Discuss about Cleric Domains as keywords

[Zaphling]

Hi, do you think if it's a good idea if WOTC release a new update to the old cleric prayers and add 'domain' keywords? Much like what they did to the old wizard spells and added them the school of magic keywords. This way, original clerics can really feel having a domain instead of spending a feat to have a domain power.

This can also lessen their work in publishing each and every domain available for warpriests.

 

[Camelot]

I don't think domain keywords are needed. The reason they added school keywords was so that the powers could interact with the school mechanics. For example, "Whenever you hit with a wizard evocation attack power..." There are no mechanics for clerics that say "Whenever you use a cleric earth power...", so having keywords would be purely flavorful.

 

[Zaphling]

Good point. How about if they add a new class feature, like a 'Apprentice Acolyte', 'Expert acolyte', 'master acolyte'. something like that. then with benefits?

 

[nightspaladin]

What they should have done is give powers riders based on your domain or when you picked your god you got special bonuses that modify powers you use. Hate to point this out, since I love 4e, but here I think pathfinder gets it right. You should get things that make you more like the god you are supposed to be representing.

When 4e came out, I tried to port over a long time 3.5 cleric from my party who was a priest of Chauntea. The powers were so generically "beams of radiant light and fire"-y that it was very hard for me to make anything work. I had to wait until the Druid came out to hybrid him to get anything close to the way he played in 3.5.

The domains were tossed in after the fact and it is clear that their lack of integration from the beginning makes them clunky at best.

 

[andarilhor]

I believe it's not the case of creating "domain keywords", but maybe group tha powers in domain lists, in a way similar as we had in 2E, as some powers may belong to two or more domains.

One other way of giving domains and deities some flavor into game mechanics would be to expand the domain feats presented in Divine Power to affect Encounter power also, in the same way they did with the weapon techniques in Martial Power 2. Maybe we could expand this idea to make "domain feats" to specific deities.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Note: I am talking about the domains that appeared in Neverwinter.

I suppose it would be pretty easy to separate the powers from the other benefits in that kind of domain writeup. So a character could take a domain and get the 1st, 5th, 10th and so on benefits as part of that domain choice. Then they could choose powers with the Sun domain, for example, keyword as well as any power without a domain specific keyword.

I wouldn ot give a power more than a couple domain keywords though or the power writeup could get quickly out of hand.

 

[andarilhor]

Note: I am talking about the domains that appeared in Neverwinter.

I suppose it would be pretty easy to separate the powers from the other benefits in that kind of domain writeup. So a character could take a domain and get the 1st, 5th, 10th and so on benefits as part of that domain choice. Then they could choose powers with the Sun domain, for example, keyword as well as any power without a domain specific keyword.

I wouldn ot give a power more than a couple domain keywords though or the power writeup could get quickly out of hand.

I totally agree with you. And it's easy to combine the "essentials domain format" with the "divine power domain format", and that without using domain keywords.

Specific deities could have specific features, however.

Another thing I was thinking about: We could add a domain special line in some powers, as we have to features.

For example:

Power X allows you to make 1W+Wis mod damage and push the target 1 square in a hit. If you are a cleric of the justice domain, it pushes the target Cons mod squares instead.

 

[Gryph]

Honestly, this is a design space where I wish the game designers had left all of the work to the players. This is what I mean; between Races, Classes, Feats, Skills, Backgrounds, Themes and Magic Items there are already too many axes of character customization. Trying to keep track of all the possible intersection points of this many dimensional matrix is impossible for anybody (I generalize, I'm sure Rainman can keep track of them all but who wants to play with him?). Cleric Domains just squeeze in this wierd substrata of options that apply to a single class.

I understand that for fluff reasons its nice to have some tailored features but really, can't that be done with some divine power feats and maybe some deity specific themes, do we need 2 to 4 times as many class builds (and that wouldn't be enough for everyone) for the cleric as we do for any other class? I guess Wizard would come close at this point.

So I think it's better for the player and DM to put their heads together and pick some powers/feats and themes that would be appropriate for the deity of a cleric then have the designers had a whole new set of design features aimed at a small number of characters.

As always, YMMV.

 

[DracoSuave]

Agree w/ Gryph.

Ah, the universe is realigning.

Fact is, there's more potential domains than there are powers for every divine class in the game, never mind each level.

One complaint people had with the warpriest was that it had too few domains... like 'Okay, yeah, you got Sun, Storm, Death, Earth, and this Neverwinter stuff, but what about my St. Cuthburt dude, where's my retribution? Where's my skill? Where's my pottery domain? Where's my Interal Mental Struggles Against The World domain? What about the eberron elves?

And so on and so forth and blah blah blah. Sometimes, build your own is better than having premades.

 

[Gryph]

Agree w/ Gryph.

Ah, the universe is realigning.

Fact is, there's more potential domains than there are powers for every divine class in the game, never mind each level.

One complaint people had with the warpriest was that it had too few domains... like 'Okay, yeah, you got Sun, Storm, Death, Earth, and this Neverwinter stuff, but what about my St. Cuthburt dude, where's my retribution? Where's my skill? Where's my pottery domain? Where's my Interal Mental Struggles Against The World domain? What about the eberron elves?

And so on and so forth and blah blah blah. Sometimes, build your own is better than having premades.

I felt something, as if a millions nerds cried out...