doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
So, a lot of folks don't like cleric cantrips, and to be real, they're mostly kinda boring.
However, when I was trying to figure out a different point of view about cantrips, I tripped over a couple fun abilities that could be expanded to replace cantrips entirely in the cleric class.
Divine Beacon
You are a beacon of divine power in the world, and you can manifest that power as radiant or necrotic light from your holy symbol. On your turn you can hold out your holy symbol and speak words of prayer or quote holy scripture, invoking one of the follow effects.
Illuminate. Action. Light spills forth from your holy symbol, creating bright light in a 20 ft radius, and dim light for 20ft past that. Undead and fiends have disadvantage on checks to hide while within this light, and do not gain advantage from being invisible. At any point while you maintain this light, you can spend a level 1 spell slot as an action, doubling the area of bright and dim light, and causing any undead or fiend who starts their turn in the area to take 1d4 plus wisdom mod radiant damage and catch fire. The fire deals 1d4 radiant damage at the start of their turn, and the creature can end the effect by leaving the area, or by taking an action to end the effect.
- IMO, doesn't need to be concentration. It's not that powerful, but it is useful and evocative of what a cleric is. Melee or caster focused, the cleric can just always be a beacon of hope for allies, and death for undead and fiends.
Rebuke. Action. You ignite a terrible brilliance from your physical form, and all creatures of your choice within 5ft of you must succeed on a dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier damage, and be force to move 10ft away from you. If they are fiends or undead, they also emit bright light out to 10ft until the start of your next turn, and catch on fire, taking 1d4 radiant damage until they take an action to put out the holy flames.
Envelope. Action. You direct the emnity of the gods at a single creature, and they must succeed on a Con save or they are enveloped in bright light, taking 1d8 radiant damage and shedding bright light out to 10ft, and dim light out to 10ft beyond that, until the start of your next turn.
Sanctify. Action. You reach out and touch a creature, and...idk, give a bonus to saves, including death saves? Make a spellcasting modifier check with proficiency to try and end a poison or disease? Just copying spare the dying is lame, tbh.
Glorify. Bonus Action. You speak words of prayer over your weaponry, and ignite them with holy fire. Your weapon attacks deal radiant or necrotic damage instead of their normal damage type. When you use this ability, and as a bonus action while it is active, you can add 1d6 extra radiant damage when you deal damage with a weapon attack.
-maybe instead of buffing your own damage, this makes your attacks radiant and the extra 1d6 is for the next ally who attacks the same target as you? Also, hell, maybe this makes your attacks use wisdom?
Then, at level 5, 11, etc, each of these improves in an intersting but simple way. Glorify adds a radiant aura when you hit things, so enemies of yours within 10ft of the target take x radiant damage when they get hit? The idea is, you aren't a warrior unless you are a war cleric, but your strikes still just deal more damage in a way that feels like divine favor. Sanctify lets you target a creature from further away? Envelope increases to two, three, and then 4 targets? Rebuke increases the range. Illuminate gives allies a bonus to perception and initiative while within the area of your light?
OF course, these could be paired down to just Illuminate, Rebuke, and Glorify, with the others being in domains, but I'd prefer domains to be unchanged and these to all be things available to all clerics. It's more choices than cantrips give, but it feels to me like essentially one ability that can be channeled in several ways.
Anyone like this idea? If so, I may look at the Druid next, and see what can be done there, other than upgrading Shillelegh at levels later levels to add damage.
However, when I was trying to figure out a different point of view about cantrips, I tripped over a couple fun abilities that could be expanded to replace cantrips entirely in the cleric class.
Divine Beacon
You are a beacon of divine power in the world, and you can manifest that power as radiant or necrotic light from your holy symbol. On your turn you can hold out your holy symbol and speak words of prayer or quote holy scripture, invoking one of the follow effects.
Illuminate. Action. Light spills forth from your holy symbol, creating bright light in a 20 ft radius, and dim light for 20ft past that. Undead and fiends have disadvantage on checks to hide while within this light, and do not gain advantage from being invisible. At any point while you maintain this light, you can spend a level 1 spell slot as an action, doubling the area of bright and dim light, and causing any undead or fiend who starts their turn in the area to take 1d4 plus wisdom mod radiant damage and catch fire. The fire deals 1d4 radiant damage at the start of their turn, and the creature can end the effect by leaving the area, or by taking an action to end the effect.
- IMO, doesn't need to be concentration. It's not that powerful, but it is useful and evocative of what a cleric is. Melee or caster focused, the cleric can just always be a beacon of hope for allies, and death for undead and fiends.
Rebuke. Action. You ignite a terrible brilliance from your physical form, and all creatures of your choice within 5ft of you must succeed on a dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier damage, and be force to move 10ft away from you. If they are fiends or undead, they also emit bright light out to 10ft until the start of your next turn, and catch on fire, taking 1d4 radiant damage until they take an action to put out the holy flames.
Envelope. Action. You direct the emnity of the gods at a single creature, and they must succeed on a Con save or they are enveloped in bright light, taking 1d8 radiant damage and shedding bright light out to 10ft, and dim light out to 10ft beyond that, until the start of your next turn.
Sanctify. Action. You reach out and touch a creature, and...idk, give a bonus to saves, including death saves? Make a spellcasting modifier check with proficiency to try and end a poison or disease? Just copying spare the dying is lame, tbh.
Glorify. Bonus Action. You speak words of prayer over your weaponry, and ignite them with holy fire. Your weapon attacks deal radiant or necrotic damage instead of their normal damage type. When you use this ability, and as a bonus action while it is active, you can add 1d6 extra radiant damage when you deal damage with a weapon attack.
-maybe instead of buffing your own damage, this makes your attacks radiant and the extra 1d6 is for the next ally who attacks the same target as you? Also, hell, maybe this makes your attacks use wisdom?
Then, at level 5, 11, etc, each of these improves in an intersting but simple way. Glorify adds a radiant aura when you hit things, so enemies of yours within 10ft of the target take x radiant damage when they get hit? The idea is, you aren't a warrior unless you are a war cleric, but your strikes still just deal more damage in a way that feels like divine favor. Sanctify lets you target a creature from further away? Envelope increases to two, three, and then 4 targets? Rebuke increases the range. Illuminate gives allies a bonus to perception and initiative while within the area of your light?
OF course, these could be paired down to just Illuminate, Rebuke, and Glorify, with the others being in domains, but I'd prefer domains to be unchanged and these to all be things available to all clerics. It's more choices than cantrips give, but it feels to me like essentially one ability that can be channeled in several ways.
Anyone like this idea? If so, I may look at the Druid next, and see what can be done there, other than upgrading Shillelegh at levels later levels to add damage.
