Clerics in AU

[Andrew D. Gable]

I want to use AU for my homebrew (will I ever cease revisions?) and am pondering how to have clerics. I want some sort of divine spellcaster - I know the AU default is "no gods", but I'm wary of this, because the gods have a very big role and undoubtedly exist. I'm thinking of using a magister, and giving them access to one of the spell templates (Air, Fire, etc.), and making a rule that they can't gain any other templates without forsaking their god.

Fair? Other suggestions?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I want to use AU for my homebrew (will I ever cease revisions?) and am pondering how to have clerics. I want some sort of divine spellcaster - I know the AU default is "no gods", but I'm wary of this, because the gods have a very big role and undoubtedly exist. I'm thinking of using a magister, and giving them access to one of the spell templates (Air, Fire, etc.), and making a rule that they can't gain any other templates without forsaking their god.

Fair? Other suggestions?

You might perhaps add a few new descriptors (like divine), and give the cleric/magister access to these spells instead of complex spells.

I think all spellcasters could be used as clerics with a bit flavour text and maybe a rule addition - perhaps change the priest feat for it (maybe it should give you access to the "divine" spells).
You should perhaps visit montecook.com and follow the link to the AU/Diamond Throne website - the site has tons of material and definitely something about divine magic and clerics for AU.

 

[undeaddan]

You could use the Magister as is. Take the Blessed Mage feat at 1st level and then Priest at 3rd.

And just to clear it up, AU does not default to "no gods". The Diamond throne book actually profiles about 8 gods. The default is no divine magic.

 

[scholz]

Green Bonds also make good cleric-like classes. They get lots of healing, without sacrificing too many spells. An easy 'mod' is to play them as normal but give them (a) a different template (other than plant) that is appropriate to their divine sphere, and maybe some different class abilities as they go up level that are appropriate to their god's sphere, (b) give them proficiency with their god's weapon, (c) give them a code that makes them lose their class abilities if they don't live up to it (like oathsworn).

Personally, I prefer to make Cleric a generic name like "Thief" which any class can be. A magister cleric will be different than a warmain cleric or champion cleric. They could all be interesting. It would also make NPC clerics more mysterious, you don't know what the Evil NPC Cleric will be (a warrior, a runethane? who knows). You could also make different religions have different priest types.
Nature Religion = Greenbonds
War God = Warmains
Reason/Wisdom = Akashic
etc...

If you need to make them share some abilities create some Feats that give them other abilities.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Go to www.diamondthrone.com and look at the archives. Varianor converted some cleric stuff to AU. My own take: Replace staff focus with holy symbol, grant proficiency with any one simple weapon at 1st level and with deity's favored weapon at 5th. Take either the Blessed Mage or Corrupt Mage feat, and select spells in accordance with your deity's flavour. If you want to be an uber-healer, just take Signature Spell (llesser battle healing) to make it 1st level. That is all.

EDIT: Forgot to mention taking the Priest feat, or maybe just giving it away for free.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

What do you want clerics to be? I think that's the question to answer. If you want divine power (quantifiable) in the game, then you need a cleric. If you want a person who has a role in society, the Priest feat answers that.

It looks as if you're trying to replace domains. Which is fine. I'd use the greenbond as a template, and either remove the infuse with life ability, or let it happen later. So you might give a fire template at level one and not get infuse with life until 4th level. Or take out nature's gift (lesser) at 2nd level and replace with the fire template or whatever if you want.

For a look at a couple different things, as folks said, we have some material on the fansite. Drop on by please!