st level - Prophet's Rebuke, which allows you to add your Charisma modifier to your AC when in light or no armor once per short rest as a reaction. It also grants the Knowledge Domain for free at 1st level. Bonus Armor or Weapon proficiencies for your second domain choice are replaced with bonus skill/tool proficiencies or languages. Lastly, your 8th level Domain ability is always Potent Spellcasting instead of Divine Strike.

 

[jgsugden]

Hahhah. Pretty similar to what I'm working on (see above). Neat concept. My only beef would be that I would want clerics to be able to have a normal domain while also being wizardly caster types,

My build effectively addresses both of those concerns, with Invoker being an "added" domain that you take on top of one of the other domains, and the reduction of hit points per level. My point is that you can achieve what you're trying to do without rebuilding the class. It can be done with additional options to the existing framework. The above was my attempt to work the Invoker into the cleric - I first wrote it in 2015.

However, I also built out an entire Invoker Class that is pretty much exactly what you're looking for... I was going to consider putting it up on the DM's guild, but have not had the time. It is the 4E Invoker concept redone in 5th edition. It is a divine version of a 'Godwizard' as Treatmonk would say....

 

[Leatherhead]

I'm curious, what do you think of the Divine Soul Sorcerer?

 

[Stalker0]

Yeah, reaction is really more what I meant, not really sure why I called it a bonus action. I'd prefer for it to stay a feature, though, so that it doesn't require using a spell slot. The idea is that it's not really magical (or is, at most, a subtle use of magic) - the prophet has such a commanding and intimidating presence that he/she can throw off their attacker's balance just with poise, castigation, or whatever else. It's basically Intimidation, but with a more specific use.

Then I would just use this to make it simple and easy.

Prophet's Rebuke: You may cast the shield spell without using a spell slot. You regain the use of this ability after a short rest.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd be curious to see the white mage you put together for sure.

Here's what I have so far for what I'm working on:

Revised Cleric

HD D6
no armor or shield proficiency
wizard weapon proficiency

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. HD increases to D8 (or just +1 HP/level; not sure yet). Gain light/medium armor and shield proficiencies, and simple weapon proficiency. 8th level domain feature is always Divine Strike (untyped unless specified otherwise). Bonus weapon/armor proficiency where appropriate for domain choice.

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. No HD increase or extra proficiencies. 8th level domain feature is always Potent Spellcasting. Bonus weapon proficiencies from domains apply to skill/tool/languages, or a bonus cantrip. Gain Revelation Domain (in addition to chosen Domain), with the following features:

Revelation Bonus Spells (bonus spells for 6th-9th level instead of 1st – 5th):
11th – Move Earth, Mass Suggestion
13th – Project Image, Sequester
15th – Feeblemind, Telepathy
17th – Astral Projection, Miracle (slightly altered/weaker Wish)

1st - Prophet’s Rebuke – Gain Cha bonus to AC as a reaction once per short rest.

2nd – Channel Divinity – Revelation – Swap out one prepared spell for another, and regain a spell slot for the level of the swapped spell. Maximum is current spell level -1.

6rd – Mysteries of Faith – Once per long rest, if you receive damage, make a Charisma check vs DC 15. If you succeed, restore HP, stun your attacker, and regain a use of Channel Divinity (need to figure out the best formulas here).

17th – Channel Divinity – Portents of Doom – all intelligent creatures within a 25’ radius of the caster must succeed a composure/wisdom check opposed to caster's Charisma or suffer fear and madness (need to figure out the best formulas here)


While it may seem like I'm giving Prophets a lot, keep in mind that the proficiencies crusaders get constitute more of a direct power upgrade than the various abilities prophets get, since channel divinity competes with itself and they get no additional spellslots (outside of the new Channel Divinity) - if anything prophets sacrifice damage and attrition for more utility and versatility compared to crusaders, which is sort of the design intent.

My white mage isn't too special really, the Path of the Prophet you've created is looking pretty good. I want the white mage as a cleric replacement as the setting I'm working on doesn't have gods exactly rather the white mage studies the planes themselves and one plane in particular (the domains make up the planes and where they meet and mix, lesser planes are created. The Prime is one of the lesser planes where all domains meet.). A white mage might be a scholar, a healer, or a priest devoted to a religion that is focused on a domain and otherworldly patrons, saints, or spirits.

For now, my white mage is a modified wizard, using the theurge as a base, that I'm still working on. I'm also thinking of looking through other spell lists and seeing if there are any additional spell which can become an expanded spell list for each domain.

It has the following:

• Proficiency with light armour and simple weapons.
• Replaces the wizard spell list with the cleric spell list. Uses spellbooks as a wizard (including ritual casting).
• Uses Intelligence as the main stat.
• Does not gain the arcane recovery feature.

Domain
You choose a domain at level 1.
You add your domain spells to your spellbook for free. They do not count against the two spells you learn when you level up.
When a domain asks you to use your Wisdom for an ability, you use your Intelligence instead.

Channel Domain (Still not quite happy with this, I'm thinking of instead allowing the spells to scale up to a maximum of 5th level.)
At 2nd level, you can use your channel domain feature once/short rest. You may use this to cast any one of your domain spells at its minimum level. You do not have to have the spell prepared. This feature can be used twice/short rest at level 6 and three times/short rest at level 18.

Domain Feature
At 2nd level, you gain the channel divinity feature of your chosen domain.
At 6th level, you gain the level 1 ability of your chosen domain. However, you do not gain the weapon or armour proficiencies from your chosen domain.
At 10th level, you gain the level 6 ability of your chosen domain.
At 14th level, you gain the level 17 ability of your chosen domain.

Spell Mastery (modified from wizard ability, would rather replace this and the level 20 wizard capstone with something unique to the class.)
At 18th level, Spell Mastery allows you to choose and cast one 1st level spell and one 2nd level spell at its lowest level without using a spell slot. You may cast each spell a number of times equal to your Intelligence Modifier. You regain all uses when you finish a long rest.

 

[gyor]

I'm curious, what do you think of the Divine Soul Sorcerer?

Yeah, a Divine Soul basically is exactly what they looking for, an unarmoured caster priestly Cleric.

Break down the traits they are looking for, wizard weapons only check, robes not armour check, d6 hitdice check, can cast cleric spells and cleric cantrips check, more spell casting focused check (has spell points, flexible magic, metamagic, empowered healing, access to Sorcerer spell list and cantrips), domain (semi check, it has an alignment based equivilant). Heck ritual casting of cleric spells can be gained with a feat.

It does trade Channel Divinity for Favour of the Gods, Miracle feature for access to the spell Wish, and throws in at will flight, and a massive self healing ability.

It seems like they are trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Einlanzer0]

Yeah, a Divine Soul basically is exactly what they looking for, an unarmoured caster priestly Cleric.

Break down the traits they are looking for, wizard weapons only check, robes not armour check, d6 hitdice check, can cast cleric spells and cleric cantrips check, more spell casting focused check (has spell points, flexible magic, metamagic, empowered healing, access to Sorcerer spell list and cantrips), domain (semi check, it has an alignment based equivilant). Heck ritual casting of cleric spells can be gained with a feat.

It does trade Channel Divinity for Favour of the Gods, Miracle feature for access to the spell Wish, and throws in at will flight, and a massive self healing ability.

It seems like they are trying to reinvent the wheel.

I like the Divine Soul, but it's fundamentally a sorcerer and not a cleric. I don't think I'm "reinventing the wheel" any more than, in my opinion, it needs to be and should have been reinvented to begin with.