D&D 5E Cleric questions about Oct 29 Packet

[Mengu]

I've skipped a packet or two, but I'm looking to give this one a whirl, so it's entirely possible I'm missing some history somewhere. I'm trying to make a Lifegiver Cleric, and have some questions.

1. It says I can cast Cure Minor and Resistance without expending the slot. So, those are my at-will spells. When I'm not blowing dailies, those are the spells I'm expected to cast round to round. But one of them is castable only if a target is below 3 hit points, and the other seems like a waste of an action in the middle of a fight, seems more like a preparatory spell. So... uh... What am I missing? Can I still memorize Lance of Faith as a level 0 and use it at-will? Is there a cleric feature I'm missing that gives me an at-will attack spell?

2. If I can use Word of Power spells as part of an action, but that action can't be casting a spell, that precludes me from using my at-wills (which are clearly spells)... What do I do, Dodge?

3. Disciple of Life Feature lets me add a bonus to domain spells like Cure Light Wounds. Do I get this only for the domain slot? Or if I memorize Cure Light Wounds in regular slots, do I still get the bonus?

4. If I'm a High Elf, and get an at-will Wizard spell, do I still get the +2 magic attack bonus from my class to cast that spell?

 

[tuxgeo]

< snip lots of good questions>

3. Disciple of Life Feature lets me add a bonus to domain spells like Cure Light Wounds. Do I get this only for the domain slot? Or if I memorize Cure Light Wounds in regular slots, do I still get the bonus?

I don't think there even are "domain slots" in this iteration of the rules. Unlike Wizards, Clerics don't lose preparation if they cast a spell; and Clerics can have more spells "prepared" than they have slots to cast them.

A level 1 Cleric in this packet would have one Level 1 casting slot, and could have an equal number (i.e. one) regular spell prepared; but would also have their Level 1 domain spell prepared. None of those would be "prepared in a slot" -- they'd just be "prepared." The Cleric would choose which prepared spell to cast in a slot at the time of casting, not at the time of preparation. (See the lower-left and the top-right paragraphs on page 2 of the 102912_Classes.pdf file.)

 

[DEFCON 1]

2. If I can use Word of Power spells as part of an action, but that action can't be casting a spell, that precludes me from using my at-wills (which are clearly spells)... What do I do, Dodge?

Or attack with a weapon.

 

[gyor]

Most of the Clerics Orisons are useless in combat, the restrictions on Cure Minor wounds that it only works on characters that are nearly dead means it won't be used often, if ever.

The only ones you'd ever use in combat is Radiant Lance and occasionally cure minor wounds and if you if you don't mind doing no damage in a turn, but want to mess with a foes head Minor Illusion orison that Trickery gets.

Wizards get way better at wills like burning hands, Shocking Grasp, ray of frost and so on. The Clerics basically just a third rate fighter with a hand full of spells. Great against undead, no so much against anything else.

 

[GX.Sigma]

So... uh... What am I missing?

Weapon proficiency, armor proficiency, and base attack bonus. Go get 'em.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

See, the cleric had upwards of two class-specific things he could do at first level other than heal in the last playtest, so obviously they had to cut that down to zero.

In other news, bring back at-will orisons!

 

[Mengu]

Maybe I'm trying to do too much, in my effort to try and not do too much?

I was trying to not have two primary stats, leave Strength for the fighter, and grab Wisdom, and a little bit of Int/Cha... Intended to grab Priest background, and since I get two knowledge skills and diplomacy/persuasion/whatever they're calling it today, I thought I'd try for a decent Int and Cha. Wisdom is my attack stat, and Con is somewhat important for self healing, which doesn't leave much for Str/Dex, so I was just going to ignore weapons and rely on spells. Also figured with Eladrin, I can gain a boost to Int, and have an at-will attack spell, but perhaps I'm straying too far out of playtest expectations.

 

[GX.Sigma]

See, the cleric had upwards of two class-specific things he could do at first level other than heal in the last playtest, so obviously they had to cut that down to zero.

In other news, bring back at-will orisons!

There are at-will orisons. The sun cleric still gets to shoot lasers every round. The difference now is that not every cleric shoots lasers every round. That's fair enough, isn't it?

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

There are at-will orisons. The sun cleric still gets to shoot lasers every round. The difference now is that not every cleric shoots lasers every round. That's fair enough, isn't it?

Seems to me like a compromise that doesn't help anyone. Grognards can still complain about laser clerics and everyone else gets a more complex system to manage, fewer interesting options, and less variation in spell selection.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Seems to me like a compromise that doesn't help anyone. Grognards can still complain about laser clerics and everyone else gets a more complex system to manage, fewer interesting options, and less variation in spell selection.

I dunno, it helps me.

Keep in mind that the reason they're doing it this way is to make it easy to modularize. Instead of saying "all 0-level spells are at will," they're saying "some characters can cast some 0-level spells at will." So I can have a character that only casts daily spells with preparation, and you can have a character that has a bunch of at-will spells and spontaneous spell point casting, or whatever.

Of course, the make-your-own-domain/tradition guidelines and the modular magic systems don't exist in the current playtest, but that's the direction they're going.