Could you play in a fantasy world without clerics

[Wraith-Hunter]

I would prefer to play in such a setting. As far as helaing magic, simply make this a universal for all casters.

If not getting rid of clerics but toning them down I would assign domains (2-5?)to each god and you could cast only those spells and universal spells, but spontaneously. I would also drop the med and heavy armor from the cleirc. This would make all clerics from dif. deities dif. from each other, and would make them more of a support class like the bard. Not critical for a party but usefull. Maybe tweak granted powers a bit. But this is way more work than I would want to do when it come dow to it.

If I were running a game with my current work load I would just make the healing domain universal to all casters, and probably give one more spell slot to prepared casters and one more known spell to spont casters. Probably run a x2 multiplier on the healing spells for the number of cured HP.

But either way still makes more work running a game and using published adventures. So I would try to stick as close to core as possible. I personally would love it if WotC did away with the cleric is required sacred cow and making them overpowered to get people to play them. No reason a wizard couldn't heal and in most fantasy they do. But thats just a personal pet peve and when it comes down to it as a player and Dm I really don't care all that much. I would have more of a problem with a cleric powergamer. Not that I have any thing against powergamers, I just don't like the cleric cheeze. And would basically make a gentelmens agreement with such a player.

 

[Woas]

Yeah, I would agree that if you just took D&D 3e/3.5e and just house-ruled away Clerics and Druids (and assuming you also wrote off Divine Magic for Paladin & Ranger) and that is all you did, then stuff like higher Con scores, high AC an a general survivalist mentality may increase.
But I'm not sure it it would really be as boring as you say. I don't think it would be too far fetched to assume that if a DM is already writing off the entire divine spell-casting list, then there could be room for writing in some house-rules that give some healing potential back to the characters such as non-magical healing salves, generous uses of the heal skill, feats that grant special healing and so forth.

Truthfully I think playing without divine magic makes D&D quite boring. First it limits the diversity of characters that the PC's are able to play. Second it basically forces every PC to make a "survivalist" character, unless they want to struggle and fall behind the rest or just waste time in the campaign natural healing (which can be pretty brutal depending on the DM). Even if the campaign is combat lite they need to still have a way to survive in combat. The fighter would probably have around 30 AC at level 5 (full plate, shield, 1 dex, combat expertise, dodge, ring of protection, etc) because getting hit is not something the party can deal with. High con would be a must. I know this may sound like a bit of min-maxing but without divine magic and healing I feel that the campaign would only promote it even more so. Clerics allow PC's to make interesting characters with low hp and low ac, such as a bard/barbarian (which, btw, would provide the only form of arcane healing out of the PH). Oh a party of all bards with a wand of arcane cure light wounds might work

 

[Wombat]

Could I play in such a world? Certainly.

I do it most of the time ... although it is not D&D...

 

[Merkuri]

I would love to play in a setting where the gods did not obviously imbue clerics with powers. That's one of the things that I like about Eberron, its clerics get their power from themselves (though they may think it's coming from gods).

I think making divine beings as elusive as they are in real life opens the setting up for a lot more controversy. You could have two groups of people worshipping the same god that completely disagree on how that god's words should be interpreted. You could also have athiests, and people who slowly lose or gain faith over time. It's easy to believe in the god that comes down where all can see, waves his hand, and makes the crops spring up, but it's harder to believe in a god that may or may not be walking upon the clouds, steering them, and making rain.

 

[DragonLancer]

I've run a post-Cataclysm Dragonlance campaign where there are no clerics/druids/paladins, period. It makes the game more of a challenge but ultimately my players enjoyed the change.

I wouldn't want every campaign to be cleric-less though.

 

[Merkuri]

Maybe I'm interpreting the question wrong. Is it "a game without clerics" or "a game without clerical magic?"

The OP specified that healing and resurrection are not a problem, so I think the question is more about a game where clerical magic isn't granted by the gods than about the lack of clerics or their magic.

 

[Henry]

You're jumping to an unsupported conclusion, Henry. The OP asked whether people would play in a world without clerics, not if they would play in a world without healing spells.

However, what Turanil said was, "...A world where priests have no magical powers if they aren't wizards; a world without pantheons, and where one cannot know if the exisitng cults and religions are mere superstition..." That can just as easily imply no divine healing, if the only casters are wizards and they haven't been changed to add cure spells to lists. Heck, an arcane enlarge or lightning bolt will impress the peasants just as much as curing the blind or diseased.

Besides, my "Devil's Advocate" can as easily apply to "no cleric or druid classes"; having a world with no clearly defined gods may not be some people's tea, especially those who prefer to replay more along the lines of Greek or Norse Mythologies, where deities are pretty loud 'n proud.

 

[DwelleroftheDeep]

I'm creating a Grim Tales setting that features religion as a prominent form of division/unity but religion has nothing to do with magic in most cases here.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I wouldn't take out Clerics from D&D because of mechanics issues(though the arcane caster access strikes me as a very interesting solution!), but in settings(and systems like True20) where the mechanics aren't an issue, I vastly prefer to avoid clerics, especially the 'holy champion in full armor' archetype that's become a staple of D&D.

 

[Ciaran]

However, what Turanil said was, "...A world where priests have no magical powers if they aren't wizards; a world without pantheons, and where one cannot know if the exisitng cults and religions are mere superstition..."

Turanil also said, "Setting aside the problem of recovering hit-points and resurrecting the dead..."