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General Tabletop Discussion
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Cleric vs Paladin: Concepts and Mechanical realisation
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 7865495" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I think the problem here is largely down to 3Es attempt to transition Clerics back to being OD&D/1E-style generalists, mechanically. The OD&D Cleric was a vague, broad Holy Warrior type, literally inspired by mythologised takes on Christian holy warrior figures like Bishop Odo. It essentially encompassed Paladin, conceptually. Apparently there was some demand from players for a separate Fighting with a Side Order of Holy class though, hence the Paladin emerging in 1E, and immediately being popular. Paladin also made a land-grab on the "Knight" archetype. 2E made the speciality priest more prominent, in various forms, and I saw tons of those and literally only a single one-class cleric in the whole of 2E.</p><p></p><p>Since then, though, in literary and film fantasy, you rarely see holy warriors with any magic (unless directly inspired by D&D) and whilst in computer games you often do, you equally often see both classes essentially condensed into one (World of Warcraft does this - Paladin encompasses D&D Cleric and their Priest class originated as a weird Psionicist-meets-unarmoured holy caster class).</p><p></p><p>So players are naturally a bit confused about the whole thing. People who want to play a "knight" tend to pick Paladin, whereas people who actually dig the priestly vibe go for Cleric but I think are actually often off-put by the heavy armour, shields and solid weaponry. An awful lot of players would rather play someone more magic-centered I think, in light or no armour, which 3E and 5E didn't really support and 4E only kinda did.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 7865495, member: 18"] I think the problem here is largely down to 3Es attempt to transition Clerics back to being OD&D/1E-style generalists, mechanically. The OD&D Cleric was a vague, broad Holy Warrior type, literally inspired by mythologised takes on Christian holy warrior figures like Bishop Odo. It essentially encompassed Paladin, conceptually. Apparently there was some demand from players for a separate Fighting with a Side Order of Holy class though, hence the Paladin emerging in 1E, and immediately being popular. Paladin also made a land-grab on the "Knight" archetype. 2E made the speciality priest more prominent, in various forms, and I saw tons of those and literally only a single one-class cleric in the whole of 2E. Since then, though, in literary and film fantasy, you rarely see holy warriors with any magic (unless directly inspired by D&D) and whilst in computer games you often do, you equally often see both classes essentially condensed into one (World of Warcraft does this - Paladin encompasses D&D Cleric and their Priest class originated as a weird Psionicist-meets-unarmoured holy caster class). So players are naturally a bit confused about the whole thing. People who want to play a "knight" tend to pick Paladin, whereas people who actually dig the priestly vibe go for Cleric but I think are actually often off-put by the heavy armour, shields and solid weaponry. An awful lot of players would rather play someone more magic-centered I think, in light or no armour, which 3E and 5E didn't really support and 4E only kinda did. [/QUOTE]
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